Demons are inhabitants from another dimension, another plane of being. They have never been angels and they have never been human (art by Ricardo Pustanio).

      Throughout the centuries, the wisest priests among their flocks have acknowledged that it is very difficult to develop an adequate litmus test that will unfailingly distinguish between good angels and bad ones. Unless one is pure in heart, mind, and soul, it is an exceedingly complex task to discern accurately the true nature of spirits. It is generally known that good spirits will never attempt to interfere with our free will or possess our physical body. And, on the other hand, it is acknowledged that demons, the evil ones, desire the physical body of the human. In fact, they must have it in order to experience earthly pleasures and to work spiritual harm against other humans.

       The Demonic Power of Illusion

       Demonic entities are credited with will and intellect that are directed toward evil as they exert their malevolent powers. When these evil spirits penetrate the world and the circumstances of human life, they conceal themselves in every aspect of earthly existence. When it serves their purpose, they may assume the form of a lovely woman or a handsome man to seduce a confused human. These entities are succubi (the voluptuous and mysterious female night visitors) and the incubi (the buff and virile male lovers who disappear after planting their demon seed.) Artist and illustrator Wm. Michael Mott speaks to this demonic power of illusion very well in his superb Caverns, Cauldrons, and Concealed Creatures:

      As of late, conspiracy and UFO literature alike abound with similar accounts [of entity/human sexual intercourse], the only difference being that most of the reptilian seducers or rapists are male, and the human victims are female. Often, these accounts also involve abduction to underground bases or caverns, cavern-worlds, or close proximity to a cave or cavern in which the rape takes place.

      Another version of the succubus or incubus attack or rape occurs when the percipient awakens fully (at least mentally), can see and feel, but can’t move a muscle. Medical science refers to all such cases as sleep paralysis, and states that the condition is due to an awakened mental state, while the body is still asleep, or the person is in a hypnogogic state… . Often these incidents are accompanied by waking dreams or hallucinations, in which the victim feels, senses, or sees someone or something else in the room or beside the bed, or even feels a bodily or electrical pressure or weight descend upon them. A few female victims have reported actual physical intercourse with an unseen entity or group of entities, and this has, according to them, led to rape by invisible presences at later times, when alone and fully awake.

      Some see a psychological connection or cause to the latter type of supposed “hallucination,” often arising, in theory, from childhood trauma or molestation. But not all experiencers have such a thing in their chest of childhood memories or secrets. Some victims have noted that the emotion of fear increases the severity and frequency of the attacks, while praying to God for deliverance halts them, or ends the phenomenon completely. Rather than a hallucination, this would seem to indicate a conflict with the unseen, operating on the terms of the spiritual world.

      This calls into question the nature of this intrusive reality, and its intrusive, abusive inhabitants. Some evidence indicates a physical reality that requires blood, seminal matter, sperm and ova, and perhaps an ongoing ritualistic pattern of inflicting pain, fear, desire, and even servitude, for purposes of emotional or energy vampirism and behavioral conditioning. Folktales and mystical traditions are filled with accounts of these beings, and their ability to shape-shift, as well as alter their forms, from seemingly ‘fleshly,’ to barely substantial or opaque, to absolutely transparent or invisible… . The apostle Paul may have been alluding to this in Ephesians 6:12, when he named a hierarchy of enemies who oppress and victimize mankind, and oppose the will of their Creator (items in brackets are mine—W.M.M.):

      For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities [fallen angelic types and kingdoms], against powers [fallen angels], against the rulers of the darkness of this world [the unseen predators under discussion here, as well as possibly those human beings who interact with or serve them], and against spiritual wickedness in high places [the etheric and ufological connection, which has been often noted by researchers].

       Visitors from the Unseen World

      When we consider all of the remarkable discoveries in physics in the last few decades, acceptance of the world of the unseen should have been made much easier. The invisible reality of quarks and atoms and molecules and electrons that form our very existence are now able to be seen with the powerful microscopes and telescopes that can penetrate and examine both the inner space and the outer space that have for centuries been withheld from mortal eyes. The reality of the unseen spirit world should no longer require a great stretch of imagination or a mighty leap of faith. It simply needs to be better identified and understood.

      When we speak of spirit, we are speaking of something that is eternal, nonmaterial, and beyond time and space. Spirit is unchangeable, enduring, and above the laws of nature.

      Matter, on the other hand, is ephemeral, transient, material, subject to change in space and time.

      Regardless of the theories of quantum mechanics or the large numbers of serious scientists beginning to theorize about ten or more planes of reality, for the great majority of contemporary humanity accounts of demons are found only in grisly novels that depict vicious serial killers or in eerie horror stories that tell of tormented men and women who hear voices that order them to kill their victims in horrid ways. And, of course, there are the blockbuster movies that depict ingenious mass murderers who dissect and digest parts of their victims with fine wine and fava beans while they make fools of the authorities.

      All of these grim depictions of the criminal mind are devised to cause a shudder of primal fear within the reader or the viewer, but the effect is temporary. The book is ended. The theater lights come up. One can sigh, perhaps even chuckle wryly at the author’s or screenwriter’s rather perverse imagination, for these vivid works of fiction and cinematic chillers are just that—made up stories. We are relieved to put the book aside or leave the theater, knowing that the monsters that these tales portray are not real. They are only creatures born somewhere in the darkside of a writer’s psyche.