From Out of Darkness

By Amie May

She said, "When my husband was called to duty overseas, they knew that I was alone and vulnerable.  They held me down, I screamed out in terror.  I cried out in fear.  My children were awakened.  They couldn't do anything; there was nothing we could do but be afraid."
 
She said, "When I go to bed, it sits upon my chest.  I can feel it pressing on me, and its hot breath against my cheek.  My heart is pounding so hard that the bed is moving.  In my mind I'm screaming, but my mouth won't move.  If I weren't so afraid I could cry.  Just to open my eyes.  A dark figure in the corner; sounds of footprints and no one is there. I lay frozen."
 
He said, "My eyes are open, but I am unable to move or speak. There is a deafening roar of noise. Some times the roar has an intense rhythm, but the rhythm is violent and the sound crashes into me. There are ‘light explosions.’ These are brilliant flashes over me. And the terror and fear is so intense, it seems like my body is being flooded with adrenaline. This is beyond de scri ption. And there is a terrible presence in the room.  I also am convulsing, violently, being flailed about, eyes open, but I'm not moving. It feels like I'll be ejected out of my bed, but my wife never awakens. I try desperately to move or to scream, but I can't make a sound because of the crushing weight on my chest. Total paralysis."
 
He said, "I saw it happen.  In church camp a boy jumped to an unimaginable height.  His face contorted and he looked as if he were reeling in pain.  We held him down and prayed.  We were confused.  The leaders came and took him.  He was back again in the morning—normal.  And no more was ever said about it."
 
She felt doom approaching.  She couldn't move, so she fell to the floor.  She could feel loss of control over her bodily functions.  The muscle in her bicep began to contract; everything moving.  The world around her became further away, yet somehow remained unchanged.  It was as if she had just slipped inside a transparent tin can.
 
Action, Nouns, and Translations
 
The ancient Hebrews didn't think like we do. Their nouns were not words referring to static people, places, or things.  Instead, they referred to the action of a person, place, or thing.  The Hebrew noun "cloud" for example (whether it points to covering the sky, the glory of God, or a magician's trick) takes an action.  The cloud "covers" or "conceals."  When we speak of a cloud, "cloud" is an actionless noun.  It needs a verb in order to do something.
 
The Hebrew noun "satan" means "one who opposes, one who withstands, an adversary."  So, "being adverse" or "opposing" is the action of the noun "satan."
 
The Bible uses the word "satan" as a verb also.  Bible versions have it translated as foe, accuser, adversary, and enemy.  Below, I have catalogued the various ways "satan" has been translated in the Old Testament.  None of the passages dictate the existence of a "supernatural being."

1. Foe.  Numbers 22:22.  1Samuel 29:4.  2Samuel 19:22.  Psalm 109:20
 
2. Enemy.  Numbers 22:32.  Psalm 71:13 and 109:4.
 
3. Adversary.  1Kings 5:4; 11:14, 23, 25;  14:14, 23, 25.  Psalm 109:6.
 
4. Attack.  Psalm 38:20.
 
5. Accuse.  Psalm 109:29.  Zechariah 3:1.

Sometimes, translators decide to transliterate a word.  Transliterating is taking a word from a different language and introducing it to another language.  The word "satan" is transliterated in some texts, rather than being translated.  However, this does not change the word’s meaning; it still means "one who withstands" or "adversary."
 
Below I have included four texts where Bible translators often choose to transliterate "Satan."  I have included many commonly used translations in brackets.

1 Chronicles 21:1.  “And Satan [the adversary] stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.”

Job 1:6-9, 12.  “And a day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah. And Satan [the adversary] also came among them. And Jehovah said to Satan [the adversary], ‘From where have you come?’ And Satan [the adversary] answered Jehovah and said, ‘From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.’  And Jehovah said to Satan [the adversary], ‘Have you set your heart on My servant Job because there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil?’  And Satan [the adversary] answered Jehovah and said, Does Job fear God for nothing?’… And Jehovah said to Satan [the adversary], ‘Behold, all that is his is in your hand! Only, do not lay your hand on him. And Satan went out from the face of Jehovah.”

