Can a demon possess a human. Dark entities inhabiting a person

Throughout the history of mankind, many cases have been recorded when people behaved strangely, spoke in a voice that was not their own, convulsed, and so on. It is believed that such behavior indicates that a demon has moved into a person.

What is an obsession?

When a devil or demon enters a person, they speak of possession. The resettlement can occur intentionally, and in this case they speak of one of the types of damage. Another obsession is the result of an incorrectly performed ritual. The resettlement can occur if an energetically weakened person gets into cursed places. The peak of the spread of demonic possession falls on the Middle Ages. There are three groups of obsessed people:

1. The first are ruled by violent or aggressive demons.
2. The second live together with the demon of contradiction or the evil one.
3. Still others have an unbalanced character and can be either a “sheep” or a “wolf”.

Obsession in psychology

Official science completely denies the possibility of various demons sharing with a person. Possession is a mental illness called cacodemonomania. People who have addictions, are passive, open or impressionable are more likely to have seizures. In most cases, they are easily influenced by other people. A well-known psychologist called kakodemomania a neurosis in which a person invents demons for himself, and they are the result of suppression of desires.

Obsession - a disease or a curse?

Scientists who believe that there are no demons explain the numerous symptoms of possession with specific diseases. At the same time, it is worth noting that often doctors cannot help people with similar problems with medical methods.

1. From a scientific point of view, possession is a manifestation of epilepsy, in which convulsions occur, loss of creation and a person feels contact with intangible things.
2. Such a symptom as sharp mood swings from euphoria to depression is characteristic of bipolar affective disorder.
3. Another disease that can be confused with obsession is Tourette's syndrome. As a result of disorders of the nervous system, multiple motor tics are observed.
4. It is known in psychology that such a disease as split personality is when there are several personalities in one body that show themselves in different periods. As a result, one person appears as different people with their own tastes, habits and character.
5. Another comparison is obsession or, since the disease causes hallucinations, delusions and problems with speech.

Signs of a person's obsession

If there was a subsistence of the essence, then the life of a person begins to change. At first, the symptoms are rare and not so severe, but over time, everything gets worse. The main signs of demon possession are:

1. Demons can speak through the mouth of a person, cursing those around them or calling them to renounce the Lord, and not only known languages, but also animal roars can be used.
2. Possessed people can practice prophecy, fly, see spirits, and so on.
3. Demons give a person tremendous strength, and he can break iron chains, move heavy objects, and push even strong men away.
4. The possessed can either degrade, or vice versa, show an increased level of intelligence.
5. Sleep disturbances occur, the person often has nightmares and feels as if someone is watching or even walking on the body.

What does a possessed person look like?

If some entity lives in the human body, then this is directly reflected in its appearance.

1. There is a kind of drying up of the body as a result of complete exhaustion.
2. Weight is quickly lost and dystrophy is observed, and this happens due to the fact that a person either eats little or completely refuses to eat. This is accompanied by other consequences: fatigue, weakness, headaches, and so on.
3. If you are interested in how to understand that a person is possessed by demons, then you should know that one of the obvious signs is a change in the eyes, which become cloudy, although the vision remains the same.
4. The color of the skin also changes, becoming darker. This symptom is very scary.

Signs of demon possession in Orthodoxy

The clergy point out that the main sign of the presence of demons in a person is intolerance towards everything that has to do with the Lord. Even talking about faith will cause unpleasant feelings in him. The possessed are afraid of priests, consecrated objects, various shrines, and so on. Believers claim that the signs of demon possession appear in different ways, as demons damage a person's mind. They are capable of inflicting many known and unknown diseases on their victims.

What feelings does a person experience when possessed?

Since the possibility of demons being inhabited has not been scientifically proven, it remains to rely on the testimonies of people who claim that demons lived in them.

