title: christ and the sufi  a parable of perfection
text: part   the six stages of the exorcism process by lobro van helsing part  of this article is authored entirely by lobro van helsing and consists largely of graphic details about the exorcism process as described by malachi martin in his controversial book hostage to the devil  part  of the article entitled the deceiver of the world is by lasha darkmoon and continues where part  leaves off this reflects on various apocalyptic issues such as armageddon and the last days the problem of good and evil and the role of the jews in human history 
  the devils finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist  charles baudelaire 
  why is it so hard to accept at least hypothetically that in the words of observant thinkers like baudelaire the devils finest trick is to convince us that he does not exist 
  it is generally accepted that the devil preys on human souls and what do predators do in all the settings natural political online they all use disguise and it shouldnt be beyond comprehension that the devil if he existed would use whichever cloak of invisibility was the most effective for the occasion therefore not seeing the devil or sensing his presence proves absolutely nothing 
  for those who are interested the material here comes from a book hostage to the devil  by father malachi martin a trained exorcist in the roman catholic tradition 
  fr malachis material featuring several cases of authentic demonic possession and their accompanying exorcisms in modern day america was carefully vetted through use of tape recorders and reinforced later on by lengthy interviews with the participants in the exorcism process    
  in  in south africa  clara germana cele age  reportedly made a pact with the devil as a result her behavior suddenly took a bizarre turn for the worse in august of that year the startled nuns at the convent school where clara was a student witnessed her tearing at her clothes growling like an animal and engaging in conversation with unseen entities 
  nuns reported that the girls skin would burn when sprinkled with holy water she would lash out violently when crosses or other sacred objects entered her presenceshe also reportedly developed clairvoyant powers and was able to describe personal details of other peoples lives that she couldnt possibly have known ab out 
  the accounts of several nuns also reported that clara possessed the ability to speak and understand several different foreign languages to which she had never been exposed including polish german french and several others it was said that clara had been imbued with superhuman strength as well easily overpowering authority figures at the school when they attempted to restrain her 
  another seemingly farfetched assertion from many witnesses was that clara began levitating up to five feet in the air on a regular basis her clothes sticking to her body as if they too had managed to defy the laws of gravity it was claimed that only after being sprinkled with holy water could she be brought back down during which time she would also temporarily snap out of her possessed state 
  most outlandish of all were the claims that the young woman had the ability to transform into a sort of snakelike creature her body becoming as flexible as rubber as she slithered across the floor at one point she was said to have bitten a nun on the arm and left puncture marks like those of a serpents fangs 
  see here  
  note this case history is not to be found in malachi martins hostage to the devil i have added it to the article as an afterthought since it contains within it many of the typical features found in demonic possession before you read any further please watch this minute video in spanish with english subtitles warning this article contains material that is deeply disturbing those of sensitive disposition are advised to refrain from further reading 
  apart from the quoted extracts randomly chosen among many to illustrate various aspect of possession or exorcism i wish to make the following points although the book deals only with cases in the catholic community demonic possession is a universal phenomenon and has been noted and researched in countries all over the world the possessor often referring to itself as the kingdom or in plural as we selects victims gripped in some spiritual emotional and intellectual conflict with the accepted mores of family society and church inserting itself undetected into these fault lines and exploiting them with catastrophic consequences loss of self identity soul or personality follows as a result there is invariably an element of guilt on the part of the victim who has initially invited possession by his or her aberrant behavior and life style in extreme cases the possessed individual has actually made a formal request for possession in order to gain some advantage eg worldly wealth or fame the process of expelling the possessing malignancy moves through identifiable stages 
  one of the most experienced exorcists i have known malachi martin notes who was in fact the mentor of the exorcist in the first case related in this book gave names to the various general stages of an exorcism these names reflect the general meaning or effect or intent of what is happening but not the specific means used by the evil spirit or by the exorcist conor as i call him spoke of six stages presence pretense breakpoint voice clash and expulsion  exorcism exacts practically intolerable toll on the priest in charge not infrequently resulting in his death at which point the junior helper must take over the task demonic possession is not an isolated or freak phenomenon it seems to be on the rise especially in the united states perhaps this has something to do with the demise of religious authority the proliferation of satanist covens child abuse and sacrifice the prevalence and glorification of satanist elements in pop culture and finally the wide acceptance and promotion of sexual perversion as a new norm 
  the incidence of exorcism fr martin begins by pointing out has been on a steady rise there has been a  percent increase in the number of exorcisms performed between the early s and the mids over the same period there has been an alarming increase in the number of requested possessions  that is cases in which the possessed formally request satan to possess them  in comparison to the cases of incurred possessions which result from other sorts of activities of the possessed that facilitate possession 
