Paranormal Coffee Hour
Paranormal Coffee Hour
Demons
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Jenn and Cortney are going dark for this coffee hour at night. Demons. What are they? Where are they? And what’s truly the point of their existence? This coffee hour isn’t taking anything at face value. Be prepared to question everything you thought you knew about DEMONS.
Welcome to Paranormal Coffee Hour. We're your host Jen and Courtney. And we're pouring you a strong cup of the weird, the wonderful, and the woo-hoo.
SPEAKER_02On this episode of Paranormal Coffee Hour, we're talking about demons.
SPEAKER_00My best friends.
SPEAKER_02Basically, demons across cultures and like the evolution of the concept of evil.
SPEAKER_00I mean, everybody can make their own decisions, but what is evil?
SPEAKER_02Exactly. So from ancient Mesopotamia to modern Christianity, the concept of demons has shaped how we explain evil, suffering, and temptation. So in most traditions, demons are understood as spiritual beings that oppose divine forces. They tempt humans, they cause suffering, and they serve as symbols of the struggle between good and evil. Across time, they've been used to explain what we fear most, from disease to inner turmoil. However, Courtney, you found something quite interesting and quite different.
SPEAKER_00Originally, a demon, as they were called, was not evil. Instead, it was a neutral intermediary spirit between gods and mortals. They were agents of destiny, guardians, or inspirers of human action.
SPEAKER_02So that's really interesting because we have typically been taught in Christianity that there's really a few couple key roles of demons. Their first is temptation and sin, right? Correct. So their key function of a demon, particularly in the Christian tradition, is to tempt individuals to sin, tempting them away from God's commandments and towards actions that are considered morally wrong. They may exploit human weakness and desires, attempting to lead people into various forms of wrongdoing. They sound like fun.
SPEAKER_00I agree. Where can I find one?
SPEAKER_02Another role of demons, according to Christianity, is that they hinder faith. So they're seen as actively working to undermine faith in God and divine principles, and they may spread false doctrines, promote skepticism, and or encourage the worship of false gods or idols.
SPEAKER_00In many religious contexts, demons are believed to be responsible for various forms of suffering, both physical and mental. Oh shit.
SPEAKER_02Maybe you do have a demon.
SPEAKER_00Fantastic. I should name him. They can cause illness, psychological distress, and other forms of hardship. They may also sow discord and conflict among individuals and within communities. Fascinating. Ooh, serving Satan or other figures? Haha. Hello, my friend. In some religious systems, demons are seen as subordinate to a powerful evil figure like Satan. They act as his agents carrying out his will and furthering his goals or opposition to God.
SPEAKER_02And another role of a demon? Deception and misdirection. Demons are frequently depicted as deceivers. They use trickery, illusion to mislead people. They may even disguise themselves as benevolent beings or lovely people or promote false teachings to lead people astray. There's also roles that demons have that are specific to certain religions. So in Islam, the jinn are spirits that can be both good and evil, and they can possess or influence humans. In Buddhism, demons are seen as beings with accumulated negative karma, but some may also have positive karma. And in Jewish traditions, demons are associated with tempting individuals and causing suffering, which is where I think a lot of the Christian tradition comes in too. So demons as malevolent spirit entities appear in so many different forms across different religions and mythologies. And they're often depicted as beings that tempt, torment, or possess individuals. And they may be seen as agents of evil or forces that hinder spiritual progress. Their roles and characteristics vary significantly between belief systems. We're going to take a look at some of those belief systems additionally.
SPEAKER_00In Jewish tradition, demons are often seen as fallen angels or spirits, sometimes associated with figures like Azil or Lilith. They are believed to tempt humans and can cause possession in requiring an exorcism. Hmm. Interesting. Christianity also portrays demons as fallen angels led by Satan. They are seen as agents of evil who tempt humans and try to undermine their faith. Demons are often associated with the seven deadly sins, with figures like Lucifer, which is pride, mammon, which is greed, and asmodeus, which is lust, illzilbub, gluttony. And then we've got Islam. In Islam, the devil is known as Ilbilis, also referred to as Shaitan, a jinn created from smokeless fire. He is the main source of evil and temptation, and demons are seen as his helpers or followers.
