Can fiction help you learn how to deal with inner demons?

Outer demons

A lot of fantasy books have demons in them, but they’re mostly outer demons rather than the inner demons that hassle modern people. We all need to know how to deal with inner demons, but when we think of demons in fiction, we usually think of outer demons, of which there are many kinds: Christian demons, as in the denizens of Hell, Wiccan demons as in those from a different dimension that can be trapped in magical circles and made to obey commands, Asian demons related to Buddhism and Hinduism, and various other demons associated with different cultures around the planet. Is there any culture that doesn’t have some kind of demonic entity associated with it?

Modern Westerners in general don’t believe in demons. And if they consider  demons to be any of those mentioned above, why should they? It’s hard for a modern person to believe that demons  exist when they can’t see them with their own eyes. But what about inner demons?

Inner demons

We all have inner demons; they’re otherwise known to us as anger, arrogance, jealousy, close-mindedness, greed, and all the other  variations on those themes. We can see these demons in everyday life, not as forms existing outside ourselves, but as facial expressions, tones of voice and behaviour. When negative emotions take us over, you could say that inner demons have possessed us. These are the demons I have personified in Lethal Inheritance and the rest of The Diamond Peak Series.

 

 

Can fiction help you learn how to deal with inner demons

For most fantasy novels, the answer is no, but in The Diamond Peak Series, the answer is yes, because the demons the hero and heroine must defeat are external representations of their inner demons. In book one, Lethal Inheritance, the demon Bitah is anger and its related emotions hatred and fear. Since Bitah feeds on these negative emotions, Ariel and Nick must learn to handle these emotions before they can defeat the demon and move up the mountain to rescue Ariel’s mother. How do they do that? Through Warrior training which is a genuine training in meditation. So within these books are instructions for meditation, instructions that will give the reader the same power to defeat their inner demons as it gives the hero and heroine. Mental stability and awareness. A calm clear mind from which emotions can be handled with ease.

Real magic

I call the magic in my books real magic because it is all based on mental power, the power that comes from deep meditation, and reading these books will give some insight into this kind of power, a power that is available to everyone should they wish to train their minds so they are the master of their emotions, not the other way around.

So the answer to the question of whether or not reading about demons can help you deal with your own demons is yes, but maybe only in the case of The Diamond Peak Series. This is because although the story is fantasy, the reality behind it is not. The whole series is an analogy designed to help readers become aware of their emotions and give them tools with which to deal with them.

Do you know of any other fiction that does this or something similar?

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