I.C.P.I.R.
International Community For Paranormal Investigation & Research

Demonic Reality: A Theologian’s Perspective for the Ghost Hunters and the Hunted

By Kevin Bowen, Th.B
ICPIR


The modern understanding of demonic activity is quite ambiguous. From the literary gargoyle-like creatures inhabiting the underworld to one’s own personal struggles personified, demonic activity can almost be whatever one wants them to be. Thanks to the media, the average person might consider demonic activity to be active possession as opposed to demonic oppression, which orthodox Christians might say is just a temporary instance of suffering caused by a demon that does not actively possess that person. The Catholic Church defines demonic possession as “superhuman strength, accompanied by fits and convulsions; personality changes; predicting the future or other secret information; and understanding and conversing in languages previously unknown to the victim ¹," but David J Marsden, a retired psychotherapist and ghost researcher says that “Many signs of demon possession can be explained. Seizures and convulsions indicate epilepsy. Personality changes indicate stress or schizophrenia. Obscene acts indicate mental disorders. Sexual thoughts are rather commonplace. But knowledge of future events or secret information is considered by many to be spiritual or demonic ².” Interestingly enough, the majority of Marsden’s listed behaviors for society’s interpretations of demons have little theological validation because the Holy Bible (I reference the original Greek text) cites demonic possession with some different manifestations. Now the concept of demons is usually misunderstood because the word is derived from the Greek word “daimon” or the Latin word “daemon” as an evil spirit or simply a spirit that is not of God. Generally speaking, first century Jews and Christians would have understood these beings to be the angels who God cast out of heaven for their rebellion before the creation of the world, but with this loose interpretation of the word, a “demon” could easily be classified as a human haunting as well (Many orthodox Christians do not subscribe to the theory of a human haunting). So from this point forward, I will refer to demons exclusively as the non-human angelic beings who rebelled against God and who do the work of the devil. Now as we consider true demonic possession, we should first recognize that this activity is not explicitly recorded in the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament except for one possibility where King Saul was troubled by an evil spirit in I Samuel 16:14. The New Testament on the other hand makes reference to demonic possession eleven times using the Greek word “daimonizomai” literally meaning one who is under the influence of an evil spirit. We should recognize again that this Greek word is exclusively used in the New Testament to describe demonic possessions; however, the broader meaning does not exclude the possibility of a malevolent human spirit channeling through someone who opens themselves up to them. The symptoms though for demon possession are clearly outlined in the New Testament as we see below:

Superhuman powers (Mark 5:2-4; Acts 19:13-16)
Many theatrical interpretations of exorcisms involve a priest praying over a demon-possessed victim with only a few people restraining them. Demons on the other hand have shown themselves to be quite powerful and extremely difficult to bring under control as shown in the following passage taken from the New Testament:

“A team of Jews who were traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus. The incantation they used was this: "I command you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!" Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. But when they tried it on a man possessed by an evil spirit, the spirit replied, "I know Jesus, and I know Paul. But who are you?" And he leaped on them and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and badly injured.” Acts 19:13-16 NLT

According to this passage, we see two keys to demonic possession and demonic influence. First off, true demons are only cast out by those who really believe in the name of Jesus as opposed to those who use it for performance and secondly, there must be some evil (or simply malevolent) spirits that are not demons. If this were not the case, these men could not have cast out the other evil spirits as they were going town to town.

Fearful of Christ (Matthew 8:29; Mark 1:24, 34; 3:12; 5:7; Luke 4:34, 41; 8:28)
Unlike what we have seen in the movies, real demons appear to respond to Christ’s authority and to those who have the authority (Luke 10:19) to cast them. This is an important point because it explains why some people who appear to be possessed do not respond to an exorcism because they are simply suffering from a mental illness or they are perhaps channeling a malevolent spirit that is not demonic.

Some lived among the Dead (Matthew 8:28; Luke 8:27)
These references indicate that some people who are demon possessed are likely to live among the dead (i.e., cemeteries) completely naked. There seems to be no clear reason why the demons compelled these people to behave in such a manner, but for our purposes, this is just another unique biblical example of extraneous behavior attributed to demonic possession.

In light of these symptoms for demonic possession, we should recognize that most of these cases rarely recorded serious manifestations on the victim of the possession. According to the New Testament, the majority of those possessed only became symptomatic when Christ confronted the demons possessing them (Matthew 4:24; 8:16; 15:22; Mark 1:32; 3:11; Luke 4:41; 6:18; 7:21).

Why your case is unlikely a demonic possession

Demons work in the Shadows.
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” ³

Though this is a movie quotation, the paranormal significance is great because logic suggests that the devil or demonic spirits do more for their cause when they maneuver within our realm undetected. I do admit that demons can and do in some cases masquerade as something else to further their game of deception, but it seems to me that if we consider a military operation (i.e., the Trojan Horse), or in the biological sense a virus attempting to overtake its host, the key to victory is the element of surprise. When your forces are already in place and your enemy is caught completely unprepared, they are totally vulnerable and much easier to destroy. The main point to consider then is that there are various explanations for an apparent haunting and demons are not always responsible for every paranormal occurrence.

The Demonic Agenda: Destroy God’s People

Demons are simply messengers of the devil set out to suppress the truth of God and oppress the people of God. If the blind remain blind and the people of God are crushed down, the devil achieves his ultimate goal of ruining God’s good plans for humanity. The paranormal truth here is that demons generally will not waste time haunting a specific location solely for mischief because that is not apart of their agenda. Interestingly enough, when someone believes their home or a person to be possessed by a demon, they traditionally seek the church for help. Now isn’t that contrary to the demonic agenda? Why would a demon openly torment someone if it in turn causes that person to draw towards the very force that they are trying to keep them from? Logic therefore leads us again to the conclusion that not every haunting is directly demonic.

In conclusion to this discussion, let me make it clear that perceptible demonic activity is still very real despite its relative infrequency. Demons are not human spirits, they are capable of doing great harm and one should never provoke or conjure up demonic activity. The good news however is that true demonic activity is usually activated by one who incites it and demons are not all powerful as we may perceive them to be.



Kevin Bowen, Th.B
ICPIR Team Member, Arizona Chapter






BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. O'Donnell, M.J “Demonical Possession” New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia. The Catholic Encyclopedia Volume XII © 1911. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

2. Marsden, David J “Demon” ©2002 http://www.soulwork.net/sw_articles_eng/demon.htm

3. Verbal Kint, movie quotation, “The Usual Suspects”, ©1995.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. < br>
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