A Catholic priest who has spent two decades performing exorcisms has detailed some of the cases that have convinced him the Devil is real.

Father Carlos Martins has built up his unusual skillset through almost two decades of ministry, teaching and working in exorcisms, with his career earning him the title of an ‘expert’ on exorcism, demonology, and spiritual warfare, according to his website.

The priest has been credited with ‘freeing people all over the world’ through his work, but there are certain exorcisms he’s performed that have left a bigger mark on him than most.

Father Carlos Martins has worked in exorcisms for 20 years (Carlos Martins)

An exorcism turned violent

During one ordeal, Martins claimed he witnessed a woman grab one of the men who had been tasked with trying to ‘restrain’ her, and proceeded to throw him ‘over her head as if he were a rag doll.’

To be fair, I’d get pretty angry if someone was trying to restrain me too, but it wouldn’t necessarily be the work of the devil.

That wasn’t the only instance that convinced Martins, however, as he claimed the man was more than six feet tall and weighed over 300 pounds, meaning it would have been very unlikely the woman would have been able to throw him across the room.

Things only escalated from there, according to Martins’ account, which has been cited by the Mail Online.

He continued: “The woman then pointed her finger at the nearest light switch on the wall, about twelve feet away. One of the screws holding the switch’s cover plate unscrewed itself and darted into her open right hand through the air,.

“She drove it into her left forearm. Later, in the same session, she struck me in the face with such force that I needed two surgeries to repair the damage I sustained to my skull.”

Having witnessed what he did, Martins resolved: “The Devil is real.”

Martins has claimed he’s ‘freed’ people from across the globe with his work (Getty Stock Photo)

A firefighter

Another instance which built on Martins’ belief of the devil came when he encountered a firefighter, given the pseudonym Jeremy, who went to Father Martins’ church when he was in his late 20s to look for help after he began experiencing blackouts and unexplained injuries.

Martins has described how Jeremy was ‘polite, soft-spoken, and gracious’, prompting the priest to perform a variety of prayers to determine whether he was really possessed.

The priest also spoke with the firefighter about what had happened before the strange instances began occurring, and learned that when he was eight years old he had taken part in playing with a Ouija board.

Jeremy claimed he later saw a dark figure in his room, with Martins explaining: “The figure was so black that, although the lights were off, everything else in the room looked like it was in broad daylight. Besides being intensely black, the only additional detail he recalled was that it had a human body but a cat’s head.”

Jeremy claimed the figure offered to give him anything in return for his soul. He dreamed of becoming a firefighter.

Martins recalled then giving Jeremy a book with a small drop of Holy Water on the cover, and claimed that when he touched it he ‘shot up out of his chair and arched his upper body backward’.

Jeremy then allegedly shouted: “F**k you, priest! He is mine. He gave himself to me. You will never have him!”

Martins said he wanted to ‘speak to Jeremy’, to which the man responded with a slow laugh.

Martins then doubled down, saying: “In the name of Jesus, I command you to bring forth Jeremy.” He then ordered Jeremy to ‘claim Jesus as [his] Lord’ and renounce the demon – an instruction that he says successfully banished the demon from his body.

Martins suggested the firefighter had lost his soul to a Ouija board (Getty Stock Photo)

Martins has shared his experiences in his book, The Exorcist Files: True stories about the reality of evil and how to destroy it.

However, when looking back over his career, Martins admitted he would have enjoyed having a job in which he never encountered a single demon.

He said: “Though it is a joy to do this work, I have never enjoyed meeting the Devil and his minions.”

Ask a political expert how Trump came to power, and you’ll likely get a well thought out answer. Ask a conspiracy theorist… well, that’s what we are here to discuss.

Now, the world is full of odd occurrences and coincidences, but this latest bizarre turn of events has got people convinced something more must be going on.

Two books written by American lawyer and novelist Ingersoll Lockwood has some people scratching their heads.

Why has it got people confused and on edge? Well because Lockwood seems to name drop people tied to president Donald Trump and according to some, even makes reference to his political dominance in the modern day.

Mind you, the two books were published in 1893 and 1896, so a fair few years before Trump was actually born.

The conspiracy theory has been blowing people’s minds (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The two fictional novels are called Baron Trump’s Marvellous Underground Adventure and The Last President. By the titles alone, you can understand why it has got people talking.

While it does spell Trump’s son’s name incorrectly (it’s spelt Barron), the apparent similarities to real life have been too much for some to bear.

In the story of Little Baron Trump, he is described as a wealthy, aristocratic young man who lives in Castle Trump, a fictional location which many comparing to the real life Trump Tower. He also has a mentor named ‘Don’.

