This entry is an examination of the history and modern practice of demonology as it applies to the real world. It is in no way a discussion of the TV series 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' or 'Angel'.

The most accurate definition of demonology is the study of spiritual evil. The word literally means the study of demons, but in practice the discipline studies a considerably broader field including black magick, Satanism, devil worship, demons, devils, poltergeists, etc. Demonologists can broadly be divided into three categories. The first are people who study the mythology and literature relating to such matters only, the second are those who study these matters and attempt to apply them to reported instances of demonic attack and the third are people who use the knowledge in an attempt to conjure such entities. All three can properly be called demonologists but as the first is more of a branch of mythology then any thing else, it will be a minor factor in this article. While the objective reality of the demonic is a question long debated by theologians and philosophers, the study of both the mythology regarding them and modern reports of such activity can be worthwhile.

The History of Demonology

Pre Christian Demonology

Exactly how old the field of demonology is no one knows. It is known that almost every known culture has had a body of beliefs about malevolent spiritual forces that cause injury and death to humans. In many early cultures, what gods they serve are seen as violent beings you appease, and not loving parental figures. The oldest formalized system that maintained records dates back to Sumaria and Babylon. Both cultures believed in a wide range of violent spirits that were not gods and were not spirits of the dead. This notion continued to become increasingly complex as time went on and eventually the idea that these spirits were enemies of the gods began to develop. Who came up with it first will never be known but the idea can be found in Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Hinduism, and the writings of the Greek philosopher Xenocrates well before Christianity appeared on the scene. The origins of the word demon in fact originate from the Ancient Greek daimon and are widely misunderstood. The proper definition of this word depends entirely on which philosopher you asked. Some considered them a guardian spirit somewhere below the gods, others saw them as an intermediate rank of gods, and a few saw them as evil spirits who fought against the gods (particularly the philosopher Xenocrates).

Of the ancient traditions regarding demons, the most formalized body of knowledge comes out of the religions of Zoroastrianism and Judaism. In Zoroastrianism (the chief religion of Persia), it was believed that the universe was ruled over by two equally powerful but ethically opposite gods Ahura Mazda and Ahiriman. They also believed that a host of lesser spirits served these two gods.

Judaism has a large body of mysticism known as Kabala. It is here that we find the references to both demons and dybbuks (a dybbuk is a spirit of a dead human who possesses the living to complete some goal from life) as well as the Jewish form of exorcism (exorcism like the belief in demons is practiced in every major religion in the world: Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism, Shinto, etc). Judaism is also probably responsible for one of the most well known books on demonology 'The Key of Solomon the King'. According to legend when Solomon asked God for wisdom, he was granted several gifts among which was a book (the key). This book contained detailed knowledge of good and evil as well as rituals for the summoning and commanding of demons. While these rituals were originally believed to be solely intended for Solomon himself, he ultimately did copy the book for his descendents (while its true authorship is unknown we do know that references to the key go back as far as 1 AD even if the most well known copy only dates back to the 16th Century). The strangest of all the Jewish beliefs regarding the demonic is probably the nephillim. Drawn from an unusual reference in Genesis 6 to the sons of God lusting after the daughters of men these beings were believed to be the half-breed spawn of angels and mortals. Considered men of great size and strength (some scholars believe Goliath was a nephil) these beings were considered an affront to God forming one of the chief reasons for the Flood. While overall modern Christianity has ignored the story, beyond an alternative theory to explain the Fall, the idea that angels (particularly fallen ones) could interbreed with humans continued well into the Middle Ages. The legendary magician Merlin for example was supposedly the child of a witch and a demon.

Christian Demonology

Yet, the most famous form of demonology is from Christianity in general and the Roman Catholic Church in particular. While Christians were not the first to suggest that demons were fallen angels (the Jewish apocrypha suggests as much particularly the Book of Enoch) nor were they the first to use the term demon¹ Christian scholars have probably spent the most time developing this branch of theology and are the most common practitioners of it today. In Christianity, demonology goes back to the very beginnings of the religion. Both Christ and his followers cast out demons (Matthew 16:11 he grants this power to all who will follow him) and the formal office of exorcist dates back to the 4th century making it almost as old as the Roman Catholic Church as well. Working from this base Christians continued to write a variety of texts on the subject detailing complex hierarchies of Hell, roles of specific demons, etc). While considerable debate over the particulars of certain spirits and their status, a general hierarchy does exist that most scholars have agreed upon. It essentially runs:

Imps and Familiars: the weakest rank of spirits these beings generally act in the service of sorcerers or more powerful evil spirits. Imps in particular are traditionally seen as messengers and spies for greater powers most often appearing as animal shapes approximately three feet or less in height.

