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)
I've had a few demonic encounters. However, I think the reason many people don't is that the Devil knows that in American or European culture, an encounter with a demon has a very good chance of scaring people in the direction of G-d. In fact, I think that when non-christians actually see the demons that constantly plague them, it's because G-d is showing them to them, not because the demons want to be seen. I have only ever met one person who claimed to have met a demon when he was a non-Christian, and he accepted Christ the following day. Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers has a similar story. Other than that, most demons I've heard about were met by Christians, because they know we know they exist, so there's no point in hiding.
As Baudelaire once said, The greatest trickt he devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
GREAT points!
you can't not believe in supernatural evil if you're christian. it's like telling satan that god doesn't exist.
in our modern society, i think a lot of this supernatural stuff isn't how it's traditionally depicted. its especially dangerous in our culture (europe, north america) because it's less apparent. more traditional cultures in asia or south america may perceive supernatural "evil" to bad things happening to a person or bad events... but satan.. as the great deceiver may work differently in our modern culture. look at our media. we practically worship beauty, physical attractiveness, sexuality, career and education goals ~being "successful". those things can actually be more detrimental to our spiritual lives they are "demons" that convince us of worshipping false "gods."
so in essence, we may not see "evil" working as apparently as some cultures may see it.. yet we have "evil" all around us disguising themselves as false "gods" that we might worship.
Evil is like a cockroach; it prefers darkness and deception. How to overcome it? Turn on the Light! I agree that we've been desensitized in this culture, but the demons are there just the same, they just have more junk to hide behind. Thank God for His bondage breaking, darkness shattering, sickness bashing Glory! He truly sets the captives free.
My dad was on a missions trip to Haiti in the 80's. They were not welcomed in the town, and at one point the local witch doctor said something to my Mom and Dad who were on the trip in another language. Later that night my Dad started getting convulsions and speaking in voices that weren't his own. The whole group prayed for him until it was over.
Honestly if I had heard it from anyone else I would not have believed it. But my Dad wouldn't make something like this up. He's a no bs guy, MBA from cambridge, overly skeptical...I really have no doubt about it.
i believe in evil. it's very real. when people say evil doesn't exist, do they think killing/cruelty/infidelity are just bad choices or insanity? does that somehow make acts of hatred/selfishness/greed, etc justifiable to them? we're all capable of evil, every one of us. one of my mentors, an african american social worker/pastor friend of mine/grandmother/community leader says that all the time. if she can say that, i know i sure can.
i agree with you on how satan probably changes his modus operandi. i went down to colombia a few years ago for a wedding. i didn't want to go because i was a single mother and was afraid of what could happen to me, but i knew i owed my friend at least that. she had been here to walk with me and encourage me, and she helped me through my difficult pregnancy while i was considering abortion and adoption. i had become saved and God changed my heart completely. my daughter had been the most amazing blessing i had ever received. she was proof of God's amazing grace (when i deserved it the least) and it showed me how God always knows best. so i just knew i could trust Him if He really wanted me to go.
despite some scary moments God was with me every step of the way. our plane almost crashed. we landed 8 hours away from our original destination. the girl the airlines assigned me to stay with at the hotel (in bogota) left our hotel room wide open (for how long i don't know...but when i woke up it was ajar and she was nowhere to be seen,,,it was very scary, to say the least). after that there were men approaching me left and right...men with bloodshot eyes and very unsavory acting. but i arrived safely to my destination finally. however, on the plane ride back home i encountered 2 of the same unsavory characters. they remembered me from the first flight and knew i was alone. they started to approach me but in the middle of it all this perfect-english speaking, gorgeous man comes up to me and starts talking to me about the wedding i attended. and i felt totally safe and at peace. it's odd because he was so handsome that i would have remembered him from the wedding. there weren't THAT many people there and he was so sweet and charming. he tells me about how nice it was to see me again at the wedding and he proceeds to start telling me about my friend's sister that he works with in barranquilla (where he was headed) and some of the fun details from the wedding. the other men leave. we board the plane. later on in the plane when i go to say goodbye to him he is gone. i never see him again. months later when i'm wondering about him, retelling the tale to my friend in colombia, she tells me that her sister did not have any guests from her law firm. and then we both figure out that it would be impossible for anyone else to know the kinds of things he said. so now i think that was an angel protecting me from those men(?)