But the apparent similarities don’t stop there. Though The Last President doesn’t feature Baron Trump, it does depict political divide after a new President takes office.

The political outsider is from New York and becomes president only for protests to erupt in the streets, with it ultimately leading to the downfall of the American Republic.

Add this to the long list of conspiracy theories involving Donald Trump (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

An early chapter of the book reads: “Mobs of vast size are organizing under the lead of anarchists and socialists, and threaten to plunder and despoil the houses of the rich who have wronged and oppressed them for so many years.”

Now while you might read this and go, ‘oh that’s kind of interesting’ others have suggested this is evident that Donald Trump is actually a time traveler who inspired Lockwood or that the author was ‘psychic’.

On Twitter one user commented: “Time Travelling confirmed.”

With another adding: “This story is wild. Trump possibly having access to Tesla’s research would partly explain why the powerful hate him so much. just sayin’…”

And a third adding: “The first time I heard this it seemed some strange fantastical coincidence. It’s all warped into something very real now.”

I’m not quite convinced myself, but when has that ever stopped the internet?

While some believe that when we die, that’s it for us, others are convinced that there’s an afterlife waiting for us following our time on Earth.

As of 2021, nearly three-quarters of US adults said that they believed in heaven, as per the Pew Research Center.

This belief was largely held by Christian respondents, but it was found that 26 percent of agnostics also believed in heaven.

While not everyone said they thought heaven existed, a proportion of those who said they did not believe in heaven or hell did admit that they consider the idea that there’s some kind of afterlife.

One person who thinks there’s an afterlife is Dr Hugh Ross, a Canadian astrophysicist and Christian author.

Dr Hugh Ross has shared this theories on why he thinks heaven exists (reasons.org)

Dr Ross has a PhD in astronomy from the University of Toronto, as well as a degree in physics.

With his expertise in mind, Dr Ross has shared five ‘lines of evidence for the existence of a transcendent realm beyond’.

The universe’s limits

As I’m sure you’re aware, the universe is pretty darn huge – but just how huge is unknown.

With this in mind, Dr Ross suggests that since we can’t observe all of the universe, there could well be something beyond what we can currently see.

“Given that mass exists in the universe and that general relativity reliably describes the movements of massive bodies in the universe, these theorems establish the necessity of a causal agent (aka Creator/God) beyond space and time,’ Dr Ross told MailOnline.

“[The Creator is] responsible for creating space and time and all the matter and energy that comprises the cosmos.”

The Bible

Many might question how reliable the Bible is, but Dr Ross insists that it has ‘proven reliability’.

“While the Bible certainly is (and often has been) subject to misinterpretation, reasonably defensible interpretations do show that what the Bible records about history, science, and geography proves correct,” he said.

Dr Ross says the Bible alluded to the Big Bang and heaven’s creation (Getty Stock)

Dr Ross went on to claim that scientific phenomena is alluded to in the Bible that’s later discovered by people in the future, i.e the Big Bang.

In the Bible, it speaks of a transcendent cosmic beginning and a universe undergoing a general, continual expansion (the two fundamentals of the Big Bang).

More specifically, in Isaiah 42:5 it says of this: “This is what the Lord says – He who created the heavens and stretched them out.”

UFOs

People’s recorded experiences of seeing apparent UFOs in the sky could be another signal to the afterlife.

Of these unidentified objects that have been spotted over the years, some have been ‘impervious to the laws of physics’, says Dr Ross.

How this evidence to an afterlife, the scientist said: “The existence of non-physical reality stands as evidence for the existence of a realm beyond the dimensions of the universe.”

Near-death experiences

Many people who have been close to dying have spoken out after what they experienced as they nearer the end of the life, Jose Hernandez included.

Hernandez said he was a ‘true atheist’, but in what he described as heaven during his near-death experience, he was reunited with his late father.

“When I met my dad on the other side, I realised that sometimes we may not be able to say something here, [but] we’re gonna be able to say it somewhere else,” he said afterwards.

Hernandez also claimed to have watched doctors try and save his life from outside his body.

It’s near-death experiences (NDEs) like these that Dr Ross says are consistent with the Christian belief that the soul leaves the body during death.

“Some NDE claims may be explained by oxygen deprivation in the brain,’ Dr Ross told Mail Online.

“However, many others remain firmly established, as cardiologist Michael Sabom – a former NDE skeptic – has documented in his books.”

Effectiveness of prayer

Dr Ross argued that praying in enough to prove that there’s a ‘transcendent realm’.

Explaining why, he said: “People who are prayed for by believers in the Christian God experience measurably more rapid and complete recovery from surgeries or medically confirmed ailments than do people for whom no such prayer is offered.”

This would imply that there is a God, thus an afterlife.

There’s a Google interview question that almost all candidates get wrong, and now, experts are weighing in on how they’d approach the puzzle.

According to statistics from March 2024, Google employs over 182,000 employees across more than 70 countries worldwide.

However, it’s understood around three million people actually apply to work at the tech giant each year, which is the cause behind its notorious 0.2 percent acceptance rate.

So if you want to work at Google, it’s going to be tough work, and you need to show you’re dedicated to the cause.

One way to do this? Absolutely smash your interviews.

Strange questions posed to prospective Google employees

Previously, the business has been known to ask some prospective employees some mind-boggling questions.

These include ‘How many golf clubs can fit in a 747?’, ‘How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?,’ and ‘You’re shrunken down to the size of a nickel and dropped into a blender, what do you do?’

The latter was posed to Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn’s characters in the 2013 film, The Internship, and saw them shouting out all sorts of elaborate answers.

After the session, the movie duo do actually get the job.

However, most people bomb this question when asked it in real life, apparently

According to experts, one of the answers Google interviewers hear when they ask this question is: just jump.

For those who came to this conclusion immediately, Professor Gregory Sutton, an expert on insect motion from the University of Lincoln, wants you to think about it like this.

“One grasshopper can jump about a metre high,” he told MailOnline.

“Two grasshoppers holding hands – twice as much mass, twice as much muscle – can jump a metre high.

“A million grasshoppers holding hands – a million times as much mass, a million times as much muscle – can jump a metre high.”

The specialist said that it is just as easy for us to move our centre of mass one metre off the ground as it is for a grasshopper.

An expert used grasshoppers to explain a common approach to the interview question (Getty Stock Image)

So, if you were shrunk down to the size of the coin, you would essentially be able to leap out of the blender, right?

Wrong.

If you suddenly shrunk down to the size of a penny, you wouldn’t have enough time to extend as you jumped, thus transferring way less energy to the ground than you would need to hoist yourself out of the kitchen appliance.

According to Professor Sutton, a coin-sized human could probably jump around 10-15cm, which is nowhere high enough.

This means the idea of ‘jumping’ out of the blender is pretty impossible

Another way to answer the blender question

So, how else could you answer the question if it was put to you?

“If I were shrunk down and put in a blender, I’d use a small rubber band to fling myself out,” the animal expert revealed.

“The catapult system would work great at that size because your strength-to-mass ratio is very beneficial even if your jumping mechanisms don’t work so well.”

Meanwhile, Professor Jim Usherwood, an expert on the mechanics of motion from the Royal Veterinary College, told the publication that if he could wind up a spring over a suitable time he could use it to ‘ping’ himself out of the blender ‘like a flea’.

So basically, if you happen to have a rubber band or a spring in your back pocket, you’re good to go.

If not, then it looks like you’re never getting out of the glass chamber of doom.

So, how would you get out of the blender? (Getty Stock Image)

What was the purpose of these interview questions?

Gayle McDowell, a former Google software engineer, revealed that the goal of these questions was to see how people approached problem-solving, not whether they got the answer right.

“Sometimes there are people who make everything more complex than it needs to be, and that can be problematic,” she explained.

However, in an interview with IFL Science, McDowell also said that interviewers at Google have moved away from these brain-teasers.

“If an interview were to ask a candidate a brain teaser, despite the policy, the hiring committee would likely disregard the interviewer’s feedback and send a note back telling the interviewer not to ask such silly questions,” she told the publication.

Advice on nabbing a job at Google

Google Careers has also uploaded a best practices guide for those hoping to score a job at the tech giant.

These include finding connections between the job listing and your resume, focusing on providing data alongside your achievements and coming to the interview with questions.

“If you do these things we think you’ll be prepared to talk about yourself and about the position,” the cheat sheet reads.

“We also believe it will set you up for success by minimizing external confusion. We want you clear and calm so you can really explore your experience, your desires, the position, and how we connect.”

A doctor on TikTok has told people they need to ditch this common cooking habit for the sake of their health.

When it comes to cooking, many people tend to learn from their parents and, as a result, pick up a lot of practices – both good and bad.

Dr Sam, who goes by @drsamuelgp on TikTok, has warned his followers they needed to stop washing their chicken before cooking it as it can increase their risk of contamination.

He noted that he is aware that many people’s parents would have done this and still do this.

