Demon
In
religion,
folklore, and
mythology a
demon is a
supernatural being that has generally been described as a malevolent
spirit. A demon is frequently depicted as a force that may be
conjured and insecurely
controlled. The "good" demon in recent use is largely a literary device (e.g.,
Maxwell's demon). In common language, to "demonize" a person means to cast aspersions on them.
Most scholars acknowledge that
Judeo-Christianity owes a great debt to
Zoroastrianism in regards to the introduction of
angelology and
demonology, as well as
Satan (
Ahriman) as the ultimate agent of evil. As the
Iranian Avestan and
Vedic traditions as well as other branches of
Indo-European mythologies show, the notion of 'demons' has existed for many centuries.
Ancient Egyptians also believed in demonic monsters that might devour living souls while they traveled towards the afterlife, although demons per se did not exist in Ancient Egyptian belief.
The
Greek conception of a
daemon (δαίμων
daímon) appears in the works of
Plato and many other ancient authors, but without the evil connotations which are apparent in the
Septuagint translation of the
Hebrew Bible and in the Greek originals of the
New Testament. The
medieval and neo-medieval conception of a "demon" in Western civilization (see the Medieval
grimoire called the
Ars Goetia) derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late (Roman) Antiquity: Greco-Roman concepts of
daemons that passed into Christian culture are discussed in the entry
daemon, though it should be duly noted that the term referred only to a spiritual force, not a malevolent supernatural being. The Hellenistic "daemon" eventually came to include many Semitic and Near Eastern gods as evaluated by Christianity.
The supposed existence of demons is an important concept in many modern religions and occultist traditions. In some present-day cultures, demons are still feared in popular
superstition, largely due to their alleged power to
possess living creatures.
In the contemporary Western occultist tradition (perhaps epitomized by the work of
Aleister Crowley), a demon, such as
Choronzon, the "Demon of the Abyss", is a useful metaphor for certain inner psychological processes, though some may also regard it as an objectively real phenomenon.
The idea of demons is as old as religion itself, and the word
demon seems to have ancient origins. The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the etymology of the word as Greek
daimon, probably from the verb
daiesthai meaning "to divide, distribute." The
Proto-Indo-European root
*deiwos for god, originally an adjective meaning "
celestial" or "bright, shining" has retained this meaning in many related
Indo-European languages and
cultures (Sanskrit
deva, Latin deus, German
Tiw), but also provided another other common word for demon in Avestan
daevaIn
modern Greek, the word
δαίμων has the same meaning as the modern
English demon. But in
Ancient Greek,
δαίμων meant "spirit" or "
higher self", much like the
Latin genius, which is the source of the word
genie.
Demons as described in the
Tanakh are not the same as "demons" commonly known in popular or Christian culture.
The demons mentioned in the
Hebrew Bible are of two classes, the
se'irim and the
shedim. The
se'irim ("hairy beings"), to which some
Israelites offered sacrifices in the open fields, are
satyr-like creatures, described as dancing in the wilderness (Isaiah 13:21, 34:14), and which are identical with the
jinn, such as
Dantalian, the 71st spirit of Solomon. (But compare the completely European
woodwose.) Possibly to the same class belongs
Azazel, the goat-like demons of the wilderness (Leviticus 16:10ff), probably the chief of the
se'irim, and
Lilith (Isaiah 34:14). Possibly "the roes and hinds of the field", by which Shulamit conjures the daughters of Jerusalem to bring her back to her lover (Canticles 2:7, 3:5), are
faunlike spirits similar to the
se'irim, though of a harmless nature.
The "stones of the field" (Job v. 23), with which the righteous are said to be in league, seem to be field-demons of the same nature. The wilderness as the home of demons was regarded as the place whence such diseases as
leprosy issued, and in cases of leprosy one of the birds set apart to be offered as an expiatory sacrifice was released, that it might carry the disease back to the desert (Leviticus 14:7, 52).
