My great-grandfather cast out a demon — that night, it returned



We never celebrated Halloween. My family were so Protestant that they rejected any ritual or tradition that was not explicitly detailed in the Bible.

Even though we never dressed up as witches and wizards, we believed in demons. You might say it was a requirement of the "family business."

They could hear an axe swing against one pine tree, then another, randomly and drawing nearer. This was punctuated with bursts of maniacal laughter.

My paternal grandfather was a traveling evangelical preacher who had seen and cast out demons. He’d jump on the trampoline with us, and then when we were all exhausted, he’d regale us with tales from the Bible or stories from his youth.

Family tradition

He'd grown up the third of thirteen children. One of his most memorable stories was about his father, a former Pentecostal preacher who also had a talent for ridding people of the demonic.

It happened when my grandfather and his brothers were teenagers. The family had met a middle-aged husband and wife who owned a forested island in Florida. Eventually the woman came to my great-grandfather with a problem: Her husband had demons. Could my great-grandfather help?

He could. My grandfather watched as his father cast out the man's demons.

The axe falls

My grandfather and his brothers camped on the island that night to watch over the couple, who were now friends of the family.

There were four or five of the brothers gathered around a campfire singing gospel songs they’d learned or written and popping corn. Everything was dark except for the fire at their center and the stars above them.

Then chopping soundsinterrupted their singing. It sounded like someone was cutting a tree down somewhere — which was odd, considering that they were on an island that nobody lived on except the middle-aged couple, who were certainly sleeping right now and not chopping anything.

Nevertheless, they started to sing another song.

Sound and fury

The sounds became stranger. They could hear an axe swing against one pine tree, then another, randomly and drawing nearer. This was punctuated with bursts of maniacal laughter.

Whatever it was at first seemed to be several miles away, and then two, and then only one. Now it was a quarter-mile away. The brothers had stopped singing, and they waited until they were sure that the creature — man or evil spirit — was quite close.

The brothers put their heads together and formed a plan to surround it. If it were a trespasser, they’d catch him and tell him he wasn’t allowed to be chopping trees here! They convinced themselves that they were not scared, because God was on their side — and they figured there were more of them and only one of whatever it was.

Spiritual combat

They spread out and closed in around the laughing man, who continued to chop at the trees, coming nearer to them. When they knew the voice was at their very center, they rushed at it. The creature broke into one last, long laugh.

Whoosh! They were all pushed back as something went up out of their midst. Faint laughter rose to the top of the pine trees. It stayed up there for a moment, then fell back to the ground outside their circle.

The sound of the axe chopping at the trees resumed, but this time it began traveling away from them until it faded away. They knew then that it was the demon their father had cast out of the man that day.

They returned to the campfire. Their popcorn was burnt, and they all felt a little unnerved.

In the morning they looked around the forest, but they could find no sign of any tree being cut into. After that, they would see other demons, but that particular devil was never heard from again.

EXORCIST: Is America demonically possessed?



America is undeniably in a state of moral crisis — but does it have anything to do with demonic possession?

While Msgr. Stephen J. Rossetti, a Roman Catholic priest and exorcist in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., doesn’t believe we are possessed as a nation, he does believe Satan’s influence is “getting stronger.”

This is what Rossetti explains as “demonic oppression.”

“Satan’s always been around. So he didn’t disappear,” Rossetti tells Liz Wheeler of “The Liz Wheeler Show.” “Satan seems to be more unmasked today. You know, that sort of hidden presence, he almost seems to be more out front.”

“You see this in many different ways,” he continues. “So I think that we’re really entering a time of spiritual warfare where Satan is burning churches, turning people from the faith, thousands, hundreds of thousands of people practicing witchcraft.”

While Rossetti believes practices like Kundalini yoga are demonic influences, he doesn’t think that people realize what they’re doing.

“You’re making a contract with Satan, whether you realize it or not, and you’re worshipping demons, whether you realize it or not,” he says, adding, “All these people who are practicing these occult things are putting themselves under the sway of Satan.”

On social media platforms like TikTok, there are billions of people watching “WitchTok” videos, which showcase people dabbling in the occult.

“The evil effects are coming to roost,” he says, explaining that one way demonic influences can manifest in human beings is through mental illnesses.