SPEAKER_02That's fascinating. And we've been kind of fascinated by the jinn. And what maybe one of these times we'll actually do a podcast on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, instead of just touching on it here and there.
SPEAKER_02I feel like they just get touched now and then.
SPEAKER_00I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02Did I have consent? In Eastern religions, we're looking at Buddhism, and demons in Buddhism, like Mara, are not necessarily seen as evil in the same way as in Abrahamic religions that Courtney had discussed. They are often depicted as forces that tempt individuals and they hinder their path to enlightenment or nirvana, rather than just pure embodiments of evil. In Hinduism, it features various demons, including Rakshashas, forgive me for that poor pronunciation, and peace hachas, who are often associated with negative actions, violence, and haunting. Do not quote me on those names. Okay. In a lot of East Asian religions, like in China and Japan, demons are often incorporated from local folk beliefs. They may be spirits of nature, goblins, or ghosts, and are sometimes seen as malevolent forces to be feared and warded off. And then we have Zoroastrianism, which is an ancient Persian religion that features devas, which are considered evil spirits or demons.
SPEAKER_00Animism and shamanism, in various animistic and shamanistic traditions, demons or spirits are often associated with specific places, objects, or natural phenomena. They can be malevolent or benevolent. And their influence is often addressed through rituals and offerings. Some New Age religions also believe in spirits that can possess or influence individuals, requiring practices like exorcism to remove them.
SPEAKER_02So, as we can see from how different religions look at demons, they are generally depicted as powerful spiritual entities that can influence worlds and individuals. They're associated with negative emotions, temptations, and harmful actions. And in many other traditions, demons are seen as adversaries of good or higher powers, and they may be resisted or appeased through various practices. So the big thing is though the word demon suggests evil, as we talked about these different religions, not all of them see them as purely evil. So Buddhism, for example, demons symbolize inner desire. In Hinduism, they're cosmic forces and a moral balance. The Christian demon, however, becomes uniquely moralized, meaning it is the enemy of God.
SPEAKER_00It was a way to control.
SPEAKER_02It was. So that moves us into our next area of demons, which is what's the purpose of them in religion?
SPEAKER_00In religious context, demons are often created or incorporated to serve several purposes: explaining evil and suffering, defining moral boundaries. Boundaries are important everywhere, reinforcing religious authority, respect my authority, and providing a framework for understanding the spiritual realm. They act as antagonists to deities or divine forces embodying temptation, sin, and chaos.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So when I hear this, you know what it makes me think of? You know how we give little kids stories about like, if you're not good, so-and-so is gonna get you. Yep. That's really what religion has done, hasn't it?
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I'll let you keep going.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Here's a more detailed breakdown. Demons provide a framework for understanding the presence of evil and suffering in the world, attributing it to the influence or actions of these malevolent entities. This can be seen in Christianity where demons are believed to tempt humans to sin and oppose God's will.
SPEAKER_02So in one way, it's helping people try and understand why bad things happen.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Okay. Defining moral boundaries is by portraying demons as a source of temptation and evil, religions can establish clear boundaries between good and evil, right and wrong. This helps believers understand what actions are considered sinful and what behaviors are expected of them. See, I have a problem with this because my boundaries are not your boundaries.
SPEAKER_02Right. And honestly, what this makes me think of again is like fairy tales. So we create a character that's bad so we can define what's good. And fairy tales were used to teach children like the difference between right and wrong. Right. So we created demons, supposedly, to teach one another the difference between what's expected and what's not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just I'm gonna leave that. I'm gonna leave it. And reinforcing religious authority. The concept of demons can be used to strengthen the authority of religious leaders and institutions by presenting them as protectors against evil forces. For example, the belief in demons can lead people to seek guidance and protection from religious figures, reinforcing their role as intermediaries between the human and spiritual realms. So you need a go-to to speak to whoever. Uh-huh. Is what that's saying.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00Bullshit.
