There is a hidden battlefield within our world, where forces of light and darkness collide, believers say, in a conflict that sometimes spills into everyday life.
In its most extreme form, the clash is described as possession: a person seemingly seized by demonic beings, their body overtaken, their voice and movements warped into something not quite human.
For Anglican reverend Chris Lee, 43, this is not a theological abstraction but a reality he has lived with for nearly two decades.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lee said he first began witnessing exorcisms after moving to rural Tanzania aged 24 for mission work while training to become a priest.
It was there, he said, that he encountered what he described as ‘profound things, miracles and movements of darkness and light’ that convinced him he was being called into ministry.
Within just a month of arriving, Lee said he received an urgent call about a student who was violently ill, screaming, vomiting and convulsing in a way he believed went far beyond any normal sickness.
Other encounters followed, as Lee recalled a teenage boy inside a church who suddenly ‘leapt up into the sky,’ screamed like a beast, and bolted into the woods, his body moving in a ‘puppet-like’ way, as if controlled by an unseen force.
In another case, one that left a deep impression on him, Lee said a girl from a Muslim family began convulsing and speaking in a male voice, declaring, ‘I’m one of nine here… this is my house,’ as pastors struggled to drive out what they believed was an entity.
Reverend Chris Lee shared chilling exorcism causes, detailing how the experiences gave him a purpose since giving his life to God at the age of 24
Despite the intensity of these encounters, Lee said he does not feel afraid. Instead, he described feeling purposeful, and at times angry, at what he sees as an invasion of something sacred.
‘It’s like a burglar in a house,’ he said. ‘Get out. You don’t have this right.’
For Lee, prayer and faith are not symbolic gestures but sources of authority, and he believes he is standing on the side of Christ in a spiritual battle he says is as real as any physical one.
His early spiritual awakening began after he abandoned a conventional life at age 21 and moved to Tanzania.
‘I was 24 when I was ordained, so I was one of the youngest in the Church of England at the time,’ Lee said, explaining how quickly his calling took root.
He left a career in property development, sold his house and moved into a remote Maasai region without electricity or running water.
While his new home was far from a lap of luxury, it was where he knew he wanted to dedicate his life to the ministry.
‘It was there that I was able to ask big, profound questions of life, and it was there that I discovered my love for God, and felt His presence so much more in my life,’ said Lee.
He moved from England to Tanzania for mission work and within only a month, he performed his first exorcism (stock)
When he asked his bishop if he could begin theological training, he was told to start almost immediately. ‘He said, yes, you can start on Thursday,’ Lee recalled, noting this moment marked the beginning of a long ministry in which he repeatedly confronted spiritual forces he believes are very real.
His first encounter came when he was in charge of students in Tanzania, and was called to see a student who was very ill.
‘I came into the room of this person, and I was expecting them to be lying down and being sick, but the person was screaming around the room and vomiting at the same time,’ he said.
The sight caught Lee completely off guard, as he was not witnessing a normal sickness.
‘I didn’t have a spectrum of understanding of what was going on,’ the reverend admitted. ‘So in that moment I just prayed, “Lord, give me what I need to help this girl.”‘
After praying in the room, Lee contacted a German missionary who was in the area, hoping to get assistance.
‘When he arrived, just before we went in, I said, “Be aware, it’s very disturbing. She’s screaming, moving around the room, and vomiting,”‘ said Lee.
‘He said, “Okay, fine.” We walked in, and she was suddenly completely normal. She was sitting up and talking. I was actually quite embarrassed. I thought, “What is going on?”‘
He believes possession come after some kind of trauma that opens a dark door into the person’s life, allowing demonic beings to take over
The German missionary asked other students about the girl, who said she was someone afflicted by the demonic.
Lee believes this was his first encounter with evil, but by no means his last.
He recalled another chilling case that occurred while he was traveling to another church in the area, a church made of sticks.
The bishop at the time was performing baptisms for the children, laying his hands on their heads for a blessing.
‘He was going along the line, laying his hands to bless the children,’ said Lee. ‘It was a teenage boy who suddenly leapt up into the sky just before the bishop was about to lay his hands on him.
‘He started screaming, like a beast, like a lion, and then he ran into the wall.’
The boy was taken out of the church and placed on the ground with a blanket pulled over his head.
As Lee and others approached quietly across the sand to pray, he said the boy began to tremble. Lee said the shaking intensified the closer they came, which he interpreted as a sign that whatever was afflicting the child was aware of their presence and reacting to it.
‘He picked up and ran away from us, screaming, into the woods. As he was running, it was very strange, because the way he moved was not like a normal person,’ Lee said.
‘It was as if he were one of those puppets on strings, his limbs were being used, but not in the correct way.
‘It was a very surreal experience, watching him flee in this almost puppeteered way, as if something inside him was controlling him, but not the way a normal human being would be controlled.’
The boy was brought back to the church, where the crowd surrounded him in prayer.
‘I remember his eyes burning, with a real blackness, a darkness in his eyes, and we were commanding the spirit in him to leave, and he was growling, and barking at us,’ the reverend recalled.
Lee and the bishop laid their hands on the boy, commanding the demonic entity leave his small body, and in a moment, the child fell to the ground and began hyperventilating.
Then there was his experience with the young Muslim girl who would stay at his church.
One day, the girl mysteriously fell to the floor and began shaking and screaming. ‘What was interesting was that voices were speaking out of her,’ Lee said.
‘The main voice was a male voice speaking in Swahili to the pastor who was leading the deliverance at that moment.
‘It said, “I’m one of nine here, and she’s let us in.” The language the demon used was, “This is my house. You have no claim over her. She’s ours.” ‘We were saying, “No, in the name of Jesus, you need to get out.”‘
Another pastor came, telling Lee and the others to stop the exorcism.
‘He said she hadn’t yet accepted Christ in her heart, and if we delivered her now, it could be made worse,’ said Lee.
‘Biblically, he explained, if you clear the house, seven more can come back in unless the person has received Christ. His concern was that we might clear space for more to enter her.
‘So it was stopped in that moment. Her parents were informed, and they collected her.
‘My understanding is that she returned to school a few weeks later, which suggests her parents took her to a deliverance expert in Dar es Salaam or Morogoro, where I believe she was delivered.
‘She was an interesting case because she would come off the ground in violent surges, then stand up and contort, speaking in a male voice. That was one of the more severe cases.’
Lee suggested that these children may have suffered some kind of trauma in their lives, which opened a dark door for the demonic entities.
‘These experiences have made the realities of what I read in the Bible more real to me, the realities of the spiritual realm and the fact that we aren’t just physical beings,’ he explained.
‘We are spiritual beings, and our spirit is wrapped up in the physical. We are both of these things held as one.’
‘The realities of darkness and light became more pronounced. In a world where we’re struggling to seek and find truth, and where people say ‘my truth’ and ‘your truth,’ this cuts through that. It’s quite clear: there is evil, there is good, there is truth, and there are lies.’
‘I think it wakes you up to that reality, and it makes my faith more pronounced in myself. In a way, it strengthened my faith rather than wounded it.’
