Recently I’ve received a number of questions pertaining to spiritual warfare, particularly the mechanisms of demonic activity. New readers find this blog all the time, so it’s important to give refreshers on the basics from time to time.
Sun Tzu 101 dictates that you can’t beat an enemy you don’t know. Therefore, the first step of spiritual warfare is knowing …
Demonic activity is real.
I could quote Baudelaire on the devil convincing the world that he doesn’t exist, but that would be an exaggeration. Belief in in the spiritual–including evil spirits–permeates human history up to the present day, and every culture has a tradition of spiritual warfare.
“But I Don’t believe in the spiritual!” Yes, you do.
All that’s really meant by “spiritual” is “non-material”. There is no such thing as a coherent and internally consistent materialism. That’s because pure materialism, followed to its logical conclusion, rules out the existence of reason–the spiritual faculty required to know about anything, including materialism. Materialist philosophies are therefore self-negating.
Deniers of spiritual realities may attempt to argue that reason, love, humor, etc. are epiphenomena of physical processes. But such arguments address the source of spiritual faculties; not their existence (in fact, their existence is presumed).
Whether or not brain chemistry causes thought is certainly an argument we can have, but unless you can show us a “thought particle” with measurable physical properties, we must conclude to the existence of a non-material dimension of reality that we all experience constantly.
Even if you don’t believe in the Devil, the Devil believes in you–specifically your value to God–to work day and night to destroy you.
If spiritual beings exist, they can have a moral dimension.
In classical philosophy and Christian moral theology, goodness is fullness of being. The goodness of a thing can be measured by how completely it fills out the ideal of what it’s supposed to be. Evil has no independent substance. Instead, evil is a defect or lacking with a parasitic relationship to the good.
For example, illness is the absence of health, ignorance is a lack of knowledge, vice is an imbalance of virtue.
Whether a given being is physical or spiritual doesn’t affect its moral character. If a spiritual being has defects that degrade its existence from the fullness of what it’s meant to be, it can rightly be said to exhibit some degree of evil. Thus, we’re faced with the reality of evil spirits.
You may not be interested in demons, but demons are interested in you.
How can evil spirits affect the material world?
Several attributes of demons follow directly from their non-material nature.
- Being made of no parts, they’re effectively indestructible.
- As pure intellect and will, they’re really, really smart and ferociously determined.
- Having no physical properties, they don’t take up space.
- As a consequence, they don’t need to “move” or “travel”. Though not omnipresent, they can be anywhere they think about without traversing physical distances.
- Therefore, it’s less accurate to say that a demon can “get inside of” someone/something and better to describe its activity as “attaching itself” to a person, place, or object (remember: a demon is “located” wherever it focuses its thought).
- How can nonphysical beings interact with the physical? Probably not that differently from the way your own spiritual faculties can affect your body (e.g. psychosomatic and mental illness).
Areas of demonic activity
There are two types of demonic activity: ordinary and extraordinary.
Ordinary demonic activity is temptation, whereby an evil spirit is the direct cause of, or a contributing factor to, the temptation to sin.
Extraordinary demonic activity may occur in various ways. Some refer to these phenomena as “stages”, but they’re more properly called “areas”, since they don’t necessarily follow an orderly progression.
The areas of extraordinary demonic activity are:
- External physical attacks: pain and/or harm inflicted by a demon.
- Oppression: various external torments that often masquerade as extreme bad luck.
- Obsession: uncontrollable, irrational thoughts induced by demonic activity.
- Infestation: refers to demonic attachment to a place, an object, or even an animal.
- Possession: one or more demons takes control of a person’s body (not the soul).
- Subjugation: voluntary submission to demonic influence.
In this area, we are referring to an “out of character” sudden attacks of obsessive thoughts. These can be of an ongoing and even absurd nature. There is an added inability to be freed from these thoughts which range from desperation to suicide.
Although there are mental illnesses such as an obsessive compulsive disorder, if this is a persistent and harmful obsession, it would not be a bad idea to either have clergy or fellow believers pray over the person in the name of the Lord for healing and liberation from the obsession.