there are so many "coincidences" which i know aren't. like how my daughter was at school for finals and i felt convicted to pick her up early rather than let her stay until her play practice. when i go to drop her back off we find out there was a stabbing (teacher stabbed in the back and eye multiple times) in the same area where she would have been roaming the halls waiting (most kids rushed home after finals to enjoy the free day). not only that, her german teacher was trying to make her stay after but she felt the strong urge that she needed to come home also. we found out later that one of my daughter's christian friends was in the classroom next door and heard the screaming and stabbing, and witnessed one of the male teachers coming to the victim's aid. he attested to the brutality of it all. my daughter usually walks slow and socializes, but something made her hurry up knowing i was waiting. the stabbing took place 2 minutes after i picked her up. oh man...even if she wasn't stabbed, can you imagine the horror of being there? my daughter's friend is still having a hard time dealing with it.
Yes, I have encountered evil presences in many forms and maifestations and have myself been delivered of a familiar spirit...which is a counterfeit to the Holy Spirit and I believe thrives in a vessel of spiritual pride. However, just recently I had written an e-mail to a friend seeking to bring Truth and liberty to him and expose some lies of which the Devil had convinced him and was worried whether or not I did and said the right things. I was fearful that I said too much and turned him away from the Lord instead or toward Him. It had been a tiring week, spiritually and mentally, so I decided to lay down on my bed and take a nap. As I awoke from sleep, I felt very groggy and heavy as fear struck me at my core and I felt as though I had blasphemed the Holy Spirit. This sensation lasted a minute and the Holy Spirit within me rose up to tell me it was a lie and at that second I literally saw a black vapor leave my room and go out my bedroom window. Demonic spirits have lies attached to them that seek to decieve if we buy into them. That is why we, as believers, must stay rooted and grounded in the love of God, walk in obedience to His Word, and know what His Word says about Him and us!...."nothing shall seperate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." I have also encountered and been struck by demonic spirits of fear and anxiety while babysitting a young boy labeled ADD whose mom was "in fear" due to the recent knowledge that her husband was caught having an adulterous affair. Her home was unstable and uncovered at that time. I was in the house, alone, and quickly discerned the fear/panic as a demon and simply spoke and rebuked the fear out loud with authority and belief in the name of Jesus, and it left, and peace was instantly restored. Demons are very real. I have learned that we can open the door to them through willfull acts of disobedience and rebellion or unforgiveness, or they will simply seek to oppress us just because they hate us for what and who we love and stand for. The battle has already been won! We have the name of Jesus at our immediate disposal! There is tremendous POWER in that name when coupled with the faith of a child! I don't seek to boast in my spiritual accolades or understanding of demonic forces, but hope to validate my sister's claims. God is good and His mercy endures forever!
As it says in the Bible that we are approaching the end of this earth's history, and Satan is working as never before, roaming like a lion seeking to devour his prey.
Satan will use our weakneses, culture, beliefs etc. to keep our focus away from God. And he will do that in such subtle ways that we ourselves cannot recognize.
This is why, we, at all times, and in everyday that God gives us pray, and read His word, asking for the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us, least we fall to our own demise. But even then, the Lord does everything in His power to aid us.
i think it's all in the mind... i don't know. but i agree with you. satan does work his mojo like that... but God rocks! we just turn to Him even if our fears are unfounded or silly and it will be okay. =)
I've definitely had spooky experiences..but i wasn't always entirely sure what to attribute it to..i was in a hotel once and early in the morning I suddenly woke up because there was something heavy sitting on my chest..and I heard a male voice in the room, even though there weren't any guys in the room. I guess it sounds a lot like sleep paralysis, but like i said, you can't really be sure about anything. My friends who were in the room with me also had other experiences; voices whispering or screaming. They were Christians so they did try pray..but they were really afraid..I tried my best to be calm..and i told them we had to believe in ourselves and be strong and unafraid. Still, we were glad to leave the room.
Another time, my friends and I discovered something very strange and freaky about a particular movie. At least more than seven of us had watched parts or the whole of this movie
at different and separate times. After that, all of us would wake up at three am, without explanation. When we discovered we had all gone through the same thing after being exposed to that movie, we felt pretty freaked out. Coincidence? I don't know. But when I woke up at that time, I felt intensely troubled and disturbed.
I live in a culture that has very strong beliefs in the spiritual world..during the Ghost Month, some members of my family won't go out. Also, when I have nightmares of things like possession, they believe it to be the work of the spirit world. The truth is, I certainly hope it isn't..but I wish it would go away. Whatever it is, though, I believe we can be stronger than the things around us.
there are no such things as ghosts. person dies, stays dead. there aren't animal ghosts running around haunting the people who killed them, so why do people think that humans are any different? I agree about worried about getting mugged in NYC though =). not sure why you feel different about china's dark alleys. never been, so can't say. people react to the unexplained by coming up with stuff like "ghosts, banshees" etc, but really it's just stuff that science is still trying to decipher. the mind as incredible powers and can trick us. example: dreams. I had a dream that I was in bed and that some relatives came over while I was still trying to sleep. they kept waking me up with their talking. later I asked my mom about it and she said that no one had been home all day. I could say that I was hearing God/seeing ghosts, but it was just a dream.
I completely believe in demons and ghosts and things of that nature. My mother told me that while she was pregnant with me Satan had visited her one night...she didn't see him she just heard his voice and he kept offering her what she wanted (which was a baby girl) if she was to worship him and while the cats hissed and the dog barked franticly she said no to it and bam...a couple weeks later..I was born..a healthy baby GIRL.
I've had strange visits before too though. I was always terrified of my childhood home (the one where my mom talked to Satan) I always felt that my parents room was extremely evil even before she told me this story. I'd have nightmares that Satan lived in there and he'd drag me down the hall and such. Since we moved I hadn't had a nervous feeling since about anything like that. I did however visit the home again 8 years later and spoke to the new owners and they asked me if anything bad ever happened in the home because they'd seen shadows walk around and felt bad things too.
I've also heard voices (no I'm not insane)...where I'll be sitting in my parents living room typing on my computer and I heard a voice say "what are you doing?" and I was completely freaked out and left. There was one time I stayed the night at their house and I saw a green light float around the room for about a half hour and no it wasn't a car or something simple and then some papers flew off the desk.
It's frustrating because my boyfriend doesn't believe in anything spiritual or ghost related like that so we tend to disagree when we get strange feelings and such.
GOOD ARTICLE THOUGH!
I don't think I've ever personally experienced a demonic presence while awake; I do believe they exist and am not at all interested in finding out for sure whether they do or not...or in communicating with the dead.
Demons... Hmmm. Those are the little invisible horned people we can blame when we do something wrong right?
Wow, this is a brilliant post...I agree with you 100% about the power of evil forces, especially those of us spiritually intuned being able to recognize them. You made a good point...satan uses whatever means are relevant to spread evil to different cultures. I believe that Satan also uses "harmless" forms of media in the US to subtly indoctrinate people, especially the young & impressionable. Growing up, my mother was very strict with what she let me watch on t.v, movies, music, etc...I never understood why when I was a kid, because I wanted to be cool like my friends. Now that I am older I am forever thankful to my mom for protecting me like that. Although she was protective then, she gradually eased up as I got older & was able to spiritually handle the more intense movies & tv etc. I now feel spiritually mature enough to be able to handle these things now, but when exposed to them I can definitely feel the power that they hold...especially music. When I listen too much to obscene or dark music, I can feel myself being distanced from God...it really is amazing. Nearly all of my friends that were exposed to that stuff as kids have grown up disturbed & down the road of destruction in ways that make me sad for them yet thankful I never went down that path. I believe that Satan can get to kids in movies seemingly as innocent as Harry Potter for instance(sorry to the fans) because of the reasoning "oh it's just fake, they know better"...which is the perfect opportunity for a kid to be influenced by something serious like demonic forces.
