“All the devil asks is acquiescence; not conflict, not struggle. Acquiescence.”

Years ago, I read a story that Katy Perry had sold her soul to Satan, so that he would make her a star.

If I doubt the writer’s veracity, it’s because on the internet, stories like this are everywhere. Yet the theme, deals made with Satan, have been around forever. They go so far back that it was rumored a pope had made such a pact. Actually you could say that about almost any of the more antiquated papacies but the theme has been applied to many people from all around the world, usually famous, or of some association with historic events and medical or scientific breakthroughs.

The obvious question here is, are any of them true?

The proper answer is, I don’t know. Nor can anyone else unless they have proof. Of the deceased who had made contracts with the devil, it has been said that they are in Hell for eternity. I say, “prove it”.

But is there proof?

Many who have had near-death experiences have, if you are willing to believe them, indeed brought back proof. A notorious gangster went there and saw someone he knew, an old colleague and friend, and then more appeared. They screamed at him to go back; for him not to cross to where they were. He knew all of them to actually have died, and when he was revived, he completely changed in every way.

We’ve all heard or read stories like this. One of the more well-known concerns a pastor who had formerly been a very evil man. In a hospital in Europe, his long-suffering wife at his bedside, he awaited surgery for a perforated stomach, a condition made worse by the lining largely separating from the stomach. In other words, his stomach lining was being sloughed, much like a crab making room to grow sloughs its shell. The condition was fatal. He looked at his wife and said, “It’s time we said goodbye”.

He said two nurses appeared at the door and they told him that they were taking him to surgery. But not with a gurney; he was on his feet. He followed them into the hallway and through double doors. On the other side there was no man-made structure, just a rocky cave tunnel. The floor declined, leading down. The nurses turned into horrible demons that couldn’t wait to start tormenting him. Others moved in and surrounded him, clawing him, screaming, laughing. Finally he, an atheist,  called out to God for help.

He found himself back in the hospital,  on his back, being wheeled to emergency surgery. He reconciled with his wife, changed everything, and became a Christian pastor.

What are we to make of such stories, and how do some people react to it differently than others? Why would someone ignore such a horrific account and still deny that God is real?

And, if so many deny His existence, why then do they not deny Satan’s?

The proper answer is, I don’t know.

Back to the original question then: do people make deals with the devil, and can their meteoric rise in power and fame honestly be caused by an unseen entity?

I am not even mentioning Robert Johnson and the “Crossroads demon” as, naturally, everyone knows it or can easily look it up, but there is one thing worth saying, and it is the obvious: though he played guitar like he was born to it, things did not turn out well for him. The story has been adapted and retold ever since, and perhaps the most memorable version of the Crossroads demon was in the series Supernatural.

Fiction aside, there is a running theme with humanity, and it is that always, gods or God have been worshipped, sacrificed to, and prayed to. We seek a spiritual higher power and it is natural, much as the drive to procreate and continue our species.

There have always been unbelievers no matter what form of religion the society in which they lived held to be real. They usually pose no threat so long as they do not use their denial of higher power as an excuse to commit evil actions. No matter; they were, harmless though they may have been, often tortured and executed. Today in Islamic countries, especially Pakistan, mobs will kill anyone accused of blasphemy or apostasy, and they obviously don’t know the difference, or do they care to know.

Lately, as in the past, there has been a highly popular movement to deny others the right to their own beliefs. In my country not everyone is fine with advocating for the rights of Muslims and Eastern religious practitioners, but mention being a Christian and belief in the holy trinity, and the atheists will bare fangs and foam at the mouth.

As I have long said, certain sects, even cults, shine a spotlight on twisted Christian beliefs. Of course it overwhelms any particular spectator and causes them to see every Christian in the same light; it is the same for Muslim and any other extremist: evildoers using religious superstition to gain everything from money to earthly power and indulgences. All justified by the misuse of the Bible.

Often I use Joel Osteen as an example of a charlatan and a grifter because if you listen to him speak, you’ll notice his almost hypnotic ability to get you sentimental and therefore get your money. TV evangelical “preachers” always come around to money: they need it.

The most shameful example I can think of is when Oral Roberts wept atop his dais and said God had issued an ultimatum to him. Raise x amount of dollars, or die. I’ve looked for this video clip, and found way too many things for me to catch up on before I can write more specifically on the subject.

What strikes me is that it hit the news like any scandal should, and what a scandal it was, too: here was a man crying openly and lying his ass off. The godly ultimatum was so disgusting that some students at his “university” migrated to other places or even lost their faith.

Then something strange happened: the press pulled back.

Why the fuck would they do that?

Oh, he made the money, all right. And then some, and bragged about it just to rub it in. Like all of his kind do, from Osteen hawking his motivational CDs to Pat Robertson having telethon episodes and offering “gold’ memberships, he made money his god. His master.

