Fighting Malevolent Spirits: A Demonologist's Darkest Encounters

by Samantha E. Harris

  In June of 2009 a distraught woman contacted me about a haunting she and her family were experiencing. Clarissa was a mother of four and a wife to Rick; they had recently married each other after leaving previous spouses. Clarissa asked me where she could find white sage smudging supplies as she intended to perform a house cleansing. She stated that she wanted to remove a negative spirit from her home and wondered if I knew of any stores nearby that carried the supplies. I gave her some references and advice and told her to let me know how her cleansing went. I had taught many individuals how to remove hauntings and to cleanse their homes with much success. Clarissa seemed ambitious and strong enough to properly conduct a cleansing, so I had considerable faith in her efforts.

  Two weeks later I sent her a follow-up e-mail to see how the cleansing went and if she still needed help. I never heard from her again until seven months later in January of 2010. I was surprised to receive her second e-mail; so much time had passed since we last spoke. I had assumed that everything had gone well and she did not need any further help. I was wrong.

  It seems like it’s getting stronger, she wrote. Clarissa explained that another paranormal group from the area had attempted to perform a cleansing, which they botched, and on several later occasions the group stood the family up. The activity flared up and more damage was done at the hands of the inexperienced group.

  Clarissa mentioned that Rick would anoint the headboard in the sign of the cross every night with holy water, only to be tormented by horrible nightmares. They sought assistance from their family’s church but received little help other than an invitation to join in on the church services.

  One morning Clarissa spoke to the entity in her home and sarcastically said, “See you in church!” After attending Mass that day, she awoke later with a temperature of 104.6 degrees Fahrenheit and became violently ill for a long period, without a viable rationalization from the doctors. Clarissa sought more outside help; she contacted priests, but they were reluctant to assist.

  I could sense her frustration. I am disappointed in the lack of assistance from many churches these days. Very few ministries are willing to help and I feel they have forgotten their obligations to the public and God. Clarissa had exhausted every possible route aside from bringing in an exorcist.

  Clarissa’s youngest daughter Cally reported seeing moving shadows in her room at night and a “catlike figure”—a small, black creature with eyes like a feline. I knew I was not dealing with a typical human spirit. This was something more sinister.

  Clarissa was exhausted and wanted this entity removed. She wrote that she hadn’t slept much in almost a year. Clarissa’s employer was becoming aggravated with how much work she was missing and she was always severely fatigued on the job. Even her coworkers began to think she was crazy after overhearing her talk about the entity.

  Clarissa was desperate for help and felt very alone. I worried for Clarissa and Rick, and especially for their young children, and wanted to pursue this case immediately. First I had to ask the previous paranormal group several questions about the cleansing they performed and find out what exactly went wrong. Unbeknownst to me, I walked into a political and territorial scene in the paranormal community.

  I was taken aback to find out that some paranormal groups are unfortunately working on behalf of lower ambitions. These groups seem to be set on acquiring as many cases as possible, fame and thrills—forgetting that their primary objective should be helping the clients. The paranormal group I contacted still felt they had “rights” to the case despite not returning phone calls to Clarissa, ignoring her for many months, conducting a failed cleansing, and making matters worse. I never intrude on another group’s case, but it was clear they had put this case on the back burner or had given up.

  Clarissa made it very clear to me that she wished to no longer associate with that group and that she welcomed my help. I relayed the message to the previous group and subsequently received many confused and harassing e-mails from them. The leader greatly struggled with comprehending that Clarissa resigned their group from the case. Trying to remain professional, and keeping the goal of helping Clarissa in mind, I ended communications with the group. I was given little information and walked away from the situation more confused than I was before talking with them. It was useless but a good lesson learned.

  With all the political drama behind me, I could now continue with scheduling a blessing for Clarissa and her family.

  She wrote: “P.S. I think it can read our thoughts. Is that possible?”

  Although Clarissa described a very powerful entity in our discussions, I was not prepared to hear the horrific details upon meeting with the family. It was surreal.

  On February 12, 2010, Carl and I prepared to perform our afternoon cleansing for Clarissa’s home. I was drying my hair in our bathroom that morning when I witnessed something not of this world. I had flipped my hair upside down and was brushing through it when some movement in the corner caught my eye. I looked into our living room area and saw what was at least a seven-foot-tall entity dart across the room. It was black, lanky, and moved at an incredible speed.

  My heart raced as I threw down the hair dryer. I ran into the living room. I spun around, looking about the room. Nothing was there. I somehow found my voice through the violation I felt. “Get the hell out of my house! You are not welcome here! Whether you like it or not, we’re still coming to do the cleansing! You’re not going to scare me off!” I yelled as if I were kicking a drunk out of a bar. I looked outside the kitchen window and saw Carl with my two English Bulldogs by the garage.

  I opened the screen door and called to Carl. “A seven-foot-tall demon just flew through our freaking living room!” I’m grateful our neighbor didn’t hear my wild accusations. I had never seen anything like it before.

