Strategy, the dictionary tells us, means to outwit—by trick or artifice—in order to gain an advantage. The demonic spirit has classically proven to be a master strategist against man. Here one minute, gone the next, the complicated manipulations of these notorious spirits have long remained a mystery. In the past, facts about the modus operandi of the spirit were few and far between. Lacking books and detection instruments, monks and clerics could only keep longhand accounts of diabolical disturbances for possible use by future historians.
Now, however, after centuries of study and investigation, a pattern of demonic behavior has finally begun to emerge. As a result, the twentieth century demonologist—aided by books, technology, and mass communication—has the most thorough grasp so far on these elusive entities’ overt motives and strategy.
“There are three distinct stages to demoniacal activity,” Ed reveals, “infestation, oppression, and possession. In certain rare cases, death may occur as a fourth stage, or in lieu of possession. If no one is called in to stop the spirit, and the disturbance is allowed to run its course, then each stage can be anticipated to occur in 1-2-3 order.
“During the infestation stage, the strategy is to create fear—thus generating negative psychic energy—that starts breaking down the human will. The Foster children experienced the primary, infestation stage of the phenomenon, as did Mr. Zellner. The case with the rag doll, Annabelle, would also have to be categorized as infestation. Though these cases needn’t have happened, they do illustrate that demoniacal phenomena won’t tend to occur unless an individual grants some sort of ‘permission’ for a spirit to enter his life. Doors must be opened for the phenomenon to occur,” Ed states emphatically.
In everyday terms, therefore, the demonic spirit does not have free reign over man. Instead, through the exercise of free will, men or women choose to open the door to the unknown, and then follow the darkened path. As Ed explains, “The demonic is a spirit that people don’t have to know. Specifically, it’s a matter of need versus want. A ghost needs to communicate its own problem, or it visits as an apparition to give information that a living person may need to know. The demonic spirit is different: it’s there because people, through their own free will, want or invite spirit contact when there’s no need for it. With respect to this, two laws apply: the Law of Attraction and the Law of Invitation.
“The premise of the Law of Attraction,” Ed now explains, “is like attracts like. Attention to the positive brings about the positive; attention to the negative brings about the negative. Therefore, people who do negative or patently unnatural things are essentially ‘doing the Devil’s work for him’ and actually attract negative spirits to their side. They’re on the same frequency, so to speak. The Annabelle case is a good example. Those girls had an innocent, though unnatural attachment to the doll; this lack of good judgment got noticed by the demonic. Once it was there, it went to work and oppressed them to consult a medium, then believe the bogus message. In short, the girls gave ‘Annabelle’ carte blanche to come into their lives. Had the case gone on, the young man, Lou, would have stood in real danger of being seriously hurt, if not killed; and the girls might likely have come under possession by the entity.”
“As an extension of the Law of Attraction,” Lorraine adds, “the demonic can also be brought in as a result of one’s actions. Characteristically, wanton transgressions of the good—evil deliberately perpetrated by man against man—are a triumph of evil, and acts as a signal to negative spirits. When an individual derives satisfaction from committing cruel and malicious acts, his body vibration alters, resulting in an aura that is darker than normal in color. As a shark follows a trail of blood, the change in aura then attracts a negative spirit to one’s side.”
Attraction can also occur when an individual displays a lapse by letting self-control falter. As Ed puts it,” If you can’t control yourself, then something else will. Hate, rage, despair, misery, drunkenness, and a suicidal sense of worthlessness will attract the demonic in a snap. Man gets no bouquets from the demonic: it’s only there to promote his destruction” In short, the demonic tends to be attracted by actions or trends of thought that are inconsistent with healthy, positive well-being.
“By the Law of Invitation,” Ed continues, “it’s ask-and-ye-shall-get. An individual can deliberately summon the demonic through a ritual or via some channel of sincere communication. This is an open, voluntary gesture involving ceremonial magic, incantations, séances, use of the Ouija board, or secret profane rituals where an individual voluntarily invites a demonic presence to himself. Conducting one of the rituals is often the first step down a road of no return. The conjuring may be a private affair carried on in one’s own home, or—as is the new fashion—to do it in public with one of the ever-growing cults of Satanists or covens of black witches who advocate this activity.”
What is the relationship between witchcraft, Satanism, and the demonic?
“First, understand witchcraft,” Lorraine replies. “Wicca—or witchcraft—is 4,000 years old, often called the ‘Old Religion’ because it predates both Judaism and Christianity. People who practice Wicca are known as white witches, and worship Mother Earth. They manipulate natural forces for positive results—healing, good luck, lasting love, and bountiful harvests. After that, however, you digress into gray witchcraft, black witchcraft, and Satanism, This is where problems develop because witchcraft goes both ways and can be used to bring about positive or negative ends.