SPEAKER_02So it's basically setting up a hierarchy of who can talk to God and who can't.
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_02And you need to have that hierarchy to prevent you from being influenced by demons. Yep. Okay. Just making sure I'm understanding here.
SPEAKER_00And we've got demons can help create a more complex and non-inst understanding of the spiritual world, suggesting a dynamic interplay between good and evil forces. This can involve beliefs about demonic possession, rituals to ward off evil, or the idea that demons influence worldly events. Other religions may also use demons as symbolic representations of negative human traits or societal ills. Oh, you got sick because you must have a demon.
SPEAKER_02Yep. And you know, if it's we need to understand, oftentimes as humans, it needs to be black and white, right? People want it black and white. It's either good or it's bad. But there's so many different shades of it in between. So having a demon is like giving people the ability to go, this is what's wrong, this is what's good. And if you have anything that's close to this, then you're like that demon.
SPEAKER_00And that falls under, again, my boundaries are not your boundaries. I would allow that, you may not.
SPEAKER_02So if I'm understanding everything right here, demons are helping make sense of why suffering exists. They draw a clear moral line, good versus evil. And importantly, they give power to basically institutions that claim authority over these forces, such as priests and exorcists.
SPEAKER_00Correct.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Well, good. Glad I got that.
SPEAKER_00Wrap that up real quick.
SPEAKER_02All right. So let's talk about where the concept of demons actually comes from. Because a lot of times many faiths just teach that there's demons, but a lot of people don't understand actually where they came from or how they've evolved, I guess you could say.
SPEAKER_00What they were trying to cover up.
SPEAKER_02What was trying to be accomplished in this. So we're gonna go way back to the polytheistic or multiple god time, also known as paganism. So what happened here is that there was a demonization of pagan gods and goddesses. And this is a process where figures revered in these multi-god religions are reinterpreted as evil or malevolent beings within the framework of another religion like Christianity. So this phenomenon has particularly been rooted in the context and spread of faiths like Christianity, Islam, Judaism, as they encountered and often sought to replace an established pagan belief system. So why would they do this? Well, number one, to discredit and establish religious supremacy.
SPEAKER_01What? You don't say. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Christian leaders and theologians in particular sought to undermine pagan beliefs and practices in order to establish the superiority of their own religion. Okay, nice.
SPEAKER_00Weird.
SPEAKER_02But there's other reasons. To explain the similarities and perceived power. What does that even mean? It means that faced with similarities between pagan and Christian beliefs and the undeniable presence of power and miracles attributed to pagan gods, some Christians developed the idea of diabolical mimicry. So think of like a mimic, something that copies something else. The idea of diabolical mimicry is the claiming that demons were impersonating these deities to mislead people.
SPEAKER_00Oh, weird. So these guys have been worshiping their gods for how many centuries? But now all of a sudden they're demons.
SPEAKER_02Because they've been actually mimicking the original god.
SPEAKER_00Cool.
SPEAKER_02Why else might they have this? Fear and control. So demonization was a tactic to justify the suppression of paganism and to promote conversion. And what's the best way to do that? Fear and control. So one of the things that many religions did unfortunately well was reinterpretation of concepts of paganism. So you've got pagan concepts or deities and ambiguous or dualistic natures. They were always reinterpreted into the negative or the occult as we might want to call them now. So for example, the Greek god Pan, associated with nature, animalistic side of humanity. Well, guess what? Pan became Satan in Christian theology. So now we get that iconic image of the devil with horns and hooves. Well, that was Pan's look originally.
SPEAKER_00And he wasn't evil.
SPEAKER_02No. Other examples of demonized pagan gods. Lilith.
SPEAKER_00I love her.
SPEAKER_02In Jewish mythology, Adam's first wife, if you didn't know, he had a first wife before Eve. She left the Garden of Eden. She was depicted in early Christian writings as a demon who tempted men and caused infertility.
