Religious rants

@hell_hound7 Hell yeah, great example! That's actually an entity I spent a lot of time researching!, before I go to bed, I actually love the example you brought up. You see, if you take the entity from the annabell doll and compare its "haunting strategy" with the entity in the sallie house, they literally are the same being. That's an elemental though, not a demon. (Although in demonology, fire elementals are considered as 'might as well be' demons, so interpret them how you will. I categorize demons as fallen angels, not elementals.) They both use the 'angler fish' strategy, taking the form of a child to lull a psychic into into complacency. Then BOOGABOOGABOOGA! They scare them into a stupor, feed off of the energetic release of etheric energy, and slither back into dormancy. Also those cuts they make on people are burn actually burn marks. Often if they do that as a way to get etheric energy from people, as all of our bodily fluids hold it. So you see them draw a bit of blood before they even really get started. It gives them what they need to build up to the big reward. The whole bait and switch thing. They aren't know for possession of people, they're kinda solitary lair dwellers. They bring the food to them rather than seek it out. Sorry, I'm just really fascinated by those ones, so I tend to nerd out a lot about them.

I do wonder, since you @chocopyro believe in demons and what not... Is there a particular religious lean you're coming from? Just curious, whenever you can answer.

@yaasshat I tend to be agnostic deist. Maybe even kinda animist. I dunno. Similar to politics, I tend to have a mistrust for authority and established institutions, so when someone tries to spoon feed me the answers, I kinda take what they say and look into it for myself. The reason I prefer occultism to religion is that it's like a left brained approach to the subject. More observational and analytical. Not saying that religion has none of that. A lot of occult sects stemmed from church orders and eastern faiths. I practice psionics which crosses over with witchcraft a lot, so I tend to rub shoulders with wiccans and pagans. Most of them mean no harm. Every once in a while you get that idiot who tries to argue that morality is a christian control mechanism and you gotta kinda lead them around like "Yo, classical ethics WERE pagan. Eat Aristotle, shithead!" As for why I do tend to frame it in a christian lens. Grew up Methodist in a methodist house. Have Catholics in the family. None of them are the domineering 'you have to think this way' kinda christians, thankfully. Because faith aside, my uncles, aunts, and father were always more intellectually driven rather than obnoxious. THEN THERE'S MY MOM! Dated some dude in the KKK, casually yells racial slurs and 'hail the lord' while drunkenly stumbling after a single beer, and isolated my brother and I in a room for hours to tell us the dangers of pokemon cards and Dungeons and Dragons like the satanic panic hadn't ended yet. Fun part about being bastard children was my brother and I got to experience both a healthy religious family, and the stupid kind. Just for the record though, I still love my mom. Its an at arms length kinda love, but that's more of a 'she's a malignant narcisist and is very draining to be around' kinda love. You get the picture. Being half Appalachian is... 'fun'. Anyways, basically I view christians as a case by case kinda thing. I have no vendetta against the church as a whole. Dogma? Maybe.

See,now that's a lot closer to how and why/what I believe. I'm not quite on as solid of a footing as you are (Like actually believing in demons/spirits.), but I don't put it out of the realm of possibility. I always find other's ideas and beliefs very interesting,even if I'll argue all day with some.lol

So many things explained in just 2 pages. I have a few books on demons. The hierarchy of Hell and types of demonic entities through history isn't something they really get into in Sunday school. I wanted to hear the other side. Also, probably doesn't count but Memnoch the Devil is my fav Anne Rice book. She dabbled in talks of elementals through the Vampire Chronicles, not that they were human, but some are perhaps lonely, like a lost soul. Maybe that's why people sometimes can't tell them apart from spirits/ghosts. I remember a scene from Pandora in particular. I'll see if I can find it somewhere.

