This happened to me, I think, this weekend while I was hosting a movie marathon for my nieces and nephews. My attention was brought to one of my nieces, who was a bit distraught, I think because the theme of the movie hit reality for her, and she was struggling to address it.

While I was looking at her, things kind of blurred a bit, and I am sure that I saw something unkind sitting on a piece of furniture close to her, staring at her, waiting. The unkind thing perceived that I was aware of him, looked directly at me, was frightened, and vanished. Someone came in the back door to the house at that instant, and the moment vanished.

It's one of those things that you can't really talk about to your friends, because it is just freaking weird, and I don't really accessorize well with a straight jacket. I find it just as likely that I am going a little bit bonkers, and that my perception of this is just some stress finding its way out in a strange way. I also don't want to discount the possibility that part of my brain sees something that my consciousness doesn't really grasp, and this is just a way for a shadow part of me trying to get the daylight part of me's attention.

Anyways, it has been knawing on me enough that I had to say something to someone about it, however anonymous and random this outlet is.

I'm wondering if anyone else has seen reality get blurred just a bit momentarily, or if it is just me. Feel free to give me your coast-to-coast stories here if you like. If nothing else, it might be a bit entertaining.

Also, if you got prayers, throw one up for my sweet niece Ray.

Can we answer now or do we have to wait until the overnight A.M. hours???

I wasn't being a jerk. It was an honest question and probably the two most important ones to start off with before going into this deeper.

I do believe in the Divine so I therefore believe in the opposite. Both very real and actively present in the world today.

I've definitely experience something at the margins. You're story isn't out of bounds in my experience.

BusterAg said:

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88Warrior said:

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Can we answer now or do we have to wait until the overnight A.M. hours???

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Is this a SCOTUS joke? I don't understand.

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Sorry…just a veiled reference to Art Bell and Coast to Coast A.M…

88Warrior said:

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BusterAg said:

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88Warrior said:

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Can we answer now or do we have to wait until the overnight A.M. hours???

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Is this a SCOTUS joke? I don't understand.

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Sorry…just a veiled reference to Art Bell and Coast to Coast A.M…

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And to answer your OP I do believe that demons, angels and Heavenly beings exist although I've not personally experienced them. Prayers for your niece.

I think the Bible is clear that there is an active spiritual realm that we typically can't see, but there are many people who report to have had a similar experience as you. I'm pretty skeptical by nature, so I don't take these stories at face value, but I think it would be pretty foolish for me to dismiss them all entirely. If I knew personally that it was coming from a credible individual, I'd have a hard time doubting them.

I don't want to go into much detail, but I'll share this. When I was a child, I lived in a house for a time where, unbeknownst to me, the previous tenants were incredibly wicked. I'm talking rape, incest and murder wicked. I had a constant feeling of fear in that house that at the time I could not explain. I wasn't the only one in my family that was affected, and as soon as we moved out, things returned to normal. I have no explanation other than the presence of evil lingered in that house.

I know that doesn't rise quite to the level of what you experienced, but at least you don't have to feel like the only crazy one in here anymore.

Are you religious? Are her parents?
If so I would definitely make them aware of the incident. If not, that's going to be a difficult task but I'd still mention something to them.
Keep her in your prayers. Ask her guardian angel to be extra vigilant.

Do you want a real answer? You were given a glimpse into the spiritual world and saw a low level demon. This was the grace of God to get to you to see this. Demons are allowed to afflict us to drive us to repentance. Usually when there is a demon allowed in your home one of a couple of things have happened:

-Some willfully sinful act has previously opened up your house or your nieces/nephews. Could've been a previous tenant. Could've been you or your family your brothers/sisters families.
-Do you and your family go to church? Regularly? Does your nieces and nephews and your brothers/sisters spouses go to church? Regularly?

You need to go to an orthodox or catholic church asap. You won't be able to remove this mark by yourself. You need to be in a church that has sacraments, believes in exorcisms, and that priests are there for your intercession. The more protestant the church, the harder time they have dealing with demons. Its a pretty consistent theme if you start following records of exorcisms. A nondenominational formerly baptist church would be practically useless in removing strong demons.

