Fr. Gary Thomas is the mandated exorcist for the Diocese of San Jose, California; in an interview he said “When a person comes to me, I may say, let’s pray for a while, I want to learn more about you. I’m always listening for doorways, so, you know, if there’s any pattern of practice with the occult or history of sexual abuse. Eighty percent of the people who come to me have been sexual abuse victims, usually as a child. But I’m asking questions about pornography and drug use, habits of their growing-up years, experiences in their family. Any kinds of traumas—the suicide of a person—I wouldn’t rule out any traumas as presenting an opening [to demons].”
“…46% of homosexual men and 22% of homosexual women reported having been molested by a person of the same gender. This contrasts to only 7% of heterosexual men and 1% of heterosexual women reporting having been molested by a person of the same gender.” 1.
“more than one third of the men in our sample reported a history of being sexually abused as children. These men were twice as likely to have engaged in unprotected receptive anal intercourse during the past 6 months.” 2.
“Childhood sexual abuse was reported by 47% of participants; 32% reported frequency as often or sometimes…Among those who were abused, more frequent abuse was associated with more sexual contacts and unsafe anal intercourse compared with men who were not abused.” 3.
Dissociative Identity Disorder [DID] or Multiple Personality Disorder is oftentimes connected with the survivors of childhood sexual abuse; DID is a psychological coping mechanism in which the child dissociates from the full awareness of the traumatic experience. Those with DID often exhibit at least two or more distinct identity or personality states. In terms of demonic possession, those with DID will frequently exhibit behaviors similar to possession; and vice versa. Consequently, in 1999, the Vatican issued guidelines which urged that: “the person who claims to be possessed must be evaluated by doctors to rule out a mental or physical illness.”
An expert on the topic of demonic possession, Fr. Jose Antonio Fortea wrote: “Demons can tempt us, and they sometimes do so in a continuous way with great intensity. As such, a demon could provoke an obsession, phobia, depression, or another type of mental illness in a person.” From my own experience, after I suffered abuse – I began to alienate myself: becoming overly distrustful, and incredibly sensitive; I was highly open to suggestion. A private world of inner fantasy became my reality. In boys who later grow up to be gay or gender-identity confused men, this phenomena is not unusual; at first discounted as a benign fixation with play-acting and imaginary friends, a preoccupation with female pop-stars, and or dressing up in girls’ clothing; yet, more devastatingly evidenced in the current predicament of transgender children who insist they are the opposite sex. Because the abuse was of a sexual nature – I became obsessed with pornographic images of degradation and violence. In pornography, I was able to find a seemingly endless supply of horrific depictions. As an adult, this fixation transferred over to my sexual activity in which I oftentimes reenacted the abuse in a vain attempt to normalize it.
This particular form of self-help sex therapy I saw over and over again in the gay world; sometimes, it seemed rather innocuous – whereas younger guys would willing enter into, actually seek-out, role-playing daddy/son relationships with an older man; in other instances, things got darker – for example, even within my own mind, I sensed a strange overpowering compulsion which drove otherwise seemingly well-adjusted and rational men to take part in a succession of ugly and perverse sexual practices. In both cases, the sexual experience is an attempt to work-through the childhood trauma: boys who never felt love from their fathers are driven to seek out that affection with other men; those who were abused aggregate into co-dependent collectives in which cruelty is sexualized thus creating a false sense that the abuse was neither harmful nor unique.
“…from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.” And, from our beginning, every gay man and woman arrived at homosexuality through a lie: that our feelings were healthy and natural; that we were born this way; that there was nothing wrong with us. We took solace in this - finding comfort, not in ourselves, not in the Truth, and not in God, but in something else. In the beginning, it promised everything – giving a little, then, always leaving you hungry for more. Only, your appetite grows; suddenly, nothing seems to satisfy; later, like a vampire deprived of blood: you become a soulless shell always pursuing the next warm body to fill you up. When I left that little foreshadowing of hell – I lost almost everyone I cared about: I watched as something evil took over – turning them overnight into monsters; the demon was called AIDS. Today, 24% of gay men in my old hometown of San Francisco are HIV+.
1. “Comparative Data of Childhood and Adolescence Molestation in Heterosexual and Homosexual Persons”
Marie, E. Tomeo, et al.
Archives of Sexual Behavior 30 (2001): 539.
2. “Childhood Sexual Abuse Among Homosexual Men Prevalence and Association with Unsafe Sex”
William R. Lenderking, PhD, Cheryl Wold, MPH, Kenneth H. Mayer, MD, Robert Goldstein, MPH, Elena Losina, MS, George R. Seage, III, MPH, DSc
Journal of General Internal Medicine Volume 12, Issue 4, Article first published online: 28 Feb 2002
3. “History of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Unsafe Anal Intercourse in a 6-City Study of HIV-Positive Men Who Have Sex With Men”
Seth L. Welles, ScD, PhD, corresponding author A. Cornelius Baker, BA, Michael H. Miner, PhD, David J. Brennan, PhD, Scott Jacoby, MA, and B. R. Simon Rosser, PhD, MPH
Am J Public Health. 2009 June; 99(6): 1079–1086.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2007.133280