Yeshua of Nazareth once said, “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” He also said that a man can never serve two masters, God and money.

Now, if you belive in the truest sense of Christ, you take that on faith, but you should also have seen it made apparent right in front of you that gaining wealth changes a person. If it has happened to a friend, then they either aren’t your friend any longer, or there is a gulf between you, and sometimes you, being a genuine friend to him, end up being kept around as an emotional sounding board or worse. This is why Jesus likened a camel passing through the eye of a needle to a rich man gaining the Kingdom of God. The eye he was talking about was a gate in the wall around a town or city. The walls weren’t effective against an attack from a military force. But they could help keep out predators like wolves, lions, large cats and whatever else was lurking at night.

The city’s gates were often small and kept attacking cavalry in a cataract to be easily picked off by defending soldiers. But against infantry, once a gate was opened, there was little defense.

Gates would be integrated in walls or a gap topped by heavy lintels. Camels were too tall to get in under most lintels.

For the rich, it is not the money itself that’s evil. It is always the lust for more, for power, for fame that goes with it so naturally. That’s where the devil comes in, preying on our imperfections, our weaknesses. All he needs now is the handshake.

This agreement may have been in place before the acquisition of money, but whichever order they take, where there is one, the other is there as well. Anyone who follows the true teachings of Jesus will immediately get rid of the money. The poor only need so much, then they share. Give to the poor, shelter the children, feed the hungry. This has always been our highest obligation as humans, and yet it is far too rare.

Where we see unprecedented numbers of people suffering from malnutrition and death by hunger, unprecedented numbers of homeless people, and a breakdown of society from healthcare to invasive animals, and from disease, the government only makes everything worse because of an influence of wealth.

Powerful men have the money and political clout to make mass extinction a probability, not a mere possibility. It will happen. We will never be free of fossil fuel burning. Electric cars don’t burn gasoline, but the electric power to charge them is hardly green; that comes from coal-fired electrical power plants and there is no plan in place to build any more nuclear power plants. And big money continues to fight wind farms; our climate change will progress as the most dire predictions have warned. And even if every single carbon-producing source were stopped this very minute, temperatures would still climb because of what is already in our atmosphere. And yes, I believe the line, that temperature point beyond which there is no stopping widespread disaster, has been crossed. Anyone claiming otherwise is living in a different world. It is delusional to believe that we are not in serious danger. And what do some experts say will happen after the climate reaches maximum temperatures and atmospheric carbon particles (along with a wide range of poisonous chemicals which exist above the altitudes where rain can wash them back to earth)?

An ice age. One so deep that all surviving life on Earth will perish. The oceans would freeze all the way to the sea floors. We would become a glowing white marble in the vast universe. Devoid of life and hostile to anything living.

Back to the original question then: have the rich and famous made deals with the devil?

I’ll ask another: is it not possible that, in gaining fame, fortune and everything most people want, they have given up their soul to Satan, because one cannot serve two masters, God and money?

The proper answer is, Almost certainly, they have.

It is the only answer that I can give with any honesty at all. But there are plenty of things that need to be considered.

There are, for one thing, more than campfire stories that prove the existence of evil.

Let us delve into the darkness in our quest.

People have little problem with the dark side of the supernatural. I’m talking about demons, malevolent ghosts, curses, inexplicable phenomena and behavior, and all the trimmings. Frightening stuff to be sure. But what was relegated to books when I was younger has now gained major audiences online and in movies and television, and yes, music, too. Music, I might add, that cannot be disputed as to its nature. It makes all but the most jaded of us cringe indescribably.

With reality shows, everything has gotten worse. It is an age of lies, fabrications that people eat because they love to be scared in the controllable medium of theater as opposed to real life (and in cases like Big Brother, our weakness to voyeurism). Reality TV does not exist. All shows are scripted, directed. Even the most trusted news channels have all turned to ratings-raising, fear-mongering, salacious content. It’s a show, a competition to see who can get away with what. Money, remember, is always involved, at the top of the pyramid. Lots of it. Selling time for commercial ads is an industry and has been, and will be until the last transmitter goes dark. It’s about what sells. Always.

Somewhere underneath all the beer commercials, fast food, car insurance and whatever you might wish to reference, lies a truth. It is there, however smothered or massacred it may be.

What do insurance ads really do? Sure, some are funny. But they’re there to remind you of the more terrible things life holds in store for you. Injury, death. “…and if you have cut-rate insurance, you could be paying for this yourself. So get Allstate and be better protected from Mayhem like me.”

The ads are effective. The revenue says so.

Then we have part of our answer. Irregardless of the risk, a greater fear propels us to do or say or commit to something.

