I have a theory, and apparantly a lot of time on my hands

Tonight, at least.

We know that they are spiritual beings. We know they have goals to debase and destroy humanity. We have lists upon lists of what to look for in various stages of their involvement. We know they have powers that most would find unbelievable, heh supernatural, even.

Now I think, based on the case studies and scriptures, that although they can and often do manipulate the physical, that most of their power lies in the mind of the intended victim. Amplification, deception, confusion, and hallucinations could be manipulated through brain chemistry. Activate a few glands here, interrupt a few pathways there, and you have one really messed up individual. One who is increasingly isolated and unstable. Vulnerable.

I mean, they have had ages to experiment on people. Lucky for us, many of the lower ranks don't seem to be as subtle.

Thoughts?

-scl

And if you really want to get into something, let's talk about how they get around so fast...heh.

Who are they? Demons? Ghosts? Shadow People? You never clarified.

Demons, shadow people. All the same to me.

Only two very broad categories for my ops. Things that should be there, and things that shouldn't.

-scl

That is not entirely true. When they invade children they child doesn't already have this in their minds.

Adults you could argue theroeticly, but it still fails, in that we don't know exactly what goes on in every persons mind. We just really know the basics.

A demonic will go through the weakest link the weakest person. They will find your weakness one way or another. You will have to address the fact that we are not built to be bad.

I am not saying that it would already present in the mind, if I am reading you right, I think that a good deal of what we experience with regard to personal experiences could very well be the result of a more subtle form of manipulation.

I think that they are able to access the mind and fiddle with its chemistry. That make more sense?

-scl

Oh yes, they can definitely manipulate your mind! Most of the time for me it has been through dreams. One very scary example of this was one night, after I had been very exhausted by my young son's illness, chronic asthma, I tried to get to sleep. But I had this terrible nightmare about a dark and blackened forest. Running, knowing something was chasing me, finding a church up ahead, going in, admiring the woodwork and stained glass and having a dark, grim reaper-like figure crash through the floor. To awaken and find myself locked in the throes of an attack. Only to finally be released and to find that my bed comforter had somehow taken on the shape of the grim reaper right there in my bed. I got up turned all the lights on, after having kicked and beaten the offending blanket into the corner. Finally went back to bed, only to have the same scenario occur again, with the same blanket back in my bed, shaped like the grim reaper, the same entity attacking me. Going back into the living room, and after convincing myself it had all just been a dream, and I'd never even done it the first time, it was all a dream, when I realized that the lights were all on and I hadn't turned them on this time. Because I'd turned them on the first time it happened and I went out there so frightened, the first time the dream and the attack and the nasty blanket tricks, had happened twice, and something had manipulated it to occur that way.

Mind games, tricks? Oh yes, they play those games, I'm certain of that. I've had quite a few played on me in the years that I've been involved with the paranormal. I grew up wondering if I was just crazy because of them, and nope, I don't believe it any more, not for a moment. They can be subtle, and they can be very obvious, but they do it, I don't know how yet, but I know they do it!!

I think they can play tricks on the mind.

I don't think they can mess with the chemistry of the mind. The workings of the brain are still being discovered and if they help enhance the evil in a person then it isn't chemistry as much as enhancing what the person already has feelings for. To affect on a chemical level I don't think a entity has that ability.

I mean a person has to allow or be weak to a demon to possession to gain entrence and possess the person. Then for it to be successfully expelled from the person they have to accept the help and call on the name of Jesus Christ and God to assist in its removal.

I don't think they can affect the chemistry of the brain.

All right, I'm curious. How can they affect the mind then?

-scl

I think they influence our thoughts, much like you can with a sleeping person. Subtle things. I was taught they can not read your mind, but they can send thoughts and images. That theory states they send the thought, your mind picks it up and makes it yours, thus they get around the free will thing. Which implanting a dream would be.

Now fear changes the chemistry of the mind and body. So logically they do change the brain chemistry. They use fear, it makes us weak, generally. Once the fear response is active, fear breeds more fear, sending the person deeper into their control.

At least that is my thought on it.

That does make sense. Now that I apply the science to that. Fear does have a chemical reaction in the mind and the body.

Ok I concede demons can change the chemistry in the body.

