[Athos]

A similar question was recently asked here, but this one is for those who have actually experienced a demonic event.

When I saw The Exorcist many years ago, I admit it was a truly frightening movie. But was it true, or just a cleverly produced movie?

This question is for those who feel they have encountered Satan or demons/devils. If you can offer proof, OK. But just the story of the encounter will suffice.

What made you believe it was actually demonic, and not some other plausible reason? Is there a difference between a demon and Satan?

Thanks.

[dwashbur]

Athos,
I found the movie disappointing, mainly because I read the book first and it was much more cerebral, focusing more on the priest's crisis of faith than on the weird events surrounding the kid. I felt that the movie took that excellent story and turned it into a formula horror flick.

Having said that, neither of my encounters was anything like that. The experience I've seen and heard about is much more subtle. Between what the Bible says about it and what my own experience, it seems they work mostly by inducing things that today are often diagnosed as mental illness, such as manic-depressive episodes, paranoid-schizophrenia, out-of-control behavior and the like. I have heard of a very few occasions where something unexplainable happened, but those seem to be as rare as hen's teeth.

This is why I'm inclined to explore any and every other possibility for off-kilter behavior before I begin to suspect a demon. My middle daughter is a good example. We've known since she was 4 that there was something wrong with her, we just didn't know what. As she got older her behavior got more and more erratic. Various medications would work for a while then lose effectiveness. She spent her fifth grade year in a mental hospital because she drew blood from her teacher. All along we wondered about a demon, because as a baby she had been directly exposed to someone that we knew had one (part of my own second experience). Thankfully, there was a person we trusted who has the spiritual gift of discerning spirits (1 Corinthians 12:10), so the two of them started spending time together. After a couple of months, this person told us that as far as she could tell, there was nothing there. We heaved a sigh of relief and continued seeking medical treatments.

I'm heading out for a weekend of scuba diving, but I'll try to write more next week and detail the encounters I've actually had. The short answer is, The Exorcist is a massive exaggeration from what I've seen.

[Wondergirl]

When I was fifteen or so, I attended a party at a friend's house. Someone brought out a Ouija board for entertainment. Eventually, I took a turn at it with a girl I knew well. We needed a question to ask the board, so the party's hostess said, "Ask what my older brother's middle name is." I did not know him or his middle name, nor did my Ouija partner. We dutifully asked the board the suggested question and waited with fingertips lightly poised on the planchette. After a short time the planchette began to move without our pushing it. We giggled but held our breath as the planchette moved toward the letter F. Over the next minutes, the planchette moved from F to R to E to D and eventually spelled out FREDRICK, with that spelling as the brother spelled it, and then stopped moving.

Was that a demon at work -- or play? My parents said yes, and warned me to never again mess around with a Ouija board for fear of unleashing something I would not be able to control. Was it the urgings of the hostess's mind, the hostess being a simple farmer's wife who had barely finished high school and who spent her days keeping house and helping around the farm? Please tell me what made that planchette move.

[Fr_Chuck]

The Exorcist was of course based off some true events ( some) but made into a movie, it is very very loosely based on events,

The first priest to do it was not Catholic but Anglican but latter done by a Catholic priest but not in their home but in a Jesuit hospital

And of course it was a teenage boy, not girl, but since when did facts get into hollywoods way.\


ST. LOUIS EXORCISM CASE!



Exorcisms in the Catholic Church — Casting Out Devils

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Exorcist

http://www.catholicexorcist.org/



Robbie Mannheim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Emily Rose True Story | Ghost Story



While it was years ago, I was at one exorcism and know for sure I don't ever want to be at another unless it is the Lords demand

[SimpleguyJoe]

I'm really tired so I won't rewrite my experience. I do however think I have a post somewhere on this board telling about half of my story in a nutshell.

[Athos]

Please tell me what made that planchette move.

Maybe the Ideomotor Effect?

Ideomotor effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Wondergirl]

Maybe the Ideomotor Effect?

Ideomotor effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hmmm. There were TWO of us (not just me) with fingertips on the planchette. And I didn't know well the girl I was planchetting with. And it was much more complex than yes, no, or maybe.

No, I discard the ideomotor effect. (I did predict the gender of my first child using that though.)

[classyT]

I wouldn't mess with a Oujia board, I wouldn't mess with fortune tellers or any of it. Whether you believe other people's accounts with demonic spirits the OT and NT warns against that type of thing. Certainly the disciples believed in the demonic spiritual world. The Lord Jesus himself drove out demonic spirits and he spoke about them and to them.

Also there is a difference between Satan and demons. However, they have the same agenda.

[DoulaLC]

Demonic experience?? The last day of school is tomorrow, I teach second graders, the kids have had enough of being around each other all year... enough said. :eek:

[I Newton]

Part of the deception of demons is to have people believe they do not exist so spooky experiences are rare.

The Bible says that Satan's demons transform themselves into Angels of Light and Ministers of Light so as to deceive even the chosen ones.

You come into contact with demons daily, you just do not know it.

[Athos]

... but I'll try to write more next week and detail the encounters I've actually had.

Ok...