Musings on ‘Triumph Over Evil’ (film) - Therapy Outside The Box

“Lead us from the unreal to the real. Lead us from darkness to light. Lead us from death to immortal life. Peace, Peace, Peace”

-Sanskrit prayer

“Get thee Behind me, Satan!”

I began seeing ads on socials for this documentary Triumph Over Evil: Battle of the Exorcists by Fathom Entertainment a few months ago.

The algorithm knows me well :-)

Not only did I plan to see it on the spot, I had a feeling there was a reason it would be in theaters one day only. Given the niche, provocative subject matter, and likely less than mass appeal factor, the filmmakers probably knew it would bomb if they showed it more than once. The fact there were only three other people in the theater besides myself and my wife (who I dragged there) for the only showtime, they were obviously correct!

I expected to pop up on Netflix, Prime or You Tube soon.

Anyway…

The theme of Good vs Evil, including the proverbial ‘problem of evil’ has long captivated my interest and imagination. In the context of my evolving spiritual odyssey and development, it’s of utmost centrality for me. Now more than ever in these last few years of my life and work.

Spoiler Alert: I absolutely believe in the existence of evil. Beyond belief, I know (gnosis) it to be real and true. I acknowledge and respect it, but do not fear it.

I also feel strongly that collectively- post 2020- there’s quite a spiritual battle at play. Know it, believe it or not.

GOOD (God+an O) and EVIL (LIVE backwards- the Inversion of Truth, Go(o)dness.

But can evil inhabit us? Infiltrate our being? Possess us?

The exorcist (1973)

One glaring example of the length of my preoccupation with the theme, and probably my introduction to the concept of direct contact with evil, is my having seen William Peter Blatty’s classic film many dozens of times since the 1980’s. And just about every other exorcism film release since.

The very first time I saw it, much like my first read of Whitley Strieber’s Communion in late high school, I was left with an unambiguous intuitive knowing that such phenomenon (demonic possession and contact with non-human intelligences, respectively) was for reals, as the kids say.

I haven't wavered.

So the Good/Evil duality-polarity and the ‘problem of evil’ has had a philosophical, intellectual and metaphysical hold on me for quite some time.

In these last few years since all that led to the dramatic finale of my dark night of the soul (ego) mid life crisis/breakdown-come-awakening and subsequent existential rebirth and rebrand as Therapy Outside the Box, punctuated by a uniquely personal and professional partnership with Mother Mary (i.e. Cosmic Mary) and her undefeated adeptness with the presence of anything in the larger wheelhouse of darkness and malevolence broadly, my interest in the traditional Catholic Exorcism ritual has spiked.

With the rise of podcasts dedicated to such themes within and outside mainstream religious traditions, I've come across a number of mostly elderly/old guard Rome-trained traditional Catholic exorcists sharing in depth tales of their work over decades. And spilling some of the secrets, as it were.

There’s one component of these tales in particular that grabbed my attention the moment I began hearing it: The seemingly little known, little discussed, best kept secret of the role of “Our Lady’ as the Catholics refer to her, in these battles with evil in the context of possession.

‘Our Lady’ always makes me chuckle, too. Because Mary wasn’t Catholic. So is she really your Lady, Catholics? :>

Mary once said (and by that I mean downloaded/telepathically transmitted) to a client of mine who humbly questioned why Mary was coming through since she (the client) isn’t Catholic during a Multidimensional Divine Light Transmission® (MDLT) session:

“My dear, there are no religions in heaven. Only love.”

And to another during a Transpersonal Internal Family Systems Therapy (T-IFS) session:

“I’m everyone's mother.”

I’ll say more on this lesser known role referred to above later.

Onto some reflections on the film:

The good + the cringe

GOOD:

With the exception of the famous spiritual warrior Father Gabriele Amorth (1925-2016), Italian priest and exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, the other real life characters in the film were unknown to me, though their interview-style, subtitled contributions and viewpoints were all robust, if not as religiously myopic as one would expect from the institutional Catholic perspective.

Impressively, a few of them have psychology or related degrees, psych training and clinical experience in addition to their theological education and positions. As such I appreciated the emphasis placed on explaining the ‘differential diagnosis’ protocols—ruling in/out other contributing factors or explanations medically, psychologically and neurologically in persons presenting with symptoms/behaviors consistent with demonic infestation, oppression, manifestation or possession. Possession being considered the final, most dramatic stage of total dominion by ‘The Adversary’ or his minions.

I also appreciated the reiteration of how essential it is for those enlisted to ‘cast out demons’ to maintain rock solid moral integrity, ethical behavior, and robust daily faith and prayer practice. Lest one falters and becomes vulnerable to internalizing the inevitable, sinister moral and character attacks of The Adversary.

Respect. Mad respect.

Foreshadowing: The ultimate good was of course the films finale related to Mary, but I’ll save the cherry on the cake for later.

CRINGE:

The reenactments were lame. Super lame.

I realize this was a documentary in which an informative, serious tone was paramount. They clearly weren’t going for Hollywood-ized, Linda Blair as Reagan-style head spinning, levitations, crawling up walls, backwards/upside down spider walks, spitting up objects, or projectile vomit phenomenon. ⏪ Believe it or not, with the expecptipon of head spinning 360 degrees, these are all examples of actual, witnessed phenomenon occurring in the most extreme cases of possession.

I've seen what’s purported to be real footage of actual Catholic exorcisms, some of which included Father Amorth if I'm not mistaken, floating around the webiverse. So unless it were copyright issues or something, I couldn't help but wonder why no actual footage, especially if that material exists in the public domain? And the exorcists in this film discussed examples of shocking supernatural phenomena similar what’s been captured on camera elsewhere and touched on above. Including classic storied incidents of usually undereducated, non-biligual possessed individuals breaking out into fluent ancient languages like Latin, Aramaic, or Sanskrit mid-exorcism.

Some of that actual, verified, real life footage would've been awfully compelling. Far more so than the lukewarm reanactments.

Oh well.

spiritual Baby out with the water, as usual

My main unsurprising criticism:

Where the film veered headlong into expectable institutional churchaganda was the considerable emphasis and time spent demonizing (no pun intended) the entire realm of esoteric ‘occult’ spirituality.

In short, it throws the whole baby out in classic black/white fashion via cheesy portrayals of gullible, lost souls engaging psychics, mediums, ouija boards, candles and incense, spells and rituals, etc., punctuated by an embarrassing yet predictable self-indoctrinated overshoot; a total lack of understanding, nuance. The entirety of esoteric traditions/practices are categorically lumped into ‘New Age,’ (a misnomer if I ever heard one) and portrayed as inherently dark and deceptive, demonic. Or if not evil/demonic by design, benefit of the doubt, defacto doors to inviting in evil forces via belief, participation or reliance on said practices or rituals.

For anyone reading this I probably need not deconstruct further, but for those sympathetic to the traditional ‘everything/anything outside of centralized JudeoChristian religion and Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is demonic’ view suggested by the filmmakers and summarized above, I offer this:

Within the ancient esoteric spiritual traditions, eastern and western, but more eastern, there’s the conception of left-hand path, right hand path, middle path. Without getting too deep as this is complex, nuanced stuff, these paths represent opposing approaches to spirituality and often magic. The left often associated with taboo, malevolent practices (‘black magic’) and the right with benevolence and structure (‘white magic’) while the middle path seeks a balance between these two, integrating elements from both for a more holistic spiritual practice.

Where the rubber meets the road is one's individual orientation (one’s character and level of consciousness, mostly) and intention, i.e. service to other vs service to self (See: Law of One material).

Who and what are we deifying? And to what end?

Rather than all paths being inherently, infallibly GOOD/Light or BAD/Dark-Evil, it’s the confluence of one’s intention, orientation and morality (service to self vs other) with chosen path/tradition/practice and the alignment or misalignment with this and whatever is the true heart of said path, practice or tradition.

“…Does this path have a heart? If it does, it’s good. I not, it’s of no use” - Carlos Casteneda

My point is, many aligned squarely within mainstream, especially Judeo Christian exoteric faith frameworks, tend to view [see: mistake, misinterpret, and brand] all esoteric, mystical, so called ‘occult’ (which operationally simply means hidden wisdom or secret knowledge) non-centralized, institutionalized spiritual traditions and practices as dark/dark occult. In other words, Luciferic, Satanic, or promoting, engaging with or inviting in evil influence or dark, lower dimensional/lower consciousness-inhabiting non- material forces. All mystical, esoteric or so-called occult philosophies, belief systems, practices, traditions, rituals, etc are not dark/dark occult. Far from it.

