Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans

Marianne, Jonathan, David and Richard could have given humanity a great gift with their spiritual insights and inner illumination. They could have gone on to become a great healer, wise and all-knowing, like Jesus- the real Jesus. They could have pulled back the curtain of deception for us and revealed the demonic beings that are strangling us and living off our life-force. That never happened. After their experiences of enlightenment, they were followed by demonic beings who continuously surrounded them with evil and darkness, so that any tiny crack in their brilliance could be polluted, and doubt of what they experienced could seep in. They were deceived into believing their enlightenment was evil. Demons wore them down, tormented them, and eventually possessed them. They were trapped, lost to themselves and the world. The gifts they can give us are the pure and beautiful experiences they had, recorded in this book, before their demonic attacks occurred. But they are buried and polluted by the darkness. Few people will see these buried gems, clear away the evil webs that entangle them, and know. Demonic beings influenced David to believe the new sound he ‘heard’ was controlling him, that his senses were invaded, and he was possessed. It was all lies, but David believed it and began to question his enlightened states, seeing them as evil. The demons were then able to possess him. This same scenario happened to Jonathan, Marianne and Richard, and they also became possessed. The following is paraphrased or quoted from this book: MARIANNE. To talk with another softened the sharp edge of her perception. To do anything with another meant clothing herself in false clothes, not being wholly herself. To feel anything with anyone else meant she would feel only relatively, accounting for them. It was difficult to regain the inner space and vision she had possessed before such contacts. She was fully absorbed in the Self that had been hiding. In the presence of that inner Self all was naked, absolute, secure. No longer interrupted or disrupted by the bad flow from others. The Self she sought lay beyond, beneath and behind the world of her actions and reactions. Out of reach of the endless rhythm of responses, recordings on her memory, the chatter of people blaring monologues. She became more sensitive, independent of the distracting outer world, and her inner psychic which was at the mercy of that outer world and easily shattered by it. If she could prevent the bad flow of others entering her, she could achieve perfection of her personhood. Contact with others- being in their presence even while they talked with others, caused two levels of communication. Both levels happened simultaneously. The first, outer level was the senses- touch, taste, smell, remembered images, talking. The second, inner level was a flow or influence from each other. It was not the subconscious, sixth sense, or telepathy. It was the Self in each, communicating. The Self does not need images, thoughts, logic or matter. It is not the soul or spirit in religion, or the thinking brain. In most people it is identified as such, and split into a black or white condition. People choose, respond, say yes or no, splintering the Self’s lively unity. It is rare to meet anyone whose flow with others entered and left, without attempting to split up the Self within. Daily life became a series of efforts to resist the flow from all but those who, like herself, had a perfect flow and balance, who had nothingness within them. She felt the flow of those present, ready to flee if any disturbance came her way. Seeking balance into the locus of her Self, until her Self is at last seen as a final illusion dissipated and annihilated into nothing-full oneness, a oneness that had always been there. JONATHAN. There is a return to where we came from, a going back to the oneness of nature and the universe. He lost count of ordinary time, of the sun and wind, river and its banks. The wind was a great rushing bird whose wings dovetailed into the green and brown arms of the trees on either side of him. The rocks became living things, his brothers and sisters, his millennial cousins, witnessing his consecration with the reverence that only nature had. The water around him winked with gleaming eyes as it sang the song it had learned millions of years ago, from the swirling atoms of space, before there was any world and man to hear it. It was an irresistible ecstasy for Jonathan. He felt a soft relaxation- no trace of tension, no anticipation, forward-looking thought or emotion. All was wrapped up and contained in the now, the here-present. Jesus was greater than Christians knew, every man and woman was equally as great. All were brothers to the boulders, sisters of the stars, co-beings with all animals and plants. Then all he had ever been or known of himself disappeared, hanging by an invisible thread. DAVID. Somewhere a curious sound, so faint it might have been blood pumping in his ears. He could not identify the sound. Little wisps of memory touched his consciousness briefly, tantalizing him as they skipped by, leaving him all the tenser. Little jagged fragments of shattered mirrors reflecting some shadow life; but he could not make out what was being recalled to him. The act of trying to remember was a blockage, thinking a hindrance to knowing. The sound died away. He was alone, yearning to know, infinitely sad. The sound started again, from no particular direction, not from outside or inside. It was a permanent sound that had always been there around him. He always heard it but had never listened to it, or allow himself to acknowledge he did. With a sudden violence he understood why the sound seemed to come from no direction. It was to hear a sound without any normal exterior conditions of hearing- no sound waves, no exterior source of sound, no function of his eardrums. It was real sound which could not be heard with ears. It was more real than any other sound he could ever hear in the physical world. It had a mysterious warmth of reality. It broke the silence of the night and his vigil more penetratingly than if a gunshot had exploded outside the window. Intensely pleasurable, because it was so secret. Deeply relieving, because it dismissed the silence around him in a fashion so intimate to him alone. Absorbing because it came from no place, yet filled all his inner hearing. Cowing, because in some transcendent way it had no tenderness. That sound was a whole revelation. He now understood that there was a knowledge of material things and a way of having that knowledge- in this case, of sounds, which did not come through his senses. His fear and distrust battled with this realization whenever a stray sound, the cry of a bird in the night, the hooting of an owl, struck his hearing in the normal way. These new, fearful, wallowing sounds seemed to belong to the very substance of audible things and his hearing of them to be absolutely true hearing. The external sounds of the night, even the occasional shuffle of his own feet on the floor, seemed to belong to a fleeting world, artificial, not real at all, but constructed merely by external stimuli and by his own physical reactions. The babel of internal sounds was growing and the artificial world of his normal life appeared to be like a flimsy trellis with wide gaps or a wall made of widely separated wires. A blustering, overwhelming new reality was rushing in through the holes. Richard. At a survival camp, Richard became enlightened. Alone at his camp spot, a hush fell around him, then it opened and an invisible veil fell aside. He was no longer a separate and distinct being from it all. He was surrounded by shapes and presences, which had lain hidden up to now. The wind and light had a presence; the wind spoke and revealed the light. The darkness held a mystery that wove a web around him, washing him in a strange grace and softening something inside him. A part that was hard was becoming soft, supple, flowing into the mystery. In the darkness he could see the variant colors of rocks, ruffles on the water, shades to the trees, notes in the wind. A deep core of him melted and he heard his father’s voice say ‘chin up young man- we men must be strong.’ He felt his body shudder, as if shaking off armor. He seemed to be holding all natural things at once- the ground, the light, the voice of the wind, the silver of the moon, the silence. He thought, ‘I don’t want a man’s hardness and strength, I want your wholeness and mystery. I want to be a man-woman. Richard heard/felt a voice that soared in a melody of notes. There was no rhythm or beat, just a full and complete melody. Its notes were recorded in him, evoked as echoes to the melody. As they resonated, they portrayed a quality he always was, but never realized or expressed- in himself or the world around him. In that melodized condition, all objectives were received within a delicate maze of sensibilities, emotions, reactions, intuitions. There was a sense of sacrament with what made the water, earth and air both strong and tender, soft and unyielding, masculine and feminine. This sense of the possibilities of all natural things at once was now an inner persuasion. The melody went through the night until sunrise. The ecstasy he experienced on the mountain with the air, water and earth was vividly present to him for weeks after. Richard had a sex change operation to become a woman. He met someone who invited him to a party. It was a satanic gathering. Richard was initiated and demon-possessed.

