Socrates and Me & Everyone Else, Apparently

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12/23/21

In Apology by Plato, we read about the trial of Socrates for the alleged corruption of the youth and for not believing in the city's gods, but rather in other strange divinities; charges for which the Greek philosopher was sentenced to death in 399 BC. Apology is not the most coherent thing I've ever read, but it's kind of interesting. The entire thing is Socrates arguing with some guy named Melitus, who seems to be a stupid sort. Melitus asks dumb questions, and Socrates gives long-winded, rambling answers. (I should probably not ever write cliff notes.)

At one point, Melitus accuses Socrates of not believing in any gods, not even in the sun and moon (as gods, anyway). One of the many things Socrates says in response is,
"...But with respect to demons, do we not allow that they are gods, or the children of gods?...[Because Socrates believed in demons; and therefore, indirectly at least, in gods.]"

Socrates goes on to say that he does not present himself in public before assemblies to give advice to the city because of being "moved by a certain divine and spiritual influence... This began with me from childhood, being a kind of voice which, when present, always diverts me from what I am about to do, but never urges me on. This it is which opposed my meddling in public politics; and it appears to me to have opposed me very properly."

Very interesting. He also says:

"[Poets are]... under the influence of enthusiasm, like prophets and seers; for these also say many fine things, but they understand nothing that they say."

Very relatable.

So, Socrates also heard a voice. The voice was somewhat controlling in that it attempted to prevent him from doing things; yet, oddly, it never commanded him to do things. Perhaps it reverse-engineered its commands, influencing him to do what it wanted by stopping him from doing something else? Odder still, he seems to have obeyed it, at least sometimes, and actually liked it a little bit.

Theology blogger Judas Maccabaeus, in this article, "The Judeo-Christian Power of Telepathy," reports that the famed neurologist and father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, "was quite open to the possibility concerning the existence of mental telepathy. Specifically, he believed ‘that telepathy might be a vestigial remnant of an earlier method of communication which had been replaced by speech.’" Maccabaeus refers to Freud's writings about a phenomenon called thought transference, which is supposed to be closely related to telepathy "and, indeed, can be identified…without much difficulty. It is held that psychological processes, ideas, states of excitement, volition, which occur in the mind of one person can be transferred through
space to another, without the usual means of communication (word or sign) being employed."

My guess as to what thought transference would be, as opposed to telepathy, is that perhaps thought transference is that communication through concepts, which I describe as the way in which I've received messages from upstairs; while telepathy is the word-for-word, complete sentences type of communication that demons employ. As far as I know, it is unknown whether or not Freud actually experienced these things, or merely theorized about them.


As a new Catholic, I couldn't help noticing that many of the Saints were reputed to have psychic powers. I did some reading, mostly in Carey Wallace's Stories of the Saints: Bold and Inspiring Tales of Adventure, Grace, and Courage and in Paul Thigpen's Manual for Spiritual Warfare. I have compiled a list of Saints who exhibited some kind of psychic ability or had some kind of physical encounter (heard, saw, or touched) with a supernatural being, along with the briefest possible description of their experiences. The list is astonishingly long! Many of these stories tell of a demon speaking, yet do not specify how (whether out loud or telepathically). I assume that the writers never thought it necessary to make that distinction, therefore I assume that they mean out loud.


From Wallace, unless otherwise noted. This work focused on more on positive experiences:

• St. Perpetua (prophetic dreams and trance)

•  St. Cecilla (she and her husband saw her guardian angel, were gifted crowns by him)

• St. Pachomius (demons made fun of him, and shook the foundations of his house)

• Scribe at one of St. Briget's monasteries (created the drawings in the Book of Kildare by reproducing drawings shown to him by an angel in dreams)

• St. Gregory (met and spoke with his guardian angel in a human form)

• St. Isidore (angels plowed the fields for him while he prayed)

• St. Hildegard of Bingen (had visions and heard, smelled, tasted, and touched things that were not of this world. She kept quiet about her visions until, in the middle of her life, she heard a voice that told her to write them down. On her deathbed, a cross appeared in the sky which she and all her sisters saw.)

• St. Dominic (had a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which she taught him the rosary)

• St. Francis of Assisi (spoke with God in a dream, heard the voice of God while awake, and had a vision of an angel and Jesus. From Thigpen- St. Francis could see demons dancing on the walls of the city of Arezzo. He and another monk, Br. Sylvester, vanquished them.)

