The Exorcist Files - S2-Case #12- Awakened Pt-2
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Welcome back to the Exorcist Files,
the brave bashing of the banal banshees of Ball,
or, as I'd like to say,
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So this is Awakening Part 2.
If you have not been awakened yet with Part 1, you should stop, go back, breathe deeply, and listen to that one.
If you already have, then great, let's refresh.
Where we last left off, Gloria and Paul, a lively and infectious couple, had uprooted themselves and moved out to the West Coast.
With new friends, Gloria dove deep into a local yoga class to help with her longstanding back issues.
However, months into their move, Gloria began to experience.
strange shifts in her behavior, culminating in a frightful night of visual and auditory chaos.
When their family friend, Father David, left it was supposed to be an encouraging message
containing a Bible verse, Gloria discovered that she was, well, unable to see or hear scripture
from the Bible in any form. Before we get back to the story, though, I wanted to touch on this
very strange phenomena that Gloria was experiencing. Can demons actually stop us from hearing the
Word of God?
Demons can and will do whatever they can to keep people from getting liberate.
This can take many forms, but two of the most common are confusion or blackouts, as in the case
of Jeremy from season one and Dylan from season two, and depression or mental disassociation,
as in the case of Lena, the disappearing eighth grader from season one.
The problem is that these symptoms are also consistent with typical medical
issues. So their presence alone is insufficient to diagnose the presence of the demonic.
Of course, I was curious of our resident Exorcist Files psychiatrist had heard of the phenomenon
of someone being able to see and hear everything except anything overtly religious. And of course,
he had. Dr. Richard Gallagher, in his book Demonic Fos, references a case known as Catherine,
where she experienced selective deafness with religious terms. For example, he writes, quote,
her loss of hearing was so specific that it seemed implausible to suspect anything other than
demonic activity. When asked if she was trusting in God's help, she would reply,
trusting what? Or when shown a piece of paper asking if she had attended Mass, she would respond,
why are you just showing me, a blank piece of paper? Turns out, there are some historical case examples
of this as well. In the mid-1800s, Theobald and Joseph Bruner, two brothers from France,
were both reportedly possessed, according to many witnesses in parish records.
The elder Theobald allegedly became deaf during the course of his possessions,
but unlike Catherine, lost his hearing for a lengthy period of time.
Again, this is not a common thing, and I have only heard of this in a few incidents.
But hey, you heard it here or didn't.
Demons have a variety of evasive strategies they will employ
to prevent people from becoming liberated,
especially when they are being ministered to by a priest.
The most common strategy is to manifest
of a vehement aversion to sacred objects
since merely being in the proximity of something holy
is injurious to them.
However, this manifestation can be faint,
which is why the church cannot rely on it exclusively.
Someone who is not at all oppressed,
but who desires the attention and sympathy
that can come along with a condition
can take the sight of an exorcist coming at him with a religious object
as his cue to begin play acting.
Another, while not overtly faking,
but who is someone who possesses an imagination that is so sensitive
that he cannot distinguish between what he imagines from what is real
can render a false positive.
Thus, an exorcist merely seeing what appears to be an aversion to religious objects
is insufficient to diagnose the presence of evil.
Other testing is necessary.
I share in season one that I have a test where I recite a Latin text
that an alleged victim will believe to be a prayer in Latin,
but in reality is just a non-religious secular article.
But because it is in Latin, it sounds like a prayer.
And should the person begin manifesting during it, well,
it is clearly a case of fakery.
However, if the victim remains calm and silent, when I recite it,
but then suddenly goes wild when I suddenly switch to actual Latin prayers from the right of exorcism,
well, that's far more telling.
If I was told that someone suddenly had an inability to see or hear the words of scripture,
would I assume demonization?
Not at all.
First of all, how would I know that such a person is telling the truth?
You can't test for that experience, but have to simply rely on that person's work.
To render a proper diagnosis, you have to force the demon to manifest in a way he doesn't want to.
You have to pull him out of the subjective realm and into the objective, and that necessitates strategizing.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
When Gloria suddenly could not perceive the word of God,
her husband Paul went into resolution mode.
He assumed there had to be a natural explanation,
and he looked for one.
While spouses accused their significant other
of selective hearing all the time,
this, of course, was different and more disturbing.
Paul called Father David, explaining to him what was happening.
Father David had never heard of such a thing, but knew enough about spiritual warfare to suspect that this could be more than just a psychological issue.
