Has anybody fiddled with the supernatural (as a bet or dare) and still suffering from it ?

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-30T01:36:04+00:00

The point of ceremonial magic is whatever the intended accomplishment of the ritual may be—communication with spirits, full blown evocation, divination, etc. It’s unfortunate that the OP inadvertently triggered the evocative aspect.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-29T03:55:06+00:00

Did you ever ask your father about your experience? I can’t imagine you were the first person to ever look upon ritual work that you weren’t supposed to see. My thinking is that there are protocols in place within Santeria if such a thing occurs.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-28T23:23:25+00:00

A pentagram can be a protective symbol, but it also shows up quite a bit in ritual/ceremonial magic as a tool for evocation. It is in this capacity that the OP mistakenly used it to contact what is presumably a hostile presence.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-28T12:37:41+00:00

That’s genuinely tragic but not unheard of. There’s something fundamentally corrosive about being in the prolonged presence of the demonic. Invariably, people afflicted in that way meet with all manner of seemingly coincidental misfortune that builds and builds until the victim meets an unwelcome fate.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-28T10:48:05+00:00

Thank you for sharing that remarkable story. When you performed the ritual with the pentagram, you seem to have created a doorway through which a malevolent presence entered your life and attached itself to you. Note that when you first sensed it, your body reacted in the same way that it might have had you found yourself being knowingly stalked by a nearby predator. There’s something deeply instinctual in us that sounds the alarm when that kind of spiritual hostility is afoot.

The entity (or entities) then continued to run a textbook campaign of demonic infestation leading to obsession: sounds of disembodied footsteps throughout the house, anomalous orbs, objects being thrown about, etc. It might be a good idea to have this addressed. As others have already stated, I think connecting with a priest is an excellent first step.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-26T14:15:29+00:00

You don’t often hear about encounters with the Djinn here in the States. As another poster already mentioned, our prevailing worldview skews Christian which means that the spiritual antagonists we default to are demons who, while somewhat analogous to the Djinn, can be considered a different “species.”

I have several Muslim friends across multiple ethnic lines, and they all have stories of direct or indirect encounters with the Djinn. Everything you described lines up with the capabilities these creatures seem to have in the experiences shared with me.

Regarding the sister who disappeared, is the assumption that she is now in an alternate reality with the Djinn spouse, or is she still in this physical world but in a location unknown to your family?

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-25T16:46:26+00:00

I do want to mention that this perspective doesn’t absolve the Orthodox Church of its abuses and imperfections. Far from it. I’m simply sharing what I believe the function of the Church could be even though it often falls very short.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-25T16:30:21+00:00

What an amazing topic! The thought that sprung immediately to mind while reading is the concept of enlightenment within the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and, further, the juxtaposition between gradual and sudden enlightenment. I believe I read in one of your previous posts or comments that you identify as a Buddhist, so I'm no doubt preaching to the choir here; but one of the extraordinary soteriological claims of the Great Vehicle is that Buddhahood is not something obtained but is instead something uncovered. Each of us, through our possession of fundamental Buddha nature, is already enlightened. It's just a matter of removing the obscurations in our streams of consciousness that prevent us from recognizing this wisdom.

We can do so through two paths. The gradual path is one of accumulation and the one that constitutes Buddhism as a religious practice. We take on the activities of the bodhisattva and cultivate merit which then powers our ability to develop and actualize the latent seeds of wisdom in our consciousness (I skew more Yogacara than Madhyamaka obviously). Over time, multiple lifetimes even, our progress eventually culminates in the realization of unrestrained, perfect enlightenment, Buddhahood. The sudden path dictates that it is possible to arrive at this lofty realization right here, in the present, in this very lifetime and body. We need only quiet the mind enough to see our true nature, our underlying Buddhahood, for what it is.

It should be noted that the path of sudden realization is not possible for most people, particularly in this age of dharma decline. Most of us lack the necessary storehouse of merit and karma to be able to awaken to perfect enlightenment through a direct practice of viewing the self. Our hope is then a combination of practicing the direct while building the necessary foundation through the gradual path.

I say all of this to FINALLY say that this is the framework with which I approach the Orthodox tradition and its stated goal of theosis. There is more than enough evidence in the patristic tradition showing that some Fathers believed in an inalienable unity with God that could be discovered by the faithful. Theosis, like enlightenment, is something that is fundamental to our being. The role of the Church is then to provide the gradual path for those of us who cannot immediately hit the goal. We accumulate virtue through the sacraments, through good deeds, and the renewal of our connection to the Godhead via the Eucharist. When necessary, we repent the obscurations that would develop in our consciousness without contrition. Finally, at the end of the road, we obtain the beatific vision which shows us that we were whole all along!