Rossetti, who’s been practicing as a licensed psychologist for 35 years, tells Wheeler that in order to discern whether or not a person is under the influence of demons, he first screens them for psychological problems.

“If it seems like there’s something spiritual going on, then we’ll start to discern, and part of discern is praying over the person. And if they’re really possessed, if the demons possess their bodies, then as we pray over them, eventually, the demons start reacting,” he explains.

“Typically, the person’s personality recedes into the background, the demons come forward, and the first thing they say is, ‘You stupid priest.’”

“It’s not the person's voice, it’s a different voice and obviously a different attitude. And the second thing they’ll say is ‘she’s mine’ or ‘he’s mine,’” Rossetti says. “And then we say, ‘Okay, well, game on. She belongs to Jesus, he belongs to Jesus.’”


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Interview with an exorcist: 'God always takes the first step'



Exorcisms are on the rise.

Of all the symptoms of America's decline, it's one of the least discussed. But it speaks volumes about our country's growing mental health crisis — and inexorable drift into darkness.

"One of the unique things about Christianity is that it's not about our search for God, it's about God's search for us."

As exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis for the last two decades, Father Vincent Lampert has seen it firsthand.

In that time, the number of exorcists in America has grown from about 12 to roughly 125. (There’s no official number, as many exorcists remain anonymous.) Lampert also belongs to the International Association of Exorcists, which comprises 905 priests from nearly 60 countries worldwide.

A growing darkness

When Lampert began, he averaged about 100 inquiries a year regarding possible demonic possessions. Since then, it has climbed to about 1,800.

He recounts some of his harrowing yet faith-bolstering experiences in his 2020 book "Exorcism: The Battle Against Satan and His Demons."

When Lampert took the time to speak to me just before Easter, we began our interview with a blessing. A reminder that, despite his unusual specialization, Lampert remains a parish priest at heart. "Being an exorcist gives me a good balance in rediscovering priesthood as a vocation," he tells me.

Thanks to the distortions of Hollywood, many people don't realize that exorcism is not just a “struggle against Satan that relies on the power of Jesus Christ and the authority of his Church.”

It is also itself a form of prayer and a "ministry of compassion." It's an active devotion to God designed to subvert the evil one’s mission to separate us from our creator.

In Lampert's words, his job is to show "the afflicted the face of God" through an “act of mercy that unleashes God’s love against the attacks of the devil, bringing healing and peace."

Exorcism as a rite is grounded in the Gospels, which offer instructions from Christ himself on how to expel demons, as well as in the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles. Lampert points especially to Mark, with its four accounts of demonic expulsion.

He differentiates between minor exorcisms — a prayer for deliverance, said by anyone — and major exorcisms — official liturgy performed only by priests, trained like Lampert, who have earned special permission.

As a successor to the apostles, the local bishop is the exorcist of his diocese. It’s up to him to “bestow this charism,” or spiritual gift, on a priest. The priest has to remain in his diocese, under the guidance of his bishop.

Fr. Lampert compares the parish priest to a primary care doctor, while an exorcist resembles a highly trained specialist whose services are needed much less often.

Under attack

The job is not without its risks.

“The devil certainly knows those who are working to defeat him,” he tells me in the interview. “Certainly, parish priests are on the front line of that. And then exorcists in the unique role that they play in the life of the church can also be up against really extra attacks by the devil because again he knows that exorcists are working to defeat his plan to bring people into the light of Christ, so he will try to trip us up.”

Exorcisms are free, a service to the world. People who pay for an exorcism, says Fr. Lampert, will likely need one after, even if they didn't before.

Lampert says that most people who contact him have already self-diagnosed themselves or their loved ones, which often fuels hostility if Lampert determines that they are not afflicted.

The afflicted aren’t only Catholics. It also includes people from every faith and religion, including those with no belief at all.

Lampert began his role as exorcist seemingly by fate, filling the role after the previous exorcist (coincidentally a childhood friend) died. The archbishop delivered the news without blinking: The young priest was headed to Rome to study the rite of exorcism.

He had concluded that Lampert had a suitable mindset for the role — an awareness of the ubiquity of evil combined with a healthy skepticism. Also key was that Lampert didn't want the job.

In their final visit before the archbishop died of cancer, the archbishop playfully apologized to Lampert for placing him in the role.

In Rome, Lampert studied under a veteran priest who wasted no time in throwing his charge into the deep end.

