Demons

In religion, occultism, and folklore, a demon is a supernatural being described as something that is not human
and is usually malevolent. However, the original Greek word is neutral and does not contain a necessarily
negative connotation in its beginnings for the ancient Greeks. This happened by the application of the koine
( in the Hellenistic and in the New Testament in Greek) of the term daimonion and later that malefic sense was
attributed to any cognate word that shared the root, when it was originally intended to denote simply a "spirit"
or a "spiritual being". It is also said that it can refer to people with high knowledge such as philosophers.
In Near Eastern religions, as well as those derived from Abrahamic traditions, including medieval Christian
demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit," which can cause demonic possession and can be
expelled by the ritual of exorcism. . In Western occultism and Renaissance magic (a mixture of Greco-Roman
magic, Jewish demonology, and Christian tradition), a demon is a spiritual entity that can be conjured up and
controlled. In literature many of the demons were fallen angels.
As it is frequently depicted as a force that can be conjured up and controlled, references to "good demons" can
be found in Hesiod and Shakespeare. At present, the good demon is usually a literary device (for example,
Maxwell's demon).
In common parlance, to discredit a person is "demonized" (or "demonized").

Terminology
The existence of demons is an important concept in many modern religions and occult traditions. In some
cultures today, demons are still feared by popular superstition, due in large part to the aforementioned powers of
demonic possession in living creatures.
Other etymological uses
According to Greek mythology, demons were human beings used by the Greek gods to bring bad news to the
people. Hence the association of "messengers of evil." On the other hand, the messengers were the ones who
carried the message among the gods. These were considered exalted beings since they remained among the
governments (mountains) of the gods and did not make themselves known to the people.
The Greek philosophers of the Socratic currents (such as Plato, disciple of Socrates) mentioned that demons
were beings in charge of granting knowledge and guiding the human, as mentioned by Plato in The Apology of
Socrates, pointing to him as "the man who always had a dæmon at his side".
Expression of the evil of the human being
The term demon is also used to indicate evil aspects or intimate fears of the human being , generated through
their behavior or instincts and that harm the same individual or other people; referring to them as "inner
demons" of the human being. This concept is equivalent to the Angra Mainyu of Zoroastrianism, or the Mara in
Buddhism.
By tradition
 Hebrew Bible
Those in the Hebrew Bible are of two kinds: se'irim and shedim. The se'irim ("hairy beings"), to whom some
Israelites offered sacrifices in the open fields, are creatures similar to satyrs, described as dancers in the desert
and identical to the jinn men, such as: Dantalion, the 71st spirit of Solomon. (However, compare the traditional
and autochthonous " beings of the forests" from European mythology).
Possibly, they belong to the same class: the demon Azazel, the desert goat-like demons, the chief of the se'irim,
and Lilith. It is possible that "gazelles and deer of the field" (so Sulamite conjures the daughters of Jerusalem to
bring her lover back) are faun-like and se'irim-like spirits, though harmless in character.
  Christianity
"Demon" has several meanings, all of them related to the idea of a spirit inhabiting a place or accompanying a
person. While a daemon was beneficent or malevolent, the Greek word means something different from later
medieval notions of 'demon', and scholars debate the time when Jews and Christians changed the Greek sense to
then obtain its medieval meaning. Some affirmative denominations of the Christian faith also include—
exclusively or not—fallen angels as de facto demons. This definition also encompasses the Nephilim, the "sons
of God" (described in Genesis) who left their posts in Heaven to mate with women on Earth before the flood.
In Mark's Gospel, Jesus casts out many demons, or evil spirits, from those who were afflicted by various
diseases. Jesus' power proved far superior to those which demons had over the people they possessed,
effectively freeing the victims who were subject to them, casting them out, and forbidding them to return. Jesus
also gave this power to some of His disciples, who rejoiced in His new ability. Demons were cast out by faith
and by the pronunciation of their name, according to Matthew 7:22. Some more fundamentalist groups insist, to
this effect, on the use of pronunciation of the original form of Jesus' name, i.e., Yahshua/Joshua, which means
"Yahweh is salvation".
