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Summary: Misuse of Malachi Martin's book
Review: Malachi Martin's writings are being used to destroy the lives of innocent people. Intergenerational devil cults and multiple personalities are injected into the minds of patients of bad psychiatrists. These incompetent doctors are influenced by stories for which there is little or no proof of their validity.
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Summary: Praise for Mr. Martin's book
Review: Each of Mr. Martin's unique case studies brightly illumines a different facet of contemporary theological and secular beliefs. Nebulous New Age thinking is neatly skewered while the greatest strength of evil, namely its capacity to beguile with appeals to intellectual vanity, is exposed in chilling prose and straightforward narrative. Do not read this book alone, or before bed time. A great accomplishment for the author.
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Summary: Excellent, Profound, and Thought-Provoking
Review: Books on exorcism are all too often full of sensationalism and drama. Not this one. The thing that makes this book so striking is the way it's written so factually, as a reference book and not as National Enquirer style hype. This book makes "The Exorcist" pale. Don't read it unless you are either very thick-skinned or do believe absolutely in the power to conquer evil. I wish Malachi Martin would write a sequel on some of the other cases he researched, since he researched MANY and just used 5 for this book. It left me hungry for more... but there AREN'T any more, to my knowledge.
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Summary: Analysis of Hostage to the Devil, Malachi Martin
Review: Dylan Pellow (pellow@supernews.com) The book HOSTAGE TO THE DEVIL, by Malachi Martin, is certainly one of the most profound, moving, and spiritually awakening books I have ever had the privelage to read. Martin gives us a personal analysis of five cases of persons possessed by the Devil, which we are forced to believe occured without exception because of the masterful way in which the facts and opinions of the author are presented. They are frighteningly real and left me reading for more time than I had. I couldn't wait to pick up the book once I had put it down, if only out of fear of sleeping. Throughout the book, we are given an accute awareness of a priest, Micheal Strong, and his authored devotion to his order and Church and his selflessness to humanity at the greatest expense. The imagery and structure the author uses to illustrate the priest is so profound, it left me crying at the end of the book for the priest, and even Malachi Martin's devotion.
Malachi Martin gives us frightening information through intense and selfless research and authorship. Praise for him and his book, and the fact that he gives us a spiritual awakening and an oppurtunity to renew our faith in the Church, priesthood, and the Almighty. This book is certainly worthy of prize, and is a wonderful addition to Martin's already scholarly, and moving library of books
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Summary: Please put the thesaurus down
Review: Well, I am half way in to this book and its becoming difficult to continue. The writing style that Martin takes is excessively painful. The unnecessary use of "Big Words" is really annoying. It seems as if he is trying really hard to come off as credible by amassing a staggering array of words that are rarely used in conventional writing. I understand that in certain circumstances, consulting a thesaurus is necessary. But to do so constantly, for no reason other then to sound sophisticated is a very transparent attempt at compensating for a sense of inadequacy in content on the part of Mr. Martin. Which is completely unnecessary.This coupled with the attempt to describe, to mind-numbing detail, the inner emotions of an individual is very difficult to read. Mr. Martin tried way to hard to get into the heads of the people he writes of and in the processes spent way to much time alliterating that. Ideas that should be a page or two wind up being 10 or 15. If you can get pass the above, Mr. Martin does a nice job in the way he sets up the stories. He is very well researched and lays out the premise in a very captivating manner. But this book could be half the size it is. In all fairness to Mr. Martin, this may be the doing an editor run amok. If so, he needs to find a new one. I am giving it two stars as I have not yet finished it. I don't know if I can take much more of reading fluff and filler. This subject is quite fascinating and it is nothing but my curiosity that keeps me going. In all honesty, I don't think I'm going to make it through.
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Summary: What can I judge this on?
Review: When you enter a church and the presence of God fills you, it is the Holy Spirit. Every time I read this book, I had the opposite feeling, almost an emptying of my spirit. The person who lent the book to me had similar experiences. Therefore, I can not say it was a pleasant read. It is important to understand the devil's power that remains after the victory on the cross, but a thorough read through the book of Acts would give you the same thing. The priests committing the exorcisms in this book seem to have the same problems as the Sons of Sceva did in the book of Acts; saying the name of Jesus without the authority of Jesus. While this book may prove to some who believe in nothing that there is something, I can not recommend it because of the weight it put on my soul. If you want to understand the authority we have as Christians, I recommend "Fresh Power" by Jim Cymbala.