Lampert bemoans the rise of individualism packaged as freedom. He stresses that it is obedience that sets a person free; there is no freedom without God. As John writes, “To all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God.”

Letting the light in

Adds Lampert: “I would say to people that the devil's like a cockroach. And if you go into a room where the light's off and you flip a light on and there's bugs in the room, they're going to scurry for every crack and crevice that they can find. And when the church in the ministry of exorcism turns the light of Christ on in the lives of these people who have been deceived by the evil one, then the devil, like a cockroach, is going to scurry back into the darkness.”

The first action for Catholics who believe they’re afflicted is to go to confession: “When we confess our sins, we place them in the hands of God, and once we have given them to God, the devil may no longer use them against us.”

But if that isn’t enough, it’s time for an exorcist, who becomes an instrument of God’s power.

“I think one of the unique things about Christianity is that it's not about our search for God, but it's about God's search for us. So, anytime the human person is lost, God always takes the first step. Think of Adam and Eve in the garden after they had sinned. God moves to the garden and says to Adam, 'Where are you?'”

Lampert is a man clearly devoted to this vocation. His easygoing charm and humor contrasts with the heaviness of our subject matter.

That said, he's quick to point out that the work can be “spiritually, mentally, and physically draining.” It demands a training regime: a total devotion to prayer, fasting, confession, and worship.

Recovery sometimes requires special measures. One of Lampert's first assignments took a year until the demon was finally cast out. People hearing this story often want to know what Lampert did next — celebrate mass? Do a holy hour?

Not quite. Lampert headed to the nearest Dairy Queen for a large chocolate shake.

"It was a very hot day here in Indiana," Lampert says. "It was crowded. And I said to myself, 'If these people knew where I just came from, I would be like Moses parting the Red Sea because they couldn't get away from me fast enough.'"

Assessing The Legacy Of ‘The Exorcist’ 50 Years Later

Nat Segaloff’s The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear makes the case that, half a century later, Hollywood still hasn't made a scarier film.

Jason Whitlock calls for EXORCISM after female rapper's SHOCKING lyrics  glorify abortion



Jason Whitlock found himself momentarily speechless after hearing lyrics from female rapper TNFW Nique's song – “BDF (FNF REMIX).” PDF, an acronym for Baby Daddy Free, is a song about abortion or, as the rapper honestly described it, "murder."

In the video, TNFW Nique appears in front of a Planned Parenthood and showers a paper currency over a dancer who is twerking her little heart out. The song spells out the word ABORT in the chorus.

Jason Whitlock told his audience that the devil has a hold on us, and that the abortion song featured in the video below proves that America desperately needs salvation.

The female rapper's lyrics paint a dark portrait of a 25-year-old woman, saying she has murder on her mind and that she is glad she is "baby daddy-free." Jason asserted that "we need an exorcism" and described rap culture as being in the clutches of satan

Listen to the podcast here.




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'He walked up the wall': The modern demon possession case that rocked the world



"He walked up the wall, flipped over ... and stood there." And if that's not strange enough, another eyewitness description proclaimed that a little boy from Indiana "glided backward on the floor, wall and ceiling."

I remember reading those words in a strange state of shock and wonder. How in the world did a little boy allegedly walk up a wall? I wondered. And why was a mainstream outlet like the Indianapolis Star covering such a bizarre story?

I had a slew of immediate questions about the 2014 story that had come out of Gary, Indiana, about a so-called demon house that was filled with terrifying tales, but the claim about a little boy walking up a wall was the hands-down, most offbeat detail amid the plethora of strange phenomena surrounding Latoya Ammons and her family.

It's just one of the compelling stories I tell in my new book, "Playing With Fire: A Modern Investigation Into Demons, Exorcisms and Ghosts."

FormerStar journalist Marisa Kwiatkowski opened her now famous 2014 article on the Ammons case titled "The Exorcisms of Latoya Ammons" by reporting that Ammons and her three children "claimed to be possessed by demons."

The lede was anything but buried, as there were many elements that boldly distinguished the story from other paranormal claims. Among the intriguing facets was the series of prominent people — including a family case manager, a nurse, and veteran police captains — who all seemed to corroborate various pieces of the bizarre puzzle.