“Gray witchcraft is named for its effects. The gray witch casts spells and manipulates the fate and fortune of others in a way that’s neither totally good nor totally bad. Essentially, gray witchcraft is performed in order to give one person unfair advantage over another. The real problem, though, lies in black witchcraft and Satanism. The black witch seeks earthly rewards—money, sex, power, prestige—or the ruin of adversaries through the express help of diabolical agencies. Black witches may call on lesser demons and devils during their rituals; Satanists call on the satanic hierarchy—Astoroth, Beelzebub, even Lucifer—to intercede on their behalf. For their power and effectiveness, black witches work in legion with particular demonic spirits, while the Satanist goes all the way and worships Satan as a god.
“In the past, the negative rituals involved everything from the murder of babies to pacts with the Devil himself. In the more extreme rituals, celebrants would turn the Bible upside down and urinate on it, then begin a counterclockwise march, forming a magic circle while chanting blasphemies, renunciations of God and submission to the other-lord, Satan.”
“Using profane rituals, Satanists and black witches are able to summon specific demonic spirits and command them to commit actions for either personal or group benefit,” Ed notes. “Money, prestige, sexual conquests, material riches, great personal power, and the downfall of adversaries through spells and curses can all be brought about through the intervention of inhuman spirit agencies. But the demonic is a loan shark, and it not only collects before you’re ready, it wants double in return for what it gives. Ultimately it wants the soul. That is why sorcerers, black witches, and Satanists will wind up paying a big price, maybe an eternal price, for what they do.”
Nowadays, lone individuals performing rites gleaned from a drugstore paperback may not be prepared for the ghastly reality often bound, by what Ed calls cosmic law, to confront them. “This is what happened in the Foster case,” says Ed. “The true beginning of that case would have to be placed on Christmas Day 1977, when the mother put a conjuring book, of all things, under a Christmas tree! High symbolism there. So, the mother gave the fundamental invitation to the demonic to enter her home. Be that as it may, Meg was the one who gave permission. Had she returned the book or thrown it away, then none of the bizarre incidents would have happened. However, through her own free will, Meg performed the formalized invitation rituals that set the process in motion.”
When neither the Laws of Attraction or of Invitation apply, then spirit infestation may h
ave already occurred in a home before new tenants move in. This happened in the Amityville case, for example, where the Lutz family walked into a supernatural bear-trap. Surprisingly, the Warrens claim this is the way most ordinary folks come in contact with inhuman spirit phenomena. Yet, even in an infested home, not all people may be vulnerable to negative interference. “A happy, well-adjusted person,” says Lorraine, “virtually seals out negative forces with a positive disposition. On the other hand, just as a fly is attracted to flypaper, a dour, depressive person in an infested house can almost be guaranteed trouble. The majority of the time, though, the phenomenon is invited into one’s life by granting permission for spirits to enter.”
What are the ways in which permission can be granted?
“By opening channels of communication that should remain closed,” Ed answers. “Ouija boards, séances, conjuring ceremonies, candle rituals, automatic writing devices are all doors that open to the supernatural and, more often than not, lead down a road of misfortune, terror, and ruin.
“The Ouija board has proven to be a notorious passkey to terror, even when the intent of communication is decidedly positive in nature,” he stresses emphatically. “Of the cases we respond to, four in ten concern individuals who have raised inhuman spirits using a Ouija board. I was one of the few people who examined the official records of The Exorcist case. That case—which happened to a boy, by the way, not a girl—occurred in 1949, and do you know how it originally got started? By using a Ouija board!
“The Ouija is nothing by itself,” Ed adds. “It’s just a pressed piece of board with the alphabet on it. The same effect can be had with an upside-down wine glass on a waxed table, like they used in the 1930s. But in either case, it is a medium of communication. In other words, it’s what you use the object for. When you use the Ouija board, you give permission for any unknown spirit to communicate with you. Would you open the front door to your house and let in anybody who felt like it? Of course not. Yet, that’s exactly what you’re doing on a supernatural level. Very seldom have Lorraine and I ever encountered anyone who’s had a truly positive experience using the Ouija board. For those virtually addicted to the board who think they’re in touch with the ‘divine,’ there has never been an occasion, to my knowledge, when a positive angelic spirit has ever come over a Ouija board with a true precognitive message. As we’ve said many times, doors have got to be opened before most of this activity can occur. The Ouija board is one way to do it.”
“The same problem holds true for séances,” notes Lorraine. “When everyday people become involved in communication with spirit entities, there is simply no accountability as to who, or what, is communicating from the other side. ‘Blind’ communication is a perfect opportunity for a deceptive spirit to enter the lives of unsuspecting individuals.”
But isn’t it possible to make contact with friends and relatives who have passed on?
“If you get six, eight, ten people focusing their minds on spirit communication,” she says, “then there’s a very great likelihood that communication will take place. But still, you don’t know what you’re communicating with. Very often, information can be verified by only one person at the table. Yet how do you know that the information wasn’t passed on to the individual by a negative spirit—telepathically—before the question was asked?
“Furthermore, not every person who passes on is necessarily earthbound and ready to communicate with you at will. In order to conduct a séance properly, you should first have a darn good reason for doing it. You should have an experienced, professional medium who comes recommended by a reputable psychic research organization. A local do-gooder clairvoyant or amateur medium may make spirit contact, but won’t necessarily be able to discern if the spirit in question is good, bad, or indifferent. In which case, again, you don’t know who you’re really talking to.