Although Fr. Malachi Martin's Hostage to the Devil is in many ways not for the faint of heart, it is nevertheless a "must read" for anyone interested in human spirituality. In the title, "hostage" refers to the priest who puts himself in grave psychological and physical danger to free the victim from a possessing demon. Basically, this work is a non-fictional account of five victims of demonic possession and the five priests who exorcised them. Seeking out a certified Roman Catholic Exorcist were Catholics and non-Catholics alike who had been left with nowhere else to turn. The book chronicles their journey from hopelessness to grace. Fr. Martin is a brilliant writer whose explanations are given with clarity and stylistic beauty as he not only documents the cases selected for his work but also includes other informative material such as the rigorous requirements needed for obtaining permission for an exorcism and an Appendix outlining the prayers, etc., used in a traditional ritual. For this reason, Hostage to the Devil is less a "Passalong" than a "Keeper," a book the Reader will wish to have in his or her permanent library. Fr. Martin recalls a time when every Diocese had an Exorcist on call and laments how easily modern society has fallen into the trap of believing that the devil does not exist, thus causing all aberrant behavior to be dumped into the field of psychiatry. Hostage to the Devil is a wake-up call to a world which holds a convenient belief in God but not the devil. More specifically, it a a plea to the world's Roman Catholic bishops to return to an acceptance of all of their responsibilities when it comes to the business of holding the line against Satan. This book made me wonder, "Does the Bishop of my Diocese have an Exorcist on call, and would he summarily dismiss all requests for an exorcist or look into the problem a bit further?" Fr. Martin feels that the Church has become too complacent in its view that the "gates of hell will not prevail" against it. The most interesting of the five cases is one in which the exorcist himself is suffering from a crisis of faith; and if any Christian has felt a bit uneasy about the philosophy of Teilhard de Chardin, particularly his concept of the Omega Point, Fr. Martin's insightful depiction of this case may help to put one's finger right on the pulse of the problem. Although Hostage to the Devil may not be the best book I have read during the past ten years, it is certainly the most important. Very highly recommended.

"On the other side of the coin— Lucifer’s side— the belief that he does not exist at all is an enormous advantage that he has never enjoyed to such a great degree. It is the ultimate camouflage. Not to believe in evil is not to be armed against it. To disbelieve is to be disarmed. If your will does not accept the existence of evil, you are rendered incapable of resisting evil. Those with no capacity of resistance become prime targets for Possession." - from Malachi Martin's "Hostage to the Devil" I've had my eye on this little piece of non-fiction history/horror for a few years. But between us...I was too scared to read it. Religiously-based horror is the sub-genre that freaks me out the most (and when you throw children in the mix!? Forget about it). But for this Halloween season I took a deep breath and jumped in. I'm not religious, and would consider myself a fairly skeptical individual. I do love fiction and I have a broad capacity to suspend my disbelief. Malachi Martin's novel is a piece of non-fiction - true stories of possession and exorcism. Martin describes these exclusively contemporary accounts as "dramatic illustrations of the way in which personal and intelligent evil moves cunningly along the lines of contemporary fads and interests, and within the usual bounds of experience of ordinary men and women.” That’s cool. I’ll suspend my disbelief for that! The five stories of possession (and a sixth smaller story) are bracketed by Martin's analyses of possession, exorcism and their place within contemporary popular history and church culture. His writing is clear and vocabulary large. His writing is infused with a palpable passion and erudite depth. Malachi describes: "The stories that are told on these occasions are dramatic and painful: strange physical ailments in the possessed; marked mental derangement; obvious repugnance to all signs, symbols, mention, and sight of religious objects, places, people, ceremonies." Each story runs about 80 pages, though a reader's expectations should be clear: the exorcism itself runs 10-20 pages at the most. The rest of the stories detail the backstory of each victim and each priest. The stories are not connected by character nor time. I chose to read this book with an 'accepting' mindset. I'm the first to admit, while I'm an iPhone-totin' skeptic and rationalist, I passionately embrace the idea that something supernatural or alien can exist. Martin treats his subject very seriously and addresses the doubters: "Church authorities always insist on thorough examinations of the person brought to them for Exorcism, an examination conducted by qualified medical doctors and psychiatrists." "Certainly, many who claim to be possessed or whom others so describe are merely the victims of some mental or physical disease. In reading records from times when medical and psychological science did not exist or were quite undeveloped, it is clear that grave mistakes were made. A victim of disseminated sclerosis, for example, was taken to be possessed because of his spastic jerkings and slidings and the shocking agony in spinal column and joints. Until quite recently, the victim of Tourette’s syndrome was the perfect target for the accusation of “Possessed!”: torrents of profanities and obscenities, grunts, barks, curses, yelps, snorts, sniffs, tics, foot stomping, facial contortions all appear suddenly and just as suddenly cease in the subject. Nowadays, Tourette’s syndrome responds to drug treatment, and it seems to be a neurological disease involving a chemical abnormality in the brain. Many people suffering from illnesses and diseases well known to us today such as paranoia, Huntington’s chorea, dyslexia, Parkinson’s disease, or even mere skin diseases (psoriasis, herpes I, for instance), were treated as people “possessed” or at least as “touched” by the Devil." The book is vivid, without being lewd nor lurid. Martin is graphic, and while the book isn’t dramatically frightening, it’s inherent topic is downright scary. "Violent physical transformations seem sometimes to make the lives of the possessed a kind of hell on earth. Their normal processes of secretion and elimination are saturated with inexplicable wrackings and exaggeration...Reflexes sometimes become sporadic or abnormal, sometimes disappear for a time. Breathing can cease for extended periods. Heartbeats are hard to detect. The face is strangely distorted, sometimes also abnormally tight and smooth without the slightest line or furrow." “Hostage to the Devil” is extremely well written, thought out and considered, and freely dips into theological considerations across a range of secular and non secular ideas. This book is quite heavy, with numerous pages covering the psychophysical characteristics of each characters relation to the specific event. It's an enjoyable, but not easy, read. Highly recommended.

Many things have been said and written about Malachi Martin, but if you are looking for a carefully written, well researched work on exorcism that is both compelling and disturbing, this is the book to read. Intermixed with the detailed case studies are truly astounding glimpses of how the Demonic views itself and how it uses thousands of years of knowledge to craft strategies of entrapment. Although the priests are instructed to avoid verbal sparring with the possessing demons, they do try to find out why and how each possession occurred to develop an exorcism strategy. The text of these interactions provides a stunning glimpse into the demonic. There are so many memorable characters and incidents in this book that I often find myself reflecting on them and what they mean to me and all of humanity. Ultimately, I became much more thankful to God for protecting (most of) us from ourselves and the absolute cruelty of the Demonic. You may have completely different take on the book, but I would be surprised if you see the world the same way after completing the book. For scientists (like me) who are also Christ-followers, there is a cautionary tale on maintaining proper perspective in reconciling evolution with religion. If memory serves, the same case provides an absolutely chilling account of a priest's brush with his own possession and the solitary fight he must wage to escape from the abyss. Like Brittle's two books on the Warrens ("The Devil in Connecticut" and "The Demonologist"), this book shines a bright light on evil in this world. Love Malachi Martin or hate him, he left a tremendous legacy in this book. There are several streaming audio interviews with Malachi Martin posted on YouTube that I found to be very interesting as well.

I heard of this book on a History Channel documentary on Exorcism. TV productions go for cinematic drama; I wanted something deeper. When the program mentioned the book in passing, I immediately picked up my Kindle and ordered it. It is, I think, a good balance between the scholarly, which too often can be dry and academic, and the popular, in terms of easy readability, without the 'supermarket sensational' feel popular tomes so often carry. This book strikes that balance well. It is, in fact, a page-turner. The book, after an introduction carrying an indictment of the failure of so many Catholic clergy these days to acknowledge the existence of the Evil One, then describes five different cases of possession, all brought about in different ways but all having one thing in common: either consciously or unconsciously, each individual invited the demon in to possess him or her. There is no possession without the tacit agreement of the possessed. And once in, the victim, usually seeking some 'higher knowledge' or 'freedom,' is putty in the 'hands' of the demon. Many may opine that good and evil, sin, the angels, God and the devil, moral and immoral, etc., are categories for a less-educated, naive society. Some may say that we've wiped out such old-fashioned thought through modern psychology, medication, therapy. This, I think, is pride, the idea that human beings can do anything, discover anything, accomplish anything. Pride: the primordial sin, and as I remember from Genesis, the weakness in humanity that the serpent-devil leveraged to get into humanity's craw in the first place. Fr. Martin has done a great service in writing this book, and updating it in the 1990's. Though a 1970's original publication, it remains a very pertinent warning for the 21st millennium, where we seem to be doing a marvelous job of throwing God out of the public sphere, making America more and more effectively a nation NOT under God. I ask, if not under God, then under whom?

You know it's strange I was torn between giving it five stars and one star only because most of this book is way too wordy but then once he gets to where the exorcism is going to happen it becomes interesting so a lot of it bored me. I'll give you an example so he doesn't get right into talking about the exorcism he talks about the priest and goes through the entire life story of the priest and those are the parts that really bored me. And sometimes when he describes the situation he just uses way too many words and descriptions and I start to get a headache. I actually had a skip a lot of the priests history in life story. Now once he gets into talking about the exorcism it becomes a lot more interesting. I've decided to skip forward pass the boring parts and just read about the parts that interest me which I don't ever normally do with books. I probably wouldn't buy this book again I can't believe I'm saying this because I really liked the author I heard him talking on a radio show from years ago and found him so interesting I never in my wildest dreams would ever think that his book would be boring but a lot of it is so I'm torn

Malachi Martin's Hostage to the Devil examines the demonic possession and exorcism of five modern day Americans. Martin is a well-known writer on religious and Catholic issues. Martin handles each of the five exorcisms in the same manner: * The situation leading to the exorcism - the culminating point of possession * Background of possessed individual * Background of exorcist * Discussion of exorcism Although this mechanical narrative approach is not normally my cup of coffee it does seem to be work in this situation. Martin is effective in conveying the insidious nature and varied manifestations of evil. If for no other reason the book is helpful in causing the reader to consider the nature of evil and sin - something that is not often discussed in contemporary Western society. Martin is also good at highlighting the commitment and courage of the priests who work in this area. I was tempted to put the book down early on as a result of the author's comments on Satanism (perhaps wishful thinking on my part). I am not an expert in this field; however, his comments on the prevalence of demonic worship struck me as overstated. Martin does becomes more nuanced and balanced as the book progresses. Overall an interesting read on an important subject, but probably not for all readers.

