Recap

Exorcisms, Demons & Spirits

Authors David M. Kiely & Christina McKenna spoke about their new book The Dark Sacrament, which documents ten contemporary cases of possession and exorcism, and the work of two elderly exorcists Canon William Lendrum, and Father Ignatius McCarthy.

There are two different sources for oppression and possession, said Kiely. A deceased spirit can be transformed in the afterlife into an evil force, oppressing the living with its dark thoughts. Then there are demonic entities who have never walked the earth, and are capable of possessing a living person. He also spoke about ancestral evil, in which behaviors such as incest can be passed down into subsequent generations.

McKenna recounted the case of Gary, a boy who came into contact with a demon at the age of 10. He has experienced seizures in which he engages in automatic writing in a foreign language. Now 14, the boy has not been successfully exorcised because he seems to want to keep the demon with him, she said. McKenna also told of a successful exorcism that was performed in her own home when she was 11-- her brother had been the subject of a haunting by a deceased aunt.

Related Articles

After Dark Sneak Peek

In the spooky October issue of After Dark, Timothy K. Perry writes about real-life zombies. In the excerpt below, he looks at some of the pharmacological underpinnings:


When ethnobiologist Wade Davis went to Haiti, he researched the various pharmacological methods by which a person can be placed in the deepest hypnotic trance and, in all effects, become a true revenant. He maintained that an individual can be transformed into an actual Zombie by two distinct chemical concoctions, usually found in powdered form, which can work their dark magic by entering a person's blood stream. The chief ingredients of these potions are Tetrodotoxin, a poison that is naturally found in Pufferfish, and derivatives of Datura. The most effective way to introduce these hypnotic poisons into the victim is insertion through already open wounds. Davis called it "Coup de Poudre" or "The Powder Strike." Once infected with this poison, the person enters into a deep corpse-like state.

After the Tetrodotoxin works its evil in the victim's circulatory system, he or she can be in a corpse-like state for days, all the while acutely aware, intensely conscious of his or her cadaver-like state. It is believed that once zombiefied, the victim no longer possesses his or her own free will, and is at the mercy of the Bokor who administered the powders…

Get the full story! Subscribe now to After Dark.