1. There is a constant presence of some entity inside, which is constantly trying to suppress thoughts and words.
2. People possessed by demons hear a voice that makes them do unacceptable things and subjugates them in every possible way.
3. There is evidence that the victims either felt a surge of strength and wanted to move mountains, or vice versa, their decline and it seemed as if death was approaching.

Real cases of possession

There is a huge amount of evidence about people who were attacked by dark forces. Some of them are just a fantasy, but there are stories that have documentary or photo evidence.

1. Clara Herman Celje. In South America lived Clara, who was 16 years old. In 1906, in confession, she said that she felt a demon inside. At first they did not believe her, but the girl's condition worsened every day. The testimonies of people who heard that she spoke in a voice that was not her own and behaved inappropriately were documented. The exorcism ritual is performed over two days.
2. Roland Doe. The list of people who were possessed by demons includes this boy, whose story took place in 1949. He played with the Ouija board, and a few days later his aunt died. Trying to connect with her, Roland replaced that strange things were happening around: the icon of Jesus was shaking, various screams were heard, objects were flying, and so on. A priest was invited to the house, and he saw objects flying and falling, the boy's body was covered with various symbols, and so on. 30 exorcisms were performed to achieve recovery. There is over 14 documented evidence of the boy's bed floating in the air.
3. Anneliese Michel. The obsession of this girl began to manifest itself when she was 16 years old. She was diagnosed with epilepsy, but the treatment was useless. The girl's condition worsened and in 1975, the first exorcism ritual was performed. 70 rituals were performed and 42 of them were recorded on a dictaphone. Anneliese could not be saved.

How to help an obsessed person?

If suddenly a person began to behave strangely and possessedness manifests in him, it is important not to get confused and create all possible conditions so that the possessed person does not harm himself and others. Here are some tips on how to deal with obsessed people:

1. There is no need to provoke a possessed person and cause aggression in him, since he is not responsible for his actions. It is better to agree with everything that he says, controlling the situation.
2. It is best to lay the possessed on a bed or sit on a sofa. It is necessary to limit his movements around the rooms to the maximum so that he does not harm himself.
3. Try to calm the person so that he returns to normal consciousness as soon as possible. If an attack was provoked by some object, for example, an icon, then remove it away.

How to get rid of obsession?

Since ancient times, the main fighters with evil spirits are the clergy who perform exorcism rites. Not everyone can fulfill this mission and there are special church schools where they teach the sacraments of rituals to remove possession. There are magical rituals that you can perform on your own, without any preparation, the main thing is to follow all the rules and believe in their power. Possessed people should ask that the rite be performed by close people who have a close relationship with each other.

1. For the ritual, water should be prepared, which should be drawn from a clean reservoir during the morning dawn. Arriving home, put it on a flat surface, light a candle next to it, bought in the church. Read over the water seven times conspiracy number 1.
2. After that, you need to yawn strongly and say plot number 2 three times to remove the obsession.
3. When the last words are spoken, turn over your left shoulder, blow, spit and sprinkle the possessed with the charmed water. The rest of the liquid should be given to him to drink. You can perform this ritual on yourself.

Prayer for obsession

There is a special prayer text that can be used to exorcise the demon. It must be read in complete solitude, otherwise the demon may pass to another person. It is important to wear a pectoral cross, no matter how the demon inside does not resist. Prayer from possession should be repeated at the moments when evil spirits appear. The text must be repeated until the condition improves. It is important not to succumb to the influence of the demon and continue to read the prayer text. When demons are expelled, it is imperative to put yourself in Orthodox protection.

Books about demon possession

The topic is popular, so you can find several decent books on this topic in bookstores.

1. "The Exorcist" W.P. Blatty. The story follows the life of a film actress who notices that her daughter's behavior has changed and she ends up seeing her as signs of a demonic possession.
2. "Encyclopedia of witchcraft and demonology" R.Kh. Robbins. In this work, a lot of information related to demons and the Devil is collected and systematized.

