Demonic presence

[Terry]

Hello all, I know that i have been asking a lot of questions about orthodoxy that I should of already known before i was baptized, but that wasn't required of me, and I live in Romania and donnot speak the language so i can't just go ask somebody, thats why im asking here...

so my question is, How do you know if you have a demonic presence in your home? and how do you get rid of it? can you do it yourself with holy water? also what attracts them?

[Chrissi]

Dear Terry in Christ,

Firstly you must cross yourself and pray anytime you have this fear because the cross will protect you. Then you must understand that demons are everywhere ready to tempt us and torment us. If something unearthly seems to be in the home even if it seems that it may be from God always assume that it is evil too. Start praying straight away. The Holy Fathers teach us that the evil ones will pretend to be from God to trick us. You will only know you are ok when you are praying and crossing yourself because demons fear the sign of the cross.

Here is a prayer for a building afflicted by evil spirits (http://www.orthodox.net/trebnic/for-building-afflicted.html) from Father Seraphim's Orthodox net site.

Also, knowing that it could be difficult for you in your situation, if at all possible get your home blessed as soon as possible and keep icons in every room if you are able to. Keep a supply of holy water that you can sprinkle around the home in between house blessings (which should be about once a year).

If you can do nothing else the prayer and the sign of the cross will help you and ask for the prayers of others.

Also you asked what attracts demons into your home ...... we do, we do this when we don't follow Christ's teachings, when we watch evil things on tv, listen to music that is satanically inspired, when we decide to put ourselves before God, when we don't pray, don't go to Church, don't have confession and communion regularly.

(Math 24:23Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.)
(http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mt%2024:23;&version=9;)

[Terry]

Thank you Chrissy, That was very helpful..

Ever since I was around 10-13, I was always in fear of demons... I guess from going to a lot of pentecostal churches, and seeing real videos of a preacher casting out a demon out of a man, or even one time we went to church and somebody puked green slime, no joke..... I was always tormented by fear, always ... my mom even got me a cat to sleep with ... I am 17 now, but I always wondered, how do we know when they are tormenting us? When we feel fear and can't sleep at night, is this how we know? Is that them doing this to us?

@};- -Terry-

[Mourad Mankarios]

Hi Terry,

While the church believes in the real tangible presence of a menacing evil it still seems to be plagued by centuries of witch hunts and superstitions not to mention the culture of horror and fear created by hollywood and all of the hype surrounding the paranormal. I think that some level of sobriety is required when dealing with these matters and the church itself has come with the times and discovered that psychology and simple physics can explain a lot of what we have in past times assumed to be associated with the paranormal. Therefore, I don't think squeaky noises at night are just gonna cut it anymore.

Personally, I think that firstly as an Orthodox Christian you need to understand that you come from a position of strength rather than weakness or fear. Your faith should not be a cause for such fear but strength in the power that comes from the Lord. Secondly, if it is reassurance you require than as far as I know most Orthodox churches have some form of ritual for the blessing of homes. Therefore, you can invite your local parish priest to your home and ask him to perform such a ritual which as far as I know usually involves some prayers and the sprinkling of holy water within the home. You can also establish your house as a good Christian home with prayers, icons and your good conduct.

Finally, I wouldn't succumb to any kind of supernatural or paranormal inclination or autosuggestion unless I actually witnessed such a phenomenon and then had it verified by someone else or atleast had my head checked. I think like you've said you're background probably has a lot to do with it and you're probably a little edgy and too suggestive when it comes to the demonic. It's really sad that children would have to witness these kinds of things.

I think fear in and itself can be a demon sometimes and we also often create our own demons. So just be careful that you don't fall into that trap.


"The Lord is my helper; I will not fear." (Heb 13:6)

[Irene]

Prayer Against Demonic Influence from the Joy in Sorrow (http://www.joyinsorrow.com/viewPrayer.asp?id=15) site
Almighty God, Who delivered Your people from the bondage of the adversary, and through Your Son cast down Satan like lightning, deliver me also from every influence of unclean spirits. Command Satan to depart far from me by the power of Your only begotten Son. Rescue me from demonic imaginings and darkness. Fill me with the light of the Holy Spirit that I may be guarded against all snares of crafty demons. Grant that an angel will always go before me and lead me to the path of righteousness all the days of my life, to the honor of Your glorious Name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

[Vasiliki D.]

Hi, great question and great answers.

I was wondering how everything in the Church is a paradox ultimately. So, the advise for a "beginner" is often the very advise that doesnt relate for a more advanced orthodox.

Why do I say this ... as a beginner the advise that I have from the priests and from the books I read is to wear a cross, fast, pray, participate in the sacramanets and also the sprinkling of holy water etc helps protect us from the demonic presence.

On the other hand, i read the bios of ascetics and saints ... and think ... here are individuals who do all that we are asked to do so that we can protect ourselves but in their cases the demonic presence is MORe real than for us because it is a necessary warfare they need to actually reach theosis/deification.

Isnt it interesting that we pray to avoid running into them and they pray so that they can fight them in the warfare so that during this warfare they can pray even more to God. Paradox.

[Amalia]

I am a student and I live in a student flat. When I started getting closer to the church and hung icons in my room I had some really bad dreams for a couple of nights that the devil was very angry at those icons and wanted to rip them away. I could not see it in my dreams but I could feel it. Then after a while I started dreaming that the devil wants to take posesion of me and woke up in the middle of the night, could not talk, could not move and felt an extremly evil presence near me. I could only pray that God saves me and that state eventually vanished. I had such "visits" for a week every night at 1:50. Every night I woke up at the same time having those nightmares. It was horrible. I ended up sleeping with icons in my bed. I was sooo scared. It eventually stopped.
Even people who are not religious told me they feel an evil presence in that room.
I would say ask a priest to make prayers, confess regularly, participate to the communion. I used holy water and holy oil but that wasn't enough in my case.

