Article by Brent L. George

What is an incubus? What is a succubus? Are they real, or the stuff of fantasy and science fiction? Where do they come from? What do they want with humanity?

As paranormal investigators, we have only seen a small handful of cases that may even possibly have been what is known as an incubus. They are exceedingly rare. Such cases DO happen, though. The most famous and well-documented case was the 1974 case of Doris Bither in Culver City, California, who was repeatedly raped by an unknown force. A local university even investigated the case. The case was the basis for the 1978 novel “The Entity” which was later released as a major motion picture.

So what are these things? There is to this date a lot of debate about that question. Most people who acknowledge their existence seem to agree that they are demonic in nature. An incubus is loosely defined as a male spirit who engages in sexual intercourse with a woman. The plural of incubus is incubi. A succubus, then, is a female spirit who has sexual intercourse with a man. The plural of succubus is succubi. There is some evidence to suggest that same-sex incubus and succubus encounters also take place.

These sexual encounters most typically take place just as a person is falling asleep, or right after they are awakened, often in the middle of the night. However, they can happen at any time, even in broad daylight, as was seen in the Doris Bither case.

The stuff of fantasy and science fiction?  Hardly. These types of entities have been reported since the 10^th Century A.D. and even before that. Those ancient claims before the Dark Ages are the same as the claims today: unseen entities that force themselves upon the living at bedtime and engage in full penetrative intercourse with their bodies, either against their will, or consensually.

Consensually?  You mean someone might have sex with one of these things of their own free will, even inviting it? Again yes, and history is littered with examples of this — most pointedly witches burned at the stake for “wanton fornication with devils.” Indeed, sex with demonic spirits was one of the most common charges during the Salem Witch Trials.

S.P.I.R.I.T investigated a case in which a young woman became detached from her family and her responsibilities, instead locking herself in her room for hours at a time talking to and apparently engaging in prolonged consensual intercourse with the entity.

As a lifelong student of the paranormal (and having grown up in an extremely haunted house) I have personally researched and studied the question of the incubi and succubi for decades. I have come to the inescapable conclusion that these entities are very very real, and potentially harmful. Attempting to summon one will ALWAYS end in disaster, ESPECIALLY using a Ouija Board. That is like feeding yourself to a pool of starving man-eating sharks. Long-term consensual cases are rare and can be very dangerous.

The toughest cases to document are of course the rare consensual cases – people just don’t report that they are getting it on with a demon on a regular basis. The question doesn’t crop up at the office water cooler. So why would anyone consent to such a thing in the first place? Surely only people who have problems with social interactions with other people would even consider such a thing. Again, no. The truth is, Lucy Liu, Anna Nicole Smith, even porn stars have all publicly admitted to ongoing sexual relations with amorous spirits. When asked why, the answer is always the same: sex with these spirits is ridiculously pleasurable, as they have the ability to manipulate our bodies in ways that a human may not be able to.

How dangerous is it? There has been a lot of debate about that question. An ongoing sexual relationship with an entity is essentially a personal choice, and one assumes the risks involved, just as in any other relationship. You can’t get a disease from a spirit, and you’re not going to get pregnant (believe it or not, there is some debate in paranormal communities about this last point). However, it is very important to understand why an entity would want to engage in sexual acts with a living human body. The answer is very simple: life force and metabolic energy. Sure, it is pleasurable for them (the spirits) as well, but the end game is that during the sex act they can and every single time will take some of your life force energy. This energy is eventually replaced by your body’s metabolism and heart, but losing too much of it at one time could leave you weakened enough to catch a flu or just simply be completely exhausted.

Some people claim that sex with an incubus or succubus steals pieces of your soul, the more religious folks among us typically suggest that there are afterlife repercussions to sex with these entities. An online forum I once read made the more ludicrous suggestion that each consensual encounter with an incubus or succubus is a month in Hell. Seems everyone has an opinion about this.     

