 This episode is dedicated to the men and women of our armed forces and first responders. Whether you are currently serving or have served in the past, you are appreciated. It is because of your courage and sacrifice that we enjoy the freedoms and liberties we hold dear. And I, for one, appreciate every single one of you for protecting what many of us take for granted. So thank you. Going back through the centuries and embedded within the folklore of a wide range of regions is the idea of a species of demon in female form which appears to seduce men and steal their life energy. Most commonly called the succubus, which comes from the Latin word succuba, meaning paramour, these demons take on various appearances and are endowed with different powers depending on the tradition. But most generally follow the idea that they use sexual activity to target their prey, often in the realm of dreams, enticing and pulling the victims in to hold close and feed off of. Most demons of this variety are represented in one form or another across geographical boundaries and religions including Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as well as the legends of myriad far-flung cultures. Considering that it is men we are talking about here, many of the legends describe the experience as rather enjoyable in the heat of the moment that is, but the aftermath often is said to bring exhaustion, stupor, hallucinations, insanity and even death. But this must surely be just myths, right? Surely there can't be anything to the idea of sex-starved demons preying on men. Well, you might be surprised to know that there are numerous accounts throughout the centuries of supposed encounters with these demonic vixens. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos! I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up this hour, you've crawled into bed, ready for a good night's sleep. You begin to nod off but haven't completely fallen asleep yet. That's when you sense something in the room near your bed. Despite your fright, you can't cry out, you can't run, you can't scream. The thing then climbs on top of you and suddenly you realize its grotesque but also alluring, female, seductive and while you can't move, your body still responds to her intimate advances. You've just become the next victim of the succubus. If you're new here, welcome to the show. If you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite somebody else to listen in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to follow Weird Darkness on Facebook and Twitter, and visit WeirdDarkness.com to find the daily Weird Darkness podcast. You can watch streaming B horror movies and horror hosts 24-7 for free. You can listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated. You can send me your own true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Supposed encounters with real succubi go way back in time. A very early, supposedly real account comes from the 11th century. When Gerbert of Aurelac, who became Pope Sylvester II from 993 to 1003, one day met a mysterious woman as a young man. The woman called herself Meridiana and offered him all of the sins of the flesh and lust-filled sex that he could ever want beyond his wildest dreams, as well as wealth, good fortune and knowledge of the mystical arts if he would only stay faithful to her and her alone. Gerbert would purportedly agree to these terms and subsequently rose quickly up the ranks of the church, all while satisfying his every carnal desire with Meridiana, quite against his vows and all kept secret, of course. This went on until one day the woman predicted that Gerbert, who was by that time Pope, would die for his sins. He would repent and die just as predicted, and to this day it is said that his grave sweats just before the death of a Pope. Legend or not, whatever it was it is widely said that this mysterious woman was a succubus. In the 17th century we have the tale of a man named Johannes Junius, who was the burgomeister of Bomberg and convicted of witchcraft and burned at the stake in 1628. Before his execution, though, he had confessed that in 1624 he had been seduced by a woman who revealed herself to be a succubus and demanded that he renounce God. The frightened man had then taken the name Cricks, a warlock name, and had even been provided with his own familiar, and from then on he became further and further hopelessly involved with the world of witches and their sabbots, attending black masses, and often reported as riding about on a horrific flying black dog. Through all of this he adamantly insisted that he had refused to sacrifice humans, despite being implored by his succubus lover to do so, but he paid for his ways nevertheless. It seems that the era was rife with accused witches blaming succubi for their actions because this account is similar to a 16th century account recorded by author Nicholas Remi who said that there had once been a sheepherder who had been accused of witchcraft and sentenced to die. Before he was burned he too claimed that he had been seduced and corrupted by a succubus disguised as a milkmaid who had come to him in a dark time for him and twisted his mind and soul with her charms. In later centuries there is an account from the 19th century when a popular French author named J.K. Heismans claimed that he had fallen under the spell of a succubus. At the time he had purportedly been on a pilgrimage to a monastery. One night during his retreat he apparently was visited in a dream by the foul demon who pleasure him right to the point of intense climax before he woke up to see her fading away right before his eyes. Thinking it all to be a dream he was soon convinced it was real when he discovered the form of the woman indented into his bed next to him and could smell her scent in the air. He believed at the time that the succubus had spirited away his semen in order to use it to fertilize human women by the male form of the demon the incubus. Reports like this have continued into more modern times. We will give you a few examples when Weird Darkness returns. The chilling true terror of the Black Eyed Kids, a monster compilation by G. Michael Vasey. The Black Eyed Kids are an urban legend of vast proportions. The stories of small children turning up on people's doorsteps all across the world spreading fear and terror have only increased over time. This compilation of G. Michael Vasey's books on this scary phenomena include new material and new true stories as well as the complete texts of the Black Eyed Demons are coming and the Black Eyed Kids. Supernatural expert G. Michael Vasey carefully investigates this truly terrifying phenomenon using real life encounters with these scary supernatural beings. The result is an unsettling and sometimes terrifying book that will have you fearfully anticipating that knock at your door late at night. Who in what are these mysterious visitors to the doorstep? Are they demons? Aliens? What do they want? Why do they need to enter your home? And what happens if they do? Small kids that ask to use your phone or for a ride and yet those who encounter them are scared to death even before they notice their black eyes. The chilling true terror of the Black Eyed Kids, a monster compilation by G. Michael Vasey, narrated by Weird Darkness host Darren Marlar. Here a free sample on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. Welcome back to Weird Darkness, I'm Darren Marlar. We continue now with true stories of those who have been attacked in the middle of the night by a sex demon. And these stories are not just relegated to the past, they are more modern as well, which we are about to hear. Reports like this have gone all the way into much more modern times, such as one in 2007 with a commenter on unexplained mysteries who says he was kept awake for three days straight by some seductive demonic force, after which things escalated quickly. He says, I felt something touch my hand, not physically but something deeper down to my soul, and it warmed me while I was lying in bed wondering what was going to happen to me. I was completely awake, but another post could describe the world I saw. I remember most of what happened so vividly. Her touch was perfect and her master in the art beyond my imagination. I couldn't see her, I just felt sensations on my body and talked with her in my mind. She bid me to take her to a quiet place where my parents wouldn't hear, so I went out to the car in the dark. Things further progressed sexually and my energies were absolutely phenomenal. She always did the perfect thing to keep me going. As things progressed, I could begin to see more of her. The one thing that caught my eyes the most were her eyes when I looked into them. I saw the stars and the heavens and thought of the atoms and matter that make each one, but all of that was still not enough to justify the eyes. They pointed me to another world and all of what I saw in them pointed to an innocent desire to make love. Her body was effervescent, it changed according to what would arouse me the most, and I could not see her breasts or private parts, they were numb to the eyes. It was her hair, body type, skin color, ethnicity, that all changed. She would morph seamlessly, moment by moment. Another prominent feature of the experience was her scent. It was incredibly intoxicating, like a sort of indescribable flower with intimate features. It reminded me of everything that is good and beautiful in the world and it described what I saw in her eyes. All of her touch. It wasn't so much physical as it was much, much deeper. The whole nature of the experience was so innocent. I felt no guilt, no darkness, no lust whatsoever. The focus was on