Publication Date:October 1992 Shipping:Eligible for Super Saver Shipping Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
One On One With Satan
A chilling and highly convincing account of possession and exorcism in modern America, hailed by NBC Radio as "one of the most stirring books on the contemporary scene."
"Hostage to the Devil"August 4, 2008 0 out of 1 found this review helpful
At first did not know whether the novel was still in print. Purchased second-printing in 1986, but misplaced the book during many military moves in intervening years. Amazon offered perfect vehicle to research availability. As result, I was able to replace copy for my library at very reasonable cost.
Very unsettling and puzzling.June 13, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a very sobering and disturbing group of stories. My question if I could ask the author would be why he wrote it. While it is great that the people suffering under demonic influence were exorcised, the real-life stories are a bit too descriptive. These are definitely adult. I am not sure I would even want an older teenager reading this book. The positive thing to remember is that good triumphs. It is an awful battle. It is amazing that people turn to witchcraft and sorcery and even devil worship. There is definitely evil and Malachi describes it. We need to be careful and realize there are things evil that are explained by psychiatry and then there are things beyond the grasp of the knowledge of the "mind doctors". Here are such cases as presented by Malachi. It is a hair-raising read. I sometimes needed to put the book away a couple days to calm down. Read it. But it wouldn't hurt to have some holy water and maybe say a prayer or two to chase away any of your fears or maybe ... someTHING else.
As Heavy Metal Band Iron Maiden Sang, "6...6...6...The Number of the Beast!!!!!!!!! 6...6...6...The One for You and Me!!!!!!!!!"April 28, 2008 5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Hostage to the Devil is a meticulously sourced, scholarly analyzed and academic treatise on demonic possession; this book is THE classic to pick up to familiarize oneself with the proverbial Dark Side of life. Hostage to the Devil is what The Art of War is to warfare and corporate raiding; what Machiavelli's The Prince is to political science and government; what Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey is to mythology...only it exclusively deals with the little known and much-feared/stigmatized topic of diabolical possession. This book is flagrantly NOT a book which promotes Satanism, any soul's estrangement from God, or even anything destructive. On the contrary, Hostage to the Devil satisfies that old Art of War proverb "Know your enemy" by detailing the process of demonic possession, and spiritually speaking, the Devil is the ultimate enemy.
The late Malachi Martin, the author, was an authority on exorcism, having been a professor at the Vatican's Pontifical Biblical Institute. He was also an uncommonly gifted and refined writer, being able to weave together a book on possession which--despite its rooting in straightforward scholarship on the subject--actually reads like the most interesting, Grisham-like or Clancy-like thriller from the fiction section! Martin was a masterful writer whose aptitude is seen in his mood-setting, his technique of giving back stories and jumping to and fro from the past to the present in a case-narrative, and his smooth, seamless segue from one aspect of a possession to the next, all of which make for gripping reading that will hold your attention with urgency.
The predicament for some people (atheists, liberal Christians, and those whose worldview is entrenched in stubbornly inflexible scientific rationale) is that Hostage to the Devil is precisely NON-FICTION; though it reads at times like the blackest makeup of one's worst nightmares, it's 100% real. Here's where non-religious non-believers or merely those with a narrow-mind based on arrogance get into trouble: their ideology fails to equip them with the enlightenment necessary to deal with the harsh, existential issues this book confronts any reader with. Imagine that what scared you the worst as a child--the proverbial dark, the monster under the bed or in the closet, or the "Boogeyman" (all extremely discomforting to a small child who has no defense in its ignorance and inexperience against such themes)--was all 100%, indisputably true. In essence, that's what Hostage to the Devil confirms because it affirms the existence of the concept of Evil in the universe, the Devil. So it affirms that that which scares you the worst (Evil) is real and can touch you. Yet, people without faith or at least an open mind end up in a state of spiritual starvation because their ideology doesn't permit for the existence of true Evil in their worldview, so they actively deny Evil as a presence in the universe, which is in theological terms a victory for the Devil because real Evil in the world exists more potently when it's not acknowledged.
More to the point that the Devil is real and exorcism is the tool the Roman Catholic Church uses to save a soul is the fact that ALL exorcisms are even tape-recorded by the church through the presence of a recorder in the room of any exorcism. In fact, Martin had access to literally hours upon hours of exorcism tapes from church records of the five possession cases in this book. Further corroborating the reality of possession is the fact that Martin interviewed at length both the possessed and the exorcists in the five cases in Hostage to the Devil. This is further substantiated when we take into account that all the assistants (five or so per case) in the room with the priest and possessed back up the respective stories also.
