Throughout history, human beings have tried to understand suffering that affects the mind, emotions, and behavior. Before the rise of modern psychology and psychiatry, many cultures interpreted unusual mental states as spiritual phenomena. For most of recorded history, mental disturbances were interpreted only spiritually. In the Bible, particularly in the Gospel of Mark, there are accounts of individuals displaying behaviors such as self-harm, isolation, unusual speech, or extraordinary agitation—conditions attributed to unclean spirits. Similar interpretations existed in many ancient societies, where shamans, priests, or spiritual healers addressed what we would now categorize as psychological disorders. It was not until the development of modern psychiatry in the 18th and 19th centuries that mental illness began to be systematically studied as a medical condition. Institutions and later professional bodies such as the American Psychiatric Association formalized diagnostic criteria for disorders like schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder as purely medical conditions that would need to be treated medically.
With time, spiritual conditions stopped being considered as spiritual and with secularization of the churches and sermon messages, spiritual desensitization took over the world. Many theologians caution against over-spiritualizing mental health conditions and assigning it to the spirits, especially because historically there was a big stigma on labeling mental illness as demonic. This created social isolation, ostracization and shame. Historically, some individuals with epilepsy, schizophrenia, or various disorders were subjected to harmful religious practices because their conditions were misunderstood. However, in modern times mental health science is grounded in research, neurological imaging, pharmacology, and evidence-based therapy, completely excluding any spiritual implications. We went from one extreme to another.
With that change in sociatal views on mental health, spiritual warfare, spirits and demons were not the topics that churches wanted to focus on. Over the centuries people have been spiritually desensitized and many spiritual problems have been assigned to medical conditions only. Spiritual world became a forgotten topic that would only be discovered through Hollywood movies or if someone was part of the occult. And of course Hollywood movies completely skewed and distorted spiritual aspects, making people believe or expect some magic potions and sparkles. I remember I was completely clueless about spiritual world before unknowingly going into witchcraft and any spiritual experiences I had, I would first ignore because they didn’t align with my Hollywood expectations.
The truth is, religious systems don’t help with any spiritual development of the soul. People stopped hearing about Satan and demons at the church and they started doubting that this must have been a fear mongering doctrine of the church but in the most part is not true. Generally speaking, people exclude any possibility of demonic oppression in modern times. It’s always either medical problem, mental health problem, genetics or one big coincidence. However, people forget that deliverance from demons was a big part of Jesus’ ministry and of His role while he was on earth. The Bible contains many examples when Jesus was healing from demonic oppression or possession and we also have to remember that there is a difference between the two.
Demonic possession happens when a demonic spirit would enter human’s body and inhabit it and take over that person’s personality, which essentially means that demon would become that person. We would see a body but personality would not be of that person but of the demon. Demonic oppression on the other hand is a persistent attack or harassment from demonic spirit that would influence person’s thoughts, emotions and actions. The difference is that the person is still under control and still has it’s own personality, however it’s just being attacked constantly. Whereas with demonic possession, demonic spirit will possess the body completely. There is no or little control of that person’s personality and of their free will. It’s as if that person is hypnotized and taking on a different personality completely.
Demonic oppression in the Bible
From the Canonical Bible we have only few examples where this was portrayed. One of the examples was King Saul, who disobeyed God through divination and in return, received a “distressing spirit” or a demon:
“But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul’s servants said to him, “Surely, a distressing spirit from God is troubling you. Let our master now command your servants, who are before you, to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp. And it shall be that he will play it with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is upon you, and you shall be well.” 1 Samuel 16: 14-16
One of the ways the spirit would leave or enter was through music and musical waves and vibrations.
“And so it was, whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him.” 1 Samuel 16: 23
Another example we have when Jesus healed a boy from epileptic attacks:
“And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.” Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.” Matthew 17: 14-16
“However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17: 21
This is an example that demonic oppression can also happen to children and they are not excluded.
In the Apocrypha texts, that did not get their way in the Bible, we see in the books of Adam and Eve that Satan was able to enter into an animal like the serpent and possess that body. Many people and sceptics alike are questioning if the story of Adam and Eve was real and how come serpent could talk. This was due to the spiritual possession. We also have a story in Canonical Bible, where donkey could speak:
“And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam’s anger was aroused, and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!” So the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?” And he said, “No.” Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face.” Numbers 22: 27-31
Another example of spirits entering animals was the story of the pigs, when Jesus rebuked demons called “Legion” from the body of a man, and spirits decided to enter the pigs. Demons can enter any living body but also can be attached to objects and statues, which we see much in the Old Testament.
We have to remember that body is just a vessel and as Bible states “a garment”. The personality lies within the mind and the soul. The spirit gives us life and spirit goes back to God. I often use an analogy of a car. The car if just a body, the car will not go anywhere without an engine – a spirit that gives life, but the engine wont go anywhere without the gears and pedals – which is our soul and mind, our free will. Therefore demons can use humans to exercise their evil desires through that person. That usually happens through the open door of a sin – a legal right for a demon to enter a new home. It first starts with oppression and if the person is not strong enough to fight those evil thoughts and continues to live in sin, then possession can happen.