pleasing her and in turn she wished to please me. She would often giggle and I felt as though we were in the Garden of Eden making love for the first time in all creation and that God had given her such a magnificent gift of doing so. I didn't believe that but that's the closest way in my mind could describe it. She brought me to a certain point where I felt I could go no further, never achieving climax yet during the experience. All of a sudden she broke down, crying, telling me that I would be going through a very hard time. Just then I saw a vision and felt presences around me. I was reminded of Christ at his experiences leading up to his crucifixion with visual hallucinations and I saw the spiritual side of what was happening to him. I asked her who she was and she didn't answer. I saw that she understood that she could not understand the pain that I had just witnessed. After six hours from her first touch she worked me to an incredible climax. In another report from 2010 a commenter on the same site says he was accosted by a succubus as he laid down to sleep one night. The witness says it was a night like any other. Before going to bed I usually meditate for 15-30 minutes. I do this to clear my mind so that I can get a good night's sleep. I had in the past tried to call a succubus but always with questionable results. Nothing that would convince me that something really came. At this particular night in February 2010 I had made no special preparations, no spells or rituals, just simple breath exercises and a blank mind. It happened suddenly and without forewarning. My chest tightened. I felt as if I was jolted by electricity. A sensation that started in my chest and spread out to my abdomen. The sensation was so strong that at first I thought I was fiercely hugged. But I opened my eyes and saw nothing. I decided to lay down and relax. The next thing I felt was a gentle touch on both my legs which slid upwards. Not just a breeze but a real touch. I could feel fingers below my pajamas. My legs parted and felt as if they were floating on air. The next thing I felt I could only describe as the most intense sexual feeling that I ever had. It was like a pulse vibrated throughout my own body, so strong that I actually moaned in ecstasy and it did not stop. The feeling of hands over my body, the erotic spasms, and a pressure on my legs that felt as if someone was sitting on them. At the height of my pleasure I actually saw a very hazy shape over me. Although I could not see a distinct form, I could feel that it was female in nature. I had often asked the question in the past, what is your name? I would get all kinds of names in my head, but I was always pretty sure that it was just my imagination. But when I asked that night I got a clear name, so alien to the thoughts of my own mind that it was clear that it was not my own mind playing tricks. I remember going to bed at 10pm. The next thing I knew it was almost 2am. It felt like 10 minutes for me. This was my first real encounter with a succubus, and I can say that my life forever changed after this first encounter. Were these just some randy and very naughty dreams or something more? In around the same time period was another report relayed on Reddit by a poster who says that his mental and physical health had begun to take a turn, but the worse will have his story when Weird Darkness returns. Perhaps it's best to just try and stay awake. If that's you, I've got the solution. It's the only coffee that I drink right now. It's Weird Dark Roast Coffee. This specialty exhibits notes of cocoa, caramel and a touch of sinister sweetness with a velvety finish. Weird Dark Roast is an exclusive coffee that I had created specifically for you, my Weirdo listeners. And every dollar I receive in profit from it goes directly to our annual Overcoming the Darkness fundraiser, which benefits organizations that help people who struggle with depression. You can try Weird Dark Roast Coffee right now and even get free shipping on your first order if you use the promo code Weird. Just go to WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash coffee. Weird Darkness continues in just a moment. The Cat and the Canary Based on the award-winning stage play of the same name, in the film, relatives of an eccentric millionaire gathering his spooky mansion on the 20th anniversary of his death for the reading of his will. The film is so iconic it has spawned at least four remakes, plus countless other movies blatantly using the same premise. In fact, The Cat and the Canary was not only one of Universal Pictures' earliest horror films, but it is considered the cornerstone of Universal's School of Horror. The Weirdo Watch Party is always free to watch with all of us, so grab your popcorn, candy and soda, and even jump into the live chat with me and the rest of our Weirdo family as we watch the movie, along with a fun horror host giving us classic horror film knowledge. Again, it's The Cat and the Canary from 1927, presented by Horror Hotel's Lamia Queen of the Dark. The Weirdo Watch Party is Friday, February 3rd, starting at 7 p.m. Pacific, 8 p.m. Mountain, 9 p.m. Central, 10 p.m. Eastern. You can see clips from the film and watch horror movies and horror hosts for free 24-7 on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com, and we'll see you there on Friday, February 3rd. I'm Darren Marlar. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. A moment ago, we were talking about sex demons and how they attack in the middle of the night, but are these just some nasty, naughty dreams that people are having, or is it truly something sinister? In around the same time period, there was another report, relayed on Reddit, by a poster who says that his mental and physical health had begun to take a turn for the worse. Let's listen to his story. He was experiencing delusions of worthlessness and being driven to suicidal thoughts as a result, and one evening, during this dark time, he says he had a rather odd encounter. He says, I was having a dream, semi-lucid, or maybe just really vivid. An old friend was there, we or they were getting on a bus. For whatever reason, I focus on this lady who was trying to get on the bus, that's when I wake up. It's gross even to think about this entity, what I call the succubus, was trying to get back into my body. The dream triggered something, or maybe the dream was a reflection of some subconscious action I took, but the reiki weakened its grip on me, and it was trying to get back in. Purely by instinct, I just concentrated on keeping this thing out, and it was working, and I just sat up in anger, and this thing is cast away. I call it a succubus only because I feel like it was attached near my genitals, influenced or drug me sexually. It wasn't much how it's portrayed in popular media for me, though in the dream I guess it was disguised as a woman. Also, it was a feminine entity, whatever that means. I could draw a pic, but it was about the size of a big cat. It's silly, but its lower body is how they portray a ghost, I guess, like caspers, but its upper half was more humanoid. So, a ghost-like tail and a humanoid head. The humanoid part always creeps me out because this thing was sentient and fairly intelligent, but still behaved like a parasite. And worse, it was attached in me for a long time. A humanoid like being. So, this is what I think. I was more promiscuous back then, so I think I caught it. I'm one of those sensitive types, so I think that's why it was attracted to me. I think it was feeding on me for a long time, and those leeches things were babies in a sort of way. It was all feed, reproduce, spread. I read online that these entities also feed on negative energies, which is why it was driving me to kill myself like one of those parasites that affects ants and forces them to kill itself so it can feed, bloom, and spread. It does seem to feed into the lore of the succubus, with her feeding on negative energies and using sexual angles to do so. Is this a tall tale or what? In 2011, we have an account from a witness on the site Your Ghost Stories, who says that this happened at his home in San Rafael, California. He had just broken up with his ex, and he had been left alone in that empty apartment that they had once shared. One evening he says he was visited by something not holy of this earth, of which he says, I was just chilling in my room on Facebook when I felt a light tingling sensation on the back of my neck. I reached back and felt nothing there. I resumed what I was doing. About five minutes later, I felt a hand closed gently on my shoulder. I felt secure. I closed my eyes. I heard a voice in my head saying that everything would get better. I asked if it really meant it. As soon as the words had come out of my mouth, it kissed the back of my neck and said that it would be there for me. I closed my computer and turned to face whoever it was. What I saw next only cannot be described with mere words. It was like a goddess and a demon in one. I was speechless. It led me to my bed and had me lie down. I did as I was told. She then proceeded to lie down next to me and curl up in my arms. I kissed her head. She ran a hand down from my cheek to my chest and slowly lifted my shirt up and off. You can probably imagine what happened next. I then woke up and she was still there next to me. She whispered in my ear that she would come back and reveal who she was when the time came. Since then, I have not had any contact with her. In 2012, there is also a witness named Ethan on Thoughtco who says this happened as he was living in Bakersfield, California. He says that this bizarre encounter happened one day after he had returned from school and