Demons

Every culture has a fear of disembodied evil, malevolent spirits whose sole purpose is to influence mankind for the worse. If someone is described as being ‘demonic’, they’ve probably behaved in an unspeakably evil way and thoroughly enjoyed it. But demons haven’t always had such a bad reputation.

The word, ‘demon’, comes from the Greek word, ‘daimon’, which means, ‘supernatural being’, or, ‘spirit’. In ancient Greece, it was believed that a daimon could influence a person’s character for both good and bad. 2,000 years ago Christianity condemned belief in this kind of spirits and began calling them demons. Demons have been viewed as evil spirits as ever since.

The chief demon has a host of different names: Satan; Lucifer; Beelzebub; and the Devil, to name just a few. Beelzebub is referred to in the Bible as Baalzebub, or Baal. In ancient cultures Baal was a fertility and sun god and was worshipped to ensure plentiful crops. Hebrew priests later taught that Baal was a malevolent spirit, responsible for drought and famine and so he became a demon.

Satan was a fallen angel who turned against God. The Christian religion believes that he leads a host of demons whose aim is to tempt man away from God and redemption into a life of evil. Demons are disembodied spirits who suffer in torment in hell.

The Christian Church, most notably Catholicism, believes that demons are able to enter a person’s body and possess them in order to enter the material world. Demonic possession can take many forms; some people say they can hear voices in their head telling them to do terrible things. Others may fall into a trance or a terrible rage becoming uncharacteristically violent and abusive. There have even been reports of demons causing people to levitate and expel objects from their bodies. Only certain priests are permitted to carry out exorcisms. They perform rituals, using holy water and the name of Jesus to expel Satan from the body of the possessed.

During the Middle Ages, demonic possession was seen as a real problem and hundreds, even thousands, of people would flock to churches to watch exorcisms performed. The Catholic Church still takes demonic possession very seriously. In 1999, the Pope renewed the rite of exorcism and increased the number of exorcists.

The Catholic Church has carried out thousands of exorcisms each year for 500 years and continues to do so. Critics say that demonic possession can be explained by physical conditions, such as epilepsy or mental illness. They believe people hear voices in their head because they are suffering from schizophrenia, or multiple personality disorder, and not because a demon has taken over their bodies. But others, who believe in demonic possession as a real and dangerous problem, argue that victims speak and understand languages they do not know. They demonstrate bodily strength way beyond what is normal and become clairvoyant, knowing secrets that they could only discover by reading other people’s thoughts.