Religious Demonology Prayers Page

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - BASICS

I'm often asked questions about the Catholic position on spirit communication. People in paranormal groups, and often victims of supernatural attacks, sometimes consider attempting spirit communication. For a number of reasons spirit communication is not only not helpful, but often dangerous from the Catholic perspective.

I fully understand that many people engage in spirit communication and do not have a problem with it. I am not speaking to people of other faiths or belief systems here, nor judging them. I am speaking to those that are Christian or Catholic, to educate you on aspects of your faith that you might not be aware of. If you wish to disregard this aspect of your faith's teaching that is fine, it is not my place to judge anyone. I encourage you to talk with your pastor or local religious leader about these issues. Many times I've been approached by Catholics who told me they never knew these rules or scriptures. They often tell me they had an intuition that it was wrong but never looked into it.

When I say spirit communication I mean seeking or initiating spirit communication. There are many instances from the literature of the mystics and saints of spirits coming to them to communicate to them. These have included angels, Mary, Jesus, and many cases of souls in purgatory asking for masses or prayers to be performed on their behalf. This kind of spirit communication seems to be acceptable to God for we see Him allowing it. This form of spirit communication is not initiated or sought by the person receiving the communication.

When people try to initiate spirit communication they are essentially turning away from what God provides and seeking special information or power on their own. I suspect this is why the scriptures speak so strongly against necromancers, psychics, etc. The first, and presumably most important, of the ten commandments is, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other God's before me". We see many times in the Bible where God demonstrates that He does not like it when we turn from trusting in Him to other idols, gods, or occult practices. I think He wants us to have faith in Him and His caring for us: that if it was in our best interst to know some special information He would impart it Himself through some mechanism (prophecy, the Holy Spirit, angelic messengers, divine providence, etc.).

There is an additional problem with forms of spirit communication that involve spirits using the body, such as ouija boards (use of the hands and arms), spirit channelling (use of the body in general, or at least the mouth), and others. When these things are practiced a legal permission is granted to an unknown spiritual force to enter into the body. This free will choice gives legal rights for a spirit to enter into people, which can lead to serious problems if they do not leave.

Spirit communication/divination/psychic consultation is clearly against the Bible's teaching:

'Do not turn to [Lev 20:6, 27; Deut 18:11; 1 Sam 28:3; Is 8:19] mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.

'As for the person who turns to [Lev 19:31] mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people.

Now [1 Sam 25:1] Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him and buried him [1 Sam 7:17] in Ramah, his own city And Saul had removed from the land those who [Lev 19:31; 20:27; Deut 18:10; 1 Sam 15:23] were mediums and spiritists.

[Lev 18:21; 2 Kin 16:3; 17:17] He made his son pass through the fire, [Lev 19:26, 31; Deut 18:10-14] practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger.

Moreover, Josiah removed [Lev 19:31; 2 Kin 21:6] the mediums and the spiritists and the [Gen 31:19 mg] teraphim and [2 Kin 21:11, 21] the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, [Deut 18:10-22] that he might confirm the words of the law which were written [2 Kin 22:8] in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

"Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;And I will confound their strategy,So that [1 Chr 10:13; Is 8:19; Dan 2:2] they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead and to mediums and spiritists.

When they say to you, " [Lev 20:6; 2 Kin 21:6; 23:24; Is 19:3; 29:4; 47:12, 13] Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should not a people [Is 30:2; 45:11] consult their God? Should they [1 Sam 28:8-11] consult the dead on behalf of the living?

A criticism of these verses is that the Old Testament rules don't count because there are other rules that we do not follow, things about dietary restriction, etc. Some also say that nothing in the Old Testament counts because Jesus wiped it all away.

I would encourage a person to look at how many times this prohibition is stated, and with what force. Many of the apparently spurious rules are stated once in passing, or in a list. These are stated in severe terms, many times.

I would also encourage the reader to read the Gospels and focus on when Jesus was asked how we would be judged. He said He would be our judge and Moses would be our accusor, and we would be judged based on what Moses wrote.