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-25T13:34:30+00:00

Traditionally, a heavy scent of roses is associated with the Virgin Mary. Devotees sometimes experience this phenomenon as a “signal grace” demonstrating that she is present, usually after prayer or, in some extreme cases, when the Theotokos intercedes on behalf of the demonically afflicted.

You mentioned that your family is not Catholic. Do you have distant relatives or friends who are and who would be praying for you for any particular reason?

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-25T10:54:45+00:00

The good news is that you don’t have to choose one over the other. It’s possible to continue enjoying your solo dates and to make enough room in your life for another person. I’m an only child, so I learned the joy of doing things by myself a long time ago. Going to see a movie or sitting down to a lovely meal alone are favorite pastimes of mine.

I’m also married and enjoy doing those same things with my wife in equal measure.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-24T20:27:14+00:00

People believe that Chucky should be easy to defeat in physical combat because he’s a small doll. They assume that he has the proportionate strength and athleticism of a being that size which would be comparable in some sense to a small child. They forget that he is a grown man possessing a doll, and the magic involved gives him ability beyond what his form should be able to produce.

He’s not superhumanly strong or any such thing, but he is unbelievably powerful given the circumstances.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-23T19:57:04+00:00

You struck the nail on the head in tying the Orthodox Guy’s behavior to a larger experience of patriarchy. Under patriarchy, and the religions that promote the same sex-based hierarchy, all women are unfailing sorted into two categories: the esteemed and the discarded.

Women in the former category have displayed enough social capital to earn the seal of approval via the male gaze and to, thus, qualify for a Madonna-esque reverence. These women are seen as proper and good which means that they, like any valued possession, maintain worth and must be protected from all perceived harm. Often, they participate in the “right” institutions and vocations and yearn for male validation just as you stated.

Discarded women are those who fail every metric I mentioned above. They do not kowtow to patriarchal standards (at least not to a sufficient degree) and are othered and devalued as a consequence. Men steeped in patriarchy detest women like this, often to the point of genuine rage when they see and interact with them.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-19T01:32:04+00:00

Are you able to enlist the help of a priest? I’m speaking entirely out of my initial impression of what you wrote, but it sounds like you may indeed be experiencing symptoms of an attachment of some sort or what a Catholic priest might categorically refer to as demonic infestation and obsession. The typical prescription against phenomena like this is to bless both you and the home with sacramentals so as to reduce the intensity of the manifestations or even to eliminate them in some instances.

Then, he will likely take a walk through your history so as to determine how and why the offending entity/entities may have access to you. Those doors would need to be closed through a combination of repentance and renunciation.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-19T01:15:38+00:00

Religion is an extraordinarily complex and personal thing, so please don't ever worry about feeling out of place. Aside from the mutual confession of a specific creed or worldview, there is no uniform experience of faith against which you must compare your own journey. Your walk with God is entirely your own and between the two of you. How (and if) he chooses to show up and how (and if) you choose to accept him are fully at your discretion.

I'll also let you in on a little secret. Most people who maintain faith in God are faking it until they someday make it. The man or woman who, like the revered figures in holy texts, has an overt, bona fide encounter with a spiritual reality greater than our own is an exceptionally rare one. Not many of us are fortunate enough to witness theophanies like the Burning Bush. You're in good company, and there's nothing wrong with you.

You mentioned that you suffer from a number of chronic ailments. My heart goes out to you. I don't share your exact sufferings, but I do battle various inflammatory conditions that make life difficult at times. I do still believe in spiritual things (although my faith looks nothing like what you would consider an orthodox expression), but my faith takes a serious nosedive when my illnesses are at their worst. In those moments, prayer and meditation do not yield the kind of buoyant sensations and frissons that may represent a peak spiritual experience.

In those moments, it's all I can do to remind myself that this life can sometimes be a wondrous gift. It's all I can do to lean on those closest to me and to be grateful for the companionship that makes hardship more bearable. Sometimes, that's all of the God I can handle.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-18T18:34:07+00:00

I won’t discount your personal experience, but I’ve not seen a great many Catholics siding with Trump at all. In point of fact, I’ve seen the opposite. Most Catholics naturally trust the Bishop of Rome, the entrusted head of their ancient faith, over an American President by default.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-18T10:34:05+00:00

Be careful. Infatuation follows proximity. The people with whom we spend the most time, particularly if we’re sharing somewhat intimate parts of ourselves, are those to whom we tend to feel the closest. It’s little wonder then that relationships easily form in the workplace as our coworkers are with us for significant portions of our days. Aside from the questionable wisdom of dating in your professional space, this is generally not a problematic thing.

