There’s a difference between influence and control. Demons suggest things, they hint at past sins, they present false dichotomies that seem like choices or options. But to actually be at the root of a thought, at its conception, is beyond their control. They operate more like the movie Inception, where you’re getting as close to the subconscious as possible, as close to the origin of thought as you can to plant a concept. Because of its proximity to the source of thought the person believes it is there own idea. That’s why tools like Ignatian discernment of spirits are so useful. Those rules help is to discern the influences of both the demonic and the holy and show us that a seed may have been planted so discreetly by the Enemy that we believe it to be our own