One of the most puzzling attributes of the Death Cult is the striking dichotomy between their destructive, malevolent forms of political expression and their relative normality in other areas of their lives. Who doesn’t have a friend or relative who conducts himself as a sane, rational, and emotionally well-balanced citizen at all times–except for when he’s engaged in politics?
And most of all, we should pray for the strengthening of our faith in the one source of all truth, beauty, and good.P.S. Not giving money to people who hate you is as much for your own good as theirs. You wouldn’t want to reward others for doing evil, right?
“The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals…”
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fear/images/9/99/Shade.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081018000344
I have seen demons myself. One night, after a series of bizarre dreams, I woke up to the faint sound of my mother calling for help. My mother lives far across town so I thought, “Surely that was just part of the dream I just had.” and started to lay back down when suddenly a random thought popped into my head:
“God has given you a vision of the future! Leave now and go help your mother!”
I will admit, for a second I wondered if my mother really was in danger. As I sat in my bed another thought appeared:
“God did not give you a vision of the future and that was not your mother’s voice.”
“Then who’s was it?”
“ME”
Suddenly, a large pale white face with black holes for eyes and large black lips lunged out towards my face. It started flying around the room making horrible loud noises that sounded like a distorted lion roar mixed with a swarm of bees.
As soon as it showed itself it got hard for me to breathe and my whole body started shaking as if I was having an panic attack. I remember hiding under the covers trying to mutter out “Lord have mercy”. When I finally did, a blinding white light enveloped the room and I woke up.
You know how angels in the Bible always tell humans to be not afraid? What’s even scarier is that demons—including the creepy face you saw—used to be angels.
Your description of the demon alone also gave me a panic attack, such that I literally had to sing the Hail Mary in Latin and recite the Fatima prayer. Seriously. It’s one thing to see such a creature in a horror game; it’s another to realize that such creatures could be inspired by actual supernatural beings.
Demons can use any impression that’s come through our senses to tempt us. It’s child’s play for one to impress the sound of your mother’s voice, a lion’s roar, bees’ buzzing, etc. on your imagination.
As an aside, that’s also why viewing lewd images is an exceptionally bad idea.
I’m one of those new readers and I’m glad I sumbled upon this post.
“Although there are mental illnesses such as an obsessive compulsive disorder, if this is a persistent and harmful obsession, it would not be a bad idea to either have clergy or fellow believers pray over the person in the name of the Lord for healing and liberation from the obsession.”
I have such a persistent and harmful obsession and would like to request such prayers from clergy and fellow believers, but have a terribly hard time talking about psychological disorder to others. I’m sure many men can relate as we generally don’t like to show weakness or being seen as “strange”. So I don’t even know how to conduct myself in these matters. How could one approach clergy with it without being ‘awkward’? I don’t even know how to do, and I’m new to church.
Welcome. I wish I had a simple answer to give. Unfortunately, the sorry state of seminaries in the 80s and 90s has left many priests untrained in such matters. I myself contacted the assistant pastor at the local parish about a possible case of demonic influence, and he admitted not knowing what to do and said he’d call the diocesan office.
Nevertheless, I’d start by calling your home parish and asking to talk with a priest. He might have to kick it up the chain to the bishop for permission to take action. In the meantime, you do have God-given sovereignty over the areas of your life that demons might attack. You can licitly command them to cease their attacks on these areas in Jesus’ name. I suggest praying to Jesus, reasserting your divinely granted sovereignty over (here name the areas of your life under diabolical attack, e.g. your health, property, finances, etc.) and invoke the intercession of Our Lady, victorious over the Serpent, and St. Joseph, Terror of Demons.
I will also pray that God deliver you from demonic attack, and I encourage my readers to do so as well.*
*Important caveat: NEVER try to command a demon that is influencing someone over whom you do not have spiritual authority. Such attempts can backfire spectacularly. Those over whom you have spiritual authority include: yourself, your children. Only priests and bishops have broad spiritual authority over others.
Brian,
And Father Z also severely admonishes the laity to never use prayers reserved for priest in such circumstances.
I have a book by Catholic answers booklet on the subject
Demons, Deliverance and Discernment: separating fact from fiction about the spirit world:
https://shop.catholic.com/demons-deliverance-and-discernment-separating-fact-from-fiction-about-the-spirit-world/
and the ebook:
https://shop.catholic.com/demons-deliverance-and-discernment-separating-fact-from-fiction-about-the-spirit-world-digital/
xavier
The book might be of help those who want to learn more.
Thank you very much sir.
Be of good cheer, friend. I wanted to lead with that, because I know exactly how painful and distressing obsessive thoughts and psychological disorders can be. Remember that God loves you.
For me, the struggle with mental illness was a long, slow process of learning to refuse despair, choose hope, and trust God. Hope in God never disappoints. God certainly healed me. I pray that He will heal and liberate you as well.
I would make two other suggestions, in addition to those Brian offered. Say the Lord’s Prayer and the sign of the cross. Say them silently, as often as necessary. Say them aloud as often as possible.
Much appreciated sir.
Ever since I renewed my faith in Catholicism, I’ve had terrible dreams which promote lust (during which I cheat on my wife or I view porn and masturbate.) Given that lust is the sin I struggled/still struggle with the most, it makes sense that I get attacked during a period where I’m most vulnerable.
Sometimes, my dreams are more on the nose. Last year, I was approached by a group of strange looking people who resembled the cast of the Lost Boys or Night of the Demons. They were hissing in a strange language and cackling at me. I started reciting the Hail Mary in Latin and their hissing got louder. I started screaming the Hail Mary and they ran away in fear.
If you’re Catholic, learning and praying the St. Michael prayer is an absolute must. Additionally, I make the sign of the cross as frequently as possible. In the words of Prodigy from Mobb Deep: “there’s a war going on outside no man is safe from. You can run but you can’t hide forever.”
According to exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger, the Devil focuses his attacks not where we’re weak, but where we’re strong.
What this tells us is that if we’re experiencing demonic attacks in a particular area, we have the potential to achieve a great degree of perfection in that area. Satan does not want us to attain that perfection, so he bends over backwards to stop us.
Turn the tables on him. Know that temptation is actually good, as long as we don’t give in to it, since every time we successfully resist, we grow in the opposing virtue.
And in case you or other readers don’t already know this, you can’t sin in a dream. What demons are trying to do by impressing disturbing or shameful imagery into your dreams is get you to fret over it after you wake up. That’s when the real danger of sin rears its ugly head.
The surest way to combat involuntary lewd thoughts and images is to think of Jesus. Demons would prefer you think of anything else, especially endless worrying about whether or not you sinned. Don’t play their game. Do not pass Go. Immediately stop and think of Our Lord or Our Lady. Evil thoughts cannot coexist with them.
Also, try sleeping with a crucifix hanging over your bed.
I think you and Declan Finn need to do a Spiritual Warfare podcast together, Brian.
Another story for your collection: I have suffered from a debilitating degree of depression almost my whole life. About 12 years ago, I was driving home from work one day, almost in tears, feeling worthless and hopeless. Somehow, for some reason, I called out to God for help, a God I could hardly believe in – and what came into my mind that instant was to command the devil, in the name of Jesus Christ, to leave me. I did so, out loud, while driving. I could physically feel a change, and then the Presence of God, a lightness, a joy, a comfort – and a deep, loving sense of humor. In that moment, I knew, somehow, that I was being granted a reprieve of sorts, that *I* needed to do work, to participate, not just wait for help.
For the next couple weeks, I was walking on air. I don’t know how to describe not feeling horribly sad and hopeless for pretty much the first time in my adult life. Gradually, thing returned to ‘normal’, but without the depth of despair I had before. When I’m feeling irrationally down, I stop and command Satan, in the Name of Our Lord, to leave me – and it changes things.
I like your point about being attacked at our points of strength. I have long felt a strong creative drive in music and writing, but have almost always succumbed to doubts and despair: it’s garbage, why bother, etc. So maybe I ought to think about that point…
Praise be to God for the grace of deliverance!
“So maybe I ought to think about that point…”
I’d certainly encourage it.