Are you interested in angels, demons, spirits, ghosts, and monsters? Are you curious about their origins, tales, and influence upon history and on the present day? If so, sit back, relax, and welcome to Southern Demonology, the podcast that explores all of this and more. Welcome to season three, episode twelve of Southern Demonology. As always, I'm your host, JJ. I cannot believe that it took so long to get here, but we are nearing the end of season three, as it will conclude after next week's episode. Yes, you know me, I like to end things on lucky number 13.
Southern Demonology will then take a break until October 2nd, so I can get a few episodes ahead and hopefully maintain a strictly weekly schedule once again. Further, I plan on resurrecting Southern Demonology bites for the month of October, just like I did last year. It was a lot of fun. They're very short movie reviews around horror movies, and I hope that you like them as much as I like doing them. But I have saved the best for last, and this episode features a dual guest interview, a first for this channel.
Namely, Father Michael Birdsong, who has been a practicing exorcist for 30 years, and his son, who is now a deacon in the same church. Both have been featured before in separate episodes, but I wanted to get both on so you can hear all of their perspectives. The episode is divided into two parts, and in this one, you'll hear about a case involving let's say Mary, in order to protect privacy, as well as some of their standard operating procedures and thoughts on what they believe to be a surge of diabolical cases.
But before I jump into that, I did want to get into an interesting email that I was sent. Last week I asked the question of what might constitute a positive paranormal experience. Well, Tracy was kind enough to respond and provided an answer that was not only vastly superior to the one that I gave, but is just beautiful. I asked for permission, and I am so glad that she agreed that I could share it, for I really wanted to put this into the hands or ears of everyone here. This may be weird, but I was in many ways raised by ghosts.
My parents were both alcohol dependent and had mental health issues. We kids were often left to our own devices. Many times I was sick as a child with an autoimmune condition, and I would have fevers, be in bed, or lying on the ground in pain for hours. But my parents were incapacitated or out. There were three ghosts in my home: an older woman, a young girl, and an older man. The older man would watch over me at the edge of the bed and wake me up a few times when I believe that I was struggling to breathe. The older woman stroked my hair or made things move to entertain me in bed.
The young girl watched me play alone, which was a comfort, as I couldn't have friends around due to the situation. I couldn't have gotten through childhood without them. I moved out and my nephew saw them once while visiting my parents. I believe they found a way to come to my new home. I hear the girl laughing. When I'm ill, I feel the woman stroking my hair, but I sadly don't see them anymore. Anyway, many wouldn't believe that. Maybe I wouldn't if I didn't live it. But spirits are there during desperate moments. Thank you so much for writing and sharing such an amazing experience.
If you would like to do the same or talk about another type of paranormal or demonic experience, then simply go to Southern Demonology.com and click on either the contact or listener inbox link. Now, let's turn our attention to a previously recorded interview with the bird songs and a feature I like to call the oppression of Mary. Hello everyone. Welcome back to Southern Demonology. As always, I'm your host, JJ. And today I have an extra special treat for you because I have not one but two guests with us at the moment.
They have both been on the show before, and they are Father Mike Birdsong and his son Josh, who is now a deacon in the church. And they have come back to regale us with some of the experiences that they have had since the last time that we talked, and also to help celebrate Josh's recent deacon position, which I am tickled to death to be able to announce on this show. How are y'all doing this evening?
We are doing great, JJ.
And it's a pleasure to be back with you. It is always such a pleasure to have both of y'all. Because uh, if y'all don't know, they're both members of the Discord community. They have been very active, Josh especially, because he's the first one that found his way into the Discord server. Whenever they get involved in conversations, it becomes lively. Sounds great. Alrighty, with all of that said and out of the way, what have y'all found yourselves up to since the last time that we talked?
Oh, gracious alive, JJ. Uh we have been we have been busy. I have to say this because in the past, I'm gonna say in the past two years, the evidence of the supernatural has been astounding in in my sight, in what I've seen. And I have been we Josh and I both have probably had I'm gonna say 20 cases in the past two years, wow, of dealing with the the demonic andor supernatural in some way, whether it be homes or people or whatever. And I've actually I've had a couple of recent cases that we can talk about tonight if you want to, and one of them was in uh Madison, Alabama, or slash Huntsville.
It was a very interesting case, and I will I will call the woman Mary, if that's okay.
Oh, absolutely. We always want to protect everyone's privacy, always.
