by
miss marigold 
Well, now that I've blogged about sex and relationships a good four or five times, I think it's time I revisited another issue, which is that of demons and unclean spirits. I'll discuss this in a three-part series, which will be split into these categories:
- How Evil Visits Different Cultures (which I'll deal with today)
- Christians and Demon Possession
- Why We Should Not Be Afraid
I grew up in a country and a culture that actively believes in the power of ghosts and evil spirits. According to Chinese tradition, spirits come out from the "lower realm" during the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which is called
Ghost Month. On the thirteenth day of that month, the gates of Heaven, Hell, and in the land of the living open up so that the spirits are free to roam. Taoists and Buddhists would engage in rituals to diminish the sufferings of the ghosts. People would set up offerings and burn "spirit money" for their ancestors and include empty chairs for them during meals.
Most civilians were also extremely superstitious and practiced certain behaviors in order to ward off ill fortune or to add good fortune. Every other day, I'd hear loud chanting or funeral music outside. While I didn't attend any festivals (or funerals) as I belonged to a Catholic family, my friends who had a traditional Chinese ancestor-worship upbringing recounted tales of spirits summoned up from the ground. One friend told us that the spirit of his deceased uncle entered an his aunt and forced her body into contorted positions. Another friend said that she felt her dead father's "chi" pass over her family as they exhumed his remains.
You can imagine my surprise, then, when I moved to New York City and encountered people who believe that demons and unclean spirits are nothing more than products of folklore. Or should I say, *they* were surprised that I actually believe in those things. One friend even laughed at my reaction to his request that I use a Ouija board with him ("NO WAY!")
Maybe it's because there's such a contrast between NYC's and East Asia's concept of spirituality and the underworld, but whenever I go back home, I feel the dark presences much more clearly than I did before coming to college.
I'm not so much afraid as just creeped out. When I go through shadowy alleys back home, something in me stirs and I feel compelled to pray. But when walking through dark NYC streets, I'm more afraid of being mugged than anything. I brought this up with a friend who'd also moved to NYC from East Asia. She doesn't ascribe to any particular religion, but she had similar observations about the spiritual atmosphere of both regions.
This really got me thinking about how Satan adopts his
modus operandi according to whatever culture he's attempting to bring down, much in the way he exploits our weaknesses to his purposes. People ask me how I'm sure that the people back at home aren't just imagining things. This is what I surmise: evil expresses itself according to what is relevant to a particular culture. NYC is industrialized, extravagantly rich, over-sexualized, and a huge media center; therefore, you see evil in the form of materialism, adultery, and corporate greed. I'd guess that the average New Yorker is desensitized to spiritual folklore and the concept of demons, therefore, Satan isn't going to use that. He'll be much more subtle and use things that seem really harmless (money) to foster evil.
While hometown's not poor or uneducated by any means, the spirit tradition is so deeply ingrained into the culture that they still can act as weak spots that evil can exploit. Therefore, you have a whole country living in fear instead of in spiritual freedom.
I'm largely opposed to the idea that Scripture must completely separate from culture and the times because, well, if evil expresses itself differently according to culture, can't God do the same thing? I know there's a line we must draw when determining what really shapes our worldview (Scripture or culture), but I think God can work even more effectively than Satan can through the spirit beliefs of East Asia or the materialism of NYC. I don't think God is relative to culture, nor do I think He is compromised by it; rather, I think that He reveals Himself according to what He knows a particular culture can understand and discern.
Do you ever feel dark spiritual presences around you (in any form)?
Comments (56)
Nope.
I am a dark spirit, MUAHAHA!!!
Okay actually I don't even believe in evil and all that. =\
Oh yes. Very much so. I grew up in Hawaii, a place with a mixture of folklore and more "modern" evil. I remember being told ghost stories all throughout my childhood, and I found it terrifying.
Then I went to England and lived in large house owned by a Christian organization (where there are people praying almost unceasingly) and experienced such a freedom from the darkness I grew up with. It's really interesting, actually.
Thank God I know that now the light travels with me!
