When it comes to skills, demons are a versatile bunch. Various powers have been attributed to demons, such as the ability to inflict mental illness (Mark 5:4,5), muteness (Matthew 9:33), blindness (Matthew 12:22) and physical deformities (Luke 13:11). The claims at times mutate into outright absurdity, as in the case when a self-proclaimed exorcist claimed a demon was using a cat’s face to practice possession. To the list of extraordinary claims of manifestations of demonic powers we may now add “‘snarky’ text messages from demons.”
Monsignor Stephen Rossetti of the Washington, D.C., diocese is a licensed psychologist and counselor and a research associate professor of the Catholic University of America. In a recent article for The New York Post, Rossetti talks about his latest book, Diary of an American Exorcist: Demons, Possession, and the Modern-Day Battle Against Ancient Evil, in which demonic entities allegedly adopt smartphone technology. According to Rossetti, this is nothing new. “In the past they messed with electronics — TVs and lights turning off and on by themselves. Now they mess with cellphones.” Such phenomena has also invariably been attributed to haunting phenomena such as ghosts or psychokinesis associated with poltergeist phenomena, or Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis.
In his book, Rossetti relates the story of a woman who sought his help after an upside-down cross appeared “burned” into her shoulder. Inverted crosses actually have a long history as a Christian symbol, associated with the martyrdom of Peter the Apostle. According to Catholic tradition, Peter was sentenced to death by crucifixion and, believing himself to be unworthy of the same death as his master, Jesus of Nazareth, requested he be crucified upside-down, hence the inverted Cross of Saint Peter otherwise known as the Petrine Cross. Ironically, and Rossetti himself must be aware of this, as Catholics believe that the Pope is the natural successor to Saint Peter as the Bishop of Rome, the Petrine Cross has also historically been considered a symbol of the papacy (Olderr, 2019).
It seems odd that demons would be branding people with Christian symbols. When I asked Rossetti why this is so, his response was “the cross of Jesus is burned in upside down as a mockery of the cross of Jesus and is not a reference to the petrine cross” (Rossetti, 2021) and that “the demons are claiming the person, like branding a cow” since in the Catholic baptismal rite the priest says “I claim you for Christ our savior by the sign of the cross.” However, that seems to imply that intention matters when it comes to the usage of a symbol, which fundamentally contradicts the universally held belief of Christians that the cross is inherently a symbol of the grace and power of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, there are countless diabolical and occult sigils and symbols the demons could have chosen from. It seems rather juvenile they would choose a symbol that edgy teens carve into bathroom stalls and that grace heavy metal album covers. Rossetti revealed he does have a picture of the burn mark on the person’s arm, but wouldn’t “share these photos typically because of sensitivity to the person.”
At the same time the cross appeared, the woman’s father began receiving “snarky” text messages which Rossetti described as “typical demonic rant: ‘She belongs to us.’” While the messages appeared to have originated from the woman’s own phone, Rossetti claims after careful investigation there was no evidence of her having sent the messages. I asked Rossetti if he would elaborate on how exactly he conducted this investigation and what led him to conclude that this woman didn’t send the message from her own phone. Rossetti didn’t answer my question, but linked me to a blog page he maintains in which he says, “Typically the texts appear to be coming from the phone of the possessed but when the phone is checked, these texts do not appear.” Rossetti does not mention the possibility that the woman may have deleted the messages herself, whether under the influence of a demonic entity or not.
On his blog, Rossetti goes into a little more detail about the cases of demonic text messages: “We have had three cases in which demons have texted the team and/or the family of the possessed person. Two of these cases were the most difficult cases we have had so far, and the third involved a pious family with priestly and religious vocations among the children. So, all were ‘high value’ targets with high-ranking, powerful demons involved. This suggests that it takes considerable spiritual ‘energy’ to cross over and manipulate such items in the physical world, and thus this action ‘costs’ them a lot.”
