There was an Awake magazine that came out in the early 80's featuring demon/spiritism stories. One story in particular had a deep impact on me since I was only a child. It was a story of how one sister was supposedly haunted by a powerful demon who managed to kill off her entire family. The part that had the biggest impact on me was when she told of how this demon would attack her during the night and she even awoke one time to find that the demon had made her stomach swell to the point where she appeared to be pregnant. Of course, she was able to defeat the demon by beginning to study with the JWs and blurting out Jehovah's name in the middle of those attacks. Looking back on it now, she probably made the whole thing up to get attention (I knew one JW who got her experience published in the WT even though she was far from exemplary) or she was suffering from schizophrenia or other serious mental disease.
My parents, who were already supersticious, were emboldened by the Watchtower's embrace of this nonsense and came to view just about every negative thing that occurred in their life as a result of the dreaded demons. Every big family fight was followed by a day of purging our house of any possessions that could possibly be related to spiritism. They'd find every item that was bought at a garage sale and would throw it away. Every gift we received from a non-JW would also go in the trash. Books with pictures of Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny, the Wicked Witch of West, you name it, all went into the trash heap, too. It was their way of deflecting personal responsibility for their actions and their lot in life. Everything bad was the result of the demons.
To see the Society deviate from what has been their m.o. since I've been alive is interesting, to say the least. I just wish they'd made that move when I was a kid.