DOES THE DEVIL HAVE A HALO?
Posted by anthonynorth on April 23, 2008
The history of the paranormal has been plagued with the Devil and his cohorts of Demons. Offering a direct link between phenomena and culture, perhaps we need to understand just what the Devil is.
In one sense, he is the fallen angel, forever causing trouble, and in another he is a Jungian ‘archetype’ – the trickster, forever to be found in various cultural clothes throughout world mythology.
He is also the guy with whom we have a pact.
Sell your soul to the Devil and you get rewards – but don’t worry, it will come at a price, eventually. And in this sense, he is part of our psychology. Our urge to do wrong, knowing it is – well – wrong.
In a variation on the theme, the pact can lead to possession, where the Devil or one of his friends takes you over, and you are either influenced to do bad by this supernatural entity, or blatantly possessed, complete with red eyes and green vomit.
And here, too, we can attach a non-supernatural tag.
We can argue, rather than supernatural possession, the person is taken over by split-off elements of his own mind. But this continual fascination with such demonic influences is rarely discussed.
This is a problem with paranormal research. Researchers and enthusiasts often chastise the scientific community for their intransigence – they’re only interested in ‘how’, not ‘why’ – but this mentality exists in this community as well.
The Devil won’t go away.
And for a supposed supernatural ‘force’ to be continually experienced in the paranormal, it must have a reason for its existence. We can, of course, blame culture for this. After all, it is culture that maintains stories of the Devil. But we can go deeper still.
A peculiarity of our existence is the fact that we advance. This is the process of history itself, forever changing the focus of culture and society. If we didn’t do so, we would not have evolved our society in the way we have.
Why does social evolution occur?
I think the central element of change is that we are never happy with what we’ve got. Rather, any social system has in-built frustrations that give us an urge to change what we’ve got.
The things that make us frustrated are the things we label ‘bad’, or even ‘evil’. They represent existence at its worse. And in seeing such bad things around us, we can learn to act in the opposite, thus being good.
In this sense, we need to see bad around us in order to BE good.
Without this influence, there would be nothing but amorality. And in aiming to be good, we see the light that becomes the advancement of our humanity, our society, and ourselves.
In this sense, we require temptation and adversity. It is, in essence, the ‘fuel’ of our social change and advancement, working on both the individual person and society as a whole.
Thus, the Devil is outed for what he really is. He is the engine of change – an essential element of ourselves. And in this sense, he is also an influence above us – not of the supernatural, but of evolution itself.
© Anthony North, April 2008
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paisley said
i cannot feel a god,, and in so stating,, i cannot feel a devil.. i feel right and wrong and good and bad even ecstasy and evil… but as far as the personification ( a man made thing if you ask me) of an entity… no.. i am afraid neither exists in my little corner of the world…..
anthonynorth said
Hi Paisley,
I pretty much agree with that. What I’m talking about here is a symbolic representation of a force within existence, as such. Not a supernatural entity, but a man-made symbol of a force I think is as real as gravity.
A.Ho said
I think you can elaborate more on those points
anthonynorth said
Hi A.Ho,
Aha!
Thomas M. Barnes said
Very good article…very good comments. I am 55, a grandfather, a former Catholic and I studied to be a priest for three years as a very young man. Even then, most of us seminarians rarely discussed the “Devil” or even ‘angels’ as real, sentient entities in another world. Even then (1969-1972) we had a sense that we were dealing with some sort of human personification or manifestation of ‘evil’ which for us meant immorality as the Christian world views immorality. The ‘Devil’ IS real in that human immorality and evil is real..and he takes the fall for us. We are not deep enough to see the Devil for who he us, i.e., us. We blame the Devil for our dark side, which all of us have. It is a neat psychological trick. “The Devil made me do it” has a certain therapeutic dimension to it.
anthonynorth said
Hi Thomas,
Thanks for that comment. You deal with some important issues there. Yes, devil as ‘cop out’ is often used.
God said
I hate the devil. Such a jerk.
http://stuffgodhates.wordpress.com/
anthonynorth said
Hi God,
Well aren’t you the big I AM. Instead of mud-slinging, can’t you use a thunderbolt or something?
Selma said
This was such a great article. I agree completely. Wow, you really have hit the big time – even God is commenting on your blog now
anthonynorth said
Hi Selma,
Thanks for that.
Indeed. God. Wow! Though I suspect he may be a false God
coolynooly69 said
Any discussion of the devil is plagued with difficulties because of the many names used. Is it the devil, Satan, Lucifer…that last one always intrigues me, the Light Bringer..not the most convincing name for someone who is supposed to be evil. Ultimately, they are all, slightly, painted via a religious perspective. To some extent you have to believe in God to believe in the devil.