Even atheists fear Hell, but cannot admit it. People are less motivated to behave a certain way in life in spite of the risks. Because nothing hurts like hunger, not being able to get medicine, watching your child suffer, when there is another way. And it may be evil, this other way, but that can be put out of mind.

Pray to God, but without faith, expecting a grand miracle, and when nothing changes, curse Him. Now you’re on the dark side and whether you mean to or not, it is possible — and easy — to invoke “help” from another source.

And that source is the devil. Only, where God asks for nothing but an answer to the call for repentance and for earnest faith and prayer, the devil will stop at nothing to destroy everything you love, everything you own, and with it all, take your health and your life.

Let us choose another topic then, one we all know at least something about: summoning spirits such as a Crossroads demon, using spirit or ouija boards, engaging in seances or black summons rituals.

It’s real. All of it. When I was very young, a child, my older sister and two friends got together in her room. It was after school on an autumn day, the time of year when darkness falls too quickly. With the darkness, her door shut and locked, the three girls used a ouija board. I don’t recall how much time passed, but of a sudden, they screamed and the two friends fled the house, squealing and sobbing. I’ll never be able to get it out of my head.

The conversations that followed between my sister and my parents were exclusive. But it was decided to get rid of the ouija board. My parents, in particular my father, read widely on esoteric subjects, and so for him to get down with trashing the board, he was rattled. And that means not just the board, but the box and all.

In the 1960s I never saw a plastic trash can. Nor wheels on a bin. They were galvanized steel and heavy. We had a tall one with a handle on each side which I could not carry. We had a shorter one though with a harp handle like a bucket has, and it locked down the lid when it was raised. I don’t know if I can say which one the board was in, but it doesn’t matter. I had to help my mother take the cans to the street. I know the bloody board was in there because I saw it.

Early next morning there was a loud scream. My sister was in tears and everyone rushed in, even I. On the top shelf of her closet, a stack of board games including Green Ghost, Candyland and others. Sandwiched between them, the ouija board, box and all.

My father was not one for hysterics; he had a more hands-on approach. When frightened or angered, he got physical. With us. This wasn’t one of those times. This was bigger than him. He broke the board in half, crushed the planchette, and even tore the box in half. Back to the trash can and out to the street it went. Next morning, it was whole again, back on the shelf, and by now, after all the time gone by, I feel sympathy towards them. I was too young to get what was going on, and although scared, I couldn’t fully understand why.

After that, my father decided to burn the board. Some say that if a board comes back, a foul spirit is actively attached but trying to get away from the board, so burning the board releases the demon.

Someone should have told my parents that.

I was with him when he did it. Our house got cold quickly on autumn nights, and when fuel oil for the furnace was low, a fire was a big deal. I’d sit on the hearth until my back was dangerously hot. Ah, to be warm again.

He broke the board, tore the box, threw them into a roaring fire, and the plastic went, too. And it worked. The ashes did not reform into a board. But the flames as it burned were remarkable: green or blue, I don’t remember which, but I asked what it meant. I know now. Now, I know.

My sister never said what happened that night, refused to speak of it. Her friend Sherry never visited again. The other friend’s family moved clear across the country.

Things began to turn really nightmarish in the house. A younger brother, years later, said he’d had a vivid nightmare and got up to seek comfort from our parents only to be confronted by a “midget” who terrified him. As he tells the story of that night now, it was not a midget (what little people were called back then) but a child-size shadow person, black with shining red eyes. The shining eyes, he says, were like an animal’s at night when facing headlights.

A younger sister saw what she described as the Frankenstein monster walk past her door in the middle of the night. The abuse intensified. The shadow thing I’d been so terrorized by seemed to influence mother, and I occasionally saw a much larger shadow, in the shape of a man, outside my parents’ bedroom door.

In the literature of theology this epic timeline indicates a small, weak demon being fed by fear and anger it caused and growing stronger and larger.

Our father had a story he told: he’d once been in business with a partner, building and landscaping somewhere in Northern North Carolina or Southern Virginia. He said the partner double-crossed him, and he killed his partner and disposed of the body. It is probably a lie, but he was every bit as capable of it as any other sociopath who’s violent and has a bad temper.

He had, by then, moved on to his third wife. First came Janey, whom I cannot find any information on. It is not known if they had any children. Then came the second wife whose name I guard with my life. She is my step-mother, as is Janey. I’d love to meet them both.

But what happened between or before wives, I don’t know. Bad things, to be very honest. He was troubled, but intelligent. He was also a schemer, a pervert and an abuser very early on. Two wives had to run away from him.

By the time he married my mother, and I was born, he had come into some money and moved two years later to the new house in Maryland. Some would find my guess that he made a deal with the devil to be a bit fantastic, but is it?

