Nightmares, Demons, and The Power of Sight

No darkness can conquer a man with no fear.

I wake up in a cold sweat after hearing a child’s laughter near my bed. It was faint at first, and impossible to know where it came from. More akin to an echo than a real, human voice. My room is pitch dark when I open my eyes, but I can feel a faint presence somewhere to my left. The child’s laughter becomes clearer, and I recognize its tone.

With a sigh of relief, I recognize the sound of Elian’s voice. He’s the 5-year old son of a couple of old friends of ours, who lived in our house with us for 6 months. But that was a year ago, and there’s no reason why he should be here. Maybe they are visiting us and for some reason he came into my room while his parents got distracted.

But the door to my room is closed. The room is pitch black. It makes no sense. He shouldn’t be here, alone, at midnight, without his parents. Something is terribly wrong. He’s laughing maniacally and coming closer and closer to my bed, and I’m still trying to wake up properly, because all of this is happening in a matter of seconds.

I try to talk to him and ask him why he’s there, but my throat is too dry and I can’t get the words out. My heart starts pumping faster and faster with the intuitive realization of danger when it becomes evident something evil is involved in this.

Elian’s face is now right next to my own and he shows a demonic grin, while slowly grabbing the bedsheets, and spinning into them, wrapping himself with them, which somehow starts to make them tighter around my body. Again I try screaming but no sounds come out. The sheets are wrapping themselves tighter and tighter against my body and I feel an unbearable pressure on my chest, keeping me paralyzed.

My heart’s racing now, and throughout it all, Elian keeps laughing. It is no longer the innocent voice of a child but the clear and evil laughter of something dark. All I can move are my eyes, and I look to see a white-faced demon sitting on top of me, looking straight at me, and smiling too.

At this point I am completely terrified. I cannot move an inch, the bedsheets are asphyxiating me, and Elian keeps spinning, making them even tighter. I also can’t call for help. I have no idea what will happen but I can feel a clear sense of ultimate danger if I don’t manage to escape this paralysis.

I call mentally upon Jesus Christ, and banish the demon in His name. Somehow, at what feels like the very last second, my body enters a final fight or flight response, and I am gifted enough movement to swing hard at the demon on top of me, and what now I know for sure isn’t Elian. I throw one punch with all my might, but my fist finds nothing to hit, and I’m sitting upright in the bed at the farm I’m staying at with my family.

My family sleep peacefully, unaware of the the fight I just had. My heart’s pounding harder than ever, and I am completely in shock. It was real a second ago, and now I’m back in the real world, wide awake but still scared.

“Begone demon, in the name of Jesus Christ”, I repeat over and over, until I get my breath under control and my heart’s rhythm goes back to normal. I manage to slowly sleep again, until this very morning.

When I woke up, the memory of the dream was still vivid on my mind, and I remember everything perfectly. It was too intense to forget, and I also remember, last night, when trying to go back to sleep, I realized for a brief second an important truth of life that motivated me to write this post.

Two truths, rather.

The first one is that demons can only grip you if you fear them. Your demons are cowardly creatures. They gain power over you only because you’re afraid of them. You run away from them and they chase you. You crie out for help and they silence your screams.

In the dream, which was way more than a simple, irrelevant dream, I was a victim of this evil, and the only thing that released me from its grip was having the courage to look at it directly and confront it.

Demons are cowards that vanish as soon as you muster the bravery to look at them directly in the eyes and fight them head on. As soon as I looked at it, and swung at it, it was gone. I was released from its grip only when I decided to stop screaming, running away, and decided to confront it.

This is the power of sight: you have to be willing to see before you can fight. You have to open your eyes to the scary reality so you can face it as you need.

Only after having the courage to shine light on your fears and confronting them directly will they show themselves as the cowardly creatures they are and run away from you like rats away from a fire.

The second truth is simply that when your own strength falters, you can count on the infinite strength of God to come save you. All your demons, all your temptations, all the things that you fight against are nothing in comparison to the power Jesus Christ. All devils fear Him. All your temptations and sins you can conquer, not through your own strength, but through His when yours is not enough.

You too can banish all kinds of demons in the name of Christ in this way. Darkness will never win in a world where Christ is king. And He will give you the strength needed to fight the same darkness, if you’re open and willing to receive it.