Job 2:1-4, 6-7.  “And it happened that a day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before Jehovah. And Satan [the adversary] also came among them to present himself before Jehovah. And Jehovah said to Satan [the adversary], ‘From where have you come?’  And Satan [the adversary] answered Jehovah and said, ‘From going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it.’  And Jehovah said to Satan [the adversary], ‘Have you set your heart on My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, fearing God, and turning away from evil? And he is still holding to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to swallow him for nothing.’ And Satan [the adversary] answered Jehovah and said, ‘Skin for skin. Yea, all that a man has he will give for his life.’ And Jehovah said to Satan [the adversary], ‘Behold, he is in your hand; but preserve his life.’ And Satan [the adversary] went out from before the face of Jehovah. And he struck Job with bad burning ulcers from the sole of his foot to the top of his head.”

Zechariah 3:1-2.  “And he made me see Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of Jehovah, and Satan [the accuser/adversary] standing at his right hand to accuse him.  And Jehovah said to Satan [the accuser/adversary], ‘Jehovah rebuke you, Satan [accuser/adversary]!  And, Jehovah who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked out of the fire?’”

None of these texts demand a reading that supports a supernatural being by the name of "Satan."  There is nothing that even dictates that "the adversary" is evil in every use.  For example, 1 Chronicles 21:1 reads, "And Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel."  The parallel account in 2 Samuel 24:1 reads, "And again the anger of Jehovah glowed against Israel, and moved David against them, to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’"  Within that context, we might surmise that God is being "adverse" to David. 
 
Satan and Job
 
Many of us are familiar with the story of Job.  In chapter 1 we find the “sons of God” presenting themselves before the Lord, and Satan (or "the adversary") accompanying them.
 
The word "son" was used by ancient Hebrews to convey not only biological relationship, but in answer to, or in standing with.  A hero could be seen as a "son of strength."  A fast runner might be a "son of lightning."  An evil person could be called "the son of Baal."
 
A person of esteem might be known as "son of God."  Typically such persons of esteem were messengers, prophets, or priests.  Generally, they were held in high esteem because of their intimate relationship with God.  Israel as a nation was called "son," even "firstborn" (Exodus 4:22).  Sometimes, rulers of countries were afforded the title "son of God" based on what people saw as nearness to God in position.
 
Often, we find esteemed men presenting themselves before the Lord.  Moses presented himself before the Lord on Sinai (Exodus 34:1-2).  The priest cleansing a man would present that man along with the appointed offerings before the Lord (Leviticus 14:10-11).  Joshua and Moses presented themselves before the Lord at the tabernacle so that Joshua would receive his charge from God (Deuteronomy 31:14).
 
Important for the book of Job is the process by which the Law of Moses instructs adversaries to make accusations against each other.  The opponents would present themselves before the Lord, the priests, and the judges at the tabernacle where each accuser would make his case (Deuteronomy 19:16-17).
 
As the story of Job opens, Satan questions Job's loyalty.  God, then, gives Job into Satan's hand.  Satan (whoever that may be in the story) has no more power of his own in this story than Moses did when the Red Sea was parted.  God is the primary mover.
 
Job 1:14 begins to describe Job's losses.  A foreign nation took the oxen and asses and killed the men.  The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the young men.  Another nation took away the camels.  A great wind made a house fall in, and it killed Job’s sons.  Job attributes all of the events to God. "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away".
 
In chapter 2, Satan (adversary/accuser) is amongst the sons of God presenting themselves before the Lord once more.  In verse 3, God questions the accuser, "And he is still holding to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to swallow him for nothing."  The adversary further questions Job’s integrity, and God turns Job over to him again.
 
In verse 7, Satan struck Job with ulcers, similar to the incident of Moses striking the rock in Exodus 17:6.  Just as Moses could not produce water by himself, the adversary could not strike Job on his own authority.  The adversary in Job has no power of his own.
 
Then in 2:10, we find that Job did not sin by indicating the source of his condition.  He asked his wife, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?"
 