Many people in Christianity think that demons cannot oppress or possess Christians. This thinking is wrong. Labels and religions do not interest demons, only what doors are open. Religion has no protection, only our actions. If someone is a Christian through inheriting religion but living secular life, this does not stop demons from entering and possessing. If someone is born again, awakened and believing then of course there is more protection, however the oppression can still happen. On the contrary, someone truly saved will experience more attacks than someone that is not and living secular life. Oppression will happen to weaken that person’s faith, to weaken that person ascending towards God, in an attempt for that believer to open the door of sin and for demons to have legal rights.
This is described in the Bible in the story of Jobe, who was heavily oppressed by Satan. Jobe lost everything, even though he was a righteous man. It was all done because he was put under tests to make him lose his faith, however this didn’t happen. This is what Satan does, constantly putting thoughts of doubts, negative thinking, depression, anxiety to make someone weaker and more vulnerable to emotional manipulation.
How does demonic oppression manifests in modern world that is so desensitised from spiritual matters?
Modern world is truly a playground for demons. Unfortunately we live in very liberal times with moral decay and any moral boundaries being completely pushed away and destroyed. Promiscuity is no longer viewed as something bad, celebrities promoting adultery, fornication is on a daily basis with media and reality tv promoting programs where sex is expected within a day or two from meeting a person. Marriages and family model are under attack and people are choosing divorces, being single and having sexual freedom as a way of expression. Sexuality is also under attack with more and more genders coming to light (I’ve heard there are 8 now..), homosexuality and transgenderism being on a rise. Nothing surprises us anymore. Not even incest, murder or pedophilia. But that’s not the only way for demons that they can enter..
Our lifestyles are designed in a way by the system to make sure no one finds time for God. Everyone is busy, working constantly, striving for success and achievements and being desensitized by materialism, social media, tv and science. The existence of God is being questioned, people prefer complicated scientific theories rather than a simple truth. Our senses are being constantly over stimulated to make sure we never question simple signs, small noises in the silence and everything is branded coincidence or conspiracy. All of this contributes to completely shutting our senses to the spiritual world. The noise of this world is getting lauder and more difficult to hear God’s voice. People forget to protect themselves through prayer, through fasting and through contemplation with God. The expectation that God will protect me because I have the label of a Christian is quite delusional. And then people lose their trust in God because of the problems or oppression forgetting that God told us to fight and “for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”
We haven’t been taught how to fight and what to do in those circumstances. Christianity only focuses on the Gospel of Grace and the fact that faith resolves all problems. And when this doesn’t happen, people blame Christianity and God, because their expectations haven’t been met. Unfortunately in Christianity, everything is backwards and built on a lie, therefore for someone to deconstruct and unlearn everything, takes time and patience.
Consequences of demonic possession or oppression
The spiritual consequences of demonic possession or oppression can show up in many mental ways especially as medical problems or bad habits. As I mentioned, demonic possession is when demonic spirit takes over the body and manifests as schizophrenia, split personality disorder or bipolar disorder, where demon can express themselves through that person, extreme body dysmorphia, bodily harming or similar. Possession is usually more severe and harder for a person to fight on its own. Those are of course medical conditions and always treated with medication only, psychiatric hospital or total exclusion for the society in harder cases, however those conditions usually characterize with symptoms like hearing voices inside the head, sudden urges to do something outside of that person’s character or mental confusion and exhaustion. No doctor, psychiatrist or medical personnel will even think to treat it spiritually, it’s always treated as “imbalance in the brain”. Yet it resembles what that little epileptic boy was going through before Jesus healed him. In those times, people always thought about spiritual matters first, in today’s times only medical.
Demonic oppression is harder to spot and it affects probably 90% of the whole world if not 100% at the moment. Surprised? Because this manifests as unhealthy habits, autoimmune system diseases, genetic diseases like diabetes or even cancer. I am not suggesting they should be only treated spiritually like cancer of course, but it starts with a root problem of unhealthy habits where those behaviors can develop and cause the body to develop those diseases. For example, someone can be “genetically” overweight and have a love for food. Through lack of self control towards food, which is due to the spirit of gluttony, that person can create an unhealthy environment in the body where inflammation can occur and later those diseases can develop. And because grandmother had diabetes, mother had diabetes, you are more likely to develop this as well. But not only because of genes but because of bad habits that have developed through the spirit of gluttony. This was just an example of course.
There is strong scientific evidence that genes do not guarantee disease but environment plays a major role in whether certain diseases develop. Therefore we can then have unhealthy habit of porn addiction manifested through the spirit of lust or unhealthy habit of overeating manifested through the spirit of gluttony. Unhealthy habit of uncontrolled consumerism and materialism manifested through the spirit of greed…and so on. We often think that the love for food is just my personality or my love for fashion is just my expression. Not really. God has given us the spirit of self control and we should be able to control our urges, however this doesn’t happen often. Why? Because our thoughts are often being hijacked by demonic spirits. Don’t believe in everything you think, because it’s not all coming from you.