  Carl became upset that it had visited me in our home, trying to ward me off from performing the day’s cleansing. I felt safe in the rental home, whether it was actually protected or not, and having a demon visit inside the home immediately tossed that idea right out the window. The Bulldogs, Jack and Annabelle, of course had no idea what had just happened and were content with chewing away on their toys and soon drifted off to sleep. I am glad that neither Carl nor the dogs had to experience what I saw—it was truly disturbing. After regaining my composure, I continued getting ready and was soon prepared to leave. Another strange morning.

  We arrived at Clarissa’s house earlier than expected and pulled up to the condominium home. I like to play a “first impressions game” in which I try to psychically pick up on the home and the spirits present before speaking with the clients.

  “How do you feel, Carl?” I asked inquisitively.

  “I feel … amorous,” Carl said with confusion. I didn’t realize until later how foreshadowing that comment was in regards to the nature of the case.

  Carl and I met with Clarissa’s husband Rick to figure out how and why the entity had come into their lives. Clarissa was away at work, but during her lunch break she was able to come home for a half hour to talk with us briefly. During the discussion and interview, I was told that Clarissa’s ex-husband was familiar with the dark arts and had performed Santeria hexes before. After reviewing the possible causes of the presence, I theorized that her ex-husband had sent her a demonic entity in retaliation after learning that Clarissa was getting remarried. In fact, following the notice of the upcoming marriage, her ex-husband sent her a text message reading, “Die.” Shortly after, Clarissa and Rick began experiencing the entity in their home. It seemed more than coincidental.

  I recorded the interview on my digital voice recorder for documentation reasons, not fully expecting that I would capture a very disturbing EVP. Rick had been talking about how I should try lying down on their master bed, like the previous paranormal group did, to experience the inappropriate touching of the entity. The entity seemed to enjoy the idea of me laying on the bed and
wanted to encourage me to participate. The EVP entails a sleazy and cunning male voice saying, “Sweetheart, try this, won’t you?” This was directly in response to when Rick discussed the touching on the bed at the time the EVP was recorded.

  I never did lie on the bed but instead pushed forward with the interview and cleansing. After later hearing the EVP I was glad I didn’t participate in the “bed experiment.” I never want to give an entity an advantage or a way to manipulate me—I had to stay on track with my objective to remove the demon.

  As I sat there taking notes about the case, I was mortified to find out that the entity was sexually assaulting and raping Clarissa and Rick. They had never mentioned anything this severe in their e-mail and I was a bit shocked. Now I understood why Carl was picking up on the sexual nature of the case when I asked him his first impression, and I wonder if this same entity influenced Carl long after the case.

  I had read numerous case studies in which victims were being sexually harassed, but it was entirely different to hear these clients share the same experiences right in front of me. They described a telepathic connection with the entity in which they would mentally instruct the entity to perform a certain sexual act. As if reading their minds, the demon would follow the instructions precisely. “We thought it was funny at first,” Clarissa explained. “We thought it was just some horny ghost.” As the “fun and games” progressed, eventually they were forcefully penetrated and raped by the entity. It was finally showing its true colors.

  Interestingly enough, the entity seemed to switch between sexes depending on whom it was presenting itself to. If it was molesting Rick, the entity would have female characteristics such as breasts and a vagina. If it was molesting Clarissa, the entity would have a distinct penis and male genitals. My stomach sank as I realized we were dealing with an incubus and a succubus.

  On a quick side note, I actually believe that this incubus and succubus could be the same entity. Demons are well-known for shape shifting and manifesting themselves into various illusions—why couldn’t it simply change sexes depending on which victim it was harassing? We have numerous organisms on this earth that can change sexes; perhaps the same phenomena exists in the paranormal world. Also, Clarissa and Rick were never assaulted at the same time, thus leading me to believe there was only one entity performing the sexual acts at any given time. The only thing preventing me from fully accepting this theory for this case was that there were two distinct male and female voices captured as an EVP during my interview with Clarissa and Rick. However, for the sake of writing I will simply refer to the incubus and succubus as one entity in this story.

  During this discussion the digital voice recorder picked up another EVP of a female voice, panting and moaning in a sexual manner, followed by her saying, “It’s a job.” As if the succubus’s sexual harassment and raping was something it considered being a job and a chore. Years later I wondered if the entity actually said “Izajasz,” which is a birth name that means “God is salvation.” Demons seem to love to mock the holy and divine, so it would be fitting and in poor taste—something demons excel at.

  In the back of my mind I felt that Rick may have been having an extra-marital affair; however, I could have been sensing the private sexual relationship he shared with the succubus. The sexual connection Clarissa and Rick had with the entity would be enough to cause a deep rift in their marriage—just as a third-party affair would cause. It was completely unhealthy for their relationship and now the entity was destroying the couple’s trust and faith in each other.

  As with many of the cases mentioned in this book, there are numerous ways to break down the trust and structure of a family or relationship. In this particular case, the demon chose to use humankind’s sexual desire against Clarissa and Rick to gain a hold on their lives. What started off as just pure sexual behavior soon turned into violent rapes and assaults, proving that demons will often first appear as something entirely different and innocent, then turn more sinister.