tried to get ready for the homework that lie ahead. He lay down for a moment and ended up crashing out, but this was not meant to last. According to the report, he fell asleep instantly but did not sleep soundly. He dreamt that an evil being was in his home and it was trying to get into his room. It finally broke in and as soon as it did, Ethan jolted awake with a ringing sound in his ears. Ethan felt the demon. It was on the wall behind his bed, holding Ethan's limbs down. It had something in his ears and his left ear began to vibrate violently. The strange sensation spread to his right ear as well. Ethan thought as best he could. He could not break free. He cursed at the being and tried to free his arms or legs. The demon only laughed at him, an eerie and horrific sound that was neither deep nor high pitched. The demon cried out, soon, and released Ethan. Ethan sat up rapidly, leaping out of bed to turn on the lights, but when light flooded his bedroom, there was nothing out of the ordinary. However, Ethan's dogs were acting abnormal, barking, leaping at the door and trying desperately to get to their owner. He went to the bathroom and was startled to see his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were bloodshot, with the whites of the eyes completely red. Ethan realized he had been visited by a succubus demon. Ethan remains terrified of the demon returning, but has not had another incident ever since. Often, men report that their experiences with succubi are positive and enjoyable, but just as often they report that the pleasure had a thread of something evil running through it. According to succubus legends, sometimes these men come to bad ends after associating with demonic seductresses. Some men are not only willing marks of a succubus, they actually research, plan, and summon the female demons. An anonymous online poster claims he prayed to Lilith to send a succubus to him, and soon, that is what happened. He describes her as slender, tall, with fair skin and flaming long red hair. He called her Alira, and she stayed with the man for a number of days and nights. But after a while, an evil presence also entered the man's life, pushing Alira out. How he interacted with her changed as well. Sometimes he could only see her in his head or hear her in his mind. Other times he would be out and about in public, and suddenly she would appear to him. He speculated that perhaps that sort of activity was under the control of the more malevolent force. A purportedly true 16th century succubus encounter was recorded by author Nicholas Remy. Apparently a shepherd was hauled into court, tried, and convicted of witchcraft. When asked how he came to be associated with witches, the young man claimed that sometime before he had been seduced by a succubus and she had most thoroughly corrupted him. The shepherd went on to say that at some time after his first encounter with a succubus, he fell in love with a milkmaid. He felt so tenderly toward her, but she wanted nothing to do with him. Her rejection sent him into despair. One day he thought he saw his beloved milkmaid hiding behind a shrub. He was by her side in an instant, but she became frightened and pushed him away. Then she became extremely receptive to his advances. Encouraged, the shepherd continued and the milkmaid made him promise to acknowledge her as his mistress and behaved to her as though she were God himself. Another anonymous internet poster was eager to tell of his own personal succubus experience. Though he was raised a Christian, he was also overcoming an addiction to explicit content. In other words, the timing and circumstances were ripe for a visit from a succubus. He says the experience began with the sensation of a gentle touch to his hand. At this point he was fully conscious but wondering what was going on. He claims he could not see the succubus but sensed her speaking to him. He also claimed he could smell its perfume. She continued to morph throughout the time he shared with her, transforming her hair color, her eyes, her body, even her ethnicity. Some experts argue that what humans perceive as an experience with a sensual demon is actually part of sleep paralysis. The inability to move and the sensation of being touched often go hand in hand. More and more people, however, are claiming that their experiences with succubi and or incubi are real. One man writing about his experiences even mentions a feeling of paralysis. He attributes it to the succubus that was hovering over him. He wrote that he was completely in her grip and could not move. She hovered over him, smiling. She asked him if he knew what succubi do and what they are for. Before he could reply, he described that her face turned demonic red and her beautiful teeth became fangs. She laughingly told him that succubi take the souls of their victims and that he would perish within three days. Then she disappeared. Apparently the man survived at least long enough to write of his encounter and post it online. Lilith is an ancient yet still thriving archetype of a fallen woman. She takes many forms, perhaps the most famous is Lilith, the Biblical Adam's first wife. Things didn't work out, she left him. That part is not in the Bible, but anyway, over the ensuing centuries of Judeo-Christian culture Lilith evolved as the ultimate symbol for a succubi. Man across cultures and ages claim to have been visited by Lilith in the form of a succubus. Sometimes she is invoked or invited. Other times she sneaks in to unsuspecting males and takes what she wants from them. There are many more such reports and it leaves us asking a question. Are these just legends born of men being horny and having suggestive thoughts or dreams? Or is there something more to the whole succubus phenomenon? The main rational explanation for all of this is that it is legends based around a phenomenon known as sleep paralysis, in which we wake in a domain between sleep and wakefulness, where dreams can continue on and be perceived as being very real. Since we are kept in our paralytic sleep state, we can feel as if we cannot move, and the dream figure can take on many forms depending on what we expect to see. This explanation has been used to try to explain away everything from ghost sightings to alien abductions to, of course, succubi. Is that what we are dealing with here? Our sleepy mind playing tricks on us and invoking these illusions and hallucinations? Perhaps, in this case, flavored with sexual frustration? Coming up in tonight's sudden death overtime content, which you can only hear in the podcast, we'll talk about whether or not the succubus is just sleep paralysis. Some people feel it is, some people don't. We'll hear both sides of the argument in tonight's sudden death overtime content, which you can only get in the Weird Darkness podcast of tonight's show. Up next, we'll see who's called the Dark Line recently. Congratulations to Joshua Trevino. He is my email newsletter winner for January, and Joshua has won a Weird Darkness prize back. It includes Weird Darkness Pen, Button, Phone Stand, Bumper Sticker, Fidget Keychain, Magnet, and more. Congratulations, Joshua! If you want to win next month, be sure that you're signed up for the free Weird Darkness email newsletter at WeirdDarkness.com. Not only will you be registered for the monthly drawing, but you'll also stay up to date on everything Weird Darkness. You'll find out when sales are taking place in the Weird Darkness store, you'll see weird news items that don't get shared in the podcast, you'll be informed when the next Weirdo Watch Party and Friday Frights is taking place. You'll know about other contests also taking place. See where I'll be next on the Weird Darkness road trip and more. Sign up for the Weird Darkness email newsletter for free at WeirdDarkness.com and you'll be in the know and automatically be registered for the monthly drawing. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. Do you have a true paranormal story that's happened to you or someone you know? You can share it by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com or you can call the dark line toll free at 1-877-277-5944. That's 1-877-277-5944. Just like this person did. Hello, I'm Carl Shelton from Hot Springs, Arkansas. I would like to tell you a story that happened to me and my wife in the middle of the day. We were cooking one day and it was 1 o'clock in the afternoon and I was was preparing our lunch in the day and we had no one else home. Ben, her in the living room, picked our lunch. I looked at the plate, of course, you put the bread and the bread was tore into pieces. I asked my wife, why did you tear the bread into pieces? Because I tell my child not to do it. So anyway, she said I did touch it. You know, it's right in the middle of the day, my grandfather had died not even a year before that and the bread was just tore to pieces on the plate and it was just right in the middle of the day and we did not see nothing. Thank you so much, Carl Shelton. Thank you. Thanks for the call, Mr. Shelton. If you have a true paranormal story that's happened to you or somebody you know, you can call the dark line at 1-877-277-5944. That's 1-877-277-5944. Welcome, Weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up this hour The devil made me do it is the oldest excuse in the world and for nearly every crime it is just that, an excuse. But I said nearly every time. Once in a while there are crimes where the perpetrator is the real deal. We'll look at real crimes committed by real demons. An exorcism consultant tells us about one of the creepiest cases he was ever called in on, a case very different than other exorcisms he's been a part of or witnessed