Giving advice on demons
Hey everybody,
I wanted to try to start a discussion on this, because it seems to me there are a lot of people talking about demons and demonic activity lately. This is not only on our forums, but on television and in movies. Demons seem culturally pervasive, just as angels were back in the 90's.
What is different, though, is the danger levels.
Just about anyone who believes demonic hauntings (as well as demonic oppression and possession) exist, believes that they are among the most (if not the most) dangerous type of haunting. It's also one of the most rare types of hauntings.
The problem that exists, with demons being so popularized in the media (and misrepresented on shows like Paranormal State... where is seems like demons are in every house), is that people not familiar with the paranormal have begun to see any haunting, especially malevolent hauntings, as demonic.
I think that we, as avid "fans" and students of the paranormal have 2 imperatives at this point... and those are the things I think we need to discuss.
1) Addressing the concerns of those who feel they are being attacked
2) Giving them some sort of help.
None of us are demonologists (that I'm aware of), and I don't think many of us have ever stepped in and tried to aid in a demonic case in a hands on nature. Because of this I think we need to begin taking a much more measured approach to how we address people who come to us asking for help with demons.
Because demonic activity is so rare, I think we need to be careful how swiftly we use the D word. I must say that in some cases we are very good about this, and I know is some cases people are already panicked and analyzing will not help them.
The second is the most important thing that I think we need to openly discuss. If someone does have a demonic entity in their house, we must be careful what advice we give. Demonic activity can be extremely dangerous (if not physically then mentally) to the person being affected, and if they come here seeking advice... we need to be careful what we say.
Simply telling someone to throw religious scripture at a demon, or citing a story from a religious text may not be the best thing to do. There are a couple thousand years worth of people working against demonic activity, and there's been a lot of work done in the past couple of decades that is well documented. I'm not saying throwing your religion at a demon may not help, but if it's not done properly, it may make things much worse.
Now, I'm not saying we can not offer advise to those plagues by what they feel is demonic activity... but I think we all need to use some self restraint when doling out advice, because I don't think any of us want someone to come back saying that what we told them to do made matters worse.
What do you guys think?
I wanted to try to start a discussion on this, because it seems to me there are a lot of people talking about demons and demonic activity lately. This is not only on our forums, but on television and in movies. Demons seem culturally pervasive, just as angels were back in the 90's.
What is different, though, is the danger levels.
Just about anyone who believes demonic hauntings (as well as demonic oppression and possession) exist, believes that they are among the most (if not the most) dangerous type of haunting. It's also one of the most rare types of hauntings.
The problem that exists, with demons being so popularized in the media (and misrepresented on shows like Paranormal State... where is seems like demons are in every house), is that people not familiar with the paranormal have begun to see any haunting, especially malevolent hauntings, as demonic.
I think that we, as avid "fans" and students of the paranormal have 2 imperatives at this point... and those are the things I think we need to discuss.
1) Addressing the concerns of those who feel they are being attacked
2) Giving them some sort of help.
None of us are demonologists (that I'm aware of), and I don't think many of us have ever stepped in and tried to aid in a demonic case in a hands on nature. Because of this I think we need to begin taking a much more measured approach to how we address people who come to us asking for help with demons.
Because demonic activity is so rare, I think we need to be careful how swiftly we use the D word. I must say that in some cases we are very good about this, and I know is some cases people are already panicked and analyzing will not help them.
The second is the most important thing that I think we need to openly discuss. If someone does have a demonic entity in their house, we must be careful what advice we give. Demonic activity can be extremely dangerous (if not physically then mentally) to the person being affected, and if they come here seeking advice... we need to be careful what we say.
Simply telling someone to throw religious scripture at a demon, or citing a story from a religious text may not be the best thing to do. There are a couple thousand years worth of people working against demonic activity, and there's been a lot of work done in the past couple of decades that is well documented. I'm not saying throwing your religion at a demon may not help, but if it's not done properly, it may make things much worse.
Now, I'm not saying we can not offer advise to those plagues by what they feel is demonic activity... but I think we all need to use some self restraint when doling out advice, because I don't think any of us want someone to come back saying that what we told them to do made matters worse.
What do you guys think?
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