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Q: A new book is out called "Embraced by the Light," and it's about a near-death experience that a lady had some years ago. One of the events she wrote about was that after her near-death experience, she was pursued by demons or what appeared to be Satan. And I'm wondering whether Satan as a personality exists, or is he more of a symbolic kind of evil that may reside within each one of us?
M: Yes and no. Yes, we have both negative and positive power; that we all know. But the devils are sometimes inside of us and also outside. They come from other people as well. But if the positive side of us is very strong, our negative power is subdued; that's first. Secondly, other people's negative power that has surrounded us or has been aimed against us also has to give way.
That's the point of practicing being in God's Presence and meditating every day: to develop the positive side of our qualities. So when that lady saw these kinds of so-called demons, she actually saw them because they're also all over the place. We just don't see them because our positive power is strong. If somehow we wade a little bit into the negative side or if we want to peep into the negative region, then we might see them.
As for the negative forces, I have to explain to you where they come from. I can use the Buddhist scriptures and explain it scientifically. Now, in one of the very famous Buddhist scriptures, the Lankavatara Sutra, the Buddha says that human beings can create all kinds of demons through their behavior or way of living. For example, eating meat or being aggressive or hateful becomes a kind of energy, and then slowly it will form this kind of dark force. And then it can even appear as any form, like energy that can appear as form sometimes.
For example, with electro-magnetic energy, sometimes you just push some buttons and forms appear on the screen. You can create a cartoon out of nothing, out of just electricity or electromagnetic energy. Sometimes we can create a force, with form or without form. Similarly, these kinds of evil forces can appear in a form because they're also energy. They can be charged and then they can be formed, and they appear like devils or demons, with very distorted figures because they're negative power, so they can't be very beautiful. And therefore people can sometimes see them.
So we humans also create them, but these things aren't real. In a way, they're illusionary, just like the angels. They appear to have form, but they're not real. They're not eternal; they can be destroyed; they can be chased away; they can be multiplied; they can be minimized. They're not real forms. They're not eternal. They don't have the God quality within them.
People sometimes can train themselves to see devils, just like we can train ourselves to see God. Therefore some of the voodoo people, or the so-called witchcraft people train themselves to deal with demons, to subdue them or use them for some purpose. That's possible. You can even make them; it's been proven that we can make things happen. They can be formed through the energies.
Now, if you read a book called Magic and Mystery in Tibet by Madame Alexandra David-Neel, it will tell you that in Tibet people can use their own power in the practice of concentration to make another being in whatever shape or whatever appearance they want. You can make a monk appear; you can make a common person, or you can make a beautiful girl. These are the methods that Heaven uses to create angels. And these are the methods we use, sometimes purposely or unintentionally through our deeds and thoughts, to create demons.
She herself, Madam Alexandra, made a monk, just to try it through that method. So she made one. But afterwards, he got out of control. He actually appeared in the form of a monk. And she said that at first she made a very jolly one, a happy, fat old monk, the easygoing type. But later, as he developed, he got out of her power and got out of hand. He became thinner and more mischievous and more aggressive. So she eventually had to destroy him, using all her might. Because once you create something, it's difficult to destroy it if you don't have that power. But these things aren't far-fetched fairy tales. People nowadays still can do it.
A Multitude of Angels: Guardian Gods and Goddesses
