Hey there Recoverer.

I'm really not the one to answer this and can't lol, there are far better to give an answer.

But i believe this afterlife is kinda like this world in the way that you can get good spirits/souls over there and you can i guess get some spirits/souls which aren't as nice! From my understanding though your only going to really bump into these people if you go out looking for them...go to their B.S.T or have a negative energy around you at the time. If you go out with the right intentions and love 99.9% of the time you won't get any hassels, probly more than that.

Yeah and i know that guides can help. I also read about saying a affirmination or prayer not sure before you go out to ask for protection and let only peaceful loving things come your way, i guess this may be guides though.

Hope that helps

Ryan

Some people like to believe that there are all kinds of forces of evil out there just waiting to get people, Such beliefs provide them with a supposedly valid excuse for not letting go of their ego held boudaries.

False teachers like to take advantage of such people. "Follow me, and you won't have to be afraid."

Hi Recover,

We are always safe.  Guidance comes from the sacred place deep within each of us.  This guidance leads us in carrying out our life purpose, even when we do not recognize this.  Everyone has inner longings that are built into the energy field for each incarnation.  These longings lead us to accomplishing our life's purpose by following our deepest desires that come from our heart.

And based on my experience, I would say that no entity can "possess" another entity.  Influence perhaps, but I do believe this is very rare, especially since we are always connected to our Source.  It's also quite possible that what one perceives as a "demon" is actually a "solidified energy fragment" of fear that the person has created, so the "demon" is actually a part of the consciousness of self.  We are very good at creating fear. 

Love, Kathy

Recoverer,

What is important is the variety of destructive experiences that can befall one from the astral realm.  The question of whether these experiences are caused by non-human demons or discarnate humans is of secondary importance.

Don

Spooky, you're right, a statistical analysis would be helpful.  I suspect that my analogy of the safety of Florida's beaches despite the occasional shark attack is defensible, but this assumption should be tested experimentally.  Bye

Don

recoverer

try projecting PUL (if you can remember to think of it!).

Sometimes, when I remember it, it works in waking, C1.

Roger,

In my opinion, promoting doubts and fears to others is only reinforcing them in your own imagination. 

I'm sure lots of people told the seafarers who explored  the oceans of the "flat" earth that they would never come back alive.  Perhaps some of them didn't.  But it wasn't because they fell off the earth or got eaten by a sea monster.

Now we know what the sea monsters are.  That is because people went out and looked for what was really there.

love, blink

true Hiorta. there is such a law of attraction. a working law. it has to do with intentions held deeply in the subconscious areas, just until we become conscious of our intentions, why we came here in the first place, to gather experiences, while carrying around those deep intentions of the soul towards finding out who we really are. we are not groveling worms here standing before the image of a man made demon. sure we may manufacture devastating accidents and war for our reasons; we may surivive or we may die, reacess what was gained monumentally, then rest or dive back into life for another go with a slightly clarified approach and a desire to avoid what we had created previously. been there, done that, sort of knowledge added.

The bible is not the only tool we can learn things from, but from each other and a few shining avatars around who left us other fine books and examples. but there's certain things in the bible which inspired me and one those inspirations to think on is this:
If you stand before a mountain and have but the faith of a mustard seed and say "get thee hence from me" it shall be removed, even as strength is given to part the seas. the way I interpret this for myself is, if I am standing before what is "called" evil, what is called "demon" I can see it for what it really is at once, to it's core and reflect whether it is within myself as well. If I am standing there desiring to retain within myself what is life, what is a love of life, what is eternal, and I am radiating only this, the mountain shall be removed as easily as sun disapates shadow. If instead I relate that I too am holding the likeness of evil and feel deserving of punishment, and that this evil is a powerful thing to be able to punish me, I will succumb to the shadow within myself and the mountain for a time remains standing to block my way, but just until I find the mustard seed of faith and realize what is good within me is eternal, what is not good within me is an allusion and is temporary leering at me.

Fear not, for when there is love, there is not fear.
alysia

recoverer,

OK, let me get this straight.  You imagine that you're far too spiritual to ever be harmed by negative spirits.  Never mind that giants such as ES and Robert Bruce have both suffered possession despite their sterling character and protective measures.  You hide behind your lofty self-image as a substitute for actual investigation of the evidence about harm done by evil spirits, whether discarnate human or nonhuman demons.  Learn from Roger's sane approach: learn to know what you don't know.  Leave unpleasant possibilities open until you've engaged in a serious investigation.  Then dogmatism would at least become more excusable.