Absolutely. But Mary was her home and her life was very I'm gonna say very tormented. It basically all stemmed from she had an abusive husband. He was former military and spent some time overseas and got involved in a lot of crazy stuff, I'll say. And uh it even it even got to the point to where he had an infatuation with arms, whether it be knives or guns or anything like that. I would say the only the only way for me to say it was like he was attached to a spirit of death. Yeah, he had a big obsession with with death.
Those things picked up, you know, when I first found out about the case, they were talking about things that were going on the home. I never rush into any case not knowing what I'm walking into. Does that make sense?
It does.
I want to make sure that before I before I rush into anything and or or or act in any way that I ask a lot of questions. And uh so we had we had quite a number of interviews with the woman, and I was given a lot of information even on the children. I'm gonna get to the children in just a minute because it's it's very interesting because if you know, if if if someone does not want to participate in getting rid of things, you're not gonna get rid of it, right?
Exactly.
All right, so we so uh so Josh and I took a uh five-hour trip to uh Madison, Alabama. One of the one of the biggest things that we picked up on soon as we walked in was a very overwhelming sense of suicide. I had to ask the question to Mary and say, Have you contemplated suicide? And she said, Well, yes, but not only myself.
Oh gosh, like for other members of her family as well?
Her her son and daughter, yeah, especially the son. And come to find out there was a lot of manipulation that went on with the wife through the husband, and even some uh what's the word I'm looking for? Some some acts from the father that wasn't appropriate with the daughter.
Yes. Okay, I understand.
That went on too, and so that that really affected the family, and so what it basically came down to, uh, we were able to, and I I mean I shared this with the with the mother. I said, we're not dealing with a demonic possession or anything. I said, but however, what we are dealing with is a oppression, and that's a very fine line that people need to understand because you know, you know, sometimes due to Hollywood and and things like that, people just want to jump off, well, it's demonically possessed. Well, that's not always the case.
And if you treat every case like there's some kind of demonic possession, you're gonna do more harm than good. Yep.
Exactly. Yeah, in fact, I have done a full episode on the difference between demonic obsession, demonic oppression, and demonic possession. And yeah, those are absolutely three separate states, and completely agree with you because if you confuse one for the other, then you get yourself into some really big trouble.
Exactly, exactly. One of the things that, well, before we really got into any type of deliverance session, so to speak, I wanted to walk around the home and see some things that were in the home. One of the things that we that we ran into, the male or the father, he was he was not in the picture there physically anymore, but he had a lot of things that were left over. And we uh we walked into the garage storage area, and they were just all kind of all kind of trinkets, I'd say. Artifacts. Artifacts, uh statues of well, I'll just say statues of demonic that he picked up overseas.
And he brought those things into his home. And see, that kind of goes back to what we talked about before, about how we can open certain doors and stuff.
Absolutely.
And then not knowing that he brought this into his family. And see, they were they were married almost 30 years. It just demolished and destroyed the the marriage because the father got he got really infatuated with death. I mean, he worshiped he yeah, well, like Josh said, he actually worshiped it. He talked about death and talked about he could kill somebody and and uh and and and things that he learned overseas and things that he learned in the military, and and was even threatening his wife and and and children as well.
And he really From your research that you were doing before you visited, uh-huh. Did all of this change in attitude? I mean, were there always kind of indications that he was this way? Or after these artifacts were brought into the house, was this change in personality amplified all of a sudden?
Well, uh, what happened is I had her, she actually almost wrote me a book because I had her go from beginning to end of what was going on. And she started at the very beginning of how it all started so innocently. And the way it began is is first off is he began to really neglect her and started going after other things that really became an idol to him. Really, the only way that I can explain it is death became his god, it became his idol. He was totally just mesmerized by death. A lot of us are taught in the military that you know we we kill, but death does not become our king, right?
And so uh it just it just really got attached to him, but he also he also became very involved with porn, especially in the area of molestation and forcible sex. Yeah. And and sh it was known that that became really attached to him. I want to say when when he was in Turkey, I want to say Turkey. Yeah. I don't know what happened in Turkey, but you know, you can let your mind wander. Exactly. But that became and uh and and then that stemmed into him having inappropriate relations with his daughter. It wasn't it wasn't I would have to say it was an unnatural attack.