On the contrary, in the book of the Acts of the Apostles (chapter 19), a group of Jewish exorcists, known as the
sons of Esceva, try to drive out a very powerful spirit from a possessed person without believing or knowing
Jesus, although using his name as a magical spell, which brings disastrous consequences (the demoniac attacks
them and defeats them). However, Jesus never allowed himself to be overcome by a demon, no matter how
powerful (see the account of the demoniac to Gerasim), and even defeated Satan in the wilderness when he tried
to tempt him (see Gospel of 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, who roam its surface making war on human beings,
especially believers in Christ. Luke 10:18 again mentions the power given by Jesus to His disciples to cast out
demons; Jesus declares in this text that he sees Satan "falling like lightning from heaven."
In the early fifth century, Augustine of Hippo's Apuleius is ambiguous as to whether demons had been
"demonized." He also declares that the blessed are called in Greek eudaimones, because they are good souls;
that is, good demons, confirming his opinion that the souls of men are demons.
The Catholic Church teaches that angels and demons are real and personal beings, of an absolutely spiritual
character, not just symbolic representations of natural forces or human psychic tendencies. The Church has a
group of officially approved exorcists who perform exorcisms, much every year. Exorcists of the Catholic
Church teach that demons attack humans continuously, but that affected people can be effectively healed and
protected by the formal rite of exorcism. These rites, to be performed, must be authorized only by a bishop, and
performed by persons they designate.
Based on the few references to demons in the New Testament, especially in the visionary poetry of John's
Revelation, apocryphal Christian writers, from the second century onward, created a more complex tapestry of
beliefs about demons, which was largely independent of official Christian scriptures.
At various times in Christian history attempts have been made to classify these beings according to various
proposed demonic hierarchies.
According to Christian demonology, demons were eternally punished, for they will never be reconciled to God.
Other theories postulate a universal reconciliation, in which Satan, the fallen angels, and the souls of the dead
who are condemned to hell, will finally be reconciled to God; this doctrine is often associated with the beliefs of
the Unification Church. In the past, Origen, Jerome, and Gregory of Nyssa also mentioned this possibility.
In contemporary Christianity demons are generally regarded as angels who fell from grace by rebelling against
God. However, other schools of thought in Christianity or Judaism teach that demons or evil spirits are the
result of sexual relations between fallen angels and women. When these hybrids (Nephilim) died, they left their
disembodied spirits to "wander the earth seeking rest" (Luke 11:24). Many non-canonical historical texts
describe in detail the latter and its consequences. This belief is repeated in other great religions and ancient
mythologies. Christians who reject this view attribute the description in Genesis 6 of the "Sons of God" as
corresponding to the sons of Seth (one of Adam's sons) who would have joined with the "daughters of men"
(perhaps the descendants of Cain).
There are some who say that the sin of the angels was pride and disobedience in the face of some supreme test
that God placed on them and that they could not pass (some theologians have proposed the worship of Jesus-
man in vision, a creature they considered inferior), sins that caused the fall of Satan (Ezekiel 28) and his
followers. If this is the true view, then the words "goods" or "principality" in St. Jude 6 ("And the angels who
did not keep their principality, but forsook their own dwelling, he has chained them in eternal prisons, under
darkness, for the judgment of the great day.") are to be understood as an indication that, instead of the demons
being satisfied with the dignity God assigned to them, they aspired to climb higher than the Son of God
Himself, an attitude that would have brought about their irrevocable fall.
 Islam
Islam recognizes the existence of jinn (jinn), who are beings with free will, who can coexist with humans. Not
all are evil like the demons described in Christianity. In Islam, evil jinn are known as the shaiatin, or demons,
and Iblis (Satan) is their chief. Iblis was the first jinn to disobey God. According to Islam, jinn were made from
fire (while angels were made with light and humanity was made with clay).
According to the Qur'an, when God created Adam out of clay, all the angels and Iblis were commanded to bow
down to Adam, as humans were superior to any other creation of God. Iblis, jealous, claimed that it was not
humans who were the superior creations but geniuses since these were of fire and human beings of clay and
disobeyed God.
Adam was the first prophet and deputy of humanity, and as such was God's greatest creation. Iblis could not
bear this and refused to recognize a creature made of "mud" (man). God, therefore, condemned Iblis to burn in
hell. Iblis asked for a truce until the day of judgment, the day in which he promised to destroy humanity and
deny the existence of its creator. Allah responded by saying that Iblis would only be able to deceive dishonest
believers and warned that Iblis and anyone who followed him would be punished in hell.