“Another point: a séance should be held during the daytime hours. Human spirits are usually just as capable of communicating during the day,” explains Lorraine. “Séances held at night very often bring on negative-human or demonic spirits—sometimes because the individual holding the séance is oppressed beforehand to hold the sitting in the dark. How many times have you heard about séance tables lifting up and moving across the room? Ghosts don’t have the power to lift tables even if they wanted to. Only two things could do that: either an inhuman spirit or, more likely, the psychic energy generated by the people sitting around the table.
“The point is, if you have a real need to communicate with the other side, then it should be important enough for you to consult a valid expert for help. Otherwise, you’re going to get trouble if you aren’t careful with séances beforehand.”
With permission having been granted, through either the Law of Invitation or Attraction, it remains to be seen if infestation has indeed taken place. If it has, then the Warrens say it will be noticed, ordinarily, as a build-up of little incidents over a period of weeks or even months.
“During infestation, the strategy of the demonic is to generate fear through incidents of inexplicable phenomena,” says Ed. “Activity will be especially prevalent during the psychic hours of night, between 9 P.M. and 6 A.M., with the peak occurring between 1 A.M. and 5 A.M. The very first incidents of activity will tend to occur at exactly three o’clock in the morning. This symbolic hour, the ‘high noon’ of the demonic day, is chosen as a mocking gesture because it is in direct opposition to the traditional hour of Jesus’ death. Once the initial infestation has taken place, then phenomena will tend to erupt at any time after the sun goes down. If the infesting spirit can draw energy during the daylight hours, activity may also go on during the day, though to a diminished degree.
“During the early stages of infestation, however, the spirit often goes through great pains to cover its tracks,” he adds. “It is not in the infesting spirit’s best interest to be discovered prematurely. Therefore, activity will be low-key as the spirit takes hold. Individuals will often dismiss implausible phenomena as quirks, coincidence, or natural illusions. At most, unusual activity will be attributed to psychokinesis or to the work of restless human spirits. Most of the time, this judgment will be correct. In those rare instances when there are negative inhuman forces behind the activity, however, then a sinister intelligence at work will slowly become apparent.”
Since the Foster case illustrates infestation in its most easily recognizable form, it is worth pausing to examine the case in greater detail.
“To begin with,” says Ed, “there was no materialization of an earthbound human spirit before, during, or after the case. Instead, the external phenomena reflected an inhuman spirit’s intervention, insofar as a ghost would not have been able to bring about most of the strange occurrences. Furthermore, there was nothing random about the activity. In fact, rather than being a chance manifestation-dissipation of a ghost, this activity was dynamic and goal-oriented, suggesting a negative strategy.
“In addition, great fear was aroused. This is a distinct sign of a demonic presence because inhuman spirits need fear to manifest, whereas ghosts do not. The violent and malicious phenomena in the Foster case was meant to frighten. This was evident when Meg told me ‘the more scared I felt, the louder the activity would become.’ You see, only when the individual notices that something bizarre is going on does the phenomena start to become frightening. In this case, Meg felt an icy touch, then her hair was yanked, then she was yanked, all by an invisible hand. Footsteps were also heard, causing the children to surmise that someone physical was in the house. They also experienced a fear-provoking round of crashing furniture, magical whisperings, and the manipulation of the radio, lights, clocks, water faucets, and room temperatures. Even the deaf dog responded to the presence!”
In addition, the girl spoke of seeing a dark form out of the corner of her eye. This would be correct, according to the Warrens because the physical eye is built to see natural images; supernatural images are often detected through peripheral vision. “The
form itself was probably the early stages of the materialization of the spirit as a black mass,” says Ed. “As the girl threw off more and more negative psychic energy, the spirit was being given the wherewithal it needed to manifest.”
“Even in the infestation stage there is a method to the madness,” notes Lorraine. “The phantom songbird that sang at night in the nonexistent tree outside the parents’ window was an omen of dire events to come. When the phenomena did occur, it tended to happen in threes. The lights were turned off three times before the girl felt the icy hand. The clock in the girl’s room was ahead by three hours; the clock in the boy’s room was behind by three hours. The girl’s hair was pulled not once, but three times.”
“Phenomena that occur in threes are a signature of the demonic,” Ed points out. “Often, the very first thing to happen in a case of infestation is that there will be three knocks at the door. There won’t be anyone there, of course, at least nobody visible.”
Yet why the use of three by the demonic?
“Three is used as a signal,” he replies. “Three is purposely used as an insult—to mock the Trinity. But six is the devil’s number. Demoniacal actions will often occur in groups of six so that it will be completely understood that the phenomena were not random, but rather premeditated.”
When the Foster children ran outside, they felt a malevolent force that let up under the street light. This is another significant fact for the Warrens, because negative forces prove unable to function in an environment of light Not by coincidence are these known as spirits of darkness. Furthermore, the wildly screeching birds were active only on the left. In other cases that Ed and Lorraine have investigated, birds that screech at night on the left are often found dead on the ground the next morning.
The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed and Lorraine Warren Page 13
