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In religion, folklore, and mythology a demon is a supernatural being that has generally been described as a malevolent spirit, and in Christian terms it is generally understood to be a fallen angel, formerly of God. A demon is frequently depicted as a force that may be conjured and insecurely controlled. The "good" demon in recent use is largely a literary device, though references to good demons can be found in Hesiod and Shakespeare. In common language, to "demonize" a person means to characterize or portray them as evil, or as the source of evil. History The Greek conception of a daemon (δαίμων) appears in the works of Plato and many other ancient authors, but without the evil connotations which are apparent in the Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible and in the Greek originals of the New Testament. The medieval and neo-medieval conception of a "demon" in Western civilization (i.e. medieval grimoire Ars Goetia) derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late Roman Antiquity. Greco-Roman concepts of daemons that passed into Christian culture are discussed in the entry daemon, though it should be duly noted that the term referred only to a spiritual force, not a malevolent supernatural being. The Hellenistic "daemon" eventually came to include many Semitic and Near Eastern gods as evaluated by Christianity. The supposed existence of demons is an important concept in many modern religions and occultist traditions. In some present-day cultures, demons are still feared in popular superstition, largely due to their alleged power to possess living creatures. In the contemporary Western occultist tradition especially in the work of Aleister Crowley, a demon, such as Choronzon, the "Demon of the Abyss", is a useful metaphor for certain inner psychological processes, though some may also regard it as an objectively real phenomenon. Aleister Crowley also contacted the abysmal demon Kokomo through the use of a Ouija board and had nightly conversations. Crowley often said his "pet demon" Kokomo threatened death upon mockery and destroying the board. Crowley died shortly after burning his Ouija board in an attempt to become possessed by demons. We can assume this is where the old wives' tale of the dangers of the board has come from! Some scholars believe that large portions of the demonology of Judaism, a key influence on Christianity and Islam, originated in Zoroastrianism, and were transferred to Judaism during the Persian era. The idea of demons is as old as religion itself, and the word demon seems to have ancient origins. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the etymology of the word as Greek daimon, probably from the verb daiesthai meaning "to divide, distribute." The Proto-Indo-European root *deiwos for god, originally an adjective meaning "celestial" or "bright, shining" which also seems tied to the name Lucifer or Light Bearer, has retained this meaning in many related Indo-European languages and but also provided another other common word for demon in Avestan daeva. In modern Greek, the word daimon (δαίμων) has the same meaning as the modern English demon. But in Ancient Greek, δαίμων meant "spirit" or "higher self", much like the Latin genius. Psychologist Wilhelm Wundt remarks that "among the activities attributed by myths all over the world to demons, the harmful predominate, so that in popular belief bad demons are clearly older than good ones." Sigmund Freud develops on this idea and claims that the concept of demons was derived from the important relation of the living to the dead. The fact that demons are now regarded as the spirits of those who have died shows better than anything the influence of mourning on the origin of the belief in demons. This is of particular interest to our field today; where “ghost hunters” are now claiming to be demonologists without any special training, as if the two were related. It is reasonable to assume that there are very negative, nasty or even vengeful spirits out there who were once equally antisocial humans, but that does not make them a demon; to be a demon you would first have to have been an angel, at least in Western culture and there is no relationship between angels and humans! Demons as described in the Hebrew Tanakh are the same as "demons" commonly known in popular or Christian culture and for good reason; the Old Testament was included in the Christian bibles from the beginning of the religion. In the Torah, we find two classes of demons the se'irim and the shedim. The se'irim or “hairy beings", to which some Israelites offered sacrifices in the open fields, are satyr-like creatures, described as dancing in the wilderness (Isaiah), and which are identical to the later Muslim, jinn. Possibly to the same class belongs Azazel, the goat-like demons of the wilderness (Leviticus), probably the chief of the se'irim, and Lilith (Isaiah - where the KJV Bible translates the Hebrew word 'lilith' as "screech owl"); the latter of course is also thought to be the first wife of Adam, who Eve replaced when her predecessor questioned her husband’s wisdom about his sexual practices, and thus demonized for eternity. Possibly "the roes and hinds of the field", by which Shulamit conjures the daughters of Jerusalem to bring her back to her lover (Canticles), are faunlike spirits similar to the se'irim and thought of as harmless in nature. The evil spirit that troubled Saul (I Samuel) may