But in Triumph Over Evil: Battle of the Exorcists, the entirely of rich cultural esoteric and mystical traditions of spiritual initiation and wisdom are written off as ‘New Age’ portals to evil.

Sorry ancient hellenistic and Egyptian mystery school traditions, sorry neoplatonism, hermeticism, gnosticism, essenes, alchemy, Kabbalah, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism (just to name a few). You’re all defacto ‘evil.’

‘Bitch, please.’

As the film does rightly point out in my view, those who flat out deny the existence of evil, and conversely, those unhealthily transfixed by it appear to be especially vulnerable. Spectrums: The arrogant rational materialistic, scientistic, service to self-oriented atheist intent on wrong headed, life-denying action, and the arrogantly ignorant or willful power and control hungry, equally as service to self-oriented dabbler in left hand path/dark occult practices are likely easy targets for forces of darkness seeking hosts.

Yet, so are devout, card-carrying Catholics, as it turns out, also ripe for demonic dominion.

The evil one and his minions do not appear to discriminate. Any who don’t respect the existence of evil, or don't know that they have sovereignty over their own mind-body spirit complex, are ripe for the picking.

As a saying goes:

‘Demons know you have sovereignty. They just hope you don't know you do.’

Which reminds me of what Lao Tzu said:

*“Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself”

*(I'm not sure it's that simple, or universally true, but there’s infinite wisdom to the non-opposition point, highlighting my main gripe with the traditional Catholic aggressive battle stance that’s long struck me as wrong headed, being so anti-The Art of War.

There's obviously much much more to it all. Beyond all of our pay grades, I suspect.

Hence, the ‘problem of evil.’

“the power of christ COMPELS you!”

Until…it doesn’t?

For those unfamiliar with the subheading title of this section, in the classic film The Exorcist, at the end of the weeks long effort to free poor Reagan of Pazuzu himself, in the finale, Father Merrin exclaims:“The Power of Christ Compels You!!” over and over while dousing her battle worn, scarred and burned torso with holy water as she levitates above the bed in a somnambulistic trance.

Spoiler Alert: The ritual ultimately takes the life of the exhausted and heart-compromised elderly Father Merrin. The exorcism itself is ultimately unsuccessful. The younger priest assistant, seeing poor Reagan on the floor, still possessed, The Adversary gleefully laughing about his by-proxy murderous handiwork resulting in the death of the elderly priest, sees Father Karras challenge the evil one to leave her vessel and enter him:

“Come into me!” Come into me!”

The devil happily obliges. The moment Karras becomes aware of his evil red-eyed loss of sovereignty, he dives headlong out the window, tumbling down the now famous steps to his death. Or so the viewer would be led to believe. (Stage set for The Exorcist part 2 and 3 to come).

Set up for sequels aside, why was the exorcism unsuccessful?

After all, Father Merrin was the man. Called in from retirement/seclusion halfway around the world to drive The Beast out of the poor child, given his wealth of knowledge and prior experience said to have nearly killed him on one occasion prior. No one more qualified.

So if not human failure, it begs the question…is Christ not enough sometimes? Is not Christ/the invocation of Jesus not powerful enough for reasons unknown sometimes?

Understand, this is no knock at Jesus. Or the power of Christ.

Even though I’m best described as a…ready for this…ecumenical, interfaith, universalistic, vedantic. And a quantum holographic panpsychistic monotheistic panentheist (plug all that into ChatGPT :), and 100% subscribe to the view world religious scholar Huston Smith proposed, that “God is defined by Jesus, but not confined to Jesus,” I have always been rooted in the Christic/Christos.

Still am, always will be.

The Christ Consciousness; Mystical Christ. Alpha Omega.

The Lord’s Prayer, Prayer of St. Patrick, Saint Michaels Prayer of Protection, The Rosary and assorted other Christos-aligned prayer and decree practices are part of my everyday since my coming online as an instrument of divine will in action. And especially since beloved Mary came forth in a big way this past March as my right hand woman/co-partner in both my persopnal and professional work via Therapy Outside the Box.

But I digress!

The question I'm really left with… and this is really to set up for the next and final section of this diatribe is…why the traditional ‘Rite of Exorcism’ as practiced by conventional Catholic priests invokes Jesus Christ alone as the primary intersessional force for expelling demons?