Like any other relationship, a willing and consensual sexual relationship with a spirit most likely boils down to making smart choices — practice safe paranormal, people!

The more disturbing element is the other half of all of this — forcible rape and sexual attack by a spirit. Not okay in any realm, and we need to know how to combat and stop such attacks. It’s part of what we aim to be able to do as paranormal investigators.

Understanding the Incubi and Succubi

In order to figure out how to stop an unwanted forcible incubus or succubus attack, we have to first gain a better understanding of what these entities are, and where they come from.

According to some occult texts, the incubi and succubi were the demonic offspring of Lilith and Lucifer, essentially Hell’s equivalent of Adam and Eve. This is of course assuming you believe in such things as Hell and the Devil. There is a distinction here – these are not ordinary demons. The demons are the Legion of angels who fell from Heaven and followed Lucifer to create Hell in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The incubi and the succubi are different — they are the specific offspring of Lucifer and Lilith. Some esoteric texts differ on the question of how many of these incubi and succubi were created, but the general consensus in such circles puts the number at between 10,000 – 20,000 of them. Considering that Legion is supposedly a force that numbers in the millions, we are talking about entities that are pretty sparse in number by comparison. Most stories agree that Lilith was placed in charge of the incubi and succubi — some texts have her expelling them from Hell as outcasts, other texts (and this is the more common story) have her sending them out into the Earth to cause havoc and tempt humans into sin.

Then it gets even more complicated — there was a division amongst the incubi and the succubi themselves — upon being sent upon the Earth to do as they pleased, roughly half of them fell in love with humanity and decided to ally themselves with those humans who would listen. The rewards of this alliance were obvious — the human who accepts gets a demonic bodyguard for life, and mind blowing sex on a regular basis. The demon gets an endless supply of human life force energy, which to them is like filling up on High Octane Premium Unleaded Fuel.

The other half of these entities viewed humans as pathetic creatures undeserving of their mutual respect and love. This half of the incubi and succubi swore opposition to humanity, vowing to take as they please through forcible rape and physical assault on all but defenseless humans. This placed the “good” incubi and succubi in the awkward position of having to defend their willing human hosts against their own kind, which is where the situation essentially stands today.

The math works – a population of 7 billion humans affected by a spirit population of 20,000 at the maximum — the chances of running into an incubus or a succubus, whether friendly or evil (the word “evil” here simply means with intent to do harm to humanity, for the sake of the conversation) in one human lifetime, especially in the modern world, is low. It just doesn’t happen that often. When it does, the experience can range from a positive, almost religious experience to the most terrified a person has ever been in their life. Again, attempting to summon one of these entities will likely attract the wrong kind, and you’ll end up terrified and under constant attack.

How to Fight an Incubus or a Succubus    

Armed with this information, we can form a strategy in fighting off incubus and succubus attacks, then.

• Consent is Everything

The first key here is consent. Any willing consent or inviting the entity back, whether the entity is forcible or not, instantly undoes any cleansing or banishing, even the most impenetrable voodoo cleansing. It simply is not worth the paranormal investigator’s time to try to combat an entity who is being given the All Access Pass as soon as they (the investigators) leave a client’s home.

• They Are a Different Class of Demon – Holy Water May Have No Effect

The incubi and succubi were not created the same was as full-on demons (attack by a full demon is super rare and is noted by the presence of possession – incubi and succubi typically do not possess their hosts, as this is counterproductive to syphoning the host’s energy for fuel). They are offspring of fallen angels, as such many believe they are less affected by religious symbols such as a crucifix or Holy Water. Indeed, there are many documented cases of snickering and laughter as a priest attempted to confront an incubus with such methods. These methods will not hurt anything during a cleansing, but the informed investigator should be aware that they do not typically work on incubi and succubi. What you want are sealants that reinforce the client’s desire to be rid of the entity – lines in the sand that tell the entity it is not wanted and not invited — red brick dust, black salt, tar water, lines of powdered sage and pure sea salt (especially a mix of sea salt and sage). Smudging can be very effective. Incubi and succubi also seem to hate sandalwood, cedar, and Palo Santo wood smoke. They LIKE incenses that smell good; spreading frankincense and myrrh around is therefore usually less effective – burn smudges that smell bad to them, and again, cedar, Palo Santo wood, and sandalwood in particular seem to irritate them.

