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What is a Demon?  Where do they come from?  For the answer to these questions let us turn to one far wiser than myself; The Old Fox, The Founder and First Speaker of Spiritism, on the far and distant world of Hades.  He is speaking to a young student recovering from injuries, who has asked him these same questions.

"Demons," he said, "were once cruel and wicked people who committed terrible acts while they lived.  Now, so great was their evil, so horrid their deeds, that they could not even enter The Spirit World.  Even The Darkness was not dark enough to hide them!  They knew if they entered The Spirit World, they would die.  The pain that they had caused others would explode them like a bursting bubble. and their sparks would go out forever.  So not daring to enter The Spirit World, they hide in The Material World in dark crevices and caverns, where no light can reach.  And they venture out only at night, constantly seeking a new body they can possess.  For as they have never entered The Spiritual World, they cannot be reborn.
Now,  they cannot feed on The Light, for that will destroy them, so they feed on The Darkness. They feast where there is hate, greed, lust.  They are ravenous on a battlefield, gorging themselves on the blood, on the hate, and the anger.  They glory in causing wars, for when there is strife and anger, they feed.  And on The Darkness they become powerful.  And if men will serve them, they give them that power."
"They can feed on men's souls?"  asked the student.
"They can harm no righteous man," The Old Fox said, "but as each person leaves their body, the body still, for a while, generates spiritual energy, and the demons feast on it until there is nothing left.  Sometimes, they seize on an evil person when they die, but they cannot keep them from going into Spirit, so they can only cause them a little pain.  It is the living they want to control.  The more hate they make, the more they feed.  Sometimes you can see them in the temples of the gods, especially those gods that demand blood.  There is usually one always there, feasting on the sacrifices."
The young man shivered.  "How do you fight them, Lord?  How do you know when one has possessed a body, a living body?"
"There are ways of telling if a person is possessed," said The Old Fox,  "if they tend to stay away from light, sleep during the day and be awake at night, if they are afraid of your touch, or will not enter a holy building, if they are afraid of mirrors; these are all signs that a person may be possessed.
As to fighting them there are only two ways they can be destroyed.  One, the family of a possessed person must gather around the victim, call upon The Light of The Lords to open a passage to The Spirit World, and drive the demon through.  It is a difficult task.
The other way is harder, because it must be done by someone that loves the demon.  They must die with it, seize it, hold onto it, and drag it with them into The Spirit World!"
"Will there always be demons, Lord?"  the young man asked.
"As long as there are men filled with greed, who feel they can do anything they please, there will be demons.  The Lords have fought them since the beginning of time, and will fight them to the end of it."

"But these words were written for another race, many thousands of years ago. Do they still apply to us, today?"

They are as true now, as they were then.  Earthly demons are no different from Hashon demons.  if anything, they seem to be a bit worse.  The terrors this world has gone through are testimony to that.

"Is there a King or Lord of demons?"

No.  Demons are solitary and quarrelsome creatures.  There are rare occasions where the evil in a certain place is so bad that they will band together in a loose cooperation to get as much as they can from the evil in that place.  A prime example of this is the Nazi era in Germany.  This was one of the worst demon infestations in recorded history.  Recent history has shown other infestations.