  each year some  to  major exorcisms and some thousands of minor exorcisms are performed for experts in the field this is a sobering barometer of the increase in known cases of possession but it is still more sobering to realize how many more cases of possession cannot be addressed at all the thousands of letters i receive from people who are desperate for help  catholic protestant evangelical and unchurched  are eloquent anguished and a steadily mounting testimony to the crisis 
  law officers meanwhile are increasingly confronted on every side by the incontrovertible signs of crimes committed in the course of ritualistic satanism or as a grisly result of an individuals participation in such rituals they are very often left out of the shrunken loop of expert advice and assistance advice and assistance that was once routinely to be found 
  to those who are active in the field of exorcism and who therefore acquire a greater than usual ability to uncover and recognize the marks of ritualistic satanism for what they are it is clear that in many police precincts the satanist character of a crime is either relegated to the background or not mentioned at all  at least not in public reports 
  by and large the police have no other choice they have neither competence nor authority in the rarefied and dangerous field of satanist behavior most of the above points were made on numerous occasions in mythology and folklore eg vampires werewolves and the tale of dr faustus adapted by marlowe and goethe jesus christ was of course the grand exorcist not only in the gadarene swine incident but his opus seems to me to have been focused on confronting the devil in judaism for which he paid with his life  the tale does not end there in my view but i leave these speculative elements to the reader    the six stages of demonic possession 
  from the moment the exorcist enters the room a peculiar feeling seems to hang in the very air from that moment in any genuine exorcism and onward through its duration everyone in the room is aware of some alien presence  this indubitable sign of possession is as unexplainable and unmistakable as it is inescapable all the signs of possession however blatant or grotesque however subtle or debatable seem both to pale before and to be marshaled in the face of this presence 
  there is no sure physical trace of the presence but everyone feels it you have to experience it to know it you cannot locate it spatially beside or above or within the possessed or over in the corner or under the bed or hovering in midair 
  in one sense the presence is nowhere and this magnifies the terror because there is a presence an other present not a he or a she or an it sometimes you think that what is present is singular sometimes plural when it speaks as the exorcism goes on it will sometimes refer to itself as i and sometimes as we 
  this is reminiscent of the possessing entity in the gospel who when asked his name by jesus replied i am legion i am legion 
  invisible and intangible the presence claws at the humanness of those gathered in the room you can exercise logic and expel any mental image of it you can say to yourself i am only imagining this careful dont panic and there may be a momentary relief but then after a time lag of bare seconds the presence returns as an inaudible hiss in the brain as a wordless threat to the self you are its name and essence seem to be compounded of threat to be only and intensely baleful concentratedly intent on hate for hates sake and on destruction for destructions sake    
  in the early stages of an exorcism  the evil spirit will make every attempt to hide behind the possessed so to speakto appear to be one and the same person and personality with its victim this is the pretense  
  the first task of the priest is to break that pretense to force the spirit to reveal itself openly as separate from the possessedand to name itself for all possessing spirits are called by a name that generally though not always has to do with the way that spirit works on its victim 
  as the exorcist sets about his task the evil spirit may remain silent altogether or it may speak with the voice of the possessed and use past experiences and recollections of the possessed this is often done skillfully using details no one but the possessed could know it can be very disarming even pitiful it can make everyone including the priest feel that it is the priest who is the villain subjecting an innocent person to terrible rigors even the mannerisms and characteristics of the possessed are used by the spirit as its own camouflage 
  sometimes the exorcist cannot shatter the pretense for days but until he does he cannot bring matters to a head if he fails to shatter it at all he has lost perhaps another exorcist replacing him will succeed but he himself has been beaten every exorcist learns during pretense that he is dealing with some force or power that is at times intensely cunning sometimes supremely intelligent and at other times capable of crass stupidity which makes one wonder further about the problem of singular or plural and it is both highly dangerous and terribly vulnerable 
  oddly while this spirit or power or force knows some of the most secret and intimate details of the lives of everyone in the room at the same time it also displays gaps in knowledge of things that may be happening at any given moment of the present 
  but the priest must not be lulled by small victories or take chances on hopedfor stupidities he must be ready to have his own sins and blunders and weaknesses put into his mind or shouted in ugliness for all to hear he must not make excuses for his past or wither as even his loveliest memories are fingered by ultimate filth and contempt he must not be sidetracked in any way from his primary intention of freeing the possessed person before him and he must at all costs avoid trading abuse or getting into any logical arguments with the possessed the temptation to do so is more frequent than one might think and must be regarded as a potentially fatal trap that can shatter not only the exorcism but quite literally shatter the exorcist as well 
