What did you believe about demons?

[pitchu]

While earthquakes are inevitable on the west coast, all I know to say is that I honestly do not live in fear of them. I am more conscious of and in fear of living a life that I would consider a waste.

 

Agreed, Reach. I think the earthquake fear for me has much to do with what lingers from my older sister torturing me with bedtime stories about the earth opening up and swallowing people then closing again. That really seemed like hell to me! (And my sister seemed my own personal demon in this respect -- though I love her so much. Hey, maybe loving the demons is the answer.)

 

Like IBF, I worry about my California family and friends, though.

And, Pitchu, remember: Only 40 people died in the '89 quake. After living through that, they don't scare me anymore

 

It shall be my mantra, Lok: "Only 40, only 40, only 40...

 

"

I suppose we learn to live with (suppress) things we cannot control. Once out of danger, our fears seem to come to the surface again. 

 

Isn't that a fascinating fact, IBF? It's often not until we're free and clear that we can afford to look back on the meaning of what we escaped.

 

This all makes me wonder if demons are a handy repository for free-floating fears and anxieties, and a kind of social shorthand for our collective paranoia(s).

[quicksand]

Theres a lot of things I never believed in. I got to see it to believe it. When I was a preteen things were different but I figured I was ok with god and had nothing to fear at that age.

Hey, what do you think if, on ebay, I sold "jarred demons" in a ball jar?

 

 

I have a strong feeling I could sell them.

 

And why stop there? Why not angles, leprecauns, butt gnomes...

 

(Actually, I think I am going to do this...)

[nirrti]

I didn't start believing in demons until I was a teenager but even then, I believed they could only influence you to sin, not possess your body. Then, I started noticing that the people who were the most "under Satan's control" were the most devout Christians.

 

The most most evil I've ever encountered was from ministers, deacons and the ones who supposedly "dedicated their life to Christ." And then the kicker was when I was accused by my father and then my boyfriend of being an "evil influence" because I wouldn't let them control me. Then when I was depressed and suicidal, my mother accused me of letting demons get to me, blaming me for my illness.

 

After a while, I deduced that Satan was just a convenient excuse for church folks to do whatever the hell they wanted without having to be accountable. At the same time, they use fear of demons to control others, using them like parents used the "boogyman" to scare kids into behaving.

[Clearview]

I always thought of demons in the figurative sense. It never even occured to me that they might be real. Even when I was 7 or 8 years old and my bi-polar sister decided to perform a howling, screeching exorcism on me, I was more afraid of her than I was of any monsters invading my spirit.

[LloydDobler]

I never believed in them, really. I told myself that they must exist, because I believed in a spiritual realm as described in the bible, but I had never seen or experienced one for myself.

 

And I too never bought into the idea that jesus was so weak that he couldn't handle demons.

 

If anyone said 'be gone in jesus' name' and the demon wasn't gone, it was hard evidence that they were faking.

 

My ex wife thinks she can see demons attacking people. But she's not the most doctrinally sound person anyway.

[Ouroboros]

The whole concept of demons was ripped off from hellenstic paganism anyway and incorporated into the body of Christianity. Demons weren't always evil, but eventually became so.

 

I think the demons are evil elfs from the kingdom of Satan Claus.

[shy1680]

Well, I use to believe in them for a few reasons.

 

When I was a child, I had (still have) a sleep disorder called sleep paralysis , When I was a child my mother use to tell me demons were attacking me, and not allowing me to move, As much as I fought it I wasn't able to. She told me to say over and over in my mind "nothing but the blood of Jesus".

 

My entire life when that happened, I use to think it was demons. when I got older found out it had a very simple explanation. (your mind wakes up in REM sleep) everyone's paralyzed when they are in REM. You teeter between  Real and dream state, but your body is paralyzed, So People can believe Demons are attacking them Or with some its Aliens come and take them.  It's a common sleep disorder, it can be very terrifying though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I suffer from this too, it was really bad during my teen years and I would wake up and couldnt move but would start to pray for God to protect me and make the demons holding me down to get away from me. Then guess what, I would wake up all the way. Its the worst feeling though, I dread when it happens.