C'mon New Agers! I challenge you again.  Read either Malachi Martin's "Hostage to the Devil" or Larry Dossey's "Be Careful What You Pray For....' (an investigation of the lethal power of negative prayer in shamanism and elsewhere).  Otherwise, just admit that your rejection of evil spirits is as insipid as the chump who whistles by the graveyard.

Lucy's endorsement of Dannion Brinkley's view of negs is as probative as a congregation that nods their approval  at the evangelist's anti-evolutionary rant: "You can believe that man is the product of a baboon convention if you want to, but I, etc."

Don

agreed  Recoverer wholeheartedly your statements. I too put none on a pedestal...just as God will say I am not respector of persons, I too will align with that statement that we all have equal potential and opportunity to become enlightened. but not necessarily through proclaiming only this teacher or that teacher can guide us. the wisest teacher will release his students by giving them a question, not an answer to follow. and the wisest teacher will only say, now go and get your own experience and do not return to me until you have done this, and do not hold me in reverence, for I may not be here when u return to me, but by that time you may not even need me.

love and light to all, alysia

New Ager? Obviously you don't know me. After spending a number of years being mislead by Gurus who follow Eastern type thinking, I became adverse to being taken in by new age traps. I learned the hard way that in the end you can only rely on your own experience. It just so happens that some people who are categorized as new agers, have figured some things out. All new agers? Well of course not. I feel drawn to people who seem to have had experiences similar to my own, plus other experiences. Going by some of the things they say, it becomes clear that they know what they are talking about. It is doubtfull that an intellect could come up with the same thing.



Quote:

Don, you share your journey here with us and we but share our own. I do not know for certain what is on your table right now, but intuition tells me you lied to me in a private mail, that your cancer was cured. in that case if you are transitioning soon, there is great adventure awaiting you, this last adventure to see for yourself another dimension where you will continue your pursuits. If you fear this transition coming up for you, I can understand why you would tell me you are healed when perhaps it is simply what the doctors call a state of remission. you did not want me to think less of you that you will leave soon. I don't think less of you. I think of you all the time, that you will be ok. when I saw that you may be dying here my opinion changed of you. Instead of seeing you as a problem on the board I at once saw you really weren't a problem at all, you were simply screaming for love all this time. ACIM says we are either asking for love, or extending love at all times, and theres no shades of gray. well, we have not given you the love you want deep inside, and as Kathy points out, it's because you do not love yourself, or your life that was given, so you need to be reborn into spiritual areas. you could do that while you're still physically alive, but I do believe that you cannot humble yourself before your God. If you truly repented and forgave yourself you could be set free in an instant by your God, but as I see it, you await death to set you free instead. so be it. I wish you well whatever your choices of experience. I think great love awaits you eventually, but you may not find it on this particular board as you do not have any trust for what we believe. chin up Don, it's going to be a fantanstic ride, is death! not to worry! alysia

Alysia, there are some things that are meant to be private and personal.  Why in the world would you post on a public conversation board something that Don told you in a private message??

Not only did you reveal the cancer, you even went way beyond that by engaging in speculation as to whether Don lied to you and in fact is dying!!  I don't know if he is or isn't, but to put this sort of thing on the board is inexcusable.  Why didn't you just send Don a pm about your insensitive speculation?   

I really think what you did is way, way over the line.  And it also reminds me that you did the same thing in my case.  I had sent you a pm a few years ago regarding something that was personal, and I was floored to see it revealed in a day or two in one of your posts.  I never dreamed you would include it in your post, otherwise you can be assured I never would have told you.

I don't get it.  You seem to be a caring, sensitive person but no way would such a person do what you did.  No way.  Even if your speculation is correct, to post something like that is astonishing.  Your post #93 on the Swedenborg thread was also something that a caring, sensitive person would simply not do.   

I originally had drafted this as a pm to you, but why do that, it would only get posted on the board.

The lesson all of this brings is that no matter how much you think you "know" someone, you really don't and can't.  Alysia, your post makes me feel like taking a long shower. 