  accordingly as the pretense begins to break down the behavior of the possessed usually increases in violence and repulsiveness it is as though an invisible manhole opens and out of it pours the unmentionably inhuman and the humanly unacceptable there is a stream of filth and unrestrained abuse accompanied often by physical violence writhing gnashing of teeth jumping around sometimes physical attacks on the exorcist    
  a new hallmark of the proceedings enters as the breakpoint nears and ushers in one of the more subtle sufferings the exorcist must undergo confusion complete and dreadful confusion rare is the exorcist who does not falter here for at least a moment enmeshed in the peculiar pain of apparent contradiction of all sense 
  his ears seem to smell foul words his eyes seem to hear offensive sounds and obscene screams his nose seems to taste a highdecibel cacophony each sense seems to be recording what another sense should be recording each nerve and sinew of onlookers and participants becomes rigid as they strive for control panicthe fear of being dissolved into insanityruns in quick jabs through everyone there all present experience this increasingly violent and confusing assault but the exorcist is the one who rides the storm he is the direct target of it all 
  the breakpoint is reached at that moment when the pretense has finally collapsed altogether the voice of the possessed is no longer used by the spirit though the new strange voice may or may not issue from the mouth of the victim in thomas wus case the alien voice did come from the possesseds mouth and that was why the police captain was so startled the sound produced is often not even remotely like any human sound 
  at the breakpoint for the first time the spirit speaks of the possessed in the third person as a separate being for the first time the possessing spirit acts personally and speaks of i or we usually interchangeably and of my and our or mine and ours 
  another very frequent sign that the breakpoint has been reached is the appearance of what father conor called the voice  
  the voice is an inordinately disturbing and humanly distressing babel the first few syllables seem to be those of some word pronounced slowly and thicklysomewhat like a tape recording played at a subnormal speed you are just straining to pick up the word and a layer of cold fear has already gripped youyou know this sound is alien but your concentration is shattered and frustrated by an immediate gamut of echoes of tiny prickly voices echoing each syllable screaming it whispering it laughing it sneering it groaning it following it they all hit your ear while the alien voice is going on unhurriedly to the next syllable which you then try to catch while guessing at the first one you lost by then the tiny jabbing voices have caught up with that second syllable and the voice has proceeded to the third syllable and so on 
  if the exorcism is to proceed the voice must be silenced it takes an enormous effort of will on the part of the exorcist in direct confrontation with the alien will of evil to silence the voice the priest must get himself under control and challenge the spirit first to silence and then to identify itself intelligibly 
  as in all things to do with exorcism of evil spirit the priest makes this challenge with his own will but always in the name and by the authority of jesus and his church to do so in his own name or by some fancied authority of his own would be to invite personal disaster merely human power unadorned and without aid cannot cope with the preternatural it is to be remembered that when we speak of the preternatural we are not speaking about what are known as poltergeists 
  usually at this point and as the voice dies out a tremendous pressure of an obscure kind affects the exorcist this is the first and outermost edge of a direct and personal collision with the will of the kingdom the clash  
  we all know from our personal experience that there can be no struggle of single personal wills without that felt and intuitive contact between two persons there is a twoway communication that is as real as a conversation using words the clash is the heart of a special and dreadful communication the nucleus of this singular battle of wills between exorcist and evil spirit    
  painful as it will be for him the priest must look for the clash he must provoke it if he cannot lock wills with the evil thing and force that thing to lock its will in opposition to his own then again the exorcist is defeated 
  the issue between the two the exorcist and the possessing spirit is simple will the totally antihuman invade and take over will it noisome and merciless seep over that narrow rim where the exorcist would hold his ground alone and engulf him or will it unwillingly protestingly under a duress greater than its singletrack will stop identify itself cede retire disappear and be volatilized back into an unknown pit of being where no man wants to go ever 
  even with all the pressure on him and in fullest human agony if the exorcist has got this far he must press home he has gained an advantage he has already forced the evil spirit to come out on its own if he has not been able to until now he must finally force it to give its name and then some exorcists feel the exorcist must pursue for as much information as he can for in some peculiar way as exorcists find the more an evil spirit can be forced to reveal in the clash and its aftermath the surer and easier will be the expulsion when that moment comes to force as complete an identification as possible is perhaps a mark of domination of one will over another 
  it is of crucial interest to speculate about the violence provoked by exorcismthe physical and mental struggles that are so extreme they can bring on death why would spirit battle so why not leave and waft off invisibly to someone or someplace else for spirit itself seems to suffer in these battles 
  time and again in exorcism after exorcism there occurs that curious thing to do with spirit and place the strange puzzle mentioned previously in connection with the room chosen for the exorcism when jesus expelled the unclean spirits those spirits showed concern for where they might go in record after record as well as in several exorcisms recounted in this book the possessing spirits wail in lament and questioning pain where shall we gowe too have to possess our habitationeven the anointed one gave us a place with the swinehere    we cant stay here any longer 