Obvious signs of a person being possessed by demons are known to everyone - these are conversations in other people's voices and on behalf of others, aggression, especially in relation to everything related to the church, the appearance of levitation abilities, the smell of sulfur, and much more. However, the devil is cunning, and far from always he seeks to show himself - this can end with his exile back to hell. There are more common signs of demon possession that are difficult to recognize.

In the article:

Signs of Demon Possession - The Possessed Among You

The words "obsession" and "exorcism" quite difficult to connect with the modern world. They were common in the Middle Ages, and it would seem that now this problem is no longer terrible for a person. However, it is not. Priests say that there are a lot around. This opinion was expressed by priest Konstantin Parkhomenko in an interview for the Vechernyaya Moskva newspaper:

Sometimes, to understand that something is wrong with a person, it is enough just to look into his eyes ... It can be a modern and even famous person, maybe a politician, businessman or artist. Look into his eyes and you will cringe. Something demonic sparkles there.

Priest Konstantin Parkhomenko

Representatives of the clergy are sure that the introduction of a demon into a person is not a medieval fiction, but a harsh reality. Such cases take place in the 21st century. Not always the signs of demon possession are similar to those that can be seen in horror films. It can be difficult to recognize a demoniac, and the fact is that cunning is inherent in evil spirits. As long as no one believes in the existence of an entity, it can safely do what it came to the world of people for and settled into one of them. It is hardly a matter of good intentions.

The main sign of the presence of a demon in a person is intolerance towards everything that is connected with faith in God. It would seem that a person with a broad outlook, who is used to taking into account and accepting other people's opinions, however, it is worth starting a conversation with him about religion, his face begins to change involuntarily, and respect quickly fades away. The demon is not able to step over his essence when it comes to his eternal enemy - God, therefore he betrays his presence.

It is hard for such people to be in the church, and everyone knows about it. The demon is afraid of his potential enemy and the prospect of being expelled, so he tries to get away from the source of danger. Therefore, his victim is afraid of priests, consecrated objects and Christian shrines, but in fact this fear belongs to evil spirits, and not to her.

The unwillingness to be baptized or to baptize children is often attributed to signs of possession. But here the reason may be in the reluctance to tell you about belonging to another religion. Perhaps you are not such a close person to know about it, and simply climb into someone else's business?

How the demon manifests itself in a person - passions and addictions

Passion- distorted, abnormal for a believer, a pure-hearted person. These are distorted desires and emotions that can live in each of us. A good example is an erotic attraction to a person of the opposite sex. This is normal, but sexual relations without marriage are fornication. Also called one of.

Passion in marriage, coupled with fidelity to your soulmate, is a realized desire, without which humanity would have died out. The desire to satisfy one's lust without marriage, promiscuity, frequent change of sexual partners, betrayal - the influence of evil spirits. It is considered normal to want to drink from time to time - on a holiday, while meeting with friends. But alcoholism, drug addiction - this is already from a demon. An alcoholic or drug addict deprived of a dose is the simplest example of victims of evil spirits.

Love for culinary experiments is a hobby, an attempt at self-expression, a good way to please your neighbor. Gluttony is a great sin. There is even such damage - demonic zhor, when the sorcerer adds a demon that causes immoderate appetite. The victim of such negativity does not know the measure in food, but consumes it in such a way that it is extremely undesirable to see this process for the faint of heart.

Envy that pushes a person to self-improvement or the desire to change his life is normal. Envy that causes harm to other people is demonic. In general, any passion that makes a person a slave to his desires and makes him act against his conscience can be a sign of possession.

Possession - signs other than mental disorders

People who are possessed by demons are often mistaken for mental patients. However, it is possible to distinguish a sick person from a possessed one. Initially, this is a person who was not distinguished by kindness to others. There are, of course, aggressive forms of insanity, but here we mean the attitude towards people before the diagnosis or manifestation of the disease. If a person has always been aggressive and unkind, there is a high probability of the presence of evil spirits.

