Print List Price:	$15.99
Kindle Price:	$13.99 Save $2.00 (13%)
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishers Price set by seller.

Promotions apply when you purchase

Add an

audiobook with Audible narration for $12.99

Audiobook Price: $18.10

Save: $5.11 (28%)

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Follow the authors

Richard Gallagher

+ Follow

Richard Gallagher M.D.

+ Follow

See all

Stories from 25 Years Investigating the Demonic & ParanormalBooks & Gear Recommended by Shaun Tabatt

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Demonic Foes: My Twenty-Five Years as a Psychiatrist Investigating Possessions, Diabolic Attacks, and the Paranormal Kindle Edition

by Richard Gallagher (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.6 752 ratings

See all formats and editions

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

The world’s leading psychiatric authority on demonic possession delves into the hidden world of exorcisms and his own transformation from cynic to believer over the course of his twenty-five-year career.

Successful New York psychiatrist Richard Gallagher was skeptical yet intrigued when a hard-nosed, no-nonsense Catholic priest asked him to examine a woman for a possible exorcism. Meeting her, Gallagher was astonished. The woman’s behavior defied logic. In an instant, she could pinpoint a person’s secret weaknesses. She knew how individuals she’d never known had died, including Gallagher’s own mother, who passed away after a lengthy battle with ovarian cancer. She spoke fluently in multiple languages, including Latin—but only when she was in a trance.

This was not psychosis, Gallagher concluded. It was, in his scientific estimation, what could only be describe as paranormal ability. The woman wasn’t mentally disturbed—she was possessed. This remarkable case was the first of many that Gallagher would encounter. Sought after today by leaders of all faiths—ministers, priests, rabbis and imams, Gallagher has spent a quarter-century studying demonic activity and exorcisms throughout history and has witnessed more cases than any other psychiatrist in the world today.

In this eerie and enthralling book, Gallagher chronicles his most famous cases for the first time, including:

A professional who claimed her spiritualist mother had “assigned” her a spirit who “turned on her.”
A petite woman—”90 pounds soaking wet”—who threw a 200-pound Lutheran deacon across the room to the horror of onlookers in a church hall;
And “Julia,” the so-called Satanic queen and self-described witch, who exhibited “the most harrowing” case, a “once-in-a-century” possession.

Going beyond horror movies and novels, Demonic Foes takes you deep into this hidden world, sharing in full details of these true-life tales of demonic possession.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A thought-provoking read sure to attract intrigued skeptics and believers alike.” — Booklist

About the Author

Richard Gallagher, MD, a board-certified psychiatrist, is a professor of psychiatry at New York Medical and a psychoanalyst on the faculty of Columbia University. He graduated from Princeton University, Phi Beta Kappa in classics, and trained as a resident in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. The world’s foremost scientific expert on the subject of diabolic attacks, he has been an active member of the International Association of Exorcists since the 1990s. He lives in Westchester, New York.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07MK37K4F
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperOne (October 6, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 6, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3999 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 267 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #189,250 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #26 in Occult Satanism
- #37 in Angelology & Demonology
- #48 in Popular Experimental Psychology

Customer Reviews:
4.6 752 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Upload your video

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Richard Gallagher
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
See more on the author's page
Richard Gallagher M.D.
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.
A board-certified psychiatrist and highly experienced clinician and teacher, Richard Gallagher, M.D. is a professor of psychiatry at NY Medical College and a psychoanalyst on the faculty of Columbia University. He earned a bachelor's degree at Princeton University in Classics, Phi beta Kappa, winning the class Stinnecke Scholarship Award in Latin and Greek. After teaching and playing basketball in France, he came back to the U.S. for medical school and eventually trained as a resident in psychiatry at Yale University. He is the longest-standing member of the International Association of Exorcists since the early 1990's, serving for a time as a scientific adviser on its governing board. He has devoted many years to distinguishing the rare cases of overt demonic attacks from the much more common conditions of medical and psychiatric disorders. In this capacity Dr. Gallagher has undoubtedly seen more cases of possession - many quite harrowing - than any other physician in the world. He lives in Westchester, N.Y., after serving for many years as the county's psychiatric emergency and crisis director.
See more on the author's page

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

752 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Reviews with images

See all photos

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Dennis

Very persuasive book.