Shame on you for violating a confidence Don obviously had in you, and to speculate about his dying is beyond shame.  So much for all of this love and light.  In your case it's entirely bogus.

R

Roger: 
By god, you're a sane voice.

Alysia:
I echo Roger.  Perhaps you need to rethink your prespective.  You're not even echoing ACIM (I've read the Text, Manual for Teachers, & gone through the Workbood twice).

Kathy:
Don has never tried to "force feed" his belief system; he wants people to think.  Yes, his intentions are very honourable.  You & Alysia seem to patronize him.

Don:
I'm going to miss you.  Your postings have been invaluable to me.

Here's 5 points for team A. But it goes back to team B and they get 5 points. Yeah, but that lashing works out to 10 points for team A. Yeah but.............................................................................
................................................................................
................................................................................
.........................hopefully not for eternity.

To me, this board is a place for those who are looking into alternative ideas to have a safe place to come and openly discuss them. Or at least it used to be.

There are many flaws in the traditional ways of looking at things. I think this is because we create the world we live in...all the stuff beyond gravity and trees and hunger, we didn't create those things, but we create all of our ways of living in the world. We live in a word-built world. Beyond the basic physical, we invent everything. The only thing I'm not sure how was invented is language itself. We invent everything. We invent the concepts and then take the concepts for the reality. Not! But when we try out new ideas, I think that we are trying ultimately to learn that we invent it all. We have to remember that we invented it all.

There is much in our culture that we use without proof that it works. But we use it. Much of medicine has been based on some authority saying "this is the thing to do" and it is done without question. If you think Semmelwiess changed that, think again. Since we require that people use the medical system and even sometimes take their kids away if they don't, then why is there not more requirement to clearly demonstrate that a technique is the correct one? It seems to me that much more is asked in "proving" mediums are real than is asked in demonstrating some medical techniques have a basis in science. Why does this glitch exist?  Of course, we have been taught to fear death and therefore we need the physicians to fight off death at any cost. Mediumd are icing on the cake for day-to-day stuff. 

I don't have time to go into my personal journey or how I got to the point at which I just said.."Good bye Christianity" but I did. I don't care about Christianity other than it is a pain in the whatever to deal with Christians when it comes to philosophical issues. I don't believe in the existence of the historical Christ and I just don't care what "evidence" you show me, it isn't going to be good enough. This is not a topic open for discussion. If that makes me a New Ager  (and I can't figure out what else would) then so be it.

I was disappointed in the example of Johanna what's-her-face as an example because when I saw her writing it was obvious that she is a whacked-out Chrisitan type. Having grown up in the Bible belt, this is not a new phenomenon to me, but having someone who thinks on that level used as the source of arguments to counter say, Bruce's thoughtful descriptions of his experiences was just too much! I don't mean to offend any Christians here who wear their faith with joy and light and truly endeavor to do unto others in peace, but don't ask me to join in...I am a worse "opponent" than any Jew , Muslim, Buddhist, atheist you might meet! I am an ex-Christian! And I don't need to be saved from anything here.

No, this stuff does not all fit together. I just want the freedom to explore the ideas in peace. None of humanity's models have ever been all correct. That's why we keep changing them. So if I accept ES as the gold standard of prrof, then what do w edo next? We never have discussed what we might formally accept as proof. Of course, that is public proof. We might accept things less stringently proved for personal use. We do that all the time anyway. Why not here?

Peace, everyone.

why are we dividing up into two camps?

Alysia,

The camps divide themselves.  Some will sink and some will swim.  Even those who are sinking can feel it.  They fight harder.  Tell me not to say "love"....

Love, love, love.  Again love.

Don't sink.  Swim.

love, blink

I just heard words on TV that said "is this ever going to end?"  How appropriate those words are.

Donald said: i ask no one to embrace my perspectives. i ask only that they escape their cultic conformity and check out other articulate perspectives as I have done.  That way, they at least have a chance of developing a modicum of intellectual integrity.

Don, you see a cult of new agers. I see a bunch of loving, peaceful souls who are trying to help you to SEE.  Oh I know I shouldn't get into this again as it does no good whatsoever. 