At the risk of oversimplifying the subject matter, the movie The Exorcist is possibly the best, visual representation of what really happens in a real-life exorcism--minus, of course, the sensationalist elements of pea-soup vomit and the 360 degree rotation of the neck. Nonetheless, most of what's in the movie--levitation, soiling oneself, speaking in foreign languages, super-strength, outwardly bodily decay, an inhuman voice, repulsion towards religious icons, and psychic powers--is 100% true based on Martin's exhaustive research, which includes the aforementioned records of the church plus eyewitness accounts and the testimony of survivors.
An exorcism in the Catholic sense is purported to be the only type of its kind which works; that is to say that exorcism by other denominations will be useless against evil spirits, and those infernally afflicted who are not Catholic do run to the Roman Catholic Church for real results. The Roman Exorcism Ritual is such a long-standing, time-honored tradition within the church that the authority of exorcists over demons goes right back to Jesus Himself and is a practice dating back to the early Church Fathers from about 200 to 600 AD. In fact, Martin actually provides the English translation of the Latin text of exorcism in the appendix!!!! Theoretically, you, as the layman, can then attempt to cast out demons yourself, although this is highly DISCOURAGED by Martin for the simple reason that laymen fail to have the spiritual authority to succeed at driving out evil spirits.
Somewhat surprisingly, there ARE actually rules evil spirits are "contractually" bound to obey. The explanation for this is Jesus' own authority over demons in the New Testament where there's much testimony of Him casting out evil spirits. Mortal men as exorcists only succeed in exorcisms because they are invested with Jesus' authority as the stand-in for Christ and also through direct sanction from the church hierarchy of officials; this is a most crucial requisite. Important to note is Martin's assertion that exorcists who roguishly act without explicit, church authority will fail every time at great, personal costs.
Martin outlines the basic preparations as well as occurrences that generally happen in every exorcism in a kind of exorcism "primer," though there are exceptions. First, the possessed victim (in all seriousness, a true victim because of the ruinously damning effects on both the body and spirit that can lead to physical death as well as that of the soul) is brought to the attention of church officials like parish priests usually by their friends or families. At this stage, the possessed has likely been tormented for quite a while through the laborious process of going from doctor to doctor to shrinks in desperate hope of finding a scientific cause for their ills, all to no avail, of course. After all possible physical reasons are excluded, the church then investigates and moves quickly to appoint a priest to do spiritual battle on behalf of the possessed to save their soul. As a matter of fact, the title Hostage to the Devil is a stealthy reference to the role of the exorcist putting himself up as a hostage in place of the possessed in a battle of wills with the Devil, as the possessed at this point is too weak to resist by himself.
Exorcists are generally picked due to their "goodness" or purity of character, not so much for wisdom or exceptionally intellectual capacity. In preparation for an exorcism, a priest will generally fast and try to cleanse himself as effectively as possible from human sin. He will hand-pick about five or so assistants (ranging from junior priests to medical doctors) to be his helpers in the ritual. His "uniform" consists simply of a stole, cassock and surplice. He'll make certain to schedule the exorcism at either the possessed's home or a private place like the basement of a church. The room in which an exorcism occurs will be stripped of all furniture save for a bed or couch for the possessed, in case of severe frailty during the ritual, and maybe a little table for a recorder to tape the experience. Doors and window shutters will be secured in place.
Proving there is intelligence behind pure Evil as that which possesses a person, Martin also outlines consistent and reliable ways the evil spirit will conduct itself during an exorcism. Everyone in the room--possessed, priest, assistants--is in grave peril as the demon will imminently plan to attack and demoralize each and every one of them during the course of an exorcism. The priest and his assistants will be cursed with the vilest profanity possible; everyone in the room will have their most shameful acts committed over the course of their lives exposed and scorned by the evil spirit; and the priest will be the target of physical attempts of violence by the possessed victim. This is to say nothing of the worst plight of the possessed himself, as during the exorcism, he may well die from the physical strain of the experience.