Personally, I think what you are saying is spot on, looking at it from a Jungian perspective “The Devil” is one of a number of necessary archetypes or inner psychological states. Most shamanistic and nature spiritual traditions realised the importance of this aspect in nature and in the individual, it is only when it begun to be repressed, denied and feared that the trouble started, both in society and in the individual. Having worked with tarot imagery with various packs the card representing the “devil” begins to have layers of meaning more subtle than the merely “evil”. From a Buddhist perspective there is no “good” or “bad” there is just our interpretation of an event or situation and that attitude is a healthy one to have. Western thought has, to some extent, always been duallistic. Right and wrong, good and bad, us and them, but all are just a matter of perspective. Having said that I agree that if we have a duellistic mindset it is healthier to accept the shadow side of our personality rather than reject it, we do require bad to recognise good, in the same way as some say we need sadness to fully appreciate joy.
Your comment about paranormal research is an interesting one. I used to be part of a group that investigated hauntings and we strived for a good mix of paranormal enthusiasts and science based people, it was interesting how different people responded to things. An open mind supported by a healthy dose of common sense scepticism seemed to be the best mix for the work, but then that is not a bad base from which to approach life!
anthonynorth said
Hi Coolynooly69,
Thanks for that comment. You seem to be very much on a similar wavelength to me.
Dantheman said
Anthony – Excellent article. I could not agree more with you. I have always believed that each of us has an inclination to do good and an inclination to do evil and its completely up to us to decide. History has allowed us to use the “Devil” as a cop out. As bad as someone may be, it was completely up to them when deciding. That may be a depressing thought until you think of someone who has done something very selfless & good and realize they too decided that all on their own.
anthonynorth said
Hi Dantheman,
You’ve got in nailed with the last statement, there. And in a way, I think the Devil still rises today as a cop-out, only with new cultural clothes.
Think genetics – behavioural genes – it isn’t my fault; it’s the way I’m made!
What rubbish.
Tracy Neal said
Hello again Anthony as always i find your articles fascinating,Im sort of an agnostic i suppose,I believe Christ existed,I also believe ther is a spiritual force we call God.However Im very skeptical of a lot of what organized religion takes from the bible and pronounces as fact.I believe you can take that book and have five people read it and all five are going to disagree to some extent on what its meanings are,thus the many different religions,so i constantly try to educate myself on differeng opinions on religion etc. and so far you have for me hit the nail on the head. thx,T.N.J.
anthonynorth said
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for that. I’m pleased you’re still enjoying the site. Personally, I wouldn’t class myself as religious, but I would class myself as spiritual – i.e. I accept there’s something out there, but not in a way that any scripture has ever truly grasped. Hence, I try to place rationality on the subject, whilst remaining open-minded to things we do not yet understand.
melvin said
well as i said in the possession blogs, i feel you dont have choices in life. you do as your programmed or scripted to do. then again i believe in god, and by doing so i have to accept the fact there must also be an evil one, though i dont feel the evil one controls much of anything. god, being an ‘all knowing’ being or entity, has planned out everything the world is and will be. we have no control to change what he already knows will happen. so in honesty i credit god with anything good or bad that happens. good or bad is just a description humans need to label things. i feel there is only obedience from us to do as we are scripted to do, when we have done our part, we die. if we are to play a role in another of his ideas, we will be used there.the reason i believe in evil, is simple, in the book of proverbs it states that yes he created ‘the evil one’ and gave him a purpose. yes the bible is made by man and everyone has thier own interpritations of it, i do believe most of it is history written by men who witnessed events. as for the new testement i have conflicting feelings about it, seems writtem more for man to be able to better control the world. ie… in days of old, it was said to go forth and multiply, multiple wifes were not frowned upon. then comes the new testiment and now it go ahead and multiply, but just with you single wife. now to me thats someone says, ‘we are going to get over populated…best put a stop to this multi wife thing’ i hope i dont get too brow beat now that i put in my 2 cents worth, but its haw i feel and believe. in the good old U.S.of A. everyone is entitled to thier opinion and thats mine.
anthonynorth said
Hi Melvin,
Thanks for that opinion.
James said
there is no such thing as the devil,satan what every you want to call it. Its religion that has created this external force called the devil. It stops you from examining your true nature.
Just remember one thing you will never go far wrong.”There is none else beside Him.” This means everything in our life comes from God. From here is your start point to developing relationship with God.
First question you should have is, Why does bad things happen in the world? why is there bad people in the world?
There is us(whole mankind) and God and thats it. You need to raise above conditioning by society belief in a external evil force really dig inside yourself to find true source of all this.
James said
just wanted to add religions were created for one thing to keep man in a state called the “Holy Still”. Basically means you dont progress towards God.
anthonynorth said
Hi James,
Much to agree with here, and much to disagree with. Does religion stop people from reaching God? Most likely – I see religion as a social codification, rather than a spirituality, which is a personal thing.
Now, you’ll disagree with that last part, if not the first. But basically, much of what you say is a general statement of much of mysticism, despite the culture it comes from.