Are you interested? Are you curious about the or an influence upon history? And welcome to Southern Demonology, the podcast that explores all of this and more. Hello all. Welcome back to another episode of Southern Demonology. As always, I'm your host, JJ. Apologies for not being around much last week on our various social media platforms. And for those who don't know, we are on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Podchaser, and TikTok. I think I named them all. Regardless, you can find all of that info either on the website, Southern Demonology.
com, or on our link tree that happens to be in the show notes. I actually had to go to Dallas for an internal team meeting. At first, I really dreaded going. After all, it's a three and a half hour flight each way in order to attend a day and a half of meetings. Yet it was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. Primarily because it felt like the before times. You know, the before times, before the plague, no one wore a mask. We went out in public to do team building activities and eat in restaurants. In short, it was the most normal that I have felt in two years.
But I didn't get back until Thursday morning. And of course, I spent the rest of the week digging myself out of the mountain of work that had accumulated in the meantime. Regardless, I have mostly accomplished that now. So expect my usual shenanigans from here on out. And speaking of shenanigans, I actually have two big announcements upcoming. The first of which will hopefully drop this week. So keep an eye out on social media for that. As always, I know you probably hate me even saying it. Join us on Wednesday for our regular movie night at 10 p.m.
Eastern Time when we'll be watching We Go On. If you've never seen it, then come by our Discord server. I know you'll love it. And speaking of Discord, today's episode features another community spotlight feature as I interview Josh, aka Josh B93, who is a seminarian and assistant exorcist. And he goes over a case that he just worked. And I know that you'll be riveted. Yet if you'll indulge me, there's one more thing I like to throw into the mix. One night while I was in Dallas, I happened to look at the stats for the podcast and I was blown away.
I actually had to call my family and deliver the big news. Now, normally this show gets around 800 downloads a week. But last week we nearly doubled those numbers, hitting around 1460. Even more, Southern Demonology hit the milestone of 20,000 downloads since March. And I I just wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of y'all for that. In this age where outrage and conspiracy theories garner all of the attention because that's what drives engagement, and those pesky algorithms are geared to promote just that.
I am surprised yet humbled that anyone can put up with the sound of my voice. Nevertheless, keep listening. So from the bottom of my heart, thank y'all. You have made this little academic nerd very, very happy. So with all that out of the way, sit back, relax, and enjoy my interview with Josh in an episode I call The Shadows You're Laughing. Hello, all. And I had to know more about it, and luckily he agreed to uh to come on and actually talk to us. But more than just the tale, Josh is also an exorcist, and I wanted to get all of the details around that to be able to share with y'all today.
So uh Josh, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. Thanks for asking. Well, I am really glad that you agreed to come on and talk to us a little bit. If you don't mind, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Uh yes, um, as JJ said, my name's Josh. I'm 29 years old. I'm a uh deacon in training. Um currently in seminary working on to be or ordained a priest eventually. I am a uh apprentice exorcist within our church, and I have a networking degree, and uh that's about it, really.
Is there any particular focus that you have uh in seminary? Demonology and theology. What kind of things have you been studying within the demonology side? Really? It was quite it's kind of similar to yours. Second temple, Judaism and all that old Zoroastrian traditions.
Okay, since you also have studied some Zoroastrianism, I'm not trying to blindside you by any means of the word, but do you see a lot of correlation between Zoroastrian dualism and Christian dualism?
Yes, kind of, yes.
Okay, because uh that's something that desperately doing research on to try to get to the bottom of that. So it's good to hear that someone else that I'm not just barking up a wrong tree. So uh in terms of your religious tradition, can you give us a little bit of a detail about that? Because it's not the Catholic Church, right?
No, it's the uh Charismatic Episcopal Church. Of course, you know, the word episcop means we're governed by bishops. We are a church that is uh three streams or a convergence worship church. We're a church that's fully evangelical, liturgical, and fully charismatic.
What exactly does that mean? Because for those who are not familiar with it.
Well, fully evangelical means we we hold a high view of the Holy Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments, and the liturgical means that we follow you know, Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, we use all seven sacraments, and the charismatic means that we believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as uh speaking in tongues and uh gifts of spiritual discernment.
Gotcha.
And this is just me being curious. Is speaking in tongues something that happens frequently in your services?
Yes. Okay.