Demons: Demons are seen as the grunt soldiers of Hell. Before the fall, they were from the lowest ranks of angels, the guardians. Now they are extremely violent and chaotic creatures seeking to torment as many people as possible.

Devils: Where demons are the grunts the devils are the commanders. Before they fell, they were supposed to have been at least archangels if not from the higher ranks. They have an enormous reserve of intelligence and experience to rely on and often are far more precise and articulate in their threats (a demon will scrawl obscenities all over the walls of a house, a devil would write careful and specific threats and blasphemies from left to right in a dead language).

Arch devils: The names most people know for infernal spirits come from the high end of the hierarchy. Baal, Mephistopheles, and the other chief lieutenants referred to in scripture. On the rare occasions they manifest into the physical world destruction ensues on a major scale. As representatives of the highest ranks of angels they have lost none of the original power and authority they held, making it virtually impossible to exorcise them.

Satan: Known in Hebrew as HaSa’tan (The Adversary) he is the chief of the ranks of Hell. Most demonologists believe that he rarely if ever personally enters the physical world. Three known exceptions do exist. The first is found in the person of Judas Iscariot called "the man of perdition" whom the gospels state that Satan entered during the last supper. The second is also drawn from scripture, and is yet to come. Namely thein Antichrist of Revelation. The last is a little known instance of possession that took place in the US during the 20's. Little specific detail is readily available but demonologists do believe it was a direct appearance of Satan himself.

Of all the medieval texts on demonology, two deserve special mention the Malleus Malleficarum and the Compendium Mallefecarum. While these books were most concerned with the detection and elimination of witches, they contained a wealth of information regarding medieval demonology. Both cover a wide range of topics regarding the rituals preformed by these witches, the demons they conjured, possession, exorcism, and the limits of the powers of darkness. Exorcism also was first formally structured with in the Roman Catholic Church during the Middle Ages.

While its core prayers are as old as the office itself, in the 16th century the Catholic Church first published its formal ritual in the "Rituale Romanum." This ritual included a number of specific prayers and recommended biblical verses as well as twenty-one separate specific recommendations and requirements for the ritual. Of these two are particularly signifigant in light of modern psychology. The first is a warning to not assume the presence of the demonic to quickly but to instead consider the possibility of a mental explanation (it was in fact the Catholic Church itself and not modern science that first recognized the reality of mental illness as a possible explanation for such phenomenon). The second is the requirement of provable signs of possession (specifically superhuman strength, the ability to speak languages the victim had no prior knowledge of, the knowledge of secret information, and a violent reaction to sanctified items or the name of God). According to the ritual no exorcism should be performed without evidence of multiple symptoms, and even then, a priest had to get specific permission from his superiors. From the 16th Century until the late 1990s, the ritual remained unchanged. In the 1990’s, the Church updated it further adding new prayers and the stipulation that a complete psychological and medical evaluation had to be completed before it was considered as an option.

Modern Demonology

While it is erroneously believed that demonology is solely the province of the medieval church, a number of modern practitioners still work in the world today. Of these, several figures deserve special mention, none of them more so then Ed Warren. Worldwide only a handful of people are ever formally recognized by the Roman Catholic Church to bear the title of Religious Demonologist (some where between seven and ten). In recent times all of these have been members of the clergy, with the notable exception of Ed Warren. Ed is also the only recognised Religious Demonologist well-known to the public. Mr. Warren has been working in the field for more then 50 years and has been involved in some of the most famous cases in history (the Amityville Horror, the Werewolf case, the Smurl case, West Point). Until his recent illness, he and his wife travelled the world lecturing and investigating cases. One of his greatest legacies to the field though has been his students, most notably his nephew John Zaffis and Lou Gentile. While neither of these two has achieved the status that Mr. Warren holds, both are well known investigators in their own right having appeared on TV and radio on multiple occasions (Mr. Gentile hosts the nationally syndicated "The Lou Gentile Show" M-F 10 PM-1 AM EST see The Lou Gentile Showfor details).

