The pain of denying ourselves the Supernatural comes in the price of becoming vulnerable without knowing it. Like poorly drawn statistics, we find explanations and evidence where in actuality there are none. As I browse through a series of UK shows one series entertains the belief of ghosts while professing to have the goal of disproving them. Another goes through a series of horrific creatures from folklore such as zombies, vampires, witches, werewolves and even demons with such an angle that anyone who does believe in their existence is reportedly uncivilized and stupid.

Derren Brown, the psychological illusionist mentioned during one of his shows that the power of suggestion is its greatest on those who don’t have strong foundational faith – particularly one rooted in God. Those who are atheist, agnostic, Wiccan, Buddhist or otherwise are more susceptible to being influenced through suggestive forces.

Life is more than living like an animal. Animals live in the immediate with little regard of long term consequence. Banks would like little more than to reduce the admirable qualities of being human to that of a base creature so that people live solely for immediate gratification; having a population seasoned to practice debt for pleasure enslaves them and sets them on a leash by which they can be guarded and controlled.

Without control, we are civilly untamed, wild like werewolves and vampires in a fury who grapple bankers and lawyers and politicians with an eye for fodder. In this, there is no other course of action than to allow the chaos to settle in and the public have our way. But indebted, we are subdued into a trance where we become the meat dinners for monsters.

All legends have their beginnings. Some are reasonably seasoned over time until their roots are unrecognizable in a shroud of myth. Others are still new enough that they are debated among scholars and conspiracy theorists. But given enough time, things that should not have become forgotten are erased from the records leaving only the lore behind. Did St. George really slay a dragon? Was there really a King Arthor? Do the spirits of the Nephilim walk the Earth today?

Lore and legends are important to decipher because they reveal our innermost needs. They attempt to answer questions that mold and shape our world view. What is a soul? At what point does the animal part of man end and the spiritual part of man begin? What happens to man when he dies? Is there life after death? If so what is it like? What is the purpose of man? Are we accountable to a higher power for our actions? Does God continue to be involved in the world today and how? There are many more questions at the root of our existence, but one common trend is a clear battle between good and evil. We don’t see that in the dumb beasts, though their fate is wrapped up in crossfire.

Our need to battle and conquer evil may invoke the creation of monsters, or perhaps the monsters that make up the contents of Pandora’s Box creates the need to battle and conquer such evil. We do know, however, that an evil exists out there and only those who treasure the liberty and goodness of God’s grace find purpose in fighting it while the rest of us… the rest of us placidly watch the outcome of zombies, vampires, witches, werewolves and other powers of darkness on the silver screen as the real monster counterparts close in.

Corby Stephens posted a call for people to give up their stories on demonic possession. Most people responded with first or second accounts similar to the Hollywood-famous flying Ouiji board scene from so many of the horror movies it produces. A few posts were about eerie people resembling a page out of the script from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. As crazy as their accounts sound, I am one of those who fall in the camp believing them to be possible – without the gratuitous green vomit and rotating heads.

It’s interesting to note that there’s a growing movement to communicate with “the dead” built into modern culture.

Shows like Ghost Hunter and Most Haunted seek to communicate with the spirit world by informal seances called vigils. Through EVPs they get frightening results. They also have called on mediums for guidance.

Outside reality TV there are plenty of other shows that indicate that society has gone over the top to put “romance” in necromancy: Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies, Ghost Whisperer, Medium and Supernatural to name a few.

The internet is also full of ghost hunting podcasters and specter-seeking clubs who use questionable techniques to contact the spirit world. Very dangerous stuff. It’s about as safe as taking down you’re dad’s 1960 chemistry set, mixing all the powders and potions then quaffing it down in the name of science.

Only a few times on any of these shows have I heard mention that demons, acting like the liars they are, will play the part of impostor to misguide and even hurt people. But that’s usually before a showdown between some silver-bullet toting vigilante and a shape-shifting Balrog, which presents the thought of demons as believable as the existence of a Keebler elf.

Perhaps the society we live in is so washed out with political correctness that the demons don’t really have a desire to present themselves. Doing so would risk being discovered and it’s easier, and perhaps even more of a game, to sit back and watch us stumbling to our own ethical demise.

The society as a whole has the spirit of Satan. I mean that in the most literal definitive sense. It is working in opposition of God. That’s where the majority of demonic power appears evident.

In all of this, I have a question. If the media is so bold as to teach that necromancy is romantic and exciting, why aren’t churches just as bold to acknowledge the issue.

Demons were real and problematic in the days of Noah. They’re seemingly more subtle today, but sometime in the near future it will be the days of Noah all over again. Did God put a restraining order on them or are they strategically hiding since it’s nearly impossible to believe in them without also believing in God?

Even more astonishing is that throughout the Bible, demon possessed people freely went into the synagogues (Mark 1:23) and hang around Jesus to be exorcised (Mark 3:10-12). If demons really had all that much power over their host, what would compel them to get so close to God? Was it just to stir up a little trouble with Jesus the same way they did through the possessed girl towards Paul in Macedonia? I know arrogance is a sin, but that all seems to go beyond sin into stupidity. Maybe demons have wised up over the years and learned they can do more harm by remaining unseen than in the Hollywood limelight.

Sometimes I need a kick in the head … or at least in the pants. With middle age comes a more present awareness of our mortality.

Washington Irving was 36 years old when he published “The Sketch-Book”, including tales of old age (Rip Van Winkle) and death (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow). Although these were satire in nature, they were clearly aimed at the darker forces that envelop men even today. In these two stories he addresses pride and antisemitism under the guise of patriotism and covetous greed that’s fed under an heir of intellect and stature.

The first is an obvious snobbery that taunts and threatens every outcast to the point that outcasts wouldn’t exist without it. The second is more subtle and makes for a great study on literature. Even the smartest and most learned individual can fall into ignorance by the simplest and stupidest lack of moral character.

When these works were published they were touted by England as the first true sense of unique American literature in history. This is 30 years after the United States Constitution had been fully ratified and the government operations described therein realized. Our nation was still in its infancy.

Other works of literature that emphasized the dismal state of our mortality both physically and spiritually seem to have been developed at or past mid-life. Edgar Allen Poe wrote the Raven when he was 36, just four short years before his untimely demise. Dracula was written when Bram Stoker was 50. At 34 and 36, respectively, Stevenson wrote the Body-Snatcher and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

The only strong literary works that I could find of similar gruesome content written by authors at younger ages involved the Year without a Summer. On July 1816, the inception of Frankenstein and The Vampyre occurred on a creative dare instigated by Lord Byron after reading Phantasmagoria. Mary Shelley was 19 and John Polidori was 21.

No man can know when his time is up. Luke 12:20 paints a dim picture of a rich man who swells with pride at his accomplishments, destined to die that night.

So in our mortal state, what do we do? Gravestones rot and break away. People are only remembered two or three generations at best, then forgotten. Each marker tells a story, but each story – like the fires that smoldered the great Alexandrian Library – are lost and unrecognizable.

My dad considered the brevity of life and suggested that our brief time on Earth is meaningless without good relationships. It won’t be an intelligent and powerful person who finds worth in your ability who will hire you when you lose a job, it will be the friend who see a friend in need. Getting along well with others is essential to life, and living life in isolation brings a cold demise … there will be enough isolation as we’re buried alone.