As the story unfolds, Job is hurt by his friends’ lack of compassion and their assumption that he was in need of correction.  He challenges them to show him what he has done wrong.  In chapter 6, Job wrestles with what God (not Satan) has brought on him.  "For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; their fury is drinking my spirit; the terrors of God are set against me."
 
Job sees death as the only relief for this suffering. So in 6:9, Job asks God to crush him and cut him off.  Job pleads with God to leave him alone saying that God is scaring him with dreams and terrifying him with visions.  His soul chooses strangling and death rather than his bones.  Who is he after all, that God would turn his attention on him?
 
The heated discussion wears on as Job's friends continue to “correct” him for seeing himself as a blameless victim.  They assure him of God's righteousness while Job feels that he is an innocent sufferer.  The rhetoric escalates as his friends accuse him of impiety.  Meanwhile, Job seeks to have an audience with God to defend himself.
 
Throughout the story, the identity of the adversary (or adversaries) emerges.  Just as the Law prescribed, both accuser (satan) and the accused are presenting their case before the Lord.  Also, I would like to note that they were presenting themselves "in the tabernacle," and not in "heaven" as is often assumed.
 
"Satan" in the New Testament
 
We find multiple references to Satan in the Gospels and in Paul’s letters.  I have included references below.  Reading the passages as “adversary” instead of “satan” may help open fresh ways of seeing the texts.
 
1. Matthew 4:10.  12:26.  16:23
 
2. Mark 1:13.  3:23, 26.  4:15.  8:33
 
3. Luke 4:8. 10:18.  11:18. 13:16.  22:3, 31
 
4. John  13:27
 
5. Acts 5:3. Acts 26:18
 
6. Romans 16:20
 
7. 1 Corinthians 5:5.  7:5
 
8. 2 Corinthians 2:11.  11:14.  12:7.
 
9. 1 Thessalonians 2:18
 
10. 2 Thessalonians 2:9
 
11. 1 Timothy 1:20.  5:15
 
 
Demons, Dust, and Devils
 
Satan in Matthew 12 offers many angles for interrelating Satan and a related idea, Beelzebub.  Matthew 12:26 sounds as if satan is personified.  It reads "And if Satan throws out Satan, he was divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?" There is no textual warrant for inserting the personal pronoun "he" into the passage.  "Himself" is translated from the Greek "heautou," which is accusative and doesn't have gender.  The same word is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as "herself," "itself," "themselves," "yourselves," and "ourselves.”  These are not indicative of personage.  Jesus is not necessarily talking about a disembodied malevolent being.
 
In the Old Testament, Beelzebub was seen as an adversary of God, because he was a false god.  The ancients used the phraseology "devil."  "Devil" in the Old Testament is a translation from "sa`iyr" (hairy goat) or "shedim."  These devils were understood to be other gods.  Though Israel was to abstain from sacrificing to them, time after time we see that they believed in their existence.
 
The ancient Israelites fashioned their beliefs from the countries who shared their world.  Egyptians believed that by building an image of a god, this god would actually become one with that image.  The idol, then, would not just be the representation of that god on earth; it would actually be that god on earth.  For instance, the Hebrews after leaving Egypt demonstrated this belief when they built the golden calf for the Elohim (God) that delivered them from Egypt (Exodus 32:4, 8).
 
The Babylonians and Hebrews shared the view that each person had a thousand shedim on their left, and a thousand on their right.  They believed that the shedim lived in dark and filthy places, especially in ruins, waste water, and in the shadows of large trees.
 
The gods of the surrounding peoples were a constant presence for ancient Israelites.  Sometimes these gods were revered.  Many Israelites offered sacrifices to them although the Israelites likely associated feelings of fear with those gods.  They were unclean, scary things and contrary to God's commands.  If a person were unclean as well, they might become an easy target for this scary god.
 
The Hebrew word "nephesh" is translated "soul" in the Old Testament.  Nephesh is who a person is, the life inside us, our metaphorical "heart," and sometimes our "mind."  It is the person, whatever "body" (metaphorical or literal) it identifies with.  Job says that his "breath is corrupt" or his "spirit is broken" (Job 17:1).  His energy was spent. In Job 19:17, Job says, “My breath is strange to my wife.”  In other words, he wasn't acting like himself.  That which came forth from Job was foreign to her.
 
