Demonologist and paranormal researcher Keith Johnson shares of his journey, and his view and experience on the topic of Demonology. Also, past and future television appearances, and being a Science Fiction and Gothic stories nerd!
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A photo I took from inside the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, Missouri.
I’ve done a pretty good job of avoiding the subject of demons or demonic possession on this blog. This isn’t due to being afraid of the topic or needing to leave the closet light on when I talk about it, but because the BS-o-meter tends to immediately start flashing in my head when the topic is brought up. It’s not something I do on purpose, and it’s not that I’m trying to be a jerk, it just doesn’t resonate with me, I guess. I’ve always done my best to not offend anyone in discussions about their beliefs, or when people recount their demonic experiences. As Jim Harold famously says, “I keep an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out.” Most of the time I just listen and try to see the activity as simply paranormal, just like any other experience that may or may not be explainable, rather than attach a demonic name or entity to it.
But I think I need to finally come clean and admit that I have issues believing in the concept. Oh I know what some of you will use to argue already. Light can’t exist without darkness. A belief in angels requires a belief in demons. Those arguments sound nice, but they don’t settle anything for me, and to be fair, I have the same issues wrapping my head around angels sometimes too, with their names and their color coded wings. For a while last year I was involved in a few phone conversations with a popular television production company about the possibility of being involved in a pilot about angels and investigating whether or not they really existed. I’m not sure where the project ended up going, but many of the personalities they were interested in just had a knowing that angels existed, and that’s not what they were looking for. They wanted someone who needed the proof. It was exciting to be approached, but I’m not sure the topic of angels would have been enough to keep me focused or serious for a whole series. One thing is for sure, though. I’d have to see some evidence before I could confidently say I believed in angels. Now ask me if I believe in spirit guides. (Well… I can’t wait all night for you to ask, but just know the answer is YES. My regular readers already knew this.)
Oh I believe in evil, in a sense that there are bad people, good people, and a whole spectrum of people in between. Those same people may just end up being either the innocent ghost or the trouble-making poltergeist in a haunted house. Many people believe, as I do, that we’re placed here on earth, maybe more than once, to learn lessons and allow our souls to grow spiritually. Perhaps these “bad people” are here to be a part of those lessons, and maybe their struggle with being bad has something to do with their own lesson. But believing in an inhuman demonic entity, or the devil himself, is something that I admittedly struggle to take seriously. Some popular paranormal television shows haven’t helped my opinion, either. Often those suddenly possessed investigators or home owners seem to look like they’re simply starving for attention, and oh look, there just happens to be a camera rolling! The spotlight is on me! I don’t mean to be flip, but that’s how it appears. I have absolutely no doubt that spirit can make use of our energy, or manipulate the world around us, and I believe in some cases a person with a gift can be used as a channel for spirit. But sometimes I wonder if people confuse being mentally unstable, or just plain drama, with demon possession.
This post was originally intended to be a book review, but like it or not, I’ve always had a policy about not mentioning a book by name if I don’t have many good things to say about it. Therefore, I’ll be somewhat cryptic in talking about it, and I hope that isn’t seen as poor taste. I’m far from being qualified to be an English teacher, but if I have the urge to take out a red pen to correct grammar and spelling in every chapter of your book, you simply didn’t try very hard to edit it, and so that certainly means I’m going to have a hard time taking you seriously or trusting your qualifications. The book contains story after story of what is supposed to be taken from actual case files of demonic activity, but they just sounded like good fictional storytelling to me… and I’m not big on reading fiction. I simply don’t believe much of those events happened. And people shouldn’t be led to believe that a simple creek, a rap on the wall in response to a question, or an occasional shadow is a reason to convert to Catholicism, get a crucifix for every room, or look for an exorcist.
If you know me, you know that I can’t NOT finish a book, even if I’m not enjoying it. I take pride in finishing the last word and shelving it ceremoniously. But for the first time in years, I considered not finishing this one. I felt a little silly spending the time on it. It took me forever, but I finished it, sighed, and moved on to the next book on my “to be read” shelf.
Like some things I’ve brought up in this blog, I might change my mind about all of this in a year or two, or maybe even next week! If I’m suddenly involved in an investigation where I have pea soup spat by someone walking across the ceiling while cursing me in 12 different languages, you’ll be the first to hear from me. Until then, this is where I am with it all. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not out in search of evil. I’ve always preferred pleasant spirits “from the light”, but until I’ve experienced it, I refuse to make it something dramatic to fear.
Now it’s your turn to tell me why I’m right or wrong.
I know that many of my readers will disagree with me on this. As I say to my students, “you’ll still like me, right?”
As a counter to probably every opinion I just gave here, you may be interested in checking out the ongoing Hidden Astral World series from Gary Leigh’s Psychic Empaths blog, where he quite literally introduces you to Omen, who he claims is a demonic entity. Gary is a loyal reader of the Big Séance and I have a lot of respect for him, so I hope he chooses to still like me after this post. He’s writing about fascinating stuff. I’m just not sure where I am with it all or how to respond. Go check it out!
Categorizing Hauntings (Big Séance)
My last post about Scole discussed creative energy, music and vibrations, and light. Here is my final post about my thoughts on The Scole Experiment: Scientific Evidence for Life After Death by Grant and Jane Solomon.
Photograph from 28 February 1994 of the front page of the ‘Daily Mirror’, 16 December 1936. A copy of the original was obtained. It was almost identical to the photograph, with some minor differences which indicated it might have been from another edition on the same day. The newspaper was tested and proved to be genuine wartime paper. (Caption taken from the book) This showed up on sealed photographic film after a sitting.