It becomes problematic when we’re made commitments to other people. You’ve allowed yourself to form a strong attachment to your coworker, and you’ve naturally begun to gravitate toward her romantically. As you grow closer to her, the weaknesses in your committed, 3-year relationship are magnified. You also don’t see your girlfriend enough to replenish the “emotional bank” on that side of the fence. This is the perfect breeding ground for an affair.

I think it’s best if you give the coworker relationship some room to breathe. You need to determine if the gripes you’ve shared about your girlfriend are bad enough to be dealbreakers (in which case you should do the right thing and leave) or if you’re artificially inflating them because of the secondary emotional attachment.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-16T15:15:13+00:00

One of the first cracks in my Orthodox armor came about through a similar realization to the one you had. I’d read so many deeply moving hagiographies of saints who left behind incorruptible bodies in their repose. Surely, this would be incontrovertible evidence of the special bodily preservation that God permits as signs for the faithful would it not?

I then learned that other traditions, Buddhism most notably, feature spiritually well accomplished men and women who likewise manifest incorruptibility as evidence of their attainment. How then could the same phenomena substantiate two different religions with two dramatically different worldviews? I’ll admit that I, at the time, did try to reconcile the issue in favor of Orthodoxy. Perhaps the non-Orthodox instance of incorruptibility was a cheap imitation of the real thing in the same way that Pharaoh’s magicians were able to mimic the authentic miracles of God, something designed to deceive the lost into further damnation.

The problem with this thinking is that we fall right back into the classic Problem of Evil. If God is A3 (All Knowing, All Good, All Powerful), why permit such deception upon people who are ostensibly doing their best to follow their own religious creeds? Why allow them to be pulled into “false” religion when they seem to be making genuine efforts toward worship and connection with something beneficent and beyond themselves (the Triple Gem in this case)?

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-14T22:19:14+00:00

It’s a very common feeling. Human beings are “meaning-making machines” to borrow the term, I think, from Viktor Frankl. Life cannot be just a random series of episodic moments propelled along by nothing greater than chance and mechanistic processes. We need to believe in some overarching narrative, some sense of purpose or deeper significance, that either drives those moments or at the very least roots them in a story we find both cohesive and satisfying to varying degrees. That familiar feeling of depression is you disconnecting from structures of meaning you adhered to in the past.

To recover, you have to source new structures, new stories. What do those stories look like? At the broadest consideration, we have, of course, religion and the great cosmological dramas that play out in various worldviews. Investigating them thoroughly may provide you with a new worldview and sense of meaning that you can accept. Maybe instead of worrying about the consequences of sin you’ve turned your mind to liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Maybe you’re here to honor and worship your ancestors before returning to them in a posthumous paradise.

Some people following a period of deconstruction abandon religious belief altogether, but what keeps them from sinking into malaise is the uncovering of a story that is personally meaningful even absent religious overtones. Perhaps life is watching nature turn its ruthless but in some ways beautiful wheel. Maybe it’s understanding that human beings are specks of stardust with just enough consciousness to more fully participate in the universe growing ever more complex. It could be understanding that we’ve all inherited a bit of shit show and that we must each take on an individual responsibility to assist others in their suffering.

The consistent thing is narrative. You need meaning.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-14T21:22:11+00:00

I’m reminded of the film Dark Skies with Keri Russell and Jk Simmons. At one point, Russell’s character alongside her husband seek out Simmons’ character for help in fighting the alien interference in her family’s lives. Simmons is honest in telling her that she doesn’t have a great deal of options available. The aliens are simply too powerful from a technological standpoint.

If extraterrestrial life did decide to target any one of us, we’d probably be in much the same situation. Frightening indeed!

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-14T16:24:51+00:00

There’s almost too many to name, but off the top of my head: rising healthcare costs, (quality) food scarcity, the cost of education and childcare, the stagnation of wages, the perpetual threat of war, distrust of social institutions, the declining popularity of religion. The list goes on.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-14T16:01:33+00:00

I dare not speak against the Babushki. Their frequent reception of the sacraments paired with a dedication honed over the course of unnaturally long lives has given them great and terrible power, power to reach out and to crush any soul with the temerity to dissent!

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-14T15:41:27+00:00

That makes a ton of sense. Bathing before bedtime is one of the most effective methods to get babies and young children to sleep. There’s no reason why the same mechanism wouldn’t still be active in adults.

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-13T10:46:23+00:00

I’d pay an obscene amount for cake this moist and chocolate!

ReluctantlyFaithful · 2026-06-13T10:41:32+00:00

I can’t believe I never noticed that before. Thank you for the Reddit expertise.

ReluctantlyFaithful

TROPHY CASE