From “The Demon Haunted
World”
By: Carl Sagan
Presentation by:
Benn Stancil, Cynthia Herenden, Chad Winegar, and
Darcy Delph
• Demons were thought to exist
throughout the ancient world
• “Thought of as natural rather than
supernatural beings”
• Plato, Socrates and many other
scholars believed in demons
• “Demon” is Greek for “knowledge”
• Not all demons were thought to be evil
• Christian church believed that pagan
beliefs “consisted of the worship of
demons and men, both misconstrued as
gods”
• Demons thought to be immortal but
have the same characteristic flaws as
man
• Thought to have no redeeming features
• Purpose is for the destruction of man
• Believed to be “fallen angels” or devils
• “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places (Ephesians 6:14)
• “These animals exist in our own life, which is
full of passions, for they are present
abundantly in the passions, and their
dwelling place is that of matter, as is their
rank and degree. For this reason they are
also subject to passions and fettered to
them. -Michael Psellus c. 11th century
• Names and characters of demons
changed little from Hesiod period
through the Crusades
• Remained the same throughout
different cultures, time periods and
even the world
Possibly came from the moon…
Pope Innocent VIII

Bull of 1484: people were having sex with
demons and this would cause bad things
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Led to accusations, torture, and execution or
“witches” all over Europe
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Mostly women and girls
Inquisitors: Henry Kramer/James Sprenger
Punished abominations to save souls from eternal
damnation
 Malleus Maleficarum “Hammer of Witches”
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Accusation=Verification
Accused

Tortured-often confessed
People began to believe this was for real
 Those who said otherwise were punished
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No rights, alibis, witnesses, or evidence
Reason for accusation ignored
Revenge
 Jealousy
 Greed

Inquisitors got property
 The family had to pay everything
 Prickers

Accused

Strong erotic and misogynist elements
Duh! Sexually repressed, male-dominant society,
inquisitors were from the class of nominally celibate
priests
 Trials

Quality and quantity of orgasm during the copulation
with the demon
 Shaved pubic hair and examined genitalia to look for
“devil’s marks”

Modern Times
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Burning witches has declined
Thought to be children’s stories
However, still out there
exorcisms
 >50% of Americans believe in the Devil
 crazed and violent behavior=demonic,
 pandemonium “all demons”

Aliens=Demons?
Sexually obsessive
 Nonhuman
 Live in the sky
 Can walk through walls
 Communicate telepathically
 Perform breeding experiments on human
 “Shared delusion based on common brain
wiring and chemistry”

Demons and Religion
 Based on early Christian Tradition, many famous historical
figures were said to have been “fathered” by demonsincluding:
– Plato, Alexander the Great, Augustus and Martin Luther
 Various religions have described supernatural occurrences,
– Ex. St. Teresa of Avila reported a vivid sexual encounter with an
angel of light
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Examples of the Supernatural
Past and Present
 In 1695-teenager Anne Jeffries found on floor, claimed to
have been abducted by “fairies”, and carried to a castle in
the sky and seduced.
 In a 1982 book, The Terror that comes in the Night: An
Experience Centered Study of Supernatural Assault
Tradition, a man experiences visits from mysterious figures
 Would the figures be described differently if the
events had occurred more recently, in a time in which
alien abductions were more common?
Famous Passages concerning Religion and
the Supernatural
 From, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, author
Edward Gibbons described the balance between credulity
and skepticism
– “They felt or fancied, that on every side they were incessantly
assaulted by demons, comforted by visions, instructed by prophecy,
and surprisingly delivered from danger, sickness and from death
itself, but the supplications of the church…”
– “…the air which they breathed was peopled with invisible
enemies…innumerable demons”
Religion, Demons and History
 King of England-James I, wrote a book on
demons-Daemonologie, in 1597
 Namesake of “King James” version of the Bible
 By 1628 was a skeptic himself; adolescents were
discovered to be “faking demonic possession”
Supernatural Then and Now
 Enthusiasts point out historical parallels;
– “aliens have always been visiting us…in earlier times
we recognized them as gods, demons, fairies, or spirits,
only now do we understand that its aliens who’ve been
diddling us all these millennia.”
Current beliefs of the supernatural
 Contemporary sect of religion, “Raelians”,
believe that gods or God come to Earth in
UFO’s
– Describe aliens as “angels” or “emissaries of
God”
 Some still think they are demons
UFOs and Religion
UFOs are the embodiment of the devil.
 “demonic manifestations”
 UFO sightings are premonitions for “endtimes”
 “I think they are demons…part of the
Satanic plot.”
 Bible: “great signs from Heaven” in the last
days
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UFOs and Religion
Some Christians – UFOs cannot exist
 “…it never leaves us without an answer.
The Bible nowhere explicitly affirms or
negates intelligent extraterrestrial life.”
 Many other Christian sects are openminded and do not have a definitive
opinion on UFOs.

UFOs Today
UFO stories are created to satisfy
“religious longings.”
 “Dressed in scientific jargon, their
immense powers ‘explained’ by
superficially scientific terminology, the
gods and demons of old come down from
heaven to haunt us…”
 “Only the extraterrestrial outer trappings
are new.”
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Why UFOs?
UFOs are a natural extension of the
demons that we once believed in.
 When we ‘knew’ gods came to Earth, we
saw demons and incubi; when
extraterrestrials are accepted, we see
UFOs.
 UFOs are a result of our culture.
 “we…incorporate cultural norms and make
them our own.”
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Why UFOs?
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Aliens are a major subject of movies, TV shows,
and novels.
People are now thinking about UFOs, so UFO
stories emerge.
“In contrast, we hear very little about incubi,
elves, and fairies. Where have they all gone?”
Further evidence for culture: UFO stories are
mostly from North America; European aliens
look and act differently.
Problems with Aliens
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The aliens described are similar to what is seen
in movies: “disproportionately large head and
eyes, undeveloped facial features, no visible
eyebrows and genitals, and smooth gray skin.”
Also, aliens are not creative or original.
“Not a single being presented in all these
accounts is as astonishing as a cockatoo would
be if you had never before beheld a bird.