You know what I'm talking about? Yep. It wasn't it wasn't just an infatuation, it was it was an unnatural, supernatural attraction to sexual abuse. And so that that really that really brought some things into the home, some really dark feelings. And so I told her, I said, look, here's where we stand. First of all, I'm very sorry what you've gone through, but then I had to explain the difference between a demonic possession as we were talking about, and uh oppression.
And it was it was very clear that there was a very strong oppression uh that was bringing about a lot of anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, things of that nature. I knew right then that we needed to cleanse the home for one thing, and but also during that process, we were going through the home, and and then all of a sudden it came very apparent that the son and the daughter was not going to participate. Now remember that part.
Okay.
So we we start going through the home and and start blessing the home with the Roman rite, not an exorcism per se, but the blessings. But something spoke to me when I stepped in front of a certain door, and I did I did not know what the door was at the time. Once again, I'll call her Mary. I just she said, We don't go in there. I said, Okay. But I just laid my hand on the door and prayed and sprinkled it with holy water. And just as soon as the holy water touched the door, it was oh my god, it was just terrible, wasn't it, Josh? Yeah, and I touched it with my bare hands.
It was just uh unbelievable kickback, if you will. But at any rate, we we proceeded to go ahead and bless that area, and then we um to make a long story short, we went back downstairs and and I even had the mother do the confession of sin, and we even celebrated the sacrament of holy eucharist to bless her, and she even renewed her baptismal vows. She was good, she was cleansed, and she felt very good at w uh upon our departure. I spent some extra time at the uh door that he threw holy water on and was praying over it as he was going downstairs.
I I touched it with my bare hands, just not thinking about it. And as soon as my hands touched the door, all I felt was just immediately my mind was just assaulted with just a feeling of suicide. And so I prayed harder and afterwards went down and joined them for the Eucharist. And so we followed up with them or with her the next day. I was introduced to her through her brother, who is a uh member of the Mid South Diocese. He was actually at Josh's ordination and approached me. So we followed up with them the following day, and uh she was doing well.
And I said, Well, okay, we're we're gonna go, but if but if you need me, you you you call me. So Josh and I, we take the five-hour trip back to Thomaston, Georgia, and then the next day I immediately get a call. Remember the son that wouldn't partake of anything? Mm-hmm. He tried to commit suicide the following day. Oh my gosh. It turned out that door that we were praying over was actually his bedroom.
Well, that begins to explain something.
Yes, sir. It does.
As part of your cleansing, did that also involve removing any of these artifacts from the house?
Yes, sir, it did. Uh she she immediately discarded many of those that she could, but we also had to know they were going through divorce proceedings. So she had to be very careful about removing any job any objects that belonged to him. Gotcha. It's a good story because we stopped at the door and prayed because it probably saved the son's life. But it's also very disappointing that, and and and this is this is the point of the whole story that I bring this whole situation up with is if you don't want things gone from your life, there's nothing I can do for you.
Correct. Yeah, something that sunk its teeth that far in willing to dislodge it, then you've made your bet, unfortunately.
Absolutely.
What type of whenever you indicated that you like to know what you're getting into, besides just conducting interviews with the people involved, are there any other types of research that you and Josh do to make sure that you are fully prepared before walking into a situation?
Yes, sir. Uh number one, before we ever proceed in any type of, I'll just use the terms deliverance settings. I meet with the people personally if possible, if it's not, if it's if it's not way out of town, you know. And I want to make sure that I'm not dealing with any kind of mental illness versus spiritual problem. Right. I told someone, I told someone not too long ago, I said, I said, you you can't cast out mental illness. Accurate. Unfortunately, there are times where we are affected by, I mean, even, you know, even medications can affect us at times.
And I want to make sure, number one, that I'm not dealing with a mental illness or any kind of side effects from any kind of medication. I want to make sure the people are in good health. Because if people people tend to take a Hollywood view on exorcisms and deliverance, that can be very dangerous. I can try to exercise someone who is dealing with mental illness and cause them to go even deeper into their issues and problems. Right. And so we we I tend to weigh heavily on that. And also also I I don't I don't do anything alone, JJ.
I have a team of very trusted church people who have a background in nursing, counseling, mental illness, and I get those involved with me to discern exactly what we're dealing with, but also to prepare, especially here recently, and I'll I'll go into another case that that we're doing now in just a moment, but also explain to the person that's coming to me for help that they have to be willing to follow everything that I say. If I give them instructions on something, they have to do it. If I tell them that we gotta meet at this time, they gotta do it.