to. And while on the subject of exorcisms, we'll exercise one more demon, one that is wreaking in, of all places, a printing office. And in tonight's Sudden Death Overtime content in the podcast version, did you know that you're honoring one of hell's seven princes every time you use the toilet? I'll tell you about Belfigor, who prefers offerings of human feces. That's in tonight's Sudden Death Overtime content in the podcast version of tonight's show, because, well, let's face it, it's too filthy for broadcast. If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to follow Weird Darkness on Facebook and Twitter, and visit WeirdDarkness.com to find the daily Weird Darkness podcast. Watch streaming B horror movies and horror hosts 24-7 for free. Listen to free audiobooks that I've narrated. Send me your own true story of something paranormal that's happened to you or someone you know and more. You can find all of that at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Supposedly, demon-possessed criminals have been around for as long as people have been murdering their wives, sexually assaulting young people, or gunning down strangers in the street. Some criminals seem to use this as a calculated excuse for their actions, while others, usually suffering from mental illness, drug addiction, or both, seem to truly believe they were under demonic control when they performed their evil acts. One of the most famous cases of a demon committing crimes involves the serial killer David Berkowitz, also known as the son of Sam, who claimed a demon inhabiting the body of his neighbor's dog compelled him to walk the streets of New York for an entire year, firing indiscriminately at anyone who was hanging out in a parked car after dark. If you've ever been curious about demonic possession or want to get the inside scoop on some of the most vile acts ever committed by the possessed, say a couple of Hail Marys, and continue listening about the most heinous crimes committed by demons. Let's begin with the son of Sam. New York City during the summer of 1976 was a hotbed of anger, frustration and fear, and David Berkowitz, a.k.a. the son of Sam, didn't help the matter by killing six people and wounding seven others in the span of one year. After his arrest, Berkowitz told people that he was under the control of a demon named Harvey, who inhabited his neighbor's dog and implored him to kill people. Once, during a three-month break from his murder spree, Berkowitz wrote the New York Post to say, I am still here like a spirit roaming the night, thirsty, hungry, seldom stopping to rest. After being incarcerated, Berkowitz received a sentence of 365 years in prison. He became a born-again Christian, but he still believes that the devil and God are fighting for possession of his soul. After Uber driver Jason Bryan Dalton went on a shooting spree, killing six people in the early hours of February 21, 2016, people wondered what could drive a man to commit such heinous murders. Money? Revenge? It turned out the real reason was something much more insidious. Dalton told detectives that the Uber app on his iPhone had taken over his mind and forced him to commit murder. A detective for the case said, Dalton explained how when he opens up the Uber taxi app, a symbol appeared and he recognized that symbol as the Eastern Star symbol. Dalton acknowledged that he recognized the Uber symbol as being that of the Eastern Star and a devil head popped up on his screen and when he pressed the button on the app, that is when all the problems started. But it's not just that the app demon forced him to kill. It also helped him get from place to place in a timely manner. Dalton explained how you can drive over 100 miles per hour and go through stop signs and you could just get places. Dalton said he wishes he would never have spoken what that symbol was when he saw it on his phone. Dalton described the devil figure as a horned cow head or something like that and then it would give you an assignment and it would literally take over your whole body. Pazuzu Algarad was arrested in 2014 for killing a person and then burying the body in his backyard in July 2009 as well as helping his girlfriend bury someone she killed later that year. He had taken the name Pazuzu in reference to a demon mentioned in the Exorcist and he had a forked tongue and sharpened teeth. An anonymous man who lived at the home where the bodies were buried told police that he felt Pazuzu was possessed. He was very serpentine, he said and his eyes would kind of get a little like glazy, like almost not there, like the inner part of him would kind of phase away. You could tell when his demons needed something from him because they took over about once a month and it was usually on a full moon. They sacrificed at least one rabbit and then he would eat the heart of it and then burn the flesh of the rabbit. Investigators on the scene later deemed the home the site of many animal sacrifices as unsafe for human life. When Weird Darkness returns we'll look at more true stories of criminals who blamed the devil for their crimes. You shut yourself in, the lights are out and you're listening to Weird Darkness but suddenly you get that feeling you're not alone. You don't know what might be under the bed or in the closet or in the attic or in the room with you. You don't dare try to sleep now, you're too scared to. If you doze off you might be vulnerable to the creatures who haunt your dreams. That's just one more reason to have Weird Dark Roast Coffee in the cupboard because you just never know when you might need it. Weird Dark Roast Coffee contains deep notes of cocoa, caramel and a touch of sinister sweetness. Each bag is fresh roasted to order by Evansville Coffee and delivery is free for your first order. Just use the promo code Weird, you can find a link to it at WeirdDarkness.com. Grab a bag before something else grabs you from the dark. We continue now with The Devil Made Me Do It. Real stories from criminals who are blaming demons and the devil for their misbehavior. In 1974, Michael Taylor was just a simple butcher living in Osset, England, who was suddenly overcome by an evil spirit. He had an exorcism performed on October 5th and 6th of 1974, and while it went okay, the priests weren't able to expel all the demons. According to Bill Ellis, an authority on folklore and the occult in contemporary culture, in an all-night ceremony, the exorcists believed they had invoked and cast out at least 40 demons, including those of incest, bestiality, blasphemy and lewdness. At the end, exhausted, they allowed Taylor to go home, although they felt that at least three demons, insanity, murder and violence, were still left in him. So, you know the big three. After he returned home, Taylor immediately murdered his wife by ripping out her eyes and tongue, then tearing off most of the skin from her face, finally strangling their pet poodle. Police found Taylor standing in the street naked and covered in blood, shouting, It is the blood of Satan. In 2012, after living in what they believed to be a demon-possessed house and becoming convinced that the world was ending, Deborah and Adolfo Gomez admitted to restraining their children ages 7 and 5 with duct tape inside an SUV in a Walmart parking lot because they were demon-possessed. The couple was arrested in Lawrence Kansas where investigators learned that not only was the couple under demonic possession, but Adolfo had not slept for the last nine days, so maybe that had something to do with it. In March 2016, 17-year-old Tommy Smith attempted to rob Peter Cherm, a 66-year-old man for the keys to his son's Range Rover. When Cherm refused to hand the keys over, Smith flew into a rage and stabbed Cherm in the face, neck and ears. The teenage boy stabbed the old man so fiercely that the knife actually broke in two. Cherm ended the attack by bashing Smith in the head with a claw hammer. Smith, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, later told a psychiatrist that he was magnetically drawn towards his victim and that he saw a demon float out of Cherm's wounds when he attacked him. According to Reverend Cecil Begby, South African Aljar Swartz was possessed by demons when he strangled a Ravensmeade teenager to death before beheading him and leaving his body in an abandoned school in October 2013. Swartz claimed that he'd become possessed by a vague collection of satanic attacks, but he never went into further detail. Allegedly, after beheading his victim, he'd intended to sell the man's head to a traditional healer called a Sangoma. Reverend Begby did his best to help out Swartz and instructed church groups all over Africa to pray for Begby on the Good Friday following Swartz's incarceration. Swartz said that when the collective prayer was held, he felt that he was standing under a waterfall with pure, clean water flowing through his body. He claims he's no longer possessed by demons. However, the courts have stated that they will not mitigate his sentence based on his supposed recovery. In 1981, 19-year-old Arnie Cheyenne Johnson stabbed 40-year-old Alan Bono to death after arguing over Johnson's girlfriend. After being picked up by the police, Johnson gave the immortal defense the devil made me do it. Rather than balk at his claims, every paranormal investigator worth their salt flocked to Connecticut to interview Johnson and find out if he was truly possessed. According to Adam Lorraine Warren, the paranormal investigators who helped make the Amityville case so famous, Johnson had become possessed when he threatened to fight one of a collection of 43 demons who were living inside his 11-year-old brother. As Johnson's trial went on, the paranormal