Another reliable sign is a clear disgust for Christian shrines. Talking about religion, an inadequate reaction to the smell of incense, holy water, reading prayers, icons - all this can be attributed to signs of demoniac, which can be distinguished from a manifestation of mental deviation. Especially if your suspect did not know that you were testing him, for example, holy water was in his drink or prayers were read by you so that he could not hear them.

There is a very simple way to check - offer the suspect of possession two glasses. In one there will be plain water, and in the other - consecrated in the temple. Naturally, a person should not know about this. The demoniac will definitely choose a glass of plain water - evil spirits will easily distinguish between two identical glasses. However, do not discount the randomness, this method is only suitable in conjunction with the rest.

According to priests, more often one has to deal with a situation where a serious mental illness is mistaken for demonic possession. It's not just about devout relatives who worry about their loved one. Sometimes those who allegedly suffer from the influence of evil spirits themselves mistake some kind of mental disorder for this phenomenon. Often, imaginary obsession is a way of drawing attention to your person.

How the demon takes possession of a person and how to prevent it

Modern priests are sure that a person personally prepares housing for demons and demons by his actions. To How does a demon enter a person? He enters into it along with sin. A hardened sinner is not protected God's grace, which is immediately used by demonic entities. Murder, rape, fornication, cynicism, interest in the occult and all this opens the way for demons. All people who lead a sinful life and are far from repentance are at risk.

If a person lives in accordance with Christian morality, attends church, confesses his sins, fasts, reads prayers and takes communion regularly, demons and demons will not be able to approach him. A believer is always under God's protection, and feasible asceticism will always be a plus for getting rid of black magic or demonic troubles.

The clergy say that people who did not find the strength to fight passion should lead a Christian life. Demons run away from God's grace, even though it is extremely unpleasant for a demon-possessed person to be in the temple - this is how the evil spirit tries to protect itself from grace that is destructive to it.

If one believes medieval sources, the interest of demons in representatives of the clergy has always been high. The purer a person, the more interesting and valuable his soul is for evil spirits. There are many records of the struggle of the monks with her. The means are the same - faith, prayer, the Christian way of life and, of course, willpower.

Demon Possessed People and Their Inherent Diseases

How else to define a demon in a person? The physical manifestation of the presence of an impure entity may be in diseases or health disorders. However, all these signs of possession should be considered primarily as disease symptoms. If the examinations did not show its presence, one can suspect a negative program or the introduction of a demon into a person.

This is especially true for parents who are sure that a demon has moved into the child. To this day, the criminal chronicle is replete with similar stories, and for children they most often end in failure. Do not forget that the demon can also be in you, pushing the “possessed” to deprive you of medical care - an unclean cunning and smart one.

The forms and degree of this severe disease are different. St. Diodochus, Bishop of Fitiki, writes: “There are two kinds of evil spirits: the subtlest, fighting on the soul, and the grossest, acting on the body. When grace does not dwell in a person, evil spirits, like snakes, nest in the depths of the heart, preventing the soul from looking towards the desire for good. When grace dwells in him, then they, like some kind of dark clouds, flash through the parts of the body, transforming into sinful passions and various ghostly dreams, in order to tear the mind away from conversation with grace through memories, entertainment with dreams. St. Diodochus speaks of such a degree when the subordination to evil spirits does not have noticeable outward manifestations. This type of dependence is characteristic of almost all people who do not have a spiritual life or spend it extremely inattentively. Possession becomes noticeable when demons take possession of the consciousness and will of a person, and through this the body. And here the degree and types of this disease are very different. The Gospel describes a terrible state of possession in which the Gadarin inhabitant was: he had a dwelling in graves, and no one could even bind him with chains, because he was repeatedly bound with shackles and chains, but he broke the chains and broke the fetters, and no one was able to tame him; always, night and day, in the mountains and graves, he shouted and beat against stones(Mark 5:2-6). The sacred text also reveals to us the reason for such a plight. It had a legion of evil spirits in it. The Roman legion consisted of 4,000 to 6,000 warriors. This word, apparently, does not indicate the number, but innumerable multitudes, demons that tormented a person. But even one demon can cause a lot of torment. The father who came to Jesus speaks of his sick son: he [rages] in the new moon and suffers greatly, for he often throws himself into fire and often into water(Matthew 17:15).

