Where are demons?

[PazzoGrande]

Are they in hell or on earth?

If they are in hell, how can they still tempt and occasionally molest and possess us?

I read in books about exorcisms that they don’t necessarily go into things and people, but rather act on them, sort of *tapping *into them. Does this mean that every demon is around all the time? But if that is so, the exorcist Father Gary Thomas said that demons can travel faster than we can – which would suggest that they aren’t everywhere, but rather take up finite spaces.

One book I read said that one demon said he suffered worse in an exorcism than he did in hell, which would argue that demons are in hell. But if that is so, how did they even get out of hell? If people are stuck in hell forever, then aren’t demons? Shouldn’t demons in fact even have a worse fate than damned humans do?

Or is hell like heaven, in that from heaven saints and angels can know and act on earth, so in hell the damned are watching too?

 

[Mintaka]

Angels, and fallen angels too, are spirits, not beings of matter. They can pretty much go anywhere they think of being. Demons can’t go to Heaven (unless in the legal setting of the Book of Job), but God permits them to hang out on earth making trouble. For now.

In the end, we are told that they will be imprisoned in Hell forever.

Hell at the moment is like a sort of base for demons. (Unlike damned human souls, which don’t have the same properties as beings solely made of spirit, and therefore can’t traipse around the universe doing stuff.) God lets demons stew there, if they want, but it’s not a very pleasant place, and someday they won’t be able to leave it anymore. This is probably why they’d rather hang out on Earth making trouble. (Of course, they may also be making trouble in other places in the material universe, but Earth is our main concern.) Because demons are mean to each other too, it’s likely that some demons are forced to stay in hell by their fellows. But we don’t really know much about it, because there’s no real need to know.

But there’s no point being afraid of demons, per se. St. Anthony of Egypt compared the presence of demons to the presence of flies and mosquitoes – annoying and constant, not pleasant to be attacked by them, but not a serious danger to Christians under normal circumstances.

We are baptized and bear Jesus’ name. We aren’t defenseless unless we make ourselves be. And we have the Church to help us, which means we have Jesus’ help.

 

[PazzoGrande]

Angels, and fallen angels too, are spirits, not beings of matter. They can pretty much go anywhere they think of being.

In this case, is it possible for human souls to temporarily escape hell and irritate us on earth?

Could this be perhaps what some ghosts are?

We know that souls in purgatory can visit earth to ask for prayers, but can they visit as however they will?

 

[JesuisSean]

They are on the other side of reality.

An apple has an inside and it has an outside. So does reality. Here we are on the inside, where we are confined to the present time only. The outside is all time other than the present time. Proof of the existence of the other side is the fact that the outside is different than the inside, and thus the laws of physics on the outside are different than the laws of physics on the inside.

Therefore, if an event is governed from the outside, the outcome of the event is different than what it would be if governed from the inside. This is the explanation for strange events such as the collapse of the Quantum wave. In the case of the 2 slit light experiment, depending on how you set the experiment up will determine whether light behaves as particles or as waves. Or, to put it another way, depending on how you set the experiment up will determine whether the experiment is governed from the inside or the outside of reality.

The outside of reality extends across time, therefore the complete corkscrew or wave-like shaped path that a spinning photon crosses as it travels across space, is seen on the outside. Thus based upon the laws of physics on the outside, this entire path is filled.

The inside of reality is confined to the present time, therefore the photon appears as a mere particle that is located at one point in space at one point in time as it travels across space.

Thus if the experiment is set up such that it is governed from the outside, the entirety of all of the photons wave-like shaped paths are all taken into account to produce the final outcome, thus producing a wave-like interference pattern as the outcome.

Thus if the experiment is set up such that it is governed from the inside, we are confined to the present time only, thus the entire wave-like shaped paths that extend across the dimension of time are no longer taken into account, and thus the wave-like interference pattern disappears or collapses.

Now if someone on the outside causes an event to occur, it would seem miraculous from the inside, since from the inside you can not look across time to see the cause of the event which is from the outside and thus extends across time.

Thus there can be good miracles, and there can be bad miracles.

 

[Glomung]

Human spirits in Hell cannot travel, they are stuck there, the proof of this is that the Earth is not covered in wandering spirits. If any human spirit could leave, he would.
Spirits in Purgatory are concerned with their own issues and do not pester the living unless to ask for prayers.

From what little accurate information I’ve been able to gather. ghosts are largely people who either “do not know they are dead” and hang out in places where they lived and are in somewhat of a confused state of mind, or those who have “unfinished business” and refuse to move on. The Warrens did some research in this area, their webpage is warrens.net/. caveat lector, don’t take everything they propose as gospel, but they have done much work in this area and did help out the Catholic church in some demonic investigations.

 

[irishOntarian]

Since demons are spiritual but not physical, hell for them isn’t a physical place, it’s a state of existence. They are always in hell, whether or not they interact with humans on earth. Spiritual reality and physical reality are simultaneous and interconnected but distinct.

 

[Nimzovik]

A fascinating read. I post so I can find it later when I have time.

 

[PazzoGrande]

A fascinating read. I post so I can find it later when I have time.

If this interests you, pick up a copy of the book (not the movie) The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist. It’s not only interesting, but spiritually-edifying as well.

 

[Nimzovik]

Been there. Done that. Good read. Lousy movie. Movie was a joke.

‘A haunting in Connecticut’ is more realistic. Based on a true experience.

 

[PazzoGrande]

Been there. Done that. Good read. Lousy movie. Movie was a joke.

‘A haunting in Connecticut’ is more realistic. Based on a true experience.

Yeah I got to talk to the lady from it, her real name is Carmen Reed (formerly named Carmen Snedekker). She has since divorced her husband.

I did some reading on it and supposedly she fabricated it. There was a writer who they got to help make the story; later on, Carmen herself began to claim she had psychic powers or something.

I know that she didn’t even stay Catholic, and that sort of raised an alarm in my head when she told me that.