@yaasshat Believe it or not, when it comes to most hauntings and supernatural encounters, I encourage agnostic skepticism. Even when talking to people like me who tend to come off as 'experts' on the subject. So your understanding of spiritual entities is understandable and healthy. Here's the truth. I can't prove it exists. I'm only here because my brother and I kinda normalized encounters with this kinda stuff. Let me start by saying the real thing is a lot less frightening than the audio cues and jump cuts make it seem in TV and hollywood. People often freak out when I tell them casually "I've had glass thrown at me when investigating the Ridges." Because they want to think its like a poltergeist movie where an entity throws a sharpened point of gleaming transparent material right past my head and plunging it deep into the wall behind me. No, I just felt a tap on my shoulder and heard something scuttle on the floor when no one was behind me, and there was glass there. Eventually the experiences just kinda blur together. You talk to other people who normalize this stuff, compare notes, and assuming their world view doesn't lend to some grandiose level of superstition that makes mountains out of ant hills, it's a whole lot of head nodding. More boring than what most people want to believe in. @verucassault Yeah, sadly a lot of denominations try to acknowledge their existence as little as possible, or use them as a scarecrow and grossly exaggerate their capability to scare people in line with a certain way of thinking. The average worshiper relies on faith, not knowledge. It may be a control tactic, but I don't really think that it is done with nefarious intent. At least not usually. Again, depends on the individual and how much they fetishize control versus how much they prioritize a personal connection with god. But as someone who has swapped 'war stories' with pastors within the church who've had to perform the rite of exorcism, this stuff is better understood within certain circles than most believe. The difference between how I perceive demons and how the church does is often in the context of how we understand the world to work. In christianity, To you guys, there is a narrative that you kinda have to subscribe to as part of the package. A big bad evil guy that all evil is rooted from. To me, no such distinction. I see it as animal control. Demons are parasites trying to use the human soul as a back door to the divinity they lost. I don't believe they have some metaphysical conspiracy or massive agenda to plunge the world and humanity with it into apocalypse, and I'm skeptical about the idea of demonic hierarchies. But when you put the worldview context aside, you have to remember that those people of faith who actually do deal with real world hauntings DO research their powers, capabilities, strategies, and the phenomenon that plays out alongside them. And that is where we cross over. That's useful intel.

I think its interesting how many culture adopt the same ideas. Things such as demons or beings that look similar. Things like giants and nephalim. I would like to see the vatican archives i feel like alot about religion is being hidden. Even stuff about the occult and things that give us a deeper understanding about stuff. What is the purpose of hiding it? Where only certain persons can view it.

Well, based on what I do know, magick used to be common practice in Mediterranean religions, including islam and early christianity. Hell even in medieval times, it wasn't uncommon for a lord to vassalize someone who had knowledge in astrology, divination or mediumship. And John Deen, the guy who came up with angelic magick was one of those dudes. As well as a devout christian. He was basically good boi Crowley. As for why it was hidden. A lot of it has to do with the human ability to link with divinity. In a lot of ceremonial magick (Stuff like Kaballah, golden dawn, masonry, and gnostic magick), the circle and the square represent heaven and earth. Anytime you see the circle and square meet in occult imagery, that means 'humanity.' As humans are the union of heaven and earth. The "Middle Pillar". That means that humans are part of divinity. That's a little heretical, right? We're supposed to be imperfect beings that need god in order to cope with our sinful desires. When we feel week or want to satisfy a craving, god is all we need, right? (Disclaimer: Not every christian sect thinks like that.) Well, that's only the surface of magic. It goes deeper. The more you elevate your soul and get closer to oneness and understanding with the entire universe, the more you start to realize you are more than a broken, incomplete, and sinful creature. Then you just kinda don't need the pope anymore. And if all of humanity reached that level, the church would be kinda redundant. Keep in mind, they are an institution. They want to retain power and influence. The illuminati? Doing the same thing. They don't want that to be public knowledge, because you can't control a mortal who has integrated with divine consciousness though high magick or some flaky new age back door to the kundalini experience.

Magic used to be common practice yes idk how much of the bible delves into this as i am starting over with my bible readings cuz i last read it at like age 12 and didnt understand much of what was said. But i hear about stuff like the watchers and being taught magic and things such as humans sleeping with beings like angels and such which i think led to god wiping out the world and starting over to kind of get rid of all that. I feel as though alot has been omitted. The bible is basically a culmination of books and i remember once reading that it used to be common practice that the catholics would not let members read from the bible themselves. Or would censor and restrict the bible. So there is definitely some things being hidden. Especially how the satanic bible was written by a monk/priest who promised to write it within an impossible time frame. He made a deal with a demon or something.