  As we sat talking with Rick and Clarissa, their small Maltese dog began barking and growling. Sitting in the dining room chair, I had my back to the dog and the couch it sat on. Slowly, the dog began climbing up the couch and perched itself on the highest part, sniffing the air and growling. When we first arrived the dog was very friendly towards us and I gave it lots of affection. Now, it leaned forward and began inspecting the back of my neck. At the same time, I felt the evil presence of the demon come into the room. I believe the entity then stood close to me, trying to bait the dog towards me in an angry manner—perhaps trying to startle me.

  “It’s here,” Carl stated.

  Rick and Clarissa both confirmed that they also felt a change in the room. I sat there calmly, figuring that the demon was likely stirring up trouble, waiting for a reaction and trying to distract us. Clarissa scolded the dog and eventually it returned to its spot on the couch. I was slightly concerned that the dog would try to bite my neck and was happy to see it retire to the sofa.

  I finished my long interview with Clarissa and Rick and decided it was time to proceed with the house blessing. Clarissa had to return to work, as she was already running late from her lunch break. I was sad to see her leave, but she hoped to return from work later in the evening to a changed home—a peaceful and relaxing place for her family to live.

  I gathered my supplies and asked Rick to prepare the rooms in the house by opening the windows and closets with us. I unpacked my materials and handed Rick several holy anointing oils for them to keep, in addition to a holy candle. I told him to burn the candle whenever he felt disturbed and to use the oil to anoint themselves and their rooms. Rick was very appreciative and put the items in a safe place until the blessing was finished.

  I could feel the pressure building in the home and knew that I would either be confronted by the demon or it would hide.

  I was a bit hesitant given the fact that this home was a condominium. In my opinion, attached or adjoining homes, like condominiums, are more difficult to cleanse because you can’t fully bless the entire building, thus the entities can simply move to another unit temporarily and return later to haunt once the blessing is finished. I was concerned about not having access to the other units. It was impossible to go around “blessing” everyone’s unit in a condominium! Likely I would end up in a psychiatric ward. There’s that weird girl trying to cast out demons again! No thank you.

  As we began blessing the home we first started from the front door to the back of the house and out towards the sliding door. The Maltese seemed to be comforted by the white sage aroma and soon settled down comfortably on its bed. “That feels better, right?” I sweetly asked the dog. We ascended the stairs towards the kids’ bedrooms and I saw a chinchilla in a cage in the hallway. We later found out it was named Chinchy. It frantically raced about the enclosure and seemed on edge. The entire house seemed to be on pins and needles; I admittedly felt a bit jumpy as well. This was one of the most bizarre and disturbing cases I had dealt with.

  The bedroom of the oldest daughter, Nicole, felt very dense and oppressed. I sensed that the demon spent a lot of time in this room, or was currently present in the room with me. We worked our way through the rooms and into the parents’ bedroom. I also sensed the same dark feeling in the master bedroom, a thick negativity loomed.

  I usually record the counseling sessions with the client for documentation. On this occasion, the digital recorder had been recording the entire time we performed the house blessing. An unusual low, deep rumble was heard on the recorder when I began the smudging part of the ceremony; it seemed to have an effect on the entity.

  I felt there was a connection with the attic space and the bedrooms, as if the entity used the attic as an entrance or place to hide, so we asked Rick if we could borrow a ladder to access the attic. I always bless the attics, basements, crawl spaces, and so on, but wanted to address this area immediately so the entity couldn’t seek refuge
there during the rest of the blessing.

  As Carl braced the ladder, he lifted the door to the attic and I balanced behind him with the abalone shell and white sage smudging supplies. Suddenly, the abalone shell became unbearably hot; I felt the jolt of pain and nearly dropped the shell. It began burning my hands so I had to find an alternative way for me to continue holding the shell. Rick offered an oven mitt, which proved to be very helpful.

  As we continued with the blessing of the attic we began to notice a terrible burning smell stirring through the air. Many demonic entities will manifest odors and foul smells, so I wasn’t completely surprised when I caught a whiff of something like burning rubber. However, the smell became so strong none of us could ignore it.

  During this time Carl was holding the abalone shell with the oven mitt. I finally realized that the oven mitt was starting to burn from the abalone shell! The smoldering white sage was so hot that it was burning through the thick abalone shell and into the mitt beneath it. I had never seen this before—something burning through several dense layers. I think it was apparent that the entity was trying to prevent us from continuing with our cleansing.

  Then the phones began to ring, their home phone and our cell phones, at different times but all in succession of each other. Other distractions followed and we eventually unplugged the house phones and turned off our cell phones. I explained to Rick that this was pretty common; entities would try all sorts of methods to get us to stop the cleansing. I refocused my efforts and continued on with my mission.

  Carl began anointing the home with olive oil and I made my rounds with the salt. For some reason the entity didn’t seem to be completely gone—just weakened. This lingering presence really bothered me and I began kneeling and praying in Nicole’s room. I was desperate. “God, please help this family find peace. Cast out any demons and evils that reside in this home. There are innocent children in this home and they need to be protected. They need your help. I know that they let their guard down and unknowingly bonded with a demon, but I really think they’re ready to have the entity removed. Please help me cast out this evil and bring them closer to you. In your name I pray forever and ever. Amen.”