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Likewise, Peck believes that the human will is crucial to the success of the exorcism. In the context of prayer, the wills of the exorcist, the team, and God himself are joined with the patient's will to strengthen it. But, Peck believes, there is still a key moment at which the patient must make the decision to be freed.

Peck contrasts human freedom with the bondage of demons and Satan. On the third day of Beccah's exorcism, Peck tells Satan, "[D]emons have remarkably little free will … they are tightly organized like little soldiers in an army under your command. Individually they have very little room to maneuver, to exercise any kind of independent judgment, precious little freedom." Satan itself is condemned to futile repetition of its unproductive attacks on God.

Peck buttresses this view with sound teaching: "Christian doctrine holds that the Devil was defeated the moment Christ died on the Cross and, while it often doesn't seem that way, that when we are fighting with the forces of evil, it is actually a mop-up operation. … Satan is basically on the run."

In John 8, Jesus tells those who resist his teaching: "[The Devil] has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me" (John 8:44-45, ESV). But what are demonic lies? For Peck they are heresies, theological lies, false pictures of spiritual reality.

The patient Jersey had a problem confronting pain, so Peck asked her how Jesus died. She told him that Jesus was crucified, but that it didn't hurt.

"What do you mean it didn't hurt," Peck objected, "with his feet being nailed together and his whole body in spasm?"

"Oh," she said, "he was just so advanced in his Christ consciousness that he was able to project himself into his astral body and take off from there."

As Peck learned, this is a form of the ancient heresy called Docetism. He "discovered Jersey to be a walking textbook of heresies," he writes. And each of her demons was identified with a false belief.

Some heretical sects (such as Christian Science) teach that evil and sin are not so much real in themselves, but the reflection of bad ideas. Classic Christianity teaches that human nature is corrupt and inclines us to sin, and so profound is this reality that no amount of right thinking can cure it—only Christ's death on the Cross. Peck rightly bridges these two approaches by recognizing that evil and sin are real, but are often the result of the Devil's fostering false thinking.

In the exorcisms, Peck used the ancient baptismal vows (with their renunciations of the Devil), and team and patient partook of the Eucharist to seal the victory over the Devil. And yet, despite some behavioral and even spiritual improvement (including increased humility—pride being the Devil's besetting sin), these patients did not become model Christians.

But just as not all the lepers Jesus healed followed or even thanked him, so those who are delivered from possession do not all follow Jesus. Peck's courage in reporting complexities like this makes his account rich for theological reflection.

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. for reprint information.

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February 2005, Vol. 49, No. 2