The Hebrew words "rauch" and "nashamah" are generally translated "spirit, breath, wind, inspiration" in the Old Testament.  Whether it is breath, wind, or inspiration, the spirit moves.  It proceeds forth, even, from the soul or person.  The meaning does not change in the New Testament.
 
By the breath of God mankind was formed (Gen. 2, Job 33:4, Psalm 33:6).  Psalm 104:29 reads that when God takes away the breath, people die and return to dust.  Psalm 135:17 reads, "They have ears but they do not hear, nor is any breath in their mouths.”  Yet they are walking, talking, and biologically living people.  This brings to mind the dead burying the dead in Matthew 8:22.  One "dead" person is walking, talking, and biologically living.
 
Ecclesiastes 12:6-9 says, “While the silver cord is not yet loosed, or the golden bowl is crushed, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern; then the dust shall return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.  Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, all is vanity.  And more than that, the Preacher was wise; he still taught the people knowledge. Yes, he listened, and looked, and set in order many proverbs.”  So what would the dust returning to the earth and the spirit returning to God have to do with vanity?
 
In many places, dust refers not to the literal dirt, but to a state of being.  For instance, Genesis 18:27 states, “And Abraham answered and said, Behold, I pray, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, and I am dust and ash.”  Abraham was not literal dust.  "Dust and ash" represented his stance before God.  Likewise in 1 Samuel 2:8, we find, “He raises the poor from the dust; He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, to cause them to sit with nobles.”  The poor are raised from their condition to sit in high places.  Again, "dust" is in reference to stance.

We find similar uses of “dust” in 2 Samuel 22:2, 1 Kings16:2, Job 4:19, Psalm 44:25, and Psalm 103:14.  In all of these cases “dust” is the most humble position.  Being formed of dust, like being formed of clay, was to be taken from the lowly position ("dust"), and to be built into a higher position or stance by God.  What was once formless and lowly now had form and "station".

Job 10:9 and 33:16 put it like this, “Remember, I beseech You, that You have formed me as clay; and will You bring me to dust again?"  A return to dust would be a return to humility or a lowly position.  Isaiah uses the dust and clay metaphors in reference to Israel.  “So, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and the flame burns up the chaff; their root shall be like rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up like dust, because they have rejected the Law of Jehovah of Hosts; and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isa. 5:24).
 
The spirit (or breath) proceeding forth from idolatrous Israel had become self-serving.  The removal of that breath would cause Israel to "return to dust" and humble themselves before the Lord.  "But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand." (Isa. 64:8)  Psalm 104:29 says, “You hide your face, they are troubled, you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.”
 
So, this brings us back to the comment in Ecclesiastes concerning the spirit returning to God.  The renewed spirit proceeding forth from Israel would be of God.  In repentance, Israel's spirit returned to Him.  An example of such repentance comes from Deuteronomy 30:1-2 "And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;"  Israel had a "spirit of evil" (or "evil spirit"), but after their return to God such an evil spirit will have been cast out.
 
Lying Spirits
 
In 1 Kings 22, Jehoshaphat King of Judah and Ahab King of Israel unite against the Syrians.  Wanting good news, they sought the advice of false prophets who told them they will succeed.  Unlike the others, the prophet, Micaiah foretells loss and the death of Ahab.
 
Micaiah prophesies, "Hear the Word of Jehovah: I saw Jehovah sitting on His throne, and all the host of Heaven were standing by Him, on His right and on His left."  The "host of heaven" are stars, the sun, and the moon.  They are used symbolically for high position just as in Genesis 37:9-10 they represent Joseph's father and brothers.
 
Micaiah states that God said, "Who shall entice Ahab, and he shall go up and fall in Ramoth-gilead?"  "A spirit" answered and said that he would entice him.  God said "By what means" and he (the spirit) said "I will go out and shall be a spirit of falsehood in the mouth of all his prophets."  God then said "You shall entice him, and also you are able. Go out and do so."  "And now," said Micaiah to the King, "behold, Jehovah has put a spirit of falsehood in the mouth of all these prophets of yours; and Jehovah has spoken evil as to you!"
 
