Freedom from Evil Spirits

by Fr Pat Collins

(Columba Books)

Freedom from Evil Spirits is a new book from an ‘exorcist’ priest which offers a new guide to battling ‘demonic’ control in people’s life.

The Dublin-based Vincentian priest writes that the majority of people see the devil as a mere symbolic way of conveying the dark side of humankind, and exorcisms along the lines of Hollywood horror movies.

Fr Pat Collins, who says he is frequently contacted by distressed individuals requesting his help to deal with apparent evil spirits, sees such demonic matters rather as an existent menace which modern society continues to disregard.

The author said he has observed a continued decline in the number of people who accept the supernatural as true. He also states that there has been ever-increasing evidence of the wicked movement of the devil across Europe.

Although many western readers would find it extremely laughable and difficult to embrace his book, people from developing countries would perhaps find it more interesting, especially in the suggestions Fr Collins offers for fortification against evil forces, from breaking curses to self-deliverance from demonic signs and cleansing disturbed buildings.

Readers would certainly have mixed views about the author’s knowledge of deliverance ministry, which has become a multimillion dollar business across many Christian faiths, and the diverse cases that he claims he has been involved in over the years in which participants believed — whether rightly or wrongly — that they were possessed.

The book also deals with the subject of fear, nervousness and addiction: everyday life issues that represent a significant aspect of Christian freedom. The author says these are all related, directly or indirectly, to the action of malevolence spirits.

Fr Collins — who is also a speaker, retreat leader and author of many books on spirituality — cites the example of fear, on which he writes that although it is a natural sentiment, the devil can and does exploit it, like it does with the illness of addiction, in order to lead humans into sin and thereby to separate them from themselves, others and God.

Nevertheless, Fr Collins’ book offers optimism, support and guidance for those who believe they are bedevilled by evil spirits and that they have no one to seek help from.