The nature of demon possession and the degree of pain also depend on the demon that has taken possession, for they have different strengths and not the same ferocity: “some are so furious and ferocious that they are not content to torment only their bodies with cruel torment, into which they have entered, but they rush still attack those passing afar and strike them with cruel blows, such as are described in the Gospel (Matt. 8:28), because of the fear of which no one dared to pass that way ”(St. John Cassian. Conversation 7th, ch. 32).

When a demon enters a person, his inner life is completely disrupted. The mind gradually becomes clouded. Only after the healing did Gadarene's demoniac regain his sanity. The inhabitants of that country, having come to the place where their herd of pigs grazed, found a man from whom demons had come out, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and of sound mind(Luke 8:35).

The will of the patient becomes unfree. “Just as in a dark and deep night some cruel wind blows and sets in motion, confusion and shaking all plants and seeds: so is a person, falling under the power of the dark night - the devil, and staying in the night and darkness, terribly blowing the wind of sin is brought into vibration, concussion and movement; his whole nature, his soul, his thoughts and mind are in turmoil, all his bodily members are in tremor. Not a single member of the soul and body is free and cannot but suffer from the sin that lives in us ”(St. Macarius the Great. Spiritual Conversations. 2: 4). Sometimes the consequence is blindness (Mt. 12:22), deafness and dumbness: Jesus, seeing that the people were fleeing, rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him: dumb and deaf spirit! I command you, get out of it and do not enter it again.(Mark 9:25).

The demon-possessed becomes sullen. The soul loses the ability to be cheerful and joyful. Sometimes it resembles bouts of longing and fear. How painful this state is is shown by two letters of L.N. Tolstoy to his wife Sofya Andreevna: “On the third day at night I spent the night in Arzamas, and something unusual happened to me. It was two in the morning, I was terribly tired, I wanted to sleep, and nothing hurt. But suddenly I was attacked by melancholy, fear, horror such as I had never experienced. I will tell you the details of this feeling later, but I have never experienced such a painful feeling, and God forbid anyone to experience it. I jumped up and ordered to lay... Yesterday this feeling... came back while driving" (September 1869). In another letter, L. Tolstoy writes: “Since I arrived here, every day at six o’clock in the evening melancholy begins, like a fever, physical melancholy, the feeling of which I cannot better convey, like the fact that the soul is parting with the body” ( dated June 18, 1871).

The ultimate goal of the demons is to destroy the inner spiritual life. If it has never begun in a person, then prevent it. According to St. Nil of Sinai: “The devil, this culprit and at the same time the painter of vice, has the goal to plunge every person into heavy and inconsolable sadness, to make him far from faith, from hope, from the love of God.”

The believer should not be cowardly and incline towards fearlessness. He who dwells under the roof of the Most High rests under the shadow of the Almighty(Ps. 90:1). Demons are not given the power to harm at will. Only those who constantly live in sin without repentance, who proudly reject God's help, or who are infected with false teachings, have no protection. “So it is clear that unclean spirits cannot otherwise penetrate those whose bodies they want to take possession of, if they do not first take possession of their mind and thoughts. When they deprive them of the fear and remembrance of God or spiritual reflection, then as disarmed, deprived of God’s help and protection, and therefore easily defeated, they boldly attack, then they build a dwelling in them, as in the possession presented to them ”(St. John Cassian. Conversation 7 -e, chapter 24).

Possession, the holy fathers believed, can be of two types. There is possession in its extreme manifestations, when a demon lives in a person as a second personality, and the personality of the demoniac himself is in a depressed state. But the state of a person whose will is enslaved by passions, the saints also called obsession. Moreover, these two types may simply be different forms of possession.

The holy righteous John of Kronstadt, who observed a huge number of people, noted: “Demons enter ordinary people due to their simplicity ... An evil spirit instills in educated and intelligent people in a different form, and it is much more difficult to fight it.”

In addition, in our daily life, passions often take us over and sometimes make us uncontrollable. A vivid and very common example of this is irritation. Therefore, as long as the devil has something of his own in our being, we are more or less subject to him, which means that we are also in some sense possessed. Through sin, our soul is exposed to demonic influence!

The entry of the devil into the human soul can be compared to the entry of pathogenic bacteria into the human body. If a person is not physically protected enough, has a weak immune system, then he is open to the penetration of various microbes and viruses into him, the result of such an ingress is a disease.

So the devil, when the soul of a person has no protection, gets access to it. But what is the protection of the human soul, its immunity, a barrier to demons, and by virtue of what can it lose this protection? As long as a person slowly but stubbornly improves, while his spirit is directed towards God, while sincere repentance follows the falls, he is in the sphere of God’s action and in spiritual security, but when sin becomes a habit, when the whole being of a person is subject to some kind of passion - he loses the protective cover of Divine grace.

He is deprived not because the Lord punishes the guilty: the Lord always loves a person, is always ready to help him. But this is precisely the height and exclusivity of God's love for man, that the Creator respects the freedom of His creation. And the person himself chooses with whom he wants to be: with God or with the devil. A person is only required to turn to God, with his heart, thought, with all his soul, and accept everything that the Lord offers him. However, if a person turns away from God, he inevitably comes into contact with Satan, there is no third way: in everything good and beautiful - God, in the opposite (even if at first glance it is attractive) - the devil. G

reh is our choice in favor of the devil, sinning, we kind of turn our hearts to Satan. And this is the result of our free choice. In sin, a person, like Adam and Eve once, refuses the gifts of God, leaves, hides from Him and opens himself to the influence of demons. Now it is not God, but the devil who has influence over a person and gains access to his soul. In the Gospel we find vivid characteristics of the relationship between man and the devil, into which the sinner enters. The Savior, addressing the Jews who questioned Him, once said: "your father is the devil."

What did the Savior mean? Just as to be “sons of God” means to belong to the heavenly world, to be close to God, so to be “children of the devil” means to have close, direct communion with him. From the earthly father, children receive education, character traits, attitude to life, but, above all, they receive being from their father. In the same way, the children of God are like their Heavenly Father because they live His life. People who have turned to evil, in their sins, are also like the devil as their father, because from him they receive their sinful existence and live his life. Repeatedly the Savior compares the stay of the devil in the soul of a sinner with the life of the owner in his house.

A person ceases to be master of himself, someone else controls his soul and body. The owner is free to do whatever he wants with his house: he can clean up and repair it, or he can destroy it. Based on the fact that the essence of the devil is evil, that he is incapable of creation, but only of destruction, there is no doubt what the devil will do, being the master of the soul.

Here is what St. John Chrysostom: “Demons, once having taken possession of the soul, treat it so vilely and insultingly, as is characteristic of the crafty, passionately desiring our shame and death.” And St. Basil the Great explains this passionate desire of Satan in such an interesting way: realizing his impotence in the struggle against God, the devil seeks to take revenge on Him at least by inclining the image of God - man to sin. The apostle Paul says of sinners that the devil “caught them in his will”iii. They are like birds caught in a snare, the hunter who catches them can do whatever he wants with them - they are in his power.

Thus, a person who is seduced by the bait of the devil (this bait is the deceptive sweetness of sin) finds himself in his nets. “Only birds,” St. Innokenty of Kherson correctly remarks, “are rushing about, trying to escape from captivity, but we rarely do.” “The kingdom of God is within you,” says the Savior. This means that not only after death, but even now, we can partake of the Kingdom of Heaven, acquire it in our hearts.

