This is Part 3 of a series of postings on the authentic Christian view and attitude regarding psychic Phenomena
Evil intelligences
Although I said in the previous posts we should not fear, I also said we needed wise caution. For it is true that when Lucifer rebelled and was thrown from the heights of astral existence called “heaven,” he and his unseen cohorts moved into the lower regions–including this material plane–seeking to dominate the worlds themselves and all who dwelt in them.
The evil intelligences under the leadership of Lucifer especially seek to influence the human mind. Lucifer did not come to Eve and say: “Hello, I am Lucifer. I am your enemy and I want to deceive you.” Instead he came to Eve and claimed to be her friend who wished to give her the key to unlimited knowledge which would make her like God (Genesis 3:1-7).
Things have not changed since then. There are evil, ignorant, and foolish entities in the astral world (just like the people in this world), sitting at the gates and waiting for someone to poke their head through or jump in fully. Just as we hear someone knocking at the door, so they perceive when a human being is trying to reach into their world.
They will do what they can to “help” in hopes that in time the human being will be the means of their entering into the earth plane through obsession or possession. To ensure this they will lure the unsuspecting with phenomena of various sorts or at least make many promises that will remain unfulfilled once they attain their will.
Dangerous phenomena
This is often seen concerning the phenomenon known as “automatic writing.” The person sits with a pencil, or with a device called a planchette, and they blank their mind. After awhile their hand begins to move, and–behold!–they get written messages “from the other side.” (Mostly they are only from their subconscious minds.) In many cases after some time they lose the ability to write anything on their own, often writing against their will.
Others foolishly become psychic telephones or television, either through “channeling” or through clairvoyant vision. They eventually have no control over that, either. Sometimes they cannot have an uninterrupted conversation. They will be talking to somebody and in the midst of it say: “Oh, there is a little old man in the corner of the room. Was your grandfather named Benjamin?” As if the grandchild did not know the name of their grandfather.
Then will come some inane stuff such as: “He used to take you fishing” or: “He loved taffy apples.” Utter trivia, and what is already known. The kind of entities that usually are perceived are quite unintelligent, and like their human counterparts they never stop talking and they never say a single thing worth hearing.
We all know humans like that, and there are spirits like that, as well. All day and all night: “Tell Edna the ink pen she lost twelve years ago was stolen by the milkman.” “Ben must know that the back right tire on his car is going flat.” “Helen is lying. I never told her she could have my best dishes when I was gone.” The people who relay such drivel have no on/off switch, so it happens at any time. As I say, they are no more than telephones or television sets.
Annoying psychism
I remember a psychic in New Delhi trying to stop me at Connaught Circle to give me a reading. “I know your mother’s name,” he told me. “So do I,” I answered, and kept on walking. “But I can tell you your mother’s name,” he persisted, as he walked along beside me. “I can tell you her name, also. What will you pay me?” I asked him. “No, no, you do not understand! How is it that I know your mother’s name?” “I don’t know,” I called back as I sprinted away, “but a better question is just what you are going to do with such useless information.” Things get even worse with wandering spirits that are bored on the other side and want to get back here–a sure sign of ignorance. Unhappily the silly and the shallow think this kind of thing is wonderful.
Some entities are smarter, and they can tell us things we do not know, and even things that have a practical application. This is more dangerous, for they are clever enough to want more than mere relaying of messages. There are truly vicious spirit who wish to invade our auras or bodies and live through us, defying the natural laws of rebirth. If they cannot possess someone permanently, they content themselves with short-term possession through their host’s physical weakness, drunkenness, or use of drugs.
On a more formal and overt level they temporarily possess so-called “trance mediums.” Or they draw the life-substance from the medium’s body and create “materializations,” the disturbance of which can seriously harm the medium. These are the lowest and most immoral type of beings.
It must not be overlooked that oftentimes these phenomena are merely tricks of the medium’s subconscious mind and there are no spirits whatsoever in contact with or through them. Their minds fake it all up. But whichever it may be, deception is still deception and can only produce negative results.
Slaves of spirits
In the Bible those who mistakenly deal with such entities are warned away. There were certain people even in Biblical times that were “married” to spirits–linked irrevocably with them in a blasphemous satire of human marriage. In later times these entities were called “familiars.”
A television documentary once showed a woman of this type in the Middle East who every year on her “wedding” anniversary would kill a goat and smear herself with its blood in offering to her “husband.” Such persons, being constant channels of evil and completely beyond correction, were condemned to banishment or death in the Old Testament. That may seem harsh, but when we understand the harm that is worked through them it is comprehensible. Now, through the power of Christ such persons can be rendered harmless so such drastic measures are not necessary.