A glance at this passage may seem to suggest that spirit-beings entered into the other prophets and drove them like a car.  A closer look reveals something different.  God said that this spirit was able to entice them into lying.  Somebody talked them into it, and the prophets took on this spirit of falsehood.
 
We use this type of language in our everyday speech.  For example, the "spirit of Christmas" is interchangeable with "Christmas spirit."  It is about the air of the season, and what results from being a part of it.  We find the Christmas spirit in groups, and see the spirit of Christmas exuding from individuals.  We are not talking about unseen spiritual beings.  In the same way, the apostle John wrote, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone forth into the world." (1 John 4:1)
 
In a similar incident in 1Samuel 16:14, we find, "But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from God troubled him."  It is actually the absence of the spirit of God that gave Saul an evil (or distressing) spirit which terrified him.  The spirit was "from the Lord" in that it resulted from God taking his spirit from Saul.  When David played the harp, the evil spirit departed from Saul.  As the saying goes "music calms the savage beast."  Likewise, in 1 Samuel 18 Saul throws a javelin and expresses his wish to nail David to the wall with it.  This sounds like an "evil spirit."  Verse 12 reads that Saul feared David because God was with David, and had left Saul.  The story is told again in 1 Samuel 19.
 
I think that Mark 7:20-23 describes an evil spirit accurately and probably points to what may have been happening in Saul.  "And he said, ‘That passing out of the man, it is the thing that defiles the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, pass out the evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, greedy desires, iniquities, deceit, lustful desires, a wicked eye, blasphemy, pride, recklessness. All these evil things pass out from within and defile the man.’"
 
 
Getting Exorcised
 
The movie, The Exorcism of Emily Rose is based on a true story about a girl named Anneliese Michel.  She was raised a devout Catholic in Germany during the 1950's and 60's.
 
The Second Vatican Council (1962-56) enacted may hreforms within the Catholic Church.  One of the biggest changes was in the teaching that "error has no rights."  Subsequently, the church officially tolerated Protestantism.  Protestant spouses could be buried in the same consecrated ground as Catholic married couples, and not every non-Catholic denomination would be considered false religion.
 
In her time, this and other changes, were often seen as "liberal." Many who accepted them were seen as "cafeteria Catholics" who were unthinkingly compliant.  Those more open to change fired back that traditional Catholicism feared transformation.  Each side argued that the other’s response to its criticism was emotional, misinformed, and lacking truth.
 
Understandably, change really was frightening for people whose very emotional stability depended upon the reliability of the Church.  Wurzberg, the township in which Anneliese lived, had a history of actively hunting and executing witches and heretics.  Witches were seen as consorts of the devil and could call on demons to enter into and "bewitch" a person.  The "obsession" of an individual by a demon meant that the person's body was controlled, and not their soul or will.  "Possession" indicated a willing participant.
 
Traditional anti-demonic practices were common, such as whistling to keep away demons, making the sign of the cross to ward off evil spirits, and the use of the crucifix for protection.  A story handed down by Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine is one of a nun tending a lettuce garden.  She plucked a leaf of lettuce and ate it thereby becoming possessed and in need of immediate attention.  The demon exorcised replied "What did you want me to do?  I was sitting on a lettuce leaf, and she ate me."  We might find that comical today, but then it was taken very seriously and placed in church records.
 
Anneliese often did penance in response to her angst felt due to the changes within the Church in her day.  This suggests that she was plagued with a guilty conscience and felt in need of repentance.  The world around her was new and frightening.  Maybe she felt bad for fearing it or accountable for distaining it.
 
Even before Vatican II, she had grown up atoning for the sins of her mother who had given birth to an illegitimate older sister four years before her.  The older sister died from complications of surgery in the removal of a kidney tumor.  Perhaps her death validated the belief that uncleanness sat upon their household, and this likely terrified Anneliese.
 
