Did you know you can buy a demon on Etsy? I wasn’t aware there was much of a market for that kind of thing, but I learned that for less than a hundred bucks you can invite the devil to come and play in your house. There are plenty available on eBay as well.
You can also go to Amazon and pick up a hand-held device for around $70 that records the sometimes inaudible whispering of said spirit as it meanders around. But while you’re at it, if you have the money you might as well get an electromagnetic field meter (EMF) so you can also know where it is, thermal cameras, and all sorts of techno gadgets designed to bridge the gap between the living and the dead.
Why exactly would you want to do this? It’s a decent question, but to paraphrase fictional mathematician Ian Malcolm, “They were so concerned with whether or not they could that they never stopped to ask whether or not they should.”
I first learned about the demon-in-a-box from a video on Facebook. Generally I skip past those types of things, but for some reason I was interested in what the guy was doing. He said he bought it to see what the box had inside. Before he opened the box he put his EMF next to it and the meter went bonkers. He waved it back and forth to show something about the box was triggering its alarms.
The box was constructed of wood and sealed with red wax. Along with the purchase came a note from the seller, a self-described Purveyor of the Dark Arts, or something like that. I didn’t feel like watching the clip again to clarify. Her letter warned the reader that the box contained a demon. The guy in the video was skeptical. He opened it.
As soon as he did, he said the room went from a comfortable warm temperature to icy cold. He also said he felt very uneasy. Inside the box was a crystal, nothing else. He waved his EMF device over the box again and this time it was silent. The box no longer emitted any indication of whatever had triggered it earlier. The EMF may have gone silent but other things began to happen. A few seconds later the guy started hearing noises, then a voice, and then a picture frame jumped off the wall behind him. “[Expletive] this, I’m outta here,” he said as he jumped up from the table.
The video cut away and next you see him in his car, noticeably scared and telling the viewer he is leaving his apartment for his brother’s house, and warns people not to mess with these boxes, which I guess was the point of the video. The fact that the video had enough shares to find its way onto the trending feed on Facebook served to reinforce one of my long-held assumptions: Everyone believes in ghosts.
Even when I was an atheist I believed in the paranormal. There is a certain comfort afforded the secular thinker who makes allowance for ghosts and inexplicable things that go bump in the night. It provides them an explanation for multi-dimensional phenomena. Atheists have no problem with spiritualism; their beef is with God, more specifically, the exclusive God of the Old and New Testament. An omnipotent God has rules, standards of right and wrong, and consequences for ignoring them. Ghosts merely break stuff and freak people out.
Ghosts are intriguing to most people; they’re oddities that can be shrugged off, entertaining, or profitable. The occult can be every bit as fascinating for its mystery as it is terrifying in its potential, which is why I contend the vast majority of people believe in ghosts, or spirits, or whatever noun one uses to describe them, but they also leave it at that — detached acknowledgement, unless of course the ghost starts knocking frames off the wall, or saving their life.
I don’t claim to understand the dark power that managed to encase a spirit within a wax-sealed box. Nor do I want to. It’s enough for me to believe it can, and I want nothing to do with it.
Over the course of my life I’ve dipped my toe into the sticky pool of the occult enough to understand it is way beyond my comprehension, or my ability to control. I’ve learned that beyond the crystal shops, and reality show sensationalism there are real people playing with deadly toys they will never understand. There are children being conceived with the sole purpose of providing a human sacrifice for Satanic ritual. There are witch doctors tormenting their neighbors with curses.
If you want to meet people whose lives have been turned upside down by evil you don’t have to look far. I could give you a few names. But I don’t necessarily recommend it either, because darkness exists but so does something so much better. They don’t sell it on eBay. In fact, it’s free.
Recently we celebrated Easter. For many it was a chance to justify adding a new bunny to the stuffed animal pile and indulging in some egg shaped treats of varying quality —I’m a sucker for a Reese’s peanut butter egg — and there is nothing wrong with that. But Easter exists because ghosts are real, and if you’ve only ever acknowledged the terrifying kind, it’s time to recognize another.
For those who believe in the exclusivity of the God of the Old and New Testament, Easter is an annual opportunity to acknowledge the bright power of the spiritual realm, and its master, Jesus Christ, who holds all the keys of heaven and earth.
He cannot be contained.
Crucifixion, death, a tomb, or the dabbling of self-described purveyors of the dark arts…none have power over Him. His people need fear no curse. When we have this Holy Spirit in our lives we get to see real power manifestations, and it makes a picture frame jumping off a wall look rather pathetic by comparison, because it is.
There is only one power that can heal a terminal illness in an instant, that can restore a dead marriage, make a bone grow before your eyes, bring sight to the blind, remove guilt and shame, allow victims to forgive and love again, bring forth prophecy, calm storms, stop bullets in mid-air. It can even raise the dead.
He cannot be fully understood, yet He fully knows you, and what you need, and is willing to unleash His power upon you. There is no neutrality in the spiritual realm. If you believe in ghosts, you are already on one side or the other. In this world you get to choose the side you’re on.
The little caged crystal demon, nicely packaged for Etsy and waiting for UPS to take it to someone’s home has power. Make no mistake about that. If you think you can manipulate it or tame it to do parlor tricks, you’re in for a deadly awakening. But for all its mastery over things you cannot possibly comprehend, you can in fact render it powerless. You can choose to let Jesus Christ in, and He will never do you harm.
Like the other spirit, He wants to be a part of your life, and won’t stake a claim unless invited. But unlike the crystal spirit, He cannot be contained in a wooden box, no matter how much wax you seal it with.