The evil spirit that troubled
Saul (I Samuel 16:14 et seq.) may have been a demon, though the
Masoretic text suggests the spirit was sent by God.
Some benevolent
shedim were used in kabbalistic ceremonies (as with the golem of Rabbi Yehuda Loevy), and malevolent shedim (
mazikin, from the root meaning to wound) are often responsible in instances of possession. Instances of idol worship were often the result of a
shed inhabiting an otherwise worthless statue; the shed would pretend to be a God with the power to send pestilence, although such events were not actually under his control.
Influences from Chaldean mythology
In
Chaldean mythology the seven evil deities were known as
shedu, meaning storm-demons. They were represented in
winged bull form, derived from the colossal bulls used as protective genii of royal palaces, the name "shed" assumed also the meaning of a propitious genius in
Babylonian magic literature (see Delitzsch,
Assyrisches Handwörterbuch. pp. 60, 253, 261, 646; Jensen,
Assyr.-Babyl. Mythen und Epen, 1900, p. 453;
Archibald Sayce, l.c. pp. 441, 450, 463;
Lenormant, l.c. pp. 48-51).
It was from Chaldea that the name "shedu" came to the Israelites, and so the writers of the Tanach applied the word as a dylogism to the Canaanite deities in the two passages quoted. But they also spoke of "the destroyer" (Exodus xii. 23) as a demon whose malignant effect upon the houses of the Israelites was to be warded off by the blood of the paschal sacrifice sprinkled upon the lintel and the door-post (a corresponding pagan talisman is mentioned in Isaiah lvii. 8). In II Samuel xxiv; 16 and II Chronicles xxi. 15 the pestilence-dealing demon is called "the destroying angel" (compare "the angel of the Lord" in II Kings xix. 35; Isaiah xxxvii. 36), because, although they are demons, these "evil messengers" (Psalms lxxviii. 49; A. V. "evil angels") do only the bidding of God; they are the agents of His divine wrath.
There are indications that popular Hebrew mythology ascribed to the demons a certain independence, a malevolent character of their own, because they are believed to come forth, not from the heavenly abode of God, but from the nether world (compare Isaiah xxxviii. 11 with Job xiv. 13; Psalms xvi. 10, xlix. 16, cxxxix. 8).
Rabbinical demonology has three classes of, demons, though they are scarcely separable one from another. There were the
shedim, the ("harmers"), and the
' ("evil spirits"). Besides these there were lilin ("night spirits"), ' ("shade", or "evening spirits"),
' ("midday spirits"), and ' ("morning spirits"), as well as the "demons that bring famine" and "such as cause storm and earthquake" (Targ. Yer. to Deuteronomy xxxii. 24 and Numbers vi. 24; Targ. to Cant. iii. 8, iv. 6; Eccl. ii. 5; Ps. xci. 5, 6.)
Hebrew demons were workers of harm. To them were ascribed the various diseases, particularly such as affect the brain and the inner parts. Hence there was a fear of "Shabriri" (lit. "dazzling glare"), the demon of blindness, who rests on uncovered water at night and strikes those with blindness who drink of it (Pesachim 112a; Avodah Zarah 12b); also mentioned were the spirit of catalepsy and the spirit of headache, the demon of epilepsy, and the spirit of nightmare,
These demons were supposed to enter the body and cause the disease while overwhelming or "seizing" the victim (hence "seizure").. To cure such diseases it was necessary to draw out the evil demons by certain incantations and talismanic performances, in which the
Essenes excelled.
Josephus, who speaks of demons as "spirits of the wicked which enter into men that are alive and kill them", but which can be driven out by a certain root (
Bellum Judaeorum vii. 6, § 3), witnessed such a performance in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian ("Antiquities" viii. 2, § 5), and ascribed its origin to
King Solomon.
