Meditations on Evil & Daemons — Part II
Further meditations on evil & daemons...
[Important Note: This post could be triggering or frightening for some people. I considered not publishing this because I don’t want to encourage over-focusing on this topic. It’s one of those things that’s mostly better left alone. However, for myself I am glad that I possess an awareness of this subject, and so I’ve decided to share these thoughts. Please know that my deep felt sense is that All Is Well At All Times and Life can ultimately be unconditionally trusted. At the same time, there are many subtleties within reality, and there are certain areas where I feel it is wise to be cautious. That is why I wrote this. One Love.]
Hey friends,
Sending Love. Hope this finds you well.
The other day I published ‘Meditations on Evil & Daemons’…
I’ve since had a few further thoughts on the matter that I’d like to share.
Let’s dive in…
Daemons Likely Don’t Know They Want to Return to Oneness
In Part One, I wrote:
“In truth, daemons are rejected aspects of our own selves that try to get our attention because they want to return Home. They want to return to Wholeness. They want to be viscerally reintegrated into the human being, the psyche, and into the very Wholeness of Creation. They want to once again feel themselves to be at One with their true nature—the Highest Light Which Has No Opposite.”
I feel this is true, though I neglected to mention something important…
Daemons are unlikely to know that this is the case.
Heck, most humans don’t even know that God/Oneness/Wholeness is what they’re actually looking for.
In my view, this is the ultimate thing we and all other beings are all looking for, above and beyond whatever other valid desires we may have. We’re looking for the visceral direct knowing that we are Home in this moment, One with God, unconditionally loved and held by Grace, living our Truth.
If you asked all humans what they want or are looking for, this is probably not what most of them would say.
If you asked all ‘evil’ daemons what they want or are looking for, this is almost definitely not what the vast majority would say.
(I’m especially speaking here about ‘negatively polarized’ daemons. As I mentioned in the last post, “daemons” are ambiguous energies.)
Due to being rejected, hated, and “demonized” for aeons, the primordial energies I’m calling “evil daemons” tend not to be particularly ‘happy campers’ eager to ‘meet Jesus’…
Rather, these energies will have tended to twist and contort into hostile, wrathful, vengeful, deceptive, power-hungry, controlling, and/or ill-willed intelligences.
Many of them seem to ‘feed’ upon fear and suffering and actively wish to harm, control, possess, or enslave human beings.
Sri Aurobindo spoke at length on these ‘hostile forces’:
“Men are being constantly invaded by the hostiles (occult forces) and there are great numbers of men who are partly or entirely under their influence. Some are possessed by them, others (a few) are incarnations of hostile beings. At the present moment they are very active all over the earth. Of course in the outside world there is no consciousness, such as is developed in yoga, by which they can either become aware of or consciously repel the attacks – the struggle in them between the psychic (soul) and the hostile force goes on mostly behind the veil or so far as it is on the surface is not understood by the mind.
The apparent freedom and self-assertion of our personal being to which we are so profoundly attached, conceal a most pitiable subjection to a thousand suggestions, impulsions, forces which we have made extraneous to your little person. Our ego, boasting of freedom, is at every moment the slave, toy and puppet of countless beings, powers, forces, influences in universal Nature. All life is the play of universal forces. The individual gives a personal form to these universal forces.
But he can choose whether he shall respond or not to the action of a particular force. Only most people do not really choose – they indulge the play of the forces. Your illnesses, depressions, etc. are the repeated play of such forces. It is only when one can make oneself free of them that one can be the true person and have a true life – but one can be free only by living in the Divine.”
— Sri Aurobindo
[Read a much longer collection of Aurobindo’s words on these matters here.]
In my view, as I said in Part One, these daemons or ‘hostile forces’ are indeed lost and rejected parts of our own selves / Self. They are the parts of us most in need of our unconditional Love.
At the same time, it’s also key to realize that…
Daemons are not something to mess around with.
I do not recommend this line of thinking:
“Oh wow, daemons are the rejected parts of me most in need of my unconditional Love. Therefore, I better do some summoning rituals and ask a bunch of them to enter my body so I can Love them back into Wholeness. They’re just parts of me, after all.”
This is almost certainly a bad idea.
As I mentioned in the previous post, most people have no idea of the sheer power of the primordial forces that reside within (our) nature…
As Aurobindo speaks to above, we humans tend to fancy ourselves free-willed, independent, and self-determined…
Yet for most of us, this is at best a very partial truth and at worst a total delusion.
There are powers within nature about which most men know nothing at all…
I don’t wish to be overly intense or to plant seeds of paranoia here, but I want to say…
Do not underestimate your capacity to be ‘taken over’ partially or entirely by ‘hostile forces.’
Just because such ‘dark’ forces are not *inherently* evil (in my view), does not mean that they are not *functionally* evil and highly skilled/powerful in exerting that evil.
The sheer volume and power of the ‘dark’ forces within reality is utterly gargantuan. Imagine the force of 10 million volcanoes. A single human attempting to transmute all this darkness would be akin to trying to stop one billion tsunamis with a single plastic bucket.
(Thankfully, none of us has to attempt this alone.)
Certain well-known ‘dark’ archetypes such as ‘satan’ or ‘Hitler’ are akin to age-old receptacles into which countless people have directed massive quantities of hatred and ‘negative’ energy. In my view, even if such archetypal beings began as mere mythological metaphors, they can nonetheless become vast reservoirs of actual energy and consciousness that take on great power and intelligence over time.
As such, the invocation or summoning or ‘inviting in’ of such archetypes/beings is unwise. Even things like habitually listening to some strains of ‘death metal’ or certain other types of dark music is not something I’d recommend.
A few more relevant words from Aurobindo:
“It is one thing to see things and quite another to let them enter into you. One has to experience many things, to see and observe, to bring them into the field of the consciousness and know what they are. But there is no reason why you should allow them to enter into you and possess you. It is only the Divine or what comes from the Divine that can be admitted to enter you.
In my view, ultimately all things do come from the Divine, yet not all things are presently aligned with the Divine.
There is a wisdom in exercising caution around certain aspects of Creation—e.g. daemonic forces.
It’s a bit like with serial rapists or murderers… send them Pure Love and wish for them to rediscover Wholeness without feeling a need to invite a bunch of them to your house.
False Light
Aurobindo continues:
“To say that all light is good is as if you said that all water is good – or even that all clear or transparent water is good: it would not be true. One must see what is the nature of the light or where it comes from or what is in it, before one can say that it is the true Light. False lights exist and misleading lustres, lower lights too that belong to the being’s inferior reaches. One must therefore be on one’s guard and distinguish; the true discrimination has to come by growth of the psychic feeling and a purified mind and experience.”
Aurobindo notes here the existence of “false light”—a term which has gained a wider usage in recent years.
This is another useful thing to be aware of. Just because some sort of astral being takes on an appearance of ‘light’ does not mean too much (the same is true of humans/gurus). Remember that daemons can be highly deceptive and crafty tricksters. The astral/unconscious realms are full of all shades and stripes of every imaginable thing. It’s a full-on carnival and it’s not easy to discern who’s who and who is sneakily spiking your ‘light beer’ with a little poison.
This is why traditional yogic paths have typically recommended that aspirants “steer clear of the astrals” altogether. The advice is basically to ignore this stuff and proceed directly to God/Self.
How to Clear Daemons From Your Field
“God’s Holy Name is Itself the rite for exorcising undesirable influences. In the presence of God’s Name ghosts and evil spirits cannot remain.”
As the great Anandamayi Ma notes in this quote, simply invoking the name, “GOD,” or whatever term for the One most resonates with you, is a powerful way to clear unwanted / non-aligned influences.
For myself, I periodically say things like:
“Right now, in this moment, I hereby cut and release all cords, attachments, agreements, vows, entities, and energies that do not serve the Highest Good for myself, my family, and all beings, God.”
Or:
“I hereby command that all beings, energies, and entities not aligned with Jesus Christ and with God, the One Supreme Creator, leave this body/house now. In the name of God I hereby seal all energetic leaks or unconscious invitations that would allow these unwanted influences to return.”
I will often say things like this right before submerging myself in (cold) water. For me this feels like a powerful clearing ritual.
In terms of preventative measures, it also feels relevant to include a note on the Christian teaching of ‘challenging of spirits.’ In his book Discovery of the Presence of God, David Hawkins says the following on this:
“The differentiation between a Divine messenger and a religious-content hallucination can be made by the technique of consciousness calibration [here Hawkins is speaking of his kinesiology technique]. In Christianity, there is also the teaching of the ‘challenging of spirits’ to declare their allegiance to Jesus Christ as Savior. A demon or astral entity cannot do so.”
[Note that I feel one of Hawkins’ blindspots was to underestimate the fallibility/bias of kinesiology / consciousness calibration, so I would not recommend this technique unless you feel highly experienced/skilled in using it.]
Elsewhere, David Hawkins also says the following about Jesus’ suggestion to avoid evil:
“Jesus warned his followers not to be concerned with [demonically/satanically possessed people]. Don't encounter evil, avoid it. If you create a science of evil you will become entrapped by it. You are drawn into it. As in exorcism, if you do it enough one day it gets you. Many exorcists commit suicide. You need to calibrate the degree of evil you can handle, but that is the science of evil and it is very dangerous.”
Send Love to those who are most lost and consumed by darkness. Hold all of Creation in Love. Yet do not seek out / summon / invoke / ‘invite in’ evil spirits.
Lastly, I’ll paraphrase some words once shared with me by the great Jonathan MacCaul:
“The best protection is to know that you do not need protection, for your essence is Indestructible Light.”
I find this to be powerful wisdom, though unless you feel profoundly deeply rooted in an abiding knowing of the One Light and are constantly effortlessly radiating Pure Love to all of Creation…
I would still recommend periodically utilizing the prayers I cited above to ask God to clear your body/field of unwanted influences.
If you feel this is not working, I may know a healer or two who could assist you. Feel welcome to reply to any of my emails and inquire.
Is it safe to do ‘shadow work’?
A couple months ago, I wrote a post encouraging y’all to “do your shadow work.”
I stand by what I said in that post. Here’s a snippet:
“Do your shadow work.
The best way to do shadow work is simply to be truly available and open to what every single moment of life is trying to show you about yourself.
Commit to this ongoingly. Commit to radical self-honesty.
It will make everything easier for you.
You can seal leaks and correct dysfunctions earlier, so Life won't have to deliver you a massive karmic roundhouse kick to the face later on.”
“Shadow work,” in the form I spoke of in this post, simply refers to investigating your own blindspots. The Jungian “shadow” refers to everything we have hidden, rejected, and repressed within ourselves, that we don’t want to look at. I find it vital to look at this stuff, for anyone wishing to deepen their understanding of life and themselves.
There are deeper and more intense forms of shadow work too, though, and this is where things get a little more ambiguous.
I’ve previously suggested radical non-dual shadow work practices such as contemplating that you are of the same fundamental essence as beings like Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, etc. I’ve suggested that nothing is actually ‘outside’ of you, and that in a real sense, you are these beings, and all beings that ever lived, and they are you.
I still feel this can be an extremely powerful and valuable practice, though I would say it is of a more advanced nature, and I would not recommend it for newcomers to non-duality or to anyone who feels immediately deeply triggered by such suggestions.
Still more radical forms of shadow work involve magickal rituals in which one actually summons or invokes such ‘dark’ beings/energies/archetypes while in an altered or highly-open state. I do not recommend such practices. For myself, this is where I draw the line at this time. I have only a modicum of experience with this depth of shadow work, and I can say that the experience I had with this was a key factor in further opening my eyes to the sheer power of these forces—prompting me to write this post.
While my brief exposure to such practices was valuable in some ways, it led me to conclude that people who do this are severely underestimating what they’re dealing with or potentially opening themselves up to. Perhaps there are some extremely high-level yogis who can safely engage in practices like this, but I’m really not sure. Once again, remember that daemons can be highly subtle/deceptive as they co-opt, seduce, and intoxicate you with fantasies of vast power, money, sex, or whatever it is. (Note that I am not suggesting anything inherently ‘wrong’ with power, money, and sex—yet these can function effectively as carrots-on-a-stick.)
Beyond that, I’ve heard of some radical ancient Tantric sects that would practice things like necrophilia as a form of awakening practice / ‘shadow work’ / radical integration of all of existence. As should now be clear, I do not recommend this.
I suppose the most extreme form of shadow work involves actually incarnating in the lifetimes of beings like Hitler, etc. My intuition suggests that on one level, all lifetimes really are my/your lifetimes, and that we all live out all possible lifetimes, in some sense. This highlights the true profundity of ideas of karma, “love your neighbor as yourself,” and “what you do to another, you do to yourself.”
