Imagine you suddenly awake at night. You feel a sense of panic when you realize that you cannot move. The fear increases when you sense another presence in the room with you. You gasp for breath, but feel the being getting closer and closer. As your chest tightens you struggle to move and try desperately to cry out for help. But there is nothing you can do, the terrifying creature begins to crush you…
This is not the stuff of fantasy or sleep paralysis, as most physicians may refer to it. It is real.
Towards the end of World War Two, two women, one only fourteen years old, returned back to their house in Salerno on the Amalfi Coast of Southern Italy to encounter a Nazi soldier hiding in a cellar room of their house. He was injured and left for dead. Years later in 1985, a couple ends up staying in the same home only to be plagued by a creature referred to as an “Incubus.” This is the premise of the upcoming book, “THE SHOPKEEPER OF SALERNO, due this summer on Amazon, select bookshops and antique shops. The story behind the novel is one that would keep any woman who lives alone or has stayed up at the late hour of night some pause.
Known by many names around the world and over time, diverse cultures have spoken of vampire-like demons that feed off of human energy and attack their victims at night. Two of the popular names in English for such entities are Incubus and Succubus (plural Incubi and Succubi) – demons which attack their victims by pressing down on them, often while sexually assaulting them as well.
Incubus is said to be the male form of the demon and is believed to assault women. The name of this demon comes from late Latin “Incubo” meaning “nightmare” which has its origins in the Latin word ‘incubare’, to “lie on”. This description is well-suited to what the Incubus does to his victims – he lies upon (or “crushes”) them. They are supposedly very hard to send away once they have chosen a victim.
These demons supposedly can shapeshift, so their appearance differs, although they are often said to look human-like. It has been said the Incubi may be especially physically attractive for their victims. Some say that the demons do not have a real corporeal form but assume the appearance of a human via reanimation of corpses, the use of human flesh, or supernatural abilities that permit the demons to take on the shape of men who may be considered attractive and/or known to their victims.
Incubi have been written of in many texts and were especially popular in Europe during the Middle Ages. Unsurprisingly, these demons (and sometimes their victims) were also associated with witchcraft. The Church proposed that the demons were fallen angels who were consumed by an insatiable lust for human women.
When an Incubus arrives to have his way with a woman, he takes precautions to prevent her from interfering. He might put her in a trance, so that she is unable to wake up, or paralyze her so completely that she can’t even cry out for help. In some instances, the Incubus may actually cause physical pain and wreak havoc on the victim’s family to keep the victim in control. Incubi may also cause physical marks on the victim.
During the encounter, the Incubus might try to impregnate the woman. Interestingly, the Incubus itself is incapable of reproducing, so it uses sperm collected from a human male. If the woman gives birth to a child, it will be a Cambion—a human with some magical or demonic abilities.
Prayer to rid yourself of an Incubus.
Father, in the name of Jesus, I repent on behalf of myself and those in my family line who had sexual relations with evil spirits, familiar spirits, or with any spirit represented by the terms incubus. I renounce and break any covenants or dedications to the Nephilim, Baal, or Belial.
For more prayers to cleanse and bless a home from Incubi, the following book may help:
Ripperger, Chad. Ph.D. Deliverance Prayers For Use by the Laity. (May, 2018) Census Traditionis Press, Denver, CO.