The King and Queen of Demons
In some rabbinic sources, the demons were believed to be under the dominion of a king or chief, either
Asmodai (Targ. to Eccl. i. 13; Pes. 110a; Yer. Shek. 49b) or, in the older
Haggadah,
Samael ("the angel of death"), who kills by his deadly poison, and is called "chief of the devils". Occasionally a demon is called "
satan": "Stand not in the way of an ox when coming from the pasture, for Satan dances between his horns" (Pes. 112b; compare B. Ḳ. 21a).
According to
Zoroastrianism, the queen of demons is
Lilith, pictured with wings and long flowing hair, and called the "mother of
Ahriman" (B. B. 73b; 'Er. 100b; Nid. 24b). "When Adam, doing penance for his sin, separated from Eve for 130 years, he, by impure desire, caused the earth to be filled with demons, or shedim, lilin, and evil spirits" (Gen. R. xx.; 'Er. 18b.)
Though the belief in demons was greatly encouraged and enlarged in
Babylonia under the influence of the
Zoroastrianism that was the religion of the
Persian Empire (
Parsee) notions, demonology never became an essential feature of Jewish theology. The reality of demons was never questioned by the
Talmudists and late rabbis; most accepted their existence as a fact. Nor did most of the medieval thinkers question their reality. Only rationalists like
Maimonides and
Abraham ibn Ezra, clearly denied their existence. Their point of view eventually became the mainstream Jewish understanding.
"Demon" has a number of meanings, all related to the idea of a spirit that inhabited a place, or that accompanied a person. Whether such a
daemon was benevolent or malevolent, the Greek word meant something different from the later medieval notions of 'demon', and scholars debate the time in which first century usage by
Jews and
Christians in its original Greek sense became transformed to the later medieval sense.
In the
Gospel of Mark, Jesus casts out many demons, or evil spirits, from those who are afflicted with various ailments (such as epileptic seizures). The imagery is very clear: Jesus is far superior to the power of demons over the beings that they inhabit, and he is able to free these victims by commanding and casting out the demons, by binding them, and forbidding them to return.
By way of contrast, in the book of
Acts a group of Judaistic exorcists known as the sons of Sceva try to cast out a very powerful spirit without believing in or knowing Jesus , but fail with disastrous consequences. However Jesus himself never fails to vanquish a demon, no matter how powerful (see the account of the demon-possessed man at Gerasim), and even defeats Satan in the wilderness (see
Matthew).
There is a description in the
Book of Revelation 12:7-17 of a battle between God's army and Satan's followers, and their subsequent expulsion from Heaven to earth to persecute humans — although this event is related as being foretold and taking place in the future. In
Luke 10:18 it is mentioned that a power granted by Jesus to control demons made Satan "fall like lightning from heaven."
Augustine of Hippo's reading of
Plotinus, in
The City of God (ch.11) is ambiguous as to whether
daemons had become 'demonized' by the early 5th century:
"He (Plotinus) also states that the blessed are called in Greek
eudaimones, because they are good souls, that is to say, good demons, confirming his opinion that the souls of men are demons."—
City of God, ch. 11.—
Of the Opinion of the Platonists, that the Souls of Men Become Demons When Disembodied.
If Augustine meant 'demons' in the later, medieval sense, the passage would savor of a rhetorical casuistry that is not characteristic of him.
The contemporary Roman Catholic Church unequivocally teaches that angels and demons are real personal beings, not just symbolic devices. The Catholic Church has a cadre of officially sanctioned exorcists which perform many
exorcisms each year. The exorcists of the Catholic Church teach that demons attack humans continually but that afflicted persons can be effectively healed and protected either by the formal rite of exorcism, authorized to be performed only by bishops and those they designate, or by prayers of deliverance which any Christian can offer for themselves or others [
1]
Building upon the few references to
daemons in the New Testament, especially the visionary poetry of the
Apocalypse of John, Christian writers of
apocrypha from the 2nd century onwards created a more complicated tapestry of beliefs about "demons" that was largely independent of Christian scripture.
