As I have traveled around the world, one of the questions I am often asked is about demon possession. “What is demon possession?” and “What can I do about it?” are some of the frequent questions I receive, whether I’m in a nation known for its superstition or in a secular-dominated country.
I have studied both the human mind and Scripture extensively, and I can tell you what demon possession is not: It is not the intracellular occupation of a human body. In other words, another being does not occupy the same space inside a human being’s physical body.
Instead, demon possession is about taking control of one’s mind—influencing, directing, or overriding one’s faculties. It’s hacking into one’s mental computer and taking control.
Modern science gives some insights into what is likely happening in cases of demon possession (and I am speaking of genuine demon possession, not mental illnesses which manifest with hallucinations and delusions).
Our brains are amazing quantum computers. They are composed of 100 billion neurons and more than one trillion supporting cells. Each neuron can have up to 10,000 connections to other neurons. That’s over 40 quadrillion interconnections!
These 40 quadrillion interconnections in our brains are comprised primarily of dendrites. Within each neuron, there are 10 million microtubules, and each microtubule is made up of billions of tubulin molecules, which in turn are composed of 445 amino acids, which are made of various atoms, many of which share electrons.
Within these quadrillions of dendrites, with their millions of microtubules made of billions of tubulin molecules, the atoms form shared electron clouds. These clouds exist in positions of uncertainty until you think about something and form a conclusion, a belief, or accept a truth — or a lie. Your act of choosing to believe something will cause the electron clouds, in various places within the dendrites, to collapse. This causes conformation change within the microtubule structure, which solidifies the memory or belief into the brain.
Your beliefs and memories are stored within the brain tubulin structure until something happens that causes you to reexamine or reevaluate the belief or memory and come to a different conclusion. This is how beliefs are stored and mindsets are established.
This gives insight into the law of worship, which says that by beholding, we become changed. In psychiatry, this is known as “modeling.” We neurobiologically and characterologically change to become like what we admire, worship, think about, choose, and act on.
If we spend time watching vulgar, exploitive, debasing, cruel, selfish, deceitful, or otherwise ungodly things, we will be changed by it. Our neural networks will rewire, our quantum matrix will realign, to come more and more into harmony with what is selfish and evil—that is, what is demonic. And as we come more into harmony with the demonic, our minds become more tuned, more sensitive, more capable of resonating, responding, and being influenced by the demonic. If we persist in going down such thinking patterns, over time we may become so tuned into the demonic that our minds begin to operate on the same quantum frequency as the fallen angels—giving them greater influence in our minds, ranging from mere temptation to demonic harassment and all the way to overriding our own thinking, which is demonic possession. Consider it like two radio stations broadcasting on the same frequency: One has a weak 25,000-watt signal and the other is a 100,000-watt station. The more powerful station will overpower the weaker signal.
This is likely what is happening in demonic possession. Is there any evidence that minds can come into harmony like this?
Two individuals were placed inside a Faraday cage—a wire mesh that prevents any electromagnetic (EM) waves (radio waves, microwaves, etc.) from passing through to the other side—and asked to meditate together. After meditating together for a period of time, these two individuals were separated into different rooms and were then placed inside their own Faraday cages.
Researchers put EEG (electroencephalogram) leads on each person so they could monitor their brainwaves. Then the researchers shined a light at random intervals into the eyes of one participant while monitoring the brainwaves of both. Every time they shined the light into the eyes of one participant, the brainwaves of the other participant activated in the same way, measured by the EEG, as the person who had the light shined into their eyes. No EEG changes were seen in a control group. These changes were not due to any known EM fields or other causes, such as mirror neurons.[1]
This research supports the idea that our minds can indeed harmonize with other minds. It gives greater importance to the biblical exhortation to fix our eyes on Christ (Hebrews 12:2) and to focus upon “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Philippians 4:8 NIV84). It gives insight into how the Holy Spirit can indwell a person’s mind to bring healing and restoration.
Truth sets free; truth heals, because truth changes conformation and the configuration of our brains. Truth realigns us with the Source of truth, such that we become more sensitive to the Spirit of truth—and as we choose the truth, focusing upon, meditating, and worshiping the God of truth, we experience the alignment of our minds with the mind of God. We become “indwelled” by the Holy Spirit.
Consider this like your computer being “indwelled” by antivirus software. That software doesn’t overrule your decisions or actions, but rather, in the background, it’s constantly monitoring for malicious code, alerting you to what is harmful, and working with you to remove it. But you remain free to ignore or override the antivirus software. However, if you do, the malicious code may eventually defeat the antivirus software on your device and take control of your computer.
Likewise, when we choose the ways of the world—the vile, vulgar, crude, debasing, selfish, exploitive, and manipulative—we change ourselves. What we choose to watch, esteem, promote, and value changes our brain resonance patterns. When we make coercion, force, and intimidation the principles that we value, we become more aligned with the demonic. The sinful world operates upon imperialism: rules (laws) requiring the infliction of punishment by a ruling authority. When Christians teach others that our Creator God operates like sinful humans do, making up rules that He then enforces by punishing rule-breakers, we reject the truth and choose lies, aligning ourselves with the father of lies.
Such belief systems, commonly taught in Christianity, including penal substitution, obstruct the work of the Holy Spirit by establishing lies in the minds of people, preventing the truth from transforming the individual. Instead of experiencing greater love and trust, individuals experience fear of punishment for sin and create theologies to protect them from God (such as Jesus “pleading His blood” so the Father won’t kill them).
God wants to set us free—free from fear, free from selfishness, free from the methods of this world. He wants to restore in us His character and methods of love. But this is only possible as we are fully persuaded in our own minds (Romans 14:5). We must choose the God of truth and choose His methods, rejecting lies about Him; in so doing, our quantum matrix is changed and we come into greater and greater harmony with the God of love and truth.
One Christian writer describes how God works through all reality via quantum strings, just as physicists teach today:
It is God’s plan that every part of His government shall depend on every other part, the whole as a wheel within a wheel, working with entire harmony. He moves upon human forces, causing His Spirit to touch invisible chords, and the vibration rings to the extremity of the universe.[2]
Understanding this, this same writer wrote how the Spirit of truth heals and changes us:
The Comforter is called “the Spirit of truth.” His work is to define and maintain the truth. He first dwells in the heart as the Spirit of truth, and thus He becomes the Comforter. There is comfort and peace in the truth, but no real peace or comfort can be found in falsehood. It is through false theories and traditions that Satan gains his power over the mind. By directing men to false standards, he misshapes the character. Through the Scriptures the Holy Spirit speaks to the mind, and impresses truth upon the heart. Thus He exposes error, and expels it from the soul. It is by the Spirit of truth, working through the word of God, that Christ subdues His chosen people to Himself.[3]
I invite you to be purposeful in choosing what you watch, view, focus upon and believe. Consider what impact the material will have upon your mind and brain. Choose to become a lover of truth—to invite the Spirit of truth into your mind, to examine the beliefs you have held, and to begin expelling from your soul the distortions and falsehoods about God and embracing the reality of God as Creator and that His laws are design laws—not rules, but the reality upon which life is constructed to operate. As you do this, your quantum matrix will change and you will come into greater harmony with God; His presence will resonate more fully in your entire being, and you will become a shining light of heavenly truth in a dark and dying world.
[1] Dean Radin, “Testing Nonlocal Observations as a Source of Intuitive Knowledge,” Explore 4, no. 1 (2008): 25
[2] Ellen White, Evangelism, p. 93.
[3] Ellen White, The Desire of Ages, p. 671.