It’s not clear by what criteria targets of demonic possession are judged to be “high value.” Is it because the case itself is difficult, or because the demoniacs are particularly pious? It’s also not clear how or by what criteria it was determined the “demons” were either high-ranking or powerful. Over the centuries different authors, for example Collin de Plancy, have published conflicting demonic hierarchies. The conclusion that it must take a large expenditure of spiritual “energy” (whatever that might be) for demons to manipulate physical objects also doesn’t follow from the premises that “high-ranking, powerful demons” go after “high value” targets. It might be the case that Satan didn’t want to trust such important tasks to lower-ranking demons for fear of their incompetence.
Returning to the question of why this particular victim of demonic activity was considered a “high-value” target, according to Rossetti, “As a child, the father dedicated her to Satan. If someone is perverted enough to join a satanic cult to begin with, then it’s not a stretch to imagine them offering their children to their ‘god.’” …
The Church of Satan’s official website clearly states on the F.A.Q page “Satanists do not believe in demons or other supernatural beings.”
As Magistra Templi Rex of the Church of Satan, Blanche Barton, makes clear in her book “We Are Satanists:”
“Anton LaVey invented Satanism. While we have ties to wide-reaching traditions and philosophies, there was no organized group that propounded Satanic allegiance as a religion before 1966 (Barton, 2021).”
Satanism was codified by Anton Lavey as a strictly atheistic religion. The Church of Satan has been particularly careful to safeguard that definition, referring to those who profess a belief in a literal Devil as heretical Christians and Devil worshippers. Fifty-five years after the founding of the Church of Satan, for Rossetti to continue to refer to “satanic cults” as such is irresponsible.
Another priest, Father Jose Francisco Syquia, chief exorcist of the Archdiocese of Manila and president of the Philippine Association of Catholic Exorcists (PACE), likewise cites the growing trend of demonic text messages as a cause for concern. In an interview for Inquirer.net Syquia says “We did not expect [demons] could do so but if you ask other exorcists, they would tell you the same experience. Usually [the demons would swear at you] or say, ‘This person will never get away from us.’”
In the same interview Syquia also states “The devil has power over anything electrical. If this place is infested, for example, and they want their presence known, usually the lights would flicker. If I give a talk and use a certain gadget, the devil would easily shut it down because he is an expert in anything electrical.” If it is the case that the devil has power over anything electrical, one might well wonder why he’s wasting his time harassing individuals over the phone when he could be taking down the power grid of entire nations. Scientists at the University of London remind us “electricity supply is the backbone of all society’s functions. It is essential to the delivery of services such as water supply, and it drives individual and collective behaviour. Extended power failures can compromise most services and routine activities, including commuting to work, payments, use of ATMs, cooking and providing drinking water and sanitation (Pescaroli et al., 2017).” A dire example of what can happen if an electrical grid goes down would be the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami which devastated the Fukushima Dai’ichi reactors in Japan. According to the Japanese Trade Ministry, an estimated 4.4 million households were left without electricity.
Compelling evidence for the existence of demons or the Devil simply has not been found. If we want to test the claim that some text messages are diabolical in origin, one simple control measure would be to lock someone’s phone in a box or small safe, with the key in possession of the skeptic’s hands at all times, and simply wait. This would rule out the possibility that the person suspected of being possessed was sending the texts. If the Devil really has power over everything electrical, he should be able to text someone without a human intermediary.
Special thanks to Monsignor Stephen Rossetti for his valuable time
Sources
Olderr, Steven. 2019. Symbolism: A Comprehensive Dictionary, 2d edition. P. 62. North Carolina: McFarland & Company. Retrieved on July 21, 2021 from: https://books.google.com/books?id=y5gZDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA62#v=onepage&q&f=false
Barton, Blanche. 2021. We Are Satanists the History and Future of the Church of Satan. P. 29. California. Aperient Press.
Pescaroli, G., S. Turner, T. Gould, D. Alexander and R. Wicks 2017. Cascading Impacts and Escalations in Wide-Area Power Failures. UCL IRDR and London Resilience Special Report 2017-01, Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction, University College London.