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evil spirits

Those Evil Spirits.

March 31, 2025 by Exangel

by Brian Griffith.

 

Besides avoiding physical or social sources of corruption, many ancient people feared losing their souls to spiritual enemies. Demonic spirits could poison the mind or possess the body. “Mental illness” seemed to indicate control by alien entities, and all illnesses were like invasions of negative forces. Perhaps that’s why the English word “illness” stems from the word “evilness” (Loehnen, p. 255). Resisting such affliction seemed like a battle of good vs. evil spirits. As Will Durant noted, ancient West Asians generally believed that “disease was possession, and was due to sin; therefore it had to be treated mainly by incantations, magic, and prayer; when drugs were used they were aimed not to cleanse the patient but to terrify and exorcise the demon” (p. 258). If the enemy force was not driven out, it could claim the victim’s soul in this life and the next.

In the gospel accounts, Jesus draws massive crowds as word of his healing powers spreads. The healings are described as either literal exorcisms of evil spirits, or else “faith healings,” through inviting in God’s spirit. Even the stories of Jesus forgiving sins, such as those of “a woman who was living an immoral life” (Luke 7:37), were commonly interpreted as exorcisms of evil spirits. Pope Gregory I (590–604 CE) claimed that this immoral woman had been Mary Magdalene, and that Jesus had expelled seven evil spirits from her (Mark 16:9). Gregory further explained that those spirits were the seven deadly sins, which included the evil spirit of lust (Loehnen, pp. 12).

Ancient people also feared that possession by unclean spirits was contagious. To protect the community, people who seemed mentally deranged might be cast out into the wilderness, to join the lepers and other dangerous “incurables” wandering there. In the gospel accounts we see Jewish religious leaders avoiding all contact with unclean people, be they afflicted with physical diseases or mental demons. Many observers were amazed that Jesus risked polluting himself by visiting, touching, and seeking to “cleanse” afflicted people. Even modern people like Rima Vesely-Flad found it inspiring. In her book Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies, she emphasized that Jesus “uplifted those whose bodies were deemed polluted: bleeding and invalid people, lepers, demon-possessed men, and women” (p. 305).

If disease, insanity, and immorality were caused by harmful spirits, then it seemed clear that health, success, and salvation depended on guidance by good or holy spirits. Therefore, vast numbers of people have assumed that the main question of religion is which spirit will guide them. And naturally, people who claim protection or guidance by the right spirits have diverse images of who those spirits are. Benito Mussolini told Hitler that he was “mystically and scientifically convinced of being possessed not by a demon, but by a spirit from Aryan mythological pre-history” (Farrell, p. 387). He apparently saw no contradiction between guidance by this ancestral spirit, and guidance by the holy spirit of his Catholic faith.

In the post-theocratic Western world, numerous Christian leaders and politicians have continued to treat rival ideologies, negative social trends, or foreign religious beliefs as if they were animate enemy spirits, seeking control over people’s minds. Numerous church leaders portrayed Communism as a Satan-directed conspiracy to brainwash people across the planet. To protect the public from spiritual corruption, the U.S. state of Alabama passed a law (in the 1990s) forbidding the teaching of yoga in public schools, as yoga seemed to be a religious practice for invoking Hindu deities. In 2021 this ban was lifted, in recognition that yoga could be practiced as a purely physical exercise for enhancing health. However, the new law maintained restrictions on any yogic practices involving the mind or spirit: “School personnel may not use any techniques that involve hypnosis, the introduction of a dissociative mental state, guided imagery, meditation, or any aspect of Eastern philosophy and religious training in which meditation and contemplation are joined with physical exercises to facilitate the development of body-mind-spirit” (Pontiac, p. 35). That would come too close to inviting mind control by the wrong spirits.