Yeah, that's right.
The first time she had this splitting migraine, and then the second time,
Garner came down on this intense exhaustion.
Like, you know, she could barely get out.
You could barely get out of bed.
I couldn't move it.
Like, I truly could not get out of bed even if I wanted to.
Yeah, it's terrible.
I mean, it's just, I've been thinking, do you think this could just be some kind of like,
internal resistance, like a Freud thing.
Like maybe both of us are scared to go back to church or something.
I don't know.
Like, it's just, this is incredibly weird.
I mean, that seems like a stretch.
I mean, right.
But maybe we missed something.
Maybe we missed it.
You know, we're afraid to replace it.
There's some rational explanation for all of this.
Has to be.
Thank you, Father.
Father David prayed for her.
Nothing happened.
There was no manifestation or outward sign
any agitation.
I feel the same.
Fine, I guess.
I mean, I heard you.
That's a good sign, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, sure.
Okay.
Rejoicing the Lord always.
I say it again.
Rejoice.
I can hear.
I can hear.
Wait.
I can hear it.
Really?
Yes.
Okay.
Oh, here.
How about this one?
Okay.
in the beginning was the word.
Yes, yes, yes.
Oh, honey, okay, this is amazing.
Okay, oh, thank God.
Okay, that's incredible.
Wow.
Where's my phone?
Gloria found that her ability to hear scripture had suddenly returned,
and she was now able to perceive God's word.
It would seem that Father David's prayer had an instantaneous effect
and removed whatever was blocking her hearing.
I don't know, maybe I,
Maybe I imagined it all.
Oh, great God.
I mean, a little.
With the mysterious blockage gone,
both of them felt an incredible amount of relief.
Nevertheless, Father David was concerned with Gloria's practicing yoga.
He admonished her to stop,
since it is an activity that is inherently religious.
And, to be on the safe side,
he also encouraged them to contact me.
But I'm better now.
I know.
So much praise.
Can't hurt.
Can't hurt, then.
Okay.
I know I just don't want to bother anyone, you know.
Okay.
Oh, thank God.
In the words of the prophet Frankie Valley, oh, what a night.
Now, from where I sit, it seems that if you suddenly cannot hear the words from the Bible, and then a priest prays for you, and then suddenly you can, well, that feels like a Jeff Foxworthy joke.
If your ears give out when you hear the word of God, well, you must.
Well, you might have a demon.
Now, since I try to be the resident skeptic on this show, I wondered, is there a natural explanation
for what occurred?
There might be.
There's a condition called auditory processing disorder, where people who have perfectly
functioning hearing hear words, but their brain doesn't process them correctly.
Such persons are unable to decode sounds as words and thus can have language comprehension
issues.
To be clear, it is distinct from hearing loss.
A person with auditory processing disorder hears sounds normally, but the brain is simply unable to translate sounds into meaningful messages.
The condition can be caused by head injury, genetic factors, or exasperated by anxiety.
Here's what we know about Gloria.
We know she had some sort of skiing accident which caused a bad back.
Could there have been some head trauma involved?
We also know that she was under stress from moving across the country, and that stress boiled over at that moment.
We've all been in situations under stress where we've been in situations under stress where we've been.
We do forget something.
Can't find the words or forget how to perform a basic action we've done a thousand times.
Perhaps getting up to give a speech, for example, and having our memory go blank.
But what about visual elements?
Gloria also claimed to have a visual inability to see God's word, a condition also exhibited
by Catherine and Dr. Gallagher's book.
Well, it turns out there is such a thing as visual processing disorder, where folks struggle
to make meaning out of what they see, especially in written form.
And scotoma migraine auras might explain the blank spots too.
A scotoma is the medical term for a visual field abnormality or a blind spot.
People who suffer from scotomas experience a partially degenerated visual image
that is surrounded by a field of normal vision.
Something in their sight may be distorted, but everything else around it can be normal.
Actually, migraines are one of the primary causes of scotomas.
And remember, Gloria had complained of splitting headaches.
The question could be asked again.
Could this have come from her skiing injury?
we simply don't know. And of course, the fact that everything cleared up after prayer
with a close friend who happens to be a priest, well, that could be psychosomatic healing. Remember
in the movie The Exorcist, the doctors recommend the exorcism, not because of its spiritual
efficacy, but because of its ability to cure the victim's delusion of being demonized, they said.
So might Gloria's condition be the result of anxiety and some sort of processing disorder?