Washing your chicken isn’t exactly the best idea healthwise (Getty Stock Image)

Now, while you may have seen odd videos on social media of people doing the absolute most to ‘clean’ their chicken – perhaps in the hopes of removing bacteria – the doctor emphasized that simply using water was enough to cause an issue.

In the video, Dr Sam said: “Why you should stop washing your chicken. I am Dr Sam and this is medical adulting where you will learn interesting medical lessons to help you live your life better.

“Your dad or your mum probably washes chicken or even you, and while most people are not so extreme with their washing, washing with just water alone can be dangerous and unnecessary.

“A study found that people who wash their chicken in their sinks ended up contaminating their salads, and this happened because of several reasons.

Not all of the doctor’s followers were convinced by his warning (Getty Stock Image)

“Washing chicken in the sink contaminates the sink, allowing the bacteria from the chicken to transfer to your fruits and vegetables.

“Two, water droplets that contain the bacteria can fly up to 80cm around the sink, meaning things around it can get contaminated.

“Three, most people don’t wash their hands for long enough.”

The TikToker then offered alternative options that people can do instead that are thought to be significantly safer.

Dr Sam continued: “You can pat dry with paper towels and throw them away.

“You can blanch chicken in boiling water and throw the water away.

“You shouldn’t worry about the bacteria because it will no longer be there once you cook your chicken to 75 degrees.

“So wash your hands, not your hen. Because it is not worth it to wing it and then get diarrhea so now you know.”

Despite being a trained medical professional, the doctor didn’t exactly get rousing support from his followers in the comments, with some claiming they would simply clean their sink after washing their chicken.

That makes the ones you do receive a response on all the more precious, and if you get invited to a job interview, it’s suddenly a very nervy situation as you’ve likely had to go through all sorts of applications to actually get this invitation.

With that in mind, you definitely don’t want to blow your chances by doing the wrong thing, like one person did after they fell for the ‘receptionist trick’.

It sounds like there’s all sorts of ‘tricks’ to navigate in job interviews if the hiring manager is in the mood to spring them on you, which sounds like quite the rigmarole.

Now, there’s another one to be aware of as an expert explained why you should ask for a drink during a job interview if one is offered to you.

“I really like the way you asked me for that glass of water, you’re hired.” (Getty Stock Photo)

According to employment coach Jackie Racine, if you go in for a job interview and the staff there ask if you’d like a drink you should ‘always say yes’.

Apparently, this will help with your performance in the job interview, and not because you’ll at least get a free drink out of it should you not end up getting the job.

The employment coach said there was some ‘behavioural science’ behind why you should ask for a drink if offered one, saying it played on the ‘Ben Franklin effect’.

“This theory suggests that when someone does a favour for you they tend to like you more afterwards,” Jackie explained, and in this case them doing you the favour of getting you a drink would make them like you more in the interview.

She said it would make someone think they must like you because they were doing this favour for you.

“We really like you as a candidate. At least I think we did, otherwise I wouldn’t have made you that drink.” (Getty Stock Photo)

Frankly, it seems like there’s all sorts of tips, tricks and pitfalls surrounding drinks when it comes to job interviews.

One interviewer has something called the ‘coffee test’ where he’d take interviewees on a tour of the workplace and always somehow end up in the kitchen having a coffee.

The test part would come through judging the prospective employee on what they did with their mug once it was empty, and the right answer was to take it back to the kitchen so it could be washed up.

Meanwhile, Steve Jobs would employ a rather different sort of drinks-based test by offering to take interviewees out for a beer so he could get to know them better outside the confines of the job interview.

Taking them out for a drink could get them to loosen up, and then he’d hit them with the questions he really wanted to ask.

A man who deleted social media for years has revealed some of the biggest, life-altering changes he experienced when he ditched the apps.

Matt Spear said goodbye to social media back in 2020 and has never looked back since.

Matt explained all the benefits he had experienced after deleting the apps (Getty Stock Photo)

“It was a total waste of time, I’d just be on there scrolling for no reason, comparing myself to others,” he said on YouTube.

“It’s a trap, it’s a game, you’re a rat on a hamster wheel. I finally realised, why am I so worried about other people’s lives when I’m literally so unhappy myself?

“I deleted the apps… the other reason I deleted them is because I liked the idea of being a mystery, I liked the idea of disappearing from the internet and reinventing myself.”

Matt explained that he’s a ‘way better version of [himself]’ these days, adding: “As soon as I deleted social media, there were no negatives. You will not find a single person tell you that when they deleted social media, their life got worse.”

The YouTuber went on to explain all the big changes he noticed when he finally quit the apps for good.

