The Demonologist Book Review

Written by Gerald Daniel Brittle

 

 How I got my hands on this book is a bit of a story-in-and-of-itself, but I’ll get to that.

This book explores the fascinating careers of Ed and Lorraine Warren up until 1980, when it was originally published.  You probably know their names in connection to The Conjuring and The Amityville Horror. This is because they are the people who were called in to help the oppressed families out of those terrifying situations.

Ed Warren was a Demonologist and Lorraine is a trance Medium. Together they have been called in, like real-life Ghostbusters, to free people from the influence of ghosts, demons, and devils.  This book begins by breaking down the differences between hauntings caused by ghosts and those caused by inhuman spirits (demons). It then progresses into some wild examples of hauntings and possessions that they have been  involved in. After recounting the details of some of their most difficult cases Ed really gets into the core of what “demonology” really is.

The story they tell of the Donovan Case coupled with some photos in the book, is particularly mind boggling. This family was harassed by inhuman spirits for months. Huge pieces of furniture would fly around the house, the water heaters repeatedly unscrewed their caps and flooded the basement, and things would light on fire and then fling themselves at the residents of the house. The family couldn’t even escape by leaving their home, because the spirits had attached themselves to the family members rather than the building. Really, this case put the Amityville Horror to shame.

This book is such a great resource, whether you are simply curious about the supernatural, a skeptic looking for proof or if you are actually delving into learning about parapsychology or demonology. There’s plenty of information packed into this 232 page book. I definitely recommend reading this one.

I will say, when reading this, keep an open mind. Many of the stories they tell seem too crazy to be real, but they are all true events. And they are apparently all backed up with hard evidence to prove that these happenings actually occurred, and the proof is in the Warren Museum records in Monroe, CT. They have everything from photos, to tape recordings, and signed accounts of the events from witnesses. And even if you can’t swallow the demons vs. God portion of the tales, you can at least appreciate it on the level of  the spine-chilling horror aspect.

 If you would like to purchase a copy of the book you can find it as an ebook or hardcopy on Amazon or Barnes and Noble

And you can read more about the Warrens and their museum on their website: www.warrens.net

Ok, So you made it to the story portion of how I got the book in the first place. Around when The Conjuring came out my husband and I got on this big research kick and found out that the Warrens were actually based out of Monroe Connecticut. So he got some tickets to the guided tour of the Warren Museum, which was lead by Lorraine Warren herself. I, unfortunately, was away working on a film at the time so I wasn’t able to join. Alexander, my husband, took tons of notes and pictures from the museum, and photographed many of the profane artifacts that are housed there, including some of the more infamous ones, such as Annabelle the possessed Raggedy Ann doll, and the black veil used in a wedding of a black witch with Satan.

 I’ll do a post later on with some of his pictures and his notes of the stories connected to the objects soon. with, hopefully, my own thoughts to add from our next visit 🙂

So, it was while on this tour that Alexander purchased a copy of The Demonogloist and he got it signed by Lorraine! I can’t help but geek out over signed copies of books. It makes me both want to read it until it falls to bits and never touch it so it stays perfectly preserved. My desire to devour knowledge thankfully overcame my desire to protect the book, and I’m looking forward to my next read-through of it.

also, here’s the review I did with Kristina: