Top 5 Things You Didn't Know About Demons

We're continuing Halloween week with a look at demons.

The concept of a battle between good and evil is older than recorded history. Needing a way to explain the delicate balance between the two, early civilizations personified these characteristics and attributed them to both holy beings and those who worked against a higher power’s grace. We know them today as angels and demons.

5) Vengeful Fallen Angel or Misunderstood Soul?
There are three basic schools of thought. The first believes that demons are supernatural beings—cast away angels, beasts, or otherwise—that attack humans for their own pleasure or to test humans at God’s command. Think of the biblical stories of Jonah, Job, and even Jesus’ temptation in the desert. Another belief asserts that demons are nothing more than bad ghosts (human or animal); just as there are good and bad people, so too can there be spirits with good and bad intentions once they’ve crossed over. The third takes a scientific approach and believes unless you can prove their existence with scientific methodology demons do not exist and are nothing more than a figment of overactive imaginations.

4) The Demon Census
The idea of demons is not modern or specific to a certain region of the world with an uneducated populace. These characters can be traced back over thousands of years through the mythologies and religions of Mesopotamia, Arabia, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, et al. Just how many demons there are depends on who you ask.
* Judaism (Talmud) – 7,405,926 demons
* Christianity (according to Bishop of Tusculum [13th century] & Alphonso de Spina [15th century]) – 133,306,668

Read more about the history of Demons and Demonology through:
http://www.monstropedia.org/index.php?title=Demonology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon

3) Everyone Knows Demons Aren’t Real, Don’t They?
According to a survey of 36,000 Americans by Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life released in 2008, most Americans believe in angels and demons, 80% believe in miracles, and 92% believe in God or universal spirit. Demons are mentioned throughout the Old and New Testaments so it’s no wonder there’s a prevalent belief of the existence of good and evil entities among God-fearing people.

2) Becoming an Expert Demonologist
No, there’s no Demon U handing out diplomas. However, there are a growing number of people interested in this field. As ghost hunters are popping up worldwide, there’s been a resurgence in the belief of demons as separate entities from ghosts—and dangerous ones at that. Book smarts won’t get you too far here. A lot of it depends on experience and knowing how to protect yourself from the evil lurking in the shadows. Skeptics and anyone who thinks they have the guts to take on demons should read this article from The Atlantic Paranormal Society.

1) How Bad Can They Be If You Can’t Even See Them?
It depends on who you ask. Skeptics say that it’s psychological. Victims insist that they’re experiences are real. Those who’ve been victimized by otherworldly entities know that demons are more than just ghostly apparitions. They taunt you mentally, abuse you spiritually, and cause physical harm. Don’t believe me or the ghost hunters on TV? That’s ok, why don’t you ask Bishop James Long, a theologian and exorcist who participated in a lockdown with the Ghost Adventures crew in Bobby Mackey’s in Wilder, Kentucky—one of the U.S.’s most haunted locations. Click here to view footage from his experience. (fast forward to about 2:45)

So, what exactly are demons? No one knows for sure. There are too many conflicting opinions—some based on religion, mythology, or experience—all claiming to be right. Some believe that ancient people used the idea of demons to explain the forces of good and bad within nature. Others think it was born from fearing the souls of those who died and worshipping them to keep them happy and at bay from the living. The interesting thing is that most ancient people—no matter where they were located—believed in demons of some sort. One thing is for certain, whether they’re real or imagined, the myth behind demons is alive and well today.

Resources:

Picture: Ghost Adventures crew investigating at Bobby Mackey’s – Travel Channel

Washington Post

www.ghostweb.com/demon.html

www.angelsghosts.com/demons_what_are_they.html

www.religioustolerance.org/dem_bibl.htm

http://paranormalpython.com/paranormal-articles/bishop-james-long
www.paranormalclergy.com/paranormalclergy/Welcome.html
www.bibletruths.net/Archives/BTAR134.htm
www.occultopedia.com/d/demonology.htm

Top 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Werewolves

It’s my favorite time of the year and I’m counting down the days to Halloween by celebrating the season’s favorite characters and topics with fun facts and trivia. Today’s monster du jour: werewolves!

5) Jacob Black’s Long Lost Ancestor
Nearly 100 years before Stephenie Meyer introduced werewolf hunk Jacob Black, “The Werewolf” featured film’s very first. The silent movie from 1913 was based on a short story of the same name by Henry Beaugrand. Don’t bother looking for the film on Netflix. All copies of it were apparently destroyed by fire in 1924.