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2024

Verified Purchase

This is a level headed book by a scientifically grounded psychiatrist. Demons are usually considered supernatural so they lie outside the realm of science. The doctors task was to exclude any known forms of mental or physical processes to explain the phenomena he and the exorcist witnessed. His conclusion is that after all scientific explanations are exhausted, demons do exist.

Helpful

Sheena Leader Of the Fuzzheads

A valuable addition to the literature written by exorcists

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is a sane, very well written account of a psychiatrist's years' long investigation into exorcism, and demonic assaults on people. The author is careful to establish his credentials as a scientist. What's unusual is he has avoided "scientism", thinking that science can explain everything that befalls people. His accounts of interviews with people, as he assisted Catholic exorcists in their investigations, cover both those cases that are probably psychological in nature, and those that are truly demonic. It's unusual to find a book this lucid on the topic. (It makes a decent companion to Fr. Vincent Lampert's book "Exorcism", to Thomas Allen's "Possessed" and to the several books by Fr. Gabriele Amorth on exorcism.) His accounts are respectful and compassionate as he describes people suffering from psychological or physical problems mistaken for demonic assaults; he likewise avoids sensationalistic descriptions of those truly under attack.
The author acknowledges that committed skeptics will not be swayed by his accounts. He isn't aiming at them, but at people who are still open minded enough to allow for the possibility of non-naturalistic interference in some people's lives.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sue in Arizona

Important compendium, but imbalanced

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book is a compendium of direct experiences, illustrative cases, and understandings. It is a complex book, not black-and-white, looking for truth between the extremes of "Satanic panic" and dismissal of the phenomenon. The author is an expert at discerning between mental illness and spiritual attack. (And I think they both can be happening at the same time, too, in complex ways.) The author considers the mysteries of the universe, and he maintains the motive of wanting to help alleviate suffering and torment, and assist in spiritual healing and maturation.

I learned a lot from this book, about my own direct experiences. I understood with more clarity behaviors, motives, and machinations of the demonic world.

I feel a kinship with the author of this book, that our spiritual work intersects, in a world (at least my own personal world) where relatively few have heard of or experienced such things. I appreciate his careful and thoughtful project, to bring his large amount of experience together in one book, to advance the field, so that those who are attacked can be better helped.

I am not a Christian fundamentalist, which I suspect this author may be. Reading this book was like the author reaching across the aisle to me -- someone of different spiritual experience and understanding -- to help clarify and expand my own thinking. I, in kind, with this review, am reaching back across the aisle, to the author, to add my own direct experience and understanding, and hopefully broaden his perspective, too.

The 2 main things that I have to add, to the material in this book are:

1) Psychic senses are neutral – they can sense both Dark and Light – they are not demonic (as the book maintains).

2) If you can psychically experience demons, you can psychically experience angels and beings of Light, too (the book only mentions the demonic, not the angelic).

To expand on that: Unlike many presented in the book, I myself was never drawn to, nor did I participate in, "the occult," in any way. I also do not identify with the term "New Age." 13 years ago, I had a kundalini awakening and became psychic. My kundalini awakening was instigated in a secular meditation class. I had no intention of having a kundalini awakening, and the teacher had no intention for anyone he taught to have a kundalini awakening -- he knew nothing about that. Over time, the kundalini awakening opened my psychic senses (clairaudience -- psychic hearing, clairsentience -- psychic feeling and psychic energies, and a tiny bit of clairvoyance -- psychic seeing). What that means, is that I am able to sense things beyond the visible world (the "3rd dimension"). There are several different things that I have sensed, but for the purposes of responding to this particular book, the main things I have sensed are demons and angels, and the main energies I have sensed are energies of Darkness and energies of Light. People who "sense" "God" in their prayer life and meditation -- that is a psychic sense, too -- intuition. Some people have more developed psychic senses, some less. I know people who have much greater psychic senses than me.