One of the things I find most interesting about human living is how we can experience something acutely.
And then, when it is over, we doubt our experience of the experience.
In glorious case, she began to wonder if her scripture blockage was all in her head.
And that Father David's prayer simply removed a psychological roadblock.
Now, for anyone who says that that sounds completely.
ridiculous. Look at the scriptures. In the book of Exodus, the Israelites literally walk through the
sea as Moses parts it, and one chapter later, they are grumbling about whether God even cares for them.
The apostles were with Jesus three years, seeing him perform miracles no one else had ever before
done, and even performing them alongside him. And then, after his passion and death, which he predicted
began to doubt whether there was any truth to his words.
It is a reality of the human experience
that miraculous and supernatural happenings are easy to doubt.
But there is more to the story.
One night Paul got up to get a glass of water
and came back to their bedroom.
As he got back into bed, he felt something brush the covers.
He looked down and saw Gloria's left hand
was in a tantric formation
and was rotating in circles.
Yoga practice employs hundreds of symbolic hand gestures called mudras.
Gloria was specifically using what is called the Gaian Mudra.
The word Gaian means knowledge.
Yoga practitioners use this hand gesture to stimulate and signal their receptivity to knowledge,
wisdom, and elevated consciousness.
The index figure is believed to represent
Jupiter, a planet which Hindu astrology associates with knowledge and expansion.
Alternatively, the index finger can also symbolize the person's individual soul.
Linking the thumb with the index finger represents the union of individual consciousness
with universal consciousness.
The Gaian Mudra is one of the most commonly used mudras, and in many schools of yoga,
it is one of the several techniques employed
to help awaken Kundalini energy.
The guy in mudra is formed by joining the tips of the thumb and index finger together,
while keeping the other three fingers straight and relaxed.
This mudra is believed to stimulate knowledge, wisdom,
and the ability to concentrate and focus the mind.
It is said to kindle the body's air element,
improving the nervous system's function and the pituitary glands production,
thereby enhancing memory power and concentration levels.
The index finger in the mudra represents,
since Jupiter, the planet of expansion and good luck, while the thumb represents the ego.
Joining these two fingers is thought to impart receptivity, calmness, and the ability to gain
knowledge.
So, in short, the three-finger Guy and Madra, formed by touching the thumb and indexed fingertips
together, is an important hand gesture in kundalini yoga practices aimed at enhancing focus
wisdom and overall mental well-being.
As the days went on, Paul debated about how to broach the subject with Gloria.
He watched as she began to experience more and more headaches.
Finally, he confronted her.
Uh, hey.
You scared me.
Your head hurt again?
Um, yeah, but it's fine.
It's three days in a row.
So, hey, I'm sorry to spring this on your first thing, but...
What do you think about calling that priest?
Father David recommended?
The exorcist?
Why would we do that?
Wait, you're not still worried, are you?
Well, it's just...
That was really weird, and I can't stop thinking about seeing you.
I'm fine, okay?
Honestly, I'm fine.
That's just it, Gloria.
I don't think you're fine.
Something is off.
I'm not going to go see an exorcist, Paul.
Listen to yourself.
That's ridiculous.
It was a panic attack.
People have panic attacks.
A few minutes later, Paul got up to get another cup of coffee and looked over.
Gloria's hand was moving again.
Gloria.
Yes.
Look at your hand.
That's, it's a habit.
That's it.
Right?
I really don't think so.
The headaches are back and now this, let's just call the priest.
In his gut, Father did.
David suspected that Gloria had picked up some sort of spiritual contamination. Having heard of my work,
and our having a common priest friend who facilitated an appointment with me, he encouraged them to see me.
Why did Gloria resist Father David's suggestions that she do so? For you, the listener, it may seem
clear that she ought to see an exorcist. After all, what harm can there be in it? However,
If someone suggested that you see an exorcist, well, for many, that would be an unnerving and embarrassing prospect.
I know adult men who are large and physically intimidating, who won't even go see a doctor to check out a mole.
Now imagine someone saying to one of them, you might need an exorcist.
You can see how he might find it disconcerting.
Nevertheless, at Paul Zerging, Gloria reached out to me.
We did an introductory call the following day.
I had her fill out my intake form, and we went over it together.
To me, it seemed at least probable that the problem's root was spiritual.
All her manifestations, being unable to hear Scripture, being unable to attend Mass without a migraine erupting,
and the self-movement of her hand in a yoga gesture, were all spiritual in nature.
and she exhibited no non-spiritual manifestations.
