Late last week I visited a family that lives an hour and a half from my hermitage. The wife of the family has been my friend for 20 years. The husband has been my friend for about 10 years. They have six children. After a nice dinner of street tacos, they asked me for blessings with St. Charbel oil that I keep in my car, confessions for everyone, and a blessing of the home. Upstairs, three boys share a room and three girls share a room. The family loves outdoor sports and they seem afraid of nothing. That is why I was surprised at what happened next.
The oldest girl, who is 16 years old, (who we will call “Sarah”) insisted on the blessing because said strange things was happening in her room. She said that during the second week of August, she started feeling like something was watching her in that room belonging to her sisters and her. (She normally doesn’t talk like this.) She also stated that she was afraid of her room and she kept seeing things out of the corner of her eye. Her sister even claimed something grabbed her in bed.
So, I went through the home doing the blessing and even minor exorcisms as I dressed in surplice and purple stole above my hermit habit. I carried blessed oil and holy water. I had the husband sprinkle exorcised salt behind us as we said the Divine Praises. The strange thing is that I accidentally missed the bedroom of the girls, even though I have stayed at this home many times. Sarah said “Wait, you missed our bedroom” as I was turning down the hall upstairs. This was very unusual, as my blessings are normally meticulous to cover every closet. In fact, I did cover every closet, basement, garage and even back yard in this blessing. Something kept me from the girls’ bedroom. So, with the family in train, we all went into the sisters’ one bedroom and I blessed it. I also did some binding prayers.
Not long after that, I had to drive back to Denver, but we still had a lot to talk about. On my way back to Denver, I was talking to the two parents and their 16 year old daughter, again, who we’re calling “Sarah” here. (The parents and her gave me permission to share this account with my readers as long as we kept them anonymous.) Although we had several topics to tackle, I felt inclined a the very end of our hour-long conversation to find out who or what attacked this very holy family. (They pray the daily Rosary, go to Mass several times a week and often take night shifts at their local adoration chapel, so I don’t use the word “holy” lightly.) But they are also very fun and normal. So, I wasn’t too worried about the activity after blessing the home and doing binding prayers.
Still, right before hanging up while driving up I-25 at 10pm, I decided to go detective-sleuth style on this preternatural activity. I knew the best way to find this out would be to find out what changed in August of 2024 for Sarah and her sisters. She explained they had never read fantasy novels but had started a book called Wings of Fire by Tui T. Sutherland. It has dragons on the cover and features a plotline of dragons, too. The girls got the book from the library. Even though they are not allowed cell phones, they also added Wings of Fire to their Mom’s audible. Sarah told me on the phone that all of her brothers and sisters sat around the phone on the edge of their seats like they never had before, listening to this fantasy novel. Up to this point, the entire family had avoided fantasy novels, except Lord of the Rings.
I asked Sarah when the strange activity started in the bedroom of her and her sisters. She told me the second week of August. Notice again they started reading a fantasy novel the first week of August and the preternatural activity started the second week of August. I hadn’t visited this family in nearly 7 months, but I arrived the third week of August this 2024. Sarah is an extremely smart girl, so I didn’t have to preach to her on the phone. She immediately realized the fear in her room and the thing that grabbed her sister was directly linked to the fantasy novel they had began reading a week before these things. Sarah went and told her parents and they promptly started to empty the Audible of Wings of Fire and gathered the books to return to the library. (I am sure they would have burned them if they hadn’t belonged to the library.)
The next day I told a traditional exorcist friend of mine that we need to start boycotting not only Harry Potter, but also all fantasy novels. He agreed, saying there are now “Harry Potter copy-caters cashing in on the occult stuff.” He added on the topic of fantasy novels that parents should approach them all “automatically suspicious until proven otherwise.” I agree with him 100%. I know this family I visited is now equally vigilant.
God may care about our intentions in imputing good or evil to our moral acts, but demons do not. If fantasy novels carry curses, those curses spoken out loud will carry objective effects, even if the subjective state of the reader is quite innocent. If dragons carry demons’ names in a fantasy novel, then even an Audible app saying them out loud in a relatively innocuous plotline might be a portal to the occult, regardless of the intention of the listeners. This is especially dangerous for children.
Some people will read this article and scoff at it. Other families will close off all doors to preternatural activity by prohibiting fantasy novels for their children. I just want to encourage you to do one thing: Do a risk-benefit analysis on if I’m wrong, versus if I’m right.