I don't often read novels anymore, but I was drawn to this one. I had seen the movie and the remake, not recently, but there had been other possession-themed movies (like "The Exorcism of Emily Rose") that I had seen since the Exorcist that piqued my interest in the book.In the Exorcist, a young girl is possessed by a demon who wreaks havoc on the girl and her family. By the end of the novel, two priests die and the demon is exorcised. The demon and the old priest have past history (not really elaborated in the novel) and this possession/encounter is essentially a deadly rematch.
Besides being an engrossing novel, Blatty insists that he spent many years researching possessions and exorcisms. This book is the culmination of what learned. That it is "based on a true story" or rather, is a best estimation of true stories, makes the idea of demonic possession - and how they are purported to accomplish their evil goals - intriguing.
The demon in the exorcist uses telepathy and poly-locality (ie. being in more than one place at virtually the same time; but not omnipresent) to basically drive people crazy. In the Amityville tale, the dad goes crazy and kills everyone. In an episode of Paranormal State on A&E TV, a dad hears voices telling him to kill his family (then Ryan Beuller comes in with his team to set things right). So, here are three (anecdotal) points of interest concerning the telepathic influence of "demons". Of course, there's the neuro-psychological perspective which would typically say that these people have organic or chemical brain disorders.
Something I'm curious about is whether a "brain disorder" such as a chemical imbalance of a neurotransmitter is an indicator of a preponderence to communications with/from "demons" and inorganic beings; rather than the chemical imbalance being a "cause" of the communication. For my hypothesis, the reality of inorganic beings is required. If there is sufficient evidence against the existence of non-human, inorganic sentience that can (telepathically) interact with humans, then the chemical imbalance as a means of "opening the gates of communication" would be null, making the brain disorder hypothesis increase in likelihood. It is for this reason that I am curious about the reality of inorganic beings (ie. spirits, angels, etc.).
There does seem to be evidence for "anomalous communication" such as telepathy and remote viewing (for instance the Army Research Institute study from the 1980's and the Stanford Research Institute's involvement with the Stargate program, etc.); and there is evidence for communication from "the other side" (such as Gary Schartz's "Afterlife Experiments"); so, for me, the likelihood of the "communication channel" hypothesis is as great as the "brain disorder" hypothesis when it comes to the voices in one's head attributed to demons. Is it possible that voices in the head come in two varieties: 1) inorganic beings and/or 2) schizoid episodes?
I'll keep searching through the literature!