[Kalidasa]

I got to see it to believe it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ditto.

 

Makes me wonder why I didn't ditch religion earlier than I did...

[Vigile]

Did anyone ever feel that they had an experience involving a demon as a christian?

 

If you believed in demons, what did you think they were - in what ways did you think they could interact with humans?

 

 

Did anyone ever catch Bob Larson? That guy is a nut. I even thought as much when I was a christian. One of my old roommates had a cassette tape of Bob casting a demon out of someone. They used sound effects and multiple voices, each of which he would rebuke in the name of Jesus. It sounded like Nightmare on Elmstreet meets Sybil. It was all a circus sideshow act. I'm not even sure if he's still around F'n up the airways.

[dogmatically_challenged]

Ditto.

 

Makes me wonder why I didn't ditch religion earlier than I did...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I for a short period of time held Christianity as my tradition and heritage even though I never believed in it. The way life happens is different for everyone. Shit happens or it doesn't. Geatfullness of were we are now is a virtue.

[Ouroboros]

I totally believe in demons... one of my dogs is one... Just kidding!

 

I did an exorcism on a painting ones. But it wasn't successful so we threw it out in the garbage. Ain't that something... The demon was really stuck in the picture, poor guy. Today I probably would give it a better display in the house, so it could see more... maybe a view or something... or another painting to look at...

[Christopher Carrion]

That, like angels or Gods for that matter, they are ridiculous, morally polaric fairy-tale entities designed to scare children and idiots into some semblance of social conformity.

[-Demona-]

I "saw" demonic visions around March '04, shortly after my stepfather left our house, which was also when I was starting to really realize that the Christian God couldn't possibly exist and I was calling into question as to what really is out there. In my defense though, I was afraid of my stepfather coming back for me to hurt me again, and that was what probably contributed to the "visions". Other than the irrational fear of doing wrong by an all-powerful all-knowing deity for daring to question his divine wisdom.

 

I remember, however, that for several nights in 03/04, I stayed up until the crack of dawn sipping herbal tea. As if the tea would somehow protect me. I can't explain it well enough, but... yeah. It isn't rational, and I know that now. My mind was just conjuring images that I was already subconciously afraid of. In other words, my inner demons fucking with me.

 

Ironically, those visions pushed me further away from the Christian God than to him. After all, if he were so loving of little ol' me, he wouldn't let demons peer into my windows, emerge from the shadows and otherwise scare the crap out of me in the dead of night, now would he?

 

And he wouldn't let the monsters that are all too human do the same.

[Amethyst]

As a conservative Lutheran child, I assumed that demons were real. As I got older, I realized they were just a metaphor for the inner conflicts within all of us, but I still believed in god and Satan until my college days.

[DaveL]

No, I never really believed in them. They were a personification of all things bad.

 

How can we represent something as bad? Make it appear sub-human and scary. How can we represent something as good? Make it appear as loving and dignified.

 

Similar depictions were/are used in war to depict the opposition.

[dulce]

I never believed in them until I went to church! Then they scared the crap out of me with all of these demon stories. I know how stupid this sounds, but back in my holy roller days, this story freaked me out the worst......

 

A guy who used to know the "truth" but then "backslid" was dying ( in a hospital ) when he started to scream, "IT BURNS! IT BURNS!"

 

Yes, I know, a load of shit, but I believed it back then!

[NimbusBirdMgp]

... Being really young in life in 1961 - 1966. As my mother got remarried to her second husband and that being as a step father to me. He had two sons of his own, becoming two step brothers in the household during these years in my life. I never knew anything about religion, christianity or anything as supernatural then. But the youngest step brother had to share rooms with me. He would get up screaming in the middle of the night ours and even go about sleep walking. And I had to make interpretations to something other than there being something as physical happening on my own and it scared the crap out of me. So that's about where my own thoughts took to this kind of supernatural for me in my own for what kind of sense that I got about it. I thought that it was evil and real.

 

... After becoming a Christian at age 14 in 1969 and started hearing about Demons. I guess I could of associated some of my other past life experiences as objective to what I learned about Christianity, for which had me believing in it at the time.

