Demons vs. Ghosts: How to tell the difference.

A movie I watched illustrates a wider dichotomy in Paranormal Studies. The haunting originates from a "demon", or non-human entity.
The film was called: "Paranormal Activity".
However, I've noticed for a while that in many documentaries and ghost-hunting books that "demons" (rather than angry, or evil human spirits) are making an appearance.
Now, demons have religious connotations. They are fallen angels according to Christianity.
So I'd like to know, what exactly is the difference?
When should one call a psychic versus a demonologist for help?
Is the difference real, or just the latest fashion craze?

Conspiracy theories are quite circular that way - David Icke says that Satan and his demons are reptilians, whereas his Christian critics say the reptilians are just Satan and his demons.
Go figure.

But, in a haunting, can one really tell the difference between a demonic presence, and just the spirit of a really nasty human?
How does the difference actually impact the treatment of the case?
Are there specific signs and symptoms between a demonic haunting, and a regular haunting?

Perhaps it's a case of: Demons are a ghoul's best friend?

Is there any physical difference between aliens and demons/angels? I haven't found a good one yet.

Both aliens and demons/angels can walk through walls.
They come from the sky.
They can go invisible.
They can talk telepathically.
They spy on us.
They have agendas and plans.
We can split them up from good to evil.

The list goes on.

How do we differentiate between aliens and angels/demons?

Some people say aliens are actually demons/angels.
Some people say demons/angels are actually aliens.

Does it make any difference?
It looks the same to me.

I'd say its pretty simple really. If you're a religious person & have a paranormal experience that frightens you, its demonic. If you're merely startled/surprised, its ghostly.

If you grew up in a culture heavily influenced by religion, but aren't religious yourself, then a frightening experience may be demonic or the result of a malevolent spirit. Whereas something wierd is just ghostly.

If you have little religious influence in your life, any wierd experience may result from malevolent spirits, ghosts, aliens, fairies, et al. & whether they are good or evil depends on whether you were frightened or not.

If you are somebody that has examined their own character & compared it to that of others, doing your best to be as objective as you can, then you know that good & evil are highly subjective terms; that, if you share little to no cultural references with a person, then they may say/do things which seem wierd or frighten you but are completely normal for them & aren't indicative of any malevolent or benevolent intent.

Finally then, how much more unlikely is it that beings who apparently dont even share the same reality as us share a common frame of reference in terms of good vs evil? Its only b/c we have 2 hands that everything has to be in 1 or the other or its outside our grasp. Juggling is a great physical & mental discipline... especially once you learn to do tricks!

I'd add perhaps that spirits can be vengeful, and ultimately they want some revenge or something done.
They can be appeased?
Demons however just hate humanity, and they can never appeased.
At least this seems like some kind of genre explanation.
But nowadays we find the mixture - 3 ghosts controlled by one demon, for example.

If you want to base this analysis on the bible then there is no room for ghosts as the bible states that deceased people cannot become ghosts. the bible describes the dead as being REALLY ded... only conclusion to follow is that any spiritual instance is directed by demons...

sciptures on demand..

I believe I may have a friendly ghost in my house. I don't feel very concerned about it and the "ghost" doesn't scare me one bit. It or she is barely perceptible except at certain times. I'm not even really sure. Maybe someone who is alive is using astral projection or something and is attracted to me. I say this because while nothing in my house moves by itself, I occasionally see a shadow or something and then I often feel a very gentle touch. I do occasionally hear strange noises but I believe I can blame that on just the occasional weird noises any creaking house will make. The other strange thing I noticed was that I did not notice anything in my house for about a week when I was first moving into it. Then it seemed like something or someone moved in with me from my old location.

Many years ago I remember two different occasions when I also experienced something strange.
In different locations, I have seen doors open up by themselves and signs blow over as I walked past each one but I sort of reasoned each sign that blew over one day as a gust of wind swooping down as I walked by. There was a thunderstorm forming over my location and I guess the wind was blowing around strong close to my walking speed.

That was strange though because it was about 4 or 5 heavy duty signs in a row that blew over as I walked past each one. The doors only opened up as I approached and that happened on 3 occasions and only when I approached the doors in two different buildings. It was windy that night. It's possible one guy saw something when I approached but it looked like he was looking at me with terrified eyes and ran so fast he did not want to be anywhere near me. I don't believe anything is following me around though. I also had a dust devil form around me one time. Now there haven't been any strange things except for a friendly ghost. Actually if something did open those doors for me several years ago, I guess you could say I have friends in the spirit world. Is it possible that a demon could be friendly? I do not know. I'm not even sure what that could mean.

It's possible that I'm just super lucky at times. At one time I used to like thunderstorms quite a bit. For a few years during the summer, we often had at least one thunderstorm over our county even though the rest of the state was sunny and clear. I thought it was funny when a meteorologist commented on the fact that it was sunny everywhere except for one thunderstorm where I was located. Lucky me.

I guess the guy I saw run was simply reacting to seeing the lobby door open by itself and me walk in and then the door closed behind me. What would you do if the door was not automatic and you saw that? It is possible I just got real lucky and a gust of wind blew it open just as I approached. That's what I originally thought. It was just weird that I played an arcade game for 30 minutes and not once did it happen again until I left. Then it happened one more time in my dorm building. I should probably go to Vegas some time and win a fortune.

The main difference between demons and ghosts that I can see it that demons have a much longer history in folklore, while ghosts are more recently deceased. Generally any older that 200 - 500 years and ghosts just fade away as they are unable to keep any connection to the present, demons are kept alive through history and tradition and can go back thousands of years.

Let me break it down for you the best I can.

When a person begins the process of dying, they are not dead until the spirit has returned to the great spirit.

People become trapped in the process of dying, refusing to allow the great wheel to turn its final course and complete their human experience "NO! I AM NOT FINISHED!" It is the final lesson in acceptance, surrender, completion. Yet this is not the end - As we come to end, it is merely the return of the beginning once more.

The great wheel never ceases to turn - we only imagine it as such - and we try desperately to hold all still.

A demonic entity in my experience, is generally a human personification that is so morbid to behold that it appears non human. The Majority of others which do not fall under this category could be classed as elemental beings, many of which can be very scary as well. We also have to be open to the possibility of extra terrestrial spiritual entities that are 'not of this world'.

For human demons, I attribute their existence to the mass consciousness of humanity experience a certain variety of soul loss due to traumatic events that follow an identical scenario or experience. A billion raped women, will shed parts of their fractured soul, creating a demon of rape. A fully conscious disincarnate body of soul that is all too human, yet barely recognizable. A self perpetuating system of outrage that seeks to influence more of itself to come into being, their targets are both rapist and raped. This is just one example of human consciousness creating our own demons, and in 90% of my experience, this is what we are dealing with in the realm of demonology.

For elemental entities that behave in a non human fashion - they can vary from slightly bizarre to overwhelmingly dangerous. Elementals have no concept of human life, nor its restrictions. Things like death and pain, the concept of too much, or too little. To even be partially possessed by elemental energies or beings can bode ill for a human being. I am willing to wager that nearly everyone has experienced mild elemental possession at some point in their life. It is generally self corrected and only occurs if we ourselves are ruptured or incomplete, leaving space for something 'else' to enter.

As for Extra Terrestrial Entities - I wont go there. I've never seen one, I've never heard a case study that I could positively identify as such. But I know they exist. For in the realms of spirit - Everything is true, if it can be imagined.

How do you protect yourself from demons? Know thyself. Everything else - it doesnt belong.


Much love and blessings,

-GM

Demons can be a construct of hte human psyche given form (The Tulpa Effect) Ref: The Toronto experiment Tulpas etc.
Without putting a Roman Cristian Bias on the term I would put demon classification on an intelligence that is malevolent to human interests. Bodied or disembodied.

In my ref books at home I found that The church often branded elementals etc under this classification when typically they are neutral unless bonded to a ruling intelligence.

I think in most cases an ill spirit has effected the biofield of a corporal human to manifest the pk effect of geisting Poltergeist for the layman. As the humans fear grows fro the events it witnesses so does the entities access to the humans ability to manifest Geisting events in this reality.

Originally posted by faceoff85
If you want to base this analysis on the bible then there is no room for ghosts as the bible states that deceased people cannot become ghosts. the bible describes the dead as being REALLY ded... only conclusion to follow is that any spiritual instance is directed by demons...

sciptures on demand..

I posed this question before as a newer member: Why do Christians say all spirits are demonic?
www.abovetopsecret.com...
Biblically there is not much evidence for this teaching, it seems.
Please feel free to add verses from a specific point of view.
We have the narrative of Saul and the Witch of Endor (the powerful in religion doing the very things they forbid others from doing - how typical), and in Job 15:4 it says: "And then a spirit passed my face, and my hair stood on end".
Even the Bible seems to distinguish between demons and spirits.
But there is little consensus between various Christian sects on what follows death - some say we go straight to heaven or hell, others say we have some "soul sleep" until judgement.
According to many current teachings demons spend most of their time pretending to be good guys - New Age angels, saints, spirits and aliens.
In fact, it seems a case of trust no one!

On the other hand it would be cruel to address really lost spirits as demons.

I think to treat everything non-Christian as demonic is going to stifle science and knowledge.
It's like the last frontier, and its denizens are immediately shot down as evil.
I mean, that could anger any entity.