this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2023
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Surprisingly, a lot of the creepy media is fairly accurate, though extreme. Demons aren't prominent, we know they are angels who rebelled with Lucifer, and were cast out, so that would be their appearance, but in reference to possession, we basically have those that Jesus encountered and a few his apostles drove out in his name later on.
And what we see are people behaving almost like animals, screaming, shouting, with an inhuman strength to break chains or whatever locals have tried to contain them with, and inflicting a lot of self harm. There's a woman who would throw herself into fires, a man who had 100 demons in him (where "I am legion" comes from") who would throw himself onto rocks and off cliffs and cut himself, etc.
The more manufactured elements are the head twisting, anything to do with pentagrams, and honestly a lot of the hostility to others. People usually steered clear, but demon possessed individuals generally did more self harm than harming others, with cases where Jesus would meet them within cities, and they weren't surrounded by dead people or a panicking mob or anything. They also don't "haunt" or hunt people like they do in movies, but are usually extremely obvious.
Anyway, that's my experience purely from biblical account, off the top of my head, I'm sure others can add more detail or examples.
I loved how detailed this answer is, thank you!
So less "intentionally terrorizing those around the possessed" and more "causing the possessed to suffer physically/mentally"? I'm sensing the pattern that Demons tend to love aping or causing mental illnesses/strange behaviors based on this and other comments. Or well, the animalistic behavior could also be the person's reaction to having an entity taking him/her over, maybe trying to get it to leave? But...then again, that could also be that thing probably being ecstatic to have a body to move around in, who knows.
Happy to help! I like studying this stuff, and it's fun to share it when I get the chance.
Honestly, I suspect the "demons torture humans in hell" probably originates from their seeming to want to torture the possessed.
Because in the biblical conception of hell, it's very much not "demons torture humans" it's more like a lake of fire to torture the demons, which unfortunate humans are also thrown into. There's no organization or structure whatsoever. Also, nobody is currently there, humans are just... dead, or in purgatory/Gehenna, a sort of neutral waiting place, waiting to be raised back to life at the end, and sorted then.
Their role biblically seems to be just... acting against God, out of spite for being kicked out, perhaps? They seem to act to tempt humans not to find/love/follow God. Not much is given as to their motivations though, the Biblical authors truly aren't that interested in them, besides as a warning about temptation. A shame, as they're obviously just... fascinating to learn about, but it's not a priority for them to write about.
They also aren't given much credit, either. Rather than the "epic struggle of God vs Satan" we like to characterize, it's more like... Satan and demons are permitted to roam about, but are absolutely beneath God, and can/will eventually be rounded up and thrown out very quickly. They're characterized as accidentally playing a role in Gods plan, and given tentative leash for that reason. Satan apparently is even still allowed to visit heaven, and argues with God? See Job. Him getting locked out of heaven permanently is one of the kickoff moments of Revelation/the biblical apocalypse. Again, not much detail on this relationship, and honestly some of even this much detail is speculation.
The modern conception of "hell" is quite interesting, as it's mostly just imaginative fiction, likely heavily inspired by pagan cultures that merged with Christianity as it spread across the world.
Ah yeah, there is some of that? Not totally unfounded, although my understanding is more that Angels know God is there, and always have, so they don't have to have faith, and they don't have the "sin nature" we do as a result of Adam and Eve eating that apple. Basically they don't seem to have that natural selfishness we do, so their relationship with God isn't as personal, and obedience to him comes much more easily. We are more "like God" ("made in his image", in Genesis terms). As such, those who do follow God will "rank higher" than angels, whatever that actually looks like.
That said.... it's a bit ridiculous to assert that they don't have any free will, because a bunch of them rebelled against God. It wouldn't surprise me if Catholic ideology disagrees with me here though, although I don't think there's much of that in the actual text of the Bible.