According to
Christianity, when God created
angels, he offered them the same choice he was to offer humanity: follow, or be cast apart from him. Some angels chose not to follow God, instead choosing the path of evil. These are not the
fallen angels, but are the pre-human entities known as demons. The fallen angels are the host of
angels who later rebelled against God, headed by Lucifer (who is often confused with his second in command, Satan). And later the 200 angels known as the Grigori, led by
Semyazza,
Azazel and other angelic chiefs, some of whom became the demons that were conjured by King
Solomon and imprisoned in the brass vessel, the
Goetia demons, descended to
Earth and cohabited with the daughters of men.
War in Heaven
According to tradition, the fall of Satan is portrayed in
Ezekiel 28:12-19 and
Isaiah 14:12-14. Christian teachings builds upon later Jewish traditions that Satan and his host declared war with God, but that God's army, commanded by the archangel
Michael, defeated the rebels. Their defeat was never in question, since God is by nature
omnipotent, but Michael was given the honor of victory in the natural order; thus the rise of Christian veneration of the archangel Michael, beginning at
Monte Gargano in 493, reflects the full incorporation of demons into Christianity. God then cast his enemies from
Heaven to the
abyss, into a newly created prison called
Hell (allusions to such a pit are made in the
Book of Revelation, as pits of sulphur and fire) where all his enemies should be sentenced to an eternal existence of pain and misery. This pain is not all physical; for their crimes, these angels, now called demons, would be deprived of the sight of God (
2 Thessalonians 1:9), this being the worst possible punishment.
An indefinite time later (some biblical scholars believe that the angels fell sometime after the creation of living things). when God created the
earth and
life, Satan and the other demons were allowed to tempt humans or induce them to
sin by other means. The first time Satan did this was as a serpent in the earthly paradise or
Garden of Eden to tempt
Eve, who subsequently drew her husband
Adam into her crime. There is a theory that the serpent that tempted Eve was not actually Satan but a minor demon named Cerenus. The theory states that Cerenus made a deal with God to tempt Eve in exchange for liberation from the pit, this theory is of course not based in fact nor does it have any scriptual relevance. Due to man's failure, as part of the punishment, the permission granted to Satan and his demons to tempt the first humans away from their Creator will now last until the end of this age when Christ shall return for the battle of Armageddon. Satan and his host will be confined and Christ shall reign and establish 1000 years of peace upon the earth. At the end of the 1000 years Satan will again be unleashed for a final battle after which the earth shall be renewed by fire.
Demonologies
At various times in Christian history, attempts have been made to classify these beings according to various proposed
demonic hierarchies.
According to most
Christian demonology demons will be eternally punished and never reconciled with God. Other theories postulate a
Universal reconciliation, in which Satan, the fallen angels, and the souls of the dead that were condemned to Hell are reconciled with God. This doctrine is today often associated with the
Unification Church.
Origen,
Jerome and
Gregory of Nyssa also mentioned this possibility before it was generally accepted that the fallen state is eternal.
In contemporary
Christianity, demons are generally considered to be
angels who fell from grace by rebelling against
God. Some contest however that this view, championed by
Origen,
Augustine and
John Chrysostom, arose during the
6th century. Another theory that may have preceded or co-existed with the hypothesis of fallen angels was that demons were ostracized from Heaven for the primary sin of mating with mortal women, giving rise to a race of half-human giants known as the
Nephilim.
There are still others who say that the sin of the angels was pride and disobedience. It seems quite certain that these were the sins that caused Satan's downfall (Ezek. 28). If this be the true view then we are to understand the words, "estate" or "principality" in Deuteronomy 32:8 and Jude 6 ("And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.") as indicating that instead of being satisfied with the dignity once for all assigned to them under the Son of God, they aspired higher.
