Chasing Demons

I've been studying a little about Demonology over the last 5 months.
Demonology is not the study of how to worship the devil (yes, some people do believe it is)
It is the study of the history of demons and demonic belief in history and for me, current beliefs about demons and their effect within the paranormal and specifically in Australia.

Considering I was bought up in a very Catholic environment I really only heard about demons and the devil in church - my parents never mentioned such topics.
It was not talked about at home and my first real understandings came from religious teaching at school and "Rosemary's Baby", a book written in 1967 and a best seller about the time just before I hit my teens.

Religion at school back then could leave scars on impressionable young children - being taught by nuns in full neck to knee black habits was daunting. They looked and behaved so differently to anyone else I was accustomed to. Back then they could still wield the cane and they did with delicious force. Did we really need unseen demons when my primary school years were over shadowed by guilt, confession and repentance and hours of praying with knees on hard wooden floors?



Anyway...

I am someone who is very interested in continued learning and research about the paranormal and I have varied subjects that I want to know more about.
I thought I dip my toes into what seems to fascinate us most - demons.

Specifically the reports of demons, possession and infestation in Australia.

What interests me is the level of such reports in this country right now.
Are the demonic encounters being reported and dealt with the type that we hear about that are formless or animalistic in nature and features?
Or at they human in form?
Are they site based or do they appear randomly and seem to choose a varied array of hosts without a particular reason for doing so?
Are people across the board encountering these or are they religion specific/ nationality specific?

Are people believing that they are encountering demons because of their fear of what they see/hear/feel and therefore label their experiencing 'demonic' when it may be another sort of encounter (including alien)

These are questions to consider, as we may think that an encounter features a demon or some awful negative energy when it might be really just a ghost (when I say 'just' I really dont mean to down play the encounter just to offer a point of difference between the two in this dialogue).

What might constitute a demon in the first place?
A demon is:
'an evil spirit or devil, especially one thought to possess a person or act as a tormentor in hell'
'a supernatural, mythological and often malevolent being prevalent in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology and folklore'
'a fallen angel'
'an evil spirit or a person or thing who is evil, or a person who does something with great enthusiasm and skill.'
'are malevolent spirits created by Lucifer. They are created from corrupted human souls that have endured extensive torture in Hell'.

Thank you Google for just some of those descriptions!
Are they on the mark?

My personal classification of demons is that they are entities that have not lived on this earth as people - creatures who are not identifiable as human in shape or form.
Anything that can be identified as once having been human is in a different category for me.

But that is just my view and you are most welcome to have another. I wont be arguing the point.

We are probably both right (and wrong) depending on our beliefs and experiences, or lack of.



What I do want to find out is whether we are seeing the same sort of demons that are portrayed in the movies (yes I know, movies you ask? ...but they ARE an huge influencer on how we perceive these things).
Therefore do they take the shape we expect?
Do they have a pattern of being?
How are they dealt with?
Do we call priests or mediums or spirit communicators or paranormal teams?
What effect do they have of the victims?
How prolific are demonic encounters now as opposed to say 100 years ago?

Of course some cultures/religions feel that anything paranormal is demonic while for others demons do not exist.

What a huge array of ideas and beliefs!
It's mind boggling!

Personally I have not has such an experience that could classify as 'demonic'.
I have encountered energies that were angry to a point of causing havoc but it has been minimal in the time frame of the incident - in other words it happened very quickly and was never repeated.

I am fascinated by on going stories of entanglement and how this may be influenced by a person's understanding of what they are going through.
At what point does someone reach for help and what sort of help do they get?

What I am trying to do is build a picture of our current relationship to these paranormal encounters here in Australia and is it different to patterns of encounters overseas.

The Catholic Church tells us that these sorts of encounters are on the increase world wide - in fact they are educating more exorcists to cope with the workload.

We certainly do have trained religious - based exorcists here in Australia and a few locally        (Newcastle, NSW) and again the type of things they deal with come in a wide in variety.

One local exorcist I interviewed last year told me that their experience really only covered 'sites' that they exorcised and not 'individuals'. They had not, up to that point, encountered a possessed person.
The criteria for true possession is fierce and detailed and is highly scrutinized by religious officials before a proper exorcism can be even considered.
Mental illness is taken into account and a  detailed report goes on for months and longer - so what of those people that conduct clearings/healings after one brief meeting?
Do they help and how?
I am not trying to be critical here - I am wondering if some people might label something demonic when it actually may not be? 

If you have had an experience which you would classify as demonic I encourage you to write to me and tell me your story.
I promise to keep it confidential unless permission for sharing is granted by you
Please contact me at info@newcastleghosttours.com.au

PS please no religious ranters no needing to tell me I will go to hell ( I have already been told that 100 times) This is a serious subject which deserves our respect and that I hope leads to some clarity which I can then share in a way that promote understanding of where we are at about demons with the paranormal.



Once again, please send me your encounter in the best way you recall it from start to finish and how it was treated and dealt with - I would like at least 50 encounters to work with and study to make it a worthwhile overview (no story is too small nor too complex).
to : info@newcastleghosttours.com.au