Curiously, there are even six, distinct stages in every exorcism that reflect the progress of the priest planning to expel the demon. These are termed Presence, Pretense, Breakpoint, Voice, Clash and Expulsion. Presence is defined as the feeling of sheer, unadulterated terror from an alien presence that manifests as soon as the exorcist enters the room and lasts throughout the ritual. Pretense is defined as trickery the evil spirit uses to hide behind the possessed person. Breakpoint is defined as the breaking of the Pretense, when the evil spirit is forced by Jesus' authority through the exorcist to divulge its name (all demons apparently have different names relating to how their work they malice on their human victims). The Voice is defined as an inhumanly distressing babel of sounds that are simply alien; it is sonic manifestation of Evil personified, and its purpose is to intimidate and break the will of the exorcist along with everyone else. The Clash is the beginning of the end for the evil spirit in an exorcism as it's when the exorcist actively fights to provoke the demon into locking horns (no pun intended) with it to beat it back. The Expulsion is defined as when the exorcist commands the demon to depart and succeeds in doing so.
Unlike the majority of previous reviews, I'll explicitly go into detail about what the reader will encounter in this book by briefly outlining all the five, possession cases. As other reviewers have forewarned, some punitive consequences of reading this 522-page behemoth MAY be the dire need to take a break of a few weeks before continuing reading; the inability to read said book at night even with lights blazing; or the disruption of a good night's sleep. I'm both happy and proud to report that I--NOT being a liberal girlie-man--was easily able to breeze through this book with no adverse consequences. That's simply because I have an unshakable moral foundation and being Catholic, much of this is already familiar territory.
The first case is titled "Zio's Friend and the Smiler." It boils down to a young, college coed in her twenties from NY who became possessed after she became morally relativistic. That is to say she refused to distinguish good from evil or right from wrong and that all values are subject solely to one's personal preferences. This attitude is distressingly reminiscent of liberals and their moral relativism. The possessed girl, "Marianne," became estranged from friends and family and resorted to soullessly picking up men and having unemotional sex with as many as she could find. She hardly bathed and always reeked; lost lots of weight; would urin*te on and soil food; locked herself up in her apartment where she cut herself and worked herself into such hysterics neighbors regularly called police; and emitted such a vibe of "evil" that everyone who encountered her would be discomforted. She was successfully exorcised, got married, and lived another 17 years before dying of cancer. The successful exorcist, however, died about a year after his successful expulsion of the evil spirit.
The second case is "Father Bones and Mister Natch," perhaps the most disturbing of all five because the possessed victim was actually a Roman Catholic priest...truly. It deals with a "Father Jonathan" from New England who became possessed because of a sacrilegious quirk in his misconception of religious studies. Whereas Catholics believe that Jesus is divine and supernatural, "Father Jonathan" believed that Jesus was merely mundane and of nature. This corruption of faith was what the demon in his case used to possess him. His mischief during possession included desecrating Catholic rituals like mass, marriage and the sacrament of the sick while also starting a "church" (read: devil worship) of his own on the side. He was successfully exorcised and retired (DUH!) from the priesthood. Importantly, the exorcist who saved his soul almost was possessed himself and had to quit the first attempt at exorcism because of a weakness in his faith.
The third case, titled "The Virgin and the Girl-Fixer," is hands down the most horrifying of all five cases; it's the stuff of nightmares!!!! It concerns the case of "Richard," a transsexual who became possessed after he had a sex-change operation...I kid you not! The Virgin is the exorcist, and Girl-Fixer is the name of the possessing demon. This case, 100% true, supersedes what you could see in the most chilling horror movie or ghost story!!!! It involves a man who was so obsessed with the "beauty" of the fairer sex that he actually longed to become a woman. His possession played a heavy role in his misjudgment to become a woman, yet after his sex-change operation, his actions truly became hellish. In his lust for womanhood, he confused gender with sex and so misspent considerable time in many, meaningless sexual liaisons after he became a woman. This culminated in scary acts of necrophilia with a dying woman whom he actually let die rather than help, so deep was his lust for necrophilia. It got worse: as a transsexual, he actually attended a Black Mass which initiated him as a Satanist; this ritual is described in all its squalid abomination involving orgies where he was actually "penetrated" by a "priest" in the "Church" of Satan and so offered up to the Devil. It follows that his exorcism was also the most grisly of all five; his possessing demon actually attacked the exorcist psychically, which culminated in the exorcist losing his life several months after. If there's a shred of hope to be interpreted from this, it's that "Richard's" exorcism was successful, he gave up his transvestite ways, and he became a therapist.
