[Satan in the frozen Ninth Circle of Hell, Inferno, Canto 34. Illustration by Gustave Doré.]
When I first started doing exorcisms, I would pay close attention to what the demons said through the mouths of the possessed. After 15 years of it, I have come to realize it is alot of boring demonic drivel. Demons are narcissistic and nasty. Their words are full of hatred and arrogance. And that is all they do. Malignant narcissism, in hell or on this earth, is profoundly boring.
One of the secondary signs of whether demons are present is in the words and messages we hear. I have found them almost identical across hundreds of cases. Their words are full of hatred, denigrating comments, threats, and pride. They hate God; they hate the Church; they hate everyone. It never changes.
All this suggests that there is never anything new in hell. There is no creativity. It is one long angry diatribe against all that is good. In short, it is incredibly boring. Demons do not know how to create or inspire. They can only destroy.
In their threats and arrogance, the demons try to instill fear or even hatred. They feed off these emotions and it fuels their narcissism. Demons believe in their own self-importance and Satan most of all. They want to be the focus of everyone's attention.
For example, it is odd that, in the midst of an exorcism with the spiritual combat in full swing, the demons will insist on having their names pronounced correctly. Baal twice corrected me and said his name is pronounced with one syllabus in a kind of gutteral tone.* Beelzebul does not like to be called Beelzebub, which is a denigration of his exalted title "Lord of the Demons" to now mean "Lord of the Flies." Another exorcism team told me that Asmodeus wants the accent on the "mo" syllable in his name and not "de." I suspect he does not want the name of God, Deus, spoken. Why such prickly self-referential thinking? Pure narcissism.
Narcissists, in their exaggerated self-importance, feed off attention: adulation or hatred. Yes, they feed off our anger and hatred of them. What is the best thing to do? Ignore them. As one saint said upon seeing a demon at the foot of the bed: "Oh, it's only you." Such deflates a narcissist. In final analysis, Satan and his minions are all incredibly boring narcissists.
Our attention should be on God and His Kingdom. Let us raise our eyes to heaven and focus on Jesus. Theologians tell us that while God does not change, with each moment God is ever new, ever more wonderful, and ever the delight of one's heart. God is pure creativity in an infinity of unfolding beauty, goodness and love. "Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard ... what God has prepared for those who love him" (1 Cor 2:9).
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*See Diary of an American Exorcist, Sophia Institute Press, pp. 215-216.
**The next online deliverance prayer session is Monday, Sept 18th, 7-8pm Eastern time. Register here or: https://www.catholicexorcism.org/event-details/sept-18th-online-deliverance-prayer-session