So, what exactly unfolded in Ammons's Gary, Indiana, home? According to her own media account, Ammons said she and her family began experiencing strange phenomena just one month after moving into the rental home.

It was December 2011 when large black flies reportedly started swarming the family's porch, coming back again and again even after they were killed. Ammons and her mother, Rosa Campbell, told the Star that they also started hearing footsteps coming up from the basement every night — and that it sounded as though the door was repeatedly creaking open.

By March 2012 — just four months after moving into the home — the strangeness kicked up a notch. Campbell told Kwiatkowski about a night when the family found one of Ammons's children unconscious and levitating. Overwhelmed by the events unfolding in the home, the family sought the help of clairvoyants and local churches.

They purportedly burned sage, drew crosses on the hands and feet of the children using olive oil, and attempted various acts recommended to them in an effort to rid the home of the supernatural forces they believed were infesting it.

None of this worked, though, with the family claiming that their problems only worsened. Ammons and her three kids (at the time aged 7, 9, and 12) all reported experiencing what they described as "possession," with the purported effects reading like a horror novel.

Ammons and Campbell reportedly told Kwiatkowski that "the kids' eyes bulged, evil smiles crossed their faces, and their voices deepened every time it happened." Additionally, the 7-year-old reportedly spoke to another child whom no one else could see.

Ammons soon turned to her children's doctor for help. Her kids' bizarre behavior while in the doctor's office teamed with the family's claims of paranormal activity led medical professionals to call emergency services. "Twenty years, and I've never heard anything like that in my life," Dr. Geoffrey Onyeukwu, the physician involved in the incident, told the Star. "I was scared myself when I walked into the room."

An official report details what some medical professionals claimed to have witnessed. The document reads, in part: "Medical staff reported that while the children were at their primary doctor's office the medical staff reported they observed [one of the children] be lifted and thrown into the wall with nobody touching him."

Still, not everyone was convinced something supernatural was at play. In the midst of that chaos, a skeptical individual reportedly called the Department of Child Services to file a complaint, which sparked an investigation into Ammons's mental state (an evaluation by a hospital psychological found "there were no concerns about her mental stability at this time").

That's when DCS case manager Valerie Washington entered the picture — and reportedly saw much of the bizarre behavior for herself. Washington's own account of her interaction with the family included seeing the seven-year-old boy's eyes roll back in his head and watching him growl. At one point, the boy reportedly said the following to his brother, "speaking in a different deep voice": "It's time to die. I will kill you."

This brings us to that pivotal point in the story: the claim that the boy walked up a wall. Washington's official DCS report — an account reportedly backed by Willie Lee Walker, a registered nurse who was in the room, says the following about the encounter with the family: "Child became aggressive and walked up the wall as if he was walking on the floor and did a flip over the grandmother. The episode was witnessed by the psych counselor and DCS worker FCM Washington."

This is a strange line to include in government documentation, but it's an account Walker later confirmed to Kwiatkowski, telling the reporter that the boy "walked up the wall, flipped over and stood there." The nurse added, "There's no way he could've done that."

Washington later indicated that the situation profoundly impacted her. "It's taken me a while to move past that," she said of her claim of seeing the boy walk up the wall. "I believe that it was something going on there that was out of the realm of a normal living person."

As I cover in "Playing With Fire," other compelling sources have corroborated these elements, among many others.

Despite the fact that some psychologists and skeptics have reportedly felt the story was inauthentic and had more rational roots, the compelling details and unwavering witness testimony had enough legs for mainstream media and the public at large to at least entertain what was claimed, and that's notable.

Regardless of where you stand on stories like this, there are two essential realities we must remember. The first is found in Ephesians 6:11: "Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." This means holding close to the Christian faith, which translates into daily prayer and a healthy relationship with God.

There's one other reality, though, that is found in the subsequent verse (12): "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

It's easy to forget that there's a spiritual battle raging — but a failure to acknowledge this reality can prove dangerous. Still, there's hope. Yes, there's a spiritual battle, but there's also a solution that is freely available: Christ. Explore these realities more in "Playing with Fire: A Modern Investigation into Demons, Exorcism, and Ghosts."

Excerpted from PLAYING WITH FIRE: A MODERN INVESTIGATION INTO DEMONS, EXORCISM, AND GHOSTS. Copyright © 2020 by Billy Hallowell. Published by Emanate Books, a division of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.