Gloria's involvement with yoga was definitely the suspect cause of her contamination.
While the Catholic Church has not yet put out a definitive teaching on yoga,
if you do an internet search on the terms Catholics and yoga,
you will see a great many pages saying that there is nothing morally wrong with the practice of yoga.
To be fair, many will say,
that it should not be used as a form of worship, or even as a way to enhance one's worship.
But if done for the purposes of exercise and improving physical health,
doing yoga is fine because there is nothing inherently evil in its physical movements.
However, what these articles fail to investigate is whether there is something spiritually wrong with yoga.
The poses, postures, and movements in yoga are by their very nature.
religious actions that are designed to connect you with what yoga practitioners call
the universal self or the universal consciousness.
The very word yoga comes from Sanskrit and it means to yoke.
That should give one pause.
Just what is the yoga practitioner yoking himself to?
The spirit that animates each of the poses, that's what.
A close examination of yoga's poses will reveal that they are anything but spiritually neutral.
Alexander Frank is a former yoga practitioner who converted to the Catholic faith in 2019
from Kashmiri Shiavism, a sophisticated form of yoga and the origin of yoga's modern manifestations.
Interestingly, he has some pretty blistering comments on the nuts and bolts of some of the most common yoga poses.
The warrior pose is a three-part pose that invokes the god, the Urabadra.
Virabhadra was made by the god Shiva in order to murder Shiva's father-in-law.
The three poses imitate the sequence of the murder.
Sianna Sherman, the founder of Rasa Yoga,
informs us that the goddess pose invokes the dark goddess Kali,
known for making clothes out of the body parts of slain enemies.
In addition, one of yoga's quintessential poses is the lotus pose.
In an article about it, Nora Isaacs, a well-known practitioner of yoga
and a writer for the online journal, yogajournal.com,
states, quote, Lotus holds the alluring potential to awaken the dormant energy
known as Kundalini at the base of the spine and move the energy up the chakra system.
This dormant energy, called Kundalini, is a serpent that Hindu and yogis believe lives at the base of the spine.
The practice of yoga is meant to awaken the kundalini and send it up the spine
in order to take possession of one's real self and then yoke that self to the universal consciousness.
Beakram Chowdhury, a yoga guru, and the founder of Beakram Yoga,
one of the most popular forms of yoga, said the lotus posture itself awakens the kundalini.
The effect, he says, is that with kundalini active, you can essentially become whatever you want.
You could become Jesus Christ or Buddha, he asserts.
And to be sure, millions of people are practicing yoga, and I'm going to guess 99% of them
are probably not walking around demonized because of it.
However, the poses and gestures in yoga have a spiritual foundation.
The upshot is that even if one engages in yoga,
merely as a form of physical activity that does not disassociate it from its spirituality.
Since yoga was created to yoke oneself to spirits, that yoke is not broken simply because
you don't want it to be there. According to Father, yoga is incompatible with Christianity,
and to practice it is to open a door, and you never know what may be on the other side of that door.
No matter who you are or how strong your faith is, or even how irreligious you are,
practicing yoga is a rolling of the dice, a spiritual roulette, which everyone needs.
to know before deciding to play.
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No notes.
Why did Father David insist that Gloria see me, even though her symptoms had abated?
He knew that if what Gloria was experiencing was of supernatural origin, it would be vital
to nip it at the root, not just tearing off the weeds above ground.
If the demonic had attached itself to Gloria,
its right to do so had to be removed.
When Gloria and Paul arrived for our meeting,
we exchanged pleasantries,
and I started off by giving them a brief tour of the church.
My real motive for doing this was to see how she reacted
by being inside a church.
As we moved throughout it,
Gloria seemed fine and showed no outward sign of any discomfort.
comfort. She walked around calm and comfortable. I found myself wondering, how was Gloria now able to go to
church without experiencing her usual fatigue and headaches? Well, according to Father Martins,
if a demon was present, he would be on his best behavior. He knew he was in the principal's office,
and if he didn't hold it together, his presence would be made known. And of course, if the principal saw
him, he was headed for expulsion. This is beautiful, isn't it? It was built in 1923 and
And this, this over here is Travertine and Basalt.
Okay, see how much they contrast each other?
It represents how light emerges from the darkness the further we go into the church.
Wow, it's gorgeous.
Yeah, it's really nice.
Gloria, it doesn't remind you back home?
It's just beautiful, man.
Okay, follow me, guys.
I have a space for us to meet.
I led them into an office, and since they had traveled a great distance for the meeting,
we got right down to business.
Okay, Gloria, I'd love.
you to take a seat there. Please make yourself comfortable. Paul, you can sit here.
Okay. So do we do this in Latin? Is there any holy water or...
Oh, this isn't like the movies. I'm just going to pray for you and see if anything comes up.
And what's my rule? What's my rule? Great question, Paul. I'm going to have you right here
praying for your wife. And as her husband, you have a unique station and a
authority to do that. Do you understand?
Is anything that happened? I mean, I mean, we told you, you know, I've just, I've just been
having a lot of, well, some residual anxiety. We've had a lot happening with the move, but,
but like, I'm totally, I'm fine. That could very well be the case. Most of the time,
nothing happens.
Most, wait, wait, most of the time? Yeah, almost always. Look, we are just going to do some
prayer and see what God wants to do. Something may happen, but probably not. And if it does, Jesus is in
control. So, with that said, Gloria, may I place my hand on your shoulder? Yes, Father. I laid my hand on
her shoulder and began praying. Partway through my prayer, I asked Gloria if she could hear the
prayer. She replied that she could. I read out some scripture. She heard that as well and was able to
repeat it back. I thought, okay, whatever it was, it appears to be gone. Nevertheless, because yoga is at
heart, a spirituality formed to yoke those who practice it to Hindu deities. I wanted her to
renounce it. I explained that such renunciations are necessary to ensure that all doors that were
opened in her practice of yoga were closed. To my surprise, she seemed slightly agitated and pushed back
against this. But I do yoga as a form of stretching and exercise. It has helped my back a lot.
I never summoned anything. Gloria Yoga was a concession to spirit.
spiritual realities that contradict Christian teaching.
Its poses represent a kind of liturgy that forge a connection with foreign spiritual realities.
I know that your intention was to use it as an exercise, and I also know that you never saw it as a religious activity.
But it is a religious act that you need to renounce.
So I'm going to lead you through some renunciations.
Renunciations.
Yes, we are going to close any doorways.
opened in you to evil spirits.
I'm not saying there are evil spirits in you.
I am saying that if there are, we want them out.
Okay. I guess I can accept that.
Great. So please repeat after me.
In the name of Jesus, I renounce engaging in an action that entailed accepting idols.
But, Father, I didn't accept idols. Why am I renouncing them?
Gloria, come on.
You may have not intentionally accepted idols,
but your practice of yoga opened a doorway that gave rights to demons.
It doesn't matter whether you intended to do so or not.
You engaged in a pagan religious practice,
whether or not you understood it to be such.
So please, please repeat,
I renounce accepting idols and granting rights to them.
Okay, okay, I understand.
And I confess to accepting...
Honey.
And, well, that's when the show started.
Demons will take great pains to avoid detection.
But once you get close to removing their rights,
they spring into action to protect them.
And they come at you with fangs.
Gloria.
Father, what's going on, father?
Do something.
Gloria rose up out of her chair and began moving in a strange commingling of rhythmic dancing and pulsing.
All the while, her tongue darted in and out of her mouth as she hissed loudly.
Worship, be able to your worship.
Excuse me, my wife, we've got to protect my wife.
I have seen a possessed person slither around the floor like a snake.
many exorcists have.
In the previous episode of this podcast,
Father Dan Rehill recounted his encounter with such an experience.
But what I had never seen to this point, however,
was a demon actually performing the yoga poses,
which I can only assume were the same ones Gloria had learned in class.
The demon kept her body in what I believe was a version of the tree pose,
where her two hands were pressed together in front,
front of her chest, not unlike a Christian might fold his hands in prayer, while the flat of the
bottom of her foot was pressed against the inner thigh of the other leg. Departing from that pose,
the demon would then flamboyantly bend and contort her body in strange ways, while moving her
fingers and feet in rhythmic circles, and then back into the tree pose or into some other pose.
What the hell's happening to you, Gloria?
Paul, Paul, don't engage with it.
It's not your wife you're talking to.
Let me do the talking.
All of this was an attempt on the demon's part to provide a masterful distraction.
It was like watching a Cirque de Soleil act in the middle of an exorcism session.
As Paul started praying, I engage the enemy.
Demon, I command you now be still.
The demon kept moving and contorting.
Demon, I command you to be still and sit down in the chair.