• St. Clare (saw a vision of the nativity, heard a choir singing, and along with a group of soldiers heard a voice answer as she prayed)

• St. Thomas Aquinas (saw a vision of Jesus, in which Jesus spoke to him)

• St. Catherine of Sienna (angels carrried her up and down the stairs, had visions of Jesus, said Jesus gave her a wedding ring that no one else could see, and displayed evidence of telepathy, telling the Pope, “'I think you should keep the promise you made to God.' The pope was astonished. He had made a promise in his heart to return to Rome if he ever became pope—and he had never told anyone about it." From Thigpen-  she performed exorcisms)

• St. Joan of Arc (saw Sts. Michael, Margaret of Antioch, and Catherine of Alexandria and heard voices, presumably theirs, guiding her to lead the French army)

• St. Angela Merici (received a message from angels in a dream, prophesied on her deathbed)

• St. Aloysius Gonzaga (had a vision of Archangel Gabriel which correctly predicted his death)

• St. Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney (exhibited telepathy: "When people came to Jean for confession, they discovered something else: He could read people’s hearts. Even when Jean had never met someone before, he could often tell them facts about themselves that he had no way of knowing... and then he started having loud banging sounds in his house at night from an invisible source until his health began to fail from sleep deprivation and he realized that he was dealing with a demon." From Thigpen- Demons continued to harass him for years, despite his saintly life as a monk and his numerous prayers. "Visitors to his dwelling were able to hear the sounds. He also noted that they mimicked the voices of people and other sounds, like animal sounds." From Thigpen- demons shook his bed curtains, pulled him out of bed, set his bed on fire, spoke to him, sang to him, and played sound effects to torment him. "[The demon] called out to the priest with a mocking voice, “Vianney, Vianney!” and would add to his name the most outrageous labels and threats. “You truffle-eater, we’ll get you! We have a hold on you!” Sometimes the demon called to Vianney from the courtyard and then imitated a charge of cavalry or the sound of a marching army. Sometimes he drove nails into the floor as if with a hammer; sometimes he cut wood; sometimes he sawed and planed planks like a carpenter. At other times he drummed on the table, the chimney, or the water jug, as if to make infernal music. Sometimes a noise came from the hall below like a horse bounding up to the ceiling and then falling down. At other times it was the bleating of a flock of sheep grazing over his head." He witnessed objects being moved by the demons. They followed him everywhere, even into the confessional. He was levitated by demons. He learned to deal with it, and became an exorcist.)

• St. John Bosco (as a child, he saw a glowing man in white and a glowing woman dressed in stars who spoke to him, and as an adult he had the spectral German Shepherd guardian, see "Halloween Special")

• St. Bernadette (the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her multiple times)

• St. Maximilian Kolbe (the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to him)

• St. Genevieve (saw Saints and angels during prayer)

• St. Martin of Tours (had a dream vision of Jesus, and the devil also appeared to him)

• St. Catherine of Alexandria (had a vision of Jesus and Mary)

• St. Anthony (beaten by demons, had visions sent by the devil. From Thigpen- he taunted the demons, and was finally liberated by God)

• St. Patrick (had prophetic dreams)

•  St. Jerome (had a dream of a judge beating him and woke with real bruises)

• St. Moses The Strong (saw a Heavenly vision of crowns descend upon his fallen brethren)

• St. Mary of Egypt (heard a voice after praying to the Blessed Virgin Mary)


From Thigpen, unless otherwise noted.
This book focuses more on encounters with the demonic. It is a bit fanciful; recounting several instances where demons were vanquished by the saint's virtue or humility alone:

• St. Margaret of Cortona (a demon appeared to her and attempted to frighten her, but her guardian angel appeared at the same time and spoke to her)

• St. Rita of Cascia (the devil often tried to interrupt her prayers by howling and appearing to her)

• St. Ignatius Loyola (was sometimes harassed by demons)

• St. Teresa of Ávila (on two occasions saw the devil appear and heard him speak, was attacked by a group of evil spirits which she saw as they ran from the Holy water splashed by her sisters, also had other visions)

• St. Macarius (heard demons taunting him while sleeping in a cemetery)

• St. Martin de Porres (a demon appeared to him and spoke with him)

• St. Rose of Lima (Satan appeared to her many times, once snatching a prayer book from her hands. She heard the voice of God on one occasion.)

• St. Paul of the Cross (witnessed, on two separate occassions, soldiers being dragged or pulled backwards by demons)

• St. Gemma Galgani- (Satan caused her violent headaches which sent her to bed and prevented her from praying. He spoke to her, trying to undermine her faith in Jesus and in her spiritual director. He tried to prevent her from writing about her experiences by snatching her pen, tearing up her paper, and dragging her from her chair. He mimicked the voice and appearance of a priest once when she went to confession; so convincingly that, although suspicious, she began her confession before completely realizing the deception. He appeared to her as an angel, radiating light. When this happened, she didn't feel the usual sense of foreboding that she usually did when in the presence of this trickster spirit. She believed that God opened her eyes then, allowing her to see the truth, and she spat in the apparition's face. He appeared to her as a dog once, and made all her bones ache. He appeared with eyes of fire. "[After an attack], he left me in peace, and the angel guardian came and assured me that I had not done anything wrong. I complained somewhat, because I wished his help at such times. He said that whether I saw him or not, he would be always above my head.”)