Adam and Eve (Hawwa in Arabic) were both together deceived by Iblis into eating the forbidden fruit, and thus
the garden of Eden (allegorical) fell into a state of degeneration.
Geniuses are not the "geniuses" of the modern tradition. The word "genius" comes from the French "genius" of
genius in the translation of the Arabic text and only sounds by chance, like the Arabic genius. This is not
surprising considering the story of 'Ala 'al-Din, (anglicism as Aladdin), passes through Arab traders on the way
to Europe.
Karma and evil spirits
Hinduism defends the theory of reincarnation and transmigration of souls according to their Karma. The souls
of the dead are awarded by the Yama and various punishments are given as purging before being born again.
Human beings who have made extraordinary mistakes are doomed to wander the world only as spirits, often
malignant, for a set period of time before being born again. Many types of such spirits (vetalas, pishachas,
bhutas) can be recognized, from Hindu texts, and in a limited sense, as true demons.
Bahaism
In the Baha'i faith, born in Persia, demons are not considered independent of the evil spirits found in some
religions. All the evil spirits that are described in different religious traditions (such as Satan, fallen angels,
demons, and jinn people) are metaphors based on the character traits that a human being can acquire and that
manifest when he turns away from God and follows his lower nature. The belief in the existence of ghosts and
terrestrial spirits is rejected and considered a product of superstition.
History
The idea of the devil in Western culture has varied with the religious and philosophical currents of each era:
  Antiquity
The most widespread conception in the West is the Judeo-Christian, according to which demons are spirits of
evil with the power to possess human beings. The THIRD-CENTURY apologist Origen further notes that it is evil
spirits "who produce pestilences and such harvests, storms and similar calamities." For Christianity, in
particular, demons are unclean spirits, minions of Satan (prince of this world and declared enemy of God and
his angels, whose abode is the kingdom of heaven. Satan is identified as the fallen Angel, who rebelled against
God.
However, in a general sense and departing from the Judeo-Christian worldview, for other cultures demons are
not necessarily considered evil beings. The Greeks, for example, divided demons into good and evil: agatho
demones and caco démones, respectively. There are records in books that the Greeks and Romans used to
believe in a demon (among others) called Sharock, who identified himself with an X that he embodied in
objects (today, people claim to witness finding objects possessed with this mark). While the agatollemones
resemble the Judaic notion of the protective angel, the cacodemones, on the other hand, would be none other
than the fallen angels to which the Judeo-Christian tradition refers. Such is the case of Lucifer, prince of
demons, whom Christianity identifies with Satan.
 Middle Ages
The Renaissance
Although there is no canon on Renaissance demonology, interest in classical Greco-Roman culture, philosophy,
science, and Greek and Roman mythology created a field for experimenting with what were supposed to be pre-
Christian religious practices. Most notably found in popular culture as "The Legend of Faust".
 Modern and Contemporary Ages
In the SIXTEENTH and SEVENTEENTH centuries, Europe experienced a veritable diabolical tidal wave. The
Western imaginary about the devil, which now had in the Devil of Christianity its maximum representative,
experienced a real "boom" during the beginnings of the modern era. By then, after the Middle Ages ended,
something had changed in Old World societies. Anguished by unprecedented phenomena such as the discovery
of new lands or the spiritual and social impact of the Reformation period, European societies sought a meaning
to explain human existence and the frightening dangers that threatened it, so the West built its collective
identity.
That the Devil, like God was everywhere was something that had dominated the European imaginary for almost
the entire Middle Ages, but what was a real innovation from the end of the FIFTEENTH century was the growing
conviction of the existence of a certain category of beings not fully human, whose evil power exceeded any
expectation: We refer, of course, to witches. These, despite their harmless appearance, were real enemies or
traitors hidden within society.
Witches, according to theologians, possessed certain superhuman abilities, among which the fact of being able
to fly stood out. The motif of flight, symbol of spiritual elevation and freedom of action, was common to all
kinds of divinities and represented the abolition of any border or conditioning that prevented transcending the
limited human nature. But along with this ascending trait, witches were also characterized by a close connection
with the animal world.
The approach of the devil to man, reflected in the internalization of sin, made the idealization of the witch much
more significant, and gave theologians weapons to combat these demonic beings in a hunt that would be seen as
a true defense of European Christian civilization.