have been a demon, though the Masoretic text suggests the spirit was sent by God, thus an angel, (who have been called god’s messengers). Some benevolent shedim were used in kabbalistic ceremonies (as with the golem of Rabbi Yehuda Loevy), and malevolent shedim (mazikin, from the root meaning to damage) are often responsible in instances of possession. Instances of idol worship were often the result of a shed inhabiting an otherwise worthless statue; the shed would pretend to be a God with the power to send pestilence, although such events were not actually under his control. In Chaldean mythology, the seven evil deities were known as shedu, meaning storm-demons. They were represented in winged bull form, derived from the colossal bulls used as protective genii of royal palaces; the name "shed" assumed also the meaning of a propitious genius in Babylonian magic literature. It was from Chaldea that the name "shedu" came to the Israelites, and so the writers of the Tanach applied the word as a dylogism to the Canaanite deities in the two passages quoted. But they also spoke of "the destroyer" (Exodus) as a demon whose malignant effect upon the houses of the Israelites was to be warded off by the blood of the paschal sacrifice sprinkled upon the lintel and the door-post (a corresponding pagan talisman is mentioned in Isaiah). In II Samuel, and II Chronicles the pestilence-dealing demon is called "the destroying angel" because, although they are demons, these "evil messengers" (Psalms, "evil angels") do only the bidding of God; they are the agents of His divine wrath. There are indications that popular Hebrew mythology ascribed to the demons a certain independence, a malevolent character of their own, because they are believed to come forth, not from the heavenly abode of God, but from the nether world. Hebrew demons were workers of harm. To them were ascribed the various diseases, particularly such as affect the brain and the inner parts. Therefore, there was a fear of "Shabriri" or "dazzling glare", the demon of blindness, who rests on uncovered water at night and strikes those with blindness who drink of it; also mentioned were the spirit of catalepsy and the spirit of headache, the demon of epilepsy, and the spirit of nightmare.These demons were supposed to enter the body and cause the disease while overwhelming or "seizing" the victim, hence "seizure". To cure such diseases it was necessary to draw out the evil demons by certain incantations and talismanic performances, in which the Essenes excelled. Josephus, who speaks of demons as "spirits of the wicked which enter into men that are alive and kill them", but which can be driven out by a certain root, witnessed such a performance in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian, and ascribed its origin to King Solomon. In some rabbinic sources, the demons were believed to be under the dominion of a king or chief, either Asmodai or, in the older Haggadah, "the angel of death" who kills by his deadly poison, and is called "chief of the devils". Occasionally a demon is called "satan": "Stand not in the way of an ox when coming from the pasture, for Satan dances between his horns". According to some texts, the queen of demons is Lilith, pictured with wings and long flowing hair, and called the "mother of Ahriman". As we explained earlier, Lilith’s sin that transformed her from a human into the Queen of Demons comes from her audacity in suggesting that Adam, then her husband, should consider giving her a chance to “be on top” during their mating. Others suggest that Lilith was a creation to warn all wives to obey their husbands and play down their own sexual interests. Demonology never became an essential feature of Jewish theology. The reality of demons was never questioned by the Talmudists and late rabbis; most accepted their existence as a fact. Nor did most of the medieval thinkers question their reality. Only rationalists like Maimonides and Abraham ibn Ezra clearly denied their existence. Their point of view eventually became the mainstream Jewish understanding, although there are sects of the religion today who still practice an ancient form of exorcism. Rabbinical demonology has three classes of demons, though they are scarcely separable from one another. There were the shedim, the mazziḳim ("harmers"), and the ruḥin ("evil spirits"). Besides these there were lilin ("night spirits"), ṭelane ("shade", or "evening spirits"), ṭiharire ("midday spirits"), and ẓafrire ("morning spirits"), as well as the "demons that bring famine" and "such as cause storm and earthquake" (Deuteronomy and Numbers). "Demon" has a number of meanings, all related to the idea of a paranormal entity that inhabited a place, or that accompanied a person. Whether such a daemon was benevolent or malevolent, the Greek word meant something different from the later medieval notions of 'demon', and scholars debate the time in which first century usage by Jews and Christians in its original Greek sense became transformed to the later medieval sense. It should be noted that some denominations asserting Christian faith also include, exclusively or otherwise, fallen angels as de facto demons; this definition also covers the "sons of God" described in Genesis who abandoned their posts in heaven to mate with human women on Earth before the Deluge (Genesis). Demons, it might seem are routinely tied to the human sexual impulses. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus casts out many demons, or evil spirits, from those who are afflicted with various ailments. Jesus is far superior to the power of demons over the beings that they inhabit, and he is able to free these victims by commanding and casting out the demons, by binding them, and forbidding them to return. Jesus also apparently lends this power to some of his disciples, who rejoice at their new found ability to cast out all demons. Interestingly, Jesus is also seen as the great healer, so it is still a question of semantics whether these poor souls were afflicted with some sort of physical or psychological disorder, or actual demonic possession. Some today see Jesus as a great psychic healer, so if the possessed were suffering from natural maladies, his power is relatively explainable. By way of contrast, in the book of Acts a group of Judaistic exorcists known as the sons of Sceva try to cast out a very powerful spirit without believing in or knowing Jesus, but fail with disastrous consequences. However Jesus himself never fails to vanquish a demon, no matter how powerful, like the account of the demon-possessed man at Gerasim, and even defeats Satan in the wilderness (Gospel of Matthew). There is a description in the Book of Revelation of a battle between God's army and Satan's followers, and their subsequent expulsion from Heaven to earth to persecute humans — although this event is related as being foretold and taking place in the future. In Luke it is mentioned that a power granted by Jesus to control demons made Satan "fall like lightning from heaven.” Augustine of Hippo's reading of Plotinus, is ambiguous as to whether daemons had become 'demonized' by the early 5th century: "He [Plotinus] also states that the blessed are called in Greek eudaimones, because they are good souls, that is to say, good demons, confirming his opinion that the souls of men are demons.” The contemporary Roman Catholic Church unequivocally teaches that angels and demons are real personal beings, not just symbolic devices. The Catholic Church has a cadre of officially sanctioned exorcists which perform many exorcisms each year. The exorcists of the Catholic Church teach that demons attack humans continually but that afflicted persons can be effectively healed and protected either by the formal rite of exorcism, authorized to be performed only by bishops and those they designate, or by prayers of deliverance which any Christian can offer for themselves or others. Building upon the few references to daemons in the New Testament, especially the visionary poetry of the Apocalypse of John, Christian writers of apocrypha from the 2nd century onwards created a more complicated tapestry of beliefs about "demons" that was largely independent of Christian scripture. According to the Bible, the fall of the Adversary is portrayed in Isaiah and Ezekiel. However, the connection between Isaiah’s account and the fall is mostly based on mistranslation and tradition. The King James Version (KJV), popular among most Christian sects, reads: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [how] art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isaiah). The word "Lucifer" was inspired by the Latin Vulgate, a translation that the authors of the KJV adhered to in several occasions to elucidate Christian traditions. Lucifer is a Latin word meaning "light-bearer" (from lux, lucis, "light", and ferre, "to bear, bring"), a Roman astrological term for the "Morning Star", the planet Venus. The word Lucifer was the direct translation of the Septuagint Greek heosphoros, ("dawn-bearer"); (Greek phosphoros, "light-bearer") and the Hebrew Helel, ("Bright one"). The word does not specifically refer to Satan. To the contrary, in context, Isaiah actually refers to one of the popular honorific titles of a Babylonian king; however, later interpretations of the text, and the influence of embellishments in works such as Dante's The Divine Comedy and Milton's Paradise Lost, led to the common idea in Christian mythology and folklore that Lucifer was a poetic appellation of Satan. Back in the Torah, we find Ezekiel refers to the King of Tyrus. The passage, however, is popularly attributed as a reference to, or allegory of, Satan, and even by some commentators, an allegory of the fall of Adam. The Christian teachings of built upon later Jewish traditions that the Adversary and the Adversary's host declared war with God, but that God's army, commanded by the archangel Michael, defeated the rebels. Their defeat was never in question, since God is by nature omnipotent, but Michael was given the honor of victory in the natural order; thus the rise of Christian veneration of the archangel Michael, beginning at Monte Gargano in 493, reflects the full incorporation of demons into Christianity. According to tradition, God then cast God's enemies from Heaven to the abyss, into a newly created prison called Hell, where all God's enemies should be sentenced to an eternal existence of pain and misery. This pain is not all physical; for their crimes, these angels, now called demons, would be deprived of the sight of God, this being the worst possible punishment. An indefinite time later, when God created the earth and life, the Adversary and the other demons were allowed to tempt humans or induce them to sin by other means. The first time the Adversary did this was as a serpent in the earthly paradise called the "Garden of Eden" to tempt Eve, who became deceived by Satan's evil trickery. Eve then gave Adam some of the