The fourth case, "Uncle Ponto and the Mushroom-Souper," is the most unique, involving a case of possession called familiarity. Familiarity is 180 degrees different than traditional possession because it involves possession by a so-called "minor" demon (less powerful than normal). Its idiosyncrasy involves the possessing spirit essentially "living" inside the possessed so that the possessed inside completely taken over, but feels a "twin" sharing all their thoughts and actions inside of them. This form of possession is just as deadly because the demon still plans to seek death for the victim. Another shifty twist to this case is the presence of another person whose possession is totally hopeless. Called "perfectly possessed," a minor player in this case was rumored to have accepted demoniacal possession 100% and may've affected the victim of familiarity. This story actually turned out the best of all, as Jamsie was successfully freed by an exorcist who as of 1992 was living in a retirement home for priests. Jamsie also went on to found a radio company.
The last case, "The Rooster and the Tortoise," is less dramatic, but still profound in its own right. It concerns a mislead soul, "Carl," who became possessed due to his straying from true doctrine of Christianity. "Carl" was a professor in parapsychology who was obsessed with reaching the "real" Christianity; trouble was that this "real" Christianity was a ploy put on by his possessing demon who lured him. "Carl" was possessed so badly that during his exorcism, he was actually in agony at the need to reject his possessing demon despite the fact he consciously knew how hopelessly damned he would be if he continued on accepting the evil spirit. Still, he rejected the demon and was successfully exorcised by an exorcist who ended up living to almost 100 (in 1992). "Carl" actually was said to have attained some form of "holiness" after his possession/exorcism because of the revelation of the knowledge of God that his required choice to reject his possessing demon granted him. He actually lived out his final years in spiritual tranquility and meditation in monasteries and then in a remote part of the US, giving out advice to the spiritually anguished.
Hostage to the Devil is highly recommended because of a few benefits that it satisfies. First, it can be read from a religious, moral, or even just intellectually challenging level. If you're religious, it will obviously affirm to you that God is real because of the inarguable presence of pure Evil described in this tome; this will probably strengthen your faith. On a purely moral basis, it will provoke you into introspection concerning moral choices because so much of the behavior of possessed people and even how the Devil works on the will of people is shockingly...human. That is to say there are absolute parallels between thoughts and actions that all people who aren't possessed exhibit and the insidious ways the Devil works his strategy to possess people! This just reaffirms how interconnected everything is and how everyone has the capacity of evil inside of them, possessed or not. For me, possession can be epitomized as destruction/self-destruction, whether it's spiritual, moral, physical and anywhere else. On an intellectual level, this book is stimulating because a whole world of clandestine tradition, rituals and history is painstakingly detailed; it's a complete, insider's look at what exorcism is and what its various participants think, feel, endure. Hostage to the Devil is well worth the read...IF you're strong enough to take the edification in its pages.
Black & WhiteApril 9, 2008 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Wonderful book. I always look at religion in the sense that it has been man made to fit the needs of those in power at that particular time. With that in mind, I found some very interesting concepts and still conclude the ying & yang principle to hold true. Everything must be balanced by the opposite, light - dark, cold - hot, black holes - white holes. Good - Evil in all form and matter. If you believe God is a powerful good then you must trust the Devil is as powerful in evil.
Powerful... but true?March 31, 2008 3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a very powerful, at times bone-chilling, at times quite frightening book. The kind of book that leaves you feeling uneasy and creeped-out walking around your own house... a little nervous about turning off the light and trying to go to sleep.
But I do wonder if all of the stories are entirely true. I don't doubt that people can be possessed. But some of the stories here are just too well-rounded. They have too perfect a dramatic arc... which is a tip-off that the narrative has been heavily shaped by the author. By way of comparison, if you read Possessed, an excellent book which tells the actual story behind the book and movie "The Exorcist," it's a very messy story, with a lot of rough edges and ambiguities, like real life. But each of the exorcisms in "Hostage" reads like a perfectly crafted short story. In particular, there's something about the chapter which describes the possession of a television weatherman which feels contrived. I suspect that chapter was based on a grain of truth that was heavily embellished by the author.
Despite my not insignificant reservations, I give the book 5 stars because it is such a great read. It's one of those books that makes it VERY tough to get to sleep, and leaves you wondering what's lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce...