Start praying. No freewheeling. Get your hands on an prayer book.
Go to confession, confess your sins
Get your house blessed. Houses are blessed yearly for a reason.

Christ is very clear here removing demons requires:
-Intercession
-Confession
-Extended prayers and fasting for harder demons to remove
-Removing demons without turning towards God just brings more demons back to you in short time. This exercise is for your repentance, not to remove the consequence of sin without repentance.

Is this gonna sound super weird to your brother or sister explaining what you saw and what they need to join in on you doing? Yeah. Thats just going to play into the demons hands though if you don't.

Praise God that you got to see this and get this opportunity to turn towards Christ.

I've had similar experiences where I believe I've caught glimpses in faces. Like they became slightly distorted. And my threat assessment impulses kicked in. Not sure that makes sense. But it has happened a few times.

ETA: I traveled to SLC for the 2002 olympics. It is one of the few places I've ever been that I felt a true sense of spiritual oppression. Like I was actually walking in enemy territory.

Thanks for this Meen. I was considering reaching out to an Eastern Orthodox minister in my area, and your post has encouraged me to follow through on that. I do think that there are likely more power in sacrements than most protestant enlightenment dudes would likely give them credit.

But, what about you? Has this happened to you? Have you ever been gifted a glimpse into the fuzzy unknown?

BusterAg said:

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Thanks for this Meen. I was considering reaching out to an Eastern Orthodox minister in my area, and your post has encouraged me to follow through on that. I do think that there are likely more power in sacrements than most protestant enlightenment dudes would likely give them credit.

But, what about you? Has this happened to you? Have you ever been gifted a glimpse into the fuzzy unknown?

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I believe I have in a completely different context. That I got to see angels worshipping Jesus on the cross at an orthodox church on the elevation of the cross during holy week but maybe not, there's some half-explanations that could cover about 70-80% of what I saw but no explanation has fully explained what I saw. My mother in law has a better story than me though. She spent her career taking care of very special needs kids, like future wards of the state level of medical attention severe mental and physical handicaps. When one of her kids, who she had formed a special relationship with due to his level of care, passed away my MIL was visited by a translucent white orb with wings that took up her whole field of vision. Flapped a few times as if it was giving her a hug and then disappeared into nothing. He had died at the hospital just moments before and my MIL didn't know as she was at work. Putting the timelines together, we believe it was him saying goodbye.

My wife and I suffered through a pretty devastating loss a few years back when we were joining the Orthodox church. I spent a lot of time combing though accounts of loss and heaven and hell for answers. When I had spent maybe a tad too much time learning about heaven and hell, specifically hell one night, I felt the presence of something dark in my room. It quickly went away after some quick prayers. I believe we were catechumens at the time. Our house has since been blessed and we've formally joined an orthodox church. That night and that week I never thought anything more of it like that our house or me was a target, just that I was spending too much time diving off into every corner of accounts inside and outside the church. I dropped a lot of pursuits into the subject matter soon after. Demons can visit when you are uncovering truth though, that is a thing. First comes truth, then comes demons to cast doubt and create confusion. Demons can also visit the pious to try to pull them off their walk with God. I always thought that was counter-intuitive. Nothing would drive me faster to prayer to God than being face to face with a demon. God would say, 'Thats the point.' So its not always some sinful act that brings demons to your doorstep, but for every saint being tested by demons there are an overwhelming number of accounts of communing with demons, rape, incest, murder and other atrocities whose sin has left a stain that attracted demons and needs to be blessed over.

Orthodoxy priests perform exorcisms all the time, every baptism starts with renouncing the devil and being exorcised. Orthodoxy would say that's the whole point of the church - to perform exorcistic acts and make space for the holy. But usually orthodox priests don't have a trained specialists for exorcisms. All priests are prepared and capable. Catholics would say the same but they generally do have a specialist. If you ever watch Father Ripperger on youtube that is what he is. I'm orthodox so the formal answer is go see an orthodox priest. But it does seem like pious catholic priests have historically been able to perform exorcisms. I don't think that validates the nuances of theological differences, but hey happy to see any demon be put in their place by God.

