Dear Julia:

I just read in a prior column about how you encountered demons and other frightening entities when you were first developing psychically, and I am just flipped out. I was under the impression that there is no such thing as demons. Are these "demons" maybe just earthbound spirits?
- Jo

Dear Jo:

I'm not surprised that you were taken aback by that column, because frankly, I was surprised myself when I first encountered these frightening entities. I didn't "believe" in them either - I had never given the matter much thought. However, despite what a lot of New Age folks would like to believe, just as there are dimensions "higher" than our physical reality, there are also dimensions "lower." If angels can exist, why not demons?

In fact, every religious culture in the world has accepted the existence of "evil spirits" of one sort or another, and has had shamans, priests or healers for dealing with these creatures. The Bible is full of references to Jesus casting out demons in order to heal people from physical and psychological ailments. The modern Western world seems to be the exception, not the rule; we're the only ones who doubt the existence of unseen forces and entities, and thus we lack spiritual methods for dealing with these influences.

This is a very tricky subject for me to write about, because my number one priority is to help people. I believe that we all create our own realities, so if I explore a subject that may be frightening to people, then the overall effect of my work may not prove positive. You see, if we never hear about something and thus never fear it, odds are good we will never encounter it! This is why staunch skeptics rarely experience anything they would consider to be paranormal, and why being "too open" to suggestion can lead one into a very far out, "fantastic" personal reality indeed.

At the same time, however, I know that there are people out there having experiences like those I had years ago, and they need someone who has been there and worked it out to help them. Further, just because we aren't looking for trouble doesn't mean we won't find it.

For example, moving into psychic territory is a bit like moving to a new country. It probably never occurred to the early settlers of North America that there may be wildlife here that they had never encountered before, such as grizzly bears. That doesn't mean that they'd never come face to face with a bear, however. In fact, odds are good that if they moved into bear territory, sooner or later, they'd in some way encounter this formidable animal, and if they'd never even heard of a bear before, be pretty darn freaked out indeed.

This is a bit like what happens when we move into astral territory in some way. For me, this came about via spontaneous psychic development. Whether we're actively "psychic" or not, however, we all leave our bodies every night, and via dreams and astral travel, move through territory populated by all sorts of beings. Thus our "dreams" are often full of strange and sometimes frightening creatures.

We are even more likely to encounter astral beings when we are actively engaged in spiritual (or psychic) development, especially initially. It only makes sense that when we explore new dimensions of experience, we'll meet all sorts of new beings.

When people first begin a conscious spiritual path, they may feel keenly drawn toward subjects such as ghosts, spirits and magick. They may love scary books and movies and everything "psychic." This is a very normal stage for brand new spiritual seekers. Novices like this lack the knowledge, wisdom and experience to know what to do in some of the new situations they encounter, and they often lack the spiritual qualities that give rise to a high vibration, which is a form of natural spiritual protection.

This is like new settlers doing stupid things and getting attacked by bears, while that old trapper that lives in the hills in the middle of bear country never has a problem. At this stage, demons may slip in via careless experimentation with things like Ouija boards and seances, or via fearful attention directed toward them as a result of scary books, movies, etc.

Further, there are forces of good and evil in the Universe, and the brighter our inner light shines, the darker the shadows around us will appear. If we strive to make the world a better place, dark forces may oppose us. The more we align with goodness, the more good we'll have on our side - but we may also attract more opposition from evil. Thus the more we work on spiritual growth, the more we may be tested, so we must develop new wisdom and skills for dealing with non-physical situations.

Since I've personally met a demon and actually spent months being stalked by it, I have no doubt that demons do exist, or at least that some sort of creature that can look and act like what we know as a "demon" exists. My understanding is that demons are NOT earthbound spirits, but are inhuman creatures that exist in another dimension. The demon that I encountered certainly did not look or feel in any way like any person or spirit I have ever met. It was more animalistic.

As I've described before, it was a hulking black monster, dark and very muscular. It's my understanding that demons can take any form they desire, but they are most often seen to be sort of half human and half animal. Their faces appear bestial and menacing. They are most often seen in one's peripheral vision; when one turns to look at a demon directly, it will "disappear," only to reappear in the same spot peripherally again. They are often perceived to be crouching in the corner of a room or perching on the end of a bed or on a sleeper's chest.

In researching how others have perceived demons, it struck me that many people see them crouching in the corner of a room as I did. Then I read in some other source that according to folklore, evil spirits enter rooms from the corners. Some people thus recommend placing salt in the corners of rooms to block the entry of dark entities.

I don't recommend being afraid of demons or any other discarnate, but I certainly don't recommend messing around with them either. My sense is that they are NOT more powerful than people - especially people who are strong in their own faith and spiritual character. While demons have been known to inflict minor injuries on people, for the most part, they simply feed off the energy of the fear and anger that they evoke. As it seems that demons have existed since the beginning of time, and will probably exist to the end of time as well, we should not aim to "conquer" a demon, but rather to lift our vibration above fear and make ourselves immune to darkness. When we stop "feeding" a demon our fear and anger, it will get hungry and eventually go off in search of someone else to scare.

In our own hearts and minds, every one of us is engaged in a battle between good and evil every day. We all have dark thoughts and feelings, and we all struggle to work through them to manifest peace, kindness, forgiveness and understanding. The surest protection against dark entities is thus to be free of inner shadows. When we are actively engaged in spiritual growth, it is especially important that we face and work through our own weaknesses and ego issues.

When we shine a light on the dark corners in our own hearts and minds, when we consciously work on exorcising our own inner demons of hatred, anger, blame, resentment, jealousy, greed, laziness, fear, etc., then we become immune to dark outside influences. As it is our own inner shadows that create footholds for negative astral entities, the surest protection against such forces is the conscious development of wisdom, peace, self-discipline, compassion and faith.

- Julia