I know some Protestant denominations lean heavily in speaking in tongues, some do not. That was just my own curiosity. There, thank you very much for answering that one. No, no problem. How did you feel called to go to seminary and and start to go along the path of becoming an exorcist?
Well, that's uh started when I was younger. I went through a uh dark time in my life, and I experienced the uh demonic and demonic attacks firsthand, especially the um attacks on mentally, even physically at times. And that kind of got me into it.
Also, if you don't mind me, I'm I'm not trying to get too much into your in your personal life by any stretch of the imagination, but if you wouldn't mind like elaborating, I would love to be able to hear that.
The uh dark time of my life was where I was just dealing with course I didn't know it was a given discernment at the time, but just dealing with all the different um emotions I would pick up from different people, and it would sort of stick with me, and um that wouldn't that kind of overwhelmed me, and then I uh fell into a deep, deep depression, and then all of a sudden I would start seeing things around the house and uh hearing voices, and it would tell me to do terrible things myself and others, and uh luckily though I had my dad um him being an exorcist, he helped me through that.
So you have the gift of spiritual discernment then? Yes.
Oh, yes, it's it's definitely grown.
Wow, okay. Uh and for though I know that we have talked to one or two others that have had that same type of gift, but for those who may not have heard those particular episodes, would you mind just giving a brief definition of what spiritual discernment is?
Um it gives you insight into um people and also the uh spiritual uh side of things. Like uh when we're doing house blessings and I walk into a particular room, if there's something in there that's just that's just not right, I can I would feel it. It would feel it would either I would get nauseous or it'd feel like a punch in the gut, that sort of thing would happen to me.
Okay, thank you for that. So so uh so you have the this particular gift. I can see why that would have definitely sparked an interest in knowing more about the darker side of things, but what drew you into actively wanting to wade into spiritual warfare?
Assisting my dad, and uh plus the way he assisted me when I was younger, it's sort of it really imprinted on me, if you will. I was like, yeah, you know, I want to do that one day. I want I I want to help folks that go through similar things like I went through. And that's really what inspired me to get into it and get into the ministry and um to learn more about the church, about the history behind everything.
Oh, that's wonderful. So, how um I I would imagine that your path along becoming an exorcist has not just involved classroom study, but also practical hands-on. How many particular cases or uh you know, or events have you actively participated in at this point?
Uh lots. I would say in maybe the 30s, but most of them were just um house blessings. Uh only three of them actually went into uh full exorcisms of a place or a person.
So when it comes to exorcism of person, do you do y'all have any particular protocols around needing medical or psychological exams before you make a determination as to this may actually be a true case of possession?
Yes, um, I am actually a certified EMT and I am actually qualified to give psyche vows. So whenever someone approaches us thinking that they may have something going on, I'll we'll do a full psyche vow on them before we go any further.
Okay. What are what are some of the red flags that you see if someone is truly suffering from a case of possession?
A lot of the times when someone's got a real case of it, they will um of course have adverse reactions to any holy object near them, they won't even look at it. So when I'm doing a psyche balance, so when I I'll wear my um crucifix, of course, and if they if they can't even look straight at me or at the crucifix, that's kind of a red flag. Um they're constantly uh having tremors at one of their limbs, that sort of thing.
Okay, I'm just thinking here. Um sorry.
So what kind of what is the protocol that y'all use in order to do a house blessing?
We'll generally um show up, we'll do a walk through the house, um walk through while while praying, and we'll talk with the family, and then we'll begin a uh small a small service, really, and we'll go through bless each room and then celebrate Holy Communion.
Okay. Is there a difference in your view between a house blessing and an exorcism of place?
Yes, a blessing, uh house blessing is just a general blessing of the home, whereas the exorcism of a place or or a thing, uh you're actually using the uh Roman rite of exorcism.
Oh, so you actually do use the the Roman ritual then?
Yes.
Okay. I have heard from quite a few that the the Roman ritual is not meant to be used as is, but is rather a blueprint that you use in order to perform either type of exorcism. Is that true to you?
Yes, we uh we we use it as a as a template.
Okay, good. Okay, so let's get back into this uh this rather eerie tale. Um, because one night uh I was scrolling through Discord, actively chatting as we do, and then we get a message from you. Do you want to start going through the story?