• St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina                  

I have already mentioned St. Pio and his telepathic abilities in "I Feel Fall in the Air," but here are a few things that Manual of Spiritual Warfare has to say about him: ("Satan attacked Padre Pio under many forms and with many disguises, testing him with various temptations. The Enemy appeared to him as young, naked dancing girls; as a young friend of the monks; as a crucifix; as the Spiritual Father or Provincial Father of the monks; as Pope Pius X; as a guardian angel; as St. Francis of Assisi; and even as the Blessed Virgin." Once the demon appeared accompanied by a whole army of demonic spirits. "At other times, the Devil approached Padre Pio invisibly." During one attack, St. Pio was nearly deafened by noises. Multiple times,  he was thrown out of bed and dragged from his bedroom. He became an exorcist, and was offered a deal from the demons which he did not accept; that they would cease their harassment if he would stop "taking the bodies away from them" [by performing exorcisms]. From Mystics and Miracles, by Bert Ghezzi- St. Pio had visions of demons and being attacked by demons from childhood, had a vision of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and had a vision of Jesus.)

Futhermore, Michael Potts, in this article for The Society of Psychical Research, writes that St. Pio "is one of the many Saints said to have the ability to levitate," and that there were witnesses to St. Pio's levitation. Potts explains that St. Pio was also known to have experienced the phenomenon of bilocation, which was also verified by witnesses, but St. Pio "said he knew nothing of the process by which these experiences occurred, but noted that they generally occurred while he was praying."

I was excited to find that last bit, that St. Pio confirmed that some of these things occurred during prayer, because when I first discovered all these stories I asked myself, "Why does this sort of thing always seem to happen to Catholics?" 

I think that prayer is the answer to that question. Catholics pray a lot, and for a long time. Specifically, Catholics pray lengthy, repetitive prayers like the rosary. The rosary is a meditation. Fifty Hail Marys are prayed during the main part of the rosary, and that's if you only pray the daily portion; it's two-hundred if you pray through the entire thing. During those Hail Marys, one is supposed to meditate on events from the lives of Jesus and Mother Mary. While praying the rosary, your mind is partially occupied by meditating on those stories from the gospels, your body is partially occupied by counting on the beads and saying the words, and you are seeking spiritual communion. I think this just might be the perfect recipe for achieving an altered state of consciousness. After all, every New Ager on the planet who's trying to teach people how to open their third eye recommends meditation.

Additionally, I theorize that some people (like, perhaps, people with ADHD or possibly other "conditions") exist in an altered state of consciousness all the time (because their minds and/or bodies are partially occupied all the time, perhaps? Or simply because their brains don't function quite the same way as most). These are the "natural born psychics," as in, the people who are predisposed to developing their psychic abilities naturally, quickly, and maybe even accidentally.

"Accidentally" was definitely the case with me. I am certain that some people are born with more psychic ability than I was; however, I don't think anyone is born with anything like what I have now. I think this ability develops from contact with spiritual beings; the question is, from which side? In my situation, even though this may be a God-given gift, in the sense that it's a natural ability, I know that demons "helped" me develop it. I suspect that it's that way in all cases. If you'll notice, it seems that the Saints who were telepaths also had contact with demons.

Furthermore, I discovered a Catholic prayer that seems to confirm this suspicion. The "Act of Consecration of all Psychic Abilities and Occult Powers" Prayer reads,
"...Close now my psychic abilities which I have obtained through the power of demons..."
The entire prayer can be found at
https://www.catholicexorcism.org/deliverance-prayers-for-the-laity

Demons actually confirm this too; though that doesn't mean much, because they'll confirm anything. When I first started making notes for this chapter, they commented,

"It might be that we simply activated something that They had already implanted in your hardware. But it was not supposed to be activated until you die and get to that sky place. But lucky you! You get a preview!"

I tried the prayer above, or at least a rendition of it. At the time, I didn't have it with me and tried to recall it from memory. That really shouldn't make a difference; my prayer had the same  concept and intention, as have many prayers I'd sent up this year already. I asked God and Mother Mary both to either remove this ability altogether, or to at least prevent demons from speaking to me and allow me to speak with saints and angels instead. I did, however, include the clause:
"...unless you mean for me to use this ability for some purpose..."
because I have sort of felt as if I'm on a mission.

Also I requested, since I know that demons are all around me and that they hate me, that I could keep something, some spiritual gift that would be useful in alerting me to their presence. I requested to be given the ability to see demons rather than hear them. Nothing has changed about my hearing; and it seems that I see them a little better and more often, but, as we know, you can't trust your own eyes when it comes to demons.

So, that prayer "didn't work" for me, but it's not fair of me to say that it doesn't work. It may work for someone else. It may be that I'm supposed to be exactly as I am, for some reason which we don't yet understand.