ABSTRACT
Many Protestant and Catholic Christians, as well as adherents of other religious traditions, attribute a wide variety of mental and physical health challenges to demonic activity. It is common, in the United States and globally, to combine recourse to medicine and counseling with prayer: petitioning the divine for deliverance and commanding the demonic to depart. This chapter examines the contexts and contents of such communications. Who addresses the divine and the demonic? Whom do they believe they are addressing? What do people say and how, when, and where do they say it? What responses do they believe they receive? What do they perceive to be the effects of their conversations? What are the clinical implications? The chapter argues that physical and mental health needs can be addressed more effectively by considering patterns of communication between humans and perceived divine and demonic agents.
