True Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Part VII (Wattys2025)

Demonology Around the World

Demonology is the study of demons within religious belief and myth. Depending on context, it can refer to studies within theology, religious doctrine, or occultism. In many faiths, it concerns the study of a hierarchy of demons. Demons may be nonhuman, separable souls, or discarnate spirits which have never inhabited a body. A sharp distinction is often drawn between these two classes, notably by the Melanesians, several African groups, and others. The Islamic jinn, for example, are not reducible to modified human souls. At the same time, these classes are frequently conceived as producing identical results, e.g. diseases.

Prevalence of demons

According to some societies, all the affairs of the universe are supposed to be under the control of spirits, each ruling a certain "element" or even object, and themselves in subjection to a greater spirit. For example, the Inuit are said to believe in spirits of the sea, earth, and sky, the winds, the clouds, and everything in nature. Every cove of the seashore, every point, every island, and every prominent rock has its guardian spirit. All are potentially of the malignant type, to be propitiated by an appeal to knowledge of the supernatural. Traditional Korean belief posits countless demons inhabit the natural world; they fill household objects and are present in all locations. By the thousands they accompany travelers, seeking them out from their places in the elements.

Greek philosophers such as Porphyry of Tyre (who claimed influence from Platonism), as well as the fathers of the Christian Church, held that the world was pervaded with spirits, the latter of whom advanced the belief that demons received the worship directed at pagan gods.

Characterization of spirits

Not all spirits across all cultures are considered malevolent. In Central Africa, the Mpongwe believe in local spirits, just as the Inuit do; but they are regarded as inoffensive in the main. Passers-by must make some nominal offering as they near the spirits' residence. The occasional mischievous act, such as the throwing down of a tree on a passer-by, is believed by the natives to be perpetuated by the class of spirits known as Ombuiri.

Many spirits, especially those regarding natural processes, are often considered neutral or benevolent; ancient European peasant fears of the corn-spirit would crop up during irritation, as a result of the farmer infringing on the domain of that said spirit, and taking his property by cutting the corn; similarly, there is no reason why the less significant pantheon should be regarded as malevolent, and historical evidence has shown that the Petara of the Dyaks are viewed as invisible guardians of mankind rather than hostile malefactors.

Types

Demons are generally classified as spirits that are believed to enter into relations with the human race. As such the term includes:

Angels in the Christian tradition that fell from grace,

Malevolent genii or familiars,

Such as receive a cult (e.g., ancestor worship),

Ghosts or other malevolent revenants.

Excluded are souls conceived as inhabiting another world. Yet just as gods are not necessarily spiritual, demons may also be regarded as corporeal; vampires for example are sometimes described as human heads with appended entrails, which issue from the tomb to attack the living during the night watches. The incubi and succubi of the Middle Ages are sometimes regarded as spiritual beings; but they were held to give proof of their bodily existence, such as offspring (though often deformed). Belief in demons goes back many millennia. The Zoroastrian faith teaches that there are 3,333 Demons, some with specific dark responsibilities such as war, starvation, sickness, etc.