There's No Such Thing As A Flashdark

On Fighting Demons.

"Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil; May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen."

— Prayer to St. Michael

If, if if if…

If dear reader there is any one thing I could impress upon you, any single idea, or belief, or concept that I could impart to you to keep and hold forever and ever, it would be this:

Demons are real.

It’s not make-believe. It’s not a fairytale. There exist real non-human intelligences that roam the world and feast off the misery, fear, anger, greed, lust, and jealousy of men and women. They literally feed on it. How? I explain.

Demons are in Hell. Right now. Right this very instant. They are also on Earth. This is because Hell is not so much a place as a state of being. A wavelength. A phase. A frequency. Two people can be standing side by side in physical space and one be in Heaven and the other be in Hell. It’s like being at a party maybe. There, out on the dance floor, people are having the time of their lives. Over there, on the couch, sits a sulker, mad at everybody else for having a good time. Same place, physically. Two completely different realms metaphysically.

Okay.

The other thing to note about Demons (and everyone in Hell generally) is that they are DEAD. Inert. Incapable of feeling. People imagine demons as these entities with little pitch forks running around playing tricks and laughing. Not so. Demons are, every last one of them, terminally and near infinitely depressed. They are in that deep sea of depression so profound that they can never escape. A place without joy. Without movement. Without love. If you have ever been depressed then you know exactly what Hell is like. It’s that, but for eternity. Now, when someone is that far gone into despair, what can make them feel again? Only one thing: Base Passions. The only experiences they have any possible access too are the lowest of the low. Love? Forget it. That’s much too high for them to reach. But they can grasp at things on the most animalistic level. Fear and lust and anger and rage and so on.

So, they want to feel. They want to feel anything. That’s how dead they are. If they can, by their incessant whispers, make someone feel those base feelings, they can potentially glom onto that person. They can achieve a kind of vicarious living. It’s like the lonely shut in in his basement who can only feel anything by watching chainsaw murder videos on the darkweb. Same psychology. Your pain, your fear, your misery… it’s the only thing that can perk them up. It’s the only thing that can spring a smidgen of life into their shriveled souls.

Is this dark?

Listen, I have battled demons. I know my enemy.

So that’s what I mean when I say they feed on you. Your loss, your pain, your distress, your misery, that’s the only thing that can give them something approximating pleasure. Misery loves company. At a certain point of degradation the only joy left is pulling others down with you. That’s Hell.

Okay. So, what to do about it?

It’s a sticky problem because, if you focus on the dark spirits too much you give them energy. It is not good to think to long about the demonic. It can invite them in, so to speak. Aquinas spoke of this also and I have found him one hundred percent correct. At the same time, you have to know enough about how they operate to defend yourself. So, here’s a helpful image. There is no such thing as a flashdark.

Flashlight? Yes. Those exist. You can shine light. You can never shine darkness. If you’re in a completely darkened room and you strike a single match light instantly fills up the space. Darkness is forced to retreat. Darkness can never force light backwards, it can only exist in the absence of light. Therefore, all the creatures of the darkness can only ever exist on the periphery. At the edges of the candle’s influence.

If you want to keep the demons at bay you must yourself become more full of light.

Your house must become full of light. Your soul, full of light. Your body, light. Your eyes, light. Your spirit must become light as a feather and bright as the sun. If you do this thoroughly enough the light will eventually become actually visible to the human eye. This is why saints have halos. At various moments of extreme holiness their inner light is so bright it is enough to be seen. This is also why, for example, hauntings are only active at night time. It is why the demonically possessed seek out dark places like crypts and caves. It’s why gang activity seldom happens on a bright summer afternoon and why all conspirators like the darkest corners of the restaurant. Physical Light is the same thing as the inner light. There is no difference. When Christ said that “your whole body will be full of light,” he didn’t mean some different, mystical, weird kind of light nor a metaphor. He meant photons. Light waves. The stuff coming off the sun itself.

So, if you are battling demons, one easy thing to do is open the curtains. Seriously. Let the Light in. Make the house you live in as bright as the noonday sun if possible. Sleep with the lights on if you need to. Don’t be ashamed. Children are smart because they have not yet been taught to ignore their instincts. “Leave the light on so monsters don’t get me.” YES. Exactly right.

The other thing you must do is pray and fast. Fast and pray. Prayer focuses your mind on the higher things. It shifts your mental frequency to the higher realms. It makes you, therefore, more inaccessible to the demons who can only feast on the more base emotions and thoughts. By exactly the same token, fasting takes your focus off the baser more animalistic instincts, like hunger, that the demons can feed upon. By fasting and prayer your are, essentially, elevating yourself beyond their reach.

Important to note. The base feelings are not bad. Low doesn’t imply wrong. Hunger, sexual desire, anger, and so forth, are fine. They’re just also easy targets. You have to be careful. If you are laughing with a child on a sunny day and calling your grandmother on the phone you’re operating on the higher frequencies of love. The demons can never reach you there. If you’re stewing alone in your room at night stoking the flames of jealousy you’re going to get got.

And getting got is not pretty.

Demons aren’t a joke. They ruin lives. At the extreme end they cause you to fly off the handle and commit murder. At the more mundane end they cause you to gossip and ruin your friendships. Demons break people. Demons are worse than any cancer. You want to be elevated above their reach. This is why I do not here, nor on the podcast, promote stewing or focusing too much on the negatives of the world. Yes, the world is always in crisis. We know that. Worrying about it though. Getting mad over it. Hating other people for it. You’re getting got. How many families have been torn apart because people were worried or mad about Covid, or Donald Trump, or gay rights. Many. That’s what they want. They want you focusing on the darkness so much you forget to light your candle.

Because that’s the only defense you got. Being the light you want to see.

                                                      ♫  This little light of mine.  ♫

                                                             I’m gonna let it shine.

                                                           This little light of mine.

                                                    ♫     I’m a gonna let it shine.   ♫

                                                           This little light of mine.

                                                            I’m gonna let it shine.

                                     ♫       Let it shine, let it shine, oh let it shine.     ♫