forbidden fruit and both of their eyes were opened to the knowledge of good and evil. It should be noted however that later interpretations suggest that it was an angel who tempted Eve, at the behest of God, and that the “Fall” took place later. At various times in Christian history, attempts have been made to classify these beings according to various proposed demonic hierarchies. According to most Christian demonology, demons will be eternally punished and never reconciled with God. Other theories postulate a Universal reconciliation, in which Satan, the fallen angels, and the souls of the dead that were condemned to Hell are reconciled with God. This doctrine is today often associated with the Unification Church. Origen, Jerome and Gregory of Nyssa also mentioned this possibility. In contemporary Christianity, demons are generally considered to be angels who fell from grace by rebelling against God. Some contest that this view, championed by Origen, Augustine and John Chrysostom, arose during the 6th century. Another theory that may have preceded or co-existed with the hypothesis of fallen angels was that demons were ostracized from Heaven for the primary sin of mating with mortal women, giving rise to a race of half-human giants known as the Nephilim. That theory is accepted by some contemporary Christian sects. There are still others who say that the sin of the angels was pride and disobedience. It seems quite certain that these were the sins that caused Satan's downfall (Ezek.). If this be the true view then we are to understand the words, "estate" or "principality" in Deuteronomy and Jude ("And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.") as indicating that instead of being satisfied with the dignity once for all assigned to them under the Son of God, they aspired higher. Hindu mythology include numerous varieties of anthropomorphic beings that might be classified as demons, including Rakshasas (belligerent, shapechanging terrestrial demons), Asuras (demigods), Vetalas (bat-like spirits), and Pishachas (cannibalistic demons). Originally, the word Asura in the earliest hymns of the Rig Veda (the holy book of the Indo-Aryans) meant any supernatural spirit—good or bad. In the early Persian languages, the word Asura, representing a category of celestial beings, became the word Ahura (Mazda), the Supreme God of the monotheistic Zoroastrians. But very soon, among the Indo-Aryans, Asura came to exclusively mean any of a race of anthropomorphic but hideous demons. All words such as Asura, Daitya (sons of the demon-mother "Diti"), Rakshasa (from "harm to be guarded against") are translated into English as demon. These demons are inherently evil and are in a constant battle against the demigods. Hence in Hindu iconography, the gods are shown to carry weapons to kill the asuras. Unlike Christianity, the demons are not the cause of the evil and unhappiness of mankind which occurs because of ignorance from recognizing one's true self. In later Puranic mythology, exceptions do occur in the demonic race to produce god-fearing Asuras like Prahalada. Also, many Asuras are said to have been granted boons from one of the members of the Hindu trinity, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva when the latter had been appeased from penances. All Asuras, unlike the devas, are said to be mortals although they vehemently wish to become immortal. Many people metaphorically interpret these demons as manifestations of the ignoble passions in human mind. On the account of the Hindu theory of reincarnation and transmigration of souls according to one's Karma, other kinds of demons can also be enlisted. If a human does extremely horrible and sinful karmas in his life, his soul (Atman) will, upon his death, directly turn into an evil ghostly spirit, many kinds of which are recognized in the later Hindu texts. These demons could be Grimnex Vetalas, Pishachas, Bhūtas etc. Pre-Islamic mythology does not discriminate between gods and demons. The jinn are considered as divinities of inferior rank, having many human attributes: they eat, drink, and procreate their kind, sometimes in conjunction with human beings. The jinn smell and lick things, and have a liking for remnants of food. In eating they use the left hand. Usually they haunt waste and deserted places, especially the thickets where wild beasts gather. Cemeteries and dirty places are also favorite abodes. When appearing to man, jinn sometimes assume the forms of beasts and sometimes those of men. Generally, jinn are peaceable and well disposed toward men. Many a pre-Islamic poet was believed to have been inspired by good jinn, but there are also evil jinn, who contrive to injure men. According to the Qur'an, Iblis was once a pious servant of Allah, but when Allah created Adam from clay, Iblis became very jealous, and arrogant and disobeyed Allah. Adam was the first man, and man was the greatest creation of Allah. Iblis could not stand this, and refused to acknowledge a creature made of "dirt" (man). Allah condemned Iblis to be punished after death eternally in the hellfire. Allah had created hell. Iblis asked Allah if he may live to the last day and have the ability to mislead mankind and jinns, Allah said that Iblis may only mislead those whom have forsaken Allah. Allah then turned Iblis's countenance into horridness and condemned him to only have powers of trickery. Adam and Eve (Hawwa in Arabic) were both together misled by Iblis into eating the forbidden fruit, and