Yeah, yeah. It was uh it was actually right after uh we got through. Um, me and daddy got to the hotel, and uh of course I write everything down just to keep a document, and um I figured I'd share it with the uh server since uh you know get what y'all would think about it. And uh, but it all it all began in uh August. My mom received a phone call from a family friend about her uh stepdaughter who was having some issues in her house.
They had uh taken in a young uh teenage girl about eight months prior to this, and uh it turned out the girl was actually dabbling into the more darker side of the occult, and uh pretty much pretty much uh Satanism is what she was dabbling in, and uh so we called the um stepdaughter and taunt with her to sort to get her account for everything, and then um she actually offered to pay uh for the hotel room for us, so that sort of told me and dad that she was actually serious about what was going on at the house, and she wanted us to drive five hours and pay for the hotel room.
But um we drove over there and met with them the next uh on the 29th, and we spoke with each family member individually to get their uh story about everything that was occurring. And every single one of them experienced similar things, random feelings of just anger, depression, um seeing faces on the walls, objects moving across countertops. Um they had pictures that were actually uh screwed in to the wall. And uh one day they actually left the house and came back, and the picture was on the wall, but the screws that were in the f in the frame were on the floor. Oh wow, yeah.
And um their daughter, uh she had the worst of it in my opinion. She was having a uh she was being attacked in her in her sleep, in her dreams, particularly. She was having vivid dreams of being murdered and uh being raped, and she actually felt it physically and emotionally, the events in those dreams.
Have you encountered anything similar to those types of vivid dreams in other cases? No, this was actually a first for me. Okay, yeah, because that it was the first of me hearing of something like that. So I was really curious about that.
Yeah, it was actually a first for me. Um so after hearing this, we agreed that you know something was going on, and we asked if we could walk around the house and get a feel for each room. And we walked through all the different rooms, and once we get to the uh daughter's room, as soon as you walked over the threshold into her bedroom, eat you're just hit with a wave of just nausea. I mean, you wanted to vomit on the spot. And the air in that room was so oppressive, it felt like you weighed an extra hundred pounds.
And it was just centralized in that one particular room, right?
In that room and the uh room that the girl that they took in stayed in.
Gotcha.
And um in the daughter's room, as w as we were looking around in there, we noticed that um there was Shadows that were moving around us, and a shadow figure was actually standing in the corner of the bedroom looking at us, watching everything that we were doing.
Is that a a frequent occurrence in cases that you have dealt with?
Sometimes.
Okay.
And um after that, Dad did a uh we did a general blessing in her room just so she could get a good night's rest before the next day when we would actually do the rights. And uh we walked out of her room and into the uh the spare bedroom where the the girl stayed. And when you walked in that room, I'll me personally, I was hit with just rage. Like my my fists clenched up, and I just felt this unnatural rage just build up within me. And then I noticed in the room in the middle that the air was it look i i it's kind of hard to explain.
The the air in the middle of the room looked distorted and it was sort of just swirling around almost like a like a small vortex. And it turned out that that particular part of the room is where they found the girl's Ouija board that she uh was playing with. So that told me right then and there that that door was still open. Right. And um an interesting thing about that board, uh when they got rid of everything, they tried to burn the board, but the board didn't catch fire. The board, no no matter how hard they tried, it would not catch flame.
That's never a good sign. No. So they just they chunked it into the local dump.
And uh well by doing that, would that actually mean that wouldn't actually serve to close any open doors though, correct? Correct.
That door would still be open.
Like, would you have preferred to still have that Ouija board on site? And if so, what would you have done to it? Because I'm I'm just really curious about that.
Me personally, I wouldn't actually bless the board uh and then burn it instead of just burning it outright. That's what I would do.
Yeah, that makes total sense.
But okay, so you've encountered the this this distorted vortex in the middle of the room. What happened then?
I uh I motioned for dad, and he and he came into the room and I told him what was going on, and he actually blessed the center of the room. He he had poured some holy water on it, and uh we said a blessing, and that actually closed it. I actually saw that distorted air just d disappear.
So that took care of one problem. Mm-hmm.
And then we met with the family again, and um we we talked a little bit more about everything that we found, and then we left and went back to the hotel. And the next day is when we came back after the um initial interview and then uh started the house the actual exorcism of the house.
So the the girl that was living there and seemed to be the root of the problem, was she exhibiting any strange behavior during the time that she was there?
