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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Demon harassment vs. possession	Tim	Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Question: Dear Brother Ignatius, Grace and peace to you! I have a couple more questions about my friend's situation, but first, to let you know that he is continuing on the right path. He told me yesterday morning, "I dreamed I was in a Catholic Church -- I think it is a sign!" He is interested in starting to pray the Divine Office with the Church as well. He took to heart all your comments as well. Do not worry -- I am fully aware of my weakness as a human and know that demons are liars and to underestimate them in any way is folly. They would love for us to have an inflated ego so we feel like "Super-Demon-Slayers" like those protestant pentecostals and reality-show ghostbusters so we take our focus off Jesus. You mentioned about how demons can possess someone and the reasons why this one didn't succeed at possessing the "medium" that time -- but is it common for demons who generally harass to also possess? In the case of my friend, his eyes and posture changed between: 1) when he was drug-free (confident and strong... even if he was agnostic); 2) on drugs (perturbed and paranoid, weak, agitated); 3) something purely evil (full of hate) as if he was possessed that would come and go during his drug "highs." I wouldn't attribute everything that can be psychological to demon-possession but his "posture" and his eyes were different and even the voice, he was like a rabid animal delighting in making threats. I felt like my friend was "in there somewhere" and would appeal to him praying and he would "come back" and apologize saying he was not in control. He can't tell me if he "felt possessed" -- but it was as if he was a witness to things from within his own body that he was no longer controlling. Why can possessions seem to come and go? Is it the whim of the demon? One time the demon was harassing my friend in his room and his door was closed. I got home and my dog looked at me imploring me to get in the room and she kept barking and jumping to try to push open the door. She has been sensitive to such presences but I pray with her and she calms down. Maybe it's all the emotion of what's been happening but she seems much more agitated when I get home and when we go to sleep. But the usual hedge prayers and devotions should help to protect her too, right? Otherwise, is it possible such a demon could harass a pet for "fun"? It's almost impossible to get a priest over to bless the house! Brazil is a spiritual chaos, where spiritism and paganism reign and the Catholics are a minority while the growing neo-Protestant health-and-wealth sects are taking over the political arena with their rabid anti-Catholicism and fascist leanings. Every day here for a faithful Catholic is a heavy cross. Pray for the conversion of this land! I know I am here for a reason! God bless!
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r), CCL, LTh, DD, LNDC Dear Tim: I praise God that your friend is continuing on the right path and that both your efforts and apparently our comments have helped him. You have mistaken my words about the medium. I did not say that this demon did not succeed at possessing the medium that you mentioned in a previous post. You seem to be very interested in the nature of possession and you need to stop that. You neither have the knowledge nor the expertise to make a diagnosis or even an assessment. The comment about the medium actually is an example of your lack of knowledge. A medium can channel a demon without being possessed. In addition the phenomena that you describe with your friend also does not mean he was possessed. Possession has a very specific diagnostic criteria and these phenomena do not in-and-of-themselves constitute or indicate possession. Possession, by the way, is rare. Lesser forms of demonization, however, are common.. I will not go into the details about how to diagnose possession for neither you nor the public has a need to know. These are matters for trained and qualified people. I do not go into the details about these matters precisely because the public will take that information and think they know something about the subject when in fact they know nothing. While there are books out there that might go into some of these details the problem remains. A person cannot read a couple of books and think they can diagnose possession or understand the difference between harassment and possession. Thus, I would advise you to stop being concerned about the distinctions between various levels of demonization. I especially advise you to refrain from thinking that this or that person may be possessed because you obviously do not know what possession actually is. People should not be diagnosing their family, friends, or strangers in the street. If one has suspicions that a person has spiritual warfare or demonic problems then he needs to contact someone like myself who knows what they're doing for consultation. We do have an Appointment Calendar where people can make appointments for one-time consultations. For those who are having problems of demonization in some form we recommend our Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance and our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog, both linked below. If the self-help approach is not sufficient then one can ask for full deliverance counseling, which takes a minimum of three months Those who need and desire full deliverance counseling must specifically request that. If we have an opening in our schedule to take a client our Help Request Form will be open to fill-out and submit. Under no circumstances should untrained and unqualified people attempt to assess someone as possessed, or even demonized. The best that the general public can do is suspect a person has demonization problems and refer them to a Deliverance Counselor and/or, if they wish, make an appointment for a consultation to talk about how to approach their family or friend who is having the problems. I am sorry to hear about the problems in Brazil. We all need to be in deep prayer for that country. We do have a House Cleansing and Blessing (PDF file) ritual based upon the 17th century house exorcism ritual. While it would be nice to have a priest do this, it is not required. Anyone, including laity, are permitted to pray these prayers and to perform the ritual. It does require having Holy Water, Holy Salt, and Blessed Benedictine medals. We continue to pray for your friend and praise God for his transformation. We also pray for you. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Demon harassment vs. possession

Tim

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Question:

Dear Brother Ignatius,

Grace and peace to you! I have a couple more questions about my friend's situation, but first, to let you know that he is continuing on the right path. He told me yesterday morning, "I dreamed I was in a Catholic Church -- I think it is a sign!" He is interested in starting to pray the Divine Office with the Church as well.

