When I was six, my parents brought me to what I shall label a "spiritual warfare counselor" whose specialty was to induce a hypnotic state in clients. In the hypno-state, any oppressing demons could speak through the client. I witnessed him do this to my parents first, and then he did it to me. When he hypnotized me, I didn't really feel different, but the whole thing was appealing to my overactive imagination and my desire for life to be intriguing and fantastical. So, I played along.
He asked how many presences were oppressing me. I made up some number. Then he asked for their names. I listed off some names. The only one I remember is "Pestilence". I have no memory of the rest of the conversation, but that "doctor" taught my parents how to deal with oppressing forces. So, over the next few years whenever I'd be acting in a way my mom didn't like, I'd have them holding me down and praying over me, saying shit like, "In the power of the blood and name of Jesus Christ, you are commanded to leave."
Strangely, when they did that, it had a subduing effect on me honestly, for whatever that's worth.
Really though, the whole thing messed me up psychologically in a way that negatively impacted my life for many years, even into my mid-twenties. Every so often I would have these episodes where I was sure that Pestilence was present, and I felt controlled and taunted by that entity. There were a few embarrassing times when it happened around friends or lovers, when I would growl and snarl and drool on myself, saying weird nonsense and writhing around like some kind of idiot. When it happened, it sort of felt like it was me doing it, but I couldn't understand WHY I was doing it.
Then in 2006 I was on LSD that I think was mixed with some crazy other stuff, because I went into a trance that I can remember parts of. In this case, it didn't feel like it was me doing it, it was like I was thrown into the backseat of my mind and someone else was driving. I was looking through my eyes but had zero control over my actions. I went into a rage and wrecked a hotel room and it only got worse from there. That experience indicated to me that something that feels exactly like being possessed by a demon is possible.
To make it clear: I don't believe in demon possession.
After that experience, maybe a year or less later, I had a breakthrough in therapy and I conceded to the possibility that I made up Pestilence when I was six years old, ended up believing he was real subconsciously (hypnosis makes that possible, plus my imagination and desire for life to be interesting), and acted out that belief a few times in my teenage years and twenties. On LSD and whatever else, that raging beast from my subconsciousness took over and I lost control in the scariest possible way.
"Pestilence" has never bothered me since. Not even a little. Pestilence doesn't exist to me anymore, because I got real with myself that it wasn't ever real to begin with. If there was ever really a demon, it wouldn't go away just because I don't believe in it. My belief in it was exactly what made it "real."
Through some research, I found out that demon possession is most frequent in fairly isolated areas of the world where the people are highly superstitious, which makes a lot of sense to me personally.
Sorry this is so long, but in closing: I think that my parents taking me to that guy qualifies as a form of child abuse, although logically I know they were doing their best within their own stupid limitations.
