10 Myths About Demonic Possession

 

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Well, I was going to take a short break from blogging, and I definitely need to. Something made me feel that this needed to be said now, however; that this one should not be put off. So, here I am again. I think it's high time that I pointed out some things I've learned about demonic deception. In this post, I will address general demonic deception; ways in which demons have deceived people in general. I may do a post in the future about demonic trickery on a more personal level.

I don't mean any offense at all in saying this, but from what I've seen, most people, including priests, don't know all of this stuff. There's a good reason for that. Most priests would probably never be possessed by demons. It also seems that most demoniacs would not understand the workings of demons quite as well as I do, because most of us have limited communication with their demons. That, and the fact that even if most demoniacs did understand what was going on, from what I've seen, they wouldn't be able to tell you. Therefore, this is a story that not many humans could tell, and one of the reasons I decided to start this blog. Here, I will list the common beliefs about demons and demonic possession that I have come to believe are myths, and I'll add anything I forget to mention here to a future post.

Myths

1. Demonic Possession looks like the movie "The Exorcist."
Well, not always. I have never looked any different from usual. No levitating, no head-spinning, no pea soup vomiting, no scratch marks, no inverted crosses burned into my skin.

I have had many epiphanies during this experience, and one might wonder if these serendipitous moments are demon- inspired, since I do claim to be possessed. Well, that's possible in some cases. Some of the things I've realized, however, are not in favor of demons; so I have reason to believe that at least some of my inspiration is coming from upstairs.

One day, as I was watching a TV show about true stories of exorcisms
--complete with the typical convulsing, crazed-looking demoniacs (who definitely didn't look coherent enough to compose blog posts)-- I wondered why it hadn't been that way for me. Then an answer came to me. I suddenly thought,
"Oh. My. Gosh. I get it now. Demons do that stuff sometimes, just to throw humans off; to make us think that is what possession looks like. To make people like me think that we are simply crazy, not possessed. To make other people, priests included, not believe us."
Demon, of course, replied to this thought, saying,
"Yes. It is that way right there. But that is not that beautiful, is it?"

2. If you're really possessed, you won't be able to say that you are, and request an exorcism.
No. See #1. Also, didn't a lot of people approach Jesus asking to have their unclean spirits cast out?

3. Well, maybe you are possessed, but if it doesn't look like the movie "The Exorcist", then it must not be a very powerful demon; and if it's not a very powerful demon, then why aren't your exorcisms/prayers/Holy water, etc. getting rid of it?
My answer to this comes from a combination of my experience and intuition. I can't be 100% sure about some things; but I do have a telepathic connection with this demon. I suspect that it is not an entirely one-way street. It can read my mind extremely well; but I suspect that I can read its mind a little bit also. It says that I can. Of course, as I've mentioned, demons lie a lot; but, while I don't necessarily trust its words, I sometimes trust how I feel about its words. In other words, I can kind of tell when its lying, at least sometimes, and I'm getting better at it. So, here's what I think:

I hate to say it, but I think that I am actually dealing with a rather high-ranking or powerful demon. It has withstood the Roman Ritual three times. It regularly withstands my daily prayers, my bi-weekly trips to church, all the blessed items I wear, all the Holy water I sprinkle, all the blessed salt, sage, etc. It has withstood all of that (well, probably, but I'll get to that), so it's not weak. It won't leave; but does that necessarily mean that all these things have had no effect? It would like for me to think so.

A demon will take a beating and then talk some trash about how "that didn't do shit" just to trick you.

Yes, I think that all of those things do hurt it. I think that it has taken many beatings on my behalf. It hangs on, mostly I think, because it wants me to question my faith. Or maybe it wants the exorcist to question his faith. Or maybe it wants us to believe that it's more powerful than it actually is. Either way, it's hoping that we will think that what we're doing isn't working (and stop! or give up).

I also suspect that demons "run away" during exorcisms, at least sometimes. They are not "stuck" inside the person. They could "float" out, and float back in. (I will explain, possibly in another post, why I think this.)

I also suspect that, especially during an exorcism, they sometimes "switch out" demons; like a basketball coach might bench an exhausted player, sending someone fresh into the game.