SPEAKER_00And she's the mother of Sucuus.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Hecate. She's the Greek goddess of magic in the underworld. What happened to her? Well, she was portrayed in Christian times as a demonic figure associated with sorcery and witchcraft. Which is why you see Hecate often tied to witches, because they're reclaiming her power. Yep. As Tarte, she is a Near Eastern goddess of fertility and sexuality. But the Christians, early Christians, decided to see her as a symbol of immorality and depicted her as a harlot or succubus.
SPEAKER_00Weird.
SPEAKER_02We talked about Pan before. Let's talk about Baal. Baal was a prominent Canonite god. He was demonized in the Hebrew Bible, with his name being altered to Baal Zubab or Lord of the Flies. A derogatory term. So the demonization process wasn't just spiritual, it was political. By casting rival deities as evil, early Christian leaders could justify conversion, conquest, and destruction of temples, claiming to save souls from demonic forces. Bullshit. So Courtney, what were the consequences of these demonizations?
SPEAKER_00Ooh, let's get into this. Suppression of beliefs and practices. Demonization contributed to the decline and suppression of pagan beliefs and practices in many cultures. The destruction of religious sites and artifacts, while not always the primary reason, the demonization of paganism often coincided with the destruction or repurposing of temples and religious artifacts, especially during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Saint Brigid, anybody?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. She was pagan, but we took her over and made her a Christian.
SPEAKER_00Lovely.
SPEAKER_02Even though she was never Christian, by the way.
SPEAKER_00Negative portrayal in popular culture. The legacy of demonization can still be seen in the negative portrayal of paganism in literature and popular culture and interpretation. The demonization of pagan gods was a complex process with varying interpretations and motivations throughout history. Some scholars suggest that the initial interactions between paganism and Christianity were not always characterized by hostility. Okay. I don't feel we like they got the same information I did, but alright. Not all pagans are demons. It's crucial to understand. Right. That classifying pagan deities as demons is a theological perspective within some Abrahamic religions and does not reflect the self-understanding of pagans themselves. Do people realize that there can be Christian pagans?
SPEAKER_02No. Just like people don't realize there can be Christian witches. Weird.
SPEAKER_00People believe in demons for a variety of reasons, often rooted in fear of the unknown, religious beliefs, or psychological factors. These beliefs can be influenced by cultural narratives, personal experiences, and a desire to explain inexplicable events. Here's a more detailed breakdown. Many cultures personify forces of nature or social anxieties as demons, attributing negative events to their influence.
SPEAKER_02So they have somebody to blame.
SPEAKER_00I could say so much, I won't. Belief in demons can provide a way to understand and cope with misfortune, illness, or even death by attributing them to an external malevolent force. I know somebody like that that's always thinking that they're possessed. That oh, there's evil afoot because everything's going wrong in their life. No.
SPEAKER_02So they need somebody to blame?
SPEAKER_00Yep.
SPEAKER_02I'm just gonna keep repeating this.
SPEAKER_00It's it's the blame game. Okay. Threat detection. Our brains are wired to identify threats. And sometimes this can lead to attributing malevolent intentions to unexplained events, even if they are natural occurrences. So people say, Oh, it's a demon. I just say it's fucking aliens. Cool.
SPEAKER_02And I just say they need somebody to blame. Right. So what we really have is a desire of not wanting to take responsibility or understand that there are things that can happen for no reason.
SPEAKER_00Correct. Okay.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_00Sum that up real nice. Religious texts, many religions feature demons or similar entities as antagonists to good or divine forces. The cultural narrative stories about demons and their interactions with humans are prevalent in various cultures, shaping beliefs and reinforcing their existence. Anyone want an apple? said the snake. And the personal interpretations, religious texts are narratives, can be interpreted in different ways, leading some to believe in the literal existence of demons and their influence. Because who said that it was even translated correctly? And it was all a bunch of men that were like, oh no, this is how it is. This is how it's gonna be. This is our word. Take it for what it is.
SPEAKER_02Take it, take it now.
SPEAKER_00I'm not bitter by it.
SPEAKER_02Shove it down your throat.
SPEAKER_00I'm not bitter by any of this, by any means.
SPEAKER_02So what we've got is basically a reshaping of spiritual history that's pretty much left deep scars.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, how many years later?