Pre-Islamic mythology does not discriminate between gods and demons. The
jinn are considered as divinities of inferior rank, having many human attributes: they eat, drink, and procreate their kind, sometimes in conjunction with human beings; in which latter case the offspring shares the natures of both parents. The jinn smell and lick things, and have a liking for remnants of food. In eating they use the left hand. Usually they haunt waste and deserted places, especially the thickets where wild beasts gather. Cemeteries and dirty places are also favorite abodes. In appearing to man djinn assume sometimes the forms of beasts and sometimes those of men; but they always have some animal characteristic, such as a paw in place of a hand (Darimi, "Kitab al-Sunnah", ii. 213). Eccentric movements of the dust-whirlwind ("zawabi'") are taken to be the visible signs of a battle between two clans of jinn.
Generally jinn are peaceable and well disposed toward men. Many a pre-Islamic poet was believed to have been inspired by good jinn; and Muhammad himself was accused by his adversaries of having been inspired by jinn ("majnun"). But there are also evil jinn, who contrive to injure men. Among these are specially conspicuous the three female demons named "
Ghulah" (corresponding to the Talmudic
Lilith), "Si'lat", and "'Aluḳ" or "'Aulaḳ", and the four male demons "Afrit", "Azbab", "Aziab", and "Ezb". Ghulah is especially harmful to new-born children, and in order to keep her away their heads are rubbed with the gum of an acacia.
Islam recognizes the existence of the jinn. Jinns are not the genies of modern lore, and they are not all evil, as demons are described in Christianity, but as creatures that co-exist with humans.
In
Islam the evil jinns are referred to as the
shayātīn, or devils, and
Iblis (Satan) is their chief. Iblis was the first Jinn. According to
Islam, the jinn are made of smokeless flame of fire (and mankind is made of clay.)
According to the
Qur'an, Iblis was once a pious servant of God, but when God created
Adam from clay, Iblis became very jealous and disobeyed God.
Adam was the first man, and man was the greatest creation of God. Iblis could not stand this, and refused to aknowledge a creature made of "dirt" (man). God condemned Iblis to be punished after death eternally in the
hellfire. God had created
hell.
Iblis asked God if he may live to the last day and have the ability to mislead mankind and jinns, God said that Iblis may only mislead those whom God lets him. God then turned Iblis's countenance into horridness and condemned him to only have powers of trickery.
Adam and
Eve (Hawwa in Arabic) were both together misled by Iblis into eating the
forbidden fruit, and consequently fell from the
garden of Eden to
Earth.
The word
genie comes from the Arabic
jinn. This is not surprising considering the story of `Alā' ad-Dīn, (anglicized as
Aladdin), passed through Arabian merchants en route to Europe.
There are three kinds of anthromorphic beings, the
devas (demigods), the
manushyas (human beings) and the
asuras (demons). The asuras live in Patala above
Naraka (
Hell), one of the three Lokas (worlds, dimensions of existence). The Patala loka exists below Bhu(r)loka (which includes
Earth where humans live). The asuras are often ugly creatures.
Puranas describe many cosmic battles between asuras and devas for supremacy.
Originally, the word
Asura in the earliest hymns of the
Rig Veda (the holy book of the Indo-Aryans) meant any supernatural spirit"good or bad. Hence even some of the devas (demigods), especially
Varuna, have the epithet of Asura. In fact, since the /s/ of the Indic linguistic branch is cognate with the /h/ of the Early Iranian languages, the word Asura, representing a category of celestial beings, became the word
Ahura (Mazda), the Supreme God of the monotheistic
Zoroastrians. But very soon, among the Indo-Aryans, Asura came to exclusively mean any of a race of anthromorphic but hideous demons. All words such as Asura,
Daitya (lit., sons of the demon-mother "Diti"), Rakshasa (lit. from "harm to be guarded against") are translated into English as
demon. These demons are inherently evil are in a constant battle against the demigods. Hence in Hindu iconography, the gods / demigods are shown to carry weapons to kill the asuras. However, unlike Christianity, the demons are not the cause of the evil and unhappiness in present mankind (which occurs on the account of ignorance from recognizing one's true self). In later Puranic mythology, exceptions do occur in the demonic race to produce god-fearing Asuras like
Prahalada. Also, many Asuras are said to have been granted boons from one of the members of the Hindu
trinity, viz.,
Brahma,
Vishnu and
Shiva when the latter had been appeased from penances. All Asuras, unlike the devas, are said to be mortals (though they vehemently wish to become immortal). Many people metaphorically interpret these demons as manifestations of the ignoble passions in human mind.