Yes, the uh daughter actually told us that she had encounters with her um the day before they actually uh kicked the girl out. They uh the girl snapped and went to a random fit of rage, and the daughter the daughter went to her bedroom just to avoid the issue. And uh a couple hours later the girl came to to her bedroom door and knocked on it, and wasn't, of course, in a fit crying and apologizing, then all of a sudden it was like a switch flipped, and she just sort of smirked to look at the daughter and said, You're gonna die here. Oh Lord. And then that that's when they kicked her out.
And as she was leaving, um, she looked at the family again and told them that they were all gonna die with that same smile, but the father and the daughter noticed that the girl's eyes were black and her face was almost just sort of distorted, almost. So I I believe the girl was actually possessed at that point.
That that honestly smacks really heavily of a possible possession. I mean, at least I mean, if you go by, I don't know if you've read Hostage to the Devil by any chance.
Yes, it's uh one of my favorite books.
Yeah, even same thing here. Uh, but Zio and the Smiler, I mean, to see that kind of a distorted, you know, um, impression on someone's face, especially as twisted as a smile, I yeah, that just sends chills down my spine.
Oh yeah. It's yeah, but it was horrifying when she told us about it.
Okay, so you've conducted your interviews, you're back the next day. Did she did the the girl in fact sleep easier with the blessing having been performed?
Yes.
Okay she did.
She actually had a good night's sleep for once.
Alright, so then what happened after all that?
After after that, we uh we met with them and we we gathered all our things and we started the house blessed. We started in the living room, and we went to all the rooms in the house performing the uh rite of exorcism. And we reached the uh daughter's room again, and that that feeling that was there before was a lot stronger because it didn't it didn't like what we were doing one bit, and uh it it was crazy because it seemed like the room got darker once you walked in there. It's like all the lights were almost being snuffed out by the just that presence.
But as so do you think because the room darkened and the the I guess the intensity ramped up that this was somehow either latched on or was targeting her? Yes. Okay.
Yes. And in fact, um the family found uh the daughter was seeing a face in her closet, and the she told her mom about it, and it was on the left side of the closet, they found a hidden, it was a box that was hidden in the closet, and it actually had um like a skull in it, a crystal skull just sitting there, and it wasn't the daughter's, and it had a little uh note of intention, and the girl was actually putting a hex on her. And what is a note of intention?
It's it's a note that you would write, well, like if you're doing um a spell in particular, you would you would write the intention of what you want and then put it in a box or a jar or bottle and uh either bury it on someone's property or store it in in a secret location in the home. Gotcha. Okay. And that intention can be for anything, it could be for good health, it could be uh or or it could be for something darker like death. Which in the in this case it was it was it was death and sickness.
Okay.
But um, yeah, it was definitely targeting her just because of everything going on and what they found in her closet. Right. And uh as we were going through the blessing, we of course we started feeling a lot like very, very sick, and like it was trying to make us sick enough to where we would where we couldn't continue. And I w I had my eyes closed and was was praying, and I could just feel it just circling around me and dad, and it felt like it was sort of closing in on us.
And then once we reached the uh towards the end of the blessing, they finally it just dissipated, and then it went to the next room. You could see it too. It was like a flash of darkness, it just went to the next room which was uh the spare bedroom. Mm-hmm. And we we went to there, and once again the room was just darker than usual. And as we were praying in there, you could just see in every corner there was there was four shadow figures, one in each corner of the room. And they were just watching us, and you can hear them laughing.
They were mocking us and trying to discourage us in order to stop the uh the riot.
But the most uh the most interesting thing that happened once we got through in that room, we went to uh celebrate Holy Communion and finish everything up. And as we consecrated the bread and the wine and uh took part of Holy Communion, I heard a loud scream in the back of the room, and it almost sounded like a like a banshee scream. Mm-hmm. Is exactly what it sounded like, all the way in the back of the house. And you could hear it move up the hallway and out the front door, and there was a loud bang, which confirmed us that we had kicked it out.
That definitely sounds like a solid resolution.
Yeah. And that was the first time I ever experienced something like that, where you would just hear it scream and run out and just fly out the house. I never experienced that before until until that day.
Gotcha. Uh, during any other you know, cases that you have worked, have you ever seen uh I guess what you would call or term gross displays of power by the demonic?