society split down the middle. The most vocal opponent of the Warren's continuing support of Johnson was the amazing Kreskin, who noted that the murder was simply a means for the couple to pray on the superstitions of the public and build up their annual lecture revenues. After a judge denied the demonic possession angle that the defense was trying to play, Johnson's team didn't have a leg to stand on, and the killer was eventually convicted of manslaughter. Johnson received the maximum sentence of 10-20 years and was released for good behavior after serving just over four years at the Connecticut Correctional Institute in Summers. Jason Nelson, a 32-year-old English man, claimed to be under the spell of a demon when he went on a spree of violence, raping a woman, attempting to rape her daughter, and then murdering Jordan Maguire after inviting the man into his home to sell marijuana. This case is a little opaque due to the lack of verifiable facts. It seems that in 2015, while Reverend Connery Dagadou was attempting to perform a multiple-day-long cleansing ceremony on Roland Zena of Derby, Pennsylvania, he was strangled to death by Zena, who then immediately ran outside and started beating on a minivan with a shovel. First responders noted that Zena seemed to be dancing when they arrived on the scene, and when they tackled him to the ground and slapped him in cuffs, he allegedly began shouting, I kill demons, which is confusing because we thought he was the guy who was possessed by demons. Louis Zambrano, 30, was sentenced to 26 and a half years in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Angie Escobar by stabbing her over 80 times with a pair of scissors. After she died, he shoved her into the trunk of his car. He told a judge that he was under demonic possession when he killed Escobar, but that there were also trust issues at play in the gruesome murder. On April 29, 2016, two police officers responded to a phone call about a man screaming and yelling in the street and found a man who proceeded to give one of the officers a piece of his mind, like he knew him from high school, before biting the other on the hand. Pamela Fornit, the biter's wife, told WKR, I apologize to those police officers about what happened, but I begged them please don't shoot my husband. The officers did not shoot him, but were able to take him into custody. He's believed to be mentally ill. Fornit later said that her husband had been possessed by a demon. I caught it on camera, she said. A demon? It really was, so I figured that's what got in him. And finally, Noor Walail, a 38-year-old English imam, raped a boy in the bathroom of the church where he was giving lessons. When the elders of the mosque found out what had happened, Walail simply said that the devil made him do it. The elders told Walail that his choices were to face the police in England or to return forever to his native India. Walail fled to escape persecution from the police, but later secretly returned to Lester where he was promptly arrested and slammed with a rape charge. Up next on Weird Darkness, an exorcism consultant tells about one of the creepiest cases he was ever called in on, a case very different than other exorcisms he's been a part of or witnessed to. Up next. Our latest Weirded Work winner is Kevin Kramer. Kevin works at Olympian Machine in Grey, Louisiana where they manufacture components for oil field tools, and he and a couple of his coworkers listen to Weird Darkness while doing it. Because I chose Kevin's entry at random, he's receiving four Weird Darkness coffee mugs, four Weird Darkness magnets, and a batch of Weird Dark Roast Coffee, all of which he can share with his coworkers at Olympian Machine in Grey, Louisiana. And for being the one who entered his company in the drawing, Kevin gets a Weird Darkness t-shirt. Congratulations, Kevin and Olympian Machine in Grey, Louisiana! If you listen to the podcast on the job with your coworkers, visit the Contests page at WeirdDarkness.com to enter and I might draw your entry next month. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. I'm Darren Marlar. I believe I've told this story before, but with an entire episode about demons and demon possession, I feel it's appropriate to bring it back simply because it is such an incredible and disturbing story of a real-life exorcism. One of the creepiest exorcism cases that doesn't get the focus that it deserves is that of Dr. Richard Gallagher's work with Julia, a woman who was possessed by an incredibly intelligent demon. This case is one of the real exorcisms that were worse than the exorcist, and it completely changed the mindset of a psychiatrist who didn't believe that people could actually be possessed by demons. The story of Julia is not only one of the worst exorcisms to ever be recorded, but it's also one of the few stories that delves into what it's really like to work on an exorcism case. The case spanned multiple exorcisms, and the people who were trying to save Julia lived thousands of miles away from each other. Telling you any more would ruin how weird and crazy this story gets, so listen on, as this exorcism consultant shares the story of the worst case he ever worked on. Gallagher was brought in to meet Julia, a woman who dressed in flowing black robes and put on black eye shadow that went back to her temples. She referred to herself as the High Priestess of a Satanic Cult, which made Gallagher immediately skeptical of her claims. His skepticism began to fade, though, when he met Julia and she immediately began to point out the secret weaknesses of everyone in the room. After that, she began to guess the way that people whom she'd never met had died. Gallagher says that Julia knew that his mother had passed away from ovarian cancer and that the possessed woman was known to speak multiple languages during exorcisms. One of the major criticisms lobbed at Dr. Gallagher's relationship with Julia is his insistence that she wasn't simply dealing with a major mental episode. He claims that it was much more likely that she was possessed by a demonic entity than it was that she was dealing with a psychonic episode, as Julia's trances were much more intense than a simple disassociation. He wrote in the New Oxford Review, mentally troubled individuals often dissociate, but Julia's trances were accompanied by an unusual phenomenon. Out of her mouth would come various threats, taunts, and scatological language phrases like, leave her alone, you idiot, she's ours, leave you imbecile priest, or just leave. Gallagher continues, saying that Julia made sure to be as sacrilegious during her trances. When Julia's exorcism finally occurred, it allegedly had all the trappings of your classic Hollywood film. The room grew cold in the middle of the summer. Julia taunted Gallagher's team of priests and nurses in voices that didn't belong to her. She began to make guttural, animalistic noises. Supposedly objects moved around the room at will and top it all off when Julia came out of each of her trances, she didn't remember anything that had happened. According to one source, Julia took on an extreme strength, making it so six people had to hold her down. The source also claims that she levitated. However, in Dr. Gallagher's article for The Washington Post, he says that he never saw anything like that happen. Before Dr. Gallagher's first meeting with Julia, he experienced an incredibly strange evening that would be a precursor for what had followed. Gallagher claimed, the night before I first saw her, our cats went wild in the middle of the night. When I met her the next day, she asked me, Dr. Gallagher, how did you like those cats? That's not the most auspicious beginning for a relationship, but it seems par for the course when you're dealing with demons. Gallagher continued, I told her if she was ever involved in doing anything like that again, I would refuse to assess her for the exorcist. That wasn't the only time that Julia messed with Dr. Gallagher's head from thousands of miles away. He claims that one day, when he was on the phone with Julia's exorcist, they suddenly heard her voice coming through the receiver. Gallagher says that she was screaming at the priest in a demonic voice. Aside from Julia's voices and the horrible things she would say to everyone during her eight exorcisms, she also had a penchant for describing things about the team assembled to help her that no one should know. During Julia's trances, she would display psychic abilities that absolutely freaked everyone out. In one case, she locked in on a priest who wasn't even in the house and began to describe where he was at and how he was feeling. Another priest who was directly involved with Julia's case was consistently reported on when Julia was in a trance. Despite not knowing that the priest suffered from a chronic illness, she would discuss how he was feeling, what he was doing, and even what he was wearing. Every case of demonic possession is different. Some demons are lower creatures who are simply lashing out at the corporeal world, while others are incredibly crafty creatures who want nothing more than to cause chaos. The demon inhabiting Julia was definitely an intelligent being that seemed hell-bent on destroying the faith of every member of the exorcism team. Proving the demon's intelligence, it allegedly knew when the priests were trying to trick it by throwing regular water at her and would only react to genuine holy water. She was also able to reveal the facts about the past of the attendees and provide a family history of everyone in the room. In most cases of exorcism, it is usually the family or a loved one who seeks out the Catholic Church in order to free