How I saw the Devil and found the Power to dispell It

My name is Alan Keith van Kampf, of the New Amsterdam Van Kampfs. We are a very old family, dating not only to the Dutch settling of what is today Manhattan, but even much earlier, to the first arrival of Jews in the Netherlands, and perhaps much much earlier. But we are not here to listen or discuss geneaology. And you, well... I suppose you will tell us your story when you get your chance, which may be soon enough. Where is the waiter with our stouts?

Well, let me first preface this tale by confessing that I am a very spiritual person. That is how I see myself. This is how I see my person. Whether you choose to believe me or not is your own affair. So my story now begins:

Once I took acid unintentionally, when a farmer in the highlands of Mexico gave me a beverage which was hallucinogenic. I did not know this, and trusted those around me. This occurred during a summer in which I was with some Catholic brothers who were as a team investigating vocations. One idea of this project was to see if any of us found a vocation to serve G-d through the Society of the Divine Word, Societas Verbum Divinum. Yes, this is my own true account.

Oh, you are wondering how, if I mentioned Jews arriving in Holland, what does that have to do with anything? Well, our family has for many many generations been Jewish, or maybe Marranos-- the Jews who hid their identity to avoid being killed, robbed, raped, or mistreated otherwise. We did become Catholic at some point in time, maybe to be able to live in better harmony with our Christian neighbours. Or maybe it was because after all, Catholics are just Jews with a Pope in Rome. Jews who don't speak Hebrew, but all the same, Jews in the sense they are very ritualistic and have a love of learning.

I had what you might call a traumatic experience of seeing The Devil that night.

I will now try to describe to you what actually happened that June night in 1981 in the village of X________ in Y_______ province, in the central highlands of Mexico, a very rural place far from any large city. It was in a valley south of one of the historical sites of the silver mining.

When I recognized The Devil, or this demon, I managed to get Christ, Mary, and Joseph to ward it or him off, to dispel the illusion or manifestation. I found that I was sweating cold when it disappeared. No, I was not asleep. I could hear the crickets, the dogs barking, and my comrades snorring in the same room.

Of course, such an anecdote generates questions. Was this thing real, or was it a vision, an hallucination? Was it Satan, or a lesser demon? If not Satan, which demon was it? And would it have really sucked my soul out through my nose, as I feared it would have done?

Another time, I took a mushroom during an afternoon, at a different farm, where I was harvesting vegetables. I went to lie down, and did not sleep. I watched a snail move slowly in my tent. I kept watching the snail. I enjoyed a very close view and understanding of the animal and its soul.

Those are the only two times I have had acid. The first was in a drink called pulque, which is a kind of unrefined tequila. The second was a mushroom we found growing in Maine, Downeast Maine, near Blue Hill.