[Vasiliki D.]

I am a student and I live in a student flat. When I started getting closer to the church and hung icons in my room I had some really bad dreams for a couple of nights that the devil was very angry at those icons and wanted to rip them away. I could not see it in my dreams but I could feel it. Then after a while I started dreaming that the devil wants to take posesion of me and woke up in the middle of the night, could not talk, could not move and felt an extremly evil presence near me. I could only pray that God saves me and that state eventually vanished. I had such "visits" for a week every night at 1:50. Every night I woke up at the same time having those nightmares. It was horrible. I ended up sleeping with icons in my bed. I was sooo scared. It eventually stopped.
Even people who are not religious told me they feel an evil presence in that room.

Other than the Theotokos - the Archangel Michael is very good to pray to in the situation when you are in the presence of an evil spirit ... I have met other university students who studied abroad and came across a similar fate ... I wonder if there is a connection.

[Mary]

Other than the Theotokos - the Archangel Michael is very good to pray to in the situation when you are in the presence of an evil spirit ... I have met other university students who studied abroad and came across a similar fate ... I wonder if there is a connection.

I wouldn't know what kind of connection to look for! I experienced the same thing as Amalia, only it was in my own bed! It hadn't happened before, and it hasn't happened since, and I dont' remember the things happening in my life at the time, so I can't say if there's a connection. But it was almost identical to Amalia's experience. At first, I thought I was dreaming, but it wasn't a nice dream. I felt like someone was inside our house who shouldn't be there, and when I found that person, it tried to hold me down. I tried to wrestle free, and I tried to scream, but no sound would come out and I couldn't move my hands. I especially wanted to get my right hand free, so I could make the sign of the cross. I wasn't able. I also, was trying to say "Lord have mercy," but I couldn't.

Then, I was able to move my wrist, and made a very tiny cross, and that started to lose the grip of the force on me. As soon as I felt it weaken, I made a bigger and bigger cross, till I was able to turn around and make the cross in front of it, then it disappeard. But then I was also able to get out of bed, and thought I had dreamed the whole thing. But I was feeling too scared, and din't care if it was just a dream. I went through the whole house, first my kids' rooms and made the sign of the cross everywhere. This was a few months ago. Nothing has happened since.

[Vasiliki D.]

I know that there is a connection between the demonic evil spirit visiting a student who is living away from home ... it is VERY common, more common than most Orthodox think ... I personally have spoken to many students who have this experience.

I suppose I should have said, I dont know why there is such a high percentage - what is the connection in a spiritual sense ... the student either away from home or living at home is the target of these visitations more than older people ...

What I DO know and I know it well is that the Archangel Michael is the Orthodox patron to turn to ... he is the one who stood up to the legion and voiced the never to be forgotten word "Stomen" (Stamata) - Stop!

The devil cowers in the presence of the Archangel Michael, he is a mighty warrior against the devil - as his iconography and his warrior breast plate also show!

Holy Michael Archangel Mantamados, Panormitis - turn your attention and protect our students from the visitations of the evil one.

My personal opinion is that it is highly likely that the room that people visited by evil pneumata needs the Service of Holy Water read in that room with a priest ... and that they should check if they are wearing a cross and have an icon hanging over their bed. 90% of cases these things are missing and so the students are not protected ...

[Amalia]

That is interesting what you wrote Vasiliki. I didn't know that there are many students experiencing that. Is it practicing Orthodox students you are talking about or are they rather not involved with the church?
What I noticed in my case is that everytime I have such visitations after a while some difficult situation comes into my life.
Last time I had visitations was when I came home after spending 2 days at a monastery where I also made a quite thorough confession. It's like the devil got very upset by it.

[Vasiliki D.]

Amalia dearest {{hugs}}

Well, I am only speaking from my own interactions so this is not necessarily what is happening out there to everyone; its just my own statistics point in this direction ... what I have noticed is that those students who are 'visited' by the devil do tend to have certain things in common.

The first thing I have noticed is that all of them have a "kind heartedness" about them ... they all tend to be warm and friendly individuals with a natural disposition in the virtue of "unselfish love" ...

The second thing I have noticed is that all of them believe in God but are not necessarily well-instructed in the matters of the Church nor are they practicising properly, like you pointed out they are tempted just after a conscious effort to make an effort and/or preceeding a bad event.

The third thing I have noticed is that all of them have "someone" in their family (mother, auntie etc) who is 'deeply involved' in the church ... that one is the most interesting ... who is praying for them the most in or around the time of the visitations. It seems to be a reason why they are 'saved' from the evil, the fact that someone is praying.

Vasiliki

[Paul Cowan]

I was a poorly practising protestant in college, but I did "believe" yet I knew I was breaking all the rules also. I think perhaps being away from home and caring family and a praying mother and the fact most kids push the envelope; Orthodox or not. I can't recall any one specific time during this period of my life, but yeah, I allowed myself to be engulfed in an atmosphere of evil. There are things I did I would never have done if held accountable. My fault? yes. Influenced from an outside source? possibly. I would like to shift the blame for my behavior to "something" else. But has man not done this from the beginning?

The devil cannot Make us Do anything we are already not willing to do.

I have also "heard" a voice when I was in a better place that I attriubted to God. SO maybe that part of the Creed "I believe in all things visible and invisible" has something to it afterall.

Paul