December 29, 2024 • 59 mins
When the harrowing force of darkness takes over your very being, would you heed its warning and fortify your faith?
From what first appeared as an ominous warning sign on her patriarchal blessing, devoted stay-at-home mom, Meghan Blanc, recalls her bone-chilling encounter with a demonic spirit that took over her body in a state of oppression—a life-changing event she describes as an urgent wake-up call to strengthen her spiritual shield.
Initially dismissing it as a sudden episode of physical illness, she soon realized there was nothing coincidental about the invasion, making the connection to the once-overlooked reading. But instead of giving in to fear, Meghan shares how this dramatic clash with evil ultimately ignited a more powerful conviction to serve, uplift, and protect her family—both biological, and those soon-to-be welcomed through foster care adoption.
Meghan's testimony stands as a vivid reminder that when Heavenly Father allows us a glimpse into the realm of the adversary, it’s an invitation to draw even closer to the Savior. Join us as we uncover how Meghan’s encounter with Satan’s attacks became a pivotal catalyst for her unwavering discipleship, renewed purpose, and an unshakable promise that the Lord’s hand is ever-present—even in life’s most frightening trials.
*** Please SHARE Meghan's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***
To WATCH this episode, visit: https://youtu.be/iucYxJuFXO8
-----
To LEARN more about the gift of discernment, visit: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2015-05-2003-elder-and-sister-bednar-gift-of-discernment?lang=eng
-----
Keep updated with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/latter.day.lights/
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/latterdaylights
Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott Brandley (00:00):
Hi everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.
Alisha Coakley (00:02):
And I'm Alisha Coakley.
Every member of the church hasa story to share, one that can
instill faith, invite growth andinspire others.
Scott Brandley (00:10):
On today's episode we're going to hear how
a terrifying encounter with ademonic spirit taught one woman
the importance of building herspiritual shield by small and
simple acts of faith.
Welcome to Latter-day Lights.
Hi everyone, welcome back toanother episode of Latter-day
(00:38):
Lights.
We're so glad you're here withus today and we're really
excited to welcome our specialguest, Meghan Blanc, to the show
.
Meghan, welcome.
Meghan Blanc (00:44):
Hi Scott, Hi Alisha, how are you guys doing?
Alisha Coakley (00:47):
We're good.
We're good.
Thanks so much for reaching outto us.
We really appreciate it.
We have not had your story yetand I'm like, tis the season it
is.
I don't want to ever have anytype of like encounters, but I
love hearing about them andthey're scary but they're like
(01:11):
so interesting.
So I I'm so excited to go overyour story today and just to
kind of like talk about what wecan do to protect ourselves and
how we can, you know, avoidthings like that.
But but I love it.
So thanks so much for beingbrave and for reaching out to us
on that.
Meghan Blanc (01:31):
Yeah, you're welcome.
It just kind of was listeningto the podcast when I'm like you
need to go on there, I'm likeno, I don't.
Alisha Coakley (01:38):
Your husband, who's hiding in the background
right now and won't come oncamera with you, right?
Meghan Blanc (01:43):
Pretty much.
He doesn't have the same story,so it's fine.
Alisha Coakley (01:48):
Very true.
Well, before we get into that,do you want to share a little
bit about yourself?
Meghan Blanc (01:54):
Sure, I always thought this would be kind of
funny because I'm not the mostinteresting.
So I was actually raised in LasVegas.
My parents bumped around alittle bit.
So I was actually born inCalifornia near LA area.
We lived in Utah for a shortperiod of time.
My dad went to law school, butI was really raised in Las Vegas
proper.
Technically it was in paradise.
So I was off the strip but kindof near the strip and my
(02:19):
parents actually moved there forwork.
But my mom's family was alreadythere.
So it kind of worked out well.
I grew up with my parents andmy younger brother and my mom
mostly mom's big family wasthere too.
So my mom is the oldest of nineand so most of her siblings
were there.
So they had about seven of themat one point all together in
Las Vegas.
So it was nice to be around abunch of people together.
(02:40):
So I've been raised and activein the church my whole life I'm
not a convert together.
So I've been raised and activein the church my whole life.
I'm not a convert, I'm not like.
I just kind of grew up that way.
I've never been active oranything else.
So it's been kind of a smoothride.
I went to college at BYU Idahoand I met my sweetheart there.
He was from California and Iwas from Las Vegas, so we were
(03:00):
never going to just bump intoeach other.
Yeah, we actually are.
We're both night janitors inthe physical facilities building
from Las Vegas, so we werenever gonna just bump into each
other.
Yeah, um, we actually.
We actually are.
We're both night janitors inthe physical facilities building
, which, if you're not familiarwith BYU Idaho, is called the
heart building, and so we alwayswill joke that when you do like
introductions like oh yeah, hecaptured my heart in the heart
building, but it's the physicalfacilities buildings like the
(03:21):
least romantic building oncampus.
He swept you away pretty much.
Yeah, I know.
So we actually started talkingwhile we were cleaning the
locker rooms during the summerbreak.
We just cleaned the ceilings andI was cleaning the walls and it
was not the most romanticsetting.
I was not even cute.
I had no makeup on I usuallywear contacts.
(03:44):
So I was.
They all shared these men'sboots, so like I was like my
least cute outfit ever to get,like you know, dirty yeah, so I
was like in my like grossestlooking form and he's like, oh,
she's cute.
I'm like, really, that was thelike.
That's how you meet your futurehusband is when you're grubby.
Alisha Coakley (04:02):
But but that's awesome Because then anything
after that is going to be, youdon't even have to try.
Meghan Blanc (04:09):
That's what I figured.
Alisha Coakley (04:10):
But I was the youngest.
Meghan Blanc (04:11):
That was my cutest point in life.
I'm not most likely to be cuterthan that.
I wowed him, though I tried ona date, so we actually.
It's only seven week break forBYU-Idaho, so it actually was
six weeks that year, so we spentmost of our waking hours
together.
Since we work nights, we'vestarted like 1130 and ended at
430 in the morning, wow, and sowe'd spend like most waking
(04:35):
hours together.
Obviously, we had to sleep too.
And then by the time we startedofficially dating to the time
we were engaged was our 20th dayof being dating.
Oh my gosh, we didn't make it amonth, um, so we actually.
And then we were married duringthe winter break, just before
christmas.
Our anniversary is the shortestday of the year in terms of
(04:59):
daily hours wow, so I know.
So like that's a prettywhirlwind romance, um, which is
funny because summer romancesdon't work out, but ours did, um
, that's cool.
So yeah, so we've been happilymarried for over 12 years, kind
of smooth sailing there.
Um, I actually got mybachelor's degree in soul short,
but I got it like a monthbefore my oldest daughter was
(05:21):
born.
So there's that.
And then I actually started mylife as a stay-at-home mom like
right from the get-go.
So pretty much my poor husbandhad to work, go to school, help
his wife out.
I know we have four biologicalchildren, plus one on the way.
Aw, thank you.
(05:43):
We're also currently preparingfor home study so we can be
ready to adopt teenagers throughfoster care.
Oh my gosh that's amazing.
We're probably gonna double ournumbers from four children to
eight by next year wow, you'rein it, yeah yeah, wow, that's a
(06:05):
big deal, yeah, especially teenswhy, teenagers.
I we felt kind of just calledto.
I worked with young women andum so with social work.
I did two internships before Ium got a degree and so we worked
in the drug and counseling partwith like teen, like I was in
(06:27):
the teen group so I would sitthere with the teenagers, listen
to problems and it's like theseare trouble teens.
They're not little church teens,I know, but um, I just I kind
of like teenagers.
I think they're funny, I thinkthat they they're closer to
adulthood, adulthood, so theyhave, you can talk to them
closer to adults, but you stillhave a lot to teach them.
(06:48):
They have a lot to teach you.
So I, I like teenagers.
My oldest daughter is going tobe in young women's next year
with me, anyway, nice, so I'malmost there, gotcha.
And my husband's four yearsolder than me, so he's old
enough to have teenagers.
And I was feeling like you'reold, you're like really, really
old to have teenagers.
And I was feeling like you'reold, you're like, really really
old.
Fun fact so when 9-11 happened,he was in high school and going
(07:12):
to seminary and I was inelementary school, going, you
know, just watching a TV,because four years is a
different gap.
So you're such an old man, itis Wow.
Yeah, that's interesting tothink.
Alisha Coakley (07:20):
I such an old man it is, Wow.
Yeah, that's interesting tothink.
I mean, it doesn't feel likeold when you're, you know, an
adult Well when you're older,but it's old when you're young.
Meghan Blanc (07:28):
Yeah, like I wouldn't have been able to write
to his mission.
I was not old enough when hegot back.
Alisha Coakley (07:33):
Wow, that's funny.
Meghan Blanc (07:34):
Yeah, it's funny.
Alisha Coakley (07:36):
So well, good luck with all that.
Meghan Blanc (07:39):
That's awesome, yeah, so so, yeah, I homeschool
and my I don't have a job job,but I think I have a lot going
on anyway yeah, I think you'rebusy enough.
Alisha Coakley (07:49):
You're good, yeah, well, man, well, you do
have a job today, and that is,yes, to share your story with us
.
So we're going to turn the timeover to you and you know, just
have you tell us where yourstory begins.
Meghan Blanc (08:03):
Okay.
Um, here it goes.
I said this is kind of an oddexperience for me so I'll do
best I can, okay.
So, um, I guess the beginningof my story kind of begins when
I got my patriarchal blessing.
Like I said, I grew up in thechurch so, you know, did the
normal things.
I um, when I received mypatriarchal blessing, it was a
great experience and obviouslyit was a great comfort for me
(08:25):
for concerns at the time,towards the end of my blessing.
There is a line that I, likeyour blessing you learn and
develop as time goes on.
But there was a line that Ididn't really catch as much at
the time.
It just didn't stand out, butit kind of came more to the
front recently and so I've beenpaying more attention and
reviewing it more faithfully.
(08:45):
Um, even I usually reviewed acouple or a couple months or so
and the line that it read wasbeware, because the adversary
would seek to possess you.
And then it had the littlein-between part if you remain
faithful, will remain prayerful,will study your scriptures,
you'll have the power toovercome all attempts to lead
you away.
(09:07):
Yeah, which a weird way to putit.
Like I was like so at the timeand most of my life.
I thought, oh, that's like awarning, like everybody gets.
You know, I'm sure thateverybody has warnings.
Their blessings mine was likeI'm assuming standard.
I mean, I haven't readeverybody's blessing, but it
sounded kind of like somethingyou would say to anybody.
You know, you need to followthe gospel and be a good, you
know, be a good member and stayfaithful.
(09:29):
So I kind of assumed it waslike okay, keep your covenants,
don't fall off the path.
You know, be a Nephi, don't bea Laman Lemuel that kind of
thing,I'm like okay, yeah, I can be a
good girl, I'm fine, you know.
Now, to preface my story, I do.
I don't know if I had tomention this or not, but I don't
have a history of clinicaldepression or anxiety of any
(09:50):
kind, like I don't have anymental health history, right.
But when I was in college I hada bad breakup and for some
reason I couldn't shake it.
Now I was working the night jobthat semester before I met my
husband, so I was working nightjob alone right after I had the
bad breakup and for some reasonthat breakup just spiraled me
(10:11):
into like a depression and Icouldn't shake it.
And I did.
I couldn't figure out why.
Part of me was like, well, I'mnot sleeping well, so you feel
out of sorts.
I mean, I don't.
I don't really remember most ofthat semester.
I had grades, I obviouslyshowed up and I obviously took
the test and I did fine on them.
But I ate, I slept, I didhomework, I went to church and I
(10:32):
worked and that was basicallymy life that semester.
And I was working nights.
I wasn't in much sleep.
I had a very fun roommate wholiked to blast country music
during my usual sleeping time.
Alisha Coakley (10:42):
No.
Meghan Blanc (10:45):
And she shared a wall with me.
I was like girl, please don't.
I was much easier back then, soI didn't usually talk to people
, but that was kind of you know,kind of weird experience.
So, um, after a couple months,um, eventually I asked my
parents for help.
I was just like I can't, I'mnot doing this on my own for
some reason.
I was praying and doingeverything you're supposed to,
but I just couldn't shakewhatever this was.
So I asked my parents and my Ishould preference.
(11:08):
My parents are kind of my dad,especially as more new agey.
So, they're very open to alldifferent kinds of things.
So when I asked all of myparents, my father sent me to a
hypnotherapist versus like aclassic thing.
So I went down to las vegas tovisit them for the holiday
weekend and he sent me to thiscatholic hypnotherapist it was a
(11:31):
very interesting session, asyou can imagine.
um, but during the session he umI would do like supposedly his
past life regression.
I kind of felt like it was likea movie playing and I was able
to kind of sort things out.
But during the session he hadme, he had me ask for my
guardian angel to deliver me andthen after, during that session
(11:51):
, the depression lifted and itwas gone.
I never came back and I've hadhard times but I've never had
like that level where it wasjust there and then gone.
Alisha Coakley (12:01):
Right.
Meghan Blanc (12:03):
So it was kind of interesting experience.
Um, I'm not sure how to prefacethis.
Um.
So my parents left the church acouple of years ago and then,
um, I kind of had to do likeinternal battle for a while.
Um, I got a lot of promptingsthat I needed to distance myself
from them and I kind of keptignoring it cause I didn't think
that was, it didn't seem likeit was in line with what you're
(12:25):
supposed to do.
But after a while I counseled myhusband and we just felt like
this is what you're supposed todo, and so I did.
It was not an easy decision, itwas hard, but I went ahead and
followed the prompting and I'mlike, okay, that's, you know,
kind of put to bed, and I didthat and it wasn't well received
by close family members but, um, it was kind of the right thing
(12:55):
for the time.
Um, now, during that time, uh,well, last May we were getting
ready to do, uh, adoption.