• GET LOST!!

Above all else, it is the client who has the ultimate power over the unwanted entity. Using the above methods — especially smudging and salt / sage lines – while the client participates in the cleansing and tells it “No more! I didn’t invite you here and I sever any tie you have formed with me or this house! I reject you and banish you from this house and from my life!” You get the idea….

• Sometimes They Come Back

Even if a cleansing (this should really be thought of as a banishing) goes perfectly, it is probably going to try to come back. It may attack in the form of sexual dreams. There is no easy way to combat this, but there are a few tricks that might help. Before the client goes to sleep, he or she should say aloud “I am alone and I am protected!” Have the client envision themselves surrounded by white light. Draw a circle of a powdered sage / sea salt mix around the bed, stating that nothing may enter the circle. Have the client meditate before bed and tell him or herself that if a sexual dream begins they will wake up. Anchoring the bed the way one would anchor a property may help. Incidentally, if an incubus or succubus ever shows / has shown itself in its true form to the client, it cannot appear in a dream as a human being. In the end, the client has to stay steadfast in telling the incubus or succubus to get out — it is not going to break the person’s will. The idea here is to sever all ties to the entity and give it the idea that it has been handed it’s walking papers and the client is not ever going to be worth its trouble. As a last resort, a period of total and steadfast abstinence from any sexual activity will likely cause the entity to lose interest and go away. This of course can be temporary, until the entity seems gone for good.

• Remember – It Wants You to Give In

A powerful incubus or succubus can take by force, as in the Doris Bither case. What it really wants though is your surrender – incubi and succubi want your energy, and getting you to give it willingly makes it a hundred times easier for them to take it. Refuse them every single time, and the attacks will stop when it figures out there are easier prey.

In my personal opinion, the reason the Doris Bither case went on so long (over a decade) could have been that she may have periodically been giving in to it. One such “weak moment” is all the encouragement the entity needs to hang around.

Conclusion

The incubi and succubi are ages old, very real and are among us, and from a paranormal study point of view, fascinating. They are completely invisible and often do not show up on most common paranormal investigation equipment. They are the least written about type of entity, and the most poorly understood. The Doris Bither case is the only known footage of a human engaging in sexual intercourse with a demon (against her will) but if one believes the anecdotal evidence, it happens more frequently than one could ever imagine.

Some have postulated that the incubi and the succubi are the original inspiration for the Vampire mythology. This investigator has personally seen numerous online testimonies claiming these entities destroyed lives, marriages, and families. I have also seen some testimonies claiming that a demon lover can be the most incredible experience of a person’s life.

No matter what any of the forums you may find online say (bad or good), the bottom line is, if you feel victimized, bullied, or forced into interaction with one of these entities, if it hurts you or scares you — you have the right and obligation to say NO and use the very effective methods listed above to regain your life. This is no different than if a living human was trying to force you into sexual acts, you wouldn’t find that acceptable – this is not either.

If you are being attacked, take control, set the boundaries, you do not have to live like this. There is no reason to accept being forced into sexual attacks; with the spirit realm or otherwise. You have the ability to reclaim your space.

 It is not understood whether ghosts (the spirits of deceased humans) can have sex with the living the way an incubus or a succubus can, though most would tend to think not. What is unanimously understood is that these entities are very powerful, much more so than any formerly human spirit, and any spiritual warfare with them will likely be primarily psychological warfare — for it is our very essence and cooperation that they desire the most. They know something we sometimes forget — that ultimately WE have the power to deal with them. Perhaps that understanding will lead paranormal investigators to one day capture convincing proof of the incubi and the succubi.