Anneliese seemed to take on the alienation of the world.  She slept on a bare stone floor to atone for the sins of the drug addicts who slept at the local train station.  Her entire life was entrenched in fear, and normal human stirrings only validated further her sinfulness.  At age 19, she began college at a local university.  Perhaps she was tempted to laugh with the other kids, found herself wanting a style of clothing, curious about music, or even sexually stimulated by the boys she was now surrounded with.  Anxiety may have increased and a feeling of impending doom may have resulted.
 
At college she experienced her first Grand Mal seizure, which hearkens back to the quotes in the beginning of this article.  One most likely accurately describes what Anneliese was experiencing:
 
“She felt doom approaching.  She couldn't move, so she fell to the floor.  She could feel loss of control over her bodily functions.  The muscle in her bicep began to contract; everything moving. The world around her became further away, yet somehow remained unchanged.  It was as if she had just slipped inside a transparent tin can.”
 
According to the doctors, she had epilepsy.  This was hard for her to accept as she continued seeing devilish faces as she prayed. She heard voices that said that she would "stew in hell."  Neither she nor her parents believed that medicine could save her; so, they abandoned it.  They turned to the church for help, eventually finding Father Arnold Renz and Pastor Ernst Alt to perform an exorcism—and the church permitted it.
 
She was believed to be possessed by Hitler, Lucifer, Judas, Cain, Nero, Belial and others.  She ate spiders, flies and coal.  She insult, beat, and bit her family and could be heard screaming for hours while breaking crucifixes, destroying pictures of Jesus, and pulling apart rosaries.  She began to self mutilate, commonly tearing off her clothing and urinating on the floor.
 
She was truly in torments and was possessed ("obsessed") by many.  Her knees ruptured from more than 600 plus genuflects (kneeling) that she did as part of the exorcism.  Suffering from the injuries, exhaustion, pneumonia and a high fever, she became unable to do them herself.  Her parents stood in and helped carry her through the motions.
 
Apparently, the demons within her interacted with each other.  Judas said that Hitler was a "big mouth" and "had no real say" in hell.  They spoke to the priest, the pastor, and family members.
 
This is reminiscent of the story in Mark 5.  If you'll recall, the ancient Hebrews also feared being taken over by strange gods, and especially when they saw themselves as unclean.  The tormented man emerging from the tombs displayed extraordinary strength, just as Anneliese did.  Just as he was plagued by "many," so was she.
 
According to Anneliese, she envisioned the Virgin Mary offering her a choice:  Go to heaven with Mary, or remain in her suffering until her death.  Anneliese chose to suffer until finally dying of starvation (weighing 68 pounds) in order to show the world that demon possession was real.
 
I hope to affirm that and to afford her the validation she so sorely wanted.  It was real for her, and it was real for the man with the Legion.  Did she and the man in Mark 5 suffer from "unclean or evil spirits"?  Absolutely.  Were they possessed by demons and devils?  Real supernatural gods never entered the idols or the people; there is one God.  What they experienced biblically is real, and is experienced by people today.  Were they possessed by Satan?  Yes, they were certainly adverse.
 
And no.  As the story of covenantal transformation in the Bible progresses, there arises two opposing forces.  Each are adverse to the other.  One, the body of Christ, set out to spread the Gospel, fulfilling the Mosaic Law with love and ending the Old Covenant with forgiveness and mercy.  The other, the body of Moses along with their unwitting allies, held tightly to the Old Covenant in disbelief. They stood in contrast to the message of the New Covenant, like a "bearer of light."  They had "power over the air" in that they could take the very breath from the body of their enemies.  They tried to swallow the nation of Israel for themselves as a "Dragon," and they were cunning like a "Serpent."  They were, as I see it, adverse to the incoming of the New Covenant.  They were "adverse" so in this sense their actions were "satanic" (or adversarial)—and they most definitely did not possess anyone supernaturally.
 
So, how could a parent participate in something like Anneliese Michel went through?  How are any of us able to accept such suffering?  I think it is largely, if not wholly, because our ability to empathize has been injured.
 
