What About the Demons?

[kokopelle]

There are people who very much believe in the battle between demons and God, with the soldiers of Christianity acting as the warriors of exorcism and demonic banishment. This is now promoted on national TV with television shows like Paranormal State and A Haunting. The demons are portrayed as evil, filled with Satanic power. They can only be pushed aside by prayers and dogmatic commandments by the Holy Hitmen. Fair enough...

Were does that leave people like myself who don't believe in the overarching power of Christianity and the presumption that there is a ongoing war between Satan and God? Does my disbelief make me a pawn of Satan, an open target of the infernal demons, or something else? Any thoughts on this???

Comments

[valkyriur.livejournal.com]

If you are not for, you are against. That's how most of them think about it.

[chimerae.livejournal.com]

I think it's like computer viruses and Norton for Windows doesn't work for you. Maybe you're a Mac or maybe you're an AVG kind of guy. . . or MAYBE you're running unprotected.

I've been around and even through a couple of those interventions. I am very selective about who I let do anything intentional in my energy zone because I tend to offload whatever the other person has lurking in their shadow.

They seem to me just like most things . . . it really depends on the quality of the spiritual warrior . . .just like any warrior.

It's my experience that the power of prayer in a form that's discontinuous with the target of the prayer's belief system is even more effective for deep problems than prayer and other related practices from compatible belief systems. It seems to me that the discontinuity of belief within a context of agreement to purpose allows things to be removed or adjusted in the shadow areas masked in compatible believers.

[chimerae.livejournal.com]

As to your question about you PERSONALLY . . . it's my experience that people carry spirit entities about like they carry bacteria and viruses. I was absolutely certain that demons did not exist and were misperceptions of some of the darker entites . . .right up until I encountered one in a good (fundamentalist Christian) friend YIKES. I've been immersed in this fringe experience since 1991 and I've only encountered one other. I think the kind of demons that the fundamentalist exhorcists are chasing are thankfully very rare, partly because there are so many other dark but less detrimental entities stepping in.

The thing that might be useful to you but that's probably not an option because of your belief system is that the folks who do this who are really good can clear out all sorts of unhealthy entities. I would guess from some of your descriptions that you have some "riders" probably from your family history, that are a burden on you. Not all the fundies can toss those out and the catholics who do this work generally won't step up for those lesser things. There's someone on in the shamanism group, I think named Franciscan, who might be helpful.

I have to deal with that crap all the time and keep a constellation of allies that can help me identify and adjust when I gather another "2-dimensional entity that's attenuating my frequencies" (different language for related phenom) I can see the attraction of signing on in the fundamentalist system but it would be a spiritual version of going through life in a environmentally contained tank. Damned uncomfortable and WHOOPS! if you break down and have to pop the seal and breathe the natural air.

[franciscan.livejournal.com]

I work in that field extensively. I don't regard entities as demons, although many times they behave as such. To me they are suffering beings that have not either finished their journey, or are somehow stuck.

If someone sits in my office and is acting out because of emotional pain, I don't cast them out of the office. BUtI do work toward helping them resolve the pain, and then they leave to go one with their life and journey. Similar thing with suffering beings.

Hope that helps

[madfedor.livejournal.com]

I have some direct knowledge and experience in this general "area", not suitable for this thread in any detail (not shy about it, but I don't want to post what is essentially personal on someone else's journal, especially since it would be very long), and I've come to two practical conclusions for which I have not yet encountered more than trivial rebuttal:

1) Spirit entities originate in the human experience. Ascribing them to a pantheon or similar mythos is a method for grasping them intellectually; it is also a quick path to chaos if not approached with flexibility. Demonolgy -- as it were -- must not be subservient to dogma, or it becomes an excuse for victimhood without resolution.

2) Entity encounters have two motivations: one draws them to oneself; another person sends them with nefarious and/or malicious intent.

Archetypes are useful. They permit the observer (and participant!) a symbol set on which to focus one's efforts in dealing with them. If calling them demons is constructive, I offer no correction to the person doing so. In practical terms, I see no difference between "the power of Christ" and spell casting or meditation or simply being strong and confident in one's personal energy. The goal is the same in every case. The value judgment is rightly applied to the path one chooses to achieve that goal.