I find it fascinating that in spiritually dark places like Asia that darkness can be felt. I remember my mom saying that when she visited the Central American pyramids she felt totally creeped out...probably because of all the human sacrifices that went on there all those years ago.
My aunt many years ago also became involved in reading books of a cult of sorts (unsure which one), & very soon after became possessed by demons, which affected her up until the end of her life.
We have to be careful with the things we get involved with, even if they don't seem too bad.
Yes! I'm so happy to hear this vociferated by someone else! Growing up -- and even now -- I spent my summers on Ojibwe reservations in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and Ojibwe culture is very spirit-aware.
Have you ever been in a house and felt tension or been in a house and felt super comfortable that is spirit activity you can feel it
Are you serious?
If you are, I seriously suggest you seek professional psychological help.
@TheMandarinKing@xanga - kinda have to keep your facts straight ,I live in China and according to the latest reports in preparation for the olympic games , 31% of the population in china are religious . If questioned differently , 60% believes in a deity of some sort . Even the date /time of the opening of the games (8/8) has religious undertones . Even if you grew up in china , it is a very big place , so you and the poster would have different perceptions/memories .
@chinaman - Good points. Thanks for the correction. Can you link the article where your numbers are from? Mine may be a little out of date, as they are from 2002 CIA World Factbook report. As a counterpoint, however, I do have family in China still, and although they still go pray at Buddhist temples when somebody is trying to get into college, or somebody is sick, and some of them even might consider themselves "religious", they would nonetheless scoff at the elaborate ceremonies which the poster describes to "exorcise demons". Then again, my family are all metropolitan dwelling middle class folk, and as you said, China is a big country. But you can imagine why I was skeptical of the poster's claim that she didn't grow up in a poor or uneducated area, since I can hardly picture people who live in the cities participating in such rituals. She heard "loud chanting or funeral gongs" sounding "every other day", which would not have occurred in a metropolitan area. She also says that she was surprised to encounter people in NYC who didn't believe in demons (except as products of folklore). This would come to no surprise to someone living in a large city. The impression she gave to me, as someone who reads vociferously about China and stays in contact with his family regularly, is that she is viewing her childhood there through rose-colored lens. Of course, she never says China directly, only "Chinese tradition", so she could very well have been referring to Taiwan, where ancestor worship does still abound.
As for your comment about opening games on 8/8, there is a quasi-religious element to that, but as you and I both know, the Chinese official religion is avowedly atheist, so you can be sure anything the government is responsible for will not have seriously religious undertones. 8 in our culture is simply considered a very fortunate number for rhyming with the word "to prosper". While the government does what it can to fetishize the "glorious history of China" to promote nationalist zeal amongst its people (therefore promoting its own influence), it does not stand challenges to its power from any organization, including religious ones. I suspect that the 31% who said they were religious probably lost something in translation. I don't believe most people in China make the distinction between the words "religious" and "spiritual", so I think many of the people who responded that they were religious probably meant the latter term. It would be preposterous to believe that the country was 95% atheist in 2002, and within 6 short years, an additional 26% of people began ascribing to a religion. If that were the case, you would most certainly see the national government taking drastic, possibly violent action to curtail such a trend.
Satan? Demons? Evil spirits? IT'S 2008! Grow up!
*sigh*
Evil is real. I've had this discussion with a group of missionary kids, and we came to the same conclusion. Why should Satan do openly demonic stuff in the United States if subtlety works much better here?
@bittersunday@xanga -
I didn't grow up there, but I've lived there as an MK, and I know what you mean.
Most people just don't understand the "scary MK demon stories." Or they think you're exaggerating, or imagining something, or it's some hallucination.
We didn't get it so much in Davao city, but when we went into the bush, there were those moments... thank God He protects us.
I don't believe in demonic influences/spirits/whatever. I think the majority of "demons" were actually medical and psychological disorders that we have documented now. Epilepsy was thought to be demonic possession for example. I don't think there are any cases that cannot be explained by what we know now versus what was confusing to people before due to lack of medical science.
I used to believe in God and not demons.
Now I believe in demons and spirits, ghosts and different worlds where horrible things happen.
God, to me, is no where.