Yes, the rite allows for the intercession of Saints, and somtimes, as I understand it, involves Hail Mary’s at the priest's discretion, but formally does not invoke Mary herself?

forget sandman, Enter Mary

Mother Mary: Blessed Virgin Mother, ‘Everyone’s Mother,’ Terror of demons, destroyer of heresies, star of the sea, queen of heaven, queen of angels, queen of the universe, blue ray seraphimic superstar, full of grace, born without sin.

It's this last part – born without sin – that appears to be what makes blessed Mary the true terror of demons.

To circle back to the film, understand, after the laughable demonization (no pun intended again) of all things esoteric, and the cheesy reenactments on repeat, I was truthfully beginning to tire of it. Almost nudged my wife, who was falling asleep to ask her if she was ready to leave.

And just the…the focus shifted exclusively to the on the down low, ‘off-label’ role of invoking Beloved Mary in many a Catholic exorcism!

This echoed what I was seeing and hearing on podcasts and in other obscure online forums related to Mary as secret exorcist weapon.

In the film, Father Amorth reveals how after so many years and exorcisms, his own curiosity about the unique power Mary's mere presence has to literally send the fiercest, most powerful demons demons packing led him to break convention (in more ways than one) and engage the demonic directly: Flat out asking them why Mary's presence was such anathema to them.

The demonic response, on more than one occasion by many a demon, was essentially rgr Mary’s absolute purity and sinlessness – the fact that she had never been tempted, and therefore had not even ‘the shadow of sin cast upon her,’ as one demonic force put it, meant that her presence was simply intolerable, making their defeat inevitable, and humiliating beyond measure.

So intolerable, and so humiliating, that according to Father Amorth and other exorcists, the demons refuses to utter her name, referring to Mary only as ‘her,’ or ‘she,’ when the threat of invoking her presence is suggested or initiated, usually amounting to an anguished, guttural: “No, not HER!”

How about that shit???

I'll conclude this section with this question:

If many an exorcism drags on for hours, days, weeks or even months in some cases, exhausting the exorcists and further taxing the possessed on every level of mind-body and spirit, and if Mary's mere presence is confirmed to have the power to bring even the most extreme possession to a conclusion virtually on a dime, then:

Why does the Rite of Exorcism not begin and end with invoking Mary? !?!

Why put anyone through one more moment of torture if it can be lessened even one iota by invoking The penultimate Divine Feminine Terror of Demons right from the get go?

The film does not address this.

I've asked Mary myself. No response yet. :>

Parallel lines

How this mirrors my own experience as a Transpersonally-focused therapist and theurgical vessel/channel over these last few years is where I’m going next.

In short, Mary coming in this past year, steeping forward as my daily co-partner in all that I do for those open to her presence and loving healing assistance, this has been the most profound happening of my entire life.

No hyperbole.

Specifically, Mary's loving, powerful, and compassionate interventions have made all the difference in one specific area which parallels the demonic possession experience. An offshoot you could say.

While I have yet to meet anyone that would qualify as being demonically possessed, or affected by the preliminary stages of infestation, oppression or obsession, unlike the traditional Catholic and otherwise exoteric view (either demons or medical/psychological), I have studied up on, and witnessed both personally and professionally now for several years the inhabiting presence of various forms of malevolent foreign energies or entities in people’s systems.

Entities that can and do infiltrate and attach to our mind-body spirit complex. Our field so to speak.

In most cases, in my experience, these appear to be psychic-astral parasitic, trickster type entities or energies. Malevolent in that they do not have positive intentions for the host, exert negative, life-denying influence, and drain energy (life force), but are not legit demonic. Mimics. Minions perhaps. But not demons in and of themselves, and therefore not particularly powerful but in proportion to the degree of fear the host has of it or them.

These hitchhiker energies, which can also be discarnate lost soul fragments, lower astral gobblygook, wounded and unwell ancestral epigenetically carried over or past life-based energies, phantasms, or sundry other types of psychic creature-critters, often find entrance through what in the borderlands of the IFS model and the cross-cultural studies and research on Spirit Possession at large, we call our ‘porous mind.’

In other words, when there are openings—vulnerabilities, weak spots/areas or tears in the surrounding energy field of our mindbodyspirit complex– what in esoteric traditions would be synonymous with the etheric body, causal body, the ‘Ka’, or spiritual twin (Ancient Egyptian Alchemy/Magdalene Manuscripts), especially during times of extreme trauma, loneliness, or abandonment, hospitalizations, or near death experiences, such foreign energies can easily find a home.

As this line of thinking goes, some vulnerable, desperate feeling ‘part’ of us in some way shape or form agrees or consents to allow them in. This may not be the case in each and every case, but it's one theory that I continuously apply and test out when I become aware of the existence of carpetbagger energies in a client's field.

It often checks out. I can often determine how many, at what age, and what life circumstances generated the vulnerability/opening.

Ultimately, it’s getting them gone that matters. Full stop.

‘compassionate extraction’

What I've discovered, even before Mary stepped forward in the big way this past March, and every time I’m able to confirm through my higher guidance/’holy discernment’ that someones system is ‘occupied,’ I would ask first if it is ‘in the highest good’ to have them removed.

If yes, I then ask who would be coming through to assist?

Guess who it’s always?

Mary. Only ever Mary.

And a few of these have been nasty critters for sure. Snarling, foul mouthed, snake like, intent on remaining no matter what.

Guess how it goes with Mary at the helm each time?

Easy. Easy work.

Mary's powerful but loving, luminous presence- radiant, often in blue light, and with infinite mercy and firm but authentic compassion allows her to easily find and remove whatever it is with no fuss or fanfare. She magically transmutes any fear or perceived threat on the client’s part by transforming the scary little monsters into daisies, jewels, or plumes of pink smoke, for the client to see in their minds eye.

The conclusion is always the same. (She’s battling a thousand).

Once they're removed and transformed, they’re given a choice, as all things have free will, apparently even these things. They either to go to the light to be transformed, healed and forgiven, presumably to a higher universal love-based dimension/higher realm/heavily realm, or, to the darkness/lower realms if they decline the offer.

“You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here”

And my understanding, something my clients often pick up themselves, is that if these energies or entities choose the darkness/void, they are always free to choose again.

Hell realms, or lower darker dimensions of existence, are apparently, from what I'm learning, only a permanent destination if one chooses for it to be.

In other words, the door out of darkness/void and into the realms of light and love remains an ever-available possibility. The key is never tossed away. It is up to each and every being, whatever its nature, to choose, should it find itself in the lower realms or dimensions of reality.

epilogue

I've taken to calling this Mary-driven process, one I set up via my Multidimensional Divine Light Transmission® (MDLT) offering ‘compassionate extraction.’

Because that's exactly what it is.

There's no commanding, no casting out, no waving crosses, not even much dialogue except for what Mary deems necessary to impart directly to my client (via inner dialogue/telepathically) as to the nature of these things, occasional confirmations that they are not trustworthy/well-intended, loving encouragement not to fear, and that they will be sent on to where they belong or choose to go.

It does leave me ever curious about whether or not the Catholic Church and experienced exorcists ever encounter anything like this, or does their belief system disavow the existence of things that are neither actual demons or alternatively, organic psychological aberrations or symptoms of medical or neurological pathology.

Most cultures across the globe all the way back to ancient and indigenous cultures have a conception of the spiritual realm as being occupied by an infinite range of foreign thought forms, egregores, formless energies and entities, wetiko mind viruses, jinn, loosh, and of course, pure demonic or otherwise wholly evil manifestations.

To the Catholic church, and the traditional exorcists, it appears to be, if anything at all, all Demons, only Demons, nothing but demons.

So be it.

My experience with Mary so far is quite different.

We all have our role. I'm blessed to have mine and curious to see where it will go. I’m glad to have the opportunity to do my part, holding the space and the energetic field for Mary (and other Divine Sources/Holy Ones/Angelics etc) outside of this particular process) to perform her miraculous magic for those afflicted by things that do not belong.

Will the actual true demonic ever show up having possessed someone, in my space? I do not know.

But I know this. It will be the penultimate test of my faith in the Divine and the power of Mary, the ‘Terror of Demons.’

Maybe I'll start practicing: “THE POWER OF [MARY] COMPELS YOU!!!” :>

____________________________________________________________________

Looking for a spiritually-informed, grounded, metaphysically adventurous Nashville Therapist? A therapist in Franklin, TN. A virtual therapist?

Want more information about my offerings?

Visit me at www.therapyoutsidethebox.com

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Pax and Godspeed…

Chris Hancock, LCSW

Franklin, TN

615 430-2778

chris@therapyoutsidethebox.com