During my ten year sojourn through the Watchtower, I was always amazed at the Witnesses fear and fascination with demons. Occasionally at gatherings, they would exchange "demon" stories, which were just a JW way of telling ghost stories, and you would usually hear a few "uhhs" and "oh my's" as the story was told. Although I had heard folks of other denominations mention demons, it was never with the "shock and awe" the Witnesses put into it. If JW's have the truth and by extension, the full backing of Jesus, why would they be so paranoid about demons? Below is a paste from my JW experience regarding a couple of the instances I encountered. Since my ex-wife was of Mexican descent and her moms non-witness relatives celebrated Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), this no doubt contributed to the fascination.
From "Watched by the Watchtower"
One item, however, that was beginning to bother me now was the Witnesses fear of demons. I found it ironic that an organization that claims to have Jehovah protecting it would have this thread of demonic fear weaving through it. My first encounter occurred a couple of months after we were married. We had spent our honeymoon in Port Aransas, Texas and had purchased two wind chimes made of seashells. We gave one to my parents and the other to hers. About two months later we went to visit her mom and dad and upon arriving I noticed that the wind chime was no longer hanging on the front porch. When I inquired as to its whereabouts, my wife's mother explained that they had thrown it away because it might contain a demon. "What?" I asked, "A demon? What ever gave you an idea like that?" She went on to explain that they had noticed a lot of popping and creaking noises at night and it seemed to have started about the time we gave them the chime. Out of respect I did not dispute her, but in my mind I was saying "Oh brother, what a cornball idea." My in-laws, like my parents, lived in a wood-frame home and during the hot Texas summer the homes expand in the heat of the day, and during the cool nights the house pops and creaks as it contracts. As I grew up I heard these noises many times and never attributed it to demons.
In 1984, two years after this incident, we were sitting in the living room of our apartment as I conducted our family Watchtower magazine study. About a third of the way through my wife interrupted me and asked everyone to be quite for a moment. She then sat up straight and a look of intense concentration overcame her face. I asked, "What are you doing?" She replied "Sshhhhh, listen." I listened for a moment and then said "What are we listening for?" She again said “Shhhhhh”…….right there! Do you hear it?” I looked at my five year old son and he just shrugged and displayed a look of confusion. Then she said “There it is again!” and got up and went into the dining room and grabbed two ink pens that had been given to her by a work mate earlier in the day. The ink pens had the serenity prayer stamped on them (God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things that should be changed, and Wisdom to know the difference). She took the pens and marched out the front door and threw them in a Dumpster across the street. As she sat down to resume our study I asked, "What was that all about?" She stated that as I was reading the Watchtower she heard the voice of her sister, Rebecca, talking in the dining room and since her sister was at home, 25 miles away, it must have been a demon impersonating her voice. Then she reasoned that the demon must have entered the apartment through something recently brought in. Since items originating with Christendom are among the first to be suspected, it must have been those pens with the prayer written on them. I remember the tune of “The Twilight Zone” playing in my head just after her “demonic” encounter.