You know I find that more and more I draw from other areas of knowledge I have learned throught my life to understand and work in this field.

And people think there is no science to it. HA

Interesting topic. When dealing with demons for the most part they are forced to weaken defenses to gain entrance. For the most part we do not welcome them to dwell inside of us, but by our actions we may open a portal for them to gain entrance. Really the best way for them to do that is to manipulate our ideas, as well as creating instances for those ideas to become realities.

The idea of being attacked in ones dreams is so so real. Most of my demonic attacks occur in that arena. Specially as a child, but what is odd about it is that the attack is REAL. What do I mean by the that demon or demons itself seem to be there in the flesh. Sort of like they take your consciousness to another location. One way that I learned to combat this and believe that all children that suffer from night terrors need to learn is through lucid dreaming. Being able to control every avenue of your dream with just a few small manipulations. Where once the nightmare controlled me, it became a way for me to control the nightmare.

While Jesus walked the land and performed many miracles, He never distinguished between illness and demon. He cast them all out just the same. almost as if they were the same.

now, i don’t even begin to be one of those who claims that anyone who is ill needs to be exorcised. we’ve created illnesses they never had to think of back then, such as cancers, aids, ms and so on. no doubt from the many toxins we shovel in our faces or breathe. But i have always found it interesting how he dealt with different afflictions all the same way.

now the fore runner of demonology, Solomon, went about things with a different technique. but that is another story.

A nightmare and a Night Terror are two different fruits. A nightmare occurs during REM sleep and you can learn to control your dreams.

A night terror occurs in stages 3 to 4 of the sleep cycle. This is during the time that the brain is truly inactive. It is regenerating itself. That is what makes a dream in this stage seem impossible. It is not and through scientific study they have shown that Night Terrors are real. Most children grow out of Night Terrors by the age of 7.

I have not out grown mine and suffer from them often but I have learned how to deal with it, I pray before I go to bed to have a peaceful sleep. I even meditate to keep the Night Terrors to a minimum. Sleeping medications are no help with this particular problem. My son had them growing up and still has them to this day. I have been teaching him how to control his sleep.

My son prays every night. I have taught him the conventional prayer for a child and he has learned the Lords prayer. Since he says these prayers and one added for protection he sleeps more sound. I had to teach him his own strength that comes from with in and to remember he is never alone, even in sleep.

You might try reading Fr. Gabriel Amorth's two books. "An Exorcist Tells His Story" and "More Stories From an Exorcist." Er, I think that's it. I'm not looking at them, so give me a little wiggle room on the titles.

It was once thought that all mental illness was demonic. Then we swung wildly in the other direction. Mental illness is just mental illness and the two have no link. Exorcists were given tools to discern one from the other. Fr. Amorth goes through a case or two there there is an overlay.

You might also study the works of Nikola Tesla. Fantastic stuff. He gave us so many things! Direct current, the radio, the MRI, the power station at Niagra Falls. Marconi's patten was recently overturned because he stole the idea from Tesla. He told us ages ago that we'd destroy the planet if we continued with current trends. He died in obscurity because money grubbing America just could not allow free power for all. Sigh...

Back on topic. Tesla's knowledge on electricity really helps one understand the spiritual. Remember, angels and demons are essentially the same. The same sort of being on two sides of a war. With us in the middle. They are basically made of electricity. Our bodies run on electricity. Hence they are able to manipulate it.

It's not difficult really. All it takes is a whisper. To bring us up. Or to bring us down. To help us or to hurt us. How they gain entry these days is just way too easy. We think nothing of a Victoria's Secret add. But how many of the seven deadly sins does it inspire in us? Lust, greed, envy, coventousness. We're surrounded by this stuff.

hi pastor,

I also learned to control my nightmares by lucid dreaming. It was the only way to stop them. I am currently teaching my son the same thing. It is by far one of my most favorite things I am glad I learned. You not only can stop nightmares but you can give yourself awesome dreams that resemble movies. Some times when in the mood for a good movie, all I have to do is go to bed. lol.

I have also awakened in the middle of a nightmare to actually hear a demon speaking my name over and over again. I believe his doing that is what was giving me the nightmare. I found it very interesting because I was able to learn from it that one way they can give us nightmares is by saying our names repeatedly above us while we sleep. Scary, but interesting. hehe