consequently fell from the garden of Eden to Earth. The word "genie" comes from the Arabic jinn. This is not surprising considering the story of Alā' ad-Dīn, (anglicized as Aladdin), passed through Arabian merchants en route to Europe. Modernism Carlos Castaneda referred to demonic predators called "flyers" which have the appearance of frightening dark shadows and which vampirize human energy. According to this view ancient humans were complete, with much greater energetic resources than effete, decadent, modern humans possess. At the time when agriculture was invented the flyers gave human beings their intellect. By playing on this self-reflection, sucking the angry and worried energy it generates, the flyers began to farm human beings for energy, just as humans began farming animals. Modern humans are the hypnotized slaves of these flyers; and the pseudo concerns of modern society are a flyer mechanism of mind control. M. Scott Peck, an American psychiatrist, wrote two books on the subject. Peck describes in some detail several cases involving his patients. In People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil he gives some identifying characteristics for evil persons whom he classifies as having a character disorder. In Glimpses of the Devil, A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, Exorcism, and Redemption Peck goes into significant detail describing how he became interested in exorcism in order to debunk the "myth" of possession by evil spirits – only to be convinced otherwise after encountering two cases which did not fit into any category known to psychology or psychiatry. Peck came to the conclusion that possession was a rare phenomenon related to evil. Possessed people are not actually evil; they are doing battle with the forces of evil. His observations on these cases are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association. Although Peck's earlier work was met with widespread popular acceptance, his work on the topics of evil and possession has generated significant debate and derision. Much was made of his association with (and admiration for) the controversial Malachi Martin, a Roman Catholic priest and a former Jesuit, despite the fact that Peck consistently called Martin a liar and manipulator. Other criticisms leveled against Peck include misdiagnoses based upon a lack of knowledge regarding dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder), and a claim that he had transgressed the boundaries of professional ethics by attempting to persuade his patients into accepting Christianity. French romance writer Jacques Cazotte (1719-1792) in The Devil in Love (Le Diable Amoureux, 1772) tells of a demon, or devil, who falls in love with an amateur human dabbler in the occult, and attempts, in the guise of a young woman, to win his affections. The book served as inspiration for, and is referred to within, Spanish author Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel The Club Dumas (El Club Dumas, 1993). Roman Polanski's 1999 adaptation of the novel, The Ninth Gate, stars Johnny Depp as rare book dealer Dean Corso. Many classic books and plays feature demons, such as the Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost and Faust.Anton Rubinstein's lushly chromatic opera The Demon (1875), based on the poem "The Demon" by Michail Lermontov, was delayed in its production because the censor attached to the Mariinsky Theatre felt that the libretto was sacrilegious. In C. S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, Screwtape, a senior demon in Hell's hierarchy, writes a series of letters to his subordinate trainee, Wormwood, offering advice in the techniques of temptation of humans. Though fictional, it offers a plausible contemporary Christian viewpoint of the relationship of humans and demons. J.R.R. Tolkien sometimes referred to the Balrogs of his Legendarium as "Demons". Morgoth, Sauron, and Thuringwethil could be called demons as well, since they are fallen spirits.The earliest known connection of the word with games is that the British have called a form of solitaire "Demon", from at least the nineteenth century. The selection of this word comes from the observance of a player by others. Formerly, adults nearly always bet on card games. As the player is turned from interaction with others and is forced to move cards around without feeling, the player is metaphorically considered possessed by a demon. "Demon" is called Canfield in the United States. It has been asserted by some religious groups, demonologists, and paranormal investigators that demons can communicate with humans through the use of a Ouija board and that demonic oppression and possession can result from its use. Skeptics assert that the Ouija board's users move the game's planchette with their hands and only appear to be communicating with spirits and that any resulting possession is purely psychosomatic. The original idea for the use of spirit boards was to contact spirits of dead humans and not evil spirits or demons.Demons sometimes figure in horror films, such as the Dana Andrews vehicle, Night of the Demon, a.k.a. Curse of the Demon. A host of demons figure prominently in the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment of Fantasia. The term animism (from Latin anima (soul, life)) commonly refers to belief systems that attribute souls to animals, plants and other entities, in addition to humans. Animism may also attribute souls to natural phenomena, geographic