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility. [305]

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. [Cf. Deut 18:10; Jer 29:8] Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENON

Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVPs) are a very popular idea and practice amongst paranormal enthusiasts. This is the process of recording sound and then playing back the recording to see if any spirits spoke and were recorded. This seems to work on a fairly regular, though not common, basis. Whether these voices are artifact, stray radio transmissions, or spirits isn't known. In some cases they seem to be something supernatural.

When people do EVP work they usually start the recorder and say something like "does anyone here want to talk to us?" and wait 10 seconds, etc. This is an attempt to set up a dialogue, crippled as it is, with a spirit. Besides being clearly against God's rules this is a problematic process for a number of reasons.

Even if a person gets a voice responding to questions it is usually a word or phrase at best, and often hard to hear. If the voice is clear and cogent the questions remain: who is talking and are they telling the truth? We know it is not going to be angels speaking because angels don't seek to encourage us to break God's law. Souls in purgatory are aware of and bound by the rules of God and would not speak to us. That leaves damned souls and demons.

Damned souls are slaves and puppets to the devil and demons are also his minions. We know the devil is the king of liars and also seeks to corrupt us at all times. This is why we so often see that spirit communications include encouragement to continue communicating, to rely on the spirit for advice or guidance, to communicate more often, and eventually to allow communication through thought alone.

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - OUIJA BOARDS

Ouija boards are just another form of spirit communication, it's the act and not the tool that matters. The scary thing about Ouija boards is their pervasiveness and accessibility to young people. It seems most everyone has a Ouija board horror story or knows someone who does. Ouija boards, and other physical forms of divination are particularly problematic because they give legal rights for spirits to enter our bodies.

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - "FRANK'S BOX", "HACKED BOX", etc.

There are devices that are spreading in popularity lately, the first one was called the "Frank's Box". It randomly tunes to am radio stations and plays random syllables which some people interpret as meaningful speech from "spirits". I think the Frank's Box is "bad", just like every other form of spirit communication is bad. I've clearly stated my opinions on it with everyone I've met connected with the box and the bad events that have come out of it's use. When asked about the box at talks I've said that the Catholic view would be "don't do it" for the reasons cited above.

I have personally been present at a public demonstation where the Frank's box lied to a couple who became very upset about what it said. I do not think it is wise to assume that any form of spirit communication is truthful.

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - PSYCHICS

Most psychics are simply using cold reading and knowledge of psychology (most people have the same themes, issues, and drama as everyone else). Some psychics seem to actually get accurate information about the past, present or future. In these cases the question becomes "who is providing the information?"

It seems logical that neither God or angels would provide supernatural information to psychics since he does not draw us into sin. It also seems logical that souls in purgatory (aware of God's law and working towards heaven) would not lead people into sin. That leaves damned souls, demons, and the devil.

For the professional psychic who is Christian or Catholic there is the additional spiritual burden of profiting from behavior that corrupts the souls of others.

Finally, psychic information might be the gift of prophecy from the Holy Spirit, this would not be a bad thing. People with the gift of prophecy would likely also be full of the Holy Sprit, very devout, and never charging for their services for Jesus gives very clear guidlines on the use of spiritual gifts: "Freely have you been given, freely shall you give."

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - THE HOLY SPIRIT

Some people feel that they hear the Holy Spirit (God) speak to them, prompt them, or signal them in some way with their body movements, a pendulum, etc. This area requires spiritual discernment (not the same as psychic sensitivity) and experience to discriminate the Holy Spirit from trickery. The Charismatic movement of the Catholic Church has many adherents that experience communication from God in the form of the Holy Spirit. Such communication should be engaged in with great caution with proper supervision to help distinguish God from trickery or mundane mental phenomenon.

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - THE DEMONIC

Demons love to interact, often verbally. In cases where a person is possessed and the demon has taken over and is talking there is a great temptation to engage in conversation. This is a natural response for many people once physical danger isn't an immediate concern. Of course there is tremendous danger in talking to demons and it should be completely avoided no matter what they say.

