Fri, Nov 16, 2012

by Denika Compton – in Bequia

Although the “strange behaviour” recently exhibited by some female students of the Bequia Community High School has been dismissed by some as a case of mass hysteria, three pastors, who were called in to pray for the students, say what they witnessed last week was “definitely demonic attacks.”{{more}}

The men of God are therefore sending the message that demons are real and advise that people guard themselves against such attacks.

Pastor Keith Graham of the Bequia Pentecostal Church, Reverend Daniel Bynoe of Apostolic Faith Church and Pastor George Scott of the New Testament Church, along with prayer warriors from different churches on Bequia, told SEARCHLIGHT that on entering the school premises last week, they felt the presence of the “evil forces”. The pastors say while they have dealt with “demonic possession” and attacks before, they have never dealt with one of this magnitude.

Last Wednesday, 13 students and one teacher of the school, all females, began screaming loudly, speaking in unusual tones of voice, pointing to the cemetery and saying they would like to go there.

According to a teacher who witnessed the strange behaviour, the attacks happened quickly, as if it were a chain reaction. She said that at one point, while praying for the students, they felt like giving up, but instead quickly called in the pastors and prayer warriors. She too believes that what she witnessed was a demonic attack.

“It was not humanly possible for them to be acting,” the teacher said.

Another teacher, giving her account of what happened, said that after two female students started to behave strangely, the girls were taken to the science laboratory, where she and another teacher began to pray for them. She said they were joined by two other teachers and a male student.

According to the teacher, while praying for the students in the centre of the laboratory, the desks began to spread out and formed a triangle, following which, one of the teachers began to behave strangely, in a manner similar to that of the students. According to the eyewitness, the teacher who was being “attacked” was lifted and propelled from one side of the lab to the other on her back.

After seeing this, the eyewitness said that the two other teachers, one male and one female, began to run, leaving her behind.

She said she also decided to leave the room, but was prevented from doing so by the teacher under attack, who held on to her ankle.

The teacher said she then noticed that the male teacher who had tried to leave was pinned to the door, unable to move, with his arms spread wide open, while the male student also seemed unable to move. She said that another teacher came to her assistance, but for some reason couldn’t get the already unlocked door open. This was later confirmed by the teachers and the student.

The teacher said, at this point, she heard the male teacher saying “How everybody run and leave me alone in here with she?”

She said that she was shocked to hear this, knowing that four of them were still in the room. When asked about it later, the male teacher said that the only person he was seeing in the room at the time was the teacher who was behaving strangely.

The pastors were called in, after which, the affected students were taken from the school to a nearby church. According to reports, over 200 Bequia residents gathered outside of the school and church to see what was going on.

The pastors and prayer warriors said when they began to question the affected girls, they began speaking in unusual voices. When they were asked what were their names, some of the replies were: “Uncle Demon”, “Freddie”, “Jikera”, “Daddy Devil” and “Sparta”.

The pastors told SEARCHLIGHT that when they were casting out the “demons”, the “demons” said that their mission is to kill, steal and destroy and that they wanted to “go down there, to meet their father, the Devil.”

The pastors said that one of the “demons” who identified itself as “Jikera” said that for months it had been trying to possess the girl, but she was very strong, and after two days of going to school in two different vans, a song called “Uncle Demon” was played and that is how it got to possess her mind.

SEARCHLIGHT was told that it took four or five strong men to restrain each of the girls, but evenso, the girls overpowered the men.

The pastors and prayer warriors said that the girls also made signs with their hands that are known to be demonic, for example the horn or goat head and the 666 signs.

Pastor Scott, who said that he is in the deliverance ministry, said doorways to demonic attack include music, tattoos, sexual promiscuity, fear, things that you see and cultic practices.

He said that he believes the incident only happened to the girls because Satan goes after the “weaker vessels” and women, according to the Bible, are weaker vessels. He further stated that the unusual strength displayed by the girls can only be explained as demons in operation.

All three pastors shared the view that in order for a person to be free from further demonic attacks, the person must give Christ full control of their lives. One pastor said that once Jesus is in a person’s life, no demon can come in, because Jesus and the Devil cannot dwell in the same place. He further stated that the Devil uses culture, fashion, music, religious and occult activities, hiding and camouflaging himself to go undetected.

Although none of the persons who exhibited the strange behaviour have any recollection of what happened, they are all said to be traumatized.

On the social network Facebook, one affected girl wrote: “It does feel so wrong to know that a different person is in your body trying to make u kill yourself. But I thank God for saving my life.”

Another wrote: “I didn’t believe in demons, but people, they are real you will think am stupid but am not but I pray for all my friends and family because I have been healed and am covered under the blood of Jesus. No weapon form against me shall prosper.”

Several persons, however, have dismissed claims that the girls’ behaviour is as a result of demonic attack. They point instead to a phenomenon known as mass or epidemic hysteria, in which according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ), 70 to 100 per cent of those affected are girls.

“The symptoms greatly outweigh any abnormal physical signs, the most common being abdominal pain, faintness, nausea, headache, weakness and itching. Some girls may be seen to overbreathe. In some cultures more dramatic phenomena occur, such as weeping, wailing, screaming, giggling, running and claims to have seen ghosts. Spread often seems to be by direct vision: children succumb from seeing other children affected. Another characteristic is that individuals recover very rapidly,” the Journal said in a 1979 article.

The Journal says that in dealing with the situation, “firm reassurance based on a positive diagnosis [of mass hysteria], without too long a delay to exclude every other conceivable cause, may be very successful.”

The Journal said failing that, the best policy is to close the school so that all the girls could be separated.

Episodes of mass hysteria were reported in 2010 at the Moruga Secondary School in Trinidad, and in 2011 at the Bishop Gibson High School for Girls in Jamaica.

The Ministry of Education told Searchlight on Wednesday that five counsellors were to travel to Bequia on Thursday to meet with the affected students.