features, everyday objects and manufactured articles. More generally, animism is simply the belief in souls. In this general sense, animism is present in nearly all religions. British anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor argued in Primitive Culture (1871) that this belief was the most primitive and essential part of religion. Though animism itself is not a religion in the usual Western sense, some scholars believe that it contains the foundations on which religions are built. Sir E. B. Tylor, has a proposed theory of religion, in his 1871 book, Primitive Culture. He used the term to mean "a belief in souls". According to Tylor, all religion rests on, or stems from, a belief in gods or supernatural beings, which in turn stems from a belief in souls. He did not restrict the term "animism" to religions that attribute souls to non-human entities. According to Tylor, "in primitive religion souls occupy all physical entities", but Tylor's "animism" is not limited to "primitive" religion. For Tylor, animism is simply "belief in souls"; it doesn't matter whether these souls occupy all physical entities or only humans. Therefore, a religion that attributes souls only to humans is still a form of animism by Tylor's definition. For Tylor, all religions, both "modern" and "primitive", are forms of animism. However, "animism" is often used to refer to a specific group of religions—specifically, religions that attribute souls to non-human entities. A majority of African religions base their beliefs on these attributes, thus animism is often associated with Africa. Members of Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions sometimes apply the term to other religious traditions, particularly in Africa, to mark those traditions as less "sophisticated". Tylor argued that non-Western societies relied on animism to explain why things happen. He further argued that animism is the earliest form of religion, and reveals that humans developed religions in order to explain things.Since the publication of Primitive Culture, Tylor's theories have come under criticism from three quarters. First, some have questioned whether the beliefs of diverse peoples living in different parts of the world and not communicating with one another can be lumped together as one kind of religion. Second, some have questioned whether the basic function of religion really is to "explain" the universe (critics like Marrett and Émile Durkheim argued that religious beliefs have emotional and social, rather than intellectual, functions). Finally, many now see Tylor's theories as ethnocentric. Not only was he imposing a contemporary and Western view of religion (that it explains the inexplicable) on non-Western cultures, he was also telling the story of a progression from religion (which provides poor explanations) to science (which provides good explanations). The justification for attributing life to inanimate objects was stated by Hume in his Natural History of Religion. "There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. Sigmund Freud thought that "primitive men" came up with the animistic system by observing the phenomena of sleep, including dreams and of death which so much resembles it, and by attempting to explain those states. Freud regarded it as perfectly natural for man to react to the phenomena which aroused his speculations by forming the idea of the soul and then extending it to objects in the external world. Although the soul is often distinguished from the vital principle, there are many cases in which a state of unconsciousness is explained as due to the absence of the soul. In South Australia wilyamarraba (without soul) is the word used for insensible. So too the autohypnotic trance of the magician or shaman is regarded as due to their soul's visit to distant regions or the netherworld, of which they bring back an account. Sickness is often explained as due to the absence of the soul and means are sometimes taken to lure back the wandering soul. In Chinese tradition, when a person is at the point of death and their soul believed to have left their body, the patient's coat is held up on a long bamboo pole while a priest endeavors to bring the departed spirit back into the coat by means of incantations. If the bamboo begins to turn round in the hands of the relative who is deputed to hold it, it is regarded as a sign that the soul of the moribund has returned. More important perhaps than all these phenomena, because it was more regular and normal, was the daily period of sleep with its frequent fitful and incoherent ideas and images. The conclusion must have been irresistible that in sleep something journeyed forth, which was not the body (see astral travel). In a minor degree, revival of memory during sleep and similar phenomena of the sub-conscious life may have contributed to the same result. Dreams are sometimes explained in animist cultures as journeys performed by the sleeper, sometimes as visits paid by other persons, by animals or objects to the sleeper. Seeing the phantasmal figures of friends at the moment when they were, whether at the point of death or in good health, many miles distant, may have led people to the dualistic theory. But hallucinatory figures, both in dreams and waking life, are not necessarily those of the living. From the reappearance of dead friends or enemies, primitive man was led to the belief that there existed an incorporeal part of man, which survived the dissolution of the body. The soul