There is a body of research about "kundalini awakening" -- see Lee Sannella, M.D. – that says that the purpose and result of kundalini awakening is to restructure and mature the nervous and energy systems of the human body so that it can better commune with the Divine.

The 5 people I know personally, who are psychic but much moreso than me, they each draw a clear distinction between Light and Dark. Four of them are professional psychic healers. They taught me to not interact with demons at all. They are not fortune-tellers, and they are not trying to make money by telling you hidden knowledge. They are healers, trying to assist people to heal, spiritually. Including people like me, who are tormented and seeking relief. That is the only kind of psychic I have ever encountered, in my own search. They were each of great integrity and morality, and they each eschewed Darkness in any and all forms. (There are a lot of psychics out there, and being psychic is neutral, so I am sure that not all psychics are of such utmost integrity.)

I am not a professional psychic. I am just a person with a personal relationship with the "God" of my experience.

It is true, in my experience, like the book says, that demons, as one of their ploys of seduction, provide "the power of hidden knowledge." They know other people's private business, and they lack boundaries and can make that business known to you, to seduce and manipulate you. My own personal psychic senses do not go into other people's private business. Demons are exponentially more intelligent, psychic, and powerful than humans, in my experience and understanding, and their behavior lacks boundaries, morality, and integrity. I have no interest in their hidden knowledge or anything that comes from the Dark.

In the book, it is shown that the power of God is necessary, to heal possession and oppression. But the book tells of the behaviors of the Dark in detail, but does not include corresponding information about the Light. In my psychic experience, and as the book shows, demons can be belligerent, loud, cruel, interested in causing terror and despair, interested in power and control. In contrast, I have psychically experienced beings of Light as gentle, kind, nurturing, concerned, patient, and loving -- a love more pure and beautiful than anything I have experienced, beyond my understanding and comprehension. They protect, encourage, empower, guide, heal. They are unintrusive (you must invite their presence), infrequent in their guidance (no micro-management, unlike demons), and soft, like a whisper. They always honor free will. Light beings are not included in this book. Perhaps because the Dark aggressively seizes center stage, and makes itself known to “science”, but the Light lovingly watches from backstage, and intercedes without being scientifically observable. The Dark obstructs Love, the Light is Love. To be able to love like the Light is the highest aspiration.

One last piece that is not included in the scope of this book: An experienced, knowledgeable psychic told me that demons should not be punished, and that they are redeemable, but that is beyond human ability, that is between them and God.

The battle between Goodness and Evil in the universe is beyond my intelligence and comprehension. I tried to stick to my direct experience here. There are others who comprehend a lot more -- I wish these various fields could intermingle their experience and knowledge. I will make one stab in the dark, which may be entirely untrue -- since demons try to obstruct God (Love), maybe they have something to do with the Christian fundamentalist belief that psychics are demonic, which would deny Christian fundamentalists an important source of information about God/Light.

89 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bea

An amazing book from a respected source!

Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2023

Verified Purchase

Anything demon related kind of freaks me out but I was attracted to this book for some reason. As a Christian I have no doubt that there is a spiritual world all around us. The author's background is fascinating. As a psychiatrist he did not seek out doing assessments to differentiate between mental illness and demon possession but was pulled into it decades ago and has since done diagnoses and exorcisms around the world, pro bono.

Some of the most interesting aspects of the book to me were the case studies and his delving into why people had some level of demon possession. He includes the different levels of demon involvement and the way each level is dealt with to clear the home or the person of the possession. I certainly had never given any thought to the fact that some demons are smarter than others and that their personalities differ. The exorcisms were described and The Exorcist was much closer to reality than I realized. This was one of those books that I won't set aside and forget that I read. I would add- be careful what you delve into in the occult, even in a surface way.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Andrea Gust

Flawless!

Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2023

Verified Purchase

Expertly written and concisely crafted. This book offers an intellectual look at a very nebulous subject. The author offers actual cases he has worked on and explains elegantly the difference between madness and actual demon possession and let's the reader weigh the facts presented. I couldn't put it down!

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

R. Freeman

Whoa... Eye Opening

Reviewed in Canada on April 25, 2024

Verified Purchase

Hard to argue with the author and his level-headed scientific approach, combined with decades of real-world experience.