their friend or family member from the clutches of demonic possession. In the case of Julia, it was the woman herself who went to a local priest. Gallagher believes that she was conflicted and that she wanted to be relieved of the possession. Gallagher later said that the whole case was strange because Julia continued to be involved with a satanic cult throughout her work with the Catholic Church. Julia was perfectly aware that she was possessed and she did not like that. It turned out that she refused to leave the cult so she was not someone who was going to be helped, but she was also afraid of the cult. She was torn. Dr. Gallagher is open about how most of the patients he sees who may be possessed by a demon are dealing with a psychotic episode. Most of the people who believe they are being assaulted by demons are actually dealing with dissociative identity syndromes. Priests call this pseudo-possession, but make no mistake, that's a mental disorder. According to Dr. Gallagher, real possessions have telltale signs that are incredibly hard to fake, things like levitation and having what he calls uncommon knowledge. Gallagher admits that he has never seen a person levitate, although he believes that some of his associates have witnessed this feat. After studying a patient, he will let priests know whether or not the symptoms put off by the person he is studying can be medically explained or not, and leave it at that. However, in the case of Julia, things weren't so cut and dried. Dr. Richard Gallagher is an Ivy League trained at Princeton and Yale psychiatrist working in Westchester County, New York with a private practice. In an article in The Washington Post, he describes himself as a practicing Catholic and an admitted skeptic who doesn't believe in hocus pocus. He believes this is why he was brought onto Julia's case. According to Gallagher, everyone involved didn't want this case to be about demonic possession, but they couldn't help it, Gallagher said. The priest who had asked for my opinion of this bizarre case was the most experienced exorcist in the country at the time, an erudite and sensible man, he said. Could it be that they were all having their faith tested by this alleged demon? According to Dr. Gallagher, he and his team of exorcists weren't able to fully help Julia because she called off the exorcism. He claimed that she was conflicted about receiving help from the church. She said that she enjoyed the power she received when she channelled the demonic entity possessing her body. Gallagher said that she was playing both sides, which seems like a reductive way of looking at the situation. Gallagher stated, exorcism is not some kind of magical incantation. Normally, a person has to make their own sincere spiritual efforts too. After calling off the exorcism, Gallagher said that he only heard from Julia one more time. She said that she was dying of cancer and was thinking about continuing her exorcism. Sadly, he never heard from her again. When Weird Darkness returns, we'll exercise one more demon, one that is wreaking havoc in, of all places, a printing office. That story is up next. A creature, part of the darkness before God created the heavens and earth, has awakened. It had slumbered, hibernating from the light. Now it's hungry and wanting to feed. Bobby, a local kid and the police chief have gone missing. Everyone in the small town of Standard Illinois is turning to former Chicago cop Rob Aletto to find them. But as he starts his search, more people disappear. Rob is quickly overwhelmed. The night itself seems to come alive, taking these people. Aletto must find out why and discover a way to stop it before the entire town slips into darkness. Into Darkness by Jason R. Davis, narrated by Weird Darkness host Darren Marlar, the greatly anticipated sequel to Inside the Mirrors. Here are free samples on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. ULTRA guys' accounts tend to be surprisingly formulaic. Read enough of them and you start to think, if you've seen one poll, you've seen them all. For that reason, the number of unusual and bizarre details in the following story comes as a welcome change of pace. This report comes from the benedictine monk Antoine Augustin Calmet, whose informant was probably one of the exorcists involved in the case. Here's the story. They write me word from Constance, the 8th of August, 1748, that towards the end of the year, 1746, sighs were heard, which seemed to proceed from the corner of the printing office of the Sierra Le Harte, one of the common councilmen of the city of Constance. The printers only laughed at it at first, but in the following year, 1747, in the beginning of January, they heard more noise than before. It was a hard knocking near the same corner once they had at first heard some sighs. Things went so far that the printers received slaps and their hats were thrown on the ground. They had recourse to the capuchins who came with the books proper for exercising the spirit. The exorcism completed, they returned home, and the noise ceased for three days. At the end of that time, the noise recommenced more violently than before. The spirit threw the characters for printing, whether letters or figures, against the windows. They sent out of the city for a famous exorcist who exercised the spirit for a week. One day, the spirit boxed the ears of the lad, and again, the letters, etc., were thrown against the window panes. Before an exorcist, not having been able to affect anything by his exorcisms, returned to his own home. The spirit went on as usual, giving slaps in the face to one, and throwing stones and other things at another so that the compositors were obliged to leave that corner of the printing office and placed themselves in the middle of the room, but they were not the quieter for that. They then sent for other exorcists, one of whom had a particle of the true cross which he placed upon the table. The spirit did not, however, cease, disturbing as usual the workmen belonging to the printing office, and the capuchin brother who accompanied the exorcist received such buffets that they were both obliged to withdraw to their convent. Then came others, who have mixed a quantity of sand and ashes in a bucket of water, blessed the water, and sprinkled with it every part of the printing office. They also scattered the sand and ashes all over the room upon the paved floor, and being provided with swords, the whole party began to strike at random, right and left in every part of the room to see if they could hit the ghost, and to observe if he left any foot marks upon the sand or ashes which covered the floor. They perceived the last that he had perched himself on the top of the stove or furnace, and they remarked on the angles of its marks of his feet and hands impressed on the sand and ashes they had blessed. They succeeded in driving him from vents, and they very soon perceived that he had slid under the table, and left marks of his hands and feet on the pavement. The dust raised by all this movement in the office caused them to disperse, and they discontinued the pursuit. But the principal exorcist, having taken out a screw from the angle where they had first heard the noise, found in a hole in the wall some feathers. Three bones wrapped up in a dirty piece of linen, some bits of glass, and a hairpin or bodkin. He blessed a fire which they lighted and had it all thrown in. But this monk had hardly reached his convent when one of the printers came to tell him that the bodkin had come out of the flames three times of itself, and that a boy who was holding a pair of tongs and who had put the bodkin in the fire again had been violently struck in the face. The rest of the things which had been found having been brought to the Capuchin convent, they were burnt without further resistance. But the lad who had carried them there saw naked woman in the public marketplace, and on that, in the following days, groans were heard in the marketplace of Constance. Some days after this, the printer's house was again infested in this manner. The ghosts giving slaps, throwing stones and molesting the domestics in diverse ways. The Sierra Le Harte, the master of the house, received a great wound in his head. Two boys who slept in the same bed were thrown on the ground so that the house was entirely forsaken during the night. One Sunday, a servant girl carrying away some linen from the house had stones thrown at her, and another time two boys were thrown down from a ladder. There was, in the city of Constance, an executioner who passed for a sorcerer. The monk who writes to me suspected him of having some part in this game. He began to exhort those who sat up with him in the house to put their confidence in God and to be strong in faith. He gave them to understand that the executioner was likely to be of the party. They passed the night thus in the house, and about ten o'clock in the evening, one of the companions of the exorcist threw himself at his feet in tears, and revealed to him that that same night he and one of his companions had been sent to consult the executioner in Turgau, and that by order of the Sierra Le Harte printer in whose house all this took place. This avowal strangely surprised the good father, and he declared that he would not continue to exercise if they did not assure him that they had not spoken to the executioner to put an end to the haunting. They protested that they had not spoken to him at all. The Capuchin father had everything picked up that was found about the house, wrapped up in packets, and had them carried to his convent. The following night, two domestics tried to pass the night in the house, but they were thrown out of