The Greek word daimon has no negative connotation, but there’s no question that the modern demon does, which cause me to start off with the obligatory warning.

While many of the things we do as paranormal investigators can be dangerous and shouldn’t be taken lightly, this applies several fold to demonology.  Among those who spend time on paranormal pursuits, demonologists are a specific group.  They’ve devoted a great deal of time and energy to ensuring that they know what they’re dealing with and how to best protect themselves and those around them.

As I said, nothing we do should be taken too lightly, but this is an area that requires the utmost caution and should be avoided by the casual investigator.

This is another subject to which entire websites are devoted, so we’re going to stick to the basics here.  Furthermore, everything within this sphere of discussion is more hotly debated than anything else discussed to this point, and as a result should be considered completely theoretical.

The general consensus is that demons are the angels whom God cast out from heaven.  
 
In brief (and I apologize in advance for the Sunday School refresher) God created angels to do his bidding.  He gave them free will and the capabilities they would need to do what he required of them. They were not human, nor were they humanoid.  He did not create them in His image.  A discussion of the types and names of angels is another subject to deep to get into here.

When God created man in his image this angered some of the angels, and when He gave man free will as he had given the angels, it began a war, a rebellion of sorts.

Eventually the angels who rebelled were defeated by those who obeyed God’s will, and as punishment for their lack of faith were cast out of heaven.  They were to remain on earth until the final judgment, hence demons were created, and there is no forgiveness for them.

While demons would like nothing more than to rid the earth of humans, God’s will doesn’t allow that. He set forth very specific rules for them and for how they interact with humans;

1.  While demons weren’t created in His image, some can take human form. However when they do so they must display some deformity so the illusion can never be complete.

2.  A demon must be asked into your life.  It can be direct, it can be through repetition of their name or it can be entirely unintentional (such as through use of a Ouija Board or other tool).  They may try and trick you into allowing them in, but you still must accept them whether you understand what you’re doing or not.

There are other rules that are more geared towards investigators and those who put themselves in proximity to these entities.  Actually we’re talking about one rule that has several facets, and I became aware of this rule when I unknowingly put myself in a dangerous situation.

I was part of a team that investigated a large private home in a section of Boston.  We hadn’t been there very long when it became clear that not only was the location very active, but that whatever resided there was not friendly.  The investigation took several somewhat disturbing turns and we chose to shut down.

The team felt that returning to the house was not something they were interested in doing but I decided otherwise and I began putting a new team together that would return to the house.  Obviously I would never ask someone to come with me unless I gave them all the information I felt they ought to know and almost immediately one of the potential investigators told me she wouldn’t be coming and suggested that I stay away as well.

She told me, and I’ve since learned from numerous other sources, that in cases of accidental or innocent encounters a demon can manifest in many ways.  They can threaten, provoke or mock you.  However they can’t seriously harm
you.  The demon can’t outright attack you nor can it follow you or accompany you when you leave the location. 

However should you choose to return of your own free will knowing what you’re dealing with you are unprotected.

I still talk about doing it eventually, but have yet to go back to that house.

Given the rules under which they must interact with us they’re limited, but not unable to overtake us, and since they can’t do so directly without invitation, their aim is to corrupt.  They want you to turn from God’s will and light as they did.

They lie and twist truths.  While they can’t read your mind, they do know what you’ve done (things you are ashamed of for example) and use that knowledge to their best advantage.

Demons use superior intelligence to calculate the odds of which course future events will take and are able to make very accurate predictions but they can’t tell the future.  This is an important distinction.

I find myself at a crossroads.  I could write another 20 pages or I can stop here, which is what I’m going to do, having given you what I think is a pretty good explanation of the basics.

I was tempted to go into the relationship between demonic possession and mental illness.  However this is a subject that deserves much more in depth discussion and I need to be clearer on that relationship myself before I can even begin to discuss it, so that will come at some later point.

Most importantly remember this for now;  All demonologists are paranormal investigators, but all paranormal investigators aren’t demonologists...