SPEAKER_02Many symbols of ancient fertility, nature, like horns, serpents, moons, all that fun stuff. They carry negative connotations now, because of these the centuries of demonization. Fantastic. Heaven forbid you wear a triple moon.
SPEAKER_00Oh shit.
SPEAKER_02No, I'm staring at Courtney's necklace. Yeah. I have a triple moon ring that's so tiny that people can't tell that it's a triple moon ring. Courtney, on the other hand, has a triple moon ring that like could probably leave a mark on somebody. And uh yeah. Defense. Defense. Yeah. Yeah. I know who they're coming after first. All right, folks. I think this part is very important. We want to talk about the doors that lead to demons. So I should throw all the doors and windows open. Mm-hmm. Exactly. What is ultimately going to cause you to become possessed?
SPEAKER_00The way it sounds, just being human. Weird.
SPEAKER_02Common doors to open. Here we go. How to get a demon to infiltrate your life. Take this as a how to or how not to. Depends on how you want to see it. Generational curses. There is another way of saying it is demons that were inherited through the bloodline. For instance, if someone in the family did witchcraft and never repented and broke that off of their family, then those demons have been passed on generationally.
SPEAKER_00Oh fuck.
SPEAKER_02The same is true when it comes to abuse or different forms of addictions.
SPEAKER_00I can see that, but that's more of a trauma, not a demon.
SPEAKER_02Yes, but we're not gonna call it trauma. We're gonna call it demons. Sorry. That's what we do. Okay, next one. An unwanted pregnancy. If the child in the womb is hated, not desired, or rejected since birth by the parents or the family, then that gets transmitted to the child. This opens the door for a spirit of rejection to affect the child throughout their life. It also manifests to rebellion as the child grows up. They will be demonic, essentially.
SPEAKER_00Isn't that the New Jersey devil?
SPEAKER_02Thought she had intimate like affair with the devil.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's a possibility. I mean, hey.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay, ready? Commando number three. Growing up in a broken home. When a child grows up in a broken home, it does not only create emotional and cognitive issues, but spiritual ones as well. As the child is faced with uncertainty and pressures that they are not equipped to handle at such a young age, because you know, all children are equipped at a young age to handle pressure. Demons can use this instability to harass and torment the child. This environment is a facilitator for the spirit of anger and hatred to come in at a very young age.
SPEAKER_00So again, another trauma. Cool. All right.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, as I say, do we notice pattern? Trauma pattern. Involvement in the occult. So when you dabble into the occult, you are choosing to blatantly engage with the demonic. The occult ranges from astrology, witchcraft, tarot cards, black, white, magic, Ouija boards, horoscopes, talking to the dead. I am cursed. We are so fucked. Fuck. Even though our culture seems to have accepted and even embraced. These practices, scripture has not changed and continues to condemn it, my children, and the practice of it. Door opener number five. Taking part in a quote-unquote false religion. There are some believers that desire to learn about other religions, saying that they want to win those people to the Lord. Now, this is a good thing to a certain point. There is a certain line that must be kept in order to reframe from opening the doors to demons, because what can end up happening is that a believer will begin to study the other religion so much that they become so open-minded and accept all truths.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so now I'm gonna stop you there. How many religions are out there, and which religion is the true religion?
SPEAKER_02Oh my, I think you have been possessed. Have you started to deny what the Bible claims, Courtney?
SPEAKER_00I'm just putting that out there because that is my number one pet peeve. There are how many religions out there, and yours is the only one out there that needs to be believed?
SPEAKER_02Girl, let me tell you, it says that is where it gets dangerous and could lead to deception.
SPEAKER_00I just threw the doors, windows, and the roof off. Deception.
SPEAKER_02Number six, the door to open, bringing demonic objects into your life. The spiritual world is real and spiritual power can flow through people, places, animals, and objects. In fact, the Bible shows us that God used Moses' rod, the waters of Jordan to heal, the saliva of Jesus to open the eyes of the blind, and even the handkerchief of Paul. God can use any avenue to bring about healing. In the same way, the enemy can use objects to bring about his plans of destruction to your life. This includes occult books, things that have been ritually cleansed, charms, dream catchers, etc. etc. By bringing these items into your home, you are opening your life and your home to the demonic.