My interest in exorcism was recently re-ignited by a viewing of the film, "The Rite," which led me to the book of the same name and the true circumstances behind the story, and on to a collection of other volumes on the subject. While reading "Hostage to the Devil" I became aware that this book, originally published in the '70s, was the source of a chilling story one of my brothers' friends had told me twenty years ago: the story of the ill-fated "Jamsie" (subject of one of the five cases in Martin's book), an up-and-coming radio broadcaster who was the target of attack by a "familiar" spirit for most of his life. In recounting Jamsie's story, Malachi exhibits a deep appreciation of the life story of the possession victim, demonstrating his theory that possession is a lifelong process that begins at birth and involves-and even affects--one's family, friends, circumstances and choices. In each of the cases presented in this book, a big chunk of the writing is devoted to this background work, revealing the final, necessarily dramatic clash of wills (between the demon, the victim and the exorcist) as a true climax of an epic struggle AND rendering the exorcism itself as truly imperative for the saving of every aspect of the victim: his body, mind, heart and soul. I am a lifelong Catholic, and as more than one reader has commented, I found my faith incredibly strengthened by this book; in fact, I felt called to make a really good Confession after reading about the real hold that unconfessed sins maintain on our souls--and the damage they can cause during the exorcism process, for the victim, the exorcist and the assistants. True, the book bathes one's entire life, the clashes, problems, relationships: in a strange light. Are the complications of our lives just "what happens" when humans--with all of their emotional complexities--interact, or are there other players involved? "Hostage to the Devil" begs the question, at a deep, moving level: What's really going on here?

Real life based stories are good but writer has over-explained the stuff. Its a bit slow. Its overly detailed. But anyway you should give it a try if you like horror genre too much

El producto llego con daño ya que pedi otro producto y los metieron juntos sin proteccion entre uno y otro y al ser de metal daño el libro lo que hace que se pierda el sentido de comprar un libro nuevo.

This book is intelligently written by an expert in his field. It gives a very in depth understanding of what both exorcees and priests go through in their battles with the demons. Personally I feel like it needs to be read a few times so as to deeply appreciate their war with the dark side. Occasionally in my opinion, it drags on a little in a few places but maybe that is why subconsciously I feel it needs to be read more than once. Overall it is a great read and influences me to get more of Malachi Martins work.

First, reading the book IS entertaining. I was expecting exorcisms performed by Malachi Martin himself. Rather, he is just the observer. Some supposed facts are stated, that are hard to believe, as they happened with no witnesses besides the supposedly posessed persons themselves.

Nobre e ilustre indivíduo, venho por meio desta transmitir-lhe minhas impressões sobre a obra intitulada "Hostage to the Devil", que se apresenta como uma das mais notáveis investigações sobre a realidade macabra das possessões demoníacas. Com uma linguagem meticulosa e envolvente, o autor explora as intricadas e assombrosas dimensões que permeiam as relações entre o mundo físico e o mundo espiritual, revelando-nos de forma contundente o terror inimaginável que pode ser provocado pelos poderes maléficos do além. As descrições detalhadas e minuciosas dos casos de possessão demoníaca apresentados nesta obra se mostram tão perturbadoras e aterrorizantes que mesmo o mais cético dos indivíduos não consegue escapar do medo e da angústia que são suscitados. Ao longo das páginas do livro, o autor revela as táticas insidiosas utilizadas pelos espíritos malignos para subjugar e controlar seus hospedeiros humanos, e mostra como esses espíritos podem causar a ruína, a perdição e a morte de suas vítimas. Sem dúvida, "Hostage to the Devil" é uma obra de grande valor e importância para todos aqueles que buscam compreender a natureza e as manifestações do mal no mundo, bem como para aqueles que desejam investigar as complexas relações entre o mundo físico e o mundo espiritual. Por tudo isso, esta obra se apresenta como uma leitura indispensável para aqueles que desejam aprofundar seus conhecimentos sobre os mistérios mais sombrios e inquietantes da natureza humana e do universo.