their beds, and constrained to go and sleep elsewhere. After this, they sent for a peasant to the village of Annenstorf who was considered a good exorcist. He passed the night in the haunted house, drinking, singing, and shouting. He received slaps and blows from a stick, and was obliged to own that he could not prevail against the spirit. The widow of an executioner presented herself then to perform the exorcisms. She began by using fumigations in all parts of the dwelling to drive away the evil spirits. But before she had finished these fumigations, seeing that the master was struck in the face and on his body by the spirit, she ran away from the house without asking for her pay. They next called in the cure of Valberg, who passed for a clever exorcist. He came with four other secular cures, and continued the exorcisms for three days without any success. He withdrew to his parish, imputing the inutility of his prayers to the want of faith of those who were present. During this time, one of the four priests was struck with a knife, then with a fork, but he was not hurt. The son of Sierra Hart, master of the dwelling, received upon his jaw a blow from a pascal taper which did him no harm. All being of no service, they sent for the executioner of the neighborhood. Two of the persons who went to fetch him were well thrashed and pelted with stones. Another had his thigh so tightly pressed that he felt the pain for a long time. The executioner carefully collected all the packets he found wrapped up about the house and put others in their room. But the spirit took them up and threw them into the marketplace. After this, the executioner persuaded the Sierra Hart that he might boldly return with his people to the house. He did so, but the first night when they were at supper, one of his workmen named Solomon was wounded on the foot and then followed a great effusion of blood. They then sent again for the executioner who appeared much surprised that the house was not yet entirely freed, but at that moment he was himself attacked by a shower of stones, boxes on the ears, and other blows, which constrained him to run away quickly. Some heretics in the neighborhood, being informed of all these things, came one day to the bookseller's shop and upon attempting to read in a Catholic Bible which was there, were well boxed and beaten, but having taken up a Calvinist Bible, they received no harm. Two men of Constance, having entered the bookseller's shop from sheer curiosity, one of them was immediately thrown down upon the ground and the other ran away as fast as he could. Another person who had come in the same way from curiosity was punished for his presumption by having a quantity of water thrown upon him. A young girl of Augsburg, a relation of the Sierra Hart printer was chased away with violent blows and pursued even to the neighboring house where she entered. At last, the hauntings ceased on the 8th of February. On that day, the specter opened the shop door, went in, displaced a few articles, went out, shut the door, and from that time, nothing more was seen or heard of it. As if going to the bathroom weren't stressful enough, pooping at work, anyone? Now you can worry about sacrificing to a demon. Belfigor, one of Hell's seven princes, is the demon of sloth and excrement. Lighting a candle in his name apparently just wasn't enough. Belfigor comes from Baopior, seen multiple times in the Old Testament as the God of the Moabites. Hundreds of years later, Baopior was Latinized into Belfigor and reappropriated into a demon to populate the Christian Hell. A book on demonology from the early 1800s got the ball rolling, and Belfigor soon developed an entire mythology of his own, only loosely based in Biblical roots. Today, Belfigor is associated with Belfigor's prime, a prime number with 666 in the center that is supposedly demonic, and of course we know him as the demon of feces. Some gods want virgins or lambs or goats. Some gods want excrement. Such is the case with Belfigor, whose preferred offering is feces. Paor, as in the Hebrew root of Baopior or Belfigor, is usually translated as opening. Rashi, a French rabbi who wrote commentary on the Old Testament, said Paor was so named because before it, they bared their anus and relieved themselves. This was the manner of its worship. Quite the visual image there, Rashi. Belfigor wasn't always a meaningful demon or even in the forefront of anyone's mind until Jacques August Simon Collin de Plancy wrote Dictionnaire Infernal in 1818. In it, he only briefly mentioned Belfigor, three lines. However, he revised the text in 1863 and included the woodcut of Belfigor on a toilet. I'll link to the photo in the essential web links section of the show notes. Every reference to Belfigor borrows heavily or blatantly plagiarizes de Plancy, who took what the Bible said about Moab and Baal Belfigor and tied it into other mythologies. Belfigor's prime is not only a prime number, but also a palindrome. It begins and ends with the number 1 and the number 666 is in the middle. It reads 1 000 000 000 666 000 000 1. The symbol for this demonic number is an upside down pie. It's not so much that the prime number itself is mysterious, but its symbol definitely is. It was first seen in the Voynich manuscript, which is a large book written entirely in a code that appears to be one of a kind and has kept historians and scientists stumped for years. It includes astrology, plants, naked women and plenty of other weirdness. The 600-year-old Tom is understood by absolutely no one. Even the most elite Voynich scholars don't even know what language it was written in before it was put into a cipher, and recent attempts to crack the code using artificial intelligence haven't worked. Though Belfigor has taken many forms throughout history and been associated with many different sins, he is most often seen as the demon of sloth. This could mean that he tempts mankind to be lazy, but one Church father, Thomas Aquinas, felt that sloth was the root of other sins as well. Ignorance in Aquinas' mind was a result of laziness. Though he may be a fearsome demon and one of the seven princes of hell, Belfigor originally came to earth for a simple and somewhat bucolic reason. Hades sent Belfigor up from hell to learn if married happiness was a real thing. Yes, the prince of hell and guardian of sloth simply wanted to know if people could be happily married. The demons in hell had heard that married happiness was possible, but knowing what they did about the dark side of human nature, it seemed rather unlikely to them. And perhaps not surprisingly, Belfigor discovered that, no, married happiness was not a real thing, it was only a rumor. The Moabites worshipped Balpeor, which eventually became the name Belfigor, and he's mentioned several times in the Bible. In the Book of Numbers, the Israelites copulated with Moabite women and sacrificed to Balpeor, resulting in Moses ordering that all 24,000 of them be killed. Hosea 9, verse 10 says, They came to Balpeor and devoted themselves to shame, and they became as detestable as that which they loved. Belfigor has been depicted in several ways throughout history. Sometimes he's even shown as a young girl or naked woman. Belfigor is often depicted in masculine symbols like the phallus, cone, pillar, or tree branch, but he's also been shown as a more classic demon with the beard, horns, and talons. Belfigor, which means Lord of the Opening when translated from Hebrew, ball meaning Lord and peor meaning Opening, is sometimes seen with his mouth wide open. Some also translate it from phagor, meaning crevice or split. This translation makes sense as well, considering that Belfigor was worshipped in caves. Those who presented offerings to him would throw them through a hole in the cave. It's not clear if anyone was throwing offerings of excrement or not. If you want to conjure Belfigor, you're going to need a lot of poop. For this reason, Belfigor is said to be hard to summon, but if you do manage to rouse him, Belfigor can bring you money and the wherewithal to discover and invent new things. Ultimately, Belfigor brings you to the dark side with the promise of money, but only if you give him enough poop. Honestly, I'm not sure any amount of money not to mention losing your eternal soul would be worth the amount of number two you'd be dealing with. Though Belfigor is now seen as one of the seven princes of hell, referenced by John Milton and Victor Hugo, he wasn't always one of the top demons, or a demon at all, actually. Though he was mentioned in the Bible in the tales of the Moabites, he's only mentioned a few times in Numbers 25 verses 1-3, Numbers 25 verse 5, Numbers 25 verse 18, Numbers 31 verse 16, Hosea chapter 9 verse 10, Psalms 106 verses 28 and 29, and Deuteronomy 4 verse 3. So how did Belfigor come to mean so much more in modernity? To put it very simply, Christians wanted to put demons in hell to make it scarier, and the easiest way to do that was to reimagine the gods of what they saw as pagan religions. Though it isn't always true, some Christians saw and still see those who worship something other than the Christian God as worshipping demons. In Diplansi's Dictionnaire Infernal, he says that Belfigor is hell's ambassador to France, and that Belfigor's main enemy is Mary Magdalene, who is one of France's saints. There are many churches in France devoted to Mary Magdalene. Legend says that Mary Magdalene actually started a church in St. Bomb in the south of France. It's unclear if being an ambassador from hell carries any real responsibilities, but we'll let you know if we find a job description posted. Though demonology isn't a hard and fast science, most people consider