Is Demonology a Valid "Science"?

[PPI Karl]

In a poll PPI conducted in 2007, 82% of the respondents said, "Yes" to "Do you believe that demons are real?"

Do you feel this makes Demonology valid as a first course of treatment to help those seemingly under paranormal attack?  Would you permit demonologists to come investigate your home for paranormal activity?

Take the new poll, and "exercise" your demons:  give us your random thoughts.

[PPI Jason]

Karl,

I've always appreciated the comments you've made in this area. I don't know if I believe "demons" are real, but there does seem to be evidence out there that phenomena we associate with demons is real. Whether they are actually demons, or jinn, or thought forms gone wild, or gremlins with attitudes I don't know.

But if I were ever to experience things that seem consistent with what others have described as demons then my first recourse would be to a group of scientific minded individuals to come out and make an assessment to help rule out any other possibilities. I'm not really religious. I don't really even have a priest on my speed dial. So I'm not sure what I would do if a group of scientists came into my home and said, "Yep, sounds like you've got a demon alright. And he's a nasty one. Good luck with that." In such a case I would definitely permit demonologists to investigate my home, as long they were demonologists with some type of credibility and maybe a good reference or two.

[PPI Brian]

Hi Karl,

I have spent more than half my life engaged in paranormal pursuits, and I'm not sure whether or not I "believe" in "demons". As you explained in your presentation at the Science Festival, belief probably has little -- if anything -- to do with this class of phenomena. Over the years I have experienced many types of apaarently human haunts which have run the gamut from sad and lost to sarcastic and even hostile. But I have never experienced anything that I would describe as "evil" or "diabolical", although I have experienced phenomena that I would describe as negative. Am I religious? Yes, but I am not "orthodox" by any stretch of the imagination. I consider myself to be "spiritual", embracing the belief systems of many religions and spiritual practices, with an emphasis on Buddhist teachings. Having said that, I don't allow my belief system to get in the way of my scientific curiosity.

There is anecdotal evidence that suggests there are hostile non-human entities that have been around a lot longer than we have. They choose to interact with us in ways that derive the most severe emotional responses. Why they do so is open to speculation. Various cultures around the world describe them in ways that make sense to their people and their belief systems. But it appears to me there is a common thread in the descriptions of these hostile entities in all cultures. Most people in our culture would label them "demons" for want of a better term. 

There is an equal amount of anecdotal evidence that suggests there are positive non-human entities that also choose to interact with us in ways that derive strong emotional responses. Again, their reasons for doing so are open to speculation. Just as all celestial bodies (with very few exceptions) exhibit positively charged and negatively charged magnetic fields, I believe that such polarity exists for everything in the universe. Call them "Angels" for want of a better term, but if we acknowledge one class of entity, don't we have to acknowledge the other class as well? After all, for every action in the known universe, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Could these non-human entities be different aspects of the same being? Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle...

Back to the question; if I were experiencing something really bizarre and frightening, I would contact a reputable paranormal team first. If they collected evidence that led me to believe a negative non-human entity might be the cause, I would allow a demonolgist to investigate. I would prefer to deal with demonologists from the Catholic Church, because they seem to be the most "qualified" to deal with these entities. I would never try to resolve such issues alone.

Just my two cents... 

[PPI Tracy]

I believe there is good and there is evil.  Whether demons exist in the sense of what the general population, Hollywood, biblical theories portray them to be.. I can't say for sure.  However, the demons I have seen and learned about in my lifetime thus far, have been nothing other than in human form.

[SCP Ellie]

Speaking of demons, I have a pet peeve with people who blame their bad abusive everyday common psychological issues on demons. Better yet they actually call them their demons. I mean come on. It's not an excuse. In fact it solidifies the idea that you are completely aware of what's right and wrong.

[PPI Karl]

Oh, you mean Rudephor, the demon of bad manners and insensitivity.   Yes, I completely agree, Ellie.


My biggest problem is empathizing with people who claim to see demons.  I admit, if I were under attack by paranormal entities I really thought were demons, I might be disinclined to see a clinical psychologist first, or consider a medical cause.  There's a perplexing stigma against mental illness in our culture.  I suppose there always has been, in every culture.  And people will find any reason not to admit to themselves that they're suffering from it.  Loved ones, as well, will often refused to admit it.  And people most in need of medical treatment will go on believing that they're under paranormal attack while friends and family fuel their delusions with the same folklore that burned witches in Salem and caused countless victims over the millenia to be tortured for the sake of exorcising demons.  While I might enlist an investigation group with a demonologist on board, it would have to be under the proviso that he or she were working with a qualified psychologist who would either look for practical diagnoses, or who would help me to seek a medical consultation beforehand without prejudice or recrimination.  At that point, barring all other possible explanations, I might assent to a demonological approach to my problem.

And this is coming from someone who doesn't believe in the existence of demons nor in the religious basis for them.  As Jason stated, I recognize that there are archetypes of good and evil built right into the human psyche that may be rooted in reality, even if that reality is of the human brain and not the paranormal realm.  Carl Jung acknowledged this as well.  The Balrog may be a Tolkien invention, but what the Balrog is and represents may be a reality with which we are capable of interacting on a subconscious level, or it may be our own minds desperately cordoning off our fear of absolute evil and personifying it so that we can bitch-slap it back into submission.  Perhaps some of us have less control over it than others, or are open to attack from it more easily than others.  It may be a psychosomatic experience, but it doesn't discount the reality that the body is physically, somatically reacting.

