Are the Demons Really Everywhere?

by professor 44 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  professor

  Our Witness family was obsessed with demonism.

  At a very early age, I was introduced to strange stories of demonism. A brother in the congregation had brought home a souvenier doll from a tropical island as a gift for his daughter. The daughter would talk about how the doll would come to life, but the stories were dismissed and attributed to the child's imagination. Then one day he heard a noise in her room and entered to find the doll climbing the wall! Another brother said that one day he cursed Satan out loud. From that day forward he had great misfortune in his life as punnishment until he called out the name of Jehovah to make it stop. It stopped!

  My aunt quit smoking, and the demons would speak into her ear telling her to smoke. One night she awoke to cigarettes dancing around her head beckoning her to smoke them.

  An elder told me a story about two young disturbed women that saw a horror movie. They got scared and called the elder, who came and picked them up from the theater. During that night as they prayed with them, strange things occurred. A locked car door kept swining open. A shoe picked itself off the floor and hit someone on the head. A strange figure appeared in the shower. The New World Translation of the Bible turned red hot and burned someone's hands.

  Some objects that entered our home were considered to be demonized. We had inherited some of my great-grandmother's things and soon after that my mother would wake up in the night seeing "flashing lights". This was quickly attributed to the items from great-grandma and they were destroyed.

  When I started to be interested in a young lady that my parents did not approve of, it was concluded by my elder father that she was demonized and was using demonic influence over me to control me.

  An item I sent home as a gift after leaving the Witnesses was also, thought to be demonized.

  I will admit, I was swept up by all of this talk, and when I had decided to leave, I would think at times that demons were controlling me.

  That was 18 years ago. I've heard many similar stories. Is this still common in the Witnesses, does anyone know?
• 

  JW83

  I remember my dad always telling a story about a bible study he went on, where the (witchy) couple had a mask or something on the wall, & when he (or someone!) touched it, it was hot. And we all believed it!
• 

  ivy

  Oh, I have those memories. These were the things that kept us up at night during slumber parties.
  I remember studying the Salem Witch Trials in college, and thinking that I understood how that happened. The same thing happens among JW's all the time. Yes, it still happens. My son has a friend who is JW, around the age of 13. His mother goes all demon crazy every now and then and makes him throw away his pokemon, or Yu-Gi-Oh, or whatever else has been the rage, because she's sure it has some demonic influence.
• 

  breeze

  Yes!!

  And an angel is on the hood of your car until your speed goes over the limit....and off he goes and your on your own???

  BREEZE
• 

  professor

  Too bad about the Yu-Gi-Oh cards, ivy, I work at a distribution center that carries them and they are a security item because they cost so much!

  I can understand the mother's thinking. Something unusual and hard to figure out = demons!
• 

  Gill

  The JW obsession with demons, satanism and any mysticism is total madness. Kids are taught to believe that almost anything can contain evil spirits ready to influence or possess them, instead of the rational approach that children 'of the world' have that this is a fantasy and tend to have a far more balanced view on the supernatural. for example the stories of Harry Potter that christian fundamentalists shun because of superstitious fears.

  When my parents visited they were frightened when they saw our Harry Potter story books! 'Who's are they?' 'You know what they're about don't you?' said with a verbal shudder. Daft or what?

  Whether demons are everywhere, maybe and maybe not but the JW and christian fundamentalist fear of demons is not healthy and borders on the obsessional compulsive disorder of the fear of germs that some poor people suffer with and only does mental harm to its followers.

  I remember many Awake and Botchtower articles on the subject, all hysterical and designed to cause irrational fears. One that sticks in my mind, sadly, is the story of a woman in Africa who visited a witchdoctor and left her little girl outside. during her 'consultation' a blood curdling scream was heard. On going outside later the little girl was found to have, supposedly, had her head twisted round and killed. This was put down to demons attacking her.

  If this is a true story, then because of superstition a murderer walked free that day and the 'demonzz' got the blame, even by the supposedly enlightened WTBTS.

  And what's with not buying second hand furniture???

  Are they meant to be possessed by 'boggarts', creatures from the Harry Potter stories?

  I remember trying to 'sell' Botchtowers in the 1980's on the subject of the hidden enemy Satan, who had supposedly blinded the world to his very existence so that no one knew he was there but really he was in control of everything. Hmmph! And I used to believe it all!
• 

  professor

  I don't understand the Harry Potter thing. How is it different than the Wizard of Oz or any Disney movie with a fairy princess? It's just a fairy tale.
• 

  melmac

  Just last night I watched a Harry Potter movie, with my kids (something I'd never do as a dub). Can't believe how innocent the movie is. It teaches kids not to have fear, something that the WT finds unacceptable...
• 

  Gill

  Hi Prof1

  I also don't understand the obssessional fear JWs and fundamentalists have over Harry Potter. It's really crazy! I was walking past an opticians with a friend who's a BA christian and her little girl noticed Harry Potter glasses. Her mum ordered her to look away and she must not have anything to do with Harry Potter 'things'! The mum was very distressed that when allowed to play around a friends house the daughter had watched a Harry Potter film. The parents had felt the need to pray over the child when they heard about this!

  My husband mentioned Harry Potter to a cousin of mine, that one of our children has ginger hair like Ron Weasley and the cousin looked as if he would collapse. He shouted 'I never have anything to do with that Rubbish!' as if he was attempting to repel the demonzzz who might suddenly try to possess him. It was funny to see!
• 

  ivy

  That is an interesting point that we may never understand.
  I have a young boy who frequents the library I work at, he's not a JW, but of a similar fundamentalist upbringing. He once assured me that although Harry Potter was satanic because of the magic that was taught, Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and other such are OK, because they are Disney. The kid is only about 8, so I couldn't really get into it, but I can't wait to see how he turns out.