He took to heart all your comments as well.

Do not worry -- I am fully aware of my weakness as a human and know that demons are liars and to underestimate them in any way is folly. They would love for us to have an inflated ego so we feel like "Super-Demon-Slayers" like those protestant pentecostals and reality-show ghostbusters so we take our focus off Jesus.

You mentioned about how demons can possess someone and the reasons why this one didn't succeed at possessing the "medium" that time -- but is it common for demons who generally harass to also possess? In the case of my friend, his eyes and posture changed between: 1) when he was drug-free (confident and strong... even if he was agnostic); 2) on drugs (perturbed and paranoid, weak, agitated); 3) something purely evil (full of hate) as if he was possessed that would come and go during his drug "highs."

I wouldn't attribute everything that can be psychological to demon-possession but his "posture" and his eyes were different and even the voice, he was like a rabid animal delighting in making threats. I felt like my friend was "in there somewhere" and would appeal to him praying and he would "come back" and apologize saying he was not in control. He can't tell me if he "felt possessed" -- but it was as if he was a witness to things from within his own body that he was no longer controlling.

Why can possessions seem to come and go? Is it the whim of the demon?

One time the demon was harassing my friend in his room and his door was closed. I got home and my dog looked at me imploring me to get in the room and she kept barking and jumping to try to push open the door. She has been sensitive to such presences but I pray with her and she calms down. Maybe it's all the emotion of what's been happening but she seems much more agitated when I get home and when we go to sleep. But the usual hedge prayers and devotions should help to protect her too, right? Otherwise, is it possible such a demon could harass a pet for "fun"?

It's almost impossible to get a priest over to bless the house! Brazil is a spiritual chaos, where spiritism and paganism reign and the Catholics are a minority while the growing neo-Protestant health-and-wealth sects are taking over the political arena with their rabid anti-Catholicism and fascist leanings. Every day here for a faithful Catholic is a heavy cross. Pray for the conversion of this land! I know I am here for a reason! God bless!

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r), CCL, LTh, DD, LNDC

Dear Tim:

I praise God that your friend is continuing on the right path and that both your efforts and apparently our comments have helped him.

You have mistaken my words about the medium. I did not say that this demon did not succeed at possessing the medium that you mentioned in a previous post. You seem to be very interested in the nature of possession and you need to stop that. You neither have the knowledge nor the expertise to make a diagnosis or even an assessment. The comment about the medium actually is an example of your lack of knowledge. A medium can channel a demon without being possessed. In addition the phenomena that you describe with your friend also does not mean he was possessed. Possession has a very specific diagnostic criteria and these phenomena do not in-and-of-themselves constitute or indicate possession. Possession, by the way, is rare. Lesser forms of demonization, however, are common..

I will not go into the details about how to diagnose possession for neither you nor the public has a need to know. These are matters for trained and qualified people. I do not go into the details about these matters precisely because the public will take that information and think they know something about the subject when in fact they know nothing. While there are books out there that might go into some of these details the problem remains. A person cannot read a couple of books and think they can diagnose possession or understand the difference between harassment and possession.

Thus, I would advise you to stop being concerned about the distinctions between various levels of demonization. I especially advise you to refrain from thinking that this or that person may be possessed because you obviously do not know what possession actually is. People should not be diagnosing their family, friends, or strangers in the street. If one has suspicions that a person has spiritual warfare or demonic problems then he needs to contact someone like myself who knows what they're doing for consultation.

We do have an Appointment Calendar where people can make appointments for one-time consultations. For those who are having problems of demonization in some form we recommend our Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance and our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog, both linked below. If the self-help approach is not sufficient then one can ask for full deliverance counseling, which takes a minimum of three months Those who need and desire full deliverance counseling must specifically request that. If we have an opening in our schedule to take a client our Help Request Form will be open to fill-out and submit.

Under no circumstances should untrained and unqualified people attempt to assess someone as possessed, or even demonized. The best that the general public can do is suspect a person has demonization problems and refer them to a Deliverance Counselor and/or, if they wish, make an appointment for a consultation to talk about how to approach their family or friend who is having the problems.

I am sorry to hear about the problems in Brazil. We all need to be in deep prayer for that country. We do have a House Cleansing and Blessing (PDF file) ritual based upon the 17th century house exorcism ritual. While it would be nice to have a priest do this, it is not required. Anyone, including laity, are permitted to pray these prayers and to perform the ritual. It does require having Holy Water, Holy Salt, and Blessed Benedictine medals.

We continue to pray for your friend and praise God for his transformation. We also pray for you.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.