Fear of self
For most Europeans, after religious confrontations and with Lutheran and Calvinist doctrines forming part of
the collective culture, God became a prince close but invisible, terrible, and avenging, who approached man to
impose his inflexible law more forcefully. But this meant while the Devil was also nearer, more present, more
malefic because he acted with divine authorization to punish sins or to tempt man to provoke them.
From the middle of the SIXTEENTH century begins a time of great unrest in a world considered calamitous, under
the severe eye of God. Both Catholics and Protestants believe they see an infernal abyss that opens under their
feet, and the Devil who took every opportunity to invade their being. This mechanism of blaming the person
would lead to an unbridled search for proof that the Creator had not abandoned men. The expansion, in a
fragmented Europe, of an audience essentially composed of citizens of the affluent classes resulted in the
emergence of a unified cultural conception around the emblematic figure of Satan.
In historical terms, the weight of personal guilt increased considerably for the most conscientious Christians. By
following its imprint in the imaginary representation, it is possible to see a much broader myth than the
religious and moral form that promoted it assert itself: that of the total responsibility of the individual. The
image of a terrible God, interested in every action of the human being, had as a counterpoint to a demon of
extraordinary power who followed his test step by step. This mechanism of personalization and internalization
of sin was the very foundation of the modernization of the West.
During this period, the literature about the Devil, particularly in France and Germany, both in the gazettes,
pamphlets, as in novels, theatrical performances, was framed within a context of individual guilt of sin, and in
this sense, the vast majority of discourses, both written and pictorial, showed the Devil, as well as God, very
close to man, with the capacity to influence the human attitude and subdue the sins of men with the
authorization of the Creator.
The Devil then appeared as the protagonist of much of the stories in which human psychology was forced to
take care of itself. But, with the increasing exploitation of his figure in so many stories and representations, the
figure of the hellish, gesticulating, and terrible demon, over the years faded away, and gave way to stories in
which he appeared no longer as an evil prince, but only as a laughable character, of whom the man and his
cunning could easily mock and who could constantly be ridiculed.
However, although the twilight of the fearsome demon did not disappear so soon, he would eventually lose his
pride. For members of high society who enjoyed the joie de vivre in the philosophers' century, the Devil became
less and less necessary as a fundamental reference to sin. The fantastic then arose from the growing difference
between the demonic belief inherited from the tragic past and the hedonistic, indifferent or atheistic reality of
the Enlightenment century. Henceforth, the poor demon would see his black sun pale!
The existence of the Devil
By the end of the SEVENTEENTH and early EIGHTEENTH centuries, there was a fragmentation in the
representation of the demonic imaginary, and then a "mental revolution" was experienced that was based on the
titles of the works published at the time, whose authors began to question the omnipotence of Satan. However,
the real reason for the decline of the belief of the Devil is not only linked to the action of the bold precursors,
but more deeply to a radical transformation of the relationship between religion and the rest of the phenomena
that influence human existence. When Descartes began to study metaphysics to prove the existence of God by
the idea of perfection, the Devil then left the purely theological sphere to enter the realm of philosophy and
literature; at this time the Devil lost his realism. It would be Spinoza who, explicitly, denied the possibility of
the existence of demons. The Dutch philosopher considered these entities as fictions, invented by man to try to
explain the causes of negative passions (hatred, envy, anger ...) and evils.
From the last third of the SEVENTEENTH century, everyone sees the Devil in his own way, in the form that suits
him best. Of course, Satan has not lost the game in the eyes of all, because a great heir of the demonologists
continues to affirm his anguished omnipresence in this world and polemicizes with his adversaries, increasingly
numerous. However, it abandons the terrain of social practices to take refuge in symbols and myths.
Demonology and religion
The existence of an evil supernatural entity that acts contrary to the will of a benevolent God is one of the
central axes in both Christianity and Islam. These creeds adopt the figure of Satan from Judaism, which for
Islam is Shaytán or Iblis.
The New Testament explicitly affirms the existence of lesser adverse spirits, as does the Koran, although the
latter mentions a third created race (neither angels nor demons), the yinnūn (plural of jinn), of amoral character
and known in the West as jinns, although they are not always evil.
The Old Testament presents Satan as an angel under the authority of God, acting as a tempter, seeking doubt
about Job's virtue, and provoking all evil. This is because the very concept of monotheism as well as Judaism
comes from the same cultural sphere of influence with other Semitic cultures and the polytheism they shared
until they were known as the chosen people and embraced the unique cult.
