On Religion and Mental Illness and sympathy for the Devil

A blog friend of mine who also suffers from bipolar is going through a tough spot in this holly jolly fucking season. She had this to say regarding her family:
They all belong to 2 schools of thougth: 1) If you have a mental illness it’s because you aren’t a Christian & will be al better if you ask Jesus into your heart. 2) Pull up your boot straps & march on!! Well, I was a Christian & experienced both mania & depression, I did as a teen, too; my point is that my mental illness was not healed when I became a Christian. The fact that they don’t acknowledge mental illness both hurts & infuriates me, yet I’m sure part of the reason they dismiss anything I say is because they’d say I’m mentally ill.
I was inspired to reply:
I know just what you mean about the Christian thing. I was raised Catholic. With all love and respect due to the wonderful, benevolent, enlightened soul Jesus, I cannot stand the dogma of the Christian churches. I first attempted suicide while I was still a devout Catholic. I got a lot of the Bootstrap philosophy growing up too. Best not tell anyone you have mental problems or you’ll never get a job. Nobody wants to hire a nut case. Believe me, I heard it often. Well, fuckemall!

I didn't mention this because it wasn't relevant to the post, but I have also gotten this gem from both Christians and New Age types:
Mental illness is caused by demons. If you just exorcise the demons, you'll be ok.
I actually believe in the existence of demons. However, it's like giving coffee to a drunk. What you have is an awake drunk. If you exorcise a mentally ill person, what you have is a mentally ill person who is freed from the influence of demons for a time. They are still mentally ill.
Demons tend to seek out those whose auras are weakened, and the self-esteem deficits that come part and parcel with mental illness open weak spots in the aura and put out a welcome sign for the demons, who then proceed to mentally torture the unfortunate soul. This is why flirting with the darker sides of mysticism tend to be dangerous from anyone who suffers from mental illness. While a perfectly mentally stable and highly adept magician might be able to have a positive experience conversing with a demon, most of us would be advised to avoid such discourses.
Unfortunately, the Dark Arts tend to draw persons who are mentally unstable (myself included in my younger days) because a) our life has been shit in many ways and b) we want a positive change and FAST, and the more benevolent magicks tend to take longer to work.
It was my son who postulated Satan as a positive force as far as the workings of the Universe, but one to be reckoned with very cautiously. He stated that in his view, Satan is a trickster deity. He presents people with temptations and answers their wishes. However, if these wishes are selfish in nature (which the majority of them are) they will lead to the downfall of the person making the wish.
Satan, by the way, does not possess people. He has no need to do so. People will fuck themselves over quite well all on their own. It is various minor demons that possess people. These feed on the misery of their victim.
As trickster deities go, I once called on Loki to shake things up in my incredibly miserable life. I was 23 and had been in a severe depression for about a year. I felt I had nothing to lose. Fortunately, for whatever reason, Loki seems to be kindly disposed towards me. I don't ask him for anything unless I really mean it. I am inclined to believe that he may have played a part in bringing me into partnership with a certain Norse spectre with whom I write books.
The mills of the Gods grind slow, but they grind exceeding fine.

A replica of a carving of the god Loki featured on a stone furnace shield. Loki is the patron gods of blacksmiths. If you are a blacksmith or just like Loki, get your stone shield here.
The only thing that could make it cooler is if Loki would autograph it. Because I'm a doofus I can just see this: "Best wishes to my friend so and so from Loki."

Demon Slayer Website

This is a site that I found which describes the symptoms of demonic possession. Take a look. You may find it interesting.

