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A question for you regarding demon possession/demon influence.

Just as there are many, many, many different animals in the zoo,....and many of those animals have completely different natures or extrememly discernible differences and levels of comportment,...what criterion is best used in discerning demon possession/influence other than behavior inconsistent with the personality of the subject?

Considering demons have been around for millenia and some have been attributed has possessing knowledge and intellect far greater than ours and have also been described as malevolent deceivers, I suspect a gamut of possessions might occur where even believers might not recognize the deception of the less flamboyant or violent possessions.

The soul may also be distinguished from the spirit. The soul containing the mind and the 'heart'. It has also been described as the battlefield between the Holy Spirit and temptation. When the soul is controlled by the Holy Spirit, it is victorious over sin. When we choose any thought other than the will of God, we quench the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit continues to dwell within us and when we choose to remian in fellowship, His inculcation of spiritual things within us through the soul continues to sanctify our spirit in our stream of consciousness after initial faith in God through Christ alone by faith alone.

It might also be noted that this never happened to humans prior to the First Advent of Jesus Christ and is descriptive of this now mysterious Church Age.

Whereever it is possible for demon influence to occur or even possession, there may be tremendous desire in the world of the fallen angels to prohibit men from becoming more cognizant of this spiritual gift and power now available to man form God. Any number of very convncing deceptions may arise including many that may present extremely good and non-evil states, but still independent from God and His system established for man in eternity past.

Isn't it rather revealing how purported 'Ascended Masters' will provide so much 'good' information, yet when the words of Jesus Christ are considered, they are frequently twisted, denied or demeaned as less consequential by those same persons. Such instances reveal a lack of holiness and tip the hand of deception.

Without doubting the vercity of the post, I can understand how a child might exhibit memory in his mentality of another life, but identifying that memory with reincarnation is IMHO, a hasty generalization shown to be false in Scripture.

Have you seen any similar studies wherein one is led to believe in parallel universes?

Well, I can think of a much better criteria to describe it.

You ask "what criterion is best used in discerning demon possession/influence other than behavior inconsistent with the personality of the subject?" Too me, that definition is over-inclusive.

We all exhibit, at times, behavior inconsistent with our personalities. For example, someone who is a basically honest person may make a dishonest decision in a given circumstance, and genuinely later regret it. Someone who is not a theif may steal. Someone who is not prone to deceit may lie.

A person may have chemical problems with the brain, or have experienced a trauma that has caused what is commonly known as split personalities (though in fact these too are very rare).

None of those examples describe demonic possession, which I would describe in the broadest sense as the seizing of control of a person's decision making process by a sentient spiritual entity. The control can be relatively brief, or it can be extended, I suppose.

Small lapses in judgment (which all humans have done) in my opinion are not he result of a brief taking over of control of the decisionmaking process by an alien (and I mean literally 'alien,' not in the colloquial sense) presence. 'The devil made me do it,' is generally speaking just not a very useful mindset to evaluate moral lapses.

I agree with you that genuine demonic possession may be subtle and even the host may be unaware of it.

Your spirit-soul discussion is nice, and I don't disagree with it, but I don't think that covers every, most, or even a few, moral lapses that occur in a lifetime. People have the choice to do right or wrong - I think most people chose right most of the time, but not always. The responsibility in the overwhelming set of circumstances is ours.

To think anything otherwise isn't very useful.

I do think that possession as a phenomenon did occur before Jesus's time, though almost certainly it was overdiagnosed - yes, there were some genuine cases most likely but the overwhelming majority of possessions back then were probably misdiagnosed mental conditions. No more, no less.

As for your analysis on fallen angels and their possible machinations, I agree, it's all possible. I don't categorically rule any of that out and in fact do believe that drama does indeed play out on a spiritual level.

As for your final point, we are in agreement. "I can understand how a child might exhibit memory in his mentality of another life, but identifying that memory with reincarnation is IMHO, a hasty generalization." I think there are more reasonable and likely explanations for this phenomenon (including deceit by the parents, for example), but memories of a past life, even in great detail, in itself is not evidence of reincarnation, which I don't think is a real phenomenon.

The idea of the collective unconsious and/or race memory better explain memories like that. When confronted with these situations, and when I am convinced they are genuine, I go with a less controversial analysis. As controversial as concepts like race memory/collective unconsicous are, they are less controversial, to me anyway, than examples of genuine demonic possession.

As for paralell universes, I am not well schooled in that. I believe that they exist in the broadest sense - different dimensions alongside our dimension where the world of spirits, demons, devils, ghosts, etc may inhabit. As for the 'infinite number of HitmanNY's living out an infininte set of lives' idea, I just don't know enough about it, but instinctively, it doesn't appeal to me.