Monday March 13th: Trusting the message
March 13, 2023
Tuesday March 14th: Keeping Count
March 14, 2023

Beware the doorways to the demonic

A United States-based peritus (Church-decreed expert) of religious demonology and exorcism spoke of a “special challenge” in today’s generation; many are drawing away from religion, which has given the enemy more room to operate.

Christians are now celebrating and “falling” into traps that, historically, the Church would warn about, and non-Christians too are “falling further” into these traps with “no resistance at all”, said Adam Blai in his talk ‘Doorways to the Demonic in Modern Culture’ at the 10th Divine Mercy Conference, Saturday, March 4.

Blai has been helping to teach priests exorcism for over 15 years, both nationally (in the US), and internationally in recent years. He is an auxiliary member of the International Association of Exorcists in Rome (a private association of the Christian faithful recognised by the Vatican).

According to Blai, when persons do not receive that “good experience” of Jesus through the Church or prayer, they seek spiritual experiences elsewhere. He then blamed Hollywood and the media for “championing” the occult and for “softening” the idea to the youth that Satan is not the bad guy.

“So, it’s gone beyond not warning about witchcraft or black magic or Satanism to the point of celebrating it and saying witchcraft is wonderful, it’s feminine, it’s empowering women…it’s an ancient pre- Christian religion that’s more valid than Christianity….”

This, Blai underscored is a lie made up in the 60s and 70s by English Wiccan and ‘father of witchcraft,’ (BBC), Gerald Gardner.

He told those gathered while they “know this stuff”, he hoped they are now able to educate the youth, because “I imagine, here too, you’re having trouble with people wrapped up into black magic and getting into trouble spiritually.”

Blai reminded, “Jesus gave us the full truth about these spirits. He cast them out and then He ordered the Church to go cast them out.”

He then explained the first step is to understand the enemy and how the enemy operates. He cautioned persons to avoid the natural inclination to think of them wrathfully or pity them, “because that is one of the ways they trick youth.”

“It starts gradually…He’s not gonna show you that he’s your enemy and a monster until he’s got enough of a hold on you…. He’s like a con artist. He’s gonna pretend he’s your friend in the beginning; he’s gonna offer you comfort information, power, false charism…he’s gonna offer all kinds of things,” Blai warned.

He then posed some thought-provoking questions to participants: Is a holy angel going to engage in drawing you into a sin that God finds abhorrent?’ No, Blai emphasised.

He stated while the demon may claim to be a holy angel, it is not; it’s a dammed soul.

A soul in purgatory that’s on the escalator heading to Heaven, “real slow, and its gonna get there…Is God gonna allow that soul to come down and draw you into sin and that’s gonna cut you off from God?…Is a saint in Heaven gonna come down and shatter your relationship with Jesus Christ?” Blai questioned.

He pinpointed that persons practising witchcraft, using Ouija boards and pendulums to connect with their deceased loved ones are in violation of the First Commandment.

“You are putting a created spirit before God in your life. You are asking it for comfort, information or power. If you are going to a medium, you are saying I want information of the afterlife and the spiritual and I’m trusting you, human being, or whatever spirit is connected with you,” Blai explained.

He warned participating in the occult implies a lack of trust in God and the decision to destroy one’s relationship with God to begin a relationship with a deceptive spirit.

According to Blai, the more serious the act of the will with full knowledge of what one is doing, the more serious the consequences.

He commented on the “ugliness” in witchcraft is that it not only encourages sin, but it seems to often centre on taking revenge or being protected against vengeance.

“It fosters reliance on the person doing the witchcraft. You have to pay more and more money each time for bigger and bigger rituals. And it uses fear to get that. ‘Oh you’ve got a big curse on you…it’s gonna take $2000’ … and now you have this fear in your heart and you gotta fork over the money…”

The Church, Blai said, divides the extraordinary activity (the rare and the usual) into demonic infestation, oppression and possession. For those things to occur, an act of the will that has power of authority has to invite or give permission.

He explained if one invites a spirit to interact with one’s body, that invitation carries full weight “because you have complete authority”.

What frees the person from having them worry about witchcraft and the effects of black magic is to remain in a state of grace, pray for God’s forgiveness, pray for the person’s conversion and be careful of whom you sleep with.

Commenting on the latter, Blai said if one sleeps with someone who has bad spirits, in a sense, that person has become one with the spirit. “And what we’ve seen over time is that bridge is formed, that bond is formed through that union especially when the people are still in the relationship, there’s a great ability to have those negative impacts on them.”

Blai noted that one of the “original entry points” for many spirits is early trauma. While trauma doesn’t necessarily lead to possession, it leads to influences and attachments through that wound “particularly if it’s a sexual nature. “He said the solution involves seeking forgiveness as the Devil can hold on to unforgiveness as strongly as he can hold on to one’s sins.

Blai also recommended praying for that person’s deliverance and to declare over one’s life: “Jesus, I don’t want anything that is not You, anything that isn’t You please take it away. I did not consent to this, I don’t want this spiritual baggage…. please tell him to leave me.”

Catholics, Blai underscored can attain deliverance through the Sacraments of Baptism, Confession and Communion.