So during that time, um, myhusband, I'd taken a break from
having more children.
At that point we felt kind oflike a good good spot with four
in a break from having morechildren.
At that point we felt kind oflike a good good spot with four
Um, and so my husband and I feltprompted to start growing our
family again Um.
But we got a twist and we feltlike we should do it both
biologically and also throughfoster adoption system.
(13:17):
So this is my seventh pregnancy.
Alisha Coakley (13:23):
Oh my gosh.
Meghan Blanc (13:25):
Yeah, I have four, but we have two in heaven.
So I'd wanted to adopt a longtime ago when we had our first
miscarriage, but it wasn't theright timing and so I was like,
okay, it's time for us to go.
I'm like, oh, and my husband'slike we were not quite ready for
that initially but we decidedto go forward.
So we started the process.
(13:47):
Actually, my 33rd birthday inMay Like we ended up just timing
wise was doing our interviewand she's like, okay, good, so
we started the process forfostering.
We didn't know at the time I was, I wasn't pregnant yet, so that
was kind of that point.
About the same time, my parentshad reached out a few months
before then asked us to have avisit at my grandfather's house,
which was he's on in holiday,so he's pretty close by us over
(14:11):
in Ogden, and I wasn't superhappy about the idea, just like
I'd put it to rest and I feltlike I didn't have any
promptings to move forward or tochange.
Like I didn't have anypromptings to move forward or to
change, so I was a littlehesitant to I'm not sure what
the word is to kind of moveforward when I didn't feel like
(14:35):
the timing was right, but I feellike I should at least honor
their quest to go visit mygrandpa's house.
It was important to him.
He's he's 89.
He's older, the last livinggrandparent.
I feel like I should honor hisrequest and my parents.
Alisha Coakley (14:45):
Right.
Meghan Blanc (14:45):
So that's my grandpa's house.
We picked there because weneutral ground.
Okay, well, that's my grandpa,which is good to do anyway.
You never know when it's.
You know your last time, yeah.
And then also it's more of aneutral territory, so it's not
like it's in their space or myspace.
It's a little more relaxed,hopefully, or at least has a
buffer if anything goes off.
So I did agree.
I was not happy about it.
I was.
(15:06):
I'm I'm not terribly stubborn,but every once in a while if I
don't feel good about something,I don't like it.
Um, so I went there and thevisit just fell off.
The entire time I waspractically gripping the chair.
I wasn't quite gripping thechair, but my husband was
looking at me like you okay, areyou?
Are you okay?
Are you?
Are you still okay?
No, I'm not okay.
I don't want to be here.
(15:26):
I don't want to be here at all.
I am not happy right now.
I want to go home.
I want to go home, I want.
I was like a little kid having atempered tantrum internally.
Um, it just, the visit justfell off.
Um, like, my parents behavedfine.
They were, you know, justtalking like you would normally,
like time hadn't passed and youknow, talking about grandpa
talking to me, talking to myhusband, talking to kids, you
(15:48):
know a little awkward becauseit's been a couple of years and
my kids my youngest is threeyears old, so she doesn't really
have a collection of them andstuff but right.
Yeah, they just felt wrong andall I really wanted to do was
leave.
I was just saying I want to gohome, I want to go home, I want
to go home, I want to go.
So finally we were able to endthe visit and we've kind of
(16:12):
called them a couple of timessince then and stuff, but it's
been interesting.
So shortly after that visit waswhen things got kind of
interesting and the story kindof picks up again.
I guess, so a couple of weeksafter starting the adoption
preparation process and about aweek so after meeting with my
parents, I had an interestingexperience.
(16:33):
So my husband was upstairs withour couple, our kids, getting
them into bed and kind of I justjust laying there.
I felt kind of I'm not sure theword sick, but it wasn't like a
normal kind of sick.
I just felt very weak and I'mlike, well, if I feel weak I
should lay down.
And you know, I don't know ifI'm having the flu or what's
kind of happening, but I justfelt off and weak.
I didn't feel good.
Well, I couldn't call out tohim at first.
(16:56):
I'm just like like my throatwouldn't work, my mouth would
work.
I don't know if you can tell,but I tend to be kind of chatty.
Not being able to talk is not aproblem.
I sleep, talk.
I don't be quiet, I always talk.
So not being able to talk ispretty weird, and so I tried to
(17:16):
calm down and finally I kind oflike Chris, chris.
So I got out to him like hey,he kind of came over after he
was downstairs.
When he came downstairs hecould hear me and the only thing
I can compare this to washaving a similar encounter to
what Joseph Smith had in thegrove.
I was unable to completely moveand I was having bits where,
like I was trying to go afterher as I could feel something
(17:40):
was off.
And it was interesting becauseI didn't.
It was almost like I could, uh,sense what her movements were
going to be before she triedsomething.
So I wasn't in control, but Iwasn't completely unaware either
.
It was almost like not words,more like visuals, kind of I
(18:02):
could just anticipate oh, she'sgonna try this or she's gonna
try that so meaning like likethe evil spirit, or devil or
evil spirit, I'm not sure whatthe right
Alisha Coakley (18:15):
that was taking over.
Meghan Blanc (18:16):
Yeah, yeah yeah, it was funky, um.
So I was, um, listen to a lotof exorcist files recently.
We're trying to figure out kindof what's going on.
Our church doesn't talk aboutthis a lot so I didn't really
know what the words were or whathappened very well until I
started kind of looking into theCatholics kind of have a hold
(18:38):
on exorcisms.
So I was like I don't know whoto talk to and we don't have
anything in the handbook.
As far as I can find, then it'sprobably good to go to the
exorcist.
So I just kind of I've learnedsome of the terminology through
looking through theirinformation.
So I guess the term would beoppressed, not possessed.
As far as I understand it,oppression is different than
(18:58):
possession.
Possession it sounds like youblack out and you lose complete
control, so they just take overentirely and they do what they
want.
Alisha Coakley (19:06):
Okay.
Meghan Blanc (19:07):
Um, at least that's my understanding.
I'm not, I'm kind of new atthis, so, um, not an experience.
I planned for Um, not sure howyou plan for it Um, so I was
oppressed.
I would know what she was goingto do, but I didn't have
(19:27):
control to stop her all the time.
So I would get in and out asall as I can describe it where I
would get in control and shewould get in control, and then I
would get in control and thenshe would get in control.
But I was able to maintain somecontrol and, um, I didn't have
a lot of the.
I don't know if you havesymptoms or gifts that you have
when you're fully possessed aswell.
Um, I didn't have a lot of the.
I don't feel symptoms or giftsthat you have when you're fully
(19:48):
possessed as well.
um, I didn't have any superhumanstrength I wasn't able to
maneuver things in any weirdways, like I didn't wasn't able
to affect like electricity orheat or anything of that nature.
So, and again I was able toknow what she was doing the
whole time.
So I was kind of sometimes inthe back seat, sometimes in the
front seat kind of thing, almostas if you were driving the car
and then suddenly you're in thepassenger seat and then you're
(20:08):
in the front driver's seat again, back and forth.
Alisha Coakley (20:11):
Weird.
Meghan Blanc (20:12):
Yeah, I never heard anyone explain it that way
, but that's the best I can comeup with, I guess.
So, since I was only in partialcontrol of my body and I would
switch in and out, I was veryblessed to have my husband there
, Because not only is he aworthy priesthood holder and has
kept his temple covenants andwas worthy to cast the entity
(20:33):
out no-transcript weird.
(20:54):
Why would anyone come and juststart talking to a fellow
missionary about, you know, apossession?
Now, the reason it's notimportant to give up is when you
have, you're casting out thetemple, we kind of talk about it
, but there's not really like a,there's not a formula like
there is for getting a babyblessing or things like that.
But the important thing is tojust keep Satan to leave and
(21:16):
leave and leave again, because ademon doesn't leave right away
when it's commanded to do.
So.
You're not going to say, getout, we're not Christ.
So we don't have that.
Uh, we don't have the faith andthe thing, as far as I
understand, it's not usuallythat simple.
Now, I know, I know forCatholic exorcist it can take
hours or multiple attempts.
In this case I was lucky.
(21:37):
Um, it took a few attempts, butmy husband was at it for a
couple hours, about an hour, um.
So yeah, so it's about an hourof him just saying no.
Now he knew, just keep goingand just keep going, ignore him.
I don't care what she says,we're going to keep ignoring her
and just keep going forward.
(21:58):
And they try to intimidate theperson who's going to casting
out because they know that it'snot good.
Um, there's a lot that needs tohappen with the person having
faith that has a possession oran oppression.
A lot of it has to do with yourfaith and how you feel about it
.
I was not happy, so I tend togo kind of mama bear with my
kids and with my husband.
So you need the repetition, butyou also need to have the faith
(22:20):
as the person being deliveredthat this is.
You're willing to repent,you're willing to not have the
spirit be there.
You don't want to keep it there.
So when you are commanding ademon out toward my hundred or a
devil or an entity of any kind,the persistence is important,
but you also their petition isimportant.
What they're trying to do isbasically wear you down and make
(22:43):
you think it's not going towork.
So either it'll crush yourfaith or it'll augment it, cause
you're like no, I am a discipleof jesus christ.
He had in my husband's case.
He has the authority to do so,although from my understanding
you don't priesthood.
But as long as you have faithin christ, you are working
through christ, he will castanything out.
He has power over it.
So what is?
Alisha Coakley (23:05):
I mean for like a whole hour.
What did?
What was going on?
What like yelling at him orlike what was happening?
Meghan Blanc (23:13):
Well, it was pretty interesting.
So, um, we ended up contactingmy friends.
I was able to get like call, uh, you know, call Janelle, see
what she like.
She has some experience withthis area and so she kind of
knew what more of a protocol is.
So she has some experience.
So she was kind of talking himthrough it on a best approach.
It Now I was what was happening,like I said, but it was back
(23:36):
and forth, so I can only controlher in spurts.
But apparently my body'smannerisms change and my facial
expressions would change and mytone of voice would change.
I was a different person.
So she was, I would say, flirty, if it was a good understanding
of it, and she would just kindof move her shoulders around and
she would kind of like mock himand kind of twist her.
(23:58):
I mean, I can't, I don't thinkI could mimic it because I
wasn't.
I was watching from behind ifthat makes sense the camera.
I wasn't seeing the personbeing affected.
They'll say my husband was, butshe would contort her face and
it was very mocking, it was verynasty.
She didn't swear, which is nice.
Um, I don't like swearing.
So, um, but yeah, she would usemy voice, but it sounded
(24:21):
different than my ownreflections.
So my husband could tell whenwe would switch.
He knew what it was me.
So I would lay on my arms, neckclose to my garments, and I
pushed my arms close to my chest.
I lay on my arms to try toprotect him and occasionally I
would yell at her.
I would say you stop it, youleave him alone.
You do not have the.
You know like she's, this is mybody.
(24:42):
You don't get to do that.
But I usually could just stop.
I wasn't able to say much outloud.
I would usually be able to sayyou leave him alone, and then
she'd take over.
She laughed at him and shewould just laugh and laugh and
laugh.
She mocked him.
She said you don't, you don'tknow what you're doing, you
can't get rid of me.
Just making fun of him for evenattempting it.
So she was like you know, youcan't get me out, like she was
(25:02):
just nasty the entire time.
It was kind of like bullying.
I guess she kept trying to clawat him too.
So she tried to like grab athim and then I would try to lay
again my arms again.
But he kind of would see mecoming and I you know, and look
like I said, luckily I didn'thave the superhuman strength,
because if it's a true fullpossession, the demon can throw
(25:23):
full grown men across the roomand stuff.
I mean it can be really ugly.
So if there's ever a fullpossession, you would need a
team of people from myunderstanding, like 10, 20
people in a room praying,holding people down.
You know four big guys holdingthe person down.
Even if you're as tiny as I am,I'm little, I'm not a very
large person, so I didn't havethat strength.
(25:43):
So luckily he was able to kindof like he can take me.
Okay, he's a decent sized guy,he's a normal average guy, but
yeah he could just kind of holdmy hands.
So she tried to call it and hewould just like stop her.
But yeah, after he got, afterthat hour or so, finally she
left, yeah, but he said he hadto keep defending himself, put
his you know, uh, cast her outand then watch me try to yell at
(26:06):
her and we just kind of havethese back and forth, back and
forth, um, until finally sheleft, um, so that was different
and did your husband want tosleep in the same bed with you?
after that, I'd be like I'mgonna lock you in this room he
was very nervous because neitherone of us had really seen this.
It came out of the blue.
(26:27):
I wasn't like I wasn't messingwith the ouija boards, I wasn't.
You know, it was right afterfamily scripture study too.
That's true.
I'd forgotten that we said playmy scripture study, put the
kids to bed, and then I startfeeling sick after family
scripture study.
So it's not like we weren't,like we're pretty faithful,
we're trying.
Alisha Coakley (26:44):
We're not perfect, but you know we're, we
weren't like playing with weirdstuff off to the side, or no,
exactly I, exactly I wasn'tdoing crazy.
Meghan Blanc (26:51):
That's the thing.
It's hard is I wasn't doinganything odd.
There was another attack a fewweeks later, but I kind of could
sense what was coming on, ifthat makes any sense.
More again, like I.
Now that I had that experience,I was like okay, but it was
weaker and so I was just like Idon't feel good.
Good, oh man, I don't know whatshe's gonna do this time, or if
it's someone different, like Idon't know, he cast one out.
(27:13):
That doesn't necessarily meanit's the same uh entity coming
back, right.
So I put on uh hymns.
That time I was like I'm gonnaput on some hymns and just let
it play like a playlist.
Um, because there's a hymns appand I'm gonna play the hymns
app and do the best I can to tryto bring the spirit in as much
as I can and see, I mean see ifit helps.
I don't know what you do withyou know, I mean we were doing
scripture today.
I thought that was kind of agood vibe as I call it.
