We had a chap in our local congregation known to everyone as Jack. He was an amiable helpful fellow until he paid a visit to the dentist.
He'd gone to a local dental surgery to have a wisdom tooth extracted and had been offered 3 choices of pain prevention. Out of a choice of novocaine locally, knock-out by injection or sleeping gas, he had opted for the sleeping gas.
As he began to come round after the extraction, Jack suddenly bounded to his feet and started to wail in some deep anguish. The dentist and his assistant were startled to hear Jack screaming that he was Satan, that he was doomed, God would never forgive him for all the bad that he had done and he was sorry about the Garden of Eden business.
The sad part was that Jack never recovered from his delusions all the time that he remained a JW. He attended the KH frequently but could get no relief. Huge dark rings appeared beneath his eyes, a real soul in torment.
Some of the elders in the Fareham area formed the opinion that Jack had indeed been attacked by a demon, urgent meetings were held and the local boyos began to preach against the dangers of using general anaesthetics during medical procedures. Once again, the mind is open to demon inhabitation!
Well, I'm not sure exactly what Jacks problem was, the last time that I saw him he was running a succesful little art gallery just outside of Portsmouth and was not going to any more meetings. Obviously I didn't walk up to him and say: "Hi, old Chap, how's the demons keepin'", but by his demeanour and confidence I got the impression that Jack did finally exorcise whatever it was that was bothering him.
I wonder what it was?
Englishman.
Bring on the dancing girls!