4) Werewolf: Human, Animal, or Both?
Rising in popularity as characters in Gothic horror tales of the 19th century, werewolves symbolized the internal struggle between humanity’s socially expected proper behavior and its raw, animalistic urges and innate dark tendencies. These creatures represented the human clash between good and evil. Interestingly, the werewolf wasn’t the only monster making waves in the Victorian era. Also collecting fans at this time were Mary Shelley’s monster of Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Both were similar in nature to the dual personality of the werewolf.

3) The Hollywood Obsession
Making headlines throughout the 19th century, it’s no surprise that werewolves made the jump from literature to the big screen with the dawn of motion pictures. According to werewolf-movies.com, about 265 movies were released between 1913 and 2010 which include werewolves of one kind or another. Check out one or two of these flicks for Halloween. (Werewolf-movies.com List or Wikipedia Werewolf Movie List)

2) The Father of Werewolves
They had to come from somewhere. One of the earliest stories of werewolves comes from a Greek tale of a man named Lycaon who angered Zeus. Apparently everyone but Lycaon knew that you don’t pick a fight with the head god who ended up changing him and his sons into wolves. Whether legend or supernatural mystery, lycanthropy, the transformation of a human into a wolf, has been reported by many cultures worldwide for thousands of years.

1) Fact or Fiction: Are Werewolves Real?
Yes, they are! Well, sort of. Werewolf Syndrome, also known as hypertrichosis, is an extremely rare condition which causes hair to grow all over the body. I’m not talking about your average guy with a hairy back or a Santa Claus-like beard. Hypertrichosis causes excessive hair growth over parts of one’s body and sometimes all over. There are four types of hypertrichosis, none of which are contagious.
· Localized Congenital Hypertrichosis – Excess hair is typically restricted to specific sites on the body and is sometimes caused by neural abnormalities, diabetes, or AIDS.
· Localized Acquired Hypertrichosis – Injuries such as irritation, inflammation, or trauma can result in hypertrichosis over an affected area.
· Generalized Congenital Hypertrichosis – This type is both rare and inherited. Typically, a baby never loses the fine hairs which grow all over his/her body in utero. Over time, the hair growth tends to affect the face, ears, and shoulders.
· Generalized Acquired Hypertrichosis – The intake of certain drugs such as phenytoin, cyclosporine A, and minoxidil lead to the onset of this version of hypertrichosis. Usually, the condition disappears if an individual stops taking these drugs. In other instances, some individuals suffering from one of the strains of Porphyria may develop hypertrichosis after exposure to/treatment with hexachlorobenzene. Imagine suffering from both Werewolf & Vampire Syndromes! (More on vampires in Friday’s article…)

While the acquired forms of this disease are treatable, solutions such as shaving, laser removal and electrolysis provide only temporary relief to those suffering from congenital hypertrichosis.

So, if you see a “werewolf,” be kind, don’t stare or judge. They’re normal people. The full moon’s affect on them is no different than its impact on the rest of us. We’re all a little crazy and different sometimes.

Resources:
1) “The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead” by J. Gordon Melton
2) Hypertrichosis / Werewolf Syndrome - a) Telegraph.co.uk b) http://www.hypertrichosis.com/

3) Hypertrichosis / Porphyrias
4) Pictures from top: a) Twilight "New Moon" picture - http://twilight-the-movie-new-moon-cast.blogspot.com b) Lon Chaney as "The Wolf Man" - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034398/ c) Michael J. Fox in "Teen Wolf" - http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00025147.html d) "Werewolf Boy" article at Telegraph.co.uk

History of Halloween

Ghosts. Goblins. Witches. Monsters. Pumpkins. Candy corn. Ghost stories. Horror movies. Costumes. Haunted houses. Hayrides.

Halloween has long been celebrated as a fun-filled holiday of spooky treats. Actually, it’s second only to Christmas as the most profitable holiday and about half of American households celebrate it.*

But there’s so much more to the day itself than the merrymaking we enjoy today.

Halloween, also known as All Hallows Eve and Samhain, has marked the end of the harvest season for thousands of years. It was a festive, pagan occasion celebrating the harvesting of the last crops. Ingrained in those ancient cultures was also a deep-rooted belief of ancestor worship. Honoring and remembering those who came before them was integral in their spiritual belief system.