(27:39):
So I played hymns.
It helped.
I was kind of putting like astupor so I just like was like
really lethargic and I justcouldn't raise my body.
So I was just laying there likekind of slumped against my bed
waiting to like feel better.
So I just laid there, myhusband didn't have to cast
thing out, I was just waitinguntil I felt better and then
after probably about anotherhour, again same thing.
I just felt better and I wasfine.
Like it just left.
(28:00):
I was, I think I put my hour tosquare in that case, like I was
, I don't just said you leave,and then it did like when I got
a minute of strength, but it wasmuch easier that time, and then
I haven't had one since, butit's only been a few months and
I don't know from the context,my blessing, like I don't know
if seek to possess you, it doessay attempts.
(28:20):
So I don't know if that meanstwo.
I don't know if that means alifetime of problems.
I don't know what that indicatesright so yeah, I mean, I've
been trying to kind of figureout what the causes would be,
but I don't know.
Alisha Coakley (28:36):
Well, you know, I have a little thought on this.
I think I might've shared thiswith you when we were on our
preliminary call, but, like my,uh, my dad had a kind of
somewhat a little bit of asimilar experience, um, when way
back in the seventies, in the1970s, uh, when he and my mom
were first investigating thechurch and stuff like that, um,
(28:58):
he had come home and or he waslike home and he had walked in
the living room and I guessthere was like a little side
table with, like the old schoolyou know, phones and stuff there
and uh, he'd come in and all ofa sudden he felt this immense
like darkness and weight thatcame over on, came on him and
basically forced him to hisknees, like he physically and he
(29:20):
was a big guy, he was like hisnickname was tree, he's like six
foot four, german, beefy,muscular, soldier, guy Right,
and he, he was like he couldn'teven stand.
He was like he fell to hisknees and he's by himself at the
time and stuff like that and ittook him forever.
Like he just he was like cryingand he just there was this
darkness on him and the onlything that he could do is reach
(29:41):
out and grab that phone and hewas able to dial the
missionaries numbers who wereteaching him the discussions and
all that stuff at the time, buthe couldn't physically speak,
like.
He kept trying to speak and hecouldn't and this is before
caller ID and all of that kindof stuff.
Even without him sayinganything, the missionaries knew
it was him and so they said, youknow, they said, brother, shoe
(30:01):
hard, is that you?
And there's a silence, you know, and he kept trying to choke
something out and they're likewe're coming right now.
And so it was.
You know, 15, 20 minutes laterthe missionary showed up and
when they came in they were ableto, um, you know, to do a
blessing and all that kind ofstuff and get rid of it.
But they had told my dadafterwards that, um, sometimes
(30:23):
that you'll kind of put a targeton your back when you're doing
exactly what the Lord needs youto do, when you're on that path,
because you're, you're gettingready to either open up more of
your spiritual gifts or you're,you know, you're getting ready
to do something that's like abig part of your mission in life
.
You know, like, like withJoseph Smith right, like if he
hadn't gone into the Grove anddidn't want to go pray about it,
(30:44):
there wouldn't have been anincessant need at that moment to
have Satan attack him, you know.
And so it could be that maybeyou're on the verge of doing
something you know what I meanLike with you adopting these
kids or something like that.
Like maybe there's somethingthat Satan's trying to stop you
(31:06):
from progressing towards orgaining more knowledge on, or
having more power in, and itcould be for your husband too,
you know, like maybe they wantto scare him.
So sometimes that's somethingthat these missionaries have
told my dad all those years agoand I mean, I've seen it a
couple of times with differentfamily members where, as soon as
(31:28):
they start doing things thatthey should be doing and
changing their life, all of asudden they have a target on the
back and Satan's like uh, I'mgoing to try to scare you away
from it, I'm going to try totalk you out of it, I'm going to
try to, you know, tempt youinto something else, and so it
could just be something assimple as that.
I mean, I'm not an apostle, Idon't quote me, but that's just
my feeling of it.
(31:50):
I don't know, scott, you're aBishop.
Scott Brandley (31:53):
What is?
Alisha Coakley (31:53):
your thing.
Scott Brandley (31:54):
I didn't deal with anything like that, but I
know that when my I have abrother, I have a brother.
When he was a teenager, he waspossessed by something and my
dad had to spend the whole nightwith him, and it was.
Alisha Coakley (32:09):
What.
Scott Brandley (32:10):
Yeah, it was yeah, the whole night with him
and it was what?
Yeah, it was yeah, the wholenight.
Just it was kind of this kindof similar like, um, he would,
it just wouldn't leave and hewould just keep, you know,
commanding it to leave and anddoing the thing, and he had to
stay with them the whole nightuntil it left.
Meghan Blanc (32:29):
Was it right before your brother was having
permission, kind of thing no, hewas.
Scott Brandley (32:34):
He wasn't doing stuff he should be doing and
they he was in a bad place and Ithink it just kind of opened
him up to be susceptible to somebad things.
Wow yeah, it was almost like mydad was like fighting for him,
like battling against this evilspirit all night to try to save
(32:57):
him.
Alisha Coakley (32:58):
Wow so and you know, I mean I'm we don't hear a
lot about this kind of stuffnow, like I think the most
recent account usually is theone with joseph smith in the
grove right, um, but you read inthe scriptures and it is all
over in the scriptures.
I mean, there are so manydifferent times where we read
stories about people beingpossessed and you know the, the
(33:21):
spirits going into the, into thepigs and the kids, the pigs
going crazy, and you know what Imean.
Like there it's a real thing,like it really happened, and I
don't think that we're in aposition where that just went
away.
I think, if anything, it'sbecome way more commonplace and
we call it different things now,right, like we, we put a
(33:43):
medical term on it or we put ayou know a identity to it or
something like that.
Um, where it's, it's kind ofexplained away, so to speak.
Um, maybe even something assimple as like, oh, I have
depression.
You know, I that's one thingthat I've always like.
(34:04):
I do know that there is like anactual medical, like there's
things that happen in your brain, but also I think that a lot of
people sometimes might confusethat and maybe they do have that
oppression that you're talkingabout, right, maybe it's not
possession, but maybe it reallyis just sharing space with an
evil spirit.
And because you don't recognizeit, you just are susceptible to
(34:28):
the belief of oh, this is justsomething I I can't get rid of,
I just don't have the power.
It's just, it's just medical,it's just this.
And, again, I do know thatthere is medical depression.
Like, I do know that there areactual mental health things that
are in the brain that you knoware better on medication or
better through therapies.
I, uh, we had someone who'sactually a hypnotherapist, um,
(34:50):
and a member of the church, andwe just had her on the show a
little bit ago, um, and I didhypnotherapy with her too, and
it's something that the churchsays you know, that is, that's
okay.
Like in the handbook, you cango to a hypnotherapist for
medical you know medical thingsand whatever else.
So, um, it's not forentertainment purposes.
(35:13):
Is is what the handbooksuggests, right?
So I do think that there'sdefinitely like stuff out there
that we just don't even considerpossession or whatever else,
because we're we're trying to belogical all the time and just
explain it away, but it's real,you know what I mean.
Like it didn't disappear,especially nowadays with
(35:34):
everything that we have going on.
Meghan Blanc (35:36):
So yeah, well, I know most of my information has
come, unfortunately, from theCatholic side, so it's not
doctrinal or anything, but Ithink it lines up with what we
understand too.
The things they talk about thatseem to open people up to it
are things that tend to makelife harder anyway.
One of the biggest ones is likeaddictions.
Addictions, they know, affectsthe body and affects the spirit,
(35:57):
so Satan has an invitation tocome in.
When you have an addiction,well, that makes sense.
You can be addicted, andSatan's gonna make it harder.
If you are, if you've committedgrievous sin like murder, or if
you're committing violence tofamily members, that's not okay.
(36:18):
Um, things like sexual sins,pornography those are things
that attack the body and thespirit at the same time.
Participating in occultpractices like visiting psychics
, um, even things like abuseseem to have that kind of effect
too, where, because it harmsthe soul so much, it leaves like
a chasm or an opening or a hole.
Alisha Coakley (36:30):
Yeah, trauma.
Meghan Blanc (36:32):
Trauma, yeah, Trauma abuse, even mental
illness, Like there are.
You can have them coexist, butwhy wouldn't Satan harm a person
who's already hurting?
Alisha Coakley (36:41):
Oh, absolutely.
Meghan Blanc (36:43):
And so I don't know how much like I do wonder
how often we could help otherskind of maybe do it in a more
like the catholics have it wherethey have um before they do.
They call it deliveranceministry or um for the for the
exorcism.
There's a whole process that Ihad, no, it existed until I was
looking more into it, and theyhave them meet with a therapist
(37:05):
to rule out mental illness.
Apparently a lot like ninetimes out of ten or something it
is actual mental illness, whichI was surprised right they like
.
This actually lines up with anactual diagnosis.
This makes sense right but thattime it will not quite match,
it won't quite be right.
It'll be something like well,yeah, but this kind of thing
doesn't happen to people.
Or you know like, so a lot ofpeople say they come forward.
(37:27):
I was like I'm not crazy, butyou know this happened.
And so the priest is like I knowyou're not crazy, I believe in
christ too yeah um, but I knowthat that's something that can
affect us, so that one thingI've been kind of learning is
sin, um, the things that theyalways tell us against the
church also leave us opening forsatan.
(37:48):
I don't think we kind of thinkof trials as being possessed as
one of the things that'savailable, but it is available
as an option.
We don't really know if it'sbeing righteous or what the
problems are that seem to causeit.
There's not like a if you dothis, you'll for sure be
possessed.
Alisha Coakley (38:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Meghan Blanc (38:04):
There doesn't seem to be like an exact formula,
which is interesting, it's justif he has a chance he'll come in
or send in one of his ormultiple, depending on the
person.
Um, I know that that happened alot in the scriptures as well.
They would be legion or they'dbe other different names where
they would be multiple forcesright so I don't know what
(38:25):
causes it either.
I know I'm lucky I got one, butum.
Alisha Coakley (38:31):
I know I'm lucky I got one, but, um, wow, so,
okay.
So, and I know maybe you don'tknow this, but, um, in regards
to all of that, what have you?
I mean, what are you guys doingnow to try to put more things
into place to prevent that fromhappening?
And like in your home, and youknow what is your husband doing
to be better prepared in case hehas to.
You know what is your husbanddoing to be better prepared in
case he has to.
(38:52):
You know help you again in thefuture, or help kids, or you
know someone else that he runsinto.
Like what?
What kind of changes are youguys looking into making or have
you made an ear?
Meghan Blanc (39:06):
Um, we've kind of done inventory to see.
Um, I know that like one thingto look for is again see
anything that's a cult like.
Sometimes things will seem likethey're okay and not.
In the catholic church there'sa side sect I can't remember
what it's called but there's aside sect of catholicism where
they actually, um, they're likelittle saints, but they're not,
and so they're actuallyworshiping demons.
So I'm like, okay, is thereanything in my?
(39:28):
I don't, was there anything inmy house that would be inviting
something else?
And like, is everything I'mdoing?
I haven't found anything that'sstands out that would be
off-putting.
Um, uh, we've, we have a templepicture in our home.
We have pictures of christ inthe home.
Uh, we do a scripture study.
We go to the temple regularly.
(39:49):
Like it's kind of that's thething was kind of hard is we
didn't really see like anopening.
We're like, well, I, I don'thave any of these things.
I haven't done degree of sins,as far as I know, so far at
least, not god, would theycontinue on the path forward?
Um, I haven't hung out withpeople.
Um, that's one thing that canhappen, apparently is, if you
hang out with people that have abad spirit, you, you can
(40:09):
actually kind of catch it sortof which is to think about, um,
we don't have parties, we don'thave people over much, so, like
it's it has encounters a lot ofpeople with his notary business,
but it doesn't seem like thatwould be accurate.
You know, um, we haven'tencountered anybody that has it.
Um, I wondered if, when myparents leaving the church, if
there's anything they've hadcontact with, but I mean, I
(40:30):
don't know and I can't judgethem for where they're at with
their, you know, relationshipwith Christ.
I don't know if it is simplyjust.
You know, looking into adoptionis actually a several year
thing.
When my first miscarriagehappened, I wanted to adopt,
like pretty quickly afterwardsand I was like you're grieving,
(40:50):
you're upset, we'll probablyhave more kids, you're gonna be
fine.
Let's calm down, like whileyou're in this experience, let's
take time to process the griefthat you're experiencing and I'm
experiencing, before we likejump in the next thing.
You know um so I mean, we waited, you know nine years before and
had another miscarriage beforeit felt like time.
(41:12):
So I don't know if it'ssomething as simple as going to
help people who yeah, who've um,when you take on teenagers
who've been through the fostercare system, they have that
trauma and they have beenthrough so much been abandoned,
unwanted.
I can't imagine how out mustfeel to be rejected multiple
(41:32):
times, over and over and overagain.
And no one wants teenagers.
Teenagers are horrible.
Everybody hates teenagers.
Alisha Coakley (41:38):
I'm like not that bad.
They're all possessed now.
I'm just kidding.
Meghan Blanc (41:43):
I better stop.
We can always edit out later.
Were you hanging out?
Scott Brandley (41:48):
with any teenagers.
I wasn't hanging out with anyteenagers.
I just had my little preteen Iwonder if it's like you know how
we talk about the gifts of thespirit and people have different
gifts of the spirit.
I wonder if it's um similar inthe sense that we we each have
weaknesses or things that we'revulnerable more vulnerable to
(42:12):
than than others, and maybethat's just something that
certain people are morevulnerable to spiritually is to
be possessed by a spirit.
Alisha Coakley (42:25):
That you know, scott.
On that note, the gift ofdiscernment.
I'm going to see if I can findit real quick.
I'm going to google it.
There is a in the, thedictionary, I believe the.
Let me see I'm going to putthis in real quick yes, in the
(42:48):
gospel library, discernment.
