Demon “possession” or demonic “influence” or being “demonized”… they may be different things, but it’s all demonic. For the purpose of this article, let’s just leave it at that.
Firstly, I believe that such demonic influence can explain the spiritual causes of a “personality disorder” which, according to Myers is A set of behavior which is characterized as inflexible and enduring maladaptive character traits that impair social functioning… yep, that probably has a demon behind it.
Think of it as a wild animal backed into a corner. You start talking sense and someone gets angry, loses all rationality, and you almost expect them to start barking like a dog at any moment. Maybe someone isn’t in that state, but you know they could go into it at any time.
Those are the clues. But what how can we understand it?
Ironically, or perhaps not so ironically, Rush Limbaugh’s explanation of Liberal thinking fits with this perfectly. Those who want entitlements, people who are brainwashed and can’t think for themselves, want to blame their problems on someone else… It’s all the same and Limbaugh describes their mentality often.
In my own words, demonized people can’t think rationally. Mainly, they can’t distinguish between implication and insinuation.
An implication is a logical meaning, which is unspoken, but is logically necessary, based on the context in which a statement or action is made. An insinuation, however, is an intended meaning that isn’t said, but the person making the statement or action wants others to think that unstated meaning is what he is attempting to communicate.
More simply, an implication is an unspoken meaning based on rational logic, while an insinuation is hoping that someone else will “read your mind”. Many times, we don’t know the implications our actions and statements make. Implications, however, are heavily dependent on cultural context and history.
For instance, in East Asia, if someone tells an obvious lie, many people will think the person is trying to protect someone’s reputation and everyone will be thankful. But, in the West, if someone tells an obvious lie, we conclude that the person is either psychopathically insane or thinks that everyone else is stupid… or probably both. The East is using insinuation because there is nothing respectable about deceit—even Eastern governments will punish people for lying, so the culture is inconsistent with itself, suggesting insanity. (Most communication through insinuation involves some level of insanity because no sane person would use words which are intended to mean something they probably don’t mean.) The West, in that scenario, would be looking at the implications of lying, rather than the common insinuation of a given culture.
Basically, demons and evil spirits can’t think rationally. If they did, they wouldn’t have rebelled against God. So, they only know insinuation and implication eludes them… because logic eludes them.
Limbaugh, for instance, was once said to have a “30% popularity rating”. The party making this claim, however, doesn’t seem to have considered that “30%” popularity is, actually, quite high, though pop superstitious thinking assumes that most “popular” things have at least 50% popularity. Think about it… how many major brands have at least 50% of their markets? Not many. Limbaugh’s response was, “I’m now documented to be the most popular person in America… more popular than Congress, than the President, than even Hollywood.” The “30%” folk, who made those claims about Limbaugh, weren’t expecting him to say that because they can’t think rationally.
Demonized people live in their own, small worlds of irrational thinking. They tell their lies and eventually believe them. Logic doesn’t make any sense. They use courts to make laws. They use legislatures to execute laws. And the use executives to interpret laws… when courts should interpret laws, legislatures should make laws, and executives should execute laws. But that doesn’t matter to them because they don’t think rationally. Like a dog licking anti-freeze, they only think with their stomachs without seeing how today’s choices will impact tomorrow’s reality.
They can’t see much into future consequences.
They think “logic” is a trap.
If you use common sense to talk with someone who is demonized, they’ll think that you’re doing the same thing they do: Make up any old lie, just to deceive others. When you make sense, they think you’re trying to “trick” them. When you say something that could persuade them to change their minds, they think you’re trying to “make them look foolish”… because they worry about appearances more than substance… they would rather not change their mind about something because then they would have to admit that they aren’t always right. The idea of “gaining credibility” by “admitting when they are wrong” is inconceivable to someone who is demonized.
So, when dealing with someone who is demonized, who can’t connect the dots of logical reality, it’s best to make simple statements of truth with implications that only a rational person can understand. Odds are, they probably won’t know what you’re doing.
More importantly, by speaking ideas of simple truth and principal, not stating any opinions, you’ll be speaking to their humanity, to awaken the rational thinking within, and the demonic influence won’t know what hit ’em. This how “speaking truth” helps deliver people from demonic control, regardless of what that level of control is.
The point here is not about trying to determine whether any individual is demonically influenced, but to do our best to understand and help people who, for all the evidence which hath shewn, seem to be.