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Spirit Guides and Psychic Phenomena- A Dangerous Deception The Scripture tells us that Satan is a liar, and the

father of lies (John 8:44). He is a deceiver. II Corinthians 11:13-14 says that he disguises himself as an angel of light. The demonic hosts continually offer humanity an alternative spirituality that will ultimately deceive them and rob them of their joy and extinguish the peace only found in Christ. ~ Russ Wise But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the esh. For the desires of the esh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the esh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the esh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, ts of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucied the esh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. ~ Galatians 5:16-26 "Now the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons." ~ 1Timothy 4:1 sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it: Galatians 5:20 (where see Lightfoot) (Wis. 12:4 Wis. 18:13; for ,Isaiah 47:9; for ,Exodus 7:22; Exodus 8:18; for ,Exodus 7:11); tropically, of the deceptions and seductions of idolatry, Revelation 18:23. The Christian and the Psychic Phenomena: http://www.netbiblestudy.com/ 00_cartimages/psychicphenomena.pdf Question: "What are familiar spirits?" Answer: The word familiar is from the Latin familiaris, meaning a "household servant," and is intended to express the idea that sorcerers had spirits as their servants ready to obey their commands. Those attempting to contact the dead, even to this day, usually have some sort of spirit guide who communicates with them. These are familiar spirits. Leviticus 19:31; 20:6, 27; and Deuteronomy 18:9-14 refer to mediums and familiar spirits and forbids being involved with them, as they are an abomination to the Lord. A medium is one who acts as a liaison to supposedly contact or communicate with the dead on behalf of the living. In reality mediums are contacting demons who convince the mediums that they are familiar and can be trusted and believed. The practices associated with mediums and familiar spirits were banned in Israel, and the punishment for practicing such things was death. Familiar spirits and spirit guides are under the control of their master, Satan. They

Spirit Guides and Psychic Phenomena- A Dangerous Deception inuence people to spread lies and deceit in order to thwart the kingdom of God. To knowingly open oneself to the work of demons is an evil thing: "Let no one be found among you who sacrices his son or daughter in [a] re, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD" (Deuteronomy 18:10-12a). Some avenues through which demons or "familiar spirits" can gain entrance into a person's life are divination, transcendental meditation, visualization, necromancy, witchcraft, drugs, and alcohol. These are all activities that believers are exhorted to avoid. Instead, we are to be lled with the Holy Spirit, with love, with joy, and with the fullness of life that comes from Jesus Christ. We are also to be on guard, "for our struggle is not against esh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 6:12). Recommended Resource: Angels: Elect & Evil by C. Fred Dickason. Abominable Practices When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. ~ Deuteronomy 18:9-14 familiar spirit noun 1. familiar spirit - a spirit (usually in animal form) that acts as an assistant to a witch or wizard familiar disembodied spirit, spirit - any incorporeal supernatural being that can become visible (or audible) to human beings. Denition of FAMILIAR SPIRIT 1. a spirit or demon that serves or prompts an individual 2. the spirit of a dead person invoked by a medium to advise or prophesy Examples of FAMILIAR SPIRIT <asked the spiritualist to summon the familiar spirit of her late mother for some matrimonial guidance>

Spirit Guides and Psychic Phenomena- A Dangerous Deception First Known Use of FAMILIAR SPIRIT - 1565 Related to FAMILIAR SPIRIT Synonyms: apparition, bogey (also bogie or bogy), ghost, hant [dialect], haunt [chiey dialect], materialization, phantasm (also fantasm), phantom, poltergeist, shade, shadow, specter (or spectre), spirit, spook, sprite, vision, visitant, wraith In European folklore and folk-belief of the Medieval and Early Modern periods, familiar spirits (sometimes referred to simply as "familiars") were supernatural entities believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic.[1] According to the records of the time, they would appear in numerous guises, often as an animal, but also at times as a human or humanoid gure, and were described as "clearly dened, threedimensional forms, vivid with colour and animated with movement and sound" by those alleging to have come into contact with them, unlike later descriptions of ghosts with their "smoky, undened form[s]." Leviticus 19:31 - Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be deled by them: I [am] the LORD your God. Leviticus 20:27 - A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood [shall be] upon them. Leviticus 20:6 - And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. Isaiah 8:19 - And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? Isaiah 19:3 - And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards. 2 Chronicles 33:6 - And he caused his children to pass through the re in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 2 Kings 23:24 - Moreover the [workers with] familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the words of the law which were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.