It's interesting that this was brought up. I've been raised Baptist, though the Church I am currently going to [which is more in line with my beliefs] is non-denominational. My fiance is Pentacostal and the other day we got into a debate about Possesion and Christians, and demonology in general. I DO believe in demons, but in their 'culture' it seems almost a common occurence and it frustrates him that I don't readily believe every story I hear. I feel bad, because I don't want to lack faith, but why is it so much more frequent in places like that? I really don't know, but i'll be very interested in seeing the rest of what you have to write!
It is real. I have seen it. I have been delivered. And that's all I am going to say about it. Evil is nothing to fear if Christ is your deliverer. Evil flees like a scared rabbit in the pressence of God.
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lately i've begun to realize that a city is usually the product of demonic activity in the first place. the lords of a city don't need to stir up trouble- they own all the franchises in town and they just sit atop the penthouses and gloat. it takes big prayers to fight them!
I grew up in the Philippines--an extremely superstitious, animistic country. Not to mention that my parents were missionaries there. I've heard way too many stories of demonic activity and I've seen and experienced things that Hollywood probably wouldn't show in movies.
The mind is a powerful thing, and I am sure that all the "demonic forces" I felt / saw / etc. when I was a child were just my mind going bananas over my Filipino friends and all of the missionaries around me talking about possession and spirits and exorcisms, etc.
So no, I haven't felt any real demon activity (I don't believe it exists). However, I grew up in an environment that firmly believed it did. And that was enough to scare me ****less. It still does. Show me any Western-ized horror flick you want, but nothing will scare me half as much as the East Asian missionary kid demon stories I heard in boarding school.
You don't have to believe in something to be scared by it.
As an afterthought...my mother has always felt spiritual warfare going on. She feels it more intensely in the Philippines then she ever has in the U.S. She never felt it as badly when we lived in Scotland, either.
There's something about East Asia (and, I assume, other parts of the world) that entwines its culture so closely to spirits / demons / ghosts. I've brought up the whole "scary MK demon stories" with non-MKs or people who have never lived outside of the U.S. and for the most part they don't really get it.
Another reason why living in the U.S. feel so foreign to me...even though I'm a U.S. citizen and was born here.
I find this fascinating and true! My mom and her best friend both grew up in tribal parts of Africa, and have lots of stories to tell. I think you are right, Satan gets people however they are most vulnerable. Much of our society doesn't beleive in spirits, so they aren't scared by them. However, I think this causes Christians to sometimes overlook really obvious spiritual opression. Many are so convinced that spirits aren't there, that they don't recognise them when they are. I thik a healthy dose of stories form other cultures is good for us. Especially stories of how our mighty God works deliverance!
I haven't seen or experienced demonic activity, per se, but I have a heightened sense of discernment to the "spiritual warfare" that often occurs, even within a Christian school or setting; it's like a black spirit is just hovering over things, making things go badly, making people behave badly - just a generally bad, unsettled feeling. Other people blame this person or that person, this circumstance, whatever.....I just get a general "black feeling" about certain things, places or people. I don't know if that's the same thing, or not. I just know I need to be "in the light" and out of that situation.
@bubbadirt@xanga - "It is real. I have seen it. I have been delivered. And that's all I am going to say about it."
I second that.
I'll limit myself to just one story. I have many.
One day I was walking down the streets of Chicago in a neighborhood I'd never been before, looking for a bank ATM. Suddenly I felt an indefinable but very definite feeling of oppression, as though the air itself had gotten dark, heavy, and ominous. I didn't see anything sketchy about the neighborhood or the goings-on, but discretion being the better part of valor, I made like Sir Robin and "bravely turned my tail and fled" without getting my cash.
That evening, I turned on the news and saw a photo of the very place I'd been. It seems a random innocent passerby had been murdered outside the building I was walking by, within an hour of the time I was there.
"Dark spiritual presences around around you"? I'd say so.
It seems to be prevalent in western society to dismiss all these "spiritual" things as hoaxes. It's simply because they've never encountered them. It's like saying, "I don't believe in the existence of bacteria because I've never seen one."
I spend most of my childhood in my hometown in Malaysia, and as with eastern cultures... fear of evil spirits is prevalent there. I live in Australia now, and the culture in relation to the spirit world is just so different. I understand where you're coming from.