For those reasons, against all my better judgment, I may invite John Zaffis & Co.  But, I would want impartial observers who care about me and are looking out for me so that I'm not manipulated, to be there as well monitoring the whole investigation.

[PPI Tracy]

Speaking of demons, I have a pet peeve with people who blame their bad abusive everyday common psychological issues on demons. Better yet they actually call them their demons. I mean come on. It's not an excuse. In fact it solidifies the idea that you are completely aware of what's right and wrong.

You wouldn't by chance be speaking of someone who has their own tv show, now would ya?  Someone who wears silky black eye masks and electrodes glued to their head..and throws up on investigations.  Man...who in the world could we be talking about?     

[Brenna]

I don't believe in good or evil. They are social constructions that vary from culture to culture and not absolute truths. I believe there is behavior that is destructive to society and oneself, and that where such behavior is exhibited it should be curtailed. However, I believe this behavior to be part of the human condition and in no part supernatural. If some part of us survives death, and to be clear I remain skeptical on this point, I think it probable that a tendency towards destructive behavior might also remain. In other words:

destructive people = destructive spirits

The equation does not allow for demons.

[externalink]

Karl,

I've always appreciated the comments you've made in this area. I don't know if I believe "demons" are real, but there does seem to be evidence out there that phenomena we associate with demons is real. Whether they are actually demons, or jinn, or thought forms gone wild, or gremlins with attitudes I don't know.

But if I were ever to experience things that seem consistent with what others have described as demons then my first recourse would be to a group of scientific minded individuals to come out and make an assessment to help rule out any other possibilities. I'm not really religious. I don't really even have a priest on my speed dial. So I'm not sure what I would do if a group of scientists came into my home and said, "Yep, sounds like you've got a demon alright. And he's a nasty one. Good luck with that." In such a case I would definitely permit demonologists to investigate my home, as long they were demonologists with some type of credibility and maybe a good reference or two.

Gremlins with attitude! Brilliant.

[JP]

Please forgive my response as i am a noob here but how and why would an entity be considered non-human. In thoery there has been religion in all cultures and presumabley "demons and angels", for lack of a better term, in the lore of the belief. So with that in mind could an entity that would be considered non-human mearly be a human entity simply playing the role to invoke fear? Also, is there any evidence out there that the power (power being its ability to interact with us) of an entity may increase with its age. i.e. Can an entity learn how to and improve on it's interaction's with us?

[PPI Tim]

In a simple answer to your question is yes.
If the entity has intelligence it could learn behavior. (know your name, touch you when you are near them, move objects etc.)
If it is residual, it won't matter if you are there or not.

[PPI Jason]

Please forgive my response as i am a noob here but how and why would an entity be considered non-human. In thoery there has been religion in all cultures and presumabley "demons and angels", for lack of a better term, in the lore of the belief. So with that in mind could an entity that would be considered non-human mearly be a human entity simply playing the role to invoke fear? Also, is there any evidence out there that the power (power being its ability to interact with us) of an entity may increase with its age. i.e. Can an entity learn how to and improve on it's interaction's with us?

You don't sound at all like a noob to me. Sounds like you've given a lot of thought to these topics. I wish I had answers to these questions, but I don't really think we know enough to give very good answers. But we can make guesses  A medium might claim to know, but scientifically we simply don't have any evidence to be able to verify or explain away claims from psychics and mediums. For some people, they find an answer to these questions through their faith. But, again, we just don't have any scientific way of proving or disproving some of these claims.

But your idea that demons may simply be human entities prentending to be demons to invoke fear is a common theory that some paranormal investigators consider a possibility.  I personally don't feel that anyone knows enough about these beings to be able to say one way or the other.

Your second question brings up a point I've never considered before. I'm unaware of anyone else that has either. Since we don't have an accurate way of determining an entity's age, it's impossible to say whether their ability to interact increases with age. However, let's look at it from the opposite view. Is it possible that as an entity ages it loses its power to interact?

We might be able to find evidence of this if we compare results from investigations done at really old locations (i.e. locations where there is documentation of people living there for a very long time like New England) with locations where people have only begun living there recently (e.g. newer housing developments near Las Vegas). In theory, if we get more evidence of paranormal activity at places with only recent human habitation, it might suggest that spirits lose their ability to interact with the passage of time. However, it might also suggest that older ghosts simply know how to hide better, or maybe they get tired of talking to humans, or maybe they move on to some type of heaven or spirit world. But then again, we don't even know if ghosts can relocate or move from one place to another, whether they follow people or objects to new locations or not, and whether or not other factors play a larger role in paranormal activity (like solar activity or the presence of certain people or whether the activity is associated with a traumatic event like a murder or war).

If we find more paranormal activity at locations where humans have had a longer history of habitation, it gets even more complicated. The question then becomes, "Is the increased activity there because ghosts get better at talking to us with age or is it simply because there are more ghosts because more people have died there over the years?" Lots of issues to consider, very few solid answers at this point.

Our group has actually just developed a new paranormal database that we hope will help us get some answers to these questions. As we conduct more investigations we will get more data that might allow us to actually make better guesses than we do now for these very interesting and thought provoking questions  Stay tuned as we work on setting up a way to get some of the interesting results from our database to those who are interested.

[johnny]

I think demons or negative energy are the same representations.  Both seem to stem from personal philosophies/perspectives (upbringing, religion, atheism, etc)and how they address such questions. My perspective has changed on this since this original posting. I may believe something is a demon in the right situation but perhaps only a negative energy in another.