Marking the end of summer’s fruitful abundance and beginning of fall/winter’s season of death or dormant period, it’s easy to understand why the ancients believed that at this time of year or on this day in particular the veil between our living world and the spirit world was thinnest, allowing an easy way to communicate with those who’ve passed on. Since ancestors were thought of with love and longing, there was nothing scary about this day. There was no fear of the dead. Though they believed in an afterlife, heaven and hell were foreign concepts back then.

While the dead weren’t feared, the living spirits of impish fairies and elves caused enough mischief to terrify the pastoral countrysides. Of course, the mischief’s source was human and it laid the foundation for the beginning of our Mischief Night on October 30th.

As early Christianity took hold in Rome, many pagan festivities and beliefs succumbed (at knife point) to the new religion. In order to convert pagans more easily, Christianity incorporated some of the ancient practices. Fairies were considered demons and devils and the spirits of beloved family members were reduced to horrifying ghosts. With the introduction of these new ideas, the traditional, celebratory beliefs of Samhain took on a scarier tone as those in charge exploited pagan superstitions surrounding an otherwise joyous occasion. (To be fair, Christian belief was just as deep as that of the ancient pagans and the church felt it was their duty to save the pagans from eternal damnation. Of course, scholars/historians have also conjectured that less honorable motives may also have been involved.)

As Christianity assimilated some pagan beliefs, All Hallows Eve (October 31) extended to All Saints Day (November 1) and All Souls Day (November 2). The celebration was intended to honor all those who have died.

While we’d like to think that celebrating the dead is an old-fashioned pagan practice, it’s actually alive and well all around the world in cultures spanning from Asia and Europe to the Americas. Occasionally, these days of remembrance also include the idea of New Year’s celebrations (honoring the end of one aspect of life followed by celebrating the future).

So, as you don scary, silly, and sexy costumes for this night of fright and send out your kids for the tricks and treats in which they delight, say a prayer for those who’ve passed away to keep those “evil” spirits at bay :)

Happy Halloween!

Sources:
"Halloween" by Silver Ravenwolf
* "The Real Story of Halloween" - History Channel
Picture of me and Jeff is from 1998.

Witch Way - Witch Week, Day 1

What would Halloween be without witches? The Hollywood evolution of the witch has made them ugly, glamorous, sexy, and just downright intriguing. It’s no wonder that witches are the number one costume on October 31st.

What I find interesting is that over the course of the last century perceptions of witches changed drastically thanks in large part to the romanticizing of them through literature and media. European “witches” were still being executed well into the 18th century and witch hunts still exist today in remote areas. For hundreds of years, fear, ignorance, religious fanaticism and conflict have led to the murder of about 50,000 to several million people.*

Thanks to the shift in public opinion, today’s witches—many of whom prefer to be called Wiccans—enjoy religious protection by some governments.

Why would governments protect these “evil” people? They’ve fought a long uphill battle to show their practices, though not mainstream, are not about boiling bat’s blood, collecting eye of newt, and killing children to keep them young and beautiful. One prevalent misconception is that witches are Satanists. These are two separate “faiths” of sorts with witches living harmoniously in nature with a pagan pantheon while satanic worshippers reject God and His rules and take a more hedonistic approach to the here and now.

Today’s Wiccans try to live at one with nature using herbs and plants in conjunction with the moon’s phases and four seasons. True Wiccans abide by one main tenet: Harm None. Their belief in a Karma driven system of sorts means that whatever you put out into the world via your words and actions will come back to you.

Did evil witches ever exist? Probably. If stories from around the world are to be believed, then, yes, there were women and men who killed and tortured others for their gain. Are there any misguided witches today? Most likely. Just as there are good and bad people of any faith, so too there are ones practicing some alternate form of Wicca.

As we enter the witches’ high “holy” season to celebrate the end of the harvest and cycle of life (winter leads to spring planting which leads to summer growth and the fall harvest), remember there’s more to witches than their Harry Potter incarnations. Real witches may not be able to fly, but their very real hocus pocus honors their ancestors and celebrates the beauty and purpose of each season.

* Worldwide documentation varies on the exact figure as many more people died in prison awaiting trials than those who were actually executed and oftentimes, executions in remote areas weren't documented at all.