The role of these men is not that of an exorcist. Instead, they investigate reported instances of demonic activity, documenting it as accurately as possible and then using it to convince an exorcist to intervene on the victim’s behalf when necessary. Contrary to what many would expect their methods do not involve magic spells or hokey talismans. Instead, it involves careful interviewing of all known witnesses followed by extensive surveillance of a location using video cameras, emf detectors², audio recorders, and other equipment in an attempt to document the nature of the occurrence. In fact in most ways an investigation by a demonologist is little different from one conducted by a ghost hunter. The two principle differences are: one, demonologists investigate with an eye to remove malevolent entities (ghost hunters seek only to document the existence of spirits or at least most of them do), and two, demonologists have certain methods to resort to provoke spiritual activity in cases where a spirit is being particularly quiet (this is not some weird ritual but instead the use of prayer and holy items in a particular manner). It is particularly important to understand that legitimate investigators do not assume reports must be legitimate but instead seek to independently verify reports and to eliminate explanations that are more mundane. Mr. Gentile has reported on his show and in other places multiple examples of investigations that ultimately had quite simple explanations and Mr. Zaffis has a number of photographs on his web site to give specific examples of natural phenomena often mistaken for psychic photography (see resource list at the end for more details).

Before concluding the history of Christian demonology entirely a final figure deserves particular mention. The late father Malachi Martin. While he authored a number of books on Catholic history Father Martin is possibly best known for his book "Hostage to the Devil." In this book, he presents five separate case histories of demonic possession from beginning up through their ultimate resolution through the ritual of exorcism. While his status with the Catholic Church is somewhat vague, he still stands as one of the leading authorities on exorcism and possession today.

Stages of Attack

While most people are only familiar with possession, demonologists consider this the rarest of all forms of attack and go so far as to divide such attacks into five broad stages: invitation, infestation, oppression, possession and death. While it is believed some cases skip one or more of these steps the majority follow this pattern.

Invitation

Invitation is the point at which a spirit enters the victim’s life. It is believed that demons (devils as well but for simplicities sake the word demon will be used as a catch all term) have to operate by specific rules one of which is that they cannot enter into the human world with out some sort of invitation. Such invitation usually comes in one of two forms referred to as the laws of invitation and attraction. The law of invitation states that if you invite a spirit into your life it will come. This is not always a deliberate invitation. Demonologists are widely of the opinion that many people draw such entities down upon themselves through the use of Ouija boards, pendulums and other occult objects offering an invitation by seeking hidden knowledge if not by direct request for a spirits presence. The second law, that of attraction, is also straightforward: like attracts like in the spirit world. In other words, it is believed that evil, violent people draw similar spirits around themselves. Many demonologists are of the opinion that serial killers, rapists and necrophiliacs are often possessed if not before they commit these crimes as a result of their choices. It is believed in acting in such a morally reprehensible manner the person has effectively invited evil into himself.

Of the forms of invitation, the Ouija board deserves special mention. While most of the modern world see these objects as simple games demonologists have long believed them to be the principle cause of attack. While the board as it is today was first marketed in the 1800's by the talking board company of Salem, Massachusetts the basic design is considerably older. From the beginning it was intended as a method of contacting spirits, as the original patent put down with the US patent office specifies, and the company even went to court in an attempt to make the boards exempt from taxation due to there status as a religious tool (a court trial that ultimately failed). Ironically, a sound scientific explanation does exist for the movement of the planchette known as automatism. This is the technical term for subconscious muscle twitches and contractions that can cause an object to move even when the person is not intentionally trying to exert force on it. Regardless it is believed that by attempting to open a direct channel into the spirit world these boards pose a threat. The reason simply being that the users have no real way to control the nature of the entities who will come across the board and no special conditions exist to force such beings to tell the truth.

Infestation

From invitation, activity moves onward into infestation. Infestation is largely akin to what people think of as a haunted house. Objects move, things disappear, new objects appear out of nowhere, forms are seen, noises will manifest with no apparent source, etc. Yet demonologists believe infestation can be differentiated from a ghostly haunting in several basic ways. First is the level of activity. Demons show considerably greater power then ghosts hurling objects of incredible weight around (poltergeists are believed to in fact be a form of devil and not in fact psychic kids at least in demonology). Second, the activity usually has a very specific bent in an attempt to mock the divine. Crosses will be made to hang upside down, bibles will be torn apart, the number three will repeat again and again (three in many religions is a number of the divine Father, son and the holy ghost, Wicca rule of three), and activity that peaks most during the night especially 3 am (the night time opposite of 3 pm the traditional time of Christ's death on the cross), speaking various blasphemies etc. Finally, demons are believed to draw power from negative emotions. Where a ghost would stop when it terrifies a person to badly, demons merely escalate the phenomena. During this stage, the spirit involved begins seeking a person to focus its attention on usually some one who spends a great deal of time alone in the house and often the person that originally gave it permission to enter. Once it has selected its victim, the next stage will begin.