AgBQ-00 said:

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I've had similar experiences where I believe I've caught glimpses in faces. Like they became slightly distorted. And my threat assessment impulses kicked in. Not sure that makes sense. But it has happened a few times.

ETA: I traveled to SLC for the 2002 olympics. It is one of the few places I've ever been that I felt a true sense of spiritual oppression. Like I was actually walking in enemy territory.

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I feel this way about New Orleans.

Is that not just the reaction to LSU fans?

Ive seen a shadow and have a witness. After my brother died in a freak accident, I was at his place (where the accident occurred) waiting to do something. I kept getting more and more angry - furious.. I just kept getting angry for no reason.

I finally got back to my house and opened the front door where my wife was standing she saw it behind me then it ran across the sparse room to hide behind a chair in the corner! I saw it too so we both went to look behind the chair to figure out what the heck it was... nothing!

But she and I BOTH saw the "shadow" figure about the size of a kid run across the room and hide in the corner! It was in the middle of the day, too.
10 years ago.

On a positive note...

I was in front of St. Mary' Cathedral Basilica a long time ago. There is a plaque and when I read "Divine Victim" I was absolutely flooded with emotions and had such an amazing sense of peace. I've not had that too often in my life so it always stuck with me. Awe, wonder, peace, joy and exaltation. Dang words just can't do what I felt justice.

There is no doubt you were being attacked while you were discerning about joining the Orthodox church. I think it is exactly how you stated, the more you seek the truth, the more the demons will work to create doubt by distorting that truth. I had one of the best Lents this year using the Hallow app. Even though I have developed a lot of good habits over the past 40 days and developed a deeper relationship with Christ, I feel like I am being tried and tested more. Perhaps I am just now more aware of the creeping darkness now that I stand closer to the light?

Interestingly, Fr Rehill in the above interview talks about his amazing life arc becoming a priest. He grew up Catholic but was molested by a priest. He denounced the faith and spent a good part of his youth chasing hedonistic desires. He worked on Wall Street where riches brought him access to all the worldly desires he could want but he felt empty. When he came back to his Catholic faith and began discerning about becoming a priest, he was warned by a mentor that the devil would want him back. He recalls multiple encounters during this time with demonic individuals trying to pull him away from his journey to serve Christ.

I stayed up all night praying in my friends house that the demons would leave in the name of Christ. She asked me to baptize her the next week or so.

I don't love talking about what it was like in her house before, but it was an unpleasant place.

My uncle thought he was St Jerome

Quo Vadis? said:

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My uncle thought he was St Jerome

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This is kindof where I am at in a way.

Talking about the extra world is tough because a lot of dangerous and strange people live there, and use it as an excuse to hide bad intentions. I think maybe that hurts us, as that reality exists, but many of us are afraid to discuss it because of the taboo related by the impossibility of discerning between charlatans and people in trouble.

I just wanted to put that out there if there are any other seekers looking for truth. I am going to pick up my niece from work tomorrow, and will try to have some courage to talk to her about this. If you have prayers, maybe something about 4pmn CST for Ray would be helpful.

On a separate note, I have reached out to an EO priest to start a discussion. Will be interesting.

Glad to hear you were able to have a great lent. Christianity is truly infinitely scaling in difficulty. You can always be increasing in prayer, fasting, almsgiving, confession and attending/assisting services. Some people take that as an admission to only take it easy but they miss out on the fruit that gets produced. One of our churches priest was adamant that during your catechesis phase there will be an increase in trials and to not be discouraged.

And I think I've seen at least one interview with Fr. Rehill. The devil, or at least one of the demons, coming up to him on South Beach and saying, 'What are you doing here I thought you became a priest - this is my territory' is gonna keep everyone at that table on the straight and narrow.