Jesus, please help my wife here, Lord.
Please help my wife, Lord.
Please help me, please, God.
I just pray in the name of Jesus, please help.
Please, Lord.
Silence, mortal, this is my bride.
Paul, Paul, ignore it.
That is not, Gloria.
Please just keep praying.
I just pray, Lord Jesus.
Demon, be still.
It took two more commands, but the demon finally stopped and sat down in the chair.
He sat there, clenching his fists, and looking at me with vengeful eyes, all the while flickering glorious tongue in and out like a snake.
Now, demon, I command you by the authority of Christ and his church.
Tell me your name.
Ordinarily, demons guard their name.
and refused to reveal them, at least not without a fight.
This one gave it to me right away.
Why?
While I cannot say for certain, I have a strong hunch.
This demon had an air of royalty and show.
Pride oozed off of him.
He liked to be looked at and was glad to present himself for display.
And it was clear that he expected devotion.
Giving his name to me from the get-go fit in with his type of pride.
In fact, he might not have even been able to help himself.
Kundalini, what rights do you have over Gloria?
I've always been there.
Ready, but she is a licking house.
That is a lie. You have not always been with her.
What rights do you have?
She invited me.
Every day she worships me.
She serves me.
I am our God.
Again, the demon complied and quickly.
Eagerly, he let us know that Gloria welcomed him.
And how did she summon you?
The demon suddenly stood up again and started bending into various contortions
while flickering his tongue in and out like a serpent.
He had rolled Gloria's eyes into her hands.
head such that I could only see the whites. To his credit, Paul remained vigilant and just kept his head
down in prayer. I'm convinced that what happened next was a direct result of his brain.
Demon, in the name of Jesus, sit down now and be still. At that command, Gloria was thrown down
into her chair. Demon, tell me how Gloria invited you specifically.
point.
It's no what she said.
The demon then raised Gloria's middle finger at me.
Cations verbal.
I would never say this in an exorcism.
But the demon had a point.
It is a fact that not all communications verbal.
There isn't much humor in my line of work, but in a way,
what just happened was kind of funny.
May I day, weak by week, she summons me, bows to me, and brings me her worship.
I am her god.
The demon then attempted to move into another pose, but I repeated my command to be still.
Demon, keep your hands at your sides and remain seated.
Gloria, Gloria, I'm speaking to you now.
We are going to continue and rescind these rights.
Gloria's indisposed at the moment.
Even men.
Gloria, Gloria, I know you can hear me.
Gloria, repeat after me.
Priest, apparently you cannot hear either.
Gloria can't hear you!
At this point, I was not certain that Gloria could hear me.
I paused to pray for a moment and felt prompted to invite Paul to join me in reading Scripture.
Given that this spirit was doing everything he could do.
doing everything he could to keep Gloria from hearing the word of God. It seemed good to me to pepper
him with Scripture. I have a list of verses that I keep handy, and I asked Paul to read them with me.
Resist the devil, and he will plead from you, stand firm. We are clean from any sin. Behold,
I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions.
My bruise the heel we shall.
And having disarmed the powers and authority,
and having disarmed the powers and authorities,
he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross.
Despite the retorts by the demon,
each verse was hitting him like a hammer.
He tried to suppress it,
but the pain in his voice was becoming a,
evident. That third one struck a nerve. As we continued reading scripture, I noticed something.
Gloria's mouth was moving as we read the words.
Or although we are in the flesh, we do not battle according to the flesh, for the weapons
of our battle are not of flesh, but are enormously powerful, capable of destroying
fortresses. Your weapons are nothing. She is my disciple.
The Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword,
penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow,
and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
The demons seemed to be in conflict.
Gloria was moving her mouth and reading the scriptures with us.
Evidently, Gloria could hear us and was engaging in her own liberation
by reciting the verses with us.
Gloria, say, I renounce you, Kundalini.
While no sound came out, her lips moved,
as she mowed the words I asked her to say.
A loud hiss came out of her,
and her body slumped forward.
No!
Suddenly, Gloria's head perked up,
and she spoke for the first time
since the manifestation started.
She appeared completely.
normal. Gloria! Gloria! Gloria! You're going to be just fine. You're safe. You're safe. I start praying for you
you in a demon manifested, but God and his truth overpowered him. It was like being in a glass case.
I could hear you muffled out first, but your voice kept getting louder and clear. Uh-huh. So through
practicing your yoga, you invited a demon. But let's finish, there were not a number. There were
And ensure that he no longer has any rights over you.