Yes, I had a personal encounter with ghosts/demons in my childhood years. I was sleeping in my room on the top floor of the house, and I was awakened by a noise outside my window. It was a ghostly. creepy and other-worldly voice! I didn't dare to see what it was, and pulled the blanket over my head and trembled in fear. The voice was calling out someone's name (fortunately not mine!) as it levitated past my window! Its voice is indescribable... something which is heard not just through your ears, but through your very soul! After a while, it went away, and I couldn't sleep for a long time after that.
I knew it wasn't a prank because my room was at the top floor of the house, and I remembered vividly waking up and sweating cold under the blankets, so it wasn't a dream.
I wasn't a christian back then, and now that I am, I thanked God that He spared me back then by protecting me from possession. In fact, He didn't even allowed me to see it with my own eyes. If I had seen it, I would most probably be traumatised for a long time, as a little kid. I later learnt from friends that this ghost is called the "langsuyar" - a ghost with no body, but just a floating head with long white hair.
I'm not sure I understand this completely .. satan doesn't use demonic forces in NY but more subtle things? I'm actually thinking he does both but in america we just have pretty medical names for them.
I feel like many people overlook the obvious cause of the sinful nature of our dwellings, and tackle it from the outside instead of praying and getting straight to the core. There's nothing wrong with trying to fix certain problems, but our first option should always be to seek God's hand working to defeat the evil spirits that urge sinful lifestyles. Excellent post! Satan has not one, but many tactics according to cultures and personalities.
This is an interesting article, I have seen/felt them several times, for me it tends to be like a flash of a creepy-scary face while I sleep. So I wake up and pray of course... Once I even had a dream where I talked to a dark spirit that roamed our lobby at church at night, (all the church leaders knew about him and were praying for him to leave...) but it was an interesting talk and I felt totally safe, protected by God, and afterwards the spirit left and isnt there anymore... =) So it can be pretty freakish, but God is totally bigger. ;P
I totally think it is real.
great post as a Native American Indian theses issues are the first thing I get told when going to a new church. My ancestry has the worst wicked power over me for some reason. LOL.
Ok then What about "greater is HE...?" Good post. i believe in evil spirits but I also believe in angels.
Not to engender fear here but there needs to be a healthy respect for the demonic. I have seen good Christian deliverance ministers brought low because they came against evil spiritual activity. It's as if their lives were cursed after their encounters. Like life was sweet for them one moment and then, after trying to deliver someone, everything just went wrong for no apparent reason. As if something made it a point to go out of their way to make examples out of them. NO I'm not saying this happens all the time. NO I have no idea why some delivered people unscathed while others did not. All I'm really saying is be careful. Do not fear just be careful.
"I'm largely opposed to the idea that Scripture must completely separate
from culture and the times because, well, if evil expresses itself
differently according to culture, can't God do the same thing? I know
there's a line we must draw when determining what really shapes our
worldview (Scripture or culture), but I think God can work even more
effectively than Satan can through the spirit beliefs of East Asia or
the materialism of NYC. I don't think God is relative to culture, nor
do I think He is compromised by it; rather, I think that He reveals
Himself according to what He knows a particular culture can understand
and discern. "
Wholeheartedly concur! :) Well said...
It's interesting you bring this up... my family has been dealing with this issue lately. My mom-in-law hears from God in dreams. She recounted to hubby and me a dream she had about a specific object in our home. It was a samurai helmet that we kept with some of our other neato "artifacts." She said that in her dream a demon lived inside of the helmet. That at night it would come out and fly around our house, wreaking havac on our home. She said she could not shake the feeling that that spirit was to blame for the unexplained death of our unborn baby, and even the reason I've had trouble getting pregnant again.
Immediately, hubby and I tossed the helmet in the dumpster. I have not woken up with a heavy feeling of uneasiness since. Daniel and I have not been bickering, and the dog has not been destroying things. (not that a demon is responsible for a neurotic dog or marital arguments... but before was really bad...) There is a peace that wasn't there before. We proceeded to rid our home of anything which represented something that dishonored God. I encourage you to rid your life of ALL foot holds for Satan.