Oppression

In oppression (also known as obsession), the spirit singles out a specific victim. It will begin causing things to happen that only this person will see and whispering threats and suggestions in their ear. As the stage grows worse the spirit begins to gain a foothold in the person’s mind allowing it to take control for varying periods. As such, this is the side of demonic attack most often confused with possession (the difference in a moment will be covered in a moment). Its goal is actually quite straightforward. To isolate a single victim from that person support structure and then wear down its victim’s free will. Demonologists believe that for things to progress into possession the person must freely give the demon permission to take up residence in its body which is the ultimate goal of both oppression and infestation.

Possession

Once that permission is given, the spirit will take up residence in a person’s body. Unlike oppression where the spirit only is there from time to time in possession that spirit remains in the body constantly until forcibly driven out. This makes possession by far the rarest and most dramatic form of demonic attack. While it is argued that possession can be explained by conventional psychology, demonologists disagree. They believe that a truly possessed person will inevitably exhibit signs there are no mundane explanations for. For examples of this, you need look no farther then your local video store. While sensationalistic the movie "The Exorcist" is accurate in depicting what it is believed can and does happen when a person becomes possessed (the only thing that to my knowledge has never been reported in a documented case is the girls head spinning completely around a feature that’s improbable at best considering the nature of human anatomy). The dramatic personality and physiological changes, the prodigious strength, the moving objects, the appearance of scratches on the body, the speaking of dead languages (eg Latin), and the violent reaction to holy water have all been reported in cases both modern and historical. While some of these phenomena have scientific explanations (superhuman strength, reaction to holy objects, and knowing a few phrases of a foreign language specifically) all of these phenomenon combined fall beyond the preview of established science and if they do indeed occur would require an alternative explanation rather then mental illness (one can argue till their blue in the fact about parapsychology but its not even remotely established as a serious science so its footing is not superior to demonology). Possession itself can sometimes move on to a final stage if given enough time to run unchecked.

Death

This is death. Not necessarily the death of the victim (although suicide attempts are not uncommon among people claiming to be under demonic attack). In a few cases, the possessed person has lashed out at others attempting to murder as many as possible before being brought to justice. Whether or not this can truly account for the actions of certain serial killers is a matter for debate but it is interesting in light of the occult ties that exist with many such men: Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, the German SS, Son of Sam and the Matamoras cult killers all had ties to the occult in some fashion.

Deliverance Ministry

While not properly speaking a form of demonology, a related field does deserve some mention. Recently the Protestant aspects of Christianity have made some forays into trying to combat demonic attack. Instead of using exorcism (which is to be precise a formalized ritual for the casting out of spirits), they focus on individualized counseling and commands that invoke Jesus. The principle difference between this and demonology is a matter of approach and classification. Most deliverance ministers (see Bishop Roy Bryant's ‘Manual on Demonology’ for example) claim to cast out spirits with names like homosexuality or anger. They hold that demons are the root of psychological and emotional problems and several refuse to recognize the effectiveness of conventional treatment in such matters.

The other major difference is the need for evidence. For a demonologist to consider a case as preternatural in origin they require demonstratable phenomenon that lacks a scientific explanation. Deliverance ministers rely primarily on a power they claim to have called discernment. They believe they can simply detect the presence of demonic spirits by looking at a person. Demonologists will occasionally use people they believe have such gifts but also recognize the questionable nature of such abilities and do not rely on them exclusively.

Resources for Further Research:

Books

Jane Anson: 'The Amityville Horror'

William Blattey: The Exorcist

Fr Gabrielle Armoth: 'An Exorcist Tells His Story', 'An Exorcist: More Stories'

Fr Malachi Martin: 'Hostage to the Devil'

Ed Warren: 'The Demonologist', 'Deliver us From Evil', 'Werewolf', 'Ghosthunters', 'Graveyard', 'The Haunted', 'Satan's Harvest', 'Devil in Ct', 'In a Dark Place'

Movies:

The Amityville Horror

The Demon Murders Case

The Entity

The Exorcist

The Haunted

A Haunting in CT

Websites:

Warren’s Web site

Delaware Valley Demonology Research

The Lou Gentile Show

Paranormal Research Society of New England