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I've heard it mentioned that the best trick of the devil is having us believe that he doesn't even exist. I think its a brilliant strategy. What better way to corrupt a soul. If i'm in a war (and really we are) and the enemy for whatever reason has not gotten the 'memo' it would be so extremely easy to walk straight out into the open towards him, draw my gun, and fire. He wouldn't even see it coming (in a sense). Obviously the devil is a bit more cunning and subtle about it in this situation but he can still get away with much more overt sinful enticements when he is dealing with someone who thinks he is just a myth.
It seems that the demons really focus their power on the saints truly striving in prayer and fasting. Simply reading through the lives of the Desert Fathers or someone like St. Anthony the Great show us this. I guess the weaker of us, like myself, don't require so much attention. Maybe its that the 'cares of the world' have us occupied. Maybe worldly pleasures have us blinded. I don't really know forsure.
I came across this excerpt from 'The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios' by Dionysios Farasiotis and found it very interesting. Essentially its speaking about the many physical manifestations and attacks of demons that are common and even daily occurrences on Mt. Athos:
... I went to the Monastery of Koutloumousiou, because I wanted to speak with Father Athanasios again. I admired him because he was a good and intelligent man who was very knowledgeable about the occult. That afternoon, when he had finished his chores, we sat on the balcony and had a discussion.
"Look, Father, I can accept the existence of evil as an inclination in the human soul, but when you start talking to me about the devil as a person I find it pretty farfetched."
" Farfetched or not, it's a reality, and I can only talk to you about reality."
" And how do you know it? Have you seen him personally?"
He laughed. " Only once, but I'm not the only father in the monastery who's seen him and fought with him."
"What do you mean that you've seen him?"
"Well, once he came and ruined all the vegetable gardens in the monastery."
"How did he ruin them?"
"By breaking the stakes, uprooting the plants, and putting everything in disarray." I looked at him incredulously, but he met my gaze with a smile and continued. "Once he came into my cell and struck me so hard that I still hurt the next day."
This made me recall the inexplicable thrashing I received when I was with that girl, and I asked him with renewed interest, "So, did you see him with your own eyes?"
"Sometimes you can see him, sometimes you can't. Once I saw three demons that were trying to play a joke on me."
"And what did you do?"
" I laughed --- what else was I supposed to do? After all, they were pretty funny."
I continued to look at him in disbelief, but also with a lot of interest, because I was reflecting upon my own experiences. Perhaps this explained the banging, the slamming of doors, and that thrashing.
"Do they also make noise?" I asked.
" Do they ever! Around this time last year, one of the novices was going to be made a monk. At three o'clock in the morning, we were supposed to gather in the monastery church before daybreak for his tonsure, but that night all hell broke loose. They (the demons) didn't leave a cell untouched. They banged on the doors, knocked on the windows, and howled and barked like beasts. We all met in the main church around midnight for mutual support -- we younger monks were especially frightened."
I continued to listen, but I made it clear that I found all of this astonishing and hard to believe.
"Look," he said, "the devil doesn't want people to know that he exists, because it's easier for him to fight them if they're unaware of his existence. You don't protect yourself from an enemy unless you realize he exists. But once you've detected him, there's no reason for him to hide, so he then fights you out in the open."
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