It's gone though, right, Father?
I mean, she seems fine.
You saw that thing like peaked out.
No, Paul, he's right.
I can still feel something.
Yes, yes, yes.
We weakened it and broke its hold,
but unless we formally revoke its rights,
it can claim them and come back.
Okay.
Let's continue with the renunciations.
And sever evil bonds.
Ratifications forge holy ones.
ones. Okay. So please repeat after me. I rededicate my life to Jesus Christ and ask him as my
Savior to set me free. I rededicating my life to Jesus Christ and ask him as my Savior to set me free.
Good, good. Okay, Gloria, I am going to speak to the demon now. Don't be alarmed. Okay.
Kundalini, I'm speaking to you now.
Do you have any other rights over Gloria?
Answer me.
No.
That's what I thought.
Then by the power and authority of Jesus Christ,
as a minister of his gospel and with the authority of his church,
I cast you out, Kundalini, and any others with you,
and demand you leave this child of God now, never to return.
be off to the place created for you and the devils, your suffering is well deserved.
Gloria suddenly stiffened, and her head cocked back and there was a loud crack like a spinal adjustment.
She went still.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked up.
It's gone.
Is it really?
Father, it's gone for good, right?
It is.
Its rights are removed, and it's back in the dumpster.
Can someone just bring me a verse?
Uh-huh.
Please, just ring me a verse.
I want to hear God's word.
Um, okay.
Uh,
the Lord is the son and shield.
Oh, thank you, Jesus.
Oh, thank you, God.
Praise God, Paul.
You got quite an education in spiritual warfare today, huh?
Yeah.
And this was all just from yoga.
I mean, but what about all the other girls in her class?
Why aren't they all demonized?
Well, how do you know that they aren't?
Paul asked,
billion-dollar question.
What about all the others who practice yoga?
Why aren't they infected?
Just because a demon gains the rights to someone does not mean he immediately exercises
them.
Our enemy plays the long game.
He's all about relationship.
He's always after rights and collects them.
But here's the kicker.
He doesn't always exercise those rights immediately.
He patiently waits for the most opportune time.
Sounds like this movie is over.
Paul, I think we need to get back into church,
and I need to switch to a spin class.
Amen.
Okay, wow.
Even exorcism can't stop my wife.
I'm joking.
Okay, you're crazy, huh?
You're crazy.
I keep you entertained.
Yep, that's true.
But I'm free.
Mm.
Thank you, Father.
Today, I experienced the love.
in the power of Christ.
Hey, you're welcome, but save all the thanks for Jesus.
He's the real exorcist.
Gloria was delivered.
Hers was an uncommon, one-and-done exorcism.
Her case illustrates that sometimes
you don't even realize you've opened a door
until something terrible has slipped in.
As we leave this case, I want to say a word about yoga.
I'm a priest sharing.
my experiences. I know that many people do yoga apart from having any religious intention,
and I don't want to leave listeners with the impression that if they did yoga 10 years ago,
that they are now oppressed. The point of my sharing this case is simply to say that it is my belief
as a Catholic priest, borne out by my experience as an exorcist, that to do yoga,
is to roll the dice. And friend, take it from me. You don't want to gamble when it comes to demons.
So I'm sure we'll get more than a handful of emails on this topic. Again, we encourage listeners,
do your own research. You don't have to agree with everything Father says. He's just sharing his
experiences. And for the record, he is also highly critical of bad grammar and iceberg lettuce.
But that's just because of taste for the lettuce. It's not on religious grounds that he opposes it.
You can write us a note, subscribe to our premium vault service,
and get some of our anointed merchandise by going to exorcistfiles.tv or clicking the link in the show notes.
Father also has a book coming out, and if you want to pre-order that, you can go to exorcistfiles.tv,
that'll really help him out.
The role of Gloria was played by Laura Stein, Paul by Jared Lehmaster, and Father David by Gary Lawrence.
Father Martins was played by Paul Leach.
It takes a legion of people to make this show possible, so thank you sound designers,
editors and mixers Dan Blesinger and Michelle Martinez, music and scoring by James Cavell and Tom Strayley.
Script was written by Ryan Bethay and Carlos Martens.
The episode also featured script doctoring and assistance from the very talented Paul Leach.
Research was provided by John Brundage, executive producers of Father Carlos Martens and Ryan Bethay.