was conceived to be a facsimile of the body, sometimes no less material, sometimes more subtle but yet material, sometimes altogether impalpable and intangible. Lists of phenomena from the contemplation of which "the savage" was led to believe in animism have been given by Sir E. B. Tylor, Herbert Spencer, Andrew Lang and others; an animated controversy arose between the former as to the priority of their respective lists. Trance Unconsciousness Sickness Death Clairvoyance Dreams A large part of mythology is based upon a belief in souls and spirits — that is, upon animism in its more general sense. Myths that portray plants, inanimate objects, and non-human animals as personal beings are examples of animism in its more restrictive sense. However, many mythologies focus largely on corporeal beings rather than "spiritual" ones; the latter may even be entirely absent. For instance, Australian mythology focuses largely on corporeal, non-spiritual beings. Stories of transformation, deluge and doom myths, and myths of the origin of death do not necessarily have any animistic basis. As mythology began to include more numerous and complex ideas about a future life and purely spiritual beings, the overlap between mythology and animism widened. However, a rich mythology does not necessarily depend on a belief in many spiritual beings. The term "animism" has been applied to many different philosophical systems. It is used to describe Aristotle's view of the relation of soul and body held also by the Stoics and Scholastics. On the other hand monadology (Leibniz) has also been termed animistic. The name is most commonly applied to vitalism, a view mainly associated with Georg Ernst Stahl and revived by F. Bouillier (1813-1899), which makes life, or life and mind, the directive principle in evolution and growth, holding that all cannot be traced back to chemical and mechanical processes, but that there is a directive force which guides energy without altering its amount. An entirely different class of ideas, also termed animistic, is the belief in the world soul (anima mundi), held by Plato, Schelling and others. Today Animists live in significant numbers in countries such as Zambia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bangladesh, India, Gabon, the Republic of Guinea Bissau, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Thailand, Timor Leste, the United States and Mexico. Modern Neopagans, especially Eco-Pagans, sometimes describe themselves as animists, meaning that they respect the diverse community of living beings and spirits with whom humans share the world/cosmos. Many Pagans and Neopagans believe that there are spirits of nature and place, and that these spirits can sometimes be as powerful as minor deities. Polytheist Pagans may extend the idea of many gods and goddesses to encompass the many spirits of nature, such as those embodied in holy wells, mountains and sacred springs. While some of these many spirits may be seen as fitting into rough categories and sharing similarities with one another, they are also respected as separate individuals. On the other hand, some Wiccans may use the term animist to refer to the idea that a Mother Goddess and Horned God consist of everything that exists.
Conclusions Obviously, this white paper includes a diversity of theory from many sources, more like a thesis by a student of Comparative Religions than a researcher in the field of Unexplained Phenomenon. It is intended to act as a starting place for those who seem dedicated to what is now commonly known as Demonology, which literally translates into the study of demons. In creating this white paper I have attempted to limit my personal belief systems and experiences as they pertain to demons and possession. My purpose was simple; the current interest in demonology and the proliferation of “Demonologist” today is in my opinion dangerous. Without proper training the neophyte demon hunter is powerless and in the rare cases where they might encounter such a creature, their presence will only hinder the necessary treatment. Many years ago, I debated the issue of who should be a field researcher in the paranormal. I suggested a well trained investigator, such as a police officer or reporter was far superior to a classically trained Doctor of Philosophy. I believe that over the last 30 years we have proven that thesis, but at no time did I suggest that a well trained paranormal investigator is any match for a “real” case of possession or infestation. To be prepared for such a situation you would have to be a classically trained psychologist with advanced study in religion. There are such people around today, most are religious, but there are a few that are not, and this is their field, not ours. I will in closing give my best advice to those of you in pursuit of such a phenomenon. First, know the difference between a truly nasty ghost and a demon; they are worlds apart. And second, when you encounter the latter, back out carefully and immediately refer the case to a professional, not a TV personality or someone who thinks they know what they are doing, but a priest, rabbi, et. al. In 35 years I have encountered three true cases of a demonic nature, so they are not as common as the popular TV programs suggest; nevertheless, what you are dealing with is a matter of life and death for your subject and is no place to play amateur Van Helsings!
©2008 – ASUP (All Rights Reserved) |
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