My son, now nine, has had many issues in his short life. He has been hospitalized at least five tines, mostly for respiratory problems. He has had learning disabilities and is now only in first grade. We have been to neurologist, genealogist, child psychologists, and our regular pediatrician. The only diagnosis they could come up with was ADHD, an enigma to some of the doctors, because tests showed him to be borderline on a range of syndromes or diagnosis to include autism. All I wanted was to find out what was wrong so we could fix it.

When he was about five, I had an upsetting, very vivid dream. My son and I were going to the hospital. As we pulled into the space next to a red pickup truck, the man in the driver’s seat looked at us. His eyes were black and I got an awful, creepy feeling of danger from him. I rushed my kids away from him and toward the hospital. I noticed two elderly women come out of the door on the side of the building. We were heading for that door. Have you ever had the feeling deep inside that something isn’t right? Well, I did.

Right then I noticed something yellow moving in the massive oak tree next to that door we were headed toward. I followed the yellow to the top of the tree and over to the top of the building. It was a giant yellow snake. This hospital was at least three stories high and that yellow snake extended the entire height of the building. Maternal instinct kicked in but this monstrous snake was too fast. It swooped down and coiled around my son and began to sling him from side to side on the walkway. I wrestled with it to let him go and it dropped him and grabbed me. I didn’t care that it was beating me against the pavement as long as my son was free. I think it let go of me but about that time I woke up. To tell you the truth, I was a little scared!

I asked someone at church what it meant. The only answer they could come up with was the dream was a warning from God that Satan wanted to destroy my son. About a year later, I began going to a different church. One night we prayed for him and as we did, his Sunday School teacher said he was staring at her like a lion watching prey. It gave her a weird feeling.

About a week later, his Sunday School teacher approached me. She had talked to the pastor about my son. I began to tell her the dream, and she lit up. She too sensed that he was being held captive by a ‘python’ spirit. We prayed and commanded the spirit to leave my son. Since he was so young, I didn’t tell him any of this, but when he went to Sunday School, he told his teacher, “They prayed for me and the devil had to let me go. He kept trying to squeeze me but he couldn’t anymore. He had to go!”

Since then I’ve noticed change in my young son. For one, he doesn’t have that blank stare anymore. When he looks at me, there’s something there. He’s doing well in school and learning doesn’t seem to be the challenge it once was. He feels pain; he didn’t before. Before the prayer, I came outside one day to find him standing in a bed of fire ants, showing no sign of pain, even though they covered his body with their stings. And most of all, when I lay down at night, I’m not afraid of what he’ll do while I’m asleep. I’ve also learned that during the Roman Empire, the cult of Asklepios thrived. They worshiped a demon spirit that took the outward form of a large serpent. I don’t know how this relates to my son and I don’t pretend to understand it all, but I’m glad it’s over.