Just as the Holy Spirit talks to us constantly, so does the devil. The difference is that evil speaks louder and more insistently. I must directly address that issue at this point: the influence and attributes of demons.

Where the Spirit is often a small still voice, the devil fills our brains with anxiousness, obsession, and animosities. I know this is the most controversial aspect of mysticism, the existence and power of demons. That’s because Satan wants it to be controversial. He cannot stand the light. He does not want to be unmasked. Many people can accept God, and go so far as to accept Christ or the Blessed Virgin, maybe even angels, but will stop at the concept of actual evil entities. This includes even Catholic news sites and podcasts. Though demons are suddenly more in the “mainstream,” they remain a touchy subject, and many consider it going too far. They consider that “fundamentalism.” They consider that Bible-thumping territory.

It also contradicts much of what we have been told by the modern “science” of psychology. While it’s comfortable to think strictly in terms of psychological factors, doing so, explaining everything in psychological terms, is one of the great errors of our dark and confused century.

Many emotional disturbances, large and small, are provoked by evil spirits. When not shouting, these invisible and highly intelligent spirits whisper to us. They inflect ideas. They play upon our pride. They exaggerate differences and affronts. They instill egoism. They whisper about other people. They cause anger, anxiety, and envy.

Listen to your thoughts. Take better note of the internal dialogue that moves through your mind like a computer punch tape.

The good thoughts, the thoughts that bring us clarity and peace—lasting peace—are from the Holy Spirit, while the unbalanced ones, the ones that instill oppression, pride, confusion, and delusion, are temptations from the Evil One.

He is always testing us. He is always sending us emotions that he hopes will lead to sin and misery. For reasons that will always remain a mystery, Satan has been granted the ability to tempt us every inch of the way. When we are at peace, he sends an unsettling thought. When we are mellow, hostility. When we are at rest, restlessness. When we feel holy, pride or lust. When we feel secure, anxiety.

Especially he sends egoism and spiritual pride. Our protection is the Holy Spirit.

Life is a constant battle between ideas sent to us by forces of both good and evil. It always comes down to free choice. It is up to us to choose which of the thoughts and emotions we want to maintain and nurture, along with which ones we want to act upon. When we allow ourselves to entertain and act upon the lustful thoughts, we disperse the Spirit and head toward sin. We become unsatisfied. We get restless. We fill our minds with dissatisfaction and jealousy. When we grasp and hold on to what is sent by Heaven, the result may be a difficult road, but it is a road that ends in exquisite bliss—if we hang on to it.

This is not to say that all thoughts are supernatural. No. Not at all. We have recognized the role of the brain since 600 B.C. Many of our thoughts are from our natural or psychological nature, a combination of memory, reasoning, and conditioning.

There are also urges which are a part of our human nature, the product of instincts.

But more thoughts than we realize are inspired by powers of evil. All of you have seen people who are kind and gentle one moment, full of hostility or irrationality the next. If it isn’t a biochemical problem, or a simple personality disorder, it may well be something spiritual that plagues them. Our moods are frequently a product of the spiritual warfare. Light and dark are in constant battle over our personalities. Christ and He alone changes that.

  “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ...”  2 Corinthians 10:5

–Michael H. Brown in Prayer of the Warrior