On the account of the Hindu theory of reincarnation and transmigration of souls according to one's
Karma, other kinds of demons can also be enlisted. If a human does extremely horrible and sinful karmas in his life, his soul (
Atman) will, upon his death, directly turn into an evil ghostly spirit, many kinds of which are recognized in the later Hindu texts. These demons could be vampire-like beings (pishacha or nar-pishacha), animate corpses (vetala), ghosts (pretatma), etc, which can "possess" human beings. See a
Tour of Vedic universe.
Demons are found in many
religions, and many cultures have developed a rich mythology of demons. The study of demons is called
demonology, while the worship of demons is known as
demonolatry.
In
Buddhism the word
demon is rarely used as an English translation for
Asura, or more commonly for one of the servants of
Yama who torment the beings in the hellish Buddhist
Narakas.
In
Japanese folklore, demons (
Yokai), are not necessarily evil or even anthropomorphic, but range from the evil
oni (devils) to the erotic mienaishujin (unseen or invisible masters), and to the mischievous
kitsune (fox-spirits). The word demon is often specifically chosen by the Japanese producers of
anime and
computer games as a translation of some other Japanese concepts as well.
In Chinese folklore, there are many animal spirits capable of transforming themselves into often beautiful human forms through magic [such as fox-spirits (hulijing), tiger-spirits (laohujing), and butterfly-spirits (hudiejing)]. In some cases, objects can absorbe the life-force of their human owners through long use and emotion attachment, such as in the case of beloved instruments (pipa-spirits: pipajing ）. There are also demons which retain a half-animal, half-human form （horse-face: malian, cow-head: niutou ). Demons of this type are for the most part denizens of the underworld, who serve the judges of the dead. As such, they are not malevolent being in themselves, though they are grotesque and are supposed to inspire fear in those dead souls who meet them.
French romance writer
Jacques Cazotte (1719-1792) in
The Devil in Love (Le Diable Amoureux, 1772) tells of a demon, or devil, who falls in love with an amateur human dabbler in the occult, and attempts, in the guise of a young woman, to win his affections.The book served as inspiration for, and is referred to within, Spanish author
Arturo Perez-Reverte's novel
The Club Dumas (El Club Dumas, 1993).
Roman Polanski's 1999 adaptation of the novel,
The Ninth Gate, stars
Johnny Depp as rare book dealer Dean Corso. Corso is hired to compare versions of a book allegedly authored in league with the Devil, and finds himself aided by a demon, in the form of a young woman, in his adventure.
In
Mikhail Lermontov's long poem (1840), the Demon makes love to the virgin Tamara in a scenic setting of the Causcaus
mountains.Many classic books and plays feature demons, such as the
Divine Comedy,
Paradise Lost and
Faust.
Anton Rubinstein's lushly chromatic
opera The Demon (1875), based on the poem "The Demon" by
Lermontov, was delayed in its production because the censor attached to the
Mariinsky Theatre felt that the libretto was sacrilegious [
2]. Notably, its aria "Do not weep, child" was used by any bass.
In
C. S. Lewis's
The Screwtape Letters a senior demon in Hell's hierarchy writes a series of letters to his subordinate trainee, Wormwood, offering advice in the techniques of temptation of humans. Though fictional, it offers a plausible contemporary Christian viewpoint of the relationship of humans and demons.