Let's spell this right word,right?
Um, I want to read this.
Nope, that's not the right one.
Hold on, I'm gonna find itanyway.
It does talk about spirits.
It talks about the gift ofdiscernment, being able to
discern spirits.
Um, so this could just be, ifthat happens to be one of your
(43:09):
gifts.
It might be.
I'm going to look it up forrelease, but yeah, I don't know.
Meghan Blanc (43:15):
I thought I also wondered, since our blessings
are eternal blessings, I've alsowondered if this is a
preparatory gift.
Maybe I get attacked throughoutmy life.
I don't know.
Like I said, I'm like, well,that happens, that happens.
It seems like, you know, anyonecould cast spirits out so my
husband would be able to handleit.
Okay, if that's the case, I'vewondered if maybe that's
something to my mission and thenext life as well.
(43:37):
We don't know what everybodydoes, but I've wondered um,
would it be possible that Iwould help people on um from the
other side as well?
If I've been able to overcomebad spirits with my body, I
would think I'd be able to senseand help people who have a
similar experience from theother side as well.
(43:57):
That's a possibility I thoughtof yeah that is not gospel
doctrine in any way, shape orform, but it's a thought that I
had like.
Alisha Coakley (44:04):
Maybe this is yeah it's one of those things.
I mean, we know that we can useour bad for good, right, we
know that we can use ourexperiences, just like um.
I know one of the things thatI've noticed is because of the
um sexual abuse that I had whenI was a child, I can literally
walk in a room and nine timesout of 10, I can tell you who
(44:26):
was who else was sexually abused, without having a conversation.
I just get this sense and I'vebeen proven right a lot lately
and it kind of put me in aposition sometimes, like when I
was working with young women.
Um, those young women were ableto easily come to me and I
think because they recognized ittoo, so they knew that they
could come talk to me about thethings that they were going
(44:47):
through, and then I was sort oflike an adult that could help
them navigate that situation,you know.
So I I definitely think thatthere's a um, there's a power in
our struggles, right Like it'swhere we learn.
But also then we kind of becomea little bit of a reflection
for other people who are havingthose struggles and when they
(45:10):
look at us they can see, okay,this person was able to to grow
above that.
So I know I can trust thembecause they've been through it.
You know, I don't know.
Just a thought it's veryinteresting, very interesting.
I can't find the thing that Iread, but I'm going to have to
keep looking.
So, anyway, I know that thegift of discernment does have
(45:32):
the ability to discern spirits,so maybe that's something you
know in the extreme.
I don't know.
Meghan Blanc (45:42):
I don't know.
I don't know either.
We don't have a lot ofinformation as to, like I said,
what causes it.
We know that the Savior didtell certain people that it was
not because of sin for certainpeople that were in the
scriptures.
They said well, whose sin wasit?
There's a boy, I believe,that's throwing himself into the
fire at the time.
And they asked him whose sinWas it?
His parents?
(46:02):
Was it him?
Alisha Coakley (46:13):
Like what's the problem?
He said, sometimes these thingsjust happen and basically, and
it's for the betterment of god'speople.
And so I don't know.
Yeah, and to be fair, I mean weknow that we're just getting
closer and closer to the secondcoming of christ, which means
the veil is getting thinner,which means the war is raging,
you know, raging on in bigger,harder, more extreme ways, and
so it could literally just bethat both sides are getting
stronger, you know, and they'rejust getting louder.
Meghan Blanc (46:33):
I don't know so no , I've heard that as well too.
Like well, we know, the spiritsdidn't leave that he, satan and
his followers are stuck here onthe earth we didn't go anywhere
.
So if they're here, I wouldstand reason that they're doing
something with their free time.
I don't know.
You know nothing but free time.
Um, I don't even know.
I don't even know what theirresponsibilities are, if
(46:57):
anything.
I mean, I like cs lewis a lotand so if you read, like the
screw tape letters, you know hehas like where they have, you
know, jobs and like I don't'tknow how Satan's system works.
Yeah, I would assume being oneof God's sons, he probably paid
attention to how God organizedthings or is going to, and I
would assume that everything ofSatan's is a mirror of God.
And if that's the case and weknow there's opposition, all
(47:20):
things then if there's spiritsthat are attacking us, then
there's spirits that areattacking us, then there's
spirits that are protecting us,and if there's that would
indicate it's a pretty goodfight.
Um, that's one of the thingsI've kind of taken away so far.
Again, it's only been a fewmonths.
Um is, if satan hates me thatmuch, I'm not.
I'm not joseph smith, okay, I'msomebody.
(47:43):
As far as I know, my journey onearth is probably not going to
be the most exciting in terms oflike people.
But non-history books or youknow, I probably won't be
someone well-remembered byeverybody, although being on a
podcast I remembered more thanmost.
But if he hates me that much forgoing about my business, doing
(48:06):
something that's kind of averageI mean, I'm a stay at home mom,
I homeschool.
I'm under the radar as far asmost people's perception is.
If he hates me that much justgoing about my business, what on
earth does he hate abouteverybody else?
And that means if Satan hatesme that much, god must love me
an awful lot too.
(48:26):
You know, um, it's anoppositional limit.
God loves me an awful lot If heput that much effort into
protecting me as well.
Like I didn't get fullyattacked.
I wasn't harming my husband.
My husband was perfectly fine.
He was creeped out, but hewasn't hurt.
Um, I probably scared mychildren a little bit,
unfortunately my husband.
My husband was perfectly fine hewas creeped out, but he wasn't
hurt.
Um, I probably scared mychildren a little bit.
(48:47):
Unfortunately they were inhearing range and she was pretty
nasty.
But you know we didn't, I knowI, you know I didn't do anything
that was particularlyinteresting.
But if I'm that important, sois everybody else, and so I
doesn't.
You know, it doesn't reallybother me to worry about it too
much.
I figure this is if satan canattack us.
That's so I doesn't.
You know it doesn't bother meto worry about it too much.
I figured this is if Satan canattack us.
(49:07):
That's one of the things.
If you know, some of us havephysical strength problems,
fertility problems, I mean.
There's any number of thingsyou can name off.
This is just not one that was onmy radar, honestly, is that
anything like oh, I thought Iwould just be an average person
that has you know the otherthings that everybody else seems
to face at church.
Yeah, this is not one that wason my radar, but it doesn't mean
(49:37):
it's any less.
I don't say average, but it'sany less of a trial than the
same way as everything else is,which means it can be overcome.
We know that one of thepromises that God made to Adam
and Eve was that the serpentcould bruise the heel, but
Christ could crush his head.
Alisha Coakley (49:52):
Right, so it's it makes me want to like.
Scott Brandley (49:57):
Oh, go ahead, Scott I was going to say I think
it's really interesting that itmentioned it in your
patriarchal blessing that to meshows that there's it in your
patriarchal blessing.
That, to me, shows that there'sa lot of power and insight in
in a patriarchal blessing.
Meghan Blanc (50:14):
Yeah, yeah.
Like I said, I look back atmine.
Like I asked my husband, like,do you want to look at yours?
What's?
What do you got in yours?
What's going on there?
Like, what are your challengesthat we're not?
Alisha Coakley (50:29):
you know?
Yeah, I was just gonna say itmakes me want to go put my
patriarchal blessing and chatgpt and be like, hey, hey, ai
pull out all the warnings inthis blessing and then let me
know what each of them couldpossibly mean on a spiritual,
spiritual sense, just so I canbe better prepared, just in case
there's something that's spokenout.
Meghan Blanc (50:40):
I mean, the spirit's good to use too, but
but chat GBT is very convenientsometimes, so maybe it'll but
that's the thing is, I didn'tsee it coming, like I said, I
just thought it was like oh,your life's just going to be
kind of hard sometimes, like ohyeah, everybody has a hard life.
You know, we weren't, you know,planned to have roses without
thorns, right?
Alisha Coakley (50:59):
Right.
Meghan Blanc (51:01):
Wow.
Alisha Coakley (51:01):
So, man, well, I'm I'm sorry that you don't
have more answers at the moment.
You know that this is so freshfor you and stuff like that, but
we really do appreciate youcoming on here and sharing your
story with us today.
And, um, we I'm, I'm curious,do you, um, do you have like any
, any final thoughts?
(51:21):
You know, like, how has thishelped with your testimony?
What would you like to sharewith us before?
Yeah?
Meghan Blanc (51:28):
Yeah, like I said, for me, I kind of figured out
that like we actually have alittle information like on how
to overcome Satan, then we do,like what causes possession?
Like that's not reallymentioned, but we do know that
it's overcoming Satan in otherways, even if we don't call it
possession.
As far as overcoming Satan'spower, the information we have
is like in Revelation 11, 12, or12, 11, there we go, we read,
(51:51):
and they overcame him by theblood of the lamb and by the
word of their testimony, andthey love not their lives unto
the death.
And then in Alma 37, 6, we readand you may suppose this is
foolishness in me, but behold, Isay unto you that by small and
simple things are great thingsbrought to pass, and small means
, in many instances, death,confound the wise.
So in revelation it tells usthat repentance or returning
(52:14):
jesus christ, jesus, has thepower to overcome satan.
So repentance or returningjesus christ have a lot of power
.
So if you're ever havingtrouble, repent, bearing your
testimony, and it was by theword of testimony they were able
to overcome Satan and the waron heaven.
Reading our script and my, myblessing, it said read your
(52:35):
scriptures, remain prayerful.
You know it wasn't sound likeit's the most exciting thing in
the world, but it's.
Attending the temple regularly,attending our church services.
Those are all small things andeverybody can do the small
things to a certain extent.
People always call them theprimary answers, but one thing
that's really stuck in my heartis that they're repetitive, but
(52:55):
they're really important.
We wouldn't keep saying them.
They're actually prettypowerful tools in this adversary
.
If you ever look at anyoneyou've ever known who's left the
church, are they repentingevery day?
Are they bearing theirtestimony all the time?
Are they doing their scripturesevery day?
Are they praying all the time?
Are they attending the temple?
Are they attending the churchall the time?
Unfortunately, probably not,and that's something that's kind
(53:16):
of uplifted me.
I'm like, well, if you keep,you know, keep trucking or keep
going at something.
I thing I didn't know that mytrials would include fighting
off demonic attempts to possessmy body.
I also didn't know that Iwouldn't be fully possessed,
because it does talk aboutattempted possessions.
I honestly didn't really thinkI was worth Satan's efforts.
I was like, well, I'm just aperson.
I'm not like you know.
(53:37):
I don't think my calling isparticularly interesting.
I live a very ordinary life.
I stay under the radar.
I do side callings that aresupportive roles.
I try to do God's will.
But um you know if I'm thatunimportant and why?
why do you target me anyway?
Because I'm a beloved daughterof heavenly parents, because I
(53:58):
have a divine nature and eternaldestiny, because my family is
my most important priority andeternal families are central to
heavenly Father's plan.
And because I'm a disciple ofJesus Christ, and so I'm going
to keep trying to do the smallthings.
And if he comes again, which heprobably will, then we just got
to.
You know, I'll keep bearing mytestimony and I'll keep, you
know, trying every day and thebest I can and repent more and
(54:22):
the best I can.
Scott Brandley (54:28):
I love that because it feels like by going
through this experience, you'veactually realized even more than
ever who you really are and thepower that you have and the
love that God has for you andfor each one of us.
Alisha Coakley (54:42):
You know?
Yeah, I agree, I think it's.
Maybe maybe you thought youwere too average and too normal
and too blah for too long, andmaybe this is one of those
things hemling mother's likeokay, I'm just gonna let this
happen because I know it's gonnateach her a lesson, you know,
so you didn't make it happen,but he's like you'd sneak in
there just so she knows how muchI love her and how awesome she
(55:02):
is you never know.
Well, good luck with everythingin the future.
I hope that you're able to one,not have to experience that
again and, two, if you do that,you are better prepared, that
you're in a position whereyou're able to you know, to get
(55:24):
free from that and, um it, it.
It's definitely interesting.
I think a lot of us we just weget so busy with our day to days
that we forget that there is areal force out there that is
trying to stop us, trying toslow us down, trying to belittle
us, um, and that Satan is justas real as Jesus Christ, you
(55:49):
know that's.
The good news, though, is thatJesus is so real and his power
is so, so real, um, so, juststaying close to him and just
constantly trying to to live theway that he wants us to live.
It really does give us this theshield of protection, not
necessarily to stop everythingall the time, but to help us to
(56:09):
be able to still endure and toget through and and to be better
, you know, despite the woundsand the, the attacks that we we
have to face.
So, and well, thank you, Meghan.
I really appreciate coming onand sharing your story with us
today.
That was great.
(56:35):
Yeah, thanks guys All right.
Well, that's a wrap.
That's all we have for you guystoday.
So we just want to thank ourlisteners, too, for tuning in
and ask you guys to remember todo your five second missionary
work.
It's the small and simplethings that help spread light to
the world.
So do that five secondmissionary work.
Hit that share button, comment,let us know.
I mean, I love hearing abouthow these things were overcome,
(56:59):
and so, if you have a story thatyou'd like to share too, like
let us know, comment, tell uswhat resonated with you.
All the things, um, we just welove hearing from our guests
yeah, you know it's interesting.
Scott Brandley (57:13):
So through this story we we all three have had
some type of an experience orknow someone close to us that's
had it.
I wonder how many other peopleout there have experienced
something like this.
You know it's it's not talkedabout a lot, but because we only
tell our stories to the peopleclosest around us in the in the
church, then you probably don'tget to hear what's really out
(57:37):
there on a larger scale.
So that's one of the coolthings about having this show is
that we get to hear storiesbroader than just our ward, you
know.
Alisha Coakley (57:48):
I love that.
Scott Brandley (57:49):
Yeah, so yeah, thanks, Meghan, for being on the
show, and if any of you have astory that you'd like to share,
or know someone that has a storythat can help others or give
some insight or some assistanceor share some light, go to
latterdaylightscom and shareyour story with us and anything
(58:13):
else, Alisha.
