DeathWatch: We Have an Exorcist!

    I found this to be extremely fascinating when I saw it on Yahoo News the other day, and so I decided to share it with you.
    As you may or may not know, Pope Francis has a bit of a problem with the devil. That shouldn't be all that surprising, considering he's, you know, the pope, but he tends to mention the Lord of the Flies quite a lot--on March 14th, in his first homily as pope, he warned the cardinals in the Sistene Chapel that "he who doesn't pray to the Lord prays to the Devil." Since then, he has said similar things a handful of times--but recently, it seems he did something more than talk about it.
    At the end of one of his masses, Francis blessed several wheelchair-bound members of the faith, as per usual, but one of them had traveled to Rome from Mexico and was, according to the Reverend Juan Rivas, who brought him there, possessed by the devil. When Francis put his hands on the man's head--note: That's a typical position for an exorcist to use, according to the Reverend Giulio Maspero--the man "heaved deeply a half-dozen times, shook, then slumped in his wheelchair." (Yahoo) 
    Maybe AP English has finally cracked my sanity and I'm seeing symbols everywhere, but besides the fact that Francis used a typical exorcist position and the results that came of that, let me point out that the man heaved six times. Perhaps that's nothing more than symbolism or a coincidence, but it's a--ha ha--hell of a coincidence, considering the biblical connotation surrounding that number. 
    The Vatican, of course, is downplaying the incident, stating that Francis "didn't intend to perform any exorcism. But as he often does for the sick or suffering, he simply intended to pray for someone who was suffering who was presented to him." (Yahoo) However, the Reverend Gabriele Amorth, "a leading exorcist for the diocese of Rome, said he performed a lengthy exorcism of his own on the man Tuesday morning and ascertained he was possessed by four separate demons."
    So, did he really do it? There is also speculation that he "did not mean" to perform an exorcism but only a prayer to "liberate" the man from the control of the demons or devil, but even that would be astounding in itself.
    And while reading that article I learned something else that's pretty damn amazing, too: "Italian newspapers noted that the late Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism in 1982 — near the same spot where Francis prayed over the young disabled man Sunday."

Let's Get It Started...

    I really didn't know what "Watch" to post this thing under, considering neither I nor anyone else seems to have a concrete idea of what these things actually are, so I'm just leaving it as an open classification; make of it what you will as I introduce you to the Black-Eyed Peas Kids (BEKs).
    I was watching an episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America on Destination America a couple of weeks ago and came across Brian Bethel recounting what is, apparantly, one of the most widely-known acounts of an encounter with the BEKs. While he was sitting in his car one night, somebody knocked on the window; he looked up and saw two male children standing there, appearing to be between the ages of 14 and 10. They asked him if they could get into his car to get a ride home, and he began to feel afraid as they repeatedly asked him to let them into his car and grew more agaitated with each refusal, a hallmark of BEK encounters. The one who was speaking mentioned that they couldn't get into the car unless he let them in, which was strange enough. He did not want to let them into his car, sensing that something was wrong, even as they tried to reassure him that everything was all right, even going so far as to say, "Don't worry, Mister, we don't have a gun." Bethel, however, reports that the tone of the words was far from reassuring; it was more like, as he put it, "Mister, we don't need a gun."
    The two children were wearing hoods, and so only after they had asked several times to be let into his car did he notice that their eyes were entirely black, including their "iris and sclera," which terrified him futher. He then noticed that his hand was close to the door lock, though he had not moved it there, and surmised that they were somehow mentally controlling him. Once they began shouting at him to let them in, he sped away from the parking lot; he looked back once and saw that they were gone.
    There have been many other such stories, and this intrigued me. What also intrigued me was the various theories that have been floated around about what these BEKs actually are, while in the case of most other strange or creepy encounters there is usually just one or two possible explanations that people come up with to justify what they saw. Some of these theories include:

• Demonic possession or demons--The all-black eyes, according to some people, could indicate some sort of demonic being trying to lure people in by impersonating children who need help.
• Aliens or alien/human hybrid children--The black eyes, which are often described as reflective, can also be found in many alien-abduction or -encounter accounts, a hallmark of the "grays" especially.
• Vampires or some sort of vampiric entity--The inability to enter a house or car unless invited in is a large part of vampire legends, and the intense fear the sight of these BEKs create in their victims could be a way for the beings to drain these emotions and "feed" off them the way a vampire supposedly does.

    Most of the BEK encounter stories out there occur the same way or close to them same way each time. Somebody--usually alone, in all the accounts I've read--is either driving, walking, or in their home when they see these children or they knock, such as on the car window or house door, and if the door is open or the driver asks what they want they say they need some sort of help, like they need to call their mother, need a ride home, or need a lift somewhere; in one account I read, a BEK knocking on a woman's door said his brother needed to use the bathroom.
    Soon after the BEK first approaches them, the victim begins to feel overwhelming terror, which is why some people think these things are demonic in origin. Occasionally they may feel they are being controlled by the children, such as in Bethel's case, and as the primal fear mounts the victims deny the children entrance--if they're smart--and the children begin to become more and more agitated and agressive with each refusal. Most sightings take place in the evening or at night. Honestly, what probably freaks me out most of all about this phenomena is something that Bethel pointed out in his Monsters and Mysteries interview: There are no stories from people who have let them in.
    The BEKs also seem to, in some instances, act as omens or even cause horrible events; after encounters with them, many victims have reported getting into car accidents, illnesses or deaths in the family and sometimes falling ill themselves, and other similar problems. 
    Some have tried to explain the sightings as children and teenagers wearing all-black sclera contacts to pull pranks on people; however, as David Weatherly (author of a book on the phenomena, Black Eyed Children) and others have pointed out, these contacts are extremely expensive, running to about $260 for two contacts; how could children and teenagers afford to buy multiple sets (usually two children are seen in each instance), and why would they spend so much money on a prank like this? 
    Weatherly himself thinks these children are alien-human hybrids. I honestly don't know what to think, except that they're pretty damn scary. Until someone figures it out once and for all, I leave you with a warning: The next time you're alone, in your car or in your home, and the sun has set and someone sets to tapping on your window or knocking on your door, make sure to check their eyes before you let them in, escpecially if they're children. After all, if you let them in...nobody knows what happens after that.