The Professional Demonologist employed by somebody is really a thing of the past.
You may occasionally see the term online, but these roles tend to be voluntary roles for people who have a passionate interest in the topic.
Frequently these will be related to Paranormal Investigator (see also my article on this role).
Groups of enthusiasts may gather together and call themselves demonologists, and some of these amateurs may earn money from their interest, but not in a paid role.
In this article, we will look at this further.
Table of Contents
What is a Demonologist?
Demonology is the study of Demons and the various beliefs that diverse people have about Demons.
A Demon may be human, non-human, or a soul that has never been attached to a body.
>> Check No. #1 Software For Paranormal Investigators! <<
The understanding of what a Demon is will change according to cultural influences.
In the west, Demonologists are typically studying Christian Demonology.
However, Demons’ belief goes back a very long way in history, and many established religions reference them.
Zoroastrianism
In the Zoroastrian Faith, founded in modern-day Iran (Persia), they mention 3,333 Demons.
Each of these Demons has a special area of responsibility.
For example:
- Anger (Kheshm)
- Grief (Akoman)
- and Envy (Areshk)
This obscure religion has influenced western civilizations more than people realize.
Voltaire, Nietzsche, and Freddie Mercury (from the band Queen) have declared it their inspiration.
Zoroastrians were the first world religion to worship just one God and introduced heaven, hell, Satan, and Demons.
These were picked up by other religions later.
So, Zarathustra (the founder of the religion) is where the concept of Demons began.
Many years before Dante Divine Comedy, the book of Zoroastrian, Arda Viraf, described a journey to Heaven and Hell.
Many scholars now believe it is possible that the book was the inspiration for Dante’s later work.
Today Zoroastrianism still exists as a minority religion in parts of Iran.
It once spread to Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and large parts of Asia.
It, as you can see, also had a major influence in the west. Did you know that Satan and Demons were largely a Zoroastrian concept?
Islam
Islam, the religion that swept through Iran, displacing the Zorastrian Faith as the major religion, picked up the concept of Satan and Demons (as did Christianity).
Shayatin is the usual term for Demons in Islam.
In Islam, Demons exist to tempt humans to sin and drift away from God.
The Islamic belief in Demons stretches back as far as Solomon (from the old testament), who was said to have had Demons as slaves.
Bahaí Faith
The Bahaí Faith, also from Iran, is more recent and sees demons as a metaphor for humans’ base character, which occurs when a man turns away from God.
Belief in ghosts and other earthbound spirits are all seen as mere superstition.
Some modern Christians believe that Demons and such are purely metaphors, which causes division with evangelical Christians that believe in the physical existence of these elements.
Other religions worldwide all have various understandings of what Demons are, and this is the area that Demononologists study.
A subsection of Demonology would study the subject only from the Christian point of view, which is quite common in the west.
These people are called Christian Demonologists.
Becoming a Demonologist
There are no accredited college courses that train individuals to become professional Demonologists.
The very best you may find is a module in a theology degree covering Demonology.
Even these are far and few between these days.
Since the role of Demonomologist is a voluntary one, a mere description of what you are interested in, there are no general education requirements for the job.
I could announce tomorrow that I am a Demonologist, and nobody could challenge me.
However, if you declare yourself to be a Demonologist, people would expect you to understand the subject in great detail, so a lot of private study and reading would be required not to look foolish.
You may be lucky enough to meet someone who has such knowledge and spend time with them picking up skills and knowledge.
Obviously, this would not be a paid position.
You would assist in exchange for gaining knowledge.
Software For Demonogist And Paranormal Investigators
If you plan to become a Demonologist or Paranormal Investigator, you’ll face one challenge and that is how to keep track of your investigations and how to create professional reports for your clients.
Luckily, there is this software that can solve these problems.
It’s called “P.L.A.N.” – The Paranormal Log & Analyst Notebook, and it will allow you to track the investigations, manage evidence, or print reports on results and findings.
I highly recommend this software – it’s a great tracker that will make the administration part easier and that will bring your reports and tracking to next level.