What Should Christians Think About Demons, Exorcism, And Ghosts?

What Should Christians Think About Demons, Exorcism, And Ghosts?

Author Billy Hallowell joins the Federalist Radio Hour to discuss his reporting on demons and the supernatural world from a biblical perspective.

Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with woman who was in and out of mental hospitals. Then a stranger performed an exorcism: 'I could see the demons'



An Arkansas woman with no history of mental illness said she suddenly found herself in deep emotional turmoil in 2006, with doctors unable to diagnose her rapidly deteriorating condition.

Within months, overtaken by suicidal thoughts, Amy plunged from a second-story window, was paralyzed and nearly died.

Now, she's speaking out, explaining that she believes she experienced a dramatic demonic possession — and healing. Her experience is told in detail in the new book, "Playing with Fire: A Modern Investigation into Demons, Exorcism, and Ghosts."

"I've never had any kind of mental problems, never been on medication for anything like that," Amy said in a recent interview, noting that, within days of her affliction, she went from a successful nurse to a person who couldn't think clearly.

Listen to Amy share her story on "The Edifi Podcast With Billy Hallowell" at the 42-minute mark:

Amy's personal drama unfolded one day while she was working at a hospital and dealing with a burn patient who had survived an explosion.

"While I was in the ER giving [a] report, something wasn't right with me," she recalled. "I went upstairs to do my chart and it's like my mind went out the window."

Amy wondered what was unfolding; the mental duress continued to afflict her when she later went for a run and was unable to jog in a straight line.

"I told my husband, 'I think I'm having a nervous breakdown. My mind is not right,'" she said.

As "Playing With Fire" explains, doctors put Amy on antidepressants, but she said the drugs did nothing to curb her problems — and the situation further devolved.

"They ended up putting me in a psychiatric hospital," she said, "And the psychiatrist said, 'We don't know what we're dealing with. We've never seen anything like this.'"

As time went on, Amy was in and out of hospitals, with suicidal thoughts suddenly overtaking her mind and heart.

"Nobody knew what was going on. And this happened in April and through the summer," she said. "I was so messed up. I wanted to kill myself and I just could not think how to do it."

One day Amy found herself sitting in a second-floor window sill at her home, as thoughts of death once again flooded her mind.

"I was sitting in the window and I thought to myself, 'If I fall out of this window, I bet I'll die, because it's so far down and it's a brick patio,'" she said. "So, I fell out of the window."

Amy said she doesn't remember much of what unfolded next, as she landed on her head on the hard patio two stories below.

"Any person in their right mind — if you're falling you're going to brace yourself … that's a normal reflex," she said. "My legs and arms were not broken. I did not brace myself."

The impact of the fall was sweeping, with Amy breaking the majority of her ribs, puncturing her lungs and breaking her back in three places; 14 years later, she is still paralyzed.

"They didn't think I was going to survive," she said.

But while Amy lay in her hospital bed recovering, a stranger named Cindy felt compelled to visit. While there, Cindy performed what some Christians call a "deliverance" (similar to an exorcism).

"She felt really led to come see me," Amy said. "[She] said when they got there I looked at her and I had a male voice come out of my mouth saying, 'What are you doing here?'"

Amy believes Cindy cast a demon out, and that her life was transformed as a result.

For her part, Cindy has also openly spoken about the experience.

"I could see the demons," she told KATV-TV last year, noting that she uttered a simple command in that hospital room: "Lord, in the name of Jesus, I command that these demons release her and come out of her and that she comes to her right mind, in Jesus' name."

In the end, Amy believes she was healed.

"My family saw a difference and they were thinking, 'Something's better,'" she said, noting, though, that there are still mysteries surrounding her story.

Mainly: Amy, who was a churchgoer before the incident, isn't sure why she was afflicted. Regardless, she is now much closer to God, and is encouraging others to cling to their faith.

"It's brought me so much closer to God and to know that his love for me. It wasn't him that did that — of course, it was the enemy," she said. "God's love is amazing. Seek the Lord with all of your heart."

For more stories like Amy's be sure to read "Playing with Fire: A Modern Investigation into Demons, Exorcism, and Ghosts," a book that dives deep — through a journalistic and Christian lens — into the cultural discussion about spiritual warfare, demons, exorcism in the Bible and other related topics.