This is another misconception of people, that all thoughts are coming from you. Not all thoughts are actually coming from you and a lot is planted through media and social media engineering, but also through demonic influences that are all around. It is so difficult to not be influenced in any way by demonic oppression. We can see more and more cases where children act out in a violent way, it is not because of their personality, but due to the demonic spirits expressing themselves through the vessel of that child. That is why, children have been for a long time a target of the system and of the demonic world. Through childhood trauma, abuse or exposure to traumatic events, that child is unable to properly understand the situation and thus creates either split personality disorder or dissociates parts of self as a form of protection from traumatic experiences. This allows for that child to have an open door and for any spirit being able to use that vessel to satisfy it’s urges.
Dreams as a door to your destiny
In today’s world we are so desensitized to dreams and spiritual world that dreams are viewed as something abstract or some people claim they don’t dream at all. No one is taking dreams seriously as they usually are complex and difficult to understand. For decades, dreams have been a mystery to scientists trying to decode why we dream and what causes one to dream. Our diets, various drugs and medications, busy lifestyle and constant brain stimulation through technology, tv and media has an impact on our dream life. Have you noticed that when you are relaxed during holidays, you can experience more vivid dreams? Or when you improve your diet, your sleep and dreams are better? Well it’s not a coincidence, because the enemy, the price of this world – Satan, is doing everything to make sure we don’t even consider this as a way of communication with God. In ancient times, dreams were taken very seriously and as a way God communicated with people. One of the examples is the story of Joseph and his dream of eleven stars bowing down to him, which then manifested in his life as his family and brothers bowing down to him. Daniel and his dreams and visions, even Pharaoh, a non-believer, who had a dream from God about 7 fat cows and 7 poor cows… Dreams were something people were looking forward to have and have it interpreted.
The average person spends around twenty-six years of life sleeping. That time was created not only to enjoy the physical benefits of rest but also to connect with God and access His guidance for our life. The problem is that dreams can be weird and chaotic and therefore difficult to understand at times. Therefore when we dream about something we don’t understand, we don’t pay attention to it at all. We take it as “foolishness”. However, we have to remember that God entered into a covenant with Abraham in his dream state and enemy is also using dreams to get our permission and access our destiny and divert our future.
When we look at the story of Adam and Eve, the initiation process started with eating the fruit, therefore through food. In the same way, the enemy might give us strange dreams of eating food, of agreeing into something, of accepting gifts, or through signing any contracts. All this gives the enemy access and permission to your life. You might say that it is unfair because you don’t remember your dreams and you don’t know what you have agreed to. That is why God is asking us to be sober minded, to not altering the mind with substances like drugs, medication, alcohol, even heavy food. Our body should be alert even at night, because the enemy comes at night to steal and access.
Matthew 13: 25 tells us “but while man slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.”
What the enemy is trying to do is to put you into some soft of covenant while you are asleep. Because even if you agree to something in your dreams, it is still an agreement that can be used against you. That is why it is so important to think about your dreams upon waking up and trying to remember them and to renounce and break any known or unknown agreements. It all can sound like foolishness to you at first, but trust me, once you get equipped in the spiritual knowledge and mysteries, it gets easier to discern. When you dream, only your body is asleep but your spirit is awake and interacting with the spiritual realm. Those dreams might sound crazy, however this is you just entering another dimension and still experiencing different things to grow your spirit.
Throughout the Bible we see that dreams are not neutral or foolishness to God, but in fact this is God’s favorite way of communication. Through dreams we don’t have our body or our senses that could block us but direct connection to subconscious mind. However, not all dreams are from God and not all dreams are from the enemy. Some dreams are simply manifestation of our subconscious mind and experiences during the day. It’s also when our emotional state can manifest through deep worries about something and then we dream about it happening. Discernment is very important and recognizing when it’s from the enemy and when it’s from God. But God will also use the same message twice or three times to warn through the dream.
Is every mental health condition demonic?
The question of demonic oppression disguised as mental health problems can be controversial, especially within medical and scientific worldviews. A lot of people view this as going backwards into the antient or medieval times of witch hunts, burning people who would show signs of mental health decline and this in modern world would simply not work. However, I believe balance is needed. Oversimplifying spiritual conditions and labeling them as “imbalances” and treating with medication only, can create a state of illusion of problem going away. Unfortunately all people that I know that were or are in witchcraft or occult practices experienced mental health conditions. This goes hand in hand. However, not all mental health conditions indicate that this person is in witchcraft. This might be spiritual attack to weaken you spiritually, to steal your energy and “life force” and to divert your destiny. However, in my opinion all mental health conditions are caused by demonic oppression. All mental health conditions start in the mind and start with some thoughts therefore this is usually spiritual manipulation. Conditions can be amplified through life experiences of course, however the attack usually starts with the mind. In reality, our mind is the battle ground of the enemy and our role is to ascent our consciousness and fight those spiritual powers in our mind. Even Jesus said in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene:
“For where the mind is, there is the treasure”.
By Dagmara Z.