Tales From an Exorcist by Reverend William J Bean

I received this book for free from NetGalley to facilitate my review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book is based on some of the personal experiences and Case Files of Reverend William J. Bean. Some of the names, locations, dates, and events have been changed in order to protect the identities of the victims and families.

I'm Reverend Bill Bean, and I'm also known as The Spiritual Warrior. I have performed exorcism for people from all over America and the world. I've been involved in every type of case imaginable, and I can tell you with great certainty that demons possess people, places, and things.

A battle has been taking place ever since the creation of mankind. It's the battle for the souls of human beings. Some might scoff at this, not believing in GOD, the devil, heaven, hell, angels or demons. I can personally verify and attest to the reality and validity of all of the above.

I travel all over America, helping people to become free from a variety of issues. Whether it may be depression, suicidal thoughts or attempts, relationship problems, anger and emotional issues, trauma issues, curses, drug, alcohol and porn addictions, demonic attachment, demonic oppression to demonic possession. I have encountered all of it and then some.

This book is going to take you on quite a journey, from my personal experiences with demonic forces, to my battles against them as a spiritual warrior.

CW: Religion, Suicide/Suicidal Thoughts, Demonic Possession, Abuse, Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental Illness

When I saw this book on NetGalley, I chose to read/review it because I recognized Reverend Bean. I’d actually seen him on an episode of Ghost Nation that featured a plantation that was purported to possibly have demonic activity going on in the house/on the property. While I wasn’t overly impressed with his methods on the show, I thought it would be interesting to read about some of his cases – because that’s what Tales From an Exorcist is – recountings of a selection of the exorcisms he’s performed.

I’m going to come right out and say it – I’m still not impressed by Reverend Bean. The entire book gives me the impression that he doesn’t actually believe in mental illness, addiction, etc. as actual issues/conditions, but instead believes that demons are to blame for these things. This is a viewpoint I absolutely can’t stand and absolute abhor when it comes up in books, television shows, etc.. While nothing ever actually comes right out and states this is his viewpoint, he blames a demon for attempting to kill one of the people he was helping when she attempted suicide while he was present in one of the cases told about in the book.

Reverend Bean also makes an interesting connection – conveniently, most, if not all, cases of demonic possession he’s dealt with involve people who were victims of some sort of childhood trauma and/or abuse. He states that these people are “low” and are “more susceptible” to demonic possession due to not having a good relationship with God.

I find his writing style to be obnoxious as well – there is no need to use all-caps when referring to God¹ Examples: GOD, YOU, YOUR, YAHWEH, HalleluYAH, etc.. – a simple capitalization of the first letter is all that is necessary. Even the Bible doesn’t use all-caps for God’s various names. Yet when Reverend Bean refers to Jesus, he only capitalizes the first letter of Jesus’ name. I also found that I felt like Reverend Bean was a bit too boastful in his writing – it almost made me feel as though he were saying “look at me, look what I did to help these people” while also attempting to give credit to God for helping him “rid someone of demonic possession”.

All in all I found this book to be very off-putting – the idea that one’s relationship with God makes them more or less likely to be possessed by demons, making claims that being abused as a child allows demons to possess someone, etc., just strikes me as self-serving and irritating. Unless you’re into this kind of thing, I wouldn’t recommend reading the book.