:But when they are among those anonymous crowds of private individuals in normal communities who do not publicly manifest either activism or obstructionism, in either case, ''if such persons do indeed have an unclean spirit'', they can be individuals who seem quiet, but pleasant enough and no problem, generally "keeping their opinions to themselves", polite and cooperative, who "get along with others", occasionally somewhat "moody", and who appear to betray no overt [[Sociopath|socio-pathological]] tendencies—until they suddenly inflict shocking violence without any apparent warning or motive whatever, presenting only a totally inexplicable mystery as to why they did it, a mystery that may never be solved even with profound in-depth research and analysis by teams of experts in mental and criminal deviant behavior. In other cases of appallingly incomprehensible [[Hypocrites|hypocrisy]] they engage in unimaginable long-term secret depravity and forms of unspeakable cruelty not detectable by outside observers in the community, all the while presenting themselves as good and decent, well-balanced citizens of the community, until their perversions and hidden activities are accidentally exposed. They are probably incited by evil spirits who eagerly take advantage of people's unexamined, undisciplined, non-directed physical, emotional, even mental passions, passions not dedicated in a humble commitment of obedient submission in merciful love to God who is loving, merciful, compassionate, kind and forgiving to repentant sinners, provoking them instead to intoxicating extremes of opinion, and belief, and in some cases inducing obsessive thinking leading finally to murderous violence against the innocent. Such actions in many instances cannot be explained apart from the existence and action of evil spirits. If evil spirits are not actually inhabiting their victims by genuine possession of their bodies, they otherwise inflict oppressive mental and emotional influence to incite them to commit evil by inducing obsessive patterns of behavior and delusional imaginings and erroneous beliefs. Their victims are almost always consumed by the vices of pride, envy, anger, wrath, lust, indolence, stubbornness, greed, and sometimes gluttony (in the sense of a passion for excess of sensation when more is never enough, whether physical, emotional or mental obsessiveness). "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking anyone whom he might be able to consume (devour)." 1 Peter 5:8.
:There have been cases where innocent persons have been violently possessed against their will. We can see some of these in the Gospels. In those known instances where persons have been previously somewhat sinful but not notoriously so, and then have suddenly become unaccountably far worse, with or without the influence of drugs and alcohol, the evil spirit or spirits have attacked and made an already bad situation much worse, having suddenly found an individual, already willfully disposed to sin, who is ready to welcome a much greater evil, but who did not bargain for such an overwhelmingly malevolent increase in wickedness, far beyond the bounds of what that individual had ever believed themselves capable of or expected. The evil spirits either take over by inducing strong impressions, delusions and physical sensations and dominate the sinfully cooperative will, or they aggravate and inflame the willful tendencies of the sinner to eagerly embrace greater, and ever-increasing depths of wicked depravity to an unnatural degree of overwhelming intensity which the sinner never believed possible for himself or herself. Some persons have confessed to making a compact with the Devil, or of selling their souls to do evil, in order to gain something that they have greatly desired. When they have perpetrated evil in order to obtain something ordinarily considered to be desirable as a good, for themselves or for society in general, they have been deceived into believing that the end justifies the means to reach it, even if it includes destroying themselves and as many other innocent persons as possible as a form of ultimate self-sacrifice to advance their cause and to punish those who will not and cannot agree with them, either violently or by degrees slowly and incidiously. (See [[Pragmatism]] and [[Utilitarianism]]. Compare [[Ethnocentrism]], [[Intolerance]] and [[Racism]], and with [[National Socialism and fascism]] , and with [[Wahhabism]].)
:But the miserably unhappy hidden condition of those who normally betray no such outwardly obvious indication of being themselves actual victims of demonic possession can suddenly be exposed by the strong reaction of the oppressing evil spirit to the presence of a genuinely holy representative of Almighty God. They can show an intense apparent awareness of what no one else present could possibly know by ordinary means. This appears to be the case with the man who suddenly shouted against Jesus in the synagogue.