 

... And I had more caution awareness and at times I thought I had felt and sensed them around me and had to combat the situation with my faith in christ at the time for myself. I had some spooks, believed they can do harm to others and didn't want anything to happen to me from some eerie moments in my own life.

 

... At this time, I don't believe in them like that anymore. But I still sense that there is still likely something Evil going about here on Earth and I still can't explain some of the oppositions and some fixed troubles that I still see happening in life for me yet.

[a midnight star]

Yes I believed in demons. When I was 12 my mother woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me that satan himself was in the house trying to kill me. Of course she used the "name of jesus" and he left.

 

when I was 14-16, my parents claimed that demons in the shape of "monkeys and goats" were constantly in and out of their closet. Then they would go to work at night and tell me that they wanted me to sleep in there with my baby sister.

 

They could never figure out why I left the house as soon as they did.

 

They saw demons EVERYWHERE! and they were out trying to kill me, but I was only safe as long as I stayed under "god's umbrella"

[Guest Priapus]

Yes I believed in demons. When I was 12 my mother woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me that satan himself was in the house trying to kill me. Of course she used the "name of jesus" and he left.

 

when I was 14-16, my parents claimed that demons in the shape of "monkeys and goats" were constantly in and out of their closet. Then they would go to work at night and tell me that they wanted me to sleep in there with my baby sister.

 

They could never figure out why I left the house as soon as they did.

 

They saw demons EVERYWHERE! and they were out trying to kill me, but I was only safe as long as I stayed under "god's umbrella"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Yer Ma and Pa sound....troubled.

 

 

As for me, I never believed in demons. I believed in Satan as a living, active force, roaming the Earth like a hungry lion, seeking whom he might devour because the Bible said so. Despite the Bible's references to angels and demons, they always seemed more like literary devices than real, active forces.

[trashy]

Hey, what do you think if, on ebay, I sold "jarred demons" in a ball jar?

I have a strong feeling I could sell them.

 

And why stop there? Why not angles, leprecauns, butt gnomes...

 

(Actually, I think I am going to do this...)

I'd buy one! LOL

 

here's an artwork idea:

 

[Amethyst]

when I was 14-16, my parents claimed that demons in the shape of "monkeys and goats" were constantly in and out of their closet. Then they would go to work at night and tell me that they wanted me to sleep in there with my baby sister.

 

Oh my god. That's just bizarre. First of all, even if the demons did exist, why in the world would they want you and your baby sister to sleep with them? That makes absolutely no sense.

 

Well, at least you were old enough to know better. (Wait a minute, they were old enough to know better, too.)

[spamandham]

And easy to exorcise: kill -9

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Easy yes! But only if administered with the proper root.

[EdwardAbbey]

Did anyone ever feel that they had an experience involving a demon as a christian?

 

If you believed in demons, what did you think they were - in what ways did you think they could interact with humans?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

yea when I was a Christian I believed there was this evil group or gang of invisible bad guys who went around putting evil/bad thoughts into my head and their ultimate leader and cosmic rebel himself - Satan. But I also believed what the book of fairy tales said about taking up the armour of God, the shield and sword of faith as they say and i would have Jesus on my side who would tell Satan and his minions to buzz off. As the years past and i started to apply my thinking more objectively, I wondered, why didn't God just zap this cosmic rebel out of existence from the beginning if he was such a bad influence? It's really laughable when you think about eh?

 

[spamandham]

I wondered, why didn't God just zap this cosmic rebel out of existence from the beginning if he was such a bad influence?  It's really laughable when you think about eh?

 

[obnoxious fundy mode]

Oh! Because that would deprive you of free will! You see, you have to understand hermaneutics.

[/obnoxious fundy mode]

[a midnight star]

Oh my god. That's just bizarre. First of all, even if the demons did exist, why in the world would they want you and your baby sister to sleep with them? That makes absolutely no sense.

 

I suppose they thought that I could protect her and the hell with me. Who knows, I have come to the conclusion that they are mentally sick and are too interested in how they look to the christians instead of what was right.