We need to learn to navigate the treacherous maelstroms of despair, to recognize the self-absorption of demonic states, to veer away from prudence and vanity, and to avoid mere conformity to social mores.
"Many children today sit glued in front of the TV, being brainwashed by all sorts of demonic influences," states a November release from Assocham, or the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.
In the 2nd century ad, Clement of Alexandria, a Christian philosophical theologian, pointed toward a psychological interpretation of demonic forces by stating that man was often captivated by the inner appetitive drives of his passions and bodily desires.
Further demonic embodiments of states of consciousness come when the exhibition looks at the "reversible coma" that is general anaesthetic, the very common medical practice that puts the patient in a bizarre state of mind that "is as close to brainstem death as it is possible to get and survive".
Shearsmith is undoubtedly its most compelling presence, notably in an extraordinary slo-mo sequence when he emerges from the alchemist's tent in a deeply sinister state of demonic ecstasy.
A recent survey in the Economist suggests that the internet generation is much more libertarian than ours, and, of course, these are the people who will have to live with the consequences of the demonic alliance between the state and communications providers.
When we finally came back to Ralph, he was asked about the state of demonic possession today.
In Graeber's neo-anarchist view, the state is a demonic force thwarting human freedom.
On a recent visit, Mr. Walker demonstrated with a bright-green cactus, fresh from a packing carton and replete with a snarl of plastic spikes, that looked in its natural, artificial state like a demonic baseball.
Under his 3D scheme, when one of these elements was detectable, the line had been crossed: double standards (judging Israel by one standard and all other countries by another), delegitimization (the conclusion that Israel had no right to exist), or demonization (regarding the Israeli state not merely as wrongheaded or mistaken but as a demonic force in the contemporary world).
