Being haunted by Devils/Ghosts

[Jope]

Web--When it comes to demonic activity of any kind-- the reality of the event can be hard to verify with tangible evidence. This is especially true with demons causing paranormal activity. Although the experience is very real for the person undergoing it, many (even Christians) deny the authenticity of the incident & simply chalk it up to a logical explanation that hasn’t been found yet. This in turn causes the sufferer to seek help where ever it may be found.

Quite interestingly, Plato (c. 428/427 BC – 348/347 BC) confessed that most professors of medicine did not understand the foaming of the mouth or eyes (rheums).

when...there is an impassioned soul more powerful than the body, that soul, I say, convulses and fills with disorders the whole inner nature of man ; and when eager in the pursuit of some sort of learning or study, causes wasting ; or again, when teaching or disputing in private or in public, and strifes and controversies arise, inflames and dissolves the composite frame of man and introduces rheums ; and the nature of this phenomenon is not understood by most professors of medicine, who ascribe it to the opposite of the real cause.

Timaeus. para. 119.

Luke, the beloved physician (1st century), tells us of an incident where foaming is from a demon, whom Christ rebukes and heals the victim (Lk. 9:38-42):

ESV
And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.
And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him.
And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.”
Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”
While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.​

Mark, whose occupation is untold in the Holy Writ, tells us that this same spirit was one that made its victim mute (Mark 9:17), and that Jesus claimed that this spirit, being responsible for other things like "often cast[ing] him into fire and into water, to destroy him" (Mark 9:22, ESV) doesn't come out but by prayer and fasting (Mark 9:29). Cf. a previous post of mine:

IMO, Boethius' philosophy/theology of fate is crucial for understanding a passage like David's prayer to "turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness" (2Sam. 15:31, KJV).

The thoughts of those who heard Ahithophel's counsel must have been coerced by God. It was "good counsel" that Ahithophel gave (2Sam. 17:14, KJV), and his counsel was known to be extremely wise (2Sam. 16:23), yet his counsel was rejected by his audience (2Sam. 17:14).

David's prayer was for God to turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness [to the subjective audience of Ahithophel's counsel]. Christ's statement is that, at least one spirit doesn't come out but by prayer and fasting...

*I thought I'd add something interesting I found: Luke tells us that "he suddenly cries out" (9:39), while Mark tells us that the spirit made its victim mute (9:17). So the description of this man would've been someone who talked (or yelled out) when he shouldn't have, and didn't speak when he should have, not recognizing the right time to speak and to be silent:

Ecclesiastes 3, ESV
1For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
...
7​​​​​​​​a time to tear, and a time to sew; ​​​​​​​a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; ​​​

Plato says that, his own experience at least, of when the foaming happens is "when teaching or disputing in private or in public, and strifes and controversies arise".



Perhaps a proper description of this man was that he was a highly learned suicidal man, who didn't have knowledge on how to properly teach or dispute, without strife, in public or private.