  evil spirit having found a home with a consenting host does not appear to give up its place easily it claws and fights and deceives and even risks killing its host before it will be expelled how violent the struggle probably depends on many things the intelligence of the spirit being dealt with and the degree of possession achieved over the victim are perhaps two one could speculate about 
  whatever determines the actual pitch of violence once the exorcist has forced the invading spirit to identify itself and sustained the first wordless bout of the clash and then invoked its formal condemnation and expulsion by the exorcism rite the immediate result is generally a struggle tortuous beyondimagining an open violence that leaves all subtlety behind 
  the person possessed is by now obviously aware in one way or another of what possessed him frequently he becomes a true battleground for much of the remainder of the exorcism enduring unbelievable punishment and strain 
  it is sometimes possible for the exorcist to appeal directly to the possessed person urging him to use some part of his own will still free of the spirits influence and control and engage directly in the fight aiding the exorcist and at such moments no animal pinned helplessly to the ground struggles more pathetically against the drinking of its lifes blood by a voracious and superior cruelty the very nauseous character of the possessed persons appearance and behavior appears to be a sign of his desire for deliverance a desperate sign of struggle evidence of a revolt where once he had consented 
  increasingly what had possessed him is being forced into the open all the while protesting its victims revolt and its own expulsion the violence of the contortions and the physical disfigurement of the possessed can reach a degree one would think he could not possibly withstand 
  the exorcist too comes in for full attack now once cornered the evil spirit seems able to call on a superior intelligence and will try to lure the exorcist on to a field boobytrapped and mined with situations from which no human can extricate himself 
  any weakness in the religious faith that alone sustains the exorcist or any fatigue will allow the exorcists mind to be flooded with a terrible light he cannot fend offa light that can burn the very roots of his reason and turn him emotionally into the most servile of slaves desperate to be liberated from all bodily life 
  these are only some of the dangers and traps that face every exorcist his pain is physical emotional mental he has to deal with what is eerie but not enthralling with something askew but intelligently so with a quality that is upside down and inside out but significantly so the mordant traits of nightmare are there in full regalia but this is no dream and permits him no thankful remission 
  he is attacked by a stench so powerful that many exorcists start vomiting uncontrollably he is made to bear physical pain and he feels anguish over his very soul he is made to know he is touching the completely unclean the totally unhuman  the totally unhuman  click to expand  
  all sense may suddenly seem nonsense hopelessness is confirmed as the only hope death and cruelty and contempt are normal anything comely or beautiful is an illusion nothing it seems was ever right in the world of man here is an atmosphere as bizarre as bedlam 
  if in spite of his emotions and his imagination and his bodyall trapped at once in pain and anguishif in spite of all this the will of the exorcist holds in the clash what he does is to approach his final function in this situation as an authorized human witness for jesus 
  by no power of his on account of no privilege of his own he calls finally on the evil spirit to desist to be dispossessed to depart  and to leave the person possessed 
  and if the exorcism is successful this is what happens the possession ends 
  all present become aware of a change around them the sense of presence is totally suddenly absent 
  sometimes there are receding voices or other noises sometimes only dead silence 
  the recently possessed will wake up as if from a dream a nightmare a coma sometimes he will remember much of what he has been through sometimes he will remember nothing at all    many people could be demonically possessed without knowing it here are two individuals who in my opinion might benefit from the ministrations of a good exorcist is this woman demonically possessed who knows    but many have said so click here for a spooky minute video is this woman demonically possessed who knows    but many have thought so apart from the demonic expression that disfigures her face this woman preaches white genocidethe total destruction of the european race what more do you have to do to qualify for demonic possession see here for more details on barbara spectres psychopathy and compare the expression on her face with figure  of this illustration from a medical textbook on demonic possession   as i wrote in a recent email to lasha darkmoon i feel that the entire tribe of judah is demonically possessed they always have been for centuries jesus made that point over and over again in his homilies and clearly the jews works bear that out they are now the devils agents on earth to promote his policies and spread contagion into the body of the goyim history bears me out on this 
  i will not quote dr darkmoons response here it is too long and would require a separate article of its own suffice to say that she disagreed with me on several counts though she accepted my general premise that demonic possession was an authentic and veridical phenomenon and not just a superstitious relic of the dark ages continued in part  the deceiver of the world  by lasha darkmoon 
  lobro van helsing is a retired canadian academic who is constantly on the move and likes visiting strange places at present he is living in south east asia    thoughts on  demonic possession today part   franklin ryckaert says november   at  am 
  lobro van helsing is a retired canadian academic who is constantly on the move and likes visiting strange places at present he is living in south east asia 
  that sounds like our lobro of the commentariat of this website but i thought he was of croatian descent and van helsing is a dutch or flemish name