In Banished Knowledge by Alice Miller, the first chapter is entitled "A Saint Nicholas Celebration."  Miller recounts how she was walking in the forest in December.  She came across a "celebration."  Traditionally, moms would tell Santa of their children's behavior and Santa would write down, in her words "the sins in a big book so that he can speak to the children as if he were all-knowing."  All year moms could use this to help them in childrearing.  They could always say, "Santa is watching."  Each child stood before Santa as he publicly shamed and embarrassed them.
 
The story of one little boy in particular weighed heavy on me.  His name is Kaspar.  An excerpt from the book reads:
 
“Thus, for instance, a little boy of scarcely three had to listen to the following:  ‘Well, well, Kaspar, I see that you throw your toys around.  That's very dangerous; you might hit your mother in the head, and then she'll have to go to bed and won't be able to look after you anymore, she won't be able to cook, and then you won't get anything to eat.  Or you might hit your brother or your daddy and then they'll both have to go to bed, Mommy will be busy with them and have to bring them their meals.  Then you won't be able to play anymore, you'll have to help Mommy.’  I was by no means sure whether this little boy had understood anything at all, he looked so utterly confused.  But if he was able to absorb any of it, it was the dissatisfied tone and the message that he could wreak havoc on his family and as a punishment would have to be deprived of his mother.  Whether he really understood what made him such a threat to his family is very doubtful, but his apprehension was abundantly evident.  His smiling mother, however, seemed quite unaware of this.”
 
Most every little boy and girl wants to please Santa Claus and wants to hear good things from him.  Before they were able to hear anything good, they had to first hear the bad, which according to Miller, was enough to interfere with their openness and attention.  She says "The reprimand engendered fear, and they had to repress this fear to retain pleasant memories of the occasion—which is exactly what the parents expected of them."
 
She goes on to explain that although the unconscious can never rid itself of the certainty that the small child is wicked, the child's conscious will cling for decades to the happy parts of the celebration. It is impossible for a child to recognize cruelties being inflicted thus causing future blindness.  After becoming parents, they may treat their children in the same way they were treated.  They assume they are offering their children a wonderful experience without ever questioning why they are passing it down in the first place. 
 
Growing up in that culture, Anneliese's parents likely experienced the same damning outlook and angst to have disconnected from recognizing those feelings in their daughter.  In her demons, she acted out her repressed feelings.  In her, the repressed feelings were her demons.
 
For me, the demons reared their heads as night terrors. Nightmares occur during the REM phase of sleep.  Most people enter that phase after 90 minutes of sleep.  Night terrors occur in stage 4 which usually occurs within 60 minutes.  The sleeper’s eyes may be open—many times with no recollection of the dream but only senses and feelings of fear.  I describe it as "the conscious meeting the subconscious."  When you touch or are touched as you dream, you can feel the sensations physically.
 
Night terrors can be blamed for what are called "incubus" in folklore, and it is they that are tormenting most of the others in the quotes that I shared in the beginning.  This quote describes my own experience:  "When I go to bed, it sits upon my chest.  I can feel it pressing on me, and its hot breath against my cheek.  My heart is pounding so hard that the bed is moving.  In my mind I'm screaming, but my mouth won't move.  If I weren't so afraid I could cry.  Just to open my eyes.  A dark figure in the corner; sounds of footprints and no one is there. I lay frozen."
 
I was terrified for years and still have them—although infrequently.  It was some time after my husband and I married before I told him of my suffering.  I didn't know what was plaguing me.  I tried with everything I had to overcome them myself.  Every failure meant that I wasn't good enough and that my faith was too weak.  Convinced that I couldn't overcome, I grew terrified.  I awoke my husband one night sobbing.  He told me not to be afraid.  He said, "I have faith enough for the both of us," and I believed him.
 
My newfound belief in his abilities enabled me to look harder at the 'demons' tormenting me.  Once able to face them, I was also able to work through it.
 
Imagine that happening on a larger scale.  Imagine God Himself saying, "Fear not.  I have faith enough for the both of us."  What would that recognition and affirmation have meant for Anneliese?  What did it mean for the man having the Legion?  What does it mean for the world?
 
It means one thing: Deliverance.
 
I believe with all of my heart that the faith of Christ delivered us all.  What does that mean for you and me?  Be comforted for "Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18).