The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed & Lorraine Warren

The last spooky book for October is The Demonologist: The Extraordinary Career of Ed & Lorraine Warren by Gerald Brittle.  

I don't remember how this book hit my radar, it was probably an Amazon recommendation, but demons are scary, and it's October, so it hit my reading list for the month. Ed and Lorraine Warren were pioneering paranormal investigators. They were both born in the 1920's, Ed on Sept 7, 1926, and Lorraine on January 31, 1927, and grew up very near each other. They married right out of high school and he went into the US Navy, serving during World War II. When he returned, they launched this very unusual career of paranormal investigators. Ed was the only civilian who was authorized to perform a catholic exorcism, and Lorraine was a natural clairvoyant.   

They actually got their start though, through art. They would find houses that were allegedly haunted and paint the house then offer the painting for sale and listen to the stories of those who lived in the haunted house. This led them down the path of investigator. Ghosts led to demons, which lead to the entire premise of this book, which is faith. Faith in God practically necessitates belief in the demonic, and vice versa.  

 So here is what I learned from this book. First off, evil has to be invited in. This, incidentally, contributes to the belief that vampires can't enter a house uninvited. Evil has to be invited in. The most common invitation presented was through Ouija boards, or automatic writing. Once the door has been opened, demons can enter a house and begin the first phase: infestation. 

 When infestation occurs, it usually starts small. Little things you kind of shrug off as nothing, like a glitch in the matrix. The phone might ring in an odd way, for example instead of ringing as usual, it might be one long drawn-out ring and when you answer, you might hear nothing, or animal growls. You might hear footsteps at night or pounding on walls.   

What was interesting was the chapter on infestation, the Warren's allowed for witchcraft, specifically white witchcraft or Wicca, as a benign occurrence, working with nature to effect positive change. But opening that door through Ouija board or active conjuring, was clearly black witchcraft, which the Warrens believed was on the rise through the 60s and 70s. Coincidentally...or perhaps not.... this is the time Aleister Crowley was seeing his resurrection as a cultural icon. Weird, right?  

Ultimately, infestation is typically written off as proof a house is haunted. And sometimes, that's all it is. Just a haunting. In which case, infestation is where it stops. But if it's not a ghost, if it's something more sinister, then infestation quickly yields to oppression. 

 Oppression occurs when the spirits or demons in the house are trying to take over the people in the house. Oppression’s sole goal is to wear down the freewill of the person. This is done primarily by amping up the hostility. Furniture may be thrown, physical assaults might occur, horrible smells might permeate a room. These activities occur all hours of the day and night, causing sleep disruption. If you've ever had three or four days of sleep deprivation, then you know how awful that is.  

 Finally, as one’s willpower begins to break down, possession might occur. This is where you get the stories like The Exorcist, the bodies levitating, speaking in tongues, the noxious vomiting. Typically, the Warrens would call in the church to assist with an exorcism during the oppression stage, since it's much harder to expel a spirit from a human.   

This book chronicles several of their most well-known cases that they were called in to consult on, including Annabelle and Amityville. Annabelle was the possessed doll which I think currently lives in a museum in a glass box marked Do Not Open, additional details of Annabelle were in I believe The World of Lore: Monstrous Creatures. And Amityville captured the world based on the Lutz family’s telling of what happened in the DeFeo house and became a series of movies. The Warren's were called in to Amityville AFTER the Lutz's jumped ship and they believe something definitely happened, Lorraine felt the terror, and the press who was there reported that, regardless of what if anything occurred, the family had clearly fled in absolute terror as the property had clearly been abandoned.  

And of course, information from the Warren's case files sparked an entire series of movies in 2013 starting with The Conjuring, starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are called in to assist the Perron family with their haunted house. The Perron case file was NOT included in The Demonologist.  

Typically, when the Warrens would arrive at a location, Ed would sit down with the family and get the story, while Lorraine would walk the property, trying to determine if the house was haunted. And typically, Ed would take Lorraine's word for it over the residents. Because hey...everyone has imagination. Hell, while I was reading this book, the hotel I was staying in had a power outage and I about jumped out of my skin and stopped reading for the night. I think I watched episodes of Dahmer I had downloaded to my phone for the flight out...because Dahmer is less scary than demons.   

The story kind of runs through several territories, covering hauntings, demons, witchcraft, and sorcery. And faith. The only way to counteract darkness is faith in the light. And that's the advice they give on inoculating yourself against possible evil spirits. Keep up a positive attitude. Faith in God. It was interesting that those who experience these phenomena are at least nominally Christian. They may not be the best of Christians, but most of them were, to some degree, of that faith. Which makes sense. If Demons are not a part of your mythology, they’re not likely to impact you as heavily. Not to say it can't, but my protections are not going to be the same as those recommended by Ed and Lorraine Warren.   

This book made me uneasy, because even though I'm not Christian, I do believe in the things that go bump in the night. Even being not Christian, I found that I did not want the book in the room with me at night. So, thanks to my day job for springing for the two room suite.  

Yesterday when I was getting ready to go do touristy Minnesota things, I noticed the car parked next to mine had a rosary hanging from the rear view mirror, and I ALMOST checked the doors so I could leave the book on the passenger seat. Then I thought "That's not nice Loki. Funny, but not nice." and went about my day. I did NOT leave the book in their car...obviously.

This book was originally reviewed on YouTube on October 23, 2022, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.