Are these things actually ‘out there’?
This is a question many people likely ask themselves when reading a post like this.
Are entities ‘real’ or are they merely psychological phenomena?
In my view there’s not as much of a difference between ‘real’ and ‘psychological phenomena’ as most people believe.
For me, all of reality is made of the same universal substance. Call it intelligent energy, call it consciousness, call it God-Light, call it what you like.
This universal substance is the indestructible essence of all beings. As such, whatever happens, nothing can actually harm you in your essence.
On a human level though, certainly we can be harmed or terrorized in many ways.
Whether you see daemons as being “objectively out there” or as “primordial energies of the Jungian collective unconscious”…
These are basically the same to me. In either case we’re speaking about extremely powerful primordial energies—energies which can “take over” human beings—energies made of the one universal substance. If I had to choose, I’m probably more inclined to say that these entities are ‘actually out there,’ because for me this better underscores the real gravity of the matter.
(Though ultimately I don’t see reality as having an ‘inside’ or ‘outside,’ it’s all You.)
So, choose your metaphor… in either case, my view is that the subject is highly relevant for (virtually) all humans.
I don’t recommend getting obsessed with this subject.
“Where attention goes, energy flows.”
— James Redfield
I recommend reading my post on the danger of dark rabbit holes, if you haven’t.
This subject of “evil daemons” is one that can very easily become a slippery slope.
You read something like this, click a couple links, search something on YouTube, and next thing you know, you’ve watched like five conspiracy documentaries about the “5-d controller-beings who are enslaving humanity.”
Then, before you know it, you’ve self-hypnotized into an ominous reality-tunnel that isn’t so easy to snap out of.
In my view, a lot of sites give these sorts of subjects too much attention. The one I linked above for their collection of Aurobindo quotes, is one example. I believe they’re pure-hearted people and I love a lot of their content, but I feel they over-fixate on the ‘dark’ and thus condition many of their readers into grim or paranoid reality-tunnels. As such, I unfollowed their Telegram channel and other social media a while back.
And, I know, I know, I literally just wrote two posts in a row on this subject…
In my defense though, I’ve only ever really addressed this subject in passing, never writing anything comprehensive about it, and I do believe it’s important and worthwhile to gain a basic awareness around it.
I’m pretty sure I’ve now said my piece on it and won’t have much more to say on it for the foreseeable future… Let’s see where the chips fall.
Reminder: All Serves the Highest
In my view, if a person does get ‘taken over’ by ‘hostile forces,’ this still ultimately serves the Highest and will end up being a profound teaching for all beings involved—one that serves their evolution.
In my view, even ‘evil daemons’ serve the Highest, though they may not be aware of that.
Nonetheless, I still find it useful to have a basic understanding of ‘daemonic hygiene’ and to not fool around with invoking such things.
If you do feel like you’ve been affected by something like this, take a deep breath, calm down, it’s okay.
As I said in my last post, this is vastly more commonplace than most would believe, in my view. Most everyone in our current civilization is being influenced by these primordial forces, to some extent. Most simply are not conscious of it.
If you feel something unwanted is messing with you, just say some prayers like those I cited above, pray regularly for a few days, then just trust that it’s taken care of, stop reading about it, move on with your life, and pray and invoke the name of “God” periodically.
If there are persistent indicators of something ‘sticky’ that is not easily ‘banished,’ contact myself or others who are more knowledgeable in this space and we may be able to point you in the direction of someone with more experience in handling such things.
Just remember: Nothing can truly deviate from the Divine Plan. All Is Well. You are held. Your essence is Indestructible Light.
Final Recommendation
Anywho, as always, take what is useful and resonant, let go of what isn’t, and add what is uniquely your own.
This is simply one funny monkey’s model of reality, applied to a very tricky domain of inquiry.
My final recommendation is, again, to do your best to radiate Unconditional Love to all of Creation—most notably whatever is appearing in your field of awareness at any given time.
Hold everything that appears in Unconditional Loving Awareness. This is the final medicine that transfigures and harmonizes all things toward the Highest.
Know that God is always with you. The Father-Mother Spirit is your very essence, is forever supporting you, and comes to your aid the moment you simply ask.
Love,
Jordan
JB is integrating, grounding, opening his Heart. Dive deeper by following me on Telegram, Twitter, and/or Instagram.