Do the demons exist - or not?

by BonaFide 12 Replies latest jw friends

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  BonaFide

  When I was a missionary and in the circuit work, I sometimes stayed in the friends' homes. Once I stayed in a Bible's students house with his family. They gave me a corner room down a long hallway. The previous sister that rented that room had left "because of demons." I laughed at them. But that night as I sat reading, stuff kept on falling off the shelves. Not once or twice, but like 5 or 6 times. The last time, a little cup came off the shelf and landed right on my book, three feet away from the wall. And then someone knocked loudly on the door three times. When I opened it, there was no one there. The long hallway was dark, and no one could have knocked and run away that fast. I went down the hallway anyway, and woke up the family. They apologized for the demon activity.

  On another occasion in my assignment, a brother came to visit. His grandmother, who lived in that country, had died. So he came down to arrange her affairs, including her house. She wasn't a Witness. He told me that the local brothers had said that her house was "demonized." He thought it was silly that the local brothers believed those "demon stories." When he came back the next day to say goodbye, he looked completely different. He told me that he had gone with another brother to the house, and once they got inside, they couldnt get out. Some "force" was holding them inside. He said he thought he was going to die. He couldn't move. Other brothers were able to pull them out somehow. He couldnt leave the country fast enough. He was completely freaked out.

  When I was a teenager, my brother moved to another apartment, and I helped him. There was a mask, a weird mask that had been left in the vacant apartment. So my brother said it looked demonized. My sister laughed at him and they threw in in a big garbage bag in the corner. My brother said, "Is that mask demonized?" and my sister said, "Don't worry, THERE IS NO WAY IN THE WORLD THAT MASK IS DEMONIZED." Just then a loud voice came out of the bag, clear as day. It said, "GUESS AGAIN."

  I was outside, and they both came running out of the apartment. To this day, my sister refuses to talk about it.

  So, what you say? How do I account for seemingly normal people experiencing this stuff?

  BF
• 

  jaguarbass

  I think if you believe in demons you will see and experience them.

  If you believe in hell you will go there.

  If you belive in heaven you will go there.

  If you believe in nothing when you die, thats what you will experience.

  So you have to be careful what you ask for and think about.

  Life is strange and a lot of times if you believe something you will see it.

  To put it another way we see what we want to see, and believe what we want to belive

  and no one can tell us any different.

  Thats what I think.

  And like what everybody else thinks, it cant be proven.
• 

  recovering

  Mass hysteria (also called collective hysteria, mass psychogenic illness, or collective obsessional behavior) is the sociopsychologicalphenomenon of the manifestation of the same or similar hystericalsymptoms by more than one person
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  BonaFide

  I didn't believe that demons could do anything like that. I wasnt scared or nervous. I just tried to ignore it. But when stuff started to fly off the shelves again and again?

  My sister NEVER believed that stuff, she said it was nonsense. Until that clear voice came out of the bag.

  Neither did that brother from New York. Until he went into his Grandma's house and couldnt get back out.

  What gives?

  BF
• 

  yknot

  I still believe in demons.

  I do think predisposition either in looking for them , expecting them, or out and out daring them tends to invite them into your mind.

  I like to think we have an agreement, I acknowledge that they exist and they leave me alone because I will remind them of their fate.

  So BF didn't anyone call out for Jehovah's protection? I was taught to ask for help from Jehovah in Jesus' name.
• 

  donny

  I have never believed in the demon thing. While I was a witness, I had the opportunity to check out a few "hauntings" that fellow believers said they experience everytime they go to a particular place. Not once did I hear or see anything that could be construed as being of supernatural origin.

  My ex-wifes family was a heavy believer in these evile entities and always had some fanciful story to tell about an encounter with a demon. I sincerely believe that folks who hear and see demons are the same type of people who hear and see extra-terrestrials. They all swear it's true and nothing you say can sway them from their belief.

  I also do not believe in the "near death" experiences I have heard so many times. People always seem to see things in the spiritual world that are similar to ones they see here in their own enviroment.

  Don
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  truthseeker

  Yes, they are real, but calling them demons to most people relegates the concept of their existence to just another fairy tale or "religion".

  If you believe in aliens you may as well believe in demons, because they are extraterrestrials.

  They purposefully choose not to be seen, and to confuse you just enough that you wonder if it's you that's going mad and hearing things.

  For the disbelievers out there, try to picture them as another life form rather than the traditional representation of men with wings. They don't need wings in heaven and they don't need them on earth.

  An elder once told me he was attacked by demons while staying at a hotel somewhere abroad. He was an elder at the time. He witnessed two human like figures, completely black, walk through his wall and choke him. The owner of the hotel happened to be into witchcraft.

  Hearing this kind of thing bothered me because I thought JWs, especially elders, would be immune from such attacks, but I guess Paul was right on the money when he said we would be wrestling with wicked spirit forces.

  I know many don't believe, and why should they, it is their word against another's. You demand proof and rightly so, but people who have genuinely experienced supernatural phenomena cannot always provide the proof you ask for. Trust me though, if you do have an experience, you will never forget it.
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  truthseeker
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  truthseeker

  YKnot, I like the way you wrote that "agreement" - makes sense to me.
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  african GB Member

  yes they live in Brooklyn Heights

  they are the GB