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Summary: A Pioneering Work by the Father of Modern-day Exorcism...
Review: Malachi Martin's pioneering examination of evil HOSTAGE TO THE DEVIL, merits serious attention by the mental health establishment, clergy, and any person who values spiritual health and salvation.
Fr. Martin's work, based on the very hellacious experiences of five exorcists and their demonically-possessed victims, illustrates the author's personal encounters with intelligent evil, as well confirming those of modern-day health professionals like the iminent psychiatrist M. Scott Peck. Dr. Peck actually dedicates an entire chapter to two possessions in his ground-breaking work THE PEOPLE OF THE LIE, which was recently supplemented by a more in-depth study of those cases entitled GLIMPSES OF THE DEVIL.
HOSTAGE TO THE DEVIL paints a vivid picture of the existential dislocation that possession wreaks in the lives of its victims, as it intensifies in stages--manifesting an attendant array of bizarre, preternatural phenomena that leaves no one in the vicinity of the afflicted unaffected--completing its dark process of spiritual disintegration in the nefarious nadir of "Perfect Possession." The book also delineates the ever-widening circle of despair and confusion that often affects those who must suffer by association with, or close proximity to, the demonized as they come to exhibit increased loss of humanness in their progressive take over by evil spirit.
On a macro level, Martin's work sucessfully confirms the timeless veracity of the Bible's accounts of the Devil and his fallen angels as personal, intelligent, evil beings bent on man's destruction. It also explores the many twisted forms that their perversions of truth cunningly manifest as lies, and how deception is used by the demonic to seduce men into joining them in their continuous rebellion against God. On a micro level, the book illustrates the weaknesses and vulnerabilities within us all--as innate components of our imperfect, carnal human nature--and how demons prey on these deficiencies via the senses.
Once they have gained a person's attention, they can attempt to fixate his desire on the glittering prize of a sinful pleasure. By willfully acting on those thoughts, a person commits a violation. The more one sins, the easier it becomes and the harder it is to do good. Eventually, a person no longer recognizes sin as the transgression it is and eventuallly becomes too lazy or willfully incapable of resisting the allure of evil. Consequently, the distinction between good and evil blurs and a person may conclude that evil does not exist because he cannot see it. Actually, he has become spiritually blind to its reality. He may then feel no obligation to resist evil because he reaches the errant conclusion that, ultimately, their is no such thing since "it's all in the mind."
Thus, a person becomes disarmed against a demonic foothold in his soul. Eventually, the will to resist evil falls away and the terra firma of his faith slips into the abyss...till he doesn't have a moral or religious leg to stand on. This is the psycho-spiritual quicksand in which evil takes root. Martin further demonstrates how the process of possession varies considerably, depending on the person, and how the demonic focuses its dark energies on one's better, positive, qualities (gifts) as a strategem to deceive. Hence, the demonic may appear as an "Angel of Light," not darkness.
This book is not for everyone--it is very graphic and intense; however, no one of reasonable intellect or conscience can remain unmoved by its complex and classic portrait of good versus evil. It has stood the test of time because it is so well-written, researched, strange, and utterly fascinating. If there is a "Western Canon" of psychospirituality, this book belongs in that pantheon. It's that ground-breaking, spectacular...and frightening!
Thanks to the late Fr. Martin for having the courage and dedication to write this book. There will never be another like him, but he lives on through his works. We miss you!
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Summary: Unique and Responsible Classic on Possession and Exorcism
Review: Martin describes the possession and exorcism of five Americans who were alive during the time of the writing. He book-ends these narratives with another, involving a priest in WW 2-era China whose exorcism of a demon failed, a priest whom Martin knew personally and with whom Martin visited on his deathbed. The priest's tragedy is one of heart-breaking poignancy, one in which we see close up how confrontation with absolute evil singes those who confront it even as they conquer through Christ.
He also includes a short primer of theology explaining such things as how a spirit can possess a person and how it can be driven out. But this is not an academic but popular work, dramatic, scary, and yet enlightening all at once, and I found it odd that some thought he was using too-big words. Yet academics should to find it as responsible and valuable as any book on the subject.
The Catholic church tape records every exorcism, and Martin, a former Jesuit, had access to these recordings, and interviewed all the persons involved in each. What makes the book especially valuable is that we see how each creeping possession represents a sickness in society, some element of how we have strayed from Christian belief and practice: one victim had an all-out romance with nihilism, another indulged in pantheism and evolutionism, for others there was secularized interest in the supernatural such as mind-reading and re-incarnation, sexual disorientation. Unlike its portrayal in The Exorcist, people don't catch a demon, much less Satan himself, the way they catch a cold, or by playing the Ouija board a few times.
I found this book unique in all literature for its attempts to describe the invisible, spiritual world from the inside. The experiences of those who were still in their own bodies yet crushed by an alien force, and Martin's ability to describe a realm of reality that is real and objective yet beyond human sense experience, stagger the imagination.
Martin wrote to a post-The Exorcist, skeptical-but-curious, largely modernist world. Here in post-modernity I would hope there would be more openness to his work, and to the belief that there are certainly invisible dimensions within and without us, and to the belief that Good and Evil have an essential, spiritual nature rather than merely social construction.
Obviously several Protestants like myself have been contributing reviews, and wanting to emphasize that the role of the exorcist is not only for the ordained Catholic priest but for all believers, and I agree. But the exorcists had better know what they are doing. In Pentecostal and Charismatic circles, there is a version of "Exorcism Lite" which is sometimes effective and sometimes disastrous. In these circles for 20 years, I have never heard 1st-hand or even 2nd-hand of cases as desperate and dangerous as the ones Martin describes. (In one, for example, a priest misspeaks during the exorcism and suffers instant, permanent, physical mutilation as if by an invisible claw.)
Another endorsement of the book comes from best-selling psychologist M. Scott Peck, who refers to the book in his People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil. Peck says he began looking for evidence that possession was a real, spiritual and not simply psychological phenomenon, and he put out "feelers" into various religious communities (doubtless using the prominence afforded by his previous hit, the religion-psychology bridging Road Less Traveled). He did witness 2 such exorcisms, and they convinced him beyond all doubt. But instead of describing them in any detail or going into the mechanics of possession and exorcism, he simply refers the reader to Martin's book as superior and comprehensive.
Another excellent work, this one from a Protestant point of view, is They Shall Expel Demons, from Derek Prince. It makes up for one of Martin's weaknesses, that he refers to no successful work by lay persons or non-Catholics. If you meet a Christian from parts of Africa or Asia--as I did recently--you will hear first-hand how these things happen nearly every day.
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Summary: Surprisingly informative and entertaining
Review: I was expecting something on the order of the "Exorcist" - spinning heads, floating bodies, strange voices. Instead, what we get is a depiction of evil (call it what you like) that, for some reason, comes to control and consume otherwise normal people.
The various ways in which this evil slowly became resident was a good story in itself. Particularly impelling was the story of Marianne who is convinced that evil personas inhabit our world and can take control. The priests who are called to do battle are the last of a dying breed. Today we use psychology, therapy, group treatment, medication, etc but at times, it seems, when all else fails, radical approaches are required.
Martin is a spokesman for pre-Vatican II, a conservative former priest who still holds to beliefs in evil, Satan and the Church. His books reflect his beliefs and it is hard to argue that the Catholic Church has improved as an institution since instigating the reforms.
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Summary: Please put the thesaurus down
Review: Martin, an experienced exorcist, presents five full true-life accounts of demonic possession from the 1960s and 1970s. The book is made more interesting by the fact that each case has a different exorcist with his own personality, history, and flaws. (Martin's personal career as an exorcist was primarily in the 1940s and 1950s. He is apparently more of a consultant on such matters now.) Interestingly, a Web site claims to quote from a Martin interview that, in his opinion, "Cases of possession and obsession have increased about 750% since the early 1970's." It is therefore doubly unfortunate that so many skeptical bishops have effectively forbidden the use of exorcism in their jurisdictions.
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