A special note should be made about demons communicating their names. There seems to be great spiritual value/power in knowing an entities name. Therefore demons will NEVER give their real name unless under serious duress. It is a very common trick for demons to give a fake name to psychics or sensitive's to make them think they have spiritual discernment or power.

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - FOR NON-BELIEVERS

Many people don't believe in the Bible and feel that spirit communication is fine. Let me share what I have seen and heard from many people about the fruits of spirit communication. First, the communication is usually very limited, unpredictable, and doesn't lead to anything but wondering about an imaginary person or solving nonsense riddles. It is not possible to know who or what you are communicating with so what reasonable person would act based on the communication? Would a reasonable person pick up a phone, dial a random number and then trust and obey the voice on the other end? Somehow common sense is suspended and the fascination for something exciting leads us to do just that. Finally, we see in case after case and time after time that people come to realize that most spirit communication is lies, games, and manipulation, not truth, not help and not good for them. Unfortunately people simply don't believe demonologists who say this until they get burned themselves.

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - HELPING SPIRITS

There has been a long tradition of praying for the dead, saying masses for the dead, fasting for the dead, etc. These are attempts to help the souls in purgatory to hasten the end of their time there. This tradition has faded to a great extent, at least in the USA. I think that only God or the activity of His angels can really help disembodied spirits. I've found that a house blessing, or other prayers, resolves almost every case of an aparent haunting by human spirits, there doesn't seem to be any need to engage in spirit communication.

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - THE BOTTOM LINE

If there is something supernatural bothering you, don't talk to it, pray for it to be removed from your life and for God to resolve the problem. If you have already engaged in spiritual communication renounce it with a priest and confess the behavior. Take your priest's guidance on what to do to mend your relationship with God.

Please do not copy the material on this site, but link to this site instead.
All material Copyright Adam Blai, 2007


	SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - BASICS I'm often asked questions about the Catholic position on spirit communication. People in paranormal groups, and often victims of supernatural attacks, sometimes consider attempting spirit communication. For a number of reasons spirit communication is not only not helpful, but often dangerous from the Catholic perspective. I fully understand that many people engage in spirit communication and do not have a problem with it. I am not speaking to people of other faiths or belief systems here, nor judging them. I am speaking to those that are Christian or Catholic, to educate you on aspects of your faith that you might not be aware of. If you wish to disregard this aspect of your faith's teaching that is fine, it is not my place to judge anyone. I encourage you to talk with your pastor or local religious leader about these issues. Many times I've been approached by Catholics who told me they never knew these rules or scriptures. They often tell me they had an intuition that it was wrong but never looked into it. When I say spirit communication I mean seeking or initiating spirit communication. There are many instances from the literature of the mystics and saints of spirits coming to them to communicate to them. These have included angels, Mary, Jesus, and many cases of souls in purgatory asking for masses or prayers to be performed on their behalf. This kind of spirit communication seems to be acceptable to God for we see Him allowing it. This form of spirit communication is not initiated or sought by the person receiving the communication. When people try to initiate spirit communication they are essentially turning away from what God provides and seeking special information or power on their own. I suspect this is why the scriptures speak so strongly against necromancers, psychics, etc. The first, and presumably most important, of the ten commandments is, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other God's before me". We see many times in the Bible where God demonstrates that He does not like it when we turn from trusting in Him to other idols, gods, or occult practices. I think He wants us to have faith in Him and His caring for us: that if it was in our best interst to know some special information He would impart it Himself through some mechanism (prophecy, the Holy Spirit, angelic messengers, divine providence, etc.). There is an additional problem with forms of spirit communication that involve spirits using the body, such as ouija boards (use of the hands and arms), spirit channelling (use of the body in general, or at least the mouth), and others. When these things are practiced a legal permission is granted to an unknown spiritual force to enter into the body. This free will choice gives legal rights for a spirit to enter into people, which can lead to serious problems if they do not leave. Spirit communication/divination/psychic consultation is clearly against the Bible's teaching: 'Do not turn to [Lev 20:6, 27; Deut 18:11; 1 Sam 28:3; Is 8:19] mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God. 'As for the person who turns to [Lev 19:31] mediums and to spiritists, to play the harlot after them, I will also set My face against that person and will cut him off from among his people. Now [1 Sam 25:1] Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him and buried him [1 Sam 7:17] in Ramah, his own city And Saul had removed from the land those who [Lev 19:31; 20:27; Deut 18:10; 1 Sam 15:23] were mediums and spiritists. [Lev 18:21; 2 Kin 16:3; 17:17] He made his son pass through the fire, [Lev 19:26, 31; Deut 18:10-14] practiced witchcraft and used divination, and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD provoking Him to anger. Moreover, Josiah removed [Lev 19:31; 2 Kin 21:6] the mediums and the spiritists and the [Gen 31:19 mg] teraphim and [2 Kin 21:11, 21] the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, [Deut 18:10-22] that he might confirm the words of the law which were written [2 Kin 22:8] in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD. "Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them;And I will confound their strategy,So that [1 Chr 10:13; Is 8:19; Dan 2:2] they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead and to mediums and spiritists. When they say to you, " [Lev 20:6; 2 Kin 21:6; 23:24; Is 19:3; 29:4; 47:12, 13] Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter," should not a people [Is 30:2; 45:11] consult their God? Should they [1 Sam 28:8-11] consult the dead on behalf of the living? A criticism of these verses is that the Old Testament rules don't count because there are other rules that we do not follow, things about dietary restriction, etc. Some also say that nothing in the Old Testament counts because Jesus wiped it all away. I would encourage a person to look at how many times this prohibition is stated, and with what force. Many of the apparently spurious rules are stated once in passing, or in a list. These are stated in severe terms, many times. I would also encourage the reader to read the Gospels and focus on when Jesus was asked how we would be judged. He said He would be our judge and Moses would be our accusor, and we would be judged based on what Moses wrote. From the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2115 God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility. [305] 2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. [Cf. Deut 18:10; Jer 29:8] Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone. 2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity. SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENON Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVPs) are a very popular idea and practice amongst paranormal enthusiasts. This is the process of recording sound and then playing back the recording to see if any spirits spoke and were recorded. This seems to work on a fairly regular, though not common, basis. Whether these voices are artifact, stray radio transmissions, or spirits isn't known. In some cases they seem to be something supernatural. When people do EVP work they usually start the recorder and say something like "does anyone here want to talk to us?" and wait 10 seconds, etc. This is an attempt to set up a dialogue, crippled as it is, with a spirit. Besides being clearly against God's rules this is a problematic process for a number of reasons. Even if a person gets a voice responding to questions it is usually a word or phrase at best, and often hard to hear. If the voice is clear and cogent the questions remain: who is talking and are they telling the truth? We know it is not going to be angels speaking because angels don't seek to encourage us to