SPEAKER_00Oh, here I thought they were talking about my familiar. Number seven. That dog is eating.
SPEAKER_02Dear God. Poor stitch. Number seven, door opener to the demonic, abuse. Trauma.
SPEAKER_00So you're being abused, but you are the one that opened the door to the demon, not the abuser.
SPEAKER_02So let's talk about this one because this is probably, as they say, the most common open door in the West. Abuse causes deeper inner wounds that give way for demons to cause further torment for that individual. As unfair as this is, at least they admit it, we must understand that the spiritual world works in accordance with spiritual law. When an abuse happens, it automatically opens a door for a demon. Case in point, Courtney.
SPEAKER_00We got the poltergeists. And those are not de well, I mean they could be demons, but all right, we're not done.
SPEAKER_02Oh wait, there's more. Number eight door opener is illicit sexual encounters, Courtney. Oh fuck. Sex is not just a physical act, it has spiritual repercussions because it is spiritual in nature. It affects the soul, the mind, and the emotions. An individual become one flesh, according to scripture, with the partner they come together with. That is from 1 Corinthians verse 6-16. In case you wanted to know, condoms can't protect you from demons.
SPEAKER_00Sweet, no wonder I'm having so much fun.
SPEAKER_02Demons can be transferred from one person to another by partaking in sexual acts outside of marriage, not in marriage.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that makes so much sense now.
SPEAKER_02How?
SPEAKER_00I mean, if that demon is being transferred, that makes a lot more sense. Oh my god. Just gonna put that out there.
SPEAKER_02Courtney, when we commit an injustice towards others, it brings a curse upon our lives. The Bible is very clear in saying this. So guess what? Door number nine is don't murder. Oh. So I should take the wood chipper back? No, no, it's actually quite helpful. Good. But murder is sin, and therefore you bring that curse of the demonic onto your lives. That's from Matthew 5, verses 21 through 22. Number 10. Because there's 11, if you were wondering.
SPEAKER_00I wonder if Dahmer then had his own little demons.
SPEAKER_02Really? You had to ask that question? Well, I mean, I'm just a man who cut apart and ate his victims? I wonder if he had demons. I would have went with trauma, but according to this, he would have. Number 10. Y'all sinners, ready for this one? Ungodly entertainment.
SPEAKER_00Oh, they're entertaining?
SPEAKER_02When we begin to fill up our time in our life with ungodly sources of entertainment, they could lead the way to an open door.
SPEAKER_00Oh, that's not what I heard.
SPEAKER_02Movies, TV shows, even music are all portals that Satan can use to influence the minds of people. If you're not careful about what you watch and listen to, its influence will become stronger in your life. To the windows, to the walls. And last but not least, ladies and gentlemen, we have that moment of weakness. Door number 11.
SPEAKER_00Oh, there's still more.
SPEAKER_02That's it. This is it. Door number 11. The devil looks for moments of weakness to try and enter into our lives. We're not perfect people. And sometimes we can snap and act in a way that's not right or watch something we shouldn't have. When we don't repent to God and to the person we hurt and then change our behavior, that then that's where it could all become an open door for Satan. This happens when the person chooses the sin instead of turning from it. Courtney, turn from the sin. Don't allow the sin to turn into a chain that becomes a cycle.
SPEAKER_00So I feel like that I've hit on almost every single one of those right now, and I feel like I'm living the best life right now. So either my demon knows how to fucking party, or this is all just kind of horseshit.
SPEAKER_02I don't know why you would say that, you unreligious girl.
SPEAKER_00From a psychological perspective, demons can serve as projections of our inner darkness.
SPEAKER_02What? They're projections.
SPEAKER_00And I like my darkness. You gotta love your darkness with your light. Anywho, fear, guilt, addiction, or grief. Carl Jung referred to this as the shadow.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's so surprising. I've never heard that before.
