“We do not pretend to give the questions and answers literally, for they occupy twenty-three pages; but the substance is here, as may be seen by anyone who cares to read the Golden Legend. The full description of the hideous bellowings of the demons, their enforced glorification of the saint, and so on, is too long for this chapter. Suffice it to say that as we read the numerous questions offered by Dominick and the answers of the demons, we become fully convinced that they corroborate in every detail the unwarranted assertions, and support the interest of the Church.
The narrative is suggestive. The legend graphically describes the battle of the exorcist with the legion from the bottomless pit. The sulphurous flames which burst forth from the nose, mouth, eyes, and ears of the demoniac; the sudden appearance of over a hundred angels, clad in golden armor; and, finally, the descent of the blessed Virgin herself, in person, bearing a golden rod, with which she administers a sound thrashing to the demoniac, to force the devils to confess that of herself, which we scarcely need repeat. The whole catalogue of theological truths uttered by Dominick’s devils were embodied in so many articles of faith by his Holiness, the present Pope, in 1870, at the last Ecumenical Council.
From the foregoing it is easy to see that the only substantial difference between infidel “mediums” and orthodox saints lies in the relative usefulness of the demons, if demons we must call them. While the Devil faithfully supports the Christian exorcist in his orthodox (?) views, the modern spook generally leaves his medium in the lurch. For, by lying, he acts against his or her interests rather than otherwise, and thereby too often, casts foul suspicion on the genuineness of the mediumship.
Were modern “spirits” devils, they would evidently display a little more discrimination and cunning than they do. They would act as the demons of the saint which, compelled by the ecclesiastical magician and by the power of “the name…which forces them into submission”, lie in accordance with the direct interest of the exorcist and his church. The moral of the parallel, we leave to the sagacity of the reader.”
H. P. Blavatsky