Is Demonic Possession Possible in our Enlightened Age?

I don’t know how many times I have heard it said that we live in an enlightened age, a time where superstitions and old wive’s tales simply have no further value to us as a society or as a planet. But what do we qualify as superstition and old wive’s tales anyway? We tend to cast our doubts on any subject that makes a person feel the tiniest bit uncomfortable or afraid. Angels, demons, the devil, God Himself; those are all topics that usually get deliberately left out of casual conversation, simply because those are the topics that most bother the human race. Okay, we can also include homosexuality and abortion, but those two topics are discussed all the time by politicians on television. What I want to talk about in this article are the subjects that our “enlightenment” considers taboo.

Out of curiosity one time, I read a book about demonology, the study of demons and demonic possession, and the casting out of demons. In that book there was a whole page of symptoms that the “good” demonologist must look for in determining whether or not someone was possessed. The Catholic church, I understand, has a similar list. I won’t go through the entire list right here and now, but suffice it to say, there are a lot of very severe symptoms that must be occurring before someone is entitled to be called demon possessed. I don’t know who it was that made up those rules but I have a problem with this because the God that I know and love, wrote a Book that calls the devil a “subtle” being. If the only way you can legally be called possessed is through Linda Blair imitations, then something is severely wrong there.

Yes, demonic possession did occur way back in the old testament, and in the early years of the Christian church, and in the middle ages. But can it also occur today in our highly educated, and non-superstitious world? When Jesus was casting out demons, He did so for reasons we would today blame entirely on physical or mental maladies. A boy had terrible seizures and kept throwing himself into the fire and getting burned all the time. Does the Bible say that Jesus cured him of his Epilepsy? No. Actually it says that Jesus commanded an evil spirit to come out of the boy and it immediately did and he was cured. A young woman was being used as a clairvoyant so two crooks could make money from her. Did Jesus call her a Psychic? No. He cast an evil spirit from her. When it departed, the girl could no longer tell the future and the crooks had lost their golden egg-laying goose.

Truthfully, what really has changed between then and now? Is this not the same world that the above-mentioned boy and girl lived in? Were they not just as human as we are today? Of course, the answer to both of those questions is yes. The situations may have differed technologically speaking, but the basics were the same. So, if demonic possession was a common thing back in the “old days”, why is it suddenly taboo now? Should not the demons that existed way back when also exist today? Why not? They don’t even have to change their M.O. because what worked in the old testament times still works today, that’s how little the human race has actually changed. Actually, demons do exist today and they usually stay subtly in the background of our out-of-control-life-in-the fast-lane world.

Don’t believe me? Well, let me give you just one example of how demons subtly push their way into our lives. Did you know that your children, you, your parents, their parents, and their parents before them have all said the name of the oldest demon known to man? I said that name myself, when I was a child. It usually goes right along with “hocus-pocus”. This demon’s name is Abraxas. A.K.A. Abracadabra. Talk about subtle. When I did the research that led to that discovery, I immediately stopped saying the word, “Abracadabra”, but millions of children have said it thinking that it was just a cute, funny, magic word. It is surprising sometimes to learn the origins of a word that is used every day in all kinds of situations. Sometimes I think we should do as the Bible says and weigh our words carefully, because as the Bible also says, people have entertained angels unawares. If that is so, then it is possible that people have also entertained demons unawares as well.

I would certainly hesitate to try it, but I would imagine that if you said that name often enough, you could quite possibly bring that particular demon directly into your life, and it would not make your life for the better either. The worst part is, once invited in, a demon does not readily leave its human host. Most of the time they have to be forced out, through exorcism in Christ’s name, for that name is the only one that can truly cast out demons. A demonic attack does not have to be Linda Blair’s head spinning around, or spewing pea soup all over the place. It can be as subtle as a mere change of personality. My brother is a drug abuser, and when he’s drugging, his personality changes. He becomes darker, more dismal, and tends to want to hide in a cave all the time. When he’s not using he’s bright, cheerful, almost obnoxiously outgoing and friendly. In other words, a completely different person.

Of course, the drugs get blamed for all of that. “It’s just the drugs talking” is what people will say when you complain about it. “It’s not him, it’s the drugs”. Certainly I agree that the drugs are a part of the personality change, but I’m wondering just what it is that causes a person who is physically clean of drugs to want to go back on them, knowing full well that it costs a lot of money, and will eventually land them in jail. In my brother’s case it’s definitely not because of the high he gets from crack. He’s been using for something like twenty years, so when he gets high it only lasts a couple of seconds at the very most. What could be happening is that demons are controlling, if not actually possessing, my brother, to make him do things that are totally self-destructive. You never know for sure, do you? Demons are all around us, and they would like nothing better than to destroy us, and they know just how easy it is to do exactly that.

So, where is our wonderful enlightenment really taking us? Are we getting smarter or just more ignorant? Perhaps you don’t even believe in demons, well if that is the case then you also do not believe in angels, or in the devil or in God Himself. But our personal beliefs, whatever they might be, do not change the reality of what does or does not exist. You cannot see the wind, but you can hear it and feel it, so you know it is there. You cannot see an atom with your naked eye either but we know they exist. You cannot see an individual water molecule in a rushing stream, yet you know that they are there. It is the same with God, angels, demons and the devil. They exist whether we choose to believe in them or not, and if we ignore that fact, than that is our undoing.