No one in my family but about 3yrs ago I worked teaching GED in a juvenile prison. One of the guards mentioned he believed one of the kids was possessed by Satan. I couldn't believe it and when I asked him if he was serious, he was, he must of been insulted because he never worked in the GED classroom again though he still worked at the prison.

Yes, my mother did and still does, at 90. She thought things could be possessed, so she was very careful about buying or inheriting old things, like pictures or paintings. I guess she hadn't bought into the "evil corporations" thing and didn't think a demon could possess something store bought. When I was around seven years old, my father, who I don't think believed in demons, brought home a portrait of his father and placed it on the wall above my older brother's bed. My brother told my mother that he heard voices coming from the portrait at night, so my mother had the portrait taken down (not sure what happened to it, though).

I had nightmares about demons for years as a child. I never experienced any demons while awake, though, and kind of felt left out. Once, around the age of twelve, I was thinking about demons and decided I would perform an experiment to test whether they existed. I had this old wooden shoe shine box and placed it on the floor in front of me. I decided to stare at it for about ten minutes. After a few minutes, it appeared to move, which scared the bejesus out of me. Later, as an adult, I learned that my staring experience was normal and explains something about how our sense perceptions work.

Isn't seeing things that aren't there pretty much a form of mental illness? My condolences. Seems you were able to "transcend" your weird childhood.

No. This seems to be more the province of pentecostals and charismatics, and my parents were neither. It isn't unknown outside those sub-communities, however.

My first wife explored the charismatic movement for a time via an Assemblies of God church, and one of the deacons there was into "deliverance ministry". He tried to get us to throw away a set of coasters in our house that were in a frog-shaped holder -- on the basis that frogs are symbols of the demonic and somehow constituted a household invitation thereto. I told him what I've told every such person I've ever encountered: "You seem way more impressed with the power of evil than with the power of good. Maybe you should change your focus".

not my folks. i never even found out whether they believed in a god until i was well into my 20s and had left home. they weren't sure even then. my mom thought maybe she did. my dad thought maybe he didn't. i got the impression they hadn't given it a lot of thought.

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No. My parents weren't quite that off the deep end. My mom prayed to angels and saints though and would always suggest that if I wanted something, I should say a prayer to some saint or another.

Good story....interesting chilidhood for you, No, I have no such tales to tell about my parents, both were down to earth Scots and sceptics from their heads to their toes....no flights of fancy or talk of “ghosties and ghoulies or things that go bump in the night”