Devil
The Devil is the personification of evil as conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the
objectification of a hostile and destructive force.
The history of this concept is intertwined with theology, mythology, psychiatry, art and literature , but
developing independently within each of the traditions. Historically in many contexts and cultures it is given
different names — Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, Luzbel, Baphomet — attributes, and
representations. The definition of what a devil is is directly related to each culture.
Equivalence in other religions
In other cultures and religious beliefs, they also have certain concepts of an evil being or of several evil beings,
unlike Christianity, Judaism and Islam that the Devil is known as a fallen angel or a demon, in other cultures he
was known as evil gods and expelled from heaven. According to the legends of other cultures, that these gods of
evil rebelled against a God or Goddess of creation or several creator gods. Coincident case as it happens in the
biblical accounts.
For example in Buddhism, he is known as Mara, who tried to prevent Siddhartha Gautama Buddha from
attaining enlightenment and destroying the Ego.
In Zoroastrianism, it is known as Angra Mainyu, being the representation of evil, and not necessarily a god or
an entity itself.
Regarding Hinduism, in the West it is usually associated with the figure of Iama or Yama, the god of death, the
lord of the spirits of the dead and guardian of the underworld; however Iama is not a demonic entity, being
rather the "equivalent" of Hindu demons the Asuras.
Representations in images
The image of the Devil has been depicted in various ways. So far the most popular symbol is a beast (with tail,
horns and goat legs) with a trench in its hand. Others have reproduced it with the figure of a goat, like the goat,
although distorted. The goat represented the divine-looking Greek god Pan. After the Inquisition, Christian
culture associated him with Satan.
It has been associated with different animals, such as the ram, the pig, the crow, the toad, the wolf, the rat, the
dragon, the snake and even with a white shark , all images distorted by some superstitions based on
comparisons.
From the Middle Ages began the belief that the Devil was incarnated in a black cat. It was the favorite pet for
witches so it represented witchcraft. Today there is a superstition that if someone crosses a black cat on the road
they will have a day of bad luck. In one of the paintings, the goddess Bastet is depicted with a black cat's head.
However, this feline did not always represent evil; in ancient Egypt, regardless of the color of cats, they were
considered sacred and divine, as well as protectors against evil spirits.
The Rottweiler breed dog, originally from Germany, embodied the Devil for its black and fiery yellow color
during the Middle Ages. He was killed for that reason. They became popular in 1976 with the horror film The
Prophecy because he was the faithful companion of the Antichrist. The Catholic Church declared San Roque the
patron saint of all dogs without distinction of breed.
The serpent is inspired by Genesis (first book of the Bible). It represents sin, temptation and lies, based on the
temptation of Adam and Eve. The image of the Virgin Mary stepping on a snake has been painted. Within
Judeo-Christian culture there are also certain contradictions. The serpent has been associated with the sacred-
looking and miraculous staff of Moses. In the Far East, the snake is a sign of wisdom and energy, it is a sacred,
divine animal and protector against negative energies. For example, the god Shiva in Indian culture is also
represented in the form of a snake, above all, a cobra.
In other cases, the image of the Devil within Christian culture has been depicted simply with the figure of an
angel fallen from heaven. An example of this is the monument of the fountain of the Fallen Angel in Madrid.
He is also reproduced simply as a man with different physical traits and with a cruel or evil psychological
attitude.
In the Bible
 God as the Devil
Some religious authors throughout history have proposed the notion that the God narrated in the Bible is Devil
Himself. Their argument is that the biblical God is a divine force that causes suffering, death, and destruction
and that tempts or directs humanity to commit violence and genocide.
These writings refer to this God variously as "a demiurge," "an evil angel," "the devil god," "the Prince of
Darkness," "the source of all evil," "the Devil," Martin Luther, "a demon," "a cruel, wrathful, and warlike
tyrant,"33 "Satan," and "the first beast of the book of Revelation."
Many of the authors criticize only God described in the Tanakh, in contrast to the "true god" they claim to see in
the New Testament. However, other authors apply their condemnation to the Abrahamic god who unites
Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
The authors affirm their criticisms by referencing certain biblical passages describing divine actions that they
say are evil or diabolical. Many of the authors have been severely punished for their writings, and their
followers have been killed.