If I give them prayers to do, they gotta do it. If I get them readings to do, they gotta do it. Because if they don't, it shows me that they're just playing a game. If that makes sense to you.
It does. And plus anything that you I would imagine that you can do in order to get the affected individual's house of spirituality in order is only going to aid you in your efforts.
Exactly, exactly. And that's why I have really adopted that unless I am called out of town, everything has to be done at the church in front of the altar. And there's a reason for that because if they come to the church, I'll just put it in layman's terms, they're on my ground. Right. If I go to their home, I'm on the demon's ground. And so what we do is take care of the individual and their spirit and soul and body at the church on sacred sacramental grounds, and then once that's taken care of, if anything needs to be done at the home, then we'll go to the home and deal with that.
I have to ask you this because I'm really curious from your personal perspective. You've indicated in the last two years that there has been a rampant increase in this type of activity. How long in general have you been doing this type of work for?
You had your first encounter in Belize. Yeah. I'm gonna say on and off for about 30 years. Okay.
But and during that time, have you seen like a very stark increase in this type of activity?
In the past, I'm gonna say, well, I say to you, I'm gonna say in the past five years, it has become rampant and blatant and in your face.
Is there any commonality or a spark that you've seen that has that can help them? This is all speculative, I realize. But what do you suppose could have been the spark that has done that? Is it just a a general malaise that has been brought on since the pandemic, or is it something deeper?
Well, both. The answer to that, JJ, is yes. All of the above, number one, there's just in our nation, there's just become a complete disrespect for the things of God. And it's it's it's just in your face. But also, also since the pandemic, I'm gonna say, especially in the church or the kingdom, we've become lazy and complacent. And the church, the church, in my opinion, and it's very evident if you look, we don't we don't teach about the supernatural anymore.
Very true.
I mean, I've even had pastors uh say, well, they don't they don't believe in the demonic. Well, the way I see it, JJ, is if you don't believe in the demonic, how can you believe in God?
That's a question I have posed many a time, and I have never gotten a satisfactory answer to it.
Exactly. I mean, you can't have one without the other. I mean, if if you don't believe in the demonic, then everything that Jesus did in the gospels is to no avail, right? Exactly. If we don't believe in the demonic and the fall of man, even his Passover was to no avail. What we're finding out is a lot of the church these days and a lot of people are finding out that this stuff is really true, you know.
And they are very ill-equipped to deal with it.
Exactly, exactly. It's like a famous quote from Malachi Martin those who don't believe in evil in evil are disarmed against it.
So amen. So let me ask you that this is another just a point of curiosity for me. Let's say that you have have you ever, in your experience, walked into a situation that was not demonic in nature, but rather I use the word simply, I don't mean that in a derogatory fashion, simply paranormal in nature, something that could have been explained by other types of activity other than demonic.
I I'm gonna say yes. You know, you know, a lot of times, due to stress and anxiety, due to emotional problems, we can bring things on ourselves. And even even to the point to where our emotions are so affected that it affects our brain, to where we can even see things or hear things that's not there, but there's really nothing supernatural going on. It's just an emotional state, if that makes sense to you. It does. And I'll I'll never forget one time I dealt with an elderly woman. Well, one one of her major problems, she was very lonely. She sat in her home each night, all alone.
Her family didn't really take care of her or care for her in any way, and she would just sit in the home, you know, all by herself, which led to all kinds of thoughts, all kinds of wild ideas and vain imaginations. And and so I I went to see her and and you know, I just started spending time with her, and you know, you know, come to find out it was just all brought on by loneliness and our imagination going wild. So after after a period of a couple of months of just spending time with her and loving on her, she was fine.
So everything's not always demonic, but it can be just a normal emotional depression, per se.
Well, that first case that you went over, it really kind of hit close to home because my grandfather exhibited quite a few of the symptoms that you covered, and he was extremely abusive. I mean, to the point where my grandmother actually divorced him back in the 1960s, which was unheard of to his egregious ways, shall we say? So, yeah, it definitely sent a chill up my spine.
Very understandable.
Thank you for listening to Southern Demonology. Find us online at Southern Demonology.com where you can find all of our social and podcasting links. Also, if you have a moment, please feel free to rate this podcast and leave any encouraging feedbacks that you may have. As always, I am JJ, and it has been a pleasure getting to talk to you today!