Exorcism & Demonic Spirits:
Retired from a career with the NYPD, Ralph Sarchie now devotes his life to investigating cases of demonic possession and assisting in the exorcisms. The recent movie, Deliver Us from Evil, was inspired by Sarchie's investigative experiences and the often-dangerous paranormal investigations he's immersed himself in. The movie, which fictionalized elements from his book and real-life story, portrayed his career as a police officer going hand-in-hand with his exorcism work, but in reality he kept the two occupations separate, Sarchie said.
On Tuesday's show, he discussed several cases he's worked on, as well as the stages of demonic activity and possession. One such case he called "the Halloween of Horror," and it started out with a demonic spirit masking itself as the spirit of a deceased person. The entity singled out a woman in a family to focus on, and began telepathically communicating with her. As things progressed, it began to physically assault one of her children in order to break down her will so it could possess her. After about three months, the family sought out help and her exorcism was successful, Sarchie recounted, adding that he only works on cases where his participation is requested by the afflicted family.
The first stage of demonic interaction is called "infestation" where small or subtle phenomena occur such as scratching or tapping noises, or hearing your name called when you're alone, he detailed. The oppression/obsession stage is an acceleration of the infestation where, for instance, the tapping sound will have increased to a pounding, physical attacks occur, and the afflicted acts out negative or sinful behaviors. This can lead up to the possession stage where the person can no longer resist the demon, he continued. The late Father Malachi Martin told Sarchie that there's going to be rise in child possessions as a kind of chastisement, because parents aren't teaching their children about God, or turning to him.