Why shouldn't we sign our posts with love. Do you have something against love between souls since we are all ONE.  Don, you are a part of the ONE. It is so very frustrating trying to make you see that yes, you do 'force feed' and jump all over Moen/Monroe.  As I've told you before, go within, deep within and you shall find a beautiful soul and you shall 'see' all as it really is. Don, you can't love anyone until you love yourself. I know, these are just words and don't even make a dent in your consciousness and I'm just wasting time even replying to you.  I will always love you Don even though you don't love yourself.

Forgive yourself for your girlfriend's suicide as it's so obvious that you feel so guilty over this. Forgive yourself and release it.

From My Heart to Yours
I Send you My Love,
Mairlyn

you know what your last post said to me? that you are trying to get back into our good graces so that you can punch us in the face again.....
thanks, I've had enough abuse...you take care of yourself...bottom line is number one Don, thats what you teach us.

sorry to pop this thread back to the top but I had a few more thoughts....

I don't understand the comments about Brinkley. He bases his stuff on first-hand experience, experiences that really changed his life, and by all reports he puts his money where his mouth is. Maybe there is something I don't know about his hospice work? I think Brinkley has integrity.

The choice of Larry Dossey's book on this reading list has me intrigued. This is the type of book I would have expected to be disdained and I am now confused as to the criteria for books being on the list. As one reviewer on Amazon says, "Soft-headed, gullible New Agers will love this book; others beware." But the hard evidence for the efficacy of prayer is not there, not to FDA standards.  On the other hand, at least the starting pages of this book are about the dark side of Christianity, giving a history I would love for present-day Christians to have to study and understand. This is the kind of book I would read not to be convinced but to explore ideas. It is descriptive, not quantitative.  But I don't see how this book could be said to present evidence for demonic possession. Guess I'll just have to read it.

Thinking about Martin caused me to recall another very strange book, by Trevor Ravenscroft : The spear of destiny; the occult power behind the spear which pierced the side of Christ Maybe it is all the hint of secret societies and oocult . I just don't think I'm going to be able to distinguish between Martin's fiction and non-fiction.

What criteria distinguish the "gullible herd" from the nongullible individual? or rather from a group of nongullible individuals? The problem is that to try new ideas, one has to let one's guard down...one has to try to be innocent, in the sense of blank slate, and yes, I guess that implies risking being gullible.The flip side is that we won't be able to "get it" unless we take the risk.

I understand that we labor here under a handicap for communication...not being able to see faces or hear nuance in intonation and delivery, that would carry so much more information. So I usually take what I read with a good shake of salt!  But I experience the references to the people here as being part of Moen's cult as "unkind guttersniping and shallow psychologizing" and lacking insight into my motivation. The constant comparisons to a religion I no longer accept are just not intellectually tolerable to me.

Monroe's tapes don't work for me the way they were intended. They put me to sleep. I have noticed that if I am feeling muddled, some hemisync tapes can get me thinking again. Like, maybe I'm just not doing arithmetic well one day, and then I use a tape, and then the aritmetic flows aghain. Funny that non-beta would enhance beta.

I like Bruce's stuff because he said that he couldn't achieve obe so he found another way to get the same information. I love American ingenuity! I think the process shows Bruce has alot of integrity. Maybe that's the solution for those of us who don't do this stuff easily...we have to find our own ways. And for that I need the freedom to look at strange ideas in a safe place. So if I have to be a little gullible for a while every day to do that, so be it.

I can't let all these personal attacks go without a fuller and hopefully final response:

[Kathy to Roger:] "I wonder if you announced your intention that the information you gave was to be kept confidential.  If not, then you are responsible for not making your intentions clear."

Kathy, your comment to Roger is appalling.  When one privately makes oneself vulnerable to another and airs sensitive issues, ordinary decency requires the listener to respect the  confidentiality of that sharing.  Some things go without saying.  Can you say "gossip"?  Also, your insinuation that I don't love myself is not only arrogantly intrusive; it displays your ignorance of the problem of pinning down the elusive complex of emotions and attitudes that comprise self-love (e.g. the elusive line between inordinate pride and true humility).   

Alysia, how many times do I have to tell you that all my blood tests have shown I'm cancer-free?

[Alysia:] "Intuition tells me you lied to me in a private mail, that your cancer was cured."