There is very scant evidence of the dead partner story, but in that business, the two evidently did some of the manual labor themselves. Father had masonry tools like a flat shovel and a hoe that concrete had been allowed to dry on. Had he laid concrete over the grave site and tossed the tools in his car to make his hasty getaway?

This is why I printed silly versions of conspiracy theories before this essay. It is so tempting to play detective even without evidence. What really happened, I don’t know. But all the events that followed made one thing obvious; he had come into a large amount of money, and would continue doing so into the 1970s. Then, by 1980, he began to lose business. By 1981, his warehouse business went bankrupt, and two years later, the trucking company became what’s known as a “fallen flag”: it was no more.

I cannot help but believe that his early adult years and strict upbringing (it was a violent one), as well as his interest in the occult, somehow led to him making an unholy vow, a deal with the devil.

Then came the house in Pasadena, Maryland. It would soon be filled with screams, sobbing and foulness.

What I believe is that so much evil dwelt there that the suffering would never stop, only get worse, and it did. A younger sister was sexually abused with such harrowing perversity that I still cannot print a description of it. Another younger sister ran away, eloped, and infuriated our parents because they had lost control. My father held a .357 magnum, loaded and cocked, to my head and told me that if I had broken the code of silence, he would find out, and kill me (I had indeed broken The Code of Silence, but the law did not handle it well).

I also, after many years of contemplation, believe that the evil entity in my room had been attached to either or both parents, and came with them to their new house in 1962. It soon picked me as a target to terrorize, and became more powerful.

My parents had mental issues, obviously, but that doesn’t account for everything. What happened, what I’ve told you, was all real.

Their handshake with the devil was done long before they got a new house, a truly new one, bought a business, built it up, had a large family, and I was there when it began to fall apart. I was in the courtroom when they were placed in handcuffs and leg irons with belly chains and sent to prison. Any and all remorse I ever felt for giving testimony is misplaced. Evil was dealt with accordingly.

I often sense the deep fear they had that day, of going to prison, and I do pray for their souls. I am not without pity.

Any conversation about deals with the devil would be incomplete without a recap of the subject of corruption in Christian churches, because there’s one more deal with the devil to consider, involving power, leverage, manipulation and a cult.

The rise of Christian nationalism is an unholy terror which is a clear and present danger to the people and the government, as we know it, of the United States of America. And that, my friends, means it is a global threat.

In this article from Time, I find a better detail than I can lay out for you. White, Christian Nationalism is everything that everybody should hate: white supremacy, intolerance of the freedom of choice, intolerance of healthcare and social security services, disability insurance, the freedom of women to wear what they want to (it was decided that in chambers that women must cover their arms) and to choose for themselves whether to carry a fetus or not, or even to use birth control measures. The republican party fully accommodates and panders to the church, the far-right church.

It’s a mistake. It seals the doom for democracy. Canada and Mexico will have hostiles across their borders, and not just the Texas and Minnesota gun nuts. Now, it will be a government which would gladly fire on anyone suspicious. Just as it does already with its own citizens.

Republicans cheer Russia’s war, applaud demagogues, worship at the altar of threats, wars, ethnic slaughter, forced religion, a police state, nazism, fanaticism of every shape and shade, and they are the lovers of death.

The U.K. will once again stand alone. After Brexit and with the United States under a regime, they will have no help. The conservatives there will have every excuse to stage a coup, and they’re already trying.

If you believe none of this can happen, good for you. You’ve passed your first test to qualify as one who will sit back and let it happen without dissent, without resistance, without remorse, until it’s too late. The left does push back, but in all the wrong ways, making the opposition more resolved. Who can oppose them if not you? Even the Feds are compromised. The best agents of the FBI and Secret Service are leaving, burned out because of the Trump presidency. If we all give up, we all, by our failure to resist alone, make a deal with the devil. No handshake is necessary. No promises to be asked for nor given. All he needs is for you to either not believe he’s real, or to believe but not see the dangers he brings.

My advice is, for what it’s worth, that you never seek these dark beings out. Don’t tempt them. Don’t even look for them. Stay away from Paranormal television and films, never use EVPs, never invite a spirit to write or speak through you. If dealing with the devil is possible, don’t find that out. You will not like what happens next. Stay out of the darkness. Avoid gossip the same way you avoid fire. Treat others with respect and dignity.

And when you miss the marks that define honor, make up for it. Admit that you are wrong, make amends if you can, pray and meditate on it. A sincere apology can greatly lessen the pain of a wound made by words.

Does the devil make deals?

Yes, “it” does. But he hates you. He hates everyone. And if you promise him, whatever he is, anything at all and do not regret it, you won’t like what happens. And the solution? Pray. Give yourself back to God. The time for that just might be running out.

Thanks for your visit here, and be well.