Demons would, and I think do, do all of this just to make themselves seem invincible. Also, I think that my demon doesn't put on the theatrics in order to damage my credibility. He knows that most people, even priests and cradle Catholics, expect a scene from "The Exorcist." If that's not what they see, they might conclude that I'm not really possessed and decide not to help me anymore. This would be the demon's ultimate goal. He really wants to keep me.

4. People who are possessed will not be able to pray, will not be able to enter a church, or will have an aversion to a crucifix.
No, not necessarily, as explained in #3. All these things might hurt the demon; but the demon is not required to act a fool just because its host is trying to walk into a church, etc. That's theatrics. I really don't know what the demons who do that stuff are playing at; it seems like my demon's low-key strategy is actually smarter. Again, I hate to say that, but it's true. Touche, demon.

5. Demons don't exist; or demons don't exist anymore.
I have actually had people, Protestants mostly, to say things like this. There seems to be a prevalent attitude in the U.S. that demonic possession is something that only some other, some backwards culture would still believe in. I am so sad to tell you that it happens right here in the U.S. all the time; but we tend to call it mental illness and prescribe drugs for it. It's the American way.

The thing that makes me the maddest about that, is that some of the very people who seem to feel that there could not possibly be demons in America will also tell you that they believe every word of the Bible. Yet, when one points to the numerous instances where Jesus casts out demons, they stammer a response of,
"Well... yeah... but... [something]."

6. If you would only say one prayer, the demon would go away.
Out of the people in the U.S. who do believe in demonic possession, about half of them are like this. I have literally had people to say things like,
"Well, why haven't you prayed about this? If you cast it out in the name of Jesus Christ it will flee!"

My response: Um... I have said thousands of prayers; and obviously it's not that simple. And see #3.

7. Only a bad person would have demons.
This is not the truth. I was not always a Christian; but I have never been a bad person, not one single day of my life. The truth is that demons will attack anyone, given half a chance. There's actually a lot of evidence that they attack very good people; weren't several of the Saints tormented by demons?

8. We create demons from our negative emotions; or demons are some type of residual bad energy.

No. What are you smoking? Can I have some?

Demons are "people," albeit, shitty ones.  They are individuals. They definitely have their own personalities. They are real entities, seperate from us, and seperate from our negativity.

9. There is a special type of demon called an Incubus or Succubus, who wants to be a human's lover.

That's half right. They ALL want to be a human's lover. That, after all, is why they are demons in the first place. (Genesis 6 & Enoch)

10. Demons can do stuff for you. You can summon a certain demon to help you with [whatever it is that you want help with].

No! No! No! No!!! Unless you want to work as a psychic medium (I really don't mean to keep picking on them, but I swear, I truly believe it), demons can't do shit for you. They can help you go crazy, that's about it.

Well, I'll take that part of the way back; they can also help you go from Agnostic to "as Catholic as the Pope."
But, really, that's it. They can't make you rich, famous, skinny, or anything else.

I'm pretty darned certain that I'm right about those 10. 

Here's one that I am strongly inclined to think is a myth:

Demons are associated with specific sins (i.e. demons of lust).

I keep seeing this. This, I do not believe, for a few reasons. For one thing, demons are far too opportunistic to only pick on people for committing one certain sin. They're not going to see a human they're interested in (a "beautiful bitch princess or prince," as they call us), run a quick check on them, and then be like,
"Damn! That bitch princess right there is beautiful! But... she's only guilty of greed and sloth, and I am a demon of lust. Oh, well."

No. I wish I didn't, but I know way too much about these guys' personalities to think that could be true. The truth is, demons are very hypocritical. They do conduct themselves as if they have some sort of right to act as judge, jury, and executioner for humankind. I guess that makes sense, though, since Satan is sometimes referred to as "The Accuser." Demons will find any sin you have committed and attempt to shame you for it. They will tell you that,
"You can never be in Heaven after what you have done."
Yes, that's a direct quote from demon. They want you to believe that. They want you to feel that you deserve to be in Hell, or that you are doomed to be in Hell. They want you to give in to them and say that "you will be with them when you die" (how they refer to selling your soul). They want you to feel so hopeless that you won't pray for forgiveness or deliverance. They want you to feel that you are not worthy of God's mercy, or that there's no mercy there for you. They will try this approach with ANY sin you may have ever committed, however. I don't think they stick to persecuting one particular sin.