Suppose I really was dying as you suggest and was keeping this from the board.  Who the Hell do you think you are to out me in this regard?  Have you no sense of decency?  Isn't it obvious that you should have checked with me first to see if I really am dying?  If it was too painful for me to share this with the board, don't you think my wishes should be respected?  You are obviously very capable of turning the final suffering of others into a "Gotcha!' and making sport of their pain.

(Alysia:] "You were simply screaming for love all this time."

You are too dense to realize that "screaming" is a patronizing putdown.  Do you really imagine that you and Marilyn are important enough that I need your love more than that of my friends and family?

And now we come to Marilyn's marvelous display of PUL that shifted the board's tone in a lovely way:

[Marilyn:] "You ego is all that matters to you...What is your EGO pretecting you from? The truth."

Bruce Moen's guideline's stipulate: "Disagreements often lead to opportunities for great discussion and learning." This guideline actually encourages me to offer my 3 critiques of BM and RAM: (1) I pointed out an obvious contradiction between BM's claim to be a parallel incarnation of RAM and RAM's own revelation that he has only one parallel incarnation--a female one.  Blink challenged this on the basis of her book's mistranslation of UJ.  (2) I questioned the credibility of RAM's past life claims, specifically (a) that he was once incarnated as a cave man who flew a machine, dodging spears from other cave men and (b) that he reincarnated as a novitiate ordered by Catholic priests to ritually rape his current wife Nancy.  (3) RAM's alleged OBE conversation with the woman he pinched never occurred.  So I questioned the validity of RAM's OBE conversations.  No one has challenged me on points (2) and (3).  Yet Marilyn chooses to violate the guidelines with this vile screed: 

[Marilyn:] "I'm sure that the purpose of this life of yours is to get rid of the EGO which probably been your biggest enemy in every past life."

Oh, you are "sure."  I'm so impressed!  I've always wonderered about my purpose.  You have access to my complete reincarnation history and deem it appropriate to squirt your venom at someone who doesn't even believe in reincarnation.  I can really feel the PUL!

[Marilyn:] "You have talked a lot about listening to the Gateway...tapes which you can never get around to. 

On the contrary, I've practiced with my CDs for hours.  It is human to get discouraged and take a break.  As I've said, I'm now ready to try again.

[Marilyn:] "You don't need them.  You have had experiences yourself that you now don't believe."

The ultimate arrogance is your presumption that you have a better grasp of my own subjective experiences than I do.  I struggled long and hard to convince myself that I had genuine OBEs and that I had really retrieved Janet.  It took a long time for the truth to overcome my wishful thinking.  How dare you presume to know that my painful reassessment is invalid!  If I claimed verification that involved logic, that would be an entirely different matter.  Then my logic could rightly be challenged by analytical minds. 

[Marilyn:] "The board's crash came about because of the negative energies you have created here."

Robert Bruce's board crashed shortly thereafter without any posting from me.  In any case, the discussion on my ES thread was quite cordial at the time.  You had not yet launched your personal attack.  In any case, such a vicious (and I do mean "vicious") accusation is psychotic.

Don

P.S. I know that you New Agers have to be right and so must have the last word.  I would like this post to be my last word on this board for an indefinite period of time.  But I'm human.  Your continual injection of venom in response to honest questions may perpetuate my response to this ongoing display of evil disguised as PUL.

People have a choice about where they want to put their emphasis,
on what they want to be preoccupied with. They can be somewhere on
a scale from anxiety to confidence. I for instance don't think
about doomsday much. And I never expect to encounter evil unless I
go into an area where I am expecting it.

But it is another thing entirely to say that something does not
exist just because you don't happen to have encountered it.
The flat out statement that occurs in some New Age channeling,
that evil does not exist, is just plain false. Such a statement is
not acceptable, on the part of some entity that presents itself as
some sort of guru.

This issue does not boil down to merely my reality or your reality.
That is not the end of the issue. There is a real reality out there
that exists regardless of what you or I happen to believe or happen
to have encountered. It is the business and responsibility of
people to know what might be there and what to do when you
encounter it, to be mentally prepared, even if you never seem to
encounter it.

