I saw most of an episode of ‘The Real Exorcist’ on Virgin 1 last night. I had seen it advertised and thought it might be worth watching.

I’ve never really given too much thought about the role of demons/forces of evil before or particularly about demon possession. I haven’t read any books about or studied the subject (as I know fellow bloggers have). As a professing Christian I absolutely believe in spiritual forces of evil or demons or whatever you want to call them. There are of course many instances of demon possession mentioned in the Bible. There is often an association in these stories with mental illness or seizures and I think in modern evangelical circles there is a tendency to explain away demon possession with medical science, or to brush it under the carpet altogether. My stance has been that demons exist and can possess people, but that this is likely to be extremely rare, and demon influence or suggestion is probably much more common.

I found the programme last night really quite fascinating. The ‘Exorcist’, Pastor Bob Larson, came across much more normal than I thought he would although the summoning of the demons was pretty weird.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an apparent display of the supernatural on TV before. In one interview with a young woman, Pastor Larson, apparently summoned her demon. The demon gave its name and said that its purpose was to see the young woman suffer and wanted her to kill herself. With another woman, there was video footage of what happened to her when she tried to pray – She growled and hissed and her face became twisted. It all sounds pretty weird but surprisingly I actually found most of it (particularly the personal testimonies) quite plausable! Then I found some footage on You Tube which is not quite as convincing (see below).

I haven’t really come to a conclusion on all of this. I suppose it made me think that on the one hand Christians need to be more aware of the spiritual battle going on in our lives and the lives of others. Just because we can’t see it or understand it doesn’t mean it’s not there. And maybe the reality of the spiritual realm is much closer to CS Lewis’s Screwtape Letters or Frank Peretti’s novels than we think. A line from one of my favourite films, ‘The Usual Suspects’, comes to mind: ‘The greatest lie the Devil ever told was that he doesn’t exist’.

On the other hand we need to expect to encounter false prophets. We need to be careful we don’t get caught up in hysteria or allow fear to overtake discernment. I would say that the programme on Virgin 1 had an authentic feel to it, and with regard to ‘Inside Edition’ clip below, it would probably be quite easy to edit video footage of many evangelists/pastors to make them look dodgy. Nonetheless a bit of healthy skepticism is in order.

I plan to do a bit of reading on the subject (including Bob Larson’s website) and to tune in again next week… (Wed & Sun 10pm on Virgin 1)

Clips from ‘The Real Exorcist’ (2008):

Bob Larson exposed on ‘Inside Edition’ (2000):