The battle between good and evil, angels and demons, is very real according to modern religious demonologist Adam Blai. He joined Dave Schrader (email) for the full 4-hour show to discuss the spectrum of experiences from angelic encounters (first half of the show), to being face-to-face with demons (second half). Blai described angels as spiritual beings who were created before the physical world-- thus they do not represent spirits of the deceased. They have always been here, and have their own hierarchical structure, with nine different levels-- the highest ranked ones are closest to God, and rarely interact with humans, he explained.
The word angel means messenger, and accordingly when they communicate with a human, it's a one-way message, rather than a dialogue, Blai continued. This is because they don't want to be relied upon or worshiped by humans, he added, as it's forbidden in Christian theology for humans to ask spirits for information. He warned that communications that purport to be from from the deceased can sometimes be demons actually posing as spirits. Demonic possession rarely happens quickly, and usually occurs at the end of a multi-year process of a deepening relationship with a demonic entity, with lots of signs and indications that this is a self-destructive path, along with opportunities to turn back or away from the entity, he detailed.
Blai spoke about his encounters with demons in the Bob Cranmer case, which he worked on-- "it was the first time I saw black shadows sliding and moving around on the floors and walls," as well as experiencing packets of air which had a horrible odor and walked around like a person would. If they're not pretending to be anything else, demonic beings generally appear like a black smoke that doesn't dissipate-- sometimes it's the size of a mouse or a dog, but there's also a 4-ft tall walker version that seems humanoid, he revealed. Exorcists need to have a certain lack of fear to do their job, and it's helpful for them to be free of family attachments as the demon will seek out vulnerabilities in their lives to attack, Blai indicated.