Demons have permeated the culture of children's animated television series; they are used in
comic books as powerful adversaries in the
horror,
fantasy and
superhero stories. There are a handful of demons who fight for good for their own reasons like
DC Comics'
The Demon,
Dark Horse Comics'
Hellboy, and
Marvel Comics'
Ghost Rider.
In
Philip Pullman's
His Dark Materials trilogy,
dæmons are the physical incarnation of a person's soul. Although they bear almost no resemblance to Christian demons, the word is pronounced the same.
In recent times, Fr.
Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist at the Vatican, has published two books on his experiences with Satan and demons entitled
An Exorcist Tells His Story, and
An Exorcist: More Stories published by Ignatius Press.
In the various books of Skeeve and Aahz by
Robert Asprin a Demon is short for Dimension Traveller. In world A you would see beings from world B as demons, however, should you leave world A and go to world B, you would be the demon to the locals.
In
Darren Shan's
The Demonata series, the main antagonist, Lord Loss, is a Demon Master, and every enemy to appear is a demon.
Scientists occasionally invent hypothetical entities with special abilities as part of a
thought experiment. These "demons" have abilities that are nearly limitless, but they are still subject to the
physical laws being theorized about.
For example, in
Descartes' Second Meditation, it is argued, as a thought experiment, that it is at least possible that there is an all-powerful evil demon who is deceiving me, such that this demon causes me to have false beliefs, including the belief that there is an object before me and the belief that two plus three equals five. Note that the power of such a demon would be two-fold: both empirical and rational thinking can be completely compromised. This leads to a worrisome argument:
# One knows some fact or other only when one can rule out that there is such a demon. # But one can never be in a position rule out that there is such a being, since we can never be sure that the demon isn't merely toying with our epistemic situation. # Thus, we can never know any facts at all!
The earliest connection of the word with games is that the British call a form of
solitaire "Demon", from at least the
nineteenth century. The selection of this word comes from the observance of a player by others. Formerly, adults nearly always bet on card games. As the player is turned from interaction with others and is forced to move cards around without feeling, the player is metaphorically considered possessed by a demon.
It has been asserted by conservative religious groups that demons communicate with humans through the use of a
Ouija board and that demonic
possession is possible in this way. The most common explanation is that the Ouija board's users move the game's
planchette with their hands (consciously or unconsciously) and only appear to be communicating with spirits. The resulting possession appears to be purely
psychosomatic. The original idea for the use of spirit boards was to contact
ghosts of dead humans and not evil spirits or demons.
The
Role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons features Demons as creatures that can be fought. They are evil, and often fight amongst themselves.
In the
Forgotten Realms universe, they are all said to be chaotic evil, living in anarchy in the Infinite Levels of the
Abyss. They are constantly locked in war with
devils, the lawful evil denizens of the Nine Hells of
Baator.
In the racing game of Initial D Arcade Stage in "Challenge Bunta!" mode (from Ver. 2 onwards), the best driver in the game, Bunta Fujiwara, is regarded as "Demon Top Speed Bunta Fujiwara". This is obviously true because the difficulty racing against him is incredibly hard, even when he is driving his car AE86 for some beginners and moderate players. His true terror can only be seen when he drives his new car Subaru Impreza, especially if it is full star (15 for Ver.3, 30 for Ver. 2). His demoniacal speed and driving technique can "kill" even expert players.
Demons are important or principal adversaries in numerous fantasy and horror-themed computer games, notably the
Doom and
Diablo series.
In the Devil May Cry series, a portal to hell is opened in which demons are transported through to take over the human world. The protagonist a half breed (half demon [father sparda a.k.a satan] half human) fights and rebels his own kind to maintain the "peace" on Earth.
*
Archdemon*
Ars Goetia*
Demonolatry*
Demonology*
Imp *
Lilith*
List of specific demons and types of demons*
Names of the demons*
Archons*
Satan*
Spiritual warfare*
Demons in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Hyperlinked references to demons in the online Catechism of the Catholic Church
*
Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Demonology
