I was looking into demonic possessions (I’ll admit, the movie “The Exorcist” got me interested), and I had some questions. First I need to clarify something on Satan and demons: Do they have free will, or can they only do what God allows them to do? I’ve heard that demons can only possess people with God’s approval. If so:
Demons HAD free will until they chose to reject G_D. They still have free will, but it’s limited: they cannot choose to repent from their rejection of G_D, because the punishment they are suffering is so awful any repentance would be based on removal of pain rather than sorrow for hurting G_D. As in all evil in this world, the most we know is that G_D allows evil to occur only when there is a great chance of a greater good coming from it. That is why at the end of time there is the “general judgement”, when all of creation will be assembled and all can see how all of the events in our lives – both the painful as well as the pleasurable – have helped G_D bring about His ultimate victory.
Why does God allow a person to be possessed? Doesn’t it take away the person’s free will if the demon has control of their body?
Again, we don’t know why G_D allows that particular evil to occur in someone’s life, only that some action they took opened a door to permit the possession to occur. Yes, the possession takes away a person’s will. That’s why a person is not held accountable for any sinful actions that occurred during an episode of possession. The external signs we associate with possession (physical changes, etc.) are the result of the possessed person’s struggle with the demon for control of his or her body.
Why do exorcisms fail sometimes? One would think that with the power of holy water and a priest, a demon would immediately leave the person’s body. But yet I hear of exorcisms lasting months or years,
The exorcism is a battle of wills: the wills of both the exorcist and the victim uniting with the will of the Holy Spirit against the will of the demon. If there is a spiritual defect in either the exorcist or the victim, it will take more time for the Holy Spirit to remold or remake their spiritual lives, which may be the purpose for G_D allowing the possession in the first place.
What usually attracts a demon to possess a person? Can “subtle possessions” occur where a person is possessed just for a short amount of time to make them commit and act they don’t want to?
The attraction is that of any seducer: recognizing a weakness that the demon can use to draw a victim in. It’s usually in three stages. The first is a form of spiritual seduction: think of a “lucky totem” that someone ALWAYS has to have on their person. The second form is obsession, where the victim recognizes there is a separate entity involved and tries, on their own power, to control or expel the entity, and the third form is what we normally think of as possession.
(There’s also a fourth form, “infestation”, where a demonic entity becomes attached to a physical object. Think of haunted houses or pianos that play themselves in the middle of the night.)
The first two forms can be taken care of through a deliverance ministry, using frequent prayer, frequent confession, and frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist. The third form requires a priest with permission of his bishop to perform the Rite of Exorcism.