I have passed this book around to friends who are PHD's, one is a Psychiatrist and another a GP. Both were very impressed with the research, and we had some really interesting conversations afterwards.

If you are in a book club, read this. Then watch everyone's heads explode.

Carlos Baptista

Excellent

Reviewed in Brazil on February 8, 2023

Verified Purchase

Wise, sober, and eye-opening book about the foes "wandering through the world, seeking the ruin of souls". A must read.

Five Star Reviews

An important point of reference for Doctors.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

It's extremely rare that this subject is written about by such a highly qualified and experienced Psychiatrist as Doctor Gallagher, who is prepared to stick his head over the parapet and speak openly about this very taboo subject from a medical point of view.

Doctor Gallagher takes a very balanced view when dealing with patients in ascertaining where their problem lies, and explores every possible cause FIRST, ensuring there is no automatic rush to judgement in assuming that a person is under Demonic attack. Moreover, in Chapter 6 under the heading "Troubles of the Mind", Gallagher goes to great lengths to outline numerous mental health conditions which some might mistakenly identify as Demonic, such as Dissociative Identity Disorder (more commonly known as Multiple Personality Disorder).

In the medical world it seems very little is being done to help those under GENUINE attack from intelligent, highly dangerous, non-human entities. Both ignorance and open hostility at the mere mention of the word Demonic is endemic within the medical profession and, as things stand, there is little evidence to show this situation will change any time soon. It seems that within the different strands of science the consensus seems to be that if something cannot be measured then it cannot exist. This approach flies in the face of all the evidence acquired over hundreds of years across many different cultures, resulting in enormous pain and suffering inflicted on those who require professional spiritual help but are deliberately denied the help they need. Many Doctors are puzzled as to why some patients do not respond to ANY sort of medical treatment and will totally ignore and dismiss what is blindingly obvious to those with an intimate knowledge of the Demonic, rare though it is. However, as Gallagher points out, NO amount of evidence will convince a commited sceptic.

Gallagher cites cases where patients have been referred to a Priest after all medical issues have been explored and no medical cause found, and where Doctors have been dumbfounded when a patient has made a full recovery after receiving specialist spiritual assistance.

What is clear is that Demonic attack can happen to any person from any walk of life, even the most saintly. It is still a mystery why some individuals are targeted by these unseen dark forces and others are not. However, those involved in the Occult in its various forms place themselves in very grave danger, attracting the attention of powerful and dangerous non-human entities. This should not be taken lightly or dismissed as merely superstitious nonsense since the consequences for those engaged in the practice of Witchcraft, Satanism, Wicca, New Age Religions etc can prove disastrous, even fatal.

It is worth noting that Christ made a very clear distinction between those suffering from a medical condition and those tormented by the Demonic, curing both in very different ways. Chapter 5 of Mark's Gospel is of particular interest as it describes incidents which highlight this very point and which also fall way beyond modern scientific understanding. As Shakespeare wrote "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy". (Hamlet).

13 people found this helpful

Aadil

Great book - treating a controversial and tricky topic with great skill

Reviewed in Australia on July 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

This is a tricky topic to write about for many reasons. There are biases involved and the nature of such things makes it hard to draw any simple conclusions. The author with a good understanding of history, religion, psychology as well as years of experience in the field, is able to navigate this well.

The conclusions he draws match up with what I have long suspected. There are a number of cases I've heard/seen which seem to defy any material explanation, and they are very similar to the ones Gallagher identifies here. These have been more in an Islamic context.

I appreciate Dr Gallagher not forcing his views and keeping an open mind throughout, as well as respecting other religions and religious traditions.

Buy for others

Buying and sending eBooks to others

Follow the authors

Image Unavailable

Demonic Foes: My Twenty-Five Years as a Psychiatrist Investigating Possessions, Diabolic Attacks, and the Paranormal Kindle Edition

Customers who bought this item also bought

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

Product details

Videos for this product

Stories from 25 Years Investigating the Demonic & Paranormal

About the authors

Richard Gallagher

Richard Gallagher M.D.

Customer reviews

Reviews with images

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries