How to Hunt Demons

The Ancient Art of Turning Pain into Power

Demons are real. They’re just not what you think. They live in the shadows of our subconscious, their silhouettes ceaselessly skipping and slipping through our minds, bodies and spirits.

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What if your demons aren’t out there — but inside you?

What if they’re simply the negative impressions of repressed memories, suppressed emotions, complexes and traumas? Subconscious formations that hold us back, self-sabotage our success, forever pushing that elusive state of ‘happiness’ into the future.

‘How to Hunt Demons’ is a book based on the idea that “the cure for pain is in the pain.” It doesn’t sugarcoat pain or trauma, or give you tools to escape your demons. It forces you to face them. To go right through the pain.

The result: a release from pain as you set your demons free. The added bonus: their monstrous power doesn’t disappear – it remains with you as positive energy, to be used as you wish…

Transform your Demons into Positive Energy that Rocket-Fuels your Life

History’s greatest healers, sages and shamans were not bestowed with magical gifts or powers. They intuitively knew just one thing: that “the cure for pain is in the pain.” That everything we seek, everything we dream of becoming, stems from first embracing what we fear above all else: repressed memories, suppressed emotions, traumas, complexes and feelings of low self-worth. In short, our inner demons. And that the only place to do this is within our own minds and bodies.

How to Hunt Demons  reframes ancient Buddhist practices into a suite of simple techniques that systematically transmute negative conditioning into peace and power. He reveals how:

    • Abraham Lincoln practiced presence in critical moments to reclaim his power and personal choice.
    • Roald Amundsen’s mindset saw him beat Scott of the Antarctic to the South Pole.
    • Bruce Lee used Eastern psychological and philosophical principles to turn adverse events into opportunities to increase resilience and self-awareness.
    • ‘Negative Psychology’ trumps ‘Positive Psychology’ – dealing with demons where they reside in the shadow regions of the subconscious is the key to permanently uprooting them.

Demons are supremely natural energies that serve as signposts to what’s wrong in our lives. If we watch out for and listen to them, they will reveal everything we need to know about ourselves and the world. This newfound awareness triggers a release as we let go of behaviours and beliefs that are holding us back, self-sabotaging sure successes, and forever pushing that elusive state of happiness around the corner. Then the next.  The result: we are freed from the bondage of conditioning. We are free to be ourselves.

The PAIN Process

Transforming pain into peace and power is a cyclical process that requires understanding and adopting four patterns of behaviour. While honed for pragmatism and effectiveness in today’s world, this way of living derives inspiration primarily from Buddhist psychology, in particular it unpacks, modernizes and reframes the ancient practice of Vipassana (which translates from its original Pali as ‘to see things clearly’). Complementary sources of wisdom and techniques common to other spiritual, self-healing and psychological traditions are also woven into this framework.

The process begins with us recognizing harmful patterns of behaviour by slowing down and paying attention to what’s going on inside of us; then cultivating the ability to allow what we see and experience to exist without trying to fix or figure it out; next, we embody curiosity and courage to subtly investigate the nature of these patterns, to get under the hood in order to understand the drivers of self-sabotaging behaviours; finally, we adopt and embed a sustained mode of living that allows us to assimilate and harness the power of our demons on a daily basis.


It’s four powerful, repeatable, and interdependent disciplines:

  • Perceive (P),
  • Accept (A),
  • Inquire (I),
  • Naturalize (N).


Together they form what I call The PAIN Process…

We will deconstruct and trace the use of these principles and practices by some of the greatest minds in history. We’ll look at them through the lens of domains as diverse as martial arts, artificial intelligence, anthropology, computer science, neurology, chaos theory, exploration, dance,  systems theory and business. We’ll see up close how successful people leverage these disciplines on a daily basis to process pain in a healthy manner, freeing themselves up to operate at increasingly higher levels.

The PAIN Process is essentially a framework for finding inner demons and converting their power into energies that allow happiness and well-being to flourish. By developing the ability to practice its tenets you’ll experience first-hand how our deepest pains and fears are not only to be welcomed, but honoured as catalysts for lasting change and personal development.

The Framework

Life has many moments of happiness and joy, but it’s also full of suffering, pain and uncertainty. Together these form the bedrock and foundations of human experience. Yet most of us go to great lengths to avoid this reality – we distract ourselves through abstractions, distractions, beliefs and the chasing of egoic pursuits. Why? Quite simply, because facing our inner reality is painful.

And when we do find ourselves from time to time in moments of stillness without distractions, our demons bubble up out of the cauldron of our conditioning, the symptoms of all we’ve subconsciously suppressed and repressed. Our typical response at these moments? We quickly retreat to the world of abstraction, distraction, of ego. We avoid our inner world. We avoid living our true lives.

 

 

What so many great sages across time immemorial– from Socrates, Buddha and Jesus to Frankl, Freud, De Mello and Jung – pointed to was an alternative way to deal with this reality.

They spoke of a process that converts pain into a nuclear-grade source of energy, power and unrivalled peace. It centres on embracing everything we experience – suffering, fear, pain and everything else that surfaces on the spectrum of human experience – at whatever cost. Embracing reality, exactly as it is.

These wise folk professed, as the poet Rumi once put it, that ‘the cure for pain is in the pain.’ That everything we seek, everything we’ve ever dreamed of becoming, stems from first facing and embracing the dark energies within – the energy of our demons. This doesn’t mean we become like them or let them take over our lives; rather we work with them instead of against them. Partner with them so as to integrate their wisdom and facilitate their healthy expression in our lives. In this way, every painful event, emotion and memory becomes an opportunity to deepen our relationship with our demons. Catalysts for transforming their destructive nature into divine qualities of wisdom, awareness and wholeness. This is true power, divined from pain.

PART 1: PERCEIVE

  1. SCARED TO DEATH
  2. GET TO KNOW YOUR DEMONS
  3. KNOW THY POISON, KNOW THY CHALICE
  4. UNDERSTAND PROJECTION IS EGO PROTECTION
  5. SEEK THE SECRETS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS
  6. WATCH OUT FOR SIGNS OF THE DEMONIC
  7. SLOW DOWN TO SEE EVERYTHING
  8. MASTER THE ART OF ATTENTIO
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PART 2: ACCEPT

  1. LEARN TO FIGHT WITHOUT FIGHTING

  2. DROP THE DESIRE FOR CONTROL

  3. NAVIGATE THE LABYRINTHINE EGO

  4. IDENTIFY THE INNER CRITIC

  5. EXPOSE THE EGO TO REALITY

  6. BEHOLD THE POWER AND PATTERNS OF CONDITIONING

  7. STEP BACK INTO EMPTY SPACE

  8. CULTIVATE THE PERMISSION TO ALLOW

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PART 3: INQUIRE

  1. ASSUME A READINESS TO LEARN
  2. DEVELOP A HUMBLE CURIOSITY
  3. EMBODY COURAGE BY BEING VULNERABLE
  4. STOP THE SELF-SHAMING AND BLAMING
  5. HARNESS THE ENERGY OF EMOTIONS
  6. DIVE INTO THE FEAR-BODY
  7. EDGE-SENSE IN THE MURKY ZONE
  8. DROP RESISTANCE TO RELEASE DEMON
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PART 4: NATURALIZE

  1. ATTAIN FREEDOM THROUGH DISCIPLINE
  2. DIVINE YOUR DAEMONIC SPIRIT
  3. TAKE THE PATH OF MOST RESISTANCE
  4. WELCOME THE WISDOM OF SELF-COMPASSION
  5. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE
  6. TAP ENERGY, NOT TIME
  7. SOURCE STRENGTH IN SILENCE AND SOLITUDE
  8. BECOME A SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGIST
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