The eighteenth-century Anglo-American philosopher Thomas Paine wrote in The Age of Reason that "whenever
we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous corruption, the cruel and torturous executions, the relentless
revenge, with which more than half the Bible is full, it would be more consistent for us to call it the word of a
demon, before the Word of God."
What can demons do? What can't they do?

Theological doctrine on demons. Here is the Church's doctrine on demons and the main conclusions reached by
theologians on the basis of the data revealed.
1) It is of faith that demons exist, that is, a considerable number of angels who were created good by God, but
who became evil through their own fault.
2) Demons exert, by God's permission, an evil influence on men, inciting them to evil and sometimes invading
and torturing their very bodies.
3) In the midst of the assaults and tortures of demons, the human will always remain free. The reason is because
—as St. Thomas Aquinas explains—the will can only be immuted in two ways: intrinsically or extrinsically.
Now only God can move it intrinsically, since voluntary movement is nothing other than the inclination of the
will to the thing willed, and only He who has given that inclination to intellectual nature can intrinsically
immute it; for, as the natural inclination proceeds from the Author of nature, so the voluntary inclination comes
only from God, who is the author of the same will. Extrinsically, the will can be moved in two ways:
a) Efficaciter, that is, acting on the same understanding and making it apprehend the object as desirable
good (and in this sense only God can effectively move the will, because only He can penetrate directly
and intrinsically into the understanding), and
 b) Inefficaciter, that is, by way of simple persuasion ('per modum suadentis tantummodo'). And this is
the way that corresponds to angels—good or bad—and to other created beings, who can influence us.
The devil, then, can only move the will extrinsically "per modum suadentis", that is, by offering to the
external and internal senses the species of things that incite evil or by exciting the sensitive appetite so
that it tends disorderly to those sensible goods; never intrinsically changing the same will.
4) Good angels and demons can intrinsically immute the imagination and the other internal and external senses,
The reason is because this immutation can be produced by the local movement of the outer cosan or of our
bodily humors, and the bodily nature obeys the angel as to its local movement, as St. Thomas Aquinas explains.
5) Demons cannot perform true miracles; however, they exceed the forces of all created or creatable nature. But
as the potency of the angelic nature—which they retain intact after their sin—far exceeds the natural human
forces, demons can do prodigious things, which excite man's admiration inasmuch as they surpass his natural
strength and knowledge. The devil, then, has a natural potency far superior to that of man and can work with it
prodigious things, which, without being true and proper miracles, excite the admiration of men and pose real
problems for the discernment of these phenomena in their relationship with the natural and supernatural.
Instead, we will point out the main rules of discernment in each case; But it will be good that from now on we
advance, in a synthetic overview, what the devil can not do in any way to exceed his natural forces at all and
what of himself does not exceed his natural capacity and potency and could therefore realize with divine
permission.
A) What the devil cannot do
1. Produce a supernatural phenomenon of any kind. It is something that surpasses and transcends all
created or creatable nature, being proper and exclusive to God.
2. Create a substance. It is an infinite power to make a thing pass from nothing to being. Therefore,
creatures cannot be used by God even as instruments of creation.
3. Truly resurrecting the dead. He could only simulate a resurrection by lethargic a sick person or by
producing in him a state of apparent death to produce the illusion of his wonderful resurrection.
4. Instantly heal wounds or deep sores. Nature—even in the hands of the angelic potency—always
requires some time to be able to accomplish these things. The instantaneous is only in God's hands.
5. Truly instantaneous translations. They suppose an alteration of the laws of nature, which can only be
carried out by their Author. The devil, as a pure spirit, can move from one place to another without
passing through the middle. But he cannot move a body without it having to travel through all the
space that separates the point of departure (term a quo) from the point of arrival (term ad quem); And
this cannot be done instantaneously no matter how fast we suppose that movement.
6. The present laws do not permit in any way the interpenetration of solid bodies. The devil, pure spirit,
can, no doubt, pass through material substances at will; but to confer on a body the privilege of
interpenetrating with others—v.gr (for example) through a wall—is a transcendent virtue that God
reserves for himself.
7. Strictly speaking prophecy surpasses diabolical forces, although the devil can simulate it with the
help of natural forecasts, equivocal formulas, or bold lies. However, God can use false prophets to
announce something true, as in the case of Balaam or Caiaphas; but then it becomes clear from the
whole of the circumstances that the false prophet is used at that time as an instrument of God.