During a session, instructions for building a Germanium receptor (for better communication) manifested on sealed photographic film. This signature appeared at the end and is thought to be that of Thomas Edison, since compared to existing documents, his signature from life seems to be identical.
All of the color photos of phenomena and apports that are included in the book can be found on the Scole Experimental Group’s page, or you can click on the photos above.
The spirit team answered many of the Scole group’s questions, which are included in the book. Here are some of the shorter question/answers that I find interesting.
I’ve always found it interesting how many people insist on there being a heaven and a hell, angels, devil, demons, dark side, etc. My current opinion is that it’s all nonsense, but I’m always open to learning and changing my opinions. It felt good to read this first question/answer. Is the spirit team saying there’s no evil outside of us? No hell? No devil?
Is there a negative side that fights this very positive energy?
No. It is man in his ignorance that causes problems. If man lives his life without aspiring to a spiritual awareness, he lives in ignorance. Ignorance breeds negativity and negative thoughts create a negative force as, in a similar way, positive thinking creates a positive force, so we have to work on the negative forces. Not, however, those outside of man, but those within man.
Do the Akashic Records exist and can we have access to them?
It is true to say that much information is stored in other realms and spheres. But again, perhaps not as much as you are led to believe. Some of the records are accessible to higher beings. There are also some on Earth who claim to have access to them, but I do not know if this is true.
As always, any thoughts?
“Spiritual” and “Religious”…
Here are a few questions to ponder today.
Are you “religious” or “spiritual”?
Do they have to be different? Are you both? Neither?
Next question.
How did your upbringing or early life experience lead you to where you are now and how you classify yourself?
If you’re wondering what brought this on, bear with me and I’ll attempt to explain. Sometimes I get going on these things and I wonder if I’m even being coherent. In recent weeks I’ve gotten a few comments here, mostly polite, from people who I would consider “religious”. For the most part, these comments have shared concerns that spirit communication is from the Devil or evil. I apparently need to find God… which is weird, because I feel like I have a pretty close relationship with him, actually. I have no intention of censoring these comments, providing they stay respectful. And just to be clear, I have comments set to be approved mainly due to the fact that I have students out there. They’re free to read, but they don’t need to comment. 🙂
In one of the comments, the reader discussed how she was once into “the occult” (a term that is SO misunderstood and is often confused with “cult”), but now she’s Christian. It was suggested that I repent and “seek God, rather than demonic spirits.”
Well… I realize it is dangerous to go here, but I’m going to. As soon as I read the comment discussed above, I couldn’t help but think about how my path has been the opposite of hers. And, I suppose, we both would see each others paths as backwards. I grew up and spent a LOT of time in a Southern Baptist Church. My sister and I were the third generation of our family to go to this church. By the time I was in high school, I was a staff musician and was getting some great experience. But it was also around this time that I learned some disappointing things that were going on in the congregation. Not only that, but nationally there was a lot of controversy going on with the Southern Baptist Convention spreading and teaching hate. Ellen Degeneres had come out of the closet and so of course they boycotted everything having to do with ABC and Disney (their parent company). Ring a bell? People can be so very hateful in the name of God… and they’ll follow anyone who refers to themselves as a “pastor” or “preacher”. So I think my family determined that there was more love and acceptance at home than in the church. But I decided to stay until I left for college, gritting my teeth the whole time… and I made that decision for one reason only… music. In college I worked in two or three different churches as a staff musician and for a year was a director of music. I’ve been known to say that the only thing I got out of these church experiences was music, which has ended up being a huge part of my life, but that’s not exactly true. There were many people who helped raise and support me in my hometown church, people who I have lots of love and respect for. There were many nice people who I worked with in college. But… you can lose a lot of yourself in organized religion. And most definitely, not everything shouted from a church pulpit is good… or even true, for that matter.
Around 5 years ago I began what I refer to as my “spiritual shift”. I am so much closer to God now than I ever was before then… and I don’t regret leaving organized religion. I don’t think anyone is ever truly enlightened… and I definitely have my flaws (oh boy, that’s another blog post), but I’ve certainly come a long way since then. It’s like my eyes are opened now. I can’t imagine going back to a time where I knew nothing about a spirit guide… or meditation… or energy, or the fact that we’re all loved, no matter what and no one is judged! And… I can’t believe there was a time when “ghosts” were just people wearing bedsheets on Halloween. Aren’t we doing our children an injustice by teaching them that there is a physical land up in the sky covered with clouds and angel wings where only some of us go? I remember praying a lot growing up… begging to not go to the fiery place where the red guy with horns would torture you. And if we’re teaching kids that to get them to behave (Jesus on the shelf?), then we have serious issues. To me, closing my mind and going back to a world where dogma is kept alive to keep leaders of churches and religious organizations in power would be a giant leap backwards. I know too much now. And spirit communication? I’ve yet to have a negative experience. Why wouldn’t we want to learn more? (Side note. Check out MOSS’s two investigations [HERE and HERE] of a church that DID want to know more. Cool experience!)
So… I know everyone has their own path. I get that. I know very little about these readers other than their “religious” comments. They very well may be the nicest and sweetest people one could meet. But… how does one respond? Do you smile and just move on? Do you write up a blog post about it? 😉 Am I even being coherent? Am I going to Hell? Care to start a discussion?
Related:
Christians and the Occult (kristinemcguire.com)
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