break God's law. Souls in purgatory are aware of and bound by the rules of God and would not speak to us. That leaves damned souls and demons. Damned souls are slaves and puppets to the devil and demons are also his minions. We know the devil is the king of liars and also seeks to corrupt us at all times. This is why we so often see that spirit communications include encouragement to continue communicating, to rely on the spirit for advice or guidance, to communicate more often, and eventually to allow communication through thought alone. SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - OUIJA BOARDS Ouija boards are just another form of spirit communication, it's the act and not the tool that matters. The scary thing about Ouija boards is their pervasiveness and accessibility to young people. It seems most everyone has a Ouija board horror story or knows someone who does. Ouija boards, and other physical forms of divination are particularly problematic because they give legal rights for spirits to enter our bodies. SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - "FRANK'S BOX", "HACKED BOX", etc. There are devices that are spreading in popularity lately, the first one was called the "Frank's Box". It randomly tunes to am radio stations and plays random syllables which some people interpret as meaningful speech from "spirits". I think the Frank's Box is "bad", just like every other form of spirit communication is bad. I've clearly stated my opinions on it with everyone I've met connected with the box and the bad events that have come out of it's use. When asked about the box at talks I've said that the Catholic view would be "don't do it" for the reasons cited above. I have personally been present at a public demonstation where the Frank's box lied to a couple who became very upset about what it said. I do not think it is wise to assume that any form of spirit communication is truthful. SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - PSYCHICS Most psychics are simply using cold reading and knowledge of psychology (most people have the same themes, issues, and drama as everyone else). Some psychics seem to actually get accurate information about the past, present or future. In these cases the question becomes "who is providing the information?" It seems logical that neither God or angels would provide supernatural information to psychics since he does not draw us into sin. It also seems logical that souls in purgatory (aware of God's law and working towards heaven) would not lead people into sin. That leaves damned souls, demons, and the devil. For the professional psychic who is Christian or Catholic there is the additional spiritual burden of profiting from behavior that corrupts the souls of others. Finally, psychic information might be the gift of prophecy from the Holy Spirit, this would not be a bad thing. People with the gift of prophecy would likely also be full of the Holy Sprit, very devout, and never charging for their services for Jesus gives very clear guidlines on the use of spiritual gifts: "Freely have you been given, freely shall you give." SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - THE HOLY SPIRIT Some people feel that they hear the Holy Spirit (God) speak to them, prompt them, or signal them in some way with their body movements, a pendulum, etc. This area requires spiritual discernment (not the same as psychic sensitivity) and experience to discriminate the Holy Spirit from trickery. The Charismatic movement of the Catholic Church has many adherents that experience communication from God in the form of the Holy Spirit. Such communication should be engaged in with great caution with proper supervision to help distinguish God from trickery or mundane mental phenomenon. SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - THE DEMONIC Demons love to interact, often verbally. In cases where a person is possessed and the demon has taken over and is talking there is a great temptation to engage in conversation. This is a natural response for many people once physical danger isn't an immediate concern. Of course there is tremendous danger in talking to demons and it should be completely avoided no matter what they say. A special note should be made about demons communicating their names. There seems to be great spiritual value/power in knowing an entities name. Therefore demons will NEVER give their real name unless under serious duress. It is a very common trick for demons to give a fake name to psychics or sensitive's to make them think they have spiritual discernment or power. SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - FOR NON-BELIEVERS Many people don't believe in the Bible and feel that spirit communication is fine. Let me share what I have seen and heard from many people about the fruits of spirit communication. First, the communication is usually very limited, unpredictable, and doesn't lead to anything but wondering about an imaginary person or solving nonsense riddles. It is not possible to know who or what you are communicating with so what reasonable person would act based on the communication? Would a reasonable person pick up a phone, dial a random number and then trust and obey the voice on the other end? Somehow common sense is suspended and the fascination for something exciting leads us to do just that. Finally, we see in case after case and time after time that people come to realize that most spirit communication is lies, games, and manipulation, not truth, not help and not good for them. Unfortunately people simply don't believe demonologists who say this until they get burned themselves. SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - HELPING SPIRITS There has been a long tradition of praying for the dead, saying masses for the dead, fasting for the dead, etc. These are attempts to help the souls in purgatory to hasten the end of their time there. This tradition has faded to a great extent, at least in the USA. I think that only God or the activity of His angels can really help disembodied spirits. I've found that a house blessing, or other prayers, resolves almost every case of an aparent haunting by human spirits, there doesn't seem to be any need to engage in spirit communication. SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - THE BOTTOM LINE If there is something supernatural bothering you, don't talk to it, pray for it to be removed from your life and for God to resolve the problem. If you have already engaged in spiritual communication renounce it with a priest and confess the behavior. Take your priest's guidance on what to do to mend your relationship with God. Please do not copy the material on this site, but link to this site instead. All material Copyright Adam Blai, 2007