8. Knowledge of free thoughts and futures is likewise beyond Satan's control; it can only rely on
conjecture. But keep in mind that for the extraordinary intellectual potency of the angelic nature
conjectures are much easier than for the most eminent psychologist; Temperament, acquired habits,
past experiences, attitude of the body, expression of physiognomy, set of circumstances, etc., etc.,
 make it easy for angelic spirits to guess the silent meditations of our understanding and the secret
determinations of our will.
9. The devil cannot produce in us phenomena of a purely intellectual or volitional order. We have
already pointed out above the reason: in the sanctuary of our soul, no one, outside of God, can
penetrate directly.
These are, briefly, the main things that the devil cannot do, all related to mystical phenomena. We omit many
other things that do not interest our purpose. Let us now quickly look at the mystical phenomena that the devil
could fake.

B) What the devil can do by God allowing it

1. Produce corporeal or imaginary visions and locutions (not intellectual ones).
2. Faking ecstasy (causing preternatural fainting).
3. Produce glows in the body and tender burns in the heart. There is more than one example of
"diabolical incandescence."
4. Produce tenderness and sensitive softness.
5. To cure, even instantaneously, certain strange diseases produced by its diabolical action. Of course, it
is not properly a question of healing, but only of "stopping harming", as Tertullian says. Since the so-
called disease was due exclusively to the action of Satan, ceasing the cause, the effect instantly
disappears.
6. Produce stigmatization and other bodily and sensitive phenomena of mysticism, such as soft odors,
crowns, rings, etc. None of this surpasses the natural forces of demons.
7. The devil cannot repeal the laws of gravity, but he can simulate miracles of this kind by the invisible
collaboration of his natural forces. Keep in mind for the question of levitation: diabolical levitations
can occur, as in the case of Simon Magus.
8. It can subtract the bodies from our sight by interposing between them and our retina an obstacle that
deflects the refraction of light or producing in our visual apparatus a subjective impression
completely different from that which would come from the object.
9. It can produce the incombustion of a body by interposing an invisible obstacle between it and the
fire.

In short: all phenomena that may result from a natural movement of physical forces, even if man is not capable
of producing them even by taking his natural energies to the maximum limit, can in no way be produced by the
devil — supposed divine permission — by virtue of his own natural potency, extraordinarily superior to that of
man. But whatever may be the nature of the phenomenon produced by diabolical forces, it will never go beyond
the purely natural sphere and order. The supernatural exists here only in relation to man, that is, insofar as the
phenomena produced outweigh human forces; But, considered in themselves, these are purely and simply
natural realities. It is a typical case of relative supernatural, which must be called, with greater precision and
theological accuracy, "preternatural."

What are demons responsible for:

Demons are believed to be responsible for temptation, sin, and evil in the world, seeking to turn humans away
from God and into evil.
How are demons considered in other religions:
In other religions, demons can be considered as malevolent spirits or evil forces that cause problems and
diseases. In Hinduism, for example, demons are known as "asuras" and are considered enemies of the gods.

The different types of demons:

In different cultures and religions, different types of demons have been described. Some of the most common
are:
• Demons of temptation: these demons are dedicated to tempting and seducing people to lead them down the
path of evil.
• Demons of disease: In some cultures, certain diseases are believed to be caused by demons that invade
people's bodies.
• Demons of Possession: These demons take over a person's body and control their actions.
• Demons of Destruction: These demons are dedicated to causing damage and destruction on earth and
humanity.
• Demons of death: it is said that these demons are dedicated to collecting the souls of people who have died.
• Demons of lies: these demons specialize in deceiving and confusing people to lead them to sin.
• Demons of lust: these demons are dedicated to inciting sexual desires and promoting lust in people.
Some existing daemons:
• Lucifer: Also known as "The Light Bearer", he is a demon associated with rebellion and the fall of heaven.
• Asmodeo: is a demon associated with lust and promiscuity.
• Belphegor: is a demon associated with laziness and seduction.
• Astaroth: is a demon associated with vanity and ostentation.
• Leviathan: is a demon associated with the sea and destruction.
• Mammon: is a demon associated with greed and wealth.
• Beelzebub: is a demon associated with envy and gluttony.