SPEAKER_00Weird. No wonder I love my shadow. Believing in demons can externalize evil, making it something we can battle outside ourselves.
SPEAKER_02Lovely. So why do people believe in demons? What's the psychological pinnings of that?
SPEAKER_00People who believe in the paranormal may be more prone to casual illusions, attributing cause and effect to events when they may not exist, leading to a belief in demonic influence. So psychology is saying this. Yeah, I'm not.
SPEAKER_02You have to understand, they're trying to look at it at a r as a rational explanation for why people would look at it.
SPEAKER_00Okay, a broader picture. Yeah. Okay. I was like, excuse me. Confirmation bias is individuals may selectively pay attention to information that confirms their existing beliefs about demons while ignoring or downplaying contradictory evidence.
SPEAKER_02So basically, my religion has told me to believe this, so I'm going to believe it whether or not I'm seeing it actually happen.
SPEAKER_00My religion told me to jump off a bridge, so here I go.
SPEAKER_02Well, and if your religion is explaining it through, you know, this is a demon, you're gonna see it that way. That's what confirmation bias really is. You're gonna see it the way you were taught to see it.
SPEAKER_00And we've got the social influence. Belief in demons can be reinforced by social groups and communities, leading individuals to accept and internalize these beliefs.
SPEAKER_02So this is once again where you know religion can step in and then like confirm that you need to believe in this. So you feel like you have to in order to be a follower of that religion. Okay, so your belief in demons is part of your religion, but what if your religion starts to want to communicate with demons? So what we see here is a leap from theology to the paranormal. And this actually starts later. We have like the Renaissance and early modern period, occultists and magicians. They would write like detailed grimoires describing how to summon or control spirits, including demons. And the idea that these beings could be invoked or studied began to move demonology from the pulpit of the church into the laboratory of mysticism. So these experiments blurred the line between religious beliefs and something that looked more like early spiritual research. Now we're gonna fast forward to the 19th century and the rise of spiritualism. This brought a new fascination with the unseen. We've got seances, ghost photography, psychic mediums. All of this made the afterlife feel reachable. And with that came a new kind of fear. So when people claimed to contact spirits, some encounters turned terrifying, and those darker experiences were labeled demonic. What does this make you think of? Ghost adventures.
SPEAKER_00Yes. I possessed. God reach out and touch me.
SPEAKER_02This was when the term started to leave its strictly religious context and enter popular discussions about hauntings, possession, and unexplained phenomena. Now, fast forward to the 20th or mid-20th century, we'll say, especially after the Exorcist premiered in 1973, the connection between demons and the paranormal just exploded. So before that, ghost stories were mainly about hauntings, like cold spots, footsteps, flickering candles, that kind of thing. But the Exorcist reframed spiritual evil as something personal, invasive, and horrifyingly physical. Suddenly, paranormal investigators, priests, and skeptics were talking about demonic infestations instead of just simple hauntings. Oh, good. So pop culture has actually taken the concept of demons and essentially made it terrifying again. And they also reflect our continued need to personify evil and to make sense of darkness in the cinematic form.
SPEAKER_00Today, many are rediscovering the spiritual paths that were demonized. Modern pagans, witches, and seekers are returning to the old names. For Gede, Hecate, Cerunos, and Nana, not as demons, but as guides, archaeotypes, and living energies. Reclaiming these names isn't just about spirituality. It's about remembering, is about healing from centuries of cultural loss. It's about asking who decided what is good and what is evil and why? I feel like I've asked that question a few times today. Yes. The demonization of pagan gods wasn't about the truth. It was about control. But the old stories still whisper, the old gods still speak if you know how to listen.
SPEAKER_02And in the end, demons are mirrors. They're reflections of humanity's anxieties, desires, and search for meaning. Whether seen as literal entities or metaphors for evil, they challenge us to confront the shadows within ourselves and within our societies. So now I invite you to grab that cup of coffee and reflect on what do demons represent to you? Are they supernatural? Are they psychological archetypes? Or are they just cultural stories? Each perspective will offer you a different kind of truth. And as always, keep it weird.
SPEAKER_00Keep it wonderful.