I was just reading through Chapter 7, The Demon-Haunted World

I will not comment until I am finished, but as the chapter contains much about demons, witchcraft, and the use of the Malleus Maleficarum to torture and burn witches, I thought it would be of use to post a link to the full text...in case anyone is interested in reading it in further detail.

Interesting stuff.

Further observations and insight from Chapter 7:

In the Malleus, Kramer and Sprenger reveal that "devils...busy themselves by interfering with the process of normal copulation, by obtaining human semen, and themselves transferring it."

Then later:

There is no spaceship in these [demon] stories. But most of the central elements of the alien abduction account are present, including sexually obsessive non-humans who live in the sky, walk through walls, communicate telepathically, and perform breeding experiments on the human species.

It is a strange coincidence that both past and present reports of human contact with those supernatural forces (demons and aliens, respectively) have so many common factors...and that sexuality is such a huge integral component. Sagan makes a compelling argument that the human inner psyche may need to create such visions, dreams or hallucinations to satisfy longings, fulfil suppressed desires or assuage feelings of guilt.

Forgive me for my post to come, since I don't have the book in front of me to quote from...

I also enjoy the part where Sagan is discussing the presence of incubi and succubi. If I recall correctly, he states something to the effect that they must exist (in the mentality of the middle ages), because virgin women would never sleep around before they were married. Supernatural elements were the only explanation, because Satan is like that. Its an odd disparity with the common thought, that humanity was inherently flawed towards bad (original sin), and yet they could do no wrong in the case of pre-marital liaisons....

Quote from the Mallius link above:

"It has been estimated by Dr. Marija Gimbutas, professor of archaeology at the University of California, that as many as 9 million people, overwhelmingly women, were burned or hanged during the witch-craze."

Good Gaaaaaaaaaaawd! I had no idea it was anywhere near that many!