Spiritual Conduits, Circuits and Doors: Contacting Negative Spirits

People who have the ability to do so have long been able to sense emotions from photographs, especially if the subject in the photograph was feeling a particularly strong emotion. I've always made up stories by using photographs. Most of my stories are inspired by pictures of real people, although it is often the attitude of the person rather than their physical appearance that inspires the creation of a character. Once I'm done enhancing the character the traits that originally inspired me are more subtle, now blending in with fictional characteristics. However I have discovered more than once that a fictional scenario I created for a given character reflects an important event in the life of the person whose photograph inspired the creation of the character. This is sometimes simply interesting but can be disturbing.
Television and movies can be important channels for receiving emotions and contacting the minds of people, both living and dead. The worst thing that ever happened to me along these lines was that I fell asleep shortly after hearing that John Wayne Gacy had been executed. My only thought was "good riddance to bad rubbish," although ethically speaking I'm opposed to the death penalty--not because I give a rip in hell about having mercy on those who have really committed heinous crimes, but because I believe there are cases where innocent people were executed. However, my purpose here is not to discuss my socio-political beliefs, but rather to share thoughts on esoteric and mystical phenomena.
As a medium, I tend to be an "open conduit" for spirits and Gacy, not very long dead, found me. I didn't "speak" to him, he entered my consciousness. And I had a deplorable dream where I, possessed by the spirit of Gacy, committed atrocious acts on a young boy. I do not believe that Gacy used my astral form to assault a young male spirit such as one of his victims. Rather, what happened is that Gacy's thoughts temporarily became my thoughts. Behaving in such a fashion is completely against my nature, and I woke physically shaken and nauseated, both from the awful visions filling my consciousness and the struggle of dislodging Gacy's consciousness from my mind. One good shove and he was gone and, fortunately, has never returned. Badly shaken, I sought words of comfort both from the Psalms, which I always did in my youth, and also from the Egyptian book of the Dead and asked the deities to please protect me from a repeat attack by Gacy. Although Gacy maintained his innocence, I have no doubt that he was guilty and that he was a sociopath who believed he had the right to do what he did. I sensed great pleasure from his memories (fortunately I did not "view" the murders, but viewing/feeling the assault on the boy was well and away bad enough) and that if he had been set free he would surely have done it again. There was also a great deal of arrogance. He thought me stupid and an easy target, which was pretty much his opinion of all other people. In contradiction, there was, at the core, a deep self-loathing which caused a great, cold rage. When he murdered the boys, at some level he was murdering a younger self that he saw as weak. He wasn't entirely aware of this.
I do not know John Wayne Gacy's childhood history, but I am quite sure he was abused and/or neglected to a degree. While I have sympathy for any child who was abused, the actions of Gacy and others like him are unconscionable.
Unlike Gacy and his ilk, my co-author and other benevolent Earthbound spirits do not care to enter the actual consciousness of the medium with whom they are communicating. They impart their thoughts but their consciousness does not invade upon mine. My co-author tends to guard me while I sleep because of my vulnerability to invading negative spirits and demons. Once when I was terribly sleep deprived I was taking a nap at my parents' house, which does have a "doorway" in the basement. A negative entity came in through the doorway and tried to enter my body. In order to protect me from its attack, my co-author briefly entered my consciousness to chase it out. This was a slightly startling experience for me--I liken it to the feeling when you miss a step coming down a flight of stairs but catch yourself. Surprisingly, it was greatly unsettling for him. He apologized and said that his doing this was actually inadvertent. He said that he has no desire to possess anybody and while my energy is actually pleasant (his words) being enveloped in another's energies is distressing. He had a thought that this may be because his energy is a male polarity and mine is a female polarity. What I'm getting around to is that no positive spirit or entity will ever enter your consciousness without your permission except in case of emergency in order to protect or help you, and they will vacate as soon as possible.
Higher spirits and angelic energies do not experience disruption when entering the consciousness of a living medium and the medium will generally experience peace during such contacts.

Before initiating such a contact, it is best to do a clearing of the area where you will be working. This should drive away any lower astral entities. My personal favorite rituals are basic Pagan ones using water, salt, and a scented candle. I also like to set up my Tara statue, but that's just me. You doowhatchalike, and the Universe will take care of the rest!

Blessed be,
Lily