The Most Famous Demonologists
As I said, Demonologists are really a career from the past.
However, there were professional Demonologists, and the most famous team was Ed and Lorraine Warren.
In my article, they were mentioned as paranormal investigators (which they were), but they mostly referred to themselves as Demonologists.
Ed and Lorraine Warren
Edward Warren and Lorraine Warren Edward were self-proclaimed demonologists, paranormal investigators, and authors who had connections with several prominent incidents over the years.
Lorraine described herself as a Clairvoyant and Medium.
The Warrens claimed to have had over 10,000 investigations during their career.
The Warren’s claimed to be investigators of the infamous cases: Annabelle, Amityville, Enfield poltergeist, Cheyenne Johnson, Snedeker house, Smurl family, and Union Cemetery.
They have published a lot of books on cases they were involved in.
There have also been a large number of movies based upon their stories.
Additionally, they have been invited to make a lot of speeches about their work.
Finally, they used to have a museum in their back garden where people paid to see some of the items retrieved from the cases.
I list all these income sources to highlight that all though Demonologists typically do not get paid for consultations, they can make a lot of money off the back of their work from talks, books, movie deals, and more.
Unfortunately, there is increasing evidence that Ed and Lorraine Warren had a public face and a hidden reality in their life.
Publically they were described as a charming couple. Still, in 2017 Judith Penney announced that she had an underage sexual relationship with Ed Warren at the age of 15, which resulted in her getting pregnant, and later having an abortion.
She also revealed that Ed was abusive to Lorraine.
This was all revealed in a sworn statement from Penney.
Another famous Paranormal investigator, Guy Lyon Playfair, also revealed in an interview before he died that involvement in the Enfield Poltergeist case from the Warrens was minimal.
Their brief appearance at the scene was more about trying to make money than investigate the case.
The reality is that Guy Lyon Playfair was the main investigator and the Warrens tried to insert themselves in the case.
Warren’s remark to Playfair was to explain to Playfair how much money Warren could help him make on the case.
On several occasions, other investigators have commented that the material published by Warren in his books was deeply embellished and that Warren arrived at scenes having already come to a conclusion and manipulated facts to make them fit his conclusion.
Clearly, none of this is what you would expect from a serious Demonologist and demonstrates how cases like this can be exploited to be used for financial gain.
Guy Lyon Playfair
Guy Leon Playfair, perhaps the second most famous Demonologist/Paranormal investigator (there is a great deal of overlap between the two roles), was not immune from criticism.
Unlike Warren, there is no talk of any dishonesty at Playfair’s party, but he is frequently criticized for being a bad investigator who was easily fooled.
Fred Batt
Fred Batt is a self-described demonologist and works as the demonologist on the famous TV show “Most haunted.”
He claims he is the one employed Demonologist in the UK.
Adam Blair
Adam Blai is probably the closest thing that there is to a traditional Demonologist.
He works for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections as a clinical psychologist and expert in religious demonology and exorcism.
He trains priests in exorcism across the USA and is called upon to assist in house blessings and exorcisms.
I do not know of any other individual doing this today-very much except the rule as he is actually paid to exorcise demons.
How to Make a Living as a Demonologist
It must be clear to readers by now that there is no such job as Demonologist (apart from just one or two exceptions).
There is no salary attached to be a Demonologist, and there is no requirement needed to call yourself a Demonologist.
The role of a Demonologist is simply making yourself an acknowledged expert in the topic of Demons.
Then exploit that knowledge in various types of media.
Quite probably, the best route is to publish YouTube videos on your own YouTube channels in the hope that you can make money from adverts.
You could also self-publish books through Amazon using your experiences and knowledge.
In the same way that victims of paranormal events typically do not pay Paranormal Investigators for consultations, nobody will normally pay a Demonologist to investigate an incident.
The Demonologist will investigate and then later publish the story.
Conclusion
Becoming a Demonologist is a combination of a researcher, author, video presenter, and public speaker.
I think it is fair to say that “Demonologist” is possibly the rarest job that exists.
However, it might make an interesting hobby.