Their Methods Explained

1.  Demons masquerade as human spirits to hide their true identity

There is no mistaking the reason for this deception – if demons were to reveal themselves in all their wickedness, scarcely would there be one who would willingly follow them into eternal destruction. Tragically, some poor souls willingly accept and embrace the demonic. Although some people are overt devotees of the Evil One and may actually worship demons (called demonolatry), most people fall under the devil's spell through much more subtle forms of deception and trickery.

It should be mentioned that even practitioners of demonolatry are misled in their perceptions of the nature of demons. Most believe, errantly, that by worshiping demons they will gain power in Hell – dominion over other souls and even other demons. They mistakenly believe that there will be pleasure in Hell, that Hell is a place of sinful delights. This could not be further from the truth – it is a demonic lie, a deception that demonolaters believe in. Satan has lied to them and they believe him. Their love of the pleasures of sin won them over to the dark side by accepting the demonic whisperings in their ears.  St. Timothy the Apostle warned of this when he wrote, "But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons" (1 Tim 4:1). I would venture to say that we are a rare breed in today's unbelieving world who know the true nature of demons and know the eternal punishment that awaits those who would reject Yeshua/Christ and follow the devil.

Apart from the case of the demonolater, we have the dabblers and the curious. We have the teenage boys and girls who play the dangerous "game" we know as the Ouija board. After all, it is just a game, right? How bad can it be since it is sold in nearly every toy store in the land? Those with experience in the realm of deliverance counseling, exorcism and paranormal investigations resoundingly agree in the danger posed by use of the Ouija board. In fact, the Ouija board is probably the number one cause of oppression, possession (two different levels of demonisation), and violent hauntings. This "game" does not only draw the fascination of youth, it serves as hope to the lonely old widow who desperately longs to speak to her deceased spouse. It also is alluring to the very young who may have just found the board in the stack of games in the closet. Incidentally, it was this "game" that led to the making of the movie "The Exorcist".  The child was possessed as a result of using the Ouija board. This movie was based on a true story – in fact, some of the demonic sounds were taken directly from the audio recordings that were captured during the real exorcism (let me say here that Hollywood did add their special twists to this true story – the priest did not invite the demon to possess him nor did he jump out the window, for example).

Apart from the Ouija Board, we also have cases of hauntings where the haunting spirit (a demon) poses as a human ghost.  On the surface there appears nothing malevolent whatsoever. Lurking beneath, however, and often using preternatural powers to entice the already curious onlookers to further curiosity, there lies the demon that longs to take ground from us – to gain a better foothold in our lives. Once the demon has tempted the curious with the insatiable desire to find out more about the afterlife, and in particular the spirit that haunts the home, it has set the stage for the next act:  Namely, the committing of the sin of communicating with the dead (Deut 18:11). 

3. Demons often describe themselves as a young person who died a horrible and tragic death

The psychology involved in this method is quite effective for it caters to and takes advantage of the G-d given qualities of compassion and empathy (Satan uses all available tactics in this war, including taking advantage of the good qualities of humans.

Nowhere is this truth more plainly illustrated than in the use of the Ouija board. The following is a typical Ouija board session (although this "session" is purely fictitious, it very closely follows a pattern that practitioners and dabblers frequently encounter).  The communications are nearly always choppy and composed of incomplete sentences, sometimes making no sense at all:

Q:  "What is your name?"
Board:  "My name is Robbie"
Q:  "How old are you Robbie?"
Board:  "12"
Q:  "How did you die?"
Board:  "Wild dogs"
Q:  "Wow… You were killed by wild dogs?"
Board "Yes. I am sad."
Q:  "Why are you sad?"
Board:  "miss mom"
Q:  "You miss your mother?"
Board:  "They tore my throat"
Q:  "The dogs?"
Board:  "Yes. Help me. It hurts."
Q:  "How can we help you? What can we do?"
Board:  "Help hurts help hurts burn"
Q:  "What can we do for you? How can we help?"

Here the session ends.  Contact is lost and the participants are left with a bag of emotions and conclusions that they now have to deal with.  At this point, those participating in the session are usually hooked. They are excited at their paranormal experience and the fact, if this is their first session, that the board actually works – and they most assuredly want to talk to Robbie again and are ready, in whatever way possible, to help him. And the game goes on. Day after day, week after week, the participants are drawn deeper and deeper into this bizarre and intriguing world until it is too late. The demon now has sufficient ground to take things to the next level, which brings us to our next section.

5. Demons pose as human spirits to develop the trust of their subjects and to foster a personal relationship, or bond, with them

This phenomenon is not only rooted in the psychology of man (as mentioned in section 3 above); it also enters into the spiritual realm. When demons have gained sufficient hold of their subjects, they are able to exercise more control in enticing them further commit further sin. An example of this is illustrated in the following case:

Karen was a successful businesswoman who had found great success in the occult practice of using a pendulum. Her contact with the spirit world started off as communication with what called itself a deceased child. This child was able to answer questions, provide guidance and quickly became a companion that Karen began to rely on and look forward to talking to.

It wasn’t that long before things started to change. Her once good "friend" began to become lewd and vulgar. When Karen would rebuke the "child" it would sometimes apologise and straighten up for a while, only to return to the vulgarity later on and always worse than it had done previously.