Yes.
Uh if you wouldn't mind, could you like tell us a few? Because I I really actually would love to start doing a complete catalog of these.
Oh, yeah. Um one in particular, it was uh it was a 12-year-old boy. Uh his mother had uh contacted our bishop um in a panic saying that he was possessed, and we we interviewed the boy and confirmed it was a true possession. And during the exorcism, and this is a you know 12-year-old boy, he probably weighs a hundred pounds, and I I weigh about like three, four hundred pounds.
You know, I I I got I got the advantage and uh I'm there behind the boy, and uh I'm I got my hands on his shoulders, I'm praying for him, and I'm but I'm also there for just in case purposes, because when you're doing an exorcism on a person, the the demon, the possessed, will try to attack the exorcist. So I I'm there just in case. And sure enough, the boy he left out of the chair, and I'm holding him down with everything with everything I got, and it I'm still struggling to hold him down. He had that unnatural strength that no 12-year-old boy should have. Right.
And he screamed, and when he screamed, it was in about it was like multiple tones at once.
And that just that would freak me the heck out.
Yeah, it sure freaked me out.
Wow. Um, so whenever you do an exorcism of person, do you typically ever restrain the individual or do you uh and or clear the room of uh movable objects?
Yes, we uh we we do it in our in I in our actual church building.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, we we have a chair for them, but we we don't use restraints. Um mostly just either me or someone else would be next to them. So they tried to move, we would put them back down in the chair.
Gotcha. Okay. And whenever you um you know, I don't know if if you or your father could um could attest to this, but you know, one of the things that has always been of great interest is uh, you know, in in hostage to the devil, Father Martin always referred to the clash where you would enter almost like a psychic battle between the priest um or the preacher and the the entity itself. Uh have you or anyone that you know who's in the same field do they often experience this or has it ever been experienced?
Not that I know about anyone else. Um I know me personally, if while I'm praying, I can sort of uh sometimes I can see a battle raging in in my head while I'm praying.
Gotcha. Okay.
And since uh the you have wrapped up this uh uh particular uh blessing, has the house gotten you know lighter and cleaner? Has everything seemed to have progressed well on that front?
Oh yes, almost immediately. Um uh when we got through with the blessing, the just looking at the family, um, they didn't have that darkened look in their eyes where they were just you know down, depressed, or anything like that. They actually had more light in their eyes.
Oh, that's wonderful.
Yep. And uh we actually had the pleasure of baptizing their daughter and her daughter, uh uh daughter's uh boyfriend.
Oh, that's beautiful.
Yes. So and everything worked out and got two people baptized. It was a wonderful time.
I could only begin to imagine. Well, uh, is there anything else that uh you would like to to share or go over? Anything that I particularly have missed during this uh conversation? Uh no, no, not at all. Okay. Well, um uh as he's known on the Discord server, Josh B93 is a wonderful person to talk to who actually has you know a great deal of personal experience in these particular matters and areas. Uh is you know is nicely educated in the field, it's always wonderful uh to see that. And you know, we have all had such wonderful conversations.
Uh, if you would like to join our Discord and participate in the same, uh, whether it's just to lurk in the shadows or to be an active voice, we highly encourage it. Uh the link to that is in the show notes. But uh Josh, thank you so much for agreeing to share this experience and some of your past and uh to help you know get information out. But before we do go, I do have one last question for you.
Let's say that someone is suffering from what they suspect to be either a demonic infestation or oppression or obsession, or worse, what are some of the protection mechanisms that you would recommend?
Well, I I would recommend uh reading the Psalms. The Psalms will help a lot. And uh spending time with uh your family reading your Bible and time prayer, that'll help a lot. Uh definitely finding a um local pastor to bless your home and uh getting more involved in the church, that'd definitely help.
Gotcha. Yeah, I I I think it's something that's not really spoken about a ton in this particular area, but you know, kind of getting your own spiritual house in order definitely seems to be not only, you know, it closes any or most avenues of attack, but it also helps to alleviate the entire situation, right?
Yep, definitely.
Awesome. Well, again, thank you so much for your time. And uh, yeah, it has been absolutely amazing to hear about this uh particular blessing, exorcism, cleansing, and uh eventual baptisms.
Yeah, thank you for having me. All right, have a go at you too.
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!