Former U.S. Navy SEAL and podcaster Shawn Ryan says he has undergone four exorcisms involving two different priests after a series of experiences that he believes may be spiritual in nature, including what he described as a vision of hell, encounters with demonic entities and unexplained events inside his home.
Ryan made the disclosure during an episode of the Shawn Ryan Show with Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, the American Catholic cardinal and canon lawyer, telling Burke that he had been nervous to discuss the subject publicly because of how unusual and personal the experiences had become.
Ryan said the episode followed a psychedelic experience a little more than a month earlier, which he described as dramatically different from a previous experience that he believed had helped him stop drinking alcohol.
“I believe I was shown hell,” Ryan said, explaining that the experience left him with overwhelming fear and anxiety and what he described as a complete absence of anything good.
Ryan Says A Psychedelic Experience Changed Everything
Ryan told Burke that an earlier psychedelic experience had felt healing and that he credited it with helping him stop drinking, saying he had been sober from alcohol for roughly four and a half years.
When he later tried psychedelics again, however, he said the experience became deeply disturbing.
Ryan described spending about an hour and a half in what he believed might have been a vision of hell, where he felt no sense of God, Christ or goodness and experienced only intense fear and anxiety.
He also said that two days before that experience, he believed he had encountered “demonic entities.”
Ryan acknowledged that he did not fully understand what those experiences meant, but said he later felt that he had received a clear message from God after returning home.
From that point, according to Ryan, things around his household began to feel increasingly strange.
He claimed that picture frames flew from walls, that he experienced unexplained sensations inside his body, and that other events around his family appeared supernatural to him.
“I’ve Been Through Four Exorcisms”
Ryan then made the most striking disclosure of the conversation.
“I’ve been through four exorcisms with two different priests,” he told Burke. “It’s not going away.”
He did not provide detailed descriptions of what occurred during those exorcisms, but said the experiences he associates with the problem continued afterward.
Ryan described one particularly difficult night shortly before the interview in which every smoke alarm and smoke detector in his house allegedly went off repeatedly around 12:45 a.m.
He said the physical sensations he had previously experienced also returned, along with repeated vivid nightmares centered on his wife and children being torn apart.
Ryan told Burke that he interpreted the timing as possibly connected to the religious conversation they were about to have.
“I think that this is happening because something doesn’t want me to do what we’re about to do today,” he said.
Burke responded that he believed such resistance was possible within the Catholic understanding of spiritual warfare.
Cardinal Burke Frames It As Spiritual Conflict
Cardinal Burke told Ryan that, in his religious view, evil resists people who try to bring others toward Christian teaching.
“The devil absolutely hates anyone who brings the truth to others,” Burke said.
He described the Bible as leading people toward Christ and said that, from a Catholic perspective, spiritual attacks often involve discouragement, division within families and efforts to turn people away from faith.
Burke also told Ryan that he believes evil can sometimes interfere with electronics, describing those kinds of disruptions as attempts to frustrate or discourage people.
That response closely matched the way Ryan had already been interpreting the strange events around his home.
Ryan said that, as frightening as the experiences had been, they had also strengthened his Christian faith.
He explained that he had previously looked for reassuring signs, including repeatedly seeing the number 444 and interpreting it as a message that guardian angels were watching over him, but had since begun wondering whether some of those signs might have been misleading.
Despite that uncertainty, Ryan said his recent experiences had made him feel more confident that he was moving in the right spiritual direction.
Ryan Describes Voices, Reactions And Repeating Nightmares
Ryan went on to describe additional incidents that he said he could not explain.
He claimed that things had spoken to him through white-noise machines and said he had suffered two severe allergic reactions shortly after receiving communion.
Ryan did not claim to have a medical or scientific explanation for those incidents, instead placing them in the broader spiritual framework he was discussing with Burke.
He then asked the cardinal how such attacks stop.
Burke’s answer was that, in his understanding, they often do not stop completely.
“The only answer there is is to persevere,” Burke said, invoking St. Paul’s teaching about fighting the good fight, staying the course and keeping the faith.
Burke told Ryan that hardship, temptation and suffering can continue throughout a person’s life, but argued that faith can provide a sense of peace even when those struggles do not disappear.
The conversation was clearly rooted in Catholic belief rather than an attempt to establish whether the events Ryan described had supernatural causes, and that distinction is important because Ryan was describing deeply personal interpretations of experiences that cannot be independently verified from the interview alone.
Burke Connects Ryan’s Vision To Fatima
Burke also connected Ryan’s description of hell to the Catholic story of the apparitions at Fatima in 1917.
He said the three children associated with Fatima were said to have been shown a vision of hell and argued that such an experience, while terrifying, could also be understood as a form of spiritual warning.
According to Burke, the lesson of such a vision is that people should turn toward God and away from what Catholic teaching considers sinful or destructive.
He told Ryan that an experience like the one Ryan described could leave a lasting impression precisely because it makes the contrast between faith and spiritual emptiness feel more immediate.
Ryan appeared to receive that interpretation positively, saying the ordeal had strengthened rather than weakened his belief in Christ.
That part of the conversation gave the interview a more reflective tone, because Ryan was not simply describing fear; he was trying to understand whether the fear itself had pushed him toward the religious conviction he now feels more strongly.
Ryan Says Someone Else On His Team Is Experiencing It Too
Later in the discussion, Ryan said he had learned that someone else on his team was dealing with similar experiences.
He also referred to Burke’s own history of conflict and controversy within the Catholic Church, telling him that he believed the cardinal had experienced spiritual attacks from very high levels.
Ryan then asked a broader question: why would God allow such suffering in the first place?
Burke answered by pointing to the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus, arguing that Christians should understand hardship as something that can be united with Christ’s suffering and used for spiritual growth.
He said people should not expect a faithful life to be free of pain, but should instead try to remain focused on God through prayer, the Eucharist and confession.
Burke described those Catholic sacraments as sources of peace and renewal, saying that every day can represent another opportunity to begin again.
Ryan Ends By Asking His Audience For Prayer
Near the end of the discussion, Ryan said he had never previously asked his audience to do anything specifically for him.
This time, he made an exception.
Ryan asked viewers to pray for him, his family, his team and Cardinal Burke.
Burke responded that he had already been praying for Ryan and promised that he would continue praying for Ryan’s family and work.
The exchange closed a conversation that was far more personal than Ryan’s usual discussions of military service, preparedness or politics, with the host openly describing experiences that he believes may have a spiritual explanation and admitting that they had frightened him enough to seek help from priests multiple times.
Whether listeners interpret those experiences in religious, psychological or other terms, Ryan presented them as deeply real to him, and his main conclusion was that they had pushed him toward a stronger commitment to Christianity rather than away from it.
For Burke, the answer was equally consistent with his own faith: the way through fear and suffering was not to expect every hardship to disappear, but to continue practicing the faith and refusing to give in to discouragement.
Ed spent his childhood in the backwoods of Maine, where harsh winters taught him the value of survival skills. With a background in bushcraft and off-grid living, Ed has honed his expertise in fire-making, hunting, and wild foraging. He writes from personal experience, sharing practical tips and hands-on techniques to thrive in any outdoor environment. Whether it’s primitive camping or full-scale survival, Ed’s advice is grounded in real-life challenges.
