The account that I am reciting is 100% TRUE/non-fiction/not writing this for entertainment purposes. That doesn't mean you'll believe me, but that's not my problem. I would read the 4 previous parts (linked at the bottom) for any context about what is about to be described below. As the title implies, this series is me finally chronicling the very real demonic influences in our life; I will eventually get to where they likely came from, why they're here, and what I plan to do about them (although that part of the story is still "in the works").

We left off last time with my wife (ex-girlfriend at the time) driving back to our apartment in Colorado at the insistence of her mother and several other family members, sedated on a prescription called Latuda. She made it very clear that she was not trying to get back with me, but if you've ever cohabitated with an ex, you know that doesn't last long. So we were a thing again fairly quickly. As wacked out as this whole situation was, I still somehow missed her, and so I was happy enough. She was still not all there, and was transitioning from the hyperactive/hypersocial/hyperreckless "manic" stage of this episode to the depressive stage, which is exactly what it sounds like. So she would often say strange things, but reported that the "Drake" obsessions were subsiding, which was reassuring. Sedatives limit demonic control to an extent, because the person is mentally lethargic (which I guess translates to a certain lethargy of the soul as well), and just not as open to influence as when they are unmedicated. Again, this seems like a good time to mention once again that I was an atheist at this point in my life, and was looking at this through the lens of mental health, and nothing more. I continued to care for her as best I could, and she began to restart her life. She started working little BS odd jobs, but within about 6 weeks she landed a new accounting job that was about as good as the one she left. She was still not herself, so to land another professional job in itself was "miraculous."

I was house hunting even before she returned to CO, but eventually landed on one and we moved in. She began to fill me in on all that had happened to her during her "episode" (much of which I recounted already in these posts). It was also around this time that the depression hit hard. She would always ascribe it to something else; she didn't like the house, she didn't like being in CO, etc. But when you're depressed, your whole world just feels ugly. This depression had a silver lining, however.

One day she tells me that she's feeling really low and wants to go to a church, because she thinks it'll cheer her up. I, of course, think church is for stupid people, the bible is a collection of fairy tales, and God isn't real. But I love her and want to support her, so I agreed to go with her. The preacher said something about Jesus dying on a cross for my sins, which I of course thought was macabre and ridiculous. But it did get me wondering about why many humans were so fanatical about religion, which is something I hadn't bothered to think about for decades. I had also picked up a part time job in security again in addition to my financial job, this time for better pay and I only needed to sit in an office and watch cameras for 8 hours, alone. Easiest money I ever made, to this day. But it also gave me a lot of free time to listen to stuff.

So working 2 shifts a week at this place, music got old quick. I started to transition to audiobooks when this renewed interest in religion began to spark in me. So for fun, I started listening to audiobooks about all the old pagan religions (they were the "fun" ones, after all). Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Norse, Greek/Roman, Brahmin, then some Hindu and Islam - nothing was safe from my curiosity and my massive amount of free time. It was a fun endeavor, and I never gave a second thought to any of them but did pick up some interesting commonalities (no, they don't all serve the same god, sorry. But did you know that every culture on this planet has a "flood myth," in some shape or form? What a coincidence...almost like there really was a global flood that was etched into the memory of mankind). Then, finally, I wanted to know what these Jews and Christians believed in, so I opened a bible to Genesis 1, found some free online bible commentaries, and by the book of Samuel or so I was no longer an atheist. By the time I got to the gospels, I was a Christian. The main thing that sold me was prophecy, and the degree of accuracy to which many prophecies were fulfilled. It was obvious that this was not written by the mind of man. And my world exploded, and I had to know MORE. I started from atheism and almost no religious background; no cute little spiritual experience was going to work on me. I doubted everything about this book, and I would need to be satisfied, one doubt at a time. And one doubt at a time, I came to realize that the bible actually came from God (who is real, by the way), and this world that we live in is not at ALL what it seems.

But I digress. What this means for this situation is that I became a voracious bible student, learning more and more all the time, and began to bring that home to my wife. She was very resistant at first (she took a more liberal view of the bible - that it was a book written by primitive, misogynistic men a long time ago that has some truth to it, but you can't rely on it completely), but over time she began to see things more clearly. And our lives changed dramatically.

Everything from our desire to pray together, to the way we spent our money, the way we viewed the garbage that's forcefed to us on TV, to political ideology, began to change - simply because we suddenly took the bible seriously. She took it upon herself to start reading on her own and would ask questions. We became active in our church, built a wonderful network of people there, and really had a more abundant life. She became much kinder, more selfless, wiser, and just an all around better person (as did I). At some point, after going over her episode again, we began to think that there may have been demonic aspects to it, but frankly we were still too raw in the faith to really know what we were talking about, and didn't seek additional guidance (even most Christians nowadays don't put much stock in demons. We live in dangerous times. Times that were foretold in the bible thousands of years ago, by the way). But the "depression" went away, as did the medication. And for years, there were no "relapses."

I proposed that year, we were married in 2018, and had children in both 2019 and 2020. I ended up getting a certification at a local seminary and teaching bible classes (oh, God does have a sense of humor!). Life, honestly, could not have been better. As an interracial family that was not only successful in love and life, but vocal about our faith (especially when one came from complete unbelief), we became an example for many other couples, Christian or otherwise, and we were told as much. We put the lie to a lot of the divisions that are being sowed in our world today, simply by being happy together. We showed people that you can love Jesus, be successful in the workplace, overcome massive adversity in a relationship and be happy all at the same time. Our lives themselves were a testimony to God and His Son, let alone any actual preaching that we did when the occasions arose. If you looked at my wife during this time, you'd never think that she went through all that insanity 4 years prior. It appeared that she was free from "whatever" was ailing her back then.

And Satan hated us for it.

The bible tells the believer to be sober minded and always vigilant against spiritual attack. We got complacent in our cushy lives, and paid the price for it. Next time I will recount the events that led up to this most recent attack (I'm going to stop pretending that it's a mental disorder from here on out, and you'll see why in the next post), and everything that has happened recently in more detail since it's fresher in my traumatized mind, and I have been present for every second of it, unlike the last time where I was only getting scattered reports from another state.

Until next time....

Link to Part 1 is here - Facing Down Demons Part 1 - Intro, Prologue, and Context

Link to Part 2 is here - Facing Down Demons Part 2 - The "Episode" Part 1 - Miami

Link to Part 3 is here - Facing Down Demons Part 3 - The "Episode" Part 2 - Venice Beach

Link to Part 4 is here - Facing Down Demons Part 4 - The "Episode" Part 3 - New Jersey and the Return