No more FOMO

Matt explained after he gave up social media he was finally able to focus on himself and ‘killed the FOMO’ – AKA fear of missing out.

“I got rid of the fear, who cares what other people are doing? I didn’t mind being alone anymore,” he said.

“I’m more worried about what I’m doing and what I’m going to accomplish. I genuinely don’t care what other people are doing.”

Matt explained that if you don’t want to delete your accounts completely, it might be worth having a month off to experience the benefits.

More time

Matt believes social media is ‘an addiction’ and claims he’s ‘finally free’ of constantly checking his phone, which has ultimately given him loads more spare time.

“I’m free from that,” he said.

“My screen time is so low. What is so attractive about your phone now? Not much, there’s nothing on your phone.

“… I’m so much happier for it… It’s a waste of time, a distraction to keep you stuck, to keep you addicted.”

Matt deleted social media in 2020 (Getty Stock Photo)

Boosts mental health

Matt says he’s noticed a huge improvement in his mental health and happiness since he quit the apps.

“It improves your mental health because you’re not always dialled into your phone, you’re just focused on you and how you can better yourself,” he said.

“That’s all you should be focused on.”

Over the last few years, research has indicated that quitting social media can hugely benefit your mental health.

A 2022 study asked 154 participants to stop using social media for a week. Those that did reported significantly reduced anxiety and depression as well as overall greater wellbeing.

Validation

Matt believes after he deleted social media, he found himself no longer seeking validation.

“I was no longer living for other people or going places with the intent of ‘oh I’ve got to find a cool Instagram picture’ so people will like me,” he explained.

Matt recalled that when he was younger, he’d been to a Celtics game where he sat courtside, but instead of enjoying the game, he spent the whole time trying to work out ‘how to get a cool picture’.

“You stop living for other people and seeking so much validation,” he added.

“It helped me, it changed me and bettered my life completely.”

We’re just days away from the calendar switching over from 2024 to 2025, with the days between Christmas and New Year proving to be the perfect time to look back on the last 12 months as well as think about what we’d like to see happen in the next year.

One person currently doing just that is Brazilian man Athos Salomé, who has earned the nickname ‘living Nostradamus’ in the past couple of years thanks to his chilling prophecies about mankind’s future.

So what predictions did Salomé have for the past year – and how many of them were true?

Unsurprisingly, the predictions feature a lot of doom and gloom (Getty Stock Images)

Which of Athos Salomé’s 2024 predictions came true?

After claiming to have predicted major global events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the death of Queen Elizabeth II and Elon Musk buying X, Salomé has quite a large reputation to live up to when it comes sharing his visions of the future.

The 26-year-old is said to have made numerous predictions ahead of 2024 and believes that four of these went on to be true. These are:

Microsoft outage

Earlier this year technology software across the globe suffered major outages after CrowdStrike issued a faulty update which caused havoc in numerous airports, hospitals, banks and more.

‘God of chaos’ asteroid

Many of Salomé’s predictions featured warnings about asteroids, with 99942 Apophis initially being considered a collision threat earlier in the year. NASA has since ruled out these fears, stating there is no risk of impact for 100 years.

The Brazilian has earned the nickname of ‘living Nostradamus’ following his predictions (Instagram/@athos_salome)

Cybersecurity attacks

Our ‘living Nostradamus’ had warned about the risk of cyberattacks which could ‘sabotage global communication’ back in the Summer. He would later claim this vision was realised after officials earned of cybersecurity attacks at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Severe weather

Salomé stated at the end of 2023 that a number of natural disasters would strike, with Asia specifically being devastated.

He would later claim this referred to typhoon Yagi, which hit the coastlines of Vietnam, China, Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Macao in late August/early September.

“In September of 2024 real events supported these expectations with typhoon Yagi, which affected and brought a large amount of damages to these parts of the world,” he said.

Technology issues also featured heavily in the predictions (Getty Stock Images)

Were any of his predictions incorrect?

Unfortunately oracles are just like us and make mistakes too, as a number of Salomé’s beliefs failed to materialise in the past 12 months, These include World War III kicking off in the South China Sea, Earth actually being hit by the ‘God of chaos’ asteroid and an asteroid space race between global superpowers.

What predictions has he made for 2025?

Following the trend of modern mystics seeing nothing but doom and gloom in our futures, here are Salomé’s predictions for 2025.

• Artificial Intelligence spinning out of control
• Manufactured climate disasters
• Military secrets spilling
• Contact with the extraterrestrial
• Genetically modified humans
• Population control
• Manufactured energy crisis

Strap in lads, it’s going to be a rough one.