The kingdom of God is within us, according to St. Simeon the New Theologian, "when God is with us in unity." But it is in our power to create in ourselves both the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of the devil. One enters the Kingdom of God through perfection in the virtues and knowledge of God, into the kingdom of the devil - “through rooting in vices” (St. John Cassian). And just as it is in our power to open our soul before God and let Divine grace into it, or remain closed to him, so it is in our power to either let the devil into our hearts or prevent him.

“The devil settles in possessed people because these people attracted evil spirits to themselves: they themselves prepared a dwelling for the devils - swept and cleaned; with their unrepentant sins, instead of the dwelling place of God, they become a receptacle for an unclean spirit,” says St. John of Damascus. This is also confirmed by St. Theophan the Recluse: “Our internal is always enclosed; The Lord Himself stands outside and knocks for the door to be opened. What opens it up? Sympathy, predisposition, consent. Whoever has all this leaning towards Satan, he enters into him ... That Satan enters, and not the Lord, the person himself is to blame.

Examples from life fully confirm this pattern. It is important to note that hardly any of the priests is skeptical about the possibility of the devil invading a person, since it is to them, in the temple, that people come to tell about the mysterious and frightening phenomena that they had to face.

Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko, a well-known priest who lived in the 19th century, collected a number of typical examples of demon possession in his book Spiritual World. Let's take a look at some of them.

It is important for us that all these examples illustrate the fact: obsession is not necessarily a consequence of extraordinary sins and threatens people who find themselves in some special situation; most often, one has to deal with the possession of the devil when the most ordinary person becomes ossified in the most banal vices.

So, the village priest tells about what happened in a peasant family belonging to his parish. The woman, the mistress of the house, was famous for her sullen disposition and quarrelsomeness, she was constantly seen cursing with someone. It is not surprising that after one of these quarrels, when she screamed at the neighbor’s children for an insignificant offense, terrible things began to happen to her, about which her husband said in horror: “My wife was so furious that it’s scary to start with her.”

In another case, the reason that opened access to the soul to the devil turned out to be what many consider not only not a sin, but, on the contrary, a positive trait, namely, an easy, frivolous attitude to life. Two girls chose the grave of one very sinful person as a place for "rest". Having drunk, they began to jump over the grave and ... dance.

When the girls returned home from the cemetery, they began to scream and made inhuman sounds. Not knowing what to do in such a situation, the girls were locked in a separate room and a priest was called. If children had been in their place, there would have been no harm to them, but they were adult, conscious people ...

It must be said that cases of possession and children are known, and at that age when they are not yet responsible for their actions, which means they cannot be guilty of instilling the devil in them. Of course, all this remains a mystery: why the Lord sometimes allows demons to dwell in an innocent creature, but there is still a logic here: most likely, this happens with the children of especially sinful people. Just as the child of drug addicts or alcoholics suffers as a result of the sins of his parents, so the soul of an infant may be given to the devil because of the inappropriate behavior of his parents.

Just as in the case of parents who are drug addicts, there is no mystical punishment of God here, but the laws of spiritual life operate. The child develops in the atmosphere that he sees around him, he does not know another. If there is an atmosphere of holiness in the family, then a child from birth learns to communicate with God, learns to pray and a good, bright life. It is not for nothing that the children of holy parents often become well-known saints (let us recall, for example, St. Sergius of Radonezh). But if the devil dwells in the souls of the parents, then the child gets used to sin and his soul becomes open to demons.

