ot: demons and angels

you thoughts?

I believe in BOTH!  I've seen/entertained angels unaware and I have seen demons cast /prayed out of people.  I know many will not believe that latter, but I have many times.  Demonology is practiced today and people don't know what they are messing with and that leads them open to being posessed.  I won't go deeper in the subject because it is not my forte' and it isn't my favorite topic.  All I can say is people need to be careful in what they mess around with.  

Angels can be among us at any time.  I've seen too many to not KNOW this.  I had a friend who had the gift of seeing them in the spirit form.  I've only witnessed them in human form until I later realized who they were. 

Be careful my friend.  I'm not so sure what your neighbor has running aloft in her house!

Angels and Demons!  Wonderful novel by Dan Brown.  the "prequel" to The Da Vinci Code.  Can;t wait to see the movie as I loved the book!

so lame is the hair of tom. 
that is a quote from epic movie which makes parody of davinci code. 

so randall, have you ever seen or known a demon?

It was my priviledge at the height of the Satanist scare of the 1980s to work with an exortist.  There are a lot of different people who have "demons," some of these are the results of personality disorders and suggestibility.  Borderline personality disorders often claim to be possessed of demons for the attention that it gets them.  The obsessive personality can take on characteristics described as possession.  Then there are those that find it easier to claim to be possessed of a demon and have it cast out as a way to convince themselves to change.  These first two are by far the most common sources of demons.  However, there is another rare, extremely rare, case of possession.  It is called possession because of lack of a better name for it and because the events defy what we know at this time about people.  These are the dramatic things that you read about or hear about in movies like The Exortist.  People are actually thrown across the room.  Whelps come up on the person and then disappear, etc.

I mention this once again, this is extremely rare.  Mostly you have charlatons who are seeking a following for their "ministries" or you have a victim who needs more attention than they are currently getting.  These are the most common.  If a person tells you about having their demons cast out or that they can cast out demons, then most likely you need to run the opposite way.  People who actually do that work don't talk about it.  It attracts too many just plain nuts.

I spent 5 years researching Satanism and worked with some of the best in the field.  I talked to ex-High Priests and various researchers.  Most of these came from different  fields of the sciences and represented both the "religious" and the "nonreligious" views.

You cannot have demons or angels unless you believe in them.  You cannot have one without the other as they are the anthesis of each other.  Some of the angel stories are incredible, and to me, much more plausible than the demon stuff.  However, the visitation of an angel, is not all that common.  Random acts of kindness or unexplained kindness is not all that uncommon.  Who is to say why you decide to take a different road and later find you avoided an accident. 

We live in a world that has an entire realm that is unknown to us.  What is unusual from our frame of reference may be perfectly explainable from some one else's.  We do not know what exists inside another person's frame of reference or how they experience the universe.  What may seem silly to some of us, may be a valid explanation to someone else.

Hostage to the Devil is a pretty good book about demons and exorism.  He investigated the full continum of exorisms. 

I know that when you asked this question you were out there to stir things up a bit, as the board has gotten a little boring.  However, you must also know that some denominations use "deliverences" (protestant exorism, not the banjo playing song) as a regular part of their services.  But people have done many things that are unusual in the practice of their religion, whatever that religion may be.  Satanism is a religion recognized by the U.S. Government.  Anton LaVey established that when he was in the Army at Fort Bliss, TX.   And, as with all, religions, one is allowed to practice it as one deems fit, as long a no laws are broken.

Ok, I am through with this topic.  This will be my only comment on this thread.