Watch Out for Book Demons!

My friend and brother Lon Milo DuQuette has written tons of books on magick and Thelema, but I think this is the first time anyone has accused one of his books of causing demonic possession. Or, at least, the first time anyone has bothered to put together a whole story explaining how it allegedly happened in this Amazon review of Lon's book My Life With The Spirits. Now I will start off by saying that the first thing I think when somebody starts out with "this is not a joke or troll review" is that it totally is. But judge for yourself:

First off, I want to say this is not a joke or troll review- these events are described exactly as they happened. Anyways the book is interesting and I read the whole thing in one sitting. However, after reading the book, I went to take a shower and noticed in the mirror the appearance of dark circles under my eyes which are unusual for me, I'm a devout Christian and my eyes never have dark circles under them- even when I don't have time to sleep that day and have been awake for 24 hours. I also noticed they were not as glassy, or 'glowing' as usual- my eyes usually have a shine, but they looked dead. IMMEDIATELY upon my noticing this fact, I felt a HEAVY sense of dread- SHEER terror, and the feeling that I was not alone, the feeling as if the whole room had 'shook' and the floor had fallen out from under me. I've dealt with this sort of thing in the past, but never nearly so strong a feeling- so intense and so real. It was as if whatever demon had become mad that I had spotted this change. I might have panicked and made the situation worse, but instead I stayed calm, prayed, and used my power of will to believe in my prayers and that they would work. I'm thankful that two hours later, my eyes are returned to their previous state- however I would not be surprised if I'm still having trouble sleeping tonight.

Someone who didn't notice the apparent possession or reacted differently may be in big trouble at this point. I still doubt that I am out of the woods entirely.

Taking this person at their word, there are tons of things that can cause dark circles under your eyes that will last for a couple of hours, and "demons" aren't usually on that list. Beyond that, all that really happened is that they got totally freaked out. That sounds to me like "devout Christian" - that is, fundie - programming that attempts to inculcate irrational fear of any spirit or spiritual force that isn't explicitly Christian and approved as non-heretical.

In other words, the odds that this person was freaked out by a demon rather than their own basically broken programming strikes me as very unlikely. Here's my thought - the reader picked up the book even though it was officially "forbidden" by his or her brand of Christianity. Reading through the book in one sitting, this triggered anxiety that started to build. Anxiety, in fact, can cause dark circles under your eyes. Then, the moment he saw something that looked weird, the anxiety came on in full force.

So my diagnosis there is that maybe people who are as "devout" as this individual should stay away from My Life With The Spirits unless they want to get freaked out. But that's where it ends. The book isn't going to cause a problem for anybody who's not triggered by the idea of magick as EVIL. I mean, the book isn't even a book of spells, just an account of Lon's experiences with magick over the years. And it is a fun read for those of us who know what we're talking about with respect to the occult.