Alisha Coakley (58:15):
I think that's it.
We just appreciate you guys.
We, scott and I, have beendoing this show for, you know, a
little over two and a halfyears now, and it's just going
to get stronger and better andbigger and hopefully reach more
and more hearts, and we justneed stories.
We need more stories.
So we would, we would love toschedule a phone call with yours
truly.
Tell us all the things.
(58:37):
That would be great, yeahawesome.
Scott Brandley (58:41):
well, thanks again, guys, and thanks Meghan,
and we will talk to you guysnext week with another episode
from Latter-day Lights.
Until then, take care, bye guys.
Hi everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.
Alisha Coakley (00:02):
And I'm Alisha Coakley.
Every member of the church hasa story to share, one that can
instill faith, invite growth andinspire others.
Scott Brandley (00:10):
On today's episode we're going to hear how
a terrifying encounter with ademonic spirit taught one woman
the importance of building herspiritual shield by small and
simple acts of faith.
Welcome to Latter-day Lights.
Hi everyone, welcome back toanother episode of Latter-day
(00:38):
Lights.
We're so glad you're here withus today and we're really
excited to welcome our specialguest, Meghan Blanc, to the show
.
Meghan, welcome.
Meghan Blanc (00:44):
Hi Scott, Hi Alisha, how are you guys doing?
Alisha Coakley (00:47):
We're good.
We're good.
Thanks so much for reaching outto us.
We really appreciate it.
We have not had your story yetand I'm like, tis the season it
is.
I don't want to ever have anytype of like encounters, but I
love hearing about them andthey're scary but they're like
(01:11):
so interesting.
So I I'm so excited to go overyour story today and just to
kind of like talk about what wecan do to protect ourselves and
how we can, you know, avoidthings like that.
But but I love it.
So thanks so much for beingbrave and for reaching out to us
on that.
Meghan Blanc (01:31):
Yeah, you're welcome.
It just kind of was listeningto the podcast when I'm like you
need to go on there, I'm likeno, I don't.
Alisha Coakley (01:38):
Your husband, who's hiding in the background
right now and won't come oncamera with you, right?
Meghan Blanc (01:43):
Pretty much.
He doesn't have the same story,so it's fine.
Alisha Coakley (01:48):
Very true.
Well, before we get into that,do you want to share a little
bit about yourself?
Meghan Blanc (01:54):
Sure, I always thought this would be kind of
funny because I'm not the mostinteresting.
So I was actually raised in LasVegas.
My parents bumped around alittle bit.
So I was actually born inCalifornia near LA area.
We lived in Utah for a shortperiod of time.
My dad went to law school, butI was really raised in Las Vegas
proper.
Technically it was in paradise.
So I was off the strip but kindof near the strip and my
(02:19):
parents actually moved there forwork.
But my mom's family was alreadythere.
So it kind of worked out well.
I grew up with my parents andmy younger brother and my mom
mostly mom's big family wasthere too.
So my mom is the oldest of nineand so most of her siblings
were there.
So they had about seven of themat one point all together in
Las Vegas.
So it was nice to be around abunch of people together.
(02:40):
So I've been raised and activein the church my whole life I'm
not a convert together.
So I've been raised and activein the church my whole life.
I'm not a convert, I'm not like.
I just kind of grew up that way.
I've never been active oranything else.
So it's been kind of a smoothride.
I went to college at BYU Idahoand I met my sweetheart there.
He was from California and Iwas from Las Vegas, so we were
(03:00):
never going to just bump intoeach other.
Yeah, we actually are.
We're both night janitors inthe physical facilities building
from Las Vegas, so we werenever gonna just bump into each
other.
Yeah, um, we actually.
We actually are.
We're both night janitors inthe physical facilities building
, which, if you're not familiarwith BYU Idaho, is called the
heart building, and so we alwayswill joke that when you do like
introductions like oh yeah, hecaptured my heart in the heart
building, but it's the physicalfacilities buildings like the
(03:21):
least romantic building oncampus.
He swept you away pretty much.
Yeah, I know.
So we actually started talkingwhile we were cleaning the
locker rooms during the summerbreak.
We just cleaned the ceilings andI was cleaning the walls and it
was not the most romanticsetting.
I was not even cute.
I had no makeup on I usuallywear contacts.
(03:44):
So I was.
They all shared these men'sboots, so like I was like my
least cute outfit ever to get,like you know, dirty yeah, so I
was like in my like grossestlooking form and he's like, oh,
she's cute.
I'm like, really, that was thelike.
That's how you meet your futurehusband is when you're grubby.
Alisha Coakley (04:02):
But but that's awesome Because then anything
after that is going to be, youdon't even have to try.
Meghan Blanc (04:09):
That's what I figured.
Alisha Coakley (04:10):
But I was the youngest.
Meghan Blanc (04:11):
That was my cutest point in life.
I'm not most likely to be cuterthan that.
I wowed him, though I tried ona date, so we actually.
It's only seven week break forBYU-Idaho, so it actually was
six weeks that year, so we spentmost of our waking hours
together.
Since we work nights, we'vestarted like 1130 and ended at
430 in the morning, wow, and sowe'd spend like most waking
(04:35):
hours together.
Obviously, we had to sleep too.
And then by the time we startedofficially dating to the time
we were engaged was our 20th dayof being dating.
Oh my gosh, we didn't make it amonth, um, so we actually.
And then we were married duringthe winter break, just before
christmas.
Our anniversary is the shortestday of the year in terms of
(04:59):
daily hours wow, so I know.
So like that's a prettywhirlwind romance, um, which is
funny because summer romancesdon't work out, but ours did, um
, that's cool.
So yeah, so we've been happilymarried for over 12 years, kind
of smooth sailing there.
Um, I actually got mybachelor's degree in soul short,
but I got it like a monthbefore my oldest daughter was
(05:21):
born.
So there's that.
And then I actually started mylife as a stay-at-home mom like
right from the get-go.
So pretty much my poor husbandhad to work, go to school, help
his wife out.
I know we have four biologicalchildren, plus one on the way.
Aw, thank you.
(05:43):
We're also currently preparingfor home study so we can be
ready to adopt teenagers throughfoster care.
Oh my gosh that's amazing.
We're probably gonna double ournumbers from four children to
eight by next year wow, you'rein it, yeah yeah, wow, that's a
(06:05):
big deal, yeah, especially teenswhy, teenagers.
I we felt kind of just calledto.
I worked with young women andum so with social work.
I did two internships before Ium got a degree and so we worked
in the drug and counseling partwith like teen, like I was in
(06:27):
the teen group so I would sitthere with the teenagers, listen
to problems and it's like theseare trouble teens.
They're not little church teens,I know, but um, I just I kind
of like teenagers.
I think they're funny, I thinkthat they they're closer to
adulthood, adulthood, so theyhave, you can talk to them
closer to adults, but you stillhave a lot to teach them.
(06:48):
They have a lot to teach you.
So I, I like teenagers.
My oldest daughter is going tobe in young women's next year
with me, anyway, nice, so I'malmost there, gotcha.
And my husband's four yearsolder than me, so he's old
enough to have teenagers.
And I was feeling like you'reold, you're like really, really
old to have teenagers.
And I was feeling like you'reold, you're like, really really
old.
Fun fact so when 9-11 happened,he was in high school and going
(07:12):
to seminary and I was inelementary school, going, you
know, just watching a TV,because four years is a
different gap.
So you're such an old man, itis Wow.
Yeah, that's interesting tothink.
Alisha Coakley (07:20):
I such an old man it is, Wow.
Yeah, that's interesting tothink.
I mean, it doesn't feel likeold when you're, you know, an
adult Well when you're older,but it's old when you're young.
Meghan Blanc (07:28):
Yeah, like I wouldn't have been able to write
to his mission.
I was not old enough when hegot back.
Alisha Coakley (07:33):
Wow, that's funny.
Meghan Blanc (07:34):
Yeah, it's funny.
Alisha Coakley (07:36):
So well, good luck with all that.
Meghan Blanc (07:39):
That's awesome, yeah, so so, yeah, I homeschool
and my I don't have a job job,but I think I have a lot going
on anyway yeah, I think you'rebusy enough.
Alisha Coakley (07:49):
You're good, yeah, well, man, well, you do
have a job today, and that is,yes, to share your story with us
.
So we're going to turn the timeover to you and you know, just
have you tell us where yourstory begins.
Meghan Blanc (08:03):
Okay.
Um, here it goes.
I said this is kind of an oddexperience for me so I'll do
best I can, okay.
So, um, I guess the beginningof my story kind of begins when
I got my patriarchal blessing.
Like I said, I grew up in thechurch so, you know, did the
normal things.
I um, when I received mypatriarchal blessing, it was a
great experience and obviouslyit was a great comfort for me
(08:25):
for concerns at the time,towards the end of my blessing.
There is a line that I, likeyour blessing you learn and
develop as time goes on.
But there was a line that Ididn't really catch as much at
the time.
It just didn't stand out, butit kind of came more to the
front recently and so I've beenpaying more attention and
reviewing it more faithfully.
(08:45):
Um, even I usually reviewed acouple or a couple months or so
and the line that it read wasbeware, because the adversary
would seek to possess you.
And then it had the littlein-between part if you remain
faithful, will remain prayerful,will study your scriptures,
you'll have the power toovercome all attempts to lead
you away.
(09:07):
Yeah, which a weird way to putit.
Like I was like so at the timeand most of my life.
I thought, oh, that's like awarning, like everybody gets.
You know, I'm sure thateverybody has warnings.
Their blessings mine was likeI'm assuming standard.
I mean, I haven't readeverybody's blessing, but it
sounded kind of like somethingyou would say to anybody.
You know, you need to followthe gospel and be a good, you
know, be a good member and stayfaithful.
(09:29):
So I kind of assumed it waslike okay, keep your covenants,
don't fall off the path.
You know, be a Nephi, don't bea Laman Lemuel that kind of
thing,I'm like okay, yeah, I can be a
good girl, I'm fine, you know.
Now, to preface my story, I do.
I don't know if I had tomention this or not, but I don't
have a history of clinicaldepression or anxiety of any
(09:50):
kind, like I don't have anymental health history, right.
But when I was in college I hada bad breakup and for some
reason I couldn't shake it.
Now I was working the night jobthat semester before I met my
husband, so I was working nightjob alone right after I had the
bad breakup and for some reasonthat breakup just spiraled me
(10:11):
into like a depression and Icouldn't shake it.
And I did.
I couldn't figure out why.
Part of me was like, well, I'mnot sleeping well, so you feel
out of sorts.
I mean, I don't.
I don't really remember most ofthat semester.
I had grades, I obviouslyshowed up and I obviously took
the test and I did fine on them.
But I ate, I slept, I didhomework, I went to church and I
(10:32):
worked and that was basicallymy life that semester.
And I was working nights.
I wasn't in much sleep.
I had a very fun roommate wholiked to blast country music
during my usual sleeping time.
Alisha Coakley (10:42):
No.
Meghan Blanc (10:45):
And she shared a wall with me.
I was like girl, please don't.
I was much easier back then, soI didn't usually talk to people
, but that was kind of you know,kind of weird experience.
So, um, after a couple months,um, eventually I asked my
parents for help.
I was just like I can't, I'mnot doing this on my own for
some reason.
I was praying and doingeverything you're supposed to,
but I just couldn't shakewhatever this was.
So I asked my parents and my Ishould preference.
(11:08):
My parents are kind of my dad,especially as more new agey.
So, they're very open to alldifferent kinds of things.
So when I asked all of myparents, my father sent me to a
hypnotherapist versus like aclassic thing.
So I went down to las vegas tovisit them for the holiday
weekend and he sent me to thiscatholic hypnotherapist it was a
(11:31):
very interesting session, asyou can imagine.
um, but during the session he umI would do like supposedly his
past life regression.
I kind of felt like it was likea movie playing and I was able
to kind of sort things out.
But during the session he hadme, he had me ask for my
guardian angel to deliver me andthen after, during that session
(11:51):
, the depression lifted and itwas gone.
I never came back and I've hadhard times but I've never had
like that level where it wasjust there and then gone.
Alisha Coakley (12:01):
Right.
Meghan Blanc (12:03):
So it was kind of interesting experience.
Um, I'm not sure how to prefacethis.
Um.
So my parents left the church acouple of years ago and then,
um, I kind of had to do likeinternal battle for a while.
Um, I got a lot of promptingsthat I needed to distance myself
from them and I kind of keptignoring it cause I didn't think
that was, it didn't seem likeit was in line with what you're
(12:25):
supposed to do.
But after a while I counseled myhusband and we just felt like
this is what you're supposed todo, and so I did.
It was not an easy decision, itwas hard, but I went ahead and
followed the prompting and I'mlike, okay, that's, you know,
kind of put to bed, and I didthat and it wasn't well received
by close family members but, um, it was kind of the right thing
(12:55):
for the time.
Um, now, during that time, uh,well, last May we were getting
ready to do, uh, adoption.
So during that time, um, myhusband, I'd taken a break from
having more children.
At that point we felt kind oflike a good good spot with four
in a break from having morechildren.
At that point we felt kind oflike a good good spot with four
Um, and so my husband and I feltprompted to start growing our
family again Um.
But we got a twist and we feltlike we should do it both
biologically and also throughfoster adoption system.
(13:17):
So this is my seventh pregnancy.
Alisha Coakley (13:23):
Oh my gosh.
Meghan Blanc (13:25):
Yeah, I have four, but we have two in heaven.
So I'd wanted to adopt a longtime ago when we had our first
miscarriage, but it wasn't theright timing and so I was like,
okay, it's time for us to go.
I'm like, oh, and my husband'slike we were not quite ready for
that initially but we decidedto go forward.
So we started the process.
(13:47):
Actually, my 33rd birthday inMay Like we ended up just timing
wise was doing our interviewand she's like, okay, good, so
we started the process forfostering.
We didn't know at the time I was, I wasn't pregnant yet, so that
was kind of that point.
About the same time, my parentshad reached out a few months
before then asked us to have avisit at my grandfather's house,
which was he's on in holiday,so he's pretty close by us over
(14:11):
in Ogden, and I wasn't superhappy about the idea, just like
I'd put it to rest and I feltlike I didn't have any
promptings to move forward or tochange.
Like I didn't have anypromptings to move forward or to
change, so I was a littlehesitant to I'm not sure what
the word is to kind of moveforward when I didn't feel like
(14:35):
the timing was right, but I feellike I should at least honor
their quest to go visit mygrandpa's house.
It was important to him.
He's he's 89.
He's older, the last livinggrandparent.
I feel like I should honor hisrequest and my parents.
Alisha Coakley (14:45):
Right.
Meghan Blanc (14:45):
So that's my grandpa's house.
We picked there because weneutral ground.
Okay, well, that's my grandpa,which is good to do anyway.
You never know when it's.
You know your last time, yeah.
And then also it's more of aneutral territory, so it's not
like it's in their space or myspace.
It's a little more relaxed,hopefully, or at least has a
buffer if anything goes off.
So I did agree.
I was not happy about it.
I was.
(15:06):
I'm I'm not terribly stubborn,but every once in a while if I
don't feel good about something,I don't like it.
Um, so I went there and thevisit just fell off.
The entire time I waspractically gripping the chair.
I wasn't quite gripping thechair, but my husband was
looking at me like you okay, areyou?
Are you okay?
Are you?
Are you still okay?
No, I'm not okay.
I don't want to be here.
(15:26):
I don't want to be here at all.
I am not happy right now.
I want to go home.
I want to go home, I want.
I was like a little kid having atempered tantrum internally.
Um, it just, the visit justfell off.
Um, like, my parents behavedfine.
They were, you know, justtalking like you would normally,
like time hadn't passed and youknow, talking about grandpa
talking to me, talking to myhusband, talking to kids, you
(15:48):
know a little awkward becauseit's been a couple of years and
my kids my youngest is threeyears old, so she doesn't really
have a collection of them andstuff but right.
Yeah, they just felt wrong andall I really wanted to do was
leave.
I was just saying I want to gohome, I want to go home, I want
to go home, I want to go.
So finally we were able to endthe visit and we've kind of
(16:12):
called them a couple of timessince then and stuff, but it's
been interesting.
So shortly after that visit waswhen things got kind of
interesting and the story kindof picks up again.
I guess, so a couple of weeksafter starting the adoption
preparation process and about aweek so after meeting with my
parents, I had an interestingexperience.
(16:33):
So my husband was upstairs withour couple, our kids, getting
them into bed and kind of I justjust laying there.
I felt kind of I'm not sure theword sick, but it wasn't like a
normal kind of sick.
I just felt very weak and I'mlike, well, if I feel weak I
should lay down.
And you know, I don't know ifI'm having the flu or what's
kind of happening, but I justfelt off and weak.
I didn't feel good.
Well, I couldn't call out tohim at first.
(16:56):
I'm just like like my throatwouldn't work, my mouth would
work.
I don't know if you can tell,but I tend to be kind of chatty.
Not being able to talk is not aproblem.
I sleep, talk.
I don't be quiet, I always talk.
So not being able to talk ispretty weird, and so I tried to
(17:16):
calm down and finally I kind oflike Chris, chris.
So I got out to him like hey,he kind of came over after he
was downstairs.
When he came downstairs hecould hear me and the only thing
I can compare this to washaving a similar encounter to
what Joseph Smith had in thegrove.
I was unable to completely moveand I was having bits where,
like I was trying to go afterher as I could feel something
(17:40):
was off.
And it was interesting becauseI didn't.
It was almost like I could, uh,sense what her movements were
going to be before she triedsomething.
So I wasn't in control, but Iwasn't completely unaware either
.
It was almost like not words,more like visuals, kind of I
(18:02):
could just anticipate oh, she'sgonna try this or she's gonna
try that so meaning like likethe evil spirit, or devil or
evil spirit, I'm not sure whatthe right
Alisha Coakley (18:15):
that was taking over.
Meghan Blanc (18:16):
Yeah, yeah yeah, it was funky, um.
So I was, um, listen to a lotof exorcist files recently.
We're trying to figure out kindof what's going on.
Our church doesn't talk aboutthis a lot so I didn't really
know what the words were or whathappened very well until I
started kind of looking into theCatholics kind of have a hold
(18:38):
on exorcisms.
So I was like I don't know whoto talk to and we don't have
anything in the handbook.
As far as I can find, then it'sprobably good to go to the
exorcist.
So I just kind of I've learnedsome of the terminology through
looking through theirinformation.
So I guess the term would beoppressed, not possessed.
As far as I understand it,oppression is different than
(18:58):
possession.
Possession it sounds like youblack out and you lose complete
control, so they just take overentirely and they do what they
want.
Alisha Coakley (19:06):
Okay.
Meghan Blanc (19:07):
Um, at least that's my understanding.
I'm not, I'm kind of new atthis, so, um, not an experience.
I planned for Um, not sure howyou plan for it Um, so I was
oppressed.
I would know what she was goingto do, but I didn't have
(19:27):
control to stop her all the time.
So I would get in and out asall as I can describe it where I
would get in control and shewould get in control, and then I
would get in control and thenshe would get in control.
But I was able to maintain somecontrol and, um, I didn't have
a lot of the.
I don't know if you havesymptoms or gifts that you have
when you're fully possessed aswell.
Um, I didn't have a lot of the.
I don't feel symptoms or giftsthat you have when you're fully
(19:48):
possessed as well.
um, I didn't have any superhumanstrength I wasn't able to
maneuver things in any weirdways, like I didn't wasn't able
to affect like electricity orheat or anything of that nature.
So, and again I was able toknow what she was doing the
whole time.
So I was kind of sometimes inthe back seat, sometimes in the
front seat kind of thing, almostas if you were driving the car
and then suddenly you're in thepassenger seat and then you're
(20:08):
in the front driver's seat again, back and forth.
Alisha Coakley (20:11):
Weird.
Meghan Blanc (20:12):
Yeah, I never heard anyone explain it that way
, but that's the best I can comeup with, I guess.
So, since I was only in partialcontrol of my body and I would
switch in and out, I was veryblessed to have my husband there
, Because not only is he aworthy priesthood holder and has
kept his temple covenants andwas worthy to cast the entity
(20:33):
out no-transcript weird.
(20:54):
Why would anyone come and juststart talking to a fellow
missionary about, you know, apossession?
Now, the reason it's notimportant to give up is when you
have, you're casting out thetemple, we kind of talk about it
, but there's not really like a,there's not a formula like
there is for getting a babyblessing or things like that.
But the important thing is tojust keep Satan to leave and
(21:16):
leave and leave again, because ademon doesn't leave right away
when it's commanded to do.
So.
You're not going to say, getout, we're not Christ.
So we don't have that.
Uh, we don't have the faith andthe thing, as far as I
understand, it's not usuallythat simple.
Now, I know, I know forCatholic exorcist it can take
hours or multiple attempts.
In this case I was lucky.
(21:37):
Um, it took a few attempts, butmy husband was at it for a
couple hours, about an hour, um.
So yeah, so it's about an hourof him just saying no.
Now he knew, just keep goingand just keep going, ignore him.
I don't care what she says,we're going to keep ignoring her
and just keep going forward.
(21:58):
And they try to intimidate theperson who's going to casting
out because they know that it'snot good.
Um, there's a lot that needs tohappen with the person having
faith that has a possession oran oppression.
A lot of it has to do with yourfaith and how you feel about it
.
I was not happy, so I tend togo kind of mama bear with my
kids and with my husband.
So you need the repetition, butyou also need to have the faith
(22:20):
as the person being deliveredthat this is.
You're willing to repent,you're willing to not have the
spirit be there.
You don't want to keep it there.
So when you are commanding ademon out toward my hundred or a
devil or an entity of any kind,the persistence is important,
but you also their petition isimportant.
What they're trying to do isbasically wear you down and make
(22:43):
you think it's not going towork.
So either it'll crush yourfaith or it'll augment it, cause
you're like no, I am a discipleof jesus christ.
He had in my husband's case.
He has the authority to do so,although from my understanding
you don't priesthood.
But as long as you have faithin christ, you are working
through christ, he will castanything out.
He has power over it.
So what is?
Alisha Coakley (23:05):
I mean for like a whole hour.
What did?
What was going on?
What like yelling at him orlike what was happening?
Meghan Blanc (23:13):
Well, it was pretty interesting.
So, um, we ended up contactingmy friends.
I was able to get like call, uh, you know, call Janelle, see
what she like.
She has some experience withthis area and so she kind of
knew what more of a protocol is.
So she has some experience.
So she was kind of talking himthrough it on a best approach.
It Now I was what was happening,like I said, but it was back
(23:36):
and forth, so I can only controlher in spurts.
But apparently my body'smannerisms change and my facial
expressions would change and mytone of voice would change.
I was a different person.
So she was, I would say, flirty, if it was a good understanding
of it, and she would just kindof move her shoulders around and
she would kind of like mock himand kind of twist her.
(23:58):
I mean, I can't, I don't thinkI could mimic it because I
wasn't.
I was watching from behind ifthat makes sense the camera.
I wasn't seeing the personbeing affected.
They'll say my husband was, butshe would contort her face and
it was very mocking, it was verynasty.
She didn't swear, which is nice.
Um, I don't like swearing.
So, um, but yeah, she would usemy voice, but it sounded
(24:21):
different than my ownreflections.
So my husband could tell whenwe would switch.
He knew what it was me.
So I would lay on my arms, neckclose to my garments, and I
pushed my arms close to my chest.
I lay on my arms to try toprotect him and occasionally I
would yell at her.
I would say you stop it, youleave him alone.
You do not have the.
You know like she's, this is mybody.
(24:42):
You don't get to do that.
But I usually could just stop.
I wasn't able to say much outloud.
I would usually be able to sayyou leave him alone, and then
she'd take over.
She laughed at him and shewould just laugh and laugh and
laugh.
She mocked him.
She said you don't, you don'tknow what you're doing, you
can't get rid of me.
Just making fun of him for evenattempting it.
So she was like you know, youcan't get me out, like she was
(25:02):
just nasty the entire time.
It was kind of like bullying.
I guess she kept trying to clawat him too.
So she tried to like grab athim and then I would try to lay
again my arms again.
But he kind of would see mecoming and I you know, and look
like I said, luckily I didn'thave the superhuman strength,
because if it's a true fullpossession, the demon can throw
(25:23):
full grown men across the roomand stuff.
I mean it can be really ugly.
So if there's ever a fullpossession, you would need a
team of people from myunderstanding, like 10, 20
people in a room praying,holding people down.
You know four big guys holdingthe person down.
Even if you're as tiny as I am,I'm little, I'm not a very
large person, so I didn't havethat strength.
(25:43):
So luckily he was able to kindof like he can take me.
Okay, he's a decent sized guy,he's a normal average guy, but
yeah he could just kind of holdmy hands.
So she tried to call it and hewould just like stop her.
But yeah, after he got, afterthat hour or so, finally she
left, yeah, but he said he hadto keep defending himself, put
his you know, uh, cast her outand then watch me try to yell at
(26:06):
her and we just kind of havethese back and forth, back and
forth, um, until finally sheleft, um, so that was different
and did your husband want tosleep in the same bed with you?
after that, I'd be like I'mgonna lock you in this room he
was very nervous because neitherone of us had really seen this.
It came out of the blue.
(26:27):
I wasn't like I wasn't messingwith the ouija boards, I wasn't.
You know, it was right afterfamily scripture study too.
That's true.
I'd forgotten that we said playmy scripture study, put the
kids to bed, and then I startfeeling sick after family
scripture study.
So it's not like we weren't,like we're pretty faithful,
we're trying.
Alisha Coakley (26:44):
We're not perfect, but you know we're, we
weren't like playing with weirdstuff off to the side, or no,
exactly I, exactly I wasn'tdoing crazy.
Meghan Blanc (26:51):
That's the thing.
It's hard is I wasn't doinganything odd.
There was another attack a fewweeks later, but I kind of could
sense what was coming on, ifthat makes any sense.
More again, like I.
Now that I had that experience,I was like okay, but it was
weaker and so I was just like Idon't feel good.
Good, oh man, I don't know whatshe's gonna do this time, or if
it's someone different, like Idon't know, he cast one out.
(27:13):
That doesn't necessarily meanit's the same uh entity coming
back, right.
So I put on uh hymns.
That time I was like I'm gonnaput on some hymns and just let
it play like a playlist.
Um, because there's a hymns appand I'm gonna play the hymns
app and do the best I can to tryto bring the spirit in as much
as I can and see, I mean see ifit helps.
I don't know what you do withyou know, I mean we were doing
scripture today.
I thought that was kind of agood vibe as I call it.
(27:39):
So I played hymns.
It helped.
I was kind of putting like astupor so I just like was like
really lethargic and I justcouldn't raise my body.
So I was just laying there likekind of slumped against my bed
waiting to like feel better.
So I just laid there, myhusband didn't have to cast
thing out, I was just waitinguntil I felt better and then
after probably about anotherhour, again same thing.
I just felt better and I wasfine.
Like it just left.
(28:00):
I was, I think I put my hour tosquare in that case, like I was
, I don't just said you leave,and then it did like when I got
a minute of strength, but it wasmuch easier that time, and then
I haven't had one since, butit's only been a few months and
I don't know from the context,my blessing, like I don't know
if seek to possess you, it doessay attempts.
(28:20):
So I don't know if that meanstwo.
I don't know if that means alifetime of problems.
I don't know what that indicatesright so yeah, I mean, I've
been trying to kind of figureout what the causes would be,
but I don't know.
Alisha Coakley (28:36):
Well, you know, I have a little thought on this.
I think I might've shared thiswith you when we were on our
preliminary call, but, like my,uh, my dad had a kind of
somewhat a little bit of asimilar experience, um, when way
back in the seventies, in the1970s, uh, when he and my mom
were first investigating thechurch and stuff like that, um,
(28:58):
he had come home and or he waslike home and he had walked in
the living room and I guessthere was like a little side
table with, like the old schoolyou know, phones and stuff there
and uh, he'd come in and all ofa sudden he felt this immense
like darkness and weight thatcame over on, came on him and
basically forced him to hisknees, like he physically and he
(29:20):
was a big guy, he was like hisnickname was tree, he's like six
foot four, german, beefy,muscular, soldier, guy Right,
and he, he was like he couldn'teven stand.
He was like he fell to hisknees and he's by himself at the
time and stuff like that and ittook him forever.
Like he just he was like cryingand he just there was this
darkness on him and the onlything that he could do is reach
(29:41):
out and grab that phone and hewas able to dial the
missionaries numbers who wereteaching him the discussions and
all that stuff at the time, buthe couldn't physically speak,
like.
He kept trying to speak and hecouldn't and this is before
caller ID and all of that kindof stuff.
Even without him sayinganything, the missionaries knew
it was him and so they said, youknow, they said, brother, shoe
(30:01):
hard, is that you?
And there's a silence, you know, and he kept trying to choke
something out and they're likewe're coming right now.
And so it was.
You know, 15, 20 minutes laterthe missionary showed up and
when they came in they were ableto, um, you know, to do a
blessing and all that kind ofstuff and get rid of it.
But they had told my dadafterwards that, um, sometimes
(30:23):
that you'll kind of put a targeton your back when you're doing
exactly what the Lord needs youto do, when you're on that path,
because you're, you're gettingready to either open up more of
your spiritual gifts or you're,you know, you're getting ready
to do something that's like abig part of your mission in life
.
You know, like, like withJoseph Smith right, like if he
hadn't gone into the Grove anddidn't want to go pray about it,
(30:44):
there wouldn't have been anincessant need at that moment to
have Satan attack him, you know.
And so it could be that maybeyou're on the verge of doing
something you know what I meanLike with you adopting these
kids or something like that.
Like maybe there's somethingthat Satan's trying to stop you
(31:06):
from progressing towards orgaining more knowledge on, or
having more power in, and itcould be for your husband too,
you know, like maybe they wantto scare him.
So sometimes that's somethingthat these missionaries have
told my dad all those years agoand I mean, I've seen it a
couple of times with differentfamily members where, as soon as
(31:28):
they start doing things thatthey should be doing and
changing their life, all of asudden they have a target on the
back and Satan's like uh, I'mgoing to try to scare you away
from it, I'm going to try totalk you out of it, I'm going to
try to, you know, tempt youinto something else, and so it
could just be something assimple as that.
I mean, I'm not an apostle, Idon't quote me, but that's just
my feeling of it.
(31:50):
I don't know, scott, you're aBishop.
Scott Brandley (31:53):
What is?
Alisha Coakley (31:53):
your thing.
Scott Brandley (31:54):
I didn't deal with anything like that, but I
know that when my I have abrother, I have a brother.
When he was a teenager, he waspossessed by something and my
dad had to spend the whole nightwith him, and it was.
Alisha Coakley (32:09):
What.
Scott Brandley (32:10):
Yeah, it was yeah, the whole night with him
and it was what?
Yeah, it was yeah, the wholenight.
Just it was kind of this kindof similar like, um, he would,
it just wouldn't leave and hewould just keep, you know,
commanding it to leave and anddoing the thing, and he had to
stay with them the whole nightuntil it left.
Meghan Blanc (32:29):
Was it right before your brother was having
permission, kind of thing no, hewas.
Scott Brandley (32:34):
He wasn't doing stuff he should be doing and
they he was in a bad place and Ithink it just kind of opened
him up to be susceptible to somebad things.
Wow yeah, it was almost like mydad was like fighting for him,
like battling against this evilspirit all night to try to save
(32:57):
him.
Alisha Coakley (32:58):
Wow so and you know, I mean I'm we don't hear a
lot about this kind of stuffnow, like I think the most
recent account usually is theone with joseph smith in the
grove right, um, but you read inthe scriptures and it is all
over in the scriptures.
I mean, there are so manydifferent times where we read
stories about people beingpossessed and you know the, the
(33:21):
spirits going into the, into thepigs and the kids, the pigs
going crazy, and you know what Imean.
Like there it's a real thing,like it really happened, and I
don't think that we're in aposition where that just went
away.
I think, if anything, it'sbecome way more commonplace and
we call it different things now,right, like we, we put a
(33:43):
medical term on it or we put ayou know a identity to it or
something like that.
Um, where it's, it's kind ofexplained away, so to speak.
Um, maybe even something assimple as like, oh, I have
depression.
You know, I that's one thingthat I've always like.
(34:04):
I do know that there is like anactual medical, like there's
things that happen in your brain, but also I think that a lot of
people sometimes might confusethat and maybe they do have that
oppression that you're talkingabout, right, maybe it's not
possession, but maybe it reallyis just sharing space with an
evil spirit.
And because you don't recognizeit, you just are susceptible to
(34:28):
the belief of oh, this is justsomething I I can't get rid of,
I just don't have the power.
It's just, it's just medical,it's just this.
And, again, I do know thatthere is medical depression.
Like, I do know that there areactual mental health things that
are in the brain that you knoware better on medication or
better through therapies.
I, uh, we had someone who'sactually a hypnotherapist, um,
(34:50):
and a member of the church, andwe just had her on the show a
little bit ago, um, and I didhypnotherapy with her too, and
it's something that the churchsays you know, that is, that's
okay.
Like in the handbook, you cango to a hypnotherapist for
medical you know medical thingsand whatever else.
So, um, it's not forentertainment purposes.
(35:13):
Is is what the handbooksuggests, right?
So I do think that there'sdefinitely like stuff out there
that we just don't even considerpossession or whatever else,
because we're we're trying to belogical all the time and just
explain it away, but it's real,you know what I mean.
Like it didn't disappear,especially nowadays with
(35:34):
everything that we have going on.
Meghan Blanc (35:36):
So yeah, well, I know most of my information has
come, unfortunately, from theCatholic side, so it's not
doctrinal or anything, but Ithink it lines up with what we
understand too.
The things they talk about thatseem to open people up to it
are things that tend to makelife harder anyway.
One of the biggest ones is likeaddictions.
Addictions, they know, affectsthe body and affects the spirit,
(35:57):
so Satan has an invitation tocome in.
When you have an addiction,well, that makes sense.
You can be addicted, andSatan's gonna make it harder.
If you are, if you've committedgrievous sin like murder, or if
you're committing violence tofamily members, that's not okay.
(36:18):
Um, things like sexual sins,pornography those are things
that attack the body and thespirit at the same time.
Participating in occultpractices like visiting psychics
, um, even things like abuseseem to have that kind of effect
too, where, because it harmsthe soul so much, it leaves like
a chasm or an opening or a hole.
Alisha Coakley (36:30):
Yeah, trauma.
Meghan Blanc (36:32):
Trauma, yeah, Trauma abuse, even mental
illness, Like there are.
You can have them coexist, butwhy wouldn't Satan harm a person
who's already hurting?
Alisha Coakley (36:41):
Oh, absolutely.
Meghan Blanc (36:43):
And so I don't know how much like I do wonder
how often we could help otherskind of maybe do it in a more
like the catholics have it wherethey have um before they do.
They call it deliveranceministry or um for the for the
exorcism.
There's a whole process that Ihad, no, it existed until I was
looking more into it, and theyhave them meet with a therapist
(37:05):
to rule out mental illness.
Apparently a lot like ninetimes out of ten or something it
is actual mental illness, whichI was surprised right they like
.
This actually lines up with anactual diagnosis.
This makes sense right but thattime it will not quite match,
it won't quite be right.
It'll be something like well,yeah, but this kind of thing
doesn't happen to people.
Or you know like, so a lot ofpeople say they come forward.
(37:27):
I was like I'm not crazy, butyou know this happened.
And so the priest is like I knowyou're not crazy, I believe in
christ too yeah um, but I knowthat that's something that can
affect us, so that one thingI've been kind of learning is
sin, um, the things that theyalways tell us against the
church also leave us opening forsatan.
(37:48):
I don't think we kind of thinkof trials as being possessed as
one of the things that'savailable, but it is available
as an option.
We don't really know if it'sbeing righteous or what the
problems are that seem to causeit.
There's not like a if you dothis, you'll for sure be
possessed.
Alisha Coakley (38:03):
Yeah, yeah.
Meghan Blanc (38:04):
There doesn't seem to be like an exact formula,
which is interesting, it's justif he has a chance he'll come in
or send in one of his ormultiple, depending on the
person.
Um, I know that that happened alot in the scriptures as well.
They would be legion or they'dbe other different names where
they would be multiple forcesright so I don't know what
(38:25):
causes it either.
I know I'm lucky I got one, butum.
Alisha Coakley (38:31):
I know I'm lucky I got one, but, um, wow, so,
okay.
So, and I know maybe you don'tknow this, but, um, in regards
to all of that, what have you?
I mean, what are you guys doingnow to try to put more things
into place to prevent that fromhappening?
And like in your home, and youknow what is your husband doing
to be better prepared in case hehas to.
You know what is your husbanddoing to be better prepared in
case he has to.
(38:52):
You know help you again in thefuture, or help kids, or you
know someone else that he runsinto.
Like what?
What kind of changes are youguys looking into making or have
you made an ear?
Meghan Blanc (39:06):
Um, we've kind of done inventory to see.
Um, I know that like one thingto look for is again see
anything that's a cult like.
Sometimes things will seem likethey're okay and not.
In the catholic church there'sa side sect I can't remember
what it's called but there's aside sect of catholicism where
they actually, um, they're likelittle saints, but they're not,
and so they're actuallyworshiping demons.
So I'm like, okay, is thereanything in my?
(39:28):
I don't, was there anything inmy house that would be inviting
something else?
And like, is everything I'mdoing?
I haven't found anything that'sstands out that would be
off-putting.
Um, uh, we've, we have a templepicture in our home.
We have pictures of christ inthe home.
Uh, we do a scripture study.
We go to the temple regularly.
(39:49):
Like it's kind of that's thething was kind of hard is we
didn't really see like anopening.
We're like, well, I, I don'thave any of these things.
I haven't done degree of sins,as far as I know, so far at
least, not god, would theycontinue on the path forward?
Um, I haven't hung out withpeople.
Um, that's one thing that canhappen, apparently is, if you
hang out with people that have abad spirit, you, you can
(40:09):
actually kind of catch it sortof which is to think about, um,
we don't have parties, we don'thave people over much, so, like
it's it has encounters a lot ofpeople with his notary business,
but it doesn't seem like thatwould be accurate.
You know, um, we haven'tencountered anybody that has it.
Um, I wondered if, when myparents leaving the church, if
there's anything they've hadcontact with, but I mean, I
(40:30):
don't know and I can't judgethem for where they're at with
their, you know, relationshipwith Christ.
I don't know if it is simplyjust.
You know, looking into adoptionis actually a several year
thing.
When my first miscarriagehappened, I wanted to adopt,
like pretty quickly afterwardsand I was like you're grieving,
(40:50):
you're upset, we'll probablyhave more kids, you're gonna be
fine.
Let's calm down, like whileyou're in this experience, let's
take time to process the griefthat you're experiencing and I'm
experiencing, before we likejump in the next thing.
You know um so I mean, we waited, you know nine years before and
had another miscarriage beforeit felt like time.
(41:12):
So I don't know if it'ssomething as simple as going to
help people who yeah, who've um,when you take on teenagers
who've been through the fostercare system, they have that
trauma and they have beenthrough so much been abandoned,
unwanted.
I can't imagine how out mustfeel to be rejected multiple
(41:32):
times, over and over and overagain.
And no one wants teenagers.
Teenagers are horrible.
Everybody hates teenagers.
Alisha Coakley (41:38):
I'm like not that bad.
They're all possessed now.
I'm just kidding.
Meghan Blanc (41:43):
I better stop.
We can always edit out later.
Were you hanging out?
Scott Brandley (41:48):
with any teenagers.
I wasn't hanging out with anyteenagers.
I just had my little preteen Iwonder if it's like you know how
we talk about the gifts of thespirit and people have different
gifts of the spirit.
I wonder if it's um similar inthe sense that we we each have
weaknesses or things that we'revulnerable more vulnerable to
(42:12):
than than others, and maybethat's just something that
certain people are morevulnerable to spiritually is to
be possessed by a spirit.
Alisha Coakley (42:25):
That you know, scott.
On that note, the gift ofdiscernment.
I'm going to see if I can findit real quick.
I'm going to google it.
There is a in the, thedictionary, I believe the.
Let me see I'm going to putthis in real quick yes, in the
(42:48):
gospel library, discernment.
Let's spell this right word,right?
Um, I want to read this.
Nope, that's not the right one.
Hold on, I'm gonna find itanyway.
It does talk about spirits.
It talks about the gift ofdiscernment, being able to
discern spirits.
Um, so this could just be, ifthat happens to be one of your
(43:09):
gifts.
It might be.
I'm going to look it up forrelease, but yeah, I don't know.
Meghan Blanc (43:15):
I thought I also wondered, since our blessings
are eternal blessings, I've alsowondered if this is a
preparatory gift.
Maybe I get attacked throughoutmy life.
I don't know.
Like I said, I'm like, well,that happens, that happens.
It seems like, you know, anyonecould cast spirits out so my
husband would be able to handleit.
Okay, if that's the case, I'vewondered if maybe that's
something to my mission and thenext life as well.
(43:37):
We don't know what everybodydoes, but I've wondered um,
would it be possible that Iwould help people on um from the
other side as well?
If I've been able to overcomebad spirits with my body, I
would think I'd be able to senseand help people who have a
similar experience from theother side as well.
(43:57):
That's a possibility I thoughtof yeah that is not gospel
doctrine in any way, shape orform, but it's a thought that I
had like.
Alisha Coakley (44:04):
Maybe this is yeah it's one of those things.
I mean, we know that we can useour bad for good, right, we
know that we can use ourexperiences, just like um.
I know one of the things thatI've noticed is because of the
um sexual abuse that I had whenI was a child, I can literally
walk in a room and nine timesout of 10, I can tell you who
(44:26):
was who else was sexually abused, without having a conversation.
I just get this sense and I'vebeen proven right a lot lately
and it kind of put me in aposition sometimes, like when I
was working with young women.
Um, those young women were ableto easily come to me and I
think because they recognized ittoo, so they knew that they
could come talk to me about thethings that they were going
(44:47):
through, and then I was sort oflike an adult that could help
them navigate that situation,you know.
So I I definitely think thatthere's a um, there's a power in
our struggles, right Like it'swhere we learn.
But also then we kind of becomea little bit of a reflection
for other people who are havingthose struggles and when they
(45:10):
look at us they can see, okay,this person was able to to grow
above that.
So I know I can trust thembecause they've been through it.
You know, I don't know.
Just a thought it's veryinteresting, very interesting.
I can't find the thing that Iread, but I'm going to have to
keep looking.
So, anyway, I know that thegift of discernment does have
(45:32):
the ability to discern spirits,so maybe that's something you
know in the extreme.
I don't know.
Meghan Blanc (45:42):
I don't know.
I don't know either.
We don't have a lot ofinformation as to, like I said,
what causes it.
We know that the Savior didtell certain people that it was
not because of sin for certainpeople that were in the
scriptures.
They said well, whose sin wasit?
There's a boy, I believe,that's throwing himself into the
fire at the time.
And they asked him whose sinWas it?
His parents?
(46:02):
Was it him?
Alisha Coakley (46:13):
Like what's the problem?
He said, sometimes these thingsjust happen and basically, and
it's for the betterment of god'speople.
And so I don't know.
Yeah, and to be fair, I mean weknow that we're just getting
closer and closer to the secondcoming of christ, which means
the veil is getting thinner,which means the war is raging,
you know, raging on in bigger,harder, more extreme ways, and
so it could literally just bethat both sides are getting
stronger, you know, and they'rejust getting louder.
Meghan Blanc (46:33):
I don't know so no , I've heard that as well too.
Like well, we know, the spiritsdidn't leave that he, satan and
his followers are stuck here onthe earth we didn't go anywhere
.
So if they're here, I wouldstand reason that they're doing
something with their free time.
I don't know.
You know nothing but free time.
Um, I don't even know.
I don't even know what theirresponsibilities are, if
(46:57):
anything.
I mean, I like cs lewis a lotand so if you read, like the
screw tape letters, you know hehas like where they have, you
know, jobs and like I don't'tknow how Satan's system works.
Yeah, I would assume being oneof God's sons, he probably paid
attention to how God organizedthings or is going to, and I
would assume that everything ofSatan's is a mirror of God.
And if that's the case and weknow there's opposition, all
(47:20):
things then if there's spiritsthat are attacking us, then
there's spirits that areattacking us, then there's
spirits that are protecting us,and if there's that would
indicate it's a pretty goodfight.
Um, that's one of the thingsI've kind of taken away so far.
Again, it's only been a fewmonths.
Um is, if satan hates me thatmuch, I'm not.
I'm not joseph smith, okay, I'msomebody.
(47:43):
As far as I know, my journey onearth is probably not going to
be the most exciting in terms oflike people.
But non-history books or youknow, I probably won't be
someone well-remembered byeverybody, although being on a
podcast I remembered more thanmost.
But if he hates me that much forgoing about my business, doing
(48:06):
something that's kind of averageI mean, I'm a stay at home mom,
I homeschool.
I'm under the radar as far asmost people's perception is.
If he hates me that much justgoing about my business, what on
earth does he hate abouteverybody else?
And that means if Satan hatesme that much, god must love me
an awful lot too.
(48:26):
You know, um, it's anoppositional limit.
God loves me an awful lot If heput that much effort into
protecting me as well.
Like I didn't get fullyattacked.
I wasn't harming my husband.
My husband was perfectly fine.
He was creeped out, but hewasn't hurt.
Um, I probably scared mychildren a little bit,
unfortunately my husband.
My husband was perfectly fine hewas creeped out, but he wasn't
hurt.
Um, I probably scared mychildren a little bit.
(48:47):
Unfortunately they were inhearing range and she was pretty
nasty.
But you know we didn't, I knowI, you know I didn't do anything
that was particularlyinteresting.
But if I'm that important, sois everybody else, and so I
doesn't.
You know, it doesn't reallybother me to worry about it too
much.
I figure this is if satan canattack us.
That's so I doesn't.
You know it doesn't bother meto worry about it too much.
I figured this is if Satan canattack us.
(49:07):
That's one of the things.
If you know, some of us havephysical strength problems,
fertility problems, I mean.
There's any number of thingsyou can name off.
This is just not one that was onmy radar, honestly, is that
anything like oh, I thought Iwould just be an average person
that has you know the otherthings that everybody else seems
to face at church.
Yeah, this is not one that wason my radar, but it doesn't mean
(49:37):
it's any less.
I don't say average, but it'sany less of a trial than the
same way as everything else is,which means it can be overcome.
We know that one of thepromises that God made to Adam
and Eve was that the serpentcould bruise the heel, but
Christ could crush his head.
Alisha Coakley (49:52):
Right, so it's it makes me want to like.
Scott Brandley (49:57):
Oh, go ahead, Scott I was going to say I think
it's really interesting that itmentioned it in your
patriarchal blessing that to meshows that there's it in your
patriarchal blessing.
That, to me, shows that there'sa lot of power and insight in
in a patriarchal blessing.
Meghan Blanc (50:14):
Yeah, yeah.
Like I said, I look back atmine.
Like I asked my husband, like,do you want to look at yours?
What's?
What do you got in yours?
What's going on there?
Like, what are your challengesthat we're not?
Alisha Coakley (50:29):
you know?
Yeah, I was just gonna say itmakes me want to go put my
patriarchal blessing and chatgpt and be like, hey, hey, ai
pull out all the warnings inthis blessing and then let me
know what each of them couldpossibly mean on a spiritual,
spiritual sense, just so I canbe better prepared, just in case
there's something that's spokenout.
Meghan Blanc (50:40):
I mean, the spirit's good to use too, but
but chat GBT is very convenientsometimes, so maybe it'll but
that's the thing is, I didn'tsee it coming, like I said, I
just thought it was like oh,your life's just going to be
kind of hard sometimes, like ohyeah, everybody has a hard life.
You know, we weren't, you know,planned to have roses without
thorns, right?
Alisha Coakley (50:59):
Right.
Meghan Blanc (51:01):
Wow.
Alisha Coakley (51:01):
So, man, well, I'm I'm sorry that you don't
have more answers at the moment.
You know that this is so freshfor you and stuff like that, but
we really do appreciate youcoming on here and sharing your
story with us today.
And, um, we I'm, I'm curious,do you, um, do you have like any
, any final thoughts?
(51:21):
You know, like, how has thishelped with your testimony?
What would you like to sharewith us before?
Yeah?
Meghan Blanc (51:28):
Yeah, like I said, for me, I kind of figured out
that like we actually have alittle information like on how
to overcome Satan, then we do,like what causes possession?
Like that's not reallymentioned, but we do know that
it's overcoming Satan in otherways, even if we don't call it
possession.
As far as overcoming Satan'spower, the information we have
is like in Revelation 11, 12, or12, 11, there we go, we read,
(51:51):
and they overcame him by theblood of the lamb and by the
word of their testimony, andthey love not their lives unto
the death.
And then in Alma 37, 6, we readand you may suppose this is
foolishness in me, but behold, Isay unto you that by small and
simple things are great thingsbrought to pass, and small means
, in many instances, death,confound the wise.
So in revelation it tells usthat repentance or returning
(52:14):
jesus christ, jesus, has thepower to overcome satan.
So repentance or returningjesus christ have a lot of power
.
So if you're ever havingtrouble, repent, bearing your
testimony, and it was by theword of testimony they were able
to overcome Satan and the waron heaven.
Reading our script and my, myblessing, it said read your
(52:35):
scriptures, remain prayerful.
You know it wasn't sound likeit's the most exciting thing in
the world, but it's.
Attending the temple regularly,attending our church services.
Those are all small things andeverybody can do the small
things to a certain extent.
People always call them theprimary answers, but one thing
that's really stuck in my heartis that they're repetitive, but
(52:55):
they're really important.
We wouldn't keep saying them.
They're actually prettypowerful tools in this adversary
.
If you ever look at anyoneyou've ever known who's left the
church, are they repentingevery day?
Are they bearing theirtestimony all the time?
Are they doing their scripturesevery day?
Are they praying all the time?
Are they attending the temple?
Are they attending the churchall the time?
Unfortunately, probably not,and that's something that's kind
(53:16):
of uplifted me.
I'm like, well, if you keep,you know, keep trucking or keep
going at something.
I thing I didn't know that mytrials would include fighting
off demonic attempts to possessmy body.
I also didn't know that Iwouldn't be fully possessed,
because it does talk aboutattempted possessions.
I honestly didn't really thinkI was worth Satan's efforts.
I was like, well, I'm just aperson.
I'm not like you know.
(53:37):
I don't think my calling isparticularly interesting.
I live a very ordinary life.
I stay under the radar.
I do side callings that aresupportive roles.
I try to do God's will.
But um you know if I'm thatunimportant and why?
why do you target me anyway?
Because I'm a beloved daughterof heavenly parents, because I
(53:58):
have a divine nature and eternaldestiny, because my family is
my most important priority andeternal families are central to
heavenly Father's plan.
And because I'm a disciple ofJesus Christ, and so I'm going
to keep trying to do the smallthings.
And if he comes again, which heprobably will, then we just got
to.
You know, I'll keep bearing mytestimony and I'll keep, you
know, trying every day and thebest I can and repent more and
(54:22):
the best I can.
Scott Brandley (54:28):
I love that because it feels like by going
through this experience, you'veactually realized even more than
ever who you really are and thepower that you have and the
love that God has for you andfor each one of us.
Alisha Coakley (54:42):
You know?
Yeah, I agree, I think it's.
Maybe maybe you thought youwere too average and too normal
and too blah for too long, andmaybe this is one of those
things hemling mother's likeokay, I'm just gonna let this
happen because I know it's gonnateach her a lesson, you know,
so you didn't make it happen,but he's like you'd sneak in
there just so she knows how muchI love her and how awesome she
(55:02):
is you never know.
Well, good luck with everythingin the future.
I hope that you're able to one,not have to experience that
again and, two, if you do that,you are better prepared, that
you're in a position whereyou're able to you know, to get
(55:24):
free from that and, um it, it.
It's definitely interesting.
I think a lot of us we just weget so busy with our day to days
that we forget that there is areal force out there that is
trying to stop us, trying toslow us down, trying to belittle
us, um, and that Satan is justas real as Jesus Christ, you
(55:49):
know that's.
The good news, though, is thatJesus is so real and his power
is so, so real, um, so, juststaying close to him and just
constantly trying to to live theway that he wants us to live.
It really does give us this theshield of protection, not
necessarily to stop everythingall the time, but to help us to
(56:09):
be able to still endure and toget through and and to be better
, you know, despite the woundsand the, the attacks that we we
have to face.
So, and well, thank you, Meghan.
I really appreciate coming onand sharing your story with us
today.
That was great.
(56:35):
Yeah, thanks guys All right.
Well, that's a wrap.
That's all we have for you guystoday.
So we just want to thank ourlisteners, too, for tuning in
and ask you guys to remember todo your five second missionary
work.
It's the small and simplethings that help spread light to
the world.
So do that five secondmissionary work.
Hit that share button, comment,let us know.
I mean, I love hearing abouthow these things were overcome,
(56:59):
and so, if you have a story thatyou'd like to share too, like
let us know, comment, tell uswhat resonated with you.
All the things, um, we just welove hearing from our guests
yeah, you know it's interesting.
Scott Brandley (57:13):
So through this story we we all three have had
some type of an experience orknow someone close to us that's
had it.
I wonder how many other peopleout there have experienced
something like this.
You know it's it's not talkedabout a lot, but because we only
tell our stories to the peopleclosest around us in the in the
church, then you probably don'tget to hear what's really out
(57:37):
there on a larger scale.
So that's one of the coolthings about having this show is
that we get to hear storiesbroader than just our ward, you
know.
Alisha Coakley (57:48):
I love that.
Scott Brandley (57:49):
Yeah, so yeah, thanks, Meghan, for being on the
show, and if any of you have astory that you'd like to share,
or know someone that has a storythat can help others or give
some insight or some assistanceor share some light, go to
latterdaylightscom and shareyour story with us and anything
(58:13):
else, Alisha.
Alisha Coakley (58:15):
I think that's it.
We just appreciate you guys.
We, scott and I, have beendoing this show for, you know, a
little over two and a halfyears now, and it's just going
to get stronger and better andbigger and hopefully reach more
and more hearts, and we justneed stories.
We need more stories.
So we would, we would love toschedule a phone call with yours
truly.
Tell us all the things.
(58:37):
That would be great, yeahawesome.
Scott Brandley (58:41):
well, thanks again, guys, and thanks Meghan,
and we will talk to you guysnext week with another episode
from Latter-day Lights.
Until then, take care, bye guys.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.