Spirit Guides and Psychic Phenomena- A Dangerous Deception 2 Kings 21:6 - And he made his son pass through the re, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, to provoke [him] to anger. Unholy Spirits: Occultism and New Age Humanism by Gary North This is a book about occultism in theory and practice. I do not recommend that anyone study occultism for its own sake. If you have to study it for historical reasons, think twice. This book goes into the philosophy of occultism and how it relates to modern humanism -- a seemingly unlikely connection. Everywhere you turn these days, talk of crystals, channeling, astral projection, mediums, psychic phenomena, pyramid power, and reincarnation abounds. The New Age rage is upon us. Should this give us cause for alarm? Are New Age enthusiast a serious threat to Western civilization and orthodox Christianity? Or are they little more than "kooks laughingly to be dismissed? Here is a simple, straightforward idea which has implications you probably never dreamed of: there are unexplained events in this world. There are events that cannot, by their very nature, be explained by the standards of contemporary rationalistic science. UFOs, telepathy, healings, accurate predictions of future happenings: these events really happen. Scientists have tried to hide them for centuries, beginning with Sir Isaac Newton's successors, who hid the fact that he had been a dedicated practitioner of alchemy. I worked on this book in several stages. I began the research in 1964, when I was a student at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. I continued it in graduate school. Jeffrey Burton Russell is the world's expert on the medieval view of Satan. I studied medieval history with him for my master's degree in 1965-66. I continued to study medieval heresies -- his specialty back then -- and occultism in the West. This is not a subject to be taken lightly. I remember standing in the hallway of the history department's ofce. I was talking with someone. Dr. Russell walked up and asked me this: "Do you believe in the devil?" "Yes," I answered. "So do I," he said, and walked off. I still do. In 1974-75, I wrote None Dare Call It Witchcraft (1976). It was published by Arlington House. Unholy Spirits was a 1986 update of that book.

Spirit Guides and Psychic Phenomena- A Dangerous Deception Download it here: http://www.garynorth.com/unholyspirits.pdf Edgar Cayce: Prophet of Deception - http://www.christianinformation.org/article.asp? artID=56 Psychic Abilities The term psychic has become a catchall phrase for anyone who uses paranormal means in our society. According to James Van Praagh everyone is psychic to some degree or another, but not everyone is a medium. In other words, mediums are psychic, but not all psychics are mediums. On the other hand, a medium, or sensitive, is a person who is able to feel and/or hear thoughts, voices, or mental impressions from the spirit world. A medium may have a variety of abilities. However, for our discussion we will limit our remarks to mental mediumship. Mediums, sometimes called psychics or sensitives, may exhibit any of the following gifts. Clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience are the most common powers used by the medium. Clairvoyance - This term literally means clear vision. A clairvoyant uses his innate sense of inner sight to see objects, colors, symbols, people, spirits, or scenes. The medium is able to see those things not visible to the naked eye. These visions usually appear as a ash in the mind of the medium. Clairaudience - This term means clear hearing. The medium is able to hear sounds and receive information from disincarnate beings in the same way you might hear a message from a loved one. The medium listens-in on a higher frequency than the average individual and is able to pass along the precise thought, word, and inection of the spirit being to the sitter. Clairsentience - This term means clear feeling. A medium with this gift is able to feel, or sense, the presence of a disincarnate being without the aid of the physical realm. A true clairsentient will usually feel the spirit personality coming through his entire being. He is able to give messages to the sitter by way of strong, empathetic feelings and emotions from the spirit. Questionable Phenomena Psychics receive their information from one of two sources. First, they truly see, hear, or feel psychic phenomena from the other side. A spirit-guide, a counselor, a master teacher, or an enlightened being often delivers the information received by the sensitive or medium. Biblically, these beings are referred to as demons. They are fallen angels who masquerade as angels of light, positive helpers, in the lives of the unaware. In reality they are among the demonic host who serve Lucifer, the pretender. Demons are commissioned with the distinct goal of presenting a counterfeit spirituality to mankind, thereby attempting to meet the growing needs of humanity. Satans

Spirit Guides and Psychic Phenomena- A Dangerous Deception program is always very much like the real thing. However, the glory ultimately goes to himself rather than the Father, his creator. The Scripture tells us that Satan is a liar, and the father of lies (John 8:44). He is a deceiver. II Corinthians 11:13-14 says that he disguises himself as an angel of light. The demonic hosts continually offer humanity an alternative spirituality that will ultimately deceive them and rob them of their joy and extinguish the peace only found in Christ. Psychic Communication and the Dead - http://christianinformation.org/article.asp? artID=61 I See Dead People - http://www.equip.org/articles/i-see-dead-people/ Catholic Encyclopedia - Spiritism Spiritism is the name properly given to the belief that the living can and do communicate with the spirits of the departed, and to the various practices by which such communication is attempted. It should be carefully distinguished from Spiritualism, the philosophical doctrine which holds, in general, that there is a spiritual order of beings no less real than the material and, in particular, that the soul of man is a spiritual substance. Spiritism, moreover, has taken on a religious character. It claims to prove the preamble of all religions, i.e., the existence of a spiritual world, and to establish a worldwide religion in which the adherents of the various traditional faiths, setting their dogmas aside, can unite. If it has formulated no denite creed, and if its representatives differ in their attitudes toward the beliefs of Christianity, this is simply because Spiritism is expected to supply a new and fuller revelation which will either substantiate on a rational basis the essential Christian dogmas or show that they are utterly unfounded. The knowledge thus acquired will naturally affect conduct, the more so because it is hoped that the discarnate spirits, in making known their condition, will also indicate the means of attaining to salvation or rather of progressing, by a continuous evolution in the other world, to a higher plane of existence and happiness. Dangers To this risk of philosophical error must be added the dangers, mental and moral, which Spiritistic practices involve. Whatever the explanations offered for the medium's "powers", their exercise sooner or later brings about a state of passivity which cannot but injure the mind. This is readily intelligible in the hypothesis of an invasion by extraneous spirits, since such a possession must weaken and tend to efface the normal personality. But similar results may be expected if, as the alternate hypothesis maintains, a disintegration of the one personality takes place. In either case, it is not surprising that the mental balance should be disturbed, and self-control impaired or destroyed. Recourse to Spiritism frequently produces hallucinations and other aberrations, especially in subjects who are predisposed to insanity; and even those who are otherwise normal expose themselves

Spirit Guides and Psychic Phenomena- A Dangerous Deception to severe physical and mental strain (cf. Viollet, "Le spiritisme dans ses rapports avec la folie", Paris, 1908). More serious still is the danger of moral perversion. If to practise or encourage deception of any sort is reprehensible, the evil is certainly greater when fraud is resorted to in the inquiry concerning the future life. But apart from any intention to deceive, the methods employed would undermine the foundations of morality, either by producing a disintegration of personality or by inviting the invasion of an extraneous intelligence. It may be that the medium "yields, perhaps, innocently at rst to the promptings of an impulse which may come to him as from a higher power, or that he is moved by an instinctive compulsion to aid in the development of his automatic romance--in any case, if he continues to abet and encourage this automatic prompting, it is not likely that he can long retain both honesty and sanity unimpaired. The man who looks on at his hand doing a thing, but acquits himself of responsibility for the thing done, can hardly claim to be considered as a moral agent; and the step is short to instigating and repeating a like action in the future, without the excuse of an overmastering impulse . . . To attend the sances of a professional medium is perhaps at worst to countenance a swindle; to watch the gradual development of innocent automatism into physical mediumship may be to assist at a process of moral degeneration" (Podmore, "Modern Spiritualism", II, 326 sqq.). Spiritism - http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14221a.htm How should a Christian respond to evidence of paranormal activity Question: "How should a Christian respond to evidence of paranormal activity?" Answer: The word paranormal can be dened as the occurrence, or perception of, an event without scientic explanation, or other purportedly supernatural phenomena. Paranormal activity is an encompassing term that includes not only ghosts and hauntings and demonic activity, but also includes other unexplainable phenomena such as unidentied ying objects (UFOs), and extrasensory perception (ESP), to name just a few. With the proliferation of movies and television shows that in one way or another sensationalize paranormal activity, it is clear that many are indeed fascinated with this realm. In fact, a 2007 low-budget movie titled Paranormal Activity went on to become one of the most protable movies of all time. How, then, should Christians respond when we read about supposed hauntings and other paranormal occurrences? A common misconception is that disembodied spirits can remain on earth or perhaps come back to haunt or otherwise interact with us. However, nothing in the Bible supports this belief. Rather, man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment (Hebrews 9:27). But the Bible does make it clear that there are spirit beings angels and demonswhich operate in the heavenly realm. The angels serve God. They are ministering spirits who are sent by God to serve those who will inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14). Demons, on the other hand, are fallen angels under the control of Satan, and they roam the earth looking to destroy Gods children (1 Peter

Spirit Guides and Psychic Phenomena- A Dangerous Deception 5:8). They are cunning and wise and keenly aware of our weaknesses and our propensity to desire that which will satisfy our eshly desires. Worst of all, they can masquerade as angels of light or as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). Regarding the immensity of Satans earthly operation, the apostle John reminds us that the whole world is under his control (1 John 5:19). Now, some of the paranormal activity we read about today could very well be hoaxes perpetuated on a public that is all too eager to believe. In some cases, well-meaning people could be innocently mistaken as to what they think they might have seen or experienced. There is probably a logical explanation for much of what gets passed off as paranormal activity. However, if there is genuine evil spiritual activity occurring, it would have to be the work of demons. Either way, however, when Christians read or hear of such activity we should not be intrigued by it or drawn to it; rather we should use it as a solid reminder of the spiritual battle that is the Christian life and the one against whom we struggle. Our struggle is not against esh and blood, but, rather it is against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12 emphasis added). Many people are no doubt intrigued by tales of ghosts and hauntings. Yet, if getting angry can give the devil a foothold into our lives (Ephesians 4:27), how much more so would a fascination with the dark forces of this world that he controls? Jesus Christ came to earth to destroy the devils work (1 John 3:8), and it took His death to accomplish it. Our response to paranormal activity, at least as it pertains to any sort of demonic activity, is to be reminded of the evil which ultimately led to our Saviors great sacrice. Beyond that, Christians should avoid any and all contact with the paranormal. Recommended Resource: The Truth Behind Ghosts, Mediums, and Psychic Phenomena by Ron Rhodes. See: http://www.gotquestions.org/paranormal-activity.html

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