Article simplified and slightly edited by Judy Gassett for easy reading and was found at this link
Introduction: There is a razor thin delineation between schizophrenia and demonic obsession/ possession as the following story shows. Both have major common elements. The translated message and the evidence points toward a demonic origin and the unchanging message of the Evil One in his spiritual battles with us.
The island of Sicily, where Sister Maria had taken spiritual refuge, is a
place of deep-rooted Christian traditions. Indeed, Saint Paul is said to have
preached there nearly two millennia ago. But where there is Christ, arguably
there is Satan, for the eternal struggle between good and evil is a fundamental
tenet of Christian doctrine.
Born in 1645, Isabella Tomasi was 15 years old when she joined a Benedictine convent in the Sicilian town of Palma di Montechiaro. There, she was baptized and renamed Maria Crocifissa della Concezione. The Benedictine order traditionally teaches work, peace and prayer. But for all her toil and devotion, Sister Maria did not seem to be at peace. In fact, she professed to be possessed by the Devil himself. And whether or not the Devil exists, Sister Maria did indeed appear to be a conduit for fiery torment. When approaching the convent altar, she would reputedly sometimes shriek and lose unconsciousness. Apparently convinced that Satan was trying to turn her towards evil, the nun seemed to be racked with inner conflict.
Upon awakening from her demonic reverie – so the legend goes – Sister Maria Crocifissa della Concezione found herself soaked in ink. A bizarre letter had apparently come into her possession during the night, and it was scrawled with inscrutable glyphs. Adding to the mystery, it seems that the nun claimed Satan himself had written the message – and yet no one was able to understand it…
Then one day in 1676 the Devil took control of the nun’s body and authored a diabolical letter. The note did not use a familiar language, though, nor even a recognizable alphabet. Instead, its mysterious glyphs seemed to resemble a jumble of archaic letters and occult symbols.
The letter was left indecipherable for three centuries. However, Sister Maria’s fellow nuns took her claims seriously and placed the item on public display. Then over the ensuing centuries many code-breakers tried to crack the Satanic language. And yet it was not until 2017 that anyone even came close. For it was in 2017 that a team of computer scientists based managed to break the code with the help of a powerful decryption program. The software is used by governments and does not appear to be widely available. Hence, the team sourced it from the dark web – the hidden part of the internet that, among other activities, trades in contraband.
The scientists thought that Sister Maria had perhaps created the code by using a blend of existing alphabets. And thanks to her years of exposure to religious scripture, the nun could have been a skilled linguist with knowledge of both ancient and modern languages. Also Sister Maria may have suffered from a condition like schizophrenia, which made her imagine dialogues with the Devil,” said Abate to The Times.
"We heard about the software, which we believe is used by intelligence services for code-breaking,” Daniele Abate, the team’s leader, told British newspaper, The Times. Runic alphabet and Latin was used to unscramble some of the letters and show that it really is devilish.” The team managed to crack 15 lines of the code.
That we do know is that the author of the letter claimed that God is an invention of man and that God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are “dead weights.” “God thinks he can free mortals,” says the letter. “This system works for no one.” And in what appears to be a reference to the mythological river that supposedly lies on the edge of the underworld, another sentence reads, “Perhaps now, Styx is certain.”
Schizophrenia Connection. Many of the symptoms of schizophrenia appear to closely resemble the supposed signs of demonic possession. They include auditory hallucinations and strange fantasies. And similarly, the incomprehensible “word salad” spoken by some with the condition – which seems to reflect a breakdown in coherent thought – is perhaps not unlike the phenomenon of speaking in tongues.
It’s also worth noting that the type of delusions experienced by sufferers of schizophrenia appear to reflect their cultural context. For example, in Japan such skewed beliefs often revolve around shame. In Pakistan, meanwhile, friends and family members can be a source of paranoid fantasies. And in strongly Christian societies, the delusions often involve religion – such as believing oneself to be a prophet or, indeed, possessed by the Devil.
However, religion itself may be a catalyst for psychotic breakdowns – partly because of its unfathomable themes and otherworldly imagery and partly because it can engender a splitting apart of the psyche. It seems significant that Sister Maria experienced her spirituality as a source of conflict. Despite seeking refuge in a convent, she could not find salvation. Instead, the nun was apparently beset by those same demonic forces that the Bible beseeches us to resist.
Not all psychiatrists believe that demonic possession is a form of mental illness, though. Dr. Richard Gallagher of Columbia University, for one, claims to have seen scores of possession cases – possibly a higher number, in fact, than any other doctor on the planet. And according to Gallagher, demons are real – and one of the things they like to do is speak strange languages. Not all psychiatrists believe that demonic possession is a form of mental illness, though. Dr. Richard Gallagher of Columbia University, for one, claims to have seen scores of possession cases – possibly a higher number, in fact, than any other doctor on the planet. And according to Gallagher, demons are real – and one of the things they like to do is speak strange languages.
They’re fallen angels,” said Gallagher to newspaper The Daily Mail in June 2018. “They’re extremely bright, much brighter than humans. They’ve been around for millennia, so they speak all languages. I’ve heard them speak Chinese [and] ancient Greek, which I studied. I’ve certainly heard them speak and understand Latin… [They do it] probably to freak you out or to show off, to boast.”.
I understand [that] believing in evil spirits is not a very comforting belief, and it has implications that, you know, we don’t want to accept,” Gallagher went on. “Having said that, there’s plenty of alternate theories. [But] I don’t think that those theories usually hold water. And when you’ve seen some of these cases, you realize that this is clearly not something that could be explained by psychopathology, or trickery or anything like that.”
Furthermore, numerous mental health professionals share Gallagher’s belief, so the doctor is not alone. And according to Dr. Mark Albanese, some psychiatrists recognize that an individual’s spiritual beliefs, whatever they are, have a role to play. “There’s a certain openness to experiences that are happening that are beyond what we can explain by MRI scans, neurobiology or even psychological theories,” he told CNN in August 2017.
Ultimately, then, we are unlikely to ever know the truth about Sister Maria. She may have been possessed. She may have been psychotic. It’s even possible that she was nothing more than an attention seeker. Whatever the reality, though, the so-called Devil’s letter that she penned more than three centuries ago is weird enough to keep us guessing even today. Sometimes it is the gray areas between fact and fiction that offer the most intrigue.
Spirit-Digest Comments: We note that this letter adventure has all the elements of a diabolical stunt: centuries of fruitless searching churning thousands of hours of perplexity and confusion, finally concluding with heresy and outrageous lying (The nuns hung the letter in their convent for centuries and it still hangs there).
Please see
"Letter written by Devil Three Centuries Ago Finally Translated"
11/15/18
