Devil Music
I am an atheist. I don't believe in God, and I certainly don't believe in ghost. However, I am very interested in knowing what makes people believe in them. I want to know why some people see certain things or have encounters with ghosts. I always try to analyse and find an answer.
Hence, whenever I hear people talk about some of their encounters with the spiritual world, I will listen and pay attention. One of the most fascinating cases I've heard is this particular story of my friend's brother. It is rooted in the Christian culture.
According to my friend, whose name I'm obliged to keep secret, her brother was very interested in rock music, the kind they call heavy metal. He was just a teenager, but he had this group of friends at school with whom he mixed. They were a very rowdy bunch, hanging out at shopping centres, wearing all sorts of ridiculous clothes and always getting into fights with other gangs. My friend's family was a rather liberal kind. Both parents worked, and so long as the children performed well at school, they didn't interfere too much in my friend's or her brother's affairs.
So the brother was very independent. He lived his own life. Then last year, some time in September, his personality changed. He had always been a daring, outgoing sort of guy. I have meet him once and found him to be quite a rebel, and a very streetwise kid. I still can't figure out how he could have let something like that happen to him.
It was on a Friday about midnight. My friend was staying up late reading a book, when she heard him mumbling some strange words in his room. Curious, she investigated. Opening the door, she saw him shivering and crouching in a corner of the room. He was foaming at the mouth and his face was pale, his eyes wide open as if he was looking at some appaling spectacle over her shoulder. He looked really horrible.
She was very scared and ran to tell her parents. They hurried to the brother's room, only to find him sleeping undisturbed in his own bed. The queer thing was he looked very normal. Nothing seemed wrong. My friend got scolded for talking rots. Her mother said that she had imagined everything. And also, all her late night reading was probably beginning to influence her.
But my friend knew. She trusted her eyes. Thus she decided to keep a close watch. Something was definitely wrong, and time proved her to be right. For after that night, the brother became very quiet and reserved. Most of the time, he would hide in his room and brood. During meals, he would eat very little, but the parents didn't notice. Only my friend realised the significance.
She suspected that her brother was possessed. She subsequently went to a priest and asked his advice. She was attending services at this charismatic church, and she guessed that her brother was under Satanic influence. The priest told her to look for clues of Satanic things in his room when he went to school. There must be some evil artifact that was a channel for the demonic presence.
So
she searched. When he wasn't in, she took time to rummage through his drawers
and cabinets. She didn't really know what
she
was looking for, and by chance, one evening, she came across this cassette
tape of his with morbid pictures of the occult on it. It had skulls,
blood, animals, sex... you name it, it had it.
My friend was quite suspicious of this cassette. She took it and showed it to her priest, who confirmed that it was a Satanic object.
He took out a special recording machine he borrowed from another priest. It could, he said, play songs backwards. This cassette tape my friend found was most likely a 'backward masking' tape.
My friend explained to me that backward masking was to hide a message in a piece of music. This message only made sense when heard backwards, and that was how Satan conveyed his message to his worshippers, and they were subconsciously hearing his words even though they might not realise it.
Anyway, the priest played the tape backwards for my friend. It had a very eerie mood to it, so my friend claimed. The music sort of sounded like a series of static, squeks and chipmunk like chatter, and then, at some points, she could hear somebody speak. It was a very slow, very deep voice filled with hatred and spite, and it sounded as if the person was spitting out the words very vehemently. There was one part which went "six, six, six", and another which sounded like "I love the Antichrist, I love the Antichrist". But the most horrifying one was a message which sounded extremely clear. There was no mistaking what the voice was screaming:
"Our
father, who art in Hell,
Hallowed
by the name."
It was so shocking my friend completely broke down and sobbed. The priest, however, assured her that it was a problem that could be solved. They then destroyed the tape on the spot and prayed for the brother's deliverance. The priest requested many prayer groups to pray for the brother, too.
After some time, it seemed the brother recuperated and became a Christian as well. Well, sort of, he still goes out with his gang and hangs out at shopping centres. He was smoking a cigarette and talking to a few hooligans.
I don't know how much of the story is authentic. But my friend never ceases to mention it whenever she tries to share with me her religious views. I personally believe that there must be some psychological reason behind it.
I am
still analysing it.