Demons and Self Love
I am on a paranormal message board. On this board there are a lot of questions about demons, evil spirits, and demonic possession. The background of this next cut and paste, someone had posted they felt they were being influenced by a demonic force. After I did my, "Well how do you really know? What details are being left out that absolutely explains you're not just having a bad life moment and it really is a demonic influence?" questioning, someone else, a third party, responded. They claim to be very well versed in the Bible and can cite scripture in the blink of an eye. He did, I just did not really feel he practiced as much as he preached based on several posts and theattitude ith which he spoke. He is *always* right, even when he really isn't, if you know what I mean. The following is a quote that basically boils down to "love of the self is the start down the road to turning in to a demon." Well, we all know how well I am able to keep my mouth shut, right? Yeah... There's more than just this quote but these are his own words. I don't want to disclose the whole post or the identity of where/who it came from.
The quote that made me go Hmmmmmmmm:
"Add to that the simple fact the the nature of love is the pouring out of one's-self, the reality is that nearly everyone I've ever met has been in the process of pouring themselves into themselves. And in it's most basic form, self-love is the essence of the demonic. So in the midst of a culture (both secular and religious) which encourages self-love, the presence of the demonic is strengthened for no other reason than the objects of the demonic desires are already quite similar to the nature of the demons themselves."
Ana's response:
I respectfully disagree with you regarding self love leading to humans being steps away from being demons. I believe people do not love themselves enough which leads to much evil. Most religions believe we are made by God, the Goddess, Higher Power, fill in the blank Divine Force here. Most religions teach us we were made as a part of that Divine Force and we should recognize and celebrate the Divine within. However, most do not recognize the Divine Force within and outwardly go through the motions with the appearance of spirituality. If we do not recognize the Divine within, we dishonor that Who has made us for we were made to be a part of that Divine Force and Power. And in so doing, we lose the very thing which connects us to the Divine.
How can we love others and accept others, truly, if we do not even love and accept ourselves. True Divine love comes from unconditional acceptance. The ability to look in to the ugly mirror of our souls and love all of us, not just the good pieces... Do not misread that I feel we should let the bad pieces run ragged, control and tact need to be exercised. But it is about being whole. Embracing and working with the whole that is us. And in being whole, we have every piece the Divine gave us. As whole, self-accepted people, we understand our good and our bad, as well as how to control it. We can then look at others, be they beautiful or ugly in actions and traits and love them regardless without judgment and conditions. And we can also see ourselves in them and our connections to them and others. We are all of the same Divine Force and seeing that in each other begins with recognizing it in ourselves. That is the true love. That is the love I have found taught and theorized in most religions I have encountered. But it is not the love that actually manifests a good portion of time.
Mr. Unidentified responded (more than this but again, snipit):
"True Divine Love comes from unconditional sacrifice - the love that empties itself without expecting anything in return. There is no room at all for talking about how this ties into the love of the self. By emptying ourselves into ourselves we accomplish nothing more than neutering our own ability to ever truly sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the other. The out-pouring of life is love, the inward-turn of affection is evil."
Ana responded:
I still disagree. This type of self love turning on itself is not an unconditional true love and therefore IMO, does not qualify as the type of love I was discussing. A consuming selfish love is not really love, it is a perversion of love and is something all together entirely different, but "love" is not the word. Self-aggrandizement seems more accurate.
I believe we understand each other and the concepts we are each trying to relay, I just don't like your choice of words because I feel some of the terminology is being used in an incorrect context. My humble and respectful opinion...
End of quotes...
**Side note - This exchange led to one of the moderators starting a thread of definitions of words that people were throwing around and using out of context in an effort to remind people to be fully aware of a word's true meaning should you decide to utilize it. Hehehehehehe!
The quote that made me go Hmmmmmmmm:
"Add to that the simple fact the the nature of love is the pouring out of one's-self, the reality is that nearly everyone I've ever met has been in the process of pouring themselves into themselves. And in it's most basic form, self-love is the essence of the demonic. So in the midst of a culture (both secular and religious) which encourages self-love, the presence of the demonic is strengthened for no other reason than the objects of the demonic desires are already quite similar to the nature of the demons themselves."
Ana's response:
I respectfully disagree with you regarding self love leading to humans being steps away from being demons. I believe people do not love themselves enough which leads to much evil. Most religions believe we are made by God, the Goddess, Higher Power, fill in the blank Divine Force here. Most religions teach us we were made as a part of that Divine Force and we should recognize and celebrate the Divine within. However, most do not recognize the Divine Force within and outwardly go through the motions with the appearance of spirituality. If we do not recognize the Divine within, we dishonor that Who has made us for we were made to be a part of that Divine Force and Power. And in so doing, we lose the very thing which connects us to the Divine.
How can we love others and accept others, truly, if we do not even love and accept ourselves. True Divine love comes from unconditional acceptance. The ability to look in to the ugly mirror of our souls and love all of us, not just the good pieces... Do not misread that I feel we should let the bad pieces run ragged, control and tact need to be exercised. But it is about being whole. Embracing and working with the whole that is us. And in being whole, we have every piece the Divine gave us. As whole, self-accepted people, we understand our good and our bad, as well as how to control it. We can then look at others, be they beautiful or ugly in actions and traits and love them regardless without judgment and conditions. And we can also see ourselves in them and our connections to them and others. We are all of the same Divine Force and seeing that in each other begins with recognizing it in ourselves. That is the true love. That is the love I have found taught and theorized in most religions I have encountered. But it is not the love that actually manifests a good portion of time.
Mr. Unidentified responded (more than this but again, snipit):
"True Divine Love comes from unconditional sacrifice - the love that empties itself without expecting anything in return. There is no room at all for talking about how this ties into the love of the self. By emptying ourselves into ourselves we accomplish nothing more than neutering our own ability to ever truly sacrifice ourselves for the sake of the other. The out-pouring of life is love, the inward-turn of affection is evil."
Ana responded:
I still disagree. This type of self love turning on itself is not an unconditional true love and therefore IMO, does not qualify as the type of love I was discussing. A consuming selfish love is not really love, it is a perversion of love and is something all together entirely different, but "love" is not the word. Self-aggrandizement seems more accurate.
I believe we understand each other and the concepts we are each trying to relay, I just don't like your choice of words because I feel some of the terminology is being used in an incorrect context. My humble and respectful opinion...
End of quotes...
**Side note - This exchange led to one of the moderators starting a thread of definitions of words that people were throwing around and using out of context in an effort to remind people to be fully aware of a word's true meaning should you decide to utilize it. Hehehehehehe!