Peter Binsfield's 1589 guide to demons as the one to trust. In it, he lists the seven princes of hell as Lucifer, Pride, Mammon, Greed, Asmodeus, Lust, Seaton, Wrath, Beelzebub, our Ball, Gluttony, Leviathan, Envy, and Belfigor for Vanity and Sloth. The seven archangels don't line up with the seven deadly sins, but they are nevertheless associated with certain qualities. Michael, sometimes seen as the leader of the angels, is the angel of protection, righteousness, mercy, and justice. Raphael is the angel of healing, peace, and travel. Gabriel is the messenger who brings God's Word to inspire writers, teachers, and other creatives. Gabriel is also associated with fertility and children. Jophiel is the angel of beauty and works with artists. Ariel is the son of animals, the environment, and natural resources. Azrael is the angel of death, helping souls transition into the afterlife. He also helps the grieving. And Camus has many different purposes, among them peace, protection, strength, and finding purpose in life. If you have ever woken up in the middle of the night feeling as though you are being crushed by a demonic being, you may have just experienced what is called the Old Hag Syndrome. The feeling that something ominous or evil is in the room with you, be it an Old Hag, a demonic entity, an unseen stranger, or whatever. One step further is the succubus or incubus phenomenon, an attack by a female or male demon. At least that's what it feels like, that's what you believe is happening. But is it actually happening? Or could it be as what the Old Hag Syndrome has also been classified as simply a scary case of sleep paralysis? The succubus phenomenon is, in many ways, the quintessential nightmare. For centuries, the succubus demon has been said to haunt sleepers, inspiring tales in traditional folklore as well as works of art. Now, a new meta-analysis from the Netherlands suggests that this frightening phenomenon may be more common than previously thought and that it should be taken more seriously by psychiatrists and psychologists who hear such accounts from their patients. The so-called attack usually occurs during an episode of sleep paralysis, a condition that's even more common than the incubus or succubus phenomenon according to the meta-analysis. Sleep paralysis is a result of the disassociation of sleep phases, said senior author Dr. Jan Dirk Blom, a professor of clinical psychopathology at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. The condition happens when a person is falling asleep or waking up. During sleep paralysis, two aspects of REM sleep or rapid eye movement sleep occur when a person is conscious. During REM sleep, which is the period when a person typically dreams, the body's muscles are relaxed to the level of paralysis, presumably to prevent the sleeper from acting out his or her dreams. But when sleep paralysis takes place, the person's mind wakes up. However, the person is still dreaming and the body is still paralyzed. Lying in bed in such a state of paralysis, the brain's threat-activated vigilance system kicks in and helps to create a compound hallucination of a creature sitting on the chest, Blom told Live Science. What the afflicted person sees is a combination of their actual surroundings and a nightmare which is projected onto the real world. The experience feels exceptionally real. In the meta-analysis published in the Journal of Frontiers and Psychiatry, the researchers looked at 13 studies of the Incubus-Succubus phenomenon that included nearly 1,800 people. The different studies came from various countries including Canada, the United States, China, Japan, Italy, and Mexico. The researchers found that over 1 in 10 people, or 11% of the general population, will experience the Incubus-Succubus phenomenon in their lifetimes, Blom said. That means that there is an 11% chance for any given individual to experience this phenomenon at least once during their lives. But in certain groups, the odds of encountering an Incubus or Succubus are higher, among people with psychiatric disorders as well as among refugees and, somewhat surprisingly, students, the odds of experiencing the phenomenon are as high as 41%. The analysis also found that people sleeping on their backs are more likely to experience the phenomenon. Alcohol consumption and irregular sleeping patterns also make an Incubus or Succubus visit more probable. Though the frightening experience gets frequently dismissed as just a bad dream, Blom noted that the Incubus-Succubus phenomenon can lead to additional problems including anxiety, difficulty sleeping due to fear and even delusional disorder and mental illness akin to schizophrenia. In the paper, the researchers speculated about a possible link between the Incubus-Succubus phenomenon and sudden unexpected death syndrome, a situation in which a healthy person inexplicably dies in his or her sleep. People who have experienced the Incubus-Succubus phenomenon often report a level of anxiety that is off the scale. Many of them have the feeling that they will actually die during an attack. Whether that ever happens is unknown, even though for a person experiencing it it is not hard to imagine that happening. The analysis also found that the form of the Incubus-Succubus figure and how people react to it can vary based on the person's cultural background. For example, patients with a Muslim background often say that they see the phenomenon as a proof that they are being haunted by a jinn, an invisible spirit created by Allah out of smokeless fire. Sometimes, however, the Incubus-Succubus may take on a much more friendly and entertaining form. Blum once spoke to a healthy 15-year-old girl who had experienced the phenomenon. She found four miniature penguins dining at a table on her chest and had been thrilled and amused rather than scared. Cultural explanations that try to account for the terrifying experience of waking up feeling paralyzed don't stop with sex demons, old hags, and penguins at a dinner table, though. Combine the personal stories and the research and it shows how a single biological phenomenon can be interpreted differently by societies. The researchers, led by Jose F. R. Desa of the Jungian Institute of Bahá'í in Brazil, wrote in their review. The biological explanation of sleep paralysis is that two aspects of REM sleep, dreaming and paralysis, are occurring while a person is awake, said Brian Sharpless, an associate professor of clinical psychology at Argosy University in Washington, D.C., who was not involved with the review. Sleep paralysis occurs more often than most people think and it's more likely to occur when a person is waking up than during other parts of sleep, he said. During REM or rapid eye movement sleep, dreaming takes place and the brainstem paralyzes the body by inhibiting motor neurons, Sharpless told Live Science. But normally dreaming and paralysis occur when people are unconscious, said Sharpless, who's also the author of Sleep Paralysis, Historical Psychological and Medical Perspectives, Oxford University Press 2015. I've linked to that book in the essential web links section of the show notes. While someone experiences sleep paralysis, these two things occur while a person is conscious, with his or her eyes open, Sharpless said. This means that the dreams are technically hallucinations and they're just as vivid as anything you'd see when you're awake. In addition, the dreams can be multi-sensoral, meaning a person may not only see things but hear and in some cases feel them too. The sense of touch is often highlighted in explanations of sleep paralysis around the world. Many cultures refer to a weight on the chest. In certain parts of Brazil, for example, there are folkloric tales of a creature with long fingernails that lurks on people's rooftops during the night. The creature, called Pisadera, comes into a person's house and tramples on the chests of those who sleep according to the review. Catalonia, a region in Spain, has the tale of the Pasanta, a black animal, often a dog or a cat, that invades people's homes and sits on their chests while they are asleep, making it difficult to breathe and causing nightmares, the authors wrote. Among an ethnic group in Vietnam and Laos, a pressing spirit sits on sleeper's chests and tries to asphyxiate them, the researchers found. The idea of a weight holding someone down is also reflected in the terminology used in Mexico to describe sleep paralysis according to the review. Translated from Spanish, the phrase means a dead body climbed on top of me. Some cultures use tales of spells cast by shamans or summoners to explain sleep paralysis. In Inuit culture, for example, people tell of shamans who can cast a spell when a person is sleeping, causing an experience that I won't try to pronounce during which a person can't move, talk, or scream and is visited by a shapeless or faceless presence according to the review. And Japanese folklore refers to a summoner who calls upon a vengeful spirit to suffocate enemies through a phenomenon called the kanashibari, which is the state of being totally bound, as if constrained by metal chains the review found. In other cultures, ghosts or supernatural beings are the perpetrators. In a study of Cambodian refugees from the 1970s, researchers found that many patients referred to something which translated from the original language meaning the ghost that pushes you down. In Thailand, a ghost called thai am haunts people when they are half asleep and unable to move. And in some traditional Chinese cultures, it's not sleep paralysis that causes you to see the ghost. It's the ghost which is oppressing you and that is what is causing your sleep paralysis.