I'll share my experience.
Several years ago, I married a girl new to being a JW (now divorced). As far as I know, she had never had psychological problems before. A couple of years into the marriage her mood and outlook on life started getting very dark. I knew something was wrong but didn't know what. Things got worse very quickly. We would watch tv at night in bed before going to sleep, and when I would look over at her after making a comment with no response, she had appeared to have gone into some trance-like state. I could raise my voice, try to move her, etc., and I got no response. She was as stiff as a board. Her eyes were not glazed over as seeing something in her mind, but always fixed unmovingly at the doorway to the bedroom. We had a dog who slept in the bed, and when this happened he generallly got very agitated. He'd get up, the hair on his neck would stand, and he would bark at nothing. At first I attributed the dog's agitation to my visible tension at trying to get my wife out of whatever state she was in, but on several later occurences, the dog's agitation is what led me to look over at my wife and see her in that state. This happened dozens of times over the course of about 3 months.
After anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. she would "wake up" and be hysterical. Crying, sobbing, and shivering uncontrollably. She would let me hold her to comfort her, but refused to talk about it at all. She wouldn't answer any direct questions. After that, we would finally go to sleep, and everything would seem ok until it always happened again a few nights later.
At this time, I was inactive for several reasons related to injustice, but still thought overall JWs were the truth. Two years before I had resigned being a MS and a regular pioneer. With my beliefs at the time, it didn't take long for me to suspect some demonic source as the cause of this. The second to last time this happened, I started asking her questions around the subject instead of direct "what is going on" questions, and then I started getting some answers. I asked if she wouldn't talk to me because she didn't want to, or because she couldn't for other reasons. She replied other reasons. I asked if someone had told her not to discuss it. Replied yes. I asked if this someone was there in the room with us. Reply was "I can't say".
I asked why specifically she couldn't tell me, and got no answer. I asked her if she was aware of me talking and moving her during her trances. She said yes. I asked why she couldn't respond to me during the trances. No answer. I asked if something physically kept her from reacting to me. Reply yes. I asked if that something was the same person who forbid her to talk to me about this. No answer.
Then I asked was a physical threat involved. Answer yes. Was it against her? Answer no. Was it against me? Answer yes. Does it involve death? Answer yes. I stopped the questions for a couple of minutes to think. She went into the trance again, the first time I'd actually seen it start. She had been looking at me, then something behind me caught her attention, and she went frigid.
At this point, I directly verbally addressed what I believed to be the source of the problems. I didn't speak angrily or say any threats. I chose my words carefully, but I will not repeat what I said. I did not invoke Jehovah's name, but I did invoke Christ. I spoke confidently and authoritatively in an elevated voice.
The wife came out of the trance and went hysterical. I got nothing further out of her that night, and I didn't sleep. This was the last time I observed her like this. The next day I went hunting the house for anything in our possessions (since that was what we were all tought as JWs). An aunt across the country had sent some family items a few months before, and I found a catholic saint's icon that was a family heirloom that I didn't know had been sent. I got rid of it.
A couple of weeks went by and the nighttime was peaceful. We didn't speak about what had happened. I noticed things did not return to the way they were before however, so I asked if everything was ok. She wouldn't answer and I had to go through the process of elimination again, but what I learned is that the "someone" no longer bothered her when I was home, but visited her during the day while I was at work (she worked part-time and was off several days of the week). As a result, she left the house most days so she wouldn't have to deal with it.
I would like to say, that regardless of my beliefs at the time, I still thought schizophrenia or some other disorder could be the cause of this, since I had not witnessed anything of supernatural nature. We had many counseling sessions, visited psychiatrists, and she was prescribed a number of various medications.
Over the next couple of months, she spent less and less time at home, even at night, sleeping over with friends. This put a big strain on the marriage. Finally, she confided that the "someone" had told her that it wanted me, but couldn't have me, so it would settle for her. This culminated in two almost successful suicide attempts over the next three months, where she was hospitalized. She also (unrelated to suicide attempts) totaled three vehicles she was driving during this time, and was institutionalized against her will twice during this period. Unfortunately a legal obstacle to getting people the help they need is that if a person can cogently convince institutional doctors they are fine, and aren't a continuing threat to themselves (even if they just tried to kill themselves!!!), the state can only hold them for a short period of time and must release them.
She later told me the "someone" was there coaching her when she tried to kill herself. Our marriage did not last much longer after this. She emerged from this experience a very different person from whom I married, and soon had several affairs. I was willing to work through this, but she decided she needed to get away from this area, got a job transfer, and moved across country. She seemed to just want a permanent seperation, but I made the decision to initiate divorce rather than living in limbo and just remain friends if this is what she needed to do. That was five years ago, and we've both gone on to make new lives for ourselves.
I asked her once recently if she still had any "experiences" and she said occasionally, but nothing to the degree of what happened towards the end of our marriage. Since all of this, I went back to school and finished a degree. With increased education, I now lean to think she was secretly unhappy with the marriage and saw no honorable way out, but kept it bottled up. I think this eventually led to what appeared to her as a physical manifestation of her inner emotions. It is medically documented by brain patterns in schizophrenics that what they see and hear is reality from their point of view. I see no reason to believe this couldn't temporarily happen in an otherwise normal person due to extreme stress or emotional turmoil. Further, she had only recently been exposed by JWs to the concept of demons and evil spirit creatures who have the power to manifest in the physical realm. For a person previously unrelated to that belief, it can be a frightening concept, and I find it reasonable that may be how her inner turmoil manifested itself in a way she would have to consciously confront.
Pets can be sensitive to our moods and vibes, and I think the dog immediately noticed when she zoned out. He knew something wasn't right, but he didn't know what, so he randomly barked at a threat perceived through his observation of her. I've gone on to experiment some with that. If I begin to act nervous or otherwise uncharacteristic around my dog, they will feel nervous or threatened purely based on my behaviour at some unseen threat.