The contact went on for quite some time before things went from what Karen would call "normal" to bad. The first thing that started to happen to her was the nightmares. These were always violent and contained what she referred to as simply "monsters" chasing, catching and torturing her or a loved one. Sometimes she would wake up with bruises, soreness, or unexplained markings. Then came the external manifestations in her house – she heard scratching sounds, growling (Karen did not own any dogs), and strange rappings. Occasionally voices, screams and footsteps were heard throughout the house, and occasionally objects would move around through some invisible agent. Also, at night her bed would "vibrate" and shake as if by some invisible force and Karen would occasionally see dark shadowy forms at varying times and locations in her house.

Karen, although terrified at the events going on around her, was still drawn to the pendulum. She had an insatiable desire to communicate with this entity that she now knew was not a child. She would sometimes follow through on this desire to communicate with this spiritual being to find out if there was some way that she could make it stop doing what it was doing in her house; always to no avail. In fact, things afterwards would get even worse.

You may be asking yourself the same question that I asked when I heard about this case. In fact, I had the opportunity to ask her first hand why she, with all of these terrible things going on in and around her, would possibly want to continue using the pendulum. Her answer was that there was a desire, almost a hunger, which enticed her to continue the communication. It was a temptation that she could not explain, but it was as real as anything was, and often times she simply did not seem to have the willpower to resist.

In this case, we can see the classic example of how demons gain entry, take ground and ultimately cause suffering. The bond that Karen developed with this demon was not a purely psychological one, although psychology was certainly involved.  Rather, this case illustrates the phenomenon of the diabolical bond that can develop as a result of committing occult sin.  This particular case ended in Karen becoming possessed, and to this day I do not know if she was delivered from the demon.

2. To propagate the spread of errors and to entice others to do the same

Violent hauntings and demonic apparitions aside for a moment, we are now going to turn our attention to the spreading of errors through the false teachings of demons and their disciples, the New Agers and Wiccans.

My first encounter with these demonic doctrines occurred at the age of around 14. Like many youths, I was fascinated with ESP, telekinesis, ghosts and poltergeists and read just about anything I could get my hands on. When I learned of the book called "Seth Speaks", I was immediately drawn by curiosity. Seth, I had learned, was a channeled spirit who spoke through a medium. Like most channeled spirits, Seth had a teaching for mankind who, through no fault of their own, were burdened with this whole notion of good and doing the right thing. You see, according to Seth, mankind suffers from a misconception of what the afterlife is. There is no Heaven and there is no Hell. There are only masters who guide us in our next life and who are there to help us break free from these archetypes that were taught us in Sunday School and by our unknowing parents, teachers, Priests, Ministers, etc. However, not to worry – those unenlightened people would learn in time. In the meantime, there would be a privileged few who would be given the knowledge that Seth had to offer. These enlightened souls would help others to learn the truths of the afterlife and would actually be in a higher plain of existence than those who were not chosen to have this higher knowledge.

These doctrines of demons are quite popular these days and are gaining much momentum in the form of new recruits and followers. Meanwhile, we religious folk who hold fast to the teaching of the Gospel are viewed more and more as an impediment to the evolution of enlightened society. Indeed, some hold the notion that we Christians should be terminated for the betterment of the global consciousness; that once we are gotten rid of, mankind can proceed to evolve into gods.  And, they say, there is nothing wrong with this because the Christians will simply be reincarnated as lower (less evolved) beings and will eventually chuck the whole notion of G-d once we too have learned what the afterlife is truly like, and once we learn that we, not G-d, are god.

4. To cause suffering

This section could also have the title "Because it is their nature". Although I have not addressed it thus far, sometimes it is dangerous to wrestle with trying to figure out why demons do what they do. The actions of demons are often without meaning and have no purpose. For instance, in the case of a violent haunting, one who finds their bed consistently shaking at night may ask the question, "is this to keep me from sleep?" or "Did I commit some sin in this bed that gives the demon a right to do this?" These types of questions are useless, for even if we know the answers (stressing again that often there are no answers) the methods for dealing with the problem remain the same. Therefore, the real issue here is not "what is the reason". Rather, it is "What are we going to do about it?"

I can in all truthfulness say that I myself have given into the temptation to try to figure out the motives for the actions of the demonic. I can therefore say with some authority that it is at best unproductive. At worst, you will drive yourself crazy trying to figure out a puzzle that cannot be solved. Rather than simply saying, "For no reason at all", I think that we can safely say that it is simply their nature to cause suffering in any possible way. If shaking someone's bed causes fear (a form of suffering and torment), then this will be an action that demons will perform because it is their nature to do so.

Although demons delight in causing human suffering and make it their particular goal to do just that, normally they do so behind the scenes. It is unusual for one's home to be infested with physical manifestations of the demonic. The primary battle is for the mind. If demons can gain control of a persons mind, they cannot only cause temporal suffering (which as I mentioned before they delight in immensely), but they can also cause their ultimate particular goal. Namely, through the mind, they gain the whole person. In this realm of spiritual warfare, we find poor souls who are addicted to sex, drugs and pornography. Here we find hearts filled with hatred, unforgiveness and thoughts of malice towards their fellow man. We find rapists, murderers, adulterers and fornicators. The list goes on.

Here lies the true battle. It is far less dangerous, although much more frightening, to deal with external manifestations of the demonic. The true danger lies in the day-to-day interactions with demons of which we are often not even aware. My sincere hope is that mankind wake up to the reality of this unseen battle, "for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). In other words, we are not fighting flesh and blood. Either we are fighting demons with the power of G-d or we are being defeated by them. Either way, the battle is real. Either way, the stakes are eternal.

This information I give to you freely as freely received. It stems from the works of Meineke.

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