I would advise people to sometimes get out of their New Age ghetto
and see the broad range of the paranormal.  Hauntings and Ouija
board stories include horror stories where people were barely able
to cope. These are rare but they definitely exist. I have often
heard paranormal scary stories called into the Art Bell/ George
Noory radio show, where people were desperate about what to do.
Also there have occurred in my family and extended family, cases of
unfriendly hauntings or possession. I also occasionally read in OBE
forums of scary out of body experiences. There is one story of a
person rushing to get back into his body before another entity in
the scene could enter it. Evil entities have their own independent
existence, just as we have our own independent existence between
lives. These do not need our thoughts to exist, their existence is
independent from us, and we did not create them.

Nevertheless, there is a predominance of astral adventures that were
not harmful, such that these things can be undertaken with some
confidence, and without too much fear. The sheer number of
travelers who say they have never encountered anything they had to
be afraid of, can enable a perspective, like you can get onto a
commercial airline with confidence, even though crashes occur.
But when people say there is nothing to fear, they are not being
accurate. They might accurately say, I have never encountered
anything to fear, but that is not the same thing as it being
nonexistent.

I am by no means an expert in what is called "New Age" thinking.  However, what I've read does not at all completely dismiss evil, it simply states that there are different levels of vibration of the soul or spirit.  As a generaly rule, New Agers believe that the more evil and damaging a spirit/soul is, the lower the vibration.   From what I have read, a spirit with this low level of vibration does not, have access to higher planes (such as Monroe's Focus 27). 

The earth plane (C1), and near earth astral are fairly low levels with regard to vibration (if one believes in that), and as such, it may be possible for misguided souls or evil entities to have an influence there or even menace someone. 

Several facts are important in this new age system, however.  The first is that our essence can not be harmed, truly - perhaps in C1 physical reality, with transient physical injuries, but not our innermost soul.

The second is that there is a natural desire of every soul to be saved or experience love.  Even one considered evil.  Thus eventually, they may seek to change their ways.  This, admittedly may be debated.

Matthew

I have never heard any saying of Jesus in which he either damned or cursed anyone.  If he did, I'd like to know the chapter/verse.  I do agree that evil may be spiritual beings behaving badly, or not understanding.

Matthew

Matthew

oops now maybe I'm going to get myself yelled at by the Bible scholars. In looking for this I think I must be remembering a nontraditional translation. I thought this was said in connection with one of the times Jesus worked on the Sabbath and caught heck from the teachers.

the quote I now find is like this:

"On the same day he saw a man working on the Sabbath Day, and said to him; ‘Man, if you know what you do, you are blessed, but if you know not, you are cursed and a transgressor of the law’ "(Cambridge MS, Codex Bezae).

I find that quite meaningful, but some may find it inaccurate. But I'm not sure where it is supposed to fit in with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, though in my memory it was in a particular one. I read that in something not on the web so I'm going to have trouble finding my source. I read alot. Bookworm, I am! but I don't take notes. That sentence obviously had an impression on me.

I found this extensive discussion of translations in loking for Codex Bezae. Words are important to us humans:
http://www.skypoint.com/~waltzmn/intro.html


Rog you have obviously given this a bit of thougth and I see your point about taking it seriously.

Maybe it is analagous to driving. Other cars aren't bad but I still have to watch where I am going.

I see PUL as something that passes through me but I think it is something I am supposed to learn to direct. Maybe I can't send it now (or can I?) but someday I will.

Perhaps the most growth comes, when we're willing to disagree with ourself.  ???

I do not know of a case of Jesus cursing a man, although he did
say, "Woe to the lawyers". But he did curse a fig tree, because it
did not have any figs on it, even though it was not the season for
the tree to have figs on it. The tree later withered and died.
This is in Mark 11:13, 14, 20, 21.

This seems immature, to be angry at a fruit tree because it did not
have fruit yet because it was not the season.  The tree was not
guilty of anything, so that it should recive the death penalty.
If this is the man who could create loaves and fishes,
why did he not just ask the tree to grow some fruit for him?

I have wondered why this story was included, that seems to diminish
the man in some way. Were they trying to make him look powerful, or
to be feared? Or would this be a clue to the authenticity of the
story, in that they included this, when they could have omitted it?

It is also in Matthew 21:19, in less detail.

No I certainly don't believe everything I read in the Bible. I
emphatically reject the creation myth in Genesis and the end of the
world myth in Revelations. Also a long list of other things.
I also reject the similar end of the world myth in the Quran.

The most serious critics of Christianity say that the Jesus myth is
a recycling of similar stories that were culturally inherited, that
these stories included such things as the virgin birth, and the
persecution or execution of the stereotyped hero.

If one were to say that the story of Jesus was a created myth,
then my point is that this story of cursing a fig tree is out of
character if you are trying to create a story of a son of God who
is supposed to be way spiritually above the foibles of men.
I wonder how this story got in there, since it does not fit the
main message of who this man was supposed to be.

So one thought that occurs to me is that maybe it is in there
because it really happened, that a great guru had a childish fit of
temper, and it was a curious incident they puzzled over and could
not help making a note of.

As for whether the fig tree really died or not, that is something
you can be skeptical about. I have had trees fall over in a storm
when I did not need them any more, they were in the way of another
plan I had. Coincidence, of course. The elm tree next to that one
has prospered and grown a lot of leaves when I assured it that I
needed its shade in the summer. Of course, I watered it a lot
because I wanted the shade.

If you want to learn more about demons, read about exorcism here:

http://paranormal.about.com/od/demonsandexorcism/a/aa031405.htm

We live in a world of 'opposites'.....black/white, hot/cold, asleep/awake...God/Satan, good/bad.
If we didn't have opposites, we wouldn't have adequate balance in life. I don't think that we could learn anything if everything was straight forward love and peace all the way. It would be nice....but I think that life would become stale. There has to be some form of conflict. As it was in the day before the Garden of Eden .....life went on and on...love and peace.....soon, hum drumm....and then the apple was eaten. That was probably the best thing for mankind ever...to eat that damn apple. Now things become interesting.
I can tell you that for years and years, I have on occassion had experiences with bad forces. When I was in my teens, I dabbled in some things that maybe I shouldn't have. Whether that is what attracted these entities to me I don't know....but at that time of dabble, was also the height of alot of trouble I was having with these darker forces. Even to this day, every once in awhile. when I sleep, when I am my most vulnerable, I am awaken with the struggle happening of an entity or dark spirit trying to take over my soul/body......literally. And it is the most scarey ever experience ever to go thru.
However...I think the worse thing that I ever experienced was around 1999, when I was in college completely a semester in childcare...we were doing an art project for kids. It involved using 2 colors of paint and a sheet of construction paper. Fold the sheet in half dab your 2 colors on one side only. Fold the sheet in half and then gently apply pressure or rub. Open the sheet up and observe a neat mingle of color and see the reverse on the opposite side of the one half.
All was well.....all the students were looking at their creations and talking.
Class was minutes from ending. I was running behind, as usual....I was one of the last to get to the final stage of this art project.
My girlfriend was standing next to me when I opened my paper up. Once I opened my paper....I was immediately horrified. What was literally developing in front of my eyes, was beastly facial shape....face wide at the forehead and narrowing at the jaw..this 'thing' had blazing red eyes...and you know, I never even used the color red as one of my 2 colors....so where did that come from? This pic developed as we watched it....like watching a pic develop in a dark room...and became perfectly clear. I was shaking so much I could hardly hold the paper....I started to cry...my girlfriend started to cry...and then others gathered to see what was going on. Their mouths dropped open when they saw what was on the paper. I could hear: poor sandy...omg.....and 'ahhh's' and '&#E$^*&^*'..........I threw it in the garbage can. I should have burned it. But I wasn't thinking.
I suddenly became very afraid to go home....I felt that this was a warning of something really bad. But I had to go home...my kids were there, waiting for me. I gave my girlfriend a ride home and we talked about it all the way....we were both crying like babies...both scared to death of what happened and not knowing what the significance of it was.
I will tell you that when I got home, my husband (not anymore) was there...got home early. I was so scared to walk into the house not knowing what I was going to find. But, my kids were in there and I had to go in.
What I found when I got inside was.....well, I am not going to get into detail...but it changed my life and  my kids lives forever. It was a scene that I nearly could have killed someone and not cared at the consequences of.....it was everything that confirmed my worst fears of coming home too.
I should have burned that picture.
Yes, I believe that there are darker forces out there that are ready to do their deeds at the moment that opportunity opens up.

One other thing. Your soul is a huge thing. I doubt that another being could take over the entirety of it. Perhaps a being could try to take control of your body, or influence your mind. But I don't see how they could take over your soul.