I will cite a case that happened to us a few years ago, when we rested with the whole family in the south. We returned home from the beach by trolleybus. At the next stop, a rather young man and woman with children entered the trolleybus - a girl of about six years old and a boy of about the same age. The parents were obviously alcoholics, they talked rudely among themselves, laughed at some vulgar jokes. The girl, having stuffed everyone, sat down with her brother (or friend) next to us and began to behave so boorishly and vulgarly that Father Konstantin had to ask her to be at least quieter. Something unexpected happened here. The girl turned to us, her face contorted with anger, and she began to shout in a hoarse, shrill voice that she had seen Father Konstantin in the church, began to grimace and mimic the actions of the priests. We were dressed completely in a beach style, nothing betrayed in us a special involvement in the church, moreover, we arrived in this resort town the other day, and Father Konstantin had not yet appeared in the church. Yes, and from the cries of the girl it was clear that she really did not know anything. The mother tried to silence the girl, as the whole bus looked in surprise at the literally raging child, but she could not, and the whole family got off the trolley bus.

And in particular danger are children whose parents are either themselves engaged in the occult sciences, or turn to those involved in these people (for example, they carry a sick child to grandmothers to help in a magical way).

So, by consenting to sin, we put ourselves (and possibly our children) at the disposal of the devil, who penetrates into the soul and becomes fixed there as we become rooted in sin. And the holy fathers noted that sin does not enter the soul all at once, but gradually, passing through the stages of development from an outside, external impulse knocking on the soul, to the master's disposal of it.

about. Konstantin Parkhomenko

ACCORDING TO THE MATERIALS OF THE ORTHODOX PRESS

People possessed by evil spirits are found in all religions of the world. However, why the demon takes possession of a person, and how this happens, not everyone knows, and often seizures are mistaken for epilepsy.

If you believe the observations and church descriptions, then the unclean can choose any person as a victim, and even those who deeply believe in God do not make an exception. So, at first the demon watches him and tries to gradually put his own thoughts into his head. It is quite natural that at first a person resists, but later begins to think in a completely different way.

As a rule, after a while, his behavior changes, and beyond recognition. He begins to be rude, do nasty things and stops at nothing. After that, when the will is broken, the demon can calmly move into a person and lead him.

When this happens, there is aggression in his behavior, which develops into talk of suicide. Then he begins to be overcome by seizures similar to epileptic ones. At this moment, a person who has been possessed by a demon can speak in a different voice, even in several languages, including completely unknown ones, or in those that linguists call dead.

As a rule, this is not the end of the matter, and the demoniac will kill himself sooner or later. But this can be prevented, you just need to contact the priest in time to conduct a special ceremony. In this case, you can return a person to a normal state, but you just have to read a lot of prayers.

There have been cases when a person who was possessed by an unclean person simply burned from the inside, even burning was formed on him. The next step in taking possession of the believer's body was to cool his body. As a result, he simply could not warm himself by the fire, and if he brought his hand to the candle, then fumes appeared on it, but the flame did not cause him any harm.

However, the human mind can remain pure. In this case, the demon can be cast out by confessing to a priest, communion will also help. When such a phenomenon occurs as a demon enters a person, it starts to stink from him, it is at this moment that all efforts must be made to expel him.

As a rule, after the ritual, the priest can see how something dark comes out of the person’s body, and the mind begins to return to him. There are cases when only the exited entity returns back, then the rite of exile must be repeated.

Many people wonder how a demon instills in a person. In this case, the answer could be many. So, for example, people who are fond of séances often let the essence into their body themselves. And not everyone wants to go out later. In this case, the demon does not need to do anything special, since everything happens of his own free will.

Often a person allows a demon to enter his body with his bad deeds and thoughts. After all, the dark entity first of all looks closely at those who initially show bad sides. To avoid this, one must not commit unseemly acts and drive black thoughts away from oneself. As a result, one can avoid temptation and remain a pure person. You should also believe in God, because only he can help defeat the unclean.

The best solution would be to read the Bible when dark thoughts arise, then they will go away, and subsequently they will disturb less and less. It would be useful to regularly go to church for confession and services, thus it will be very difficult to tempt a person, which means that he will not stray from the true path, he will do good deeds.

Demon possession is not a myth inherited from the Inquisition, it is a reality. Any person can be tempted by evil spirits, but faith in God and good thoughts and deeds will help him avoid this.