People concerned to protect the public mind from corruption have commonly assumed that all their diverse critics are agents for one greater enemy of humanity. So we have our great moral crusaders such as Oliver Cromwell, Maximilien Robespierre, Francisco Franco, or Mao Zedong, seeking to eliminate heretical traitors lest the forces of evil infest us all. In a similar but less murderous spirit, the American leaders of a fascistic religious “I AM” movement (namely Guy and Edna Ballard) evoked spiritual expulsion for all agents of evil, through the power of forceful “decrees.” In the 1930s they published an I AM Decree Book, giving 71 decrees for their followers to recite. For example, “I call on the Angels of Blue Lighting, the Legions of Light to stand guard over your America; My America; that every person who tries to bring destructive conditions, qualities or activities into America SHALL CEASE TO EXIST IN HUMAN FORM” (Pontiac, pp. 482–483). In the afterlife as well, those spirits would be banished from the higher realms.

This article is drawn from a manuscript called “How to Qualify for Immortality.”

Sources
Durant, Will (1956) Our Oriental Heritage, Simon & Schuster.
Farrell, Nicholas (2003) Mussolini: A New Life, Weidenfeld & Nicholson.
Loehnen, Elise (2023) On Our Best Behavior, The Dial Press.
Pontiac, Ronnie (2023) American Metaphysical Religion, Inner Traditions.
Vesely-Flad, Rima (2017) Racial Purity and Dangerous Bodies, Fortress Press.

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  • Who Was Dorothy?
  • Those Evil Spirits.
  • The Screaming Baboon.
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In The News.

That cult classic pirate/sci fi mash up GREENBEARD, by Richard James Bentley, is now a rollicking audiobook, available from Audible.com. Narrated and acted by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio, you’ll be overwhelmed by the riches and hilarity within.

“Captain Sylvestre de Greybagges is your typical seventeenth-century Cambridge-educated lawyer turned Caribbean pirate, as comfortable debating the virtues of William Shakespeare, Isaac Newton, and compound interest as he is wielding a cutlass, needling archrival Henry Morgan, and parsing rum-soaked gossip for his next target. When a pepper monger’s loose tongue lets out a rumor about a fleet loaded with silver, the Captain sets sail only to find himself in a close encounter of a very different kind.

After escaping with his sanity barely intact and his beard transformed an alarming bright green, Greybagges rallies The Ark de Triomphe crew for a revenge-fueled, thrill-a-minute adventure to the ends of the earth and beyond.

This frolicsome tale of skullduggery, jiggery-pokery, and chicanery upon Ye High Seas is brimming with hilarious puns, masterful historical allusions, and nonstop literary hijinks. Including sly references to Thomas Pynchon, Treasure Island, 1940s cinema, and notable historical figures, this mélange of delights will captivate readers with its rollicking adventure, rich descriptions of food and fashion, and learned asides into scientific, philosophical, and colonial history.”

THE SUPERGIRLS is back, revised and updated!

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In The News.

Newport Public Library hosted a three part Zoom series on Visionary Fiction, led by Tod.  

And we love them for it, too.

The first discussion was a lively blast. You can watch it here. The second, Looking Back to Look Forward can be seen here.

The third was the best of all. Visions of the Future, with a cast of characters including poets, audiobook artists, historians, Starhawk, and Mary Shelley. Among others. Link is here.

In the News.

SNOTTY SAVES THE DAY is now an audiobook, narrated by Last Word Audio’s mellifluous Colby Elliott. It launched May 10th, but for a limited time, you can listen for free with an Audible trial membership. So what are you waiting for? Start listening to the wonders of how Arcadia was born from the worst section of the worst neighborhood in the worst empire of all the worlds since the universe began.

In The News.

If you love audio books, don’t miss the new release of REPORT TO MEGALOPOLIS, by Tod Davies, narrated by Colby Elliott of Last Word Audio. The tortured Aspern Grayling tries to rise above the truth of his own story, fighting with reality every step of the way, and Colby’s voice is the perfect match for our modern day Dr. Frankenstein.

In The News.

Mike Madrid dishes on Miss Fury to the BBC . . .

Tod on the Importance of Visionary Fiction

Check out this video of “Beyond Utopia: The Importance of Fantasy,” Tod’s recent talk at the tenth World-Ecology Research Network Conference, June 2019, in San Francisco. She covers everything from Wind in the Willows to the work of Kim Stanley Robinson, with a look at The History of Arcadia along the way. As usual, she’s going on about how visionary fiction has an important place in the formation of a world we want and need to have.

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