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Ghosts

Defining Terms
Most poles of late show that only about 5 to 7 percent of the American public are bona fide atheists.
This leaves quite a bit of room for people who believe in some form of “life-after-death.” However,
before I venture into this subject of life-after-death, and all the implications that follow (i.e., ghosts,
specters, the paranormal, etc.), lets define some terms. According to the Dictionary of Cults, Sects,
Religions and the Occult, the word Ghost means: “(occult). An APPARITION; a manifestation or
appearance of a spirit being, usually one who has departed this life.” Occult is defined as: “Beyond
the realm of empirical knowledge; the supernatural; that which is secret or hidden, the study of the
occult is generally classified into three different areas: (1) SPIRITISM, (2)FORTUNE-TELLING, and
(3) MAGIC.” The word “occult” comes from the Latin word “Occultis” and it carries the idea of
things hidden, secret and mysterious. David Hoover, in his book How to Respond to the Occult, lists
three distinct characteristics of the occult:

1. The occult deals with things secret or hidden;

2. The occult deals with operations or events which seem to depend on human powers
that go beyond the five senses;
3. The occult deals with the supernatural, the presence of angelic or demonic forces.

Under the above definitions, the following practices can be listed under the occult (not meant as a
complete list): witchcraft, magic, palm reading, fortune telling, ouija boards, tarot cards, Satanism,
spiritism, demons and the use of crystal balls.

Avoiding Extremes
C. S. Lewis once commented, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall
about the ‘devils.’ One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an
unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or
a magician with the same delight” (The Screwtape Letters, preface). Of course, C. S. Lewis believed in
the Biblical form of life-after-death and all that that belief encompasses (i.e., fallen angels and the like),
as do I. So for someone who doesn’t hold to the belief in situ that “demons” could be behind
supernatural occurrences, I sympathize, but only ask that you read on.

Two Examples of “Hauntings”

#1) Milbourne Cristopher, known as one of America’s foremost magicians, was also a psychic
researcher. He was convinced that the accounts of ghosts and haunted houses could be explained on a
natural level. He wrote in his book, ESP, Seers and Psychics, about an undated clipping, preserved by
Houdini about a once attractive two-story cottage that was rented out to a family who lived there for
quite a few years, undisturbed by anything unusual, they moved out...

[This is a paraphrase] The following family, however, complained to the real estate agent
that a wailing cry could be heard through the house at night. After the agent gave the
house a “once over,” and the howling continued, the tenants moved out. The next family
that rented the house came to see the agent a week after moving in. The man asked if
there was a murder at the residence, the agent said he knew of none. Three more
families were in and out within the year. By this time, the story of the “haunted” house
had spread all over the little town of Union, New York. It became impossible to rent the
house out anymore and it went uncared for, and gradually took on an appearance that
only a ghost would relish.
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Early in December, a man came by to see the real estate agent about renting the house
for a short time, explaining that he was interested in haunted houses. The agent obliged
and the man went his way. About a week later the man returned and the agent asked,
expecting the same old story: “Have you found the ghost?” His visitor replied: “I have,
and here it is.” The man reached in his pocket and took out a small metal object he had
found in the garret. “A child’s whistle had been fastened in a knothole,” he said. The
first tenants children were the source of this house being haunted.

#2) Allen Spraggett describes the following event in his book, The Unexplained.

One winter night, in Northern Ontario, Canada, during the early days of World War
Two, a middle-aged widow awakened from a troubled sleep to see her younger brother
standing at the foot of the bed. The eerie thing was that she knew her brother was in
England serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Yet, she saw him clearly, dressed
in his pilots flying suit, his face deathly pale and solemn beyond description. The effect
was horrific. The woman screamed. Abruptly the strange phantasm vanished.

When the woman’s three teen-aged children rushed into the room, they found her
sobbing, “He’s dead, I know he’s dead.” The premonition proved to be correct.
Sometime later, word came that the brothers Spitfire had been shot down over the
English Channel on the same day – possibly the same hour – that the woman saw the
specter in her room.

Two stories, one shown to be of a natural cause, the other, not. The real question is, can we contact the
dead? Alternatively, can they contact us?

From a Diary to the Big-Screen

One of the most famous stories known of a lost loved one being contacted is that of a fourteen-year-old
boy named Douglas Deen. The movie The Exorcist was based on this boy’s well-documented
experience. The boy’s parent reported odd occurrences in the boy’s room, marks appearing on him, as
well as noises coming from his room at night. Then objects were seen moving and thumping about in
the boy’s room. The boy was studied at two hospitals (Georgetown University Hospital and the other
was St. Louis University), by multiple psychiatrists, therapists, and other medical personnel who all
reported seeing objects being moved, thrown, or people knocked down by unseen forces.

Skeptical neighbors even had the boy stay at their “un-haunted” house, only to see the same.
“Brandings” appeared on the boy that spelled words such as SPITE, HELL, and EXIT. Dr. J. B. Rhine,
director of the famed parapsychology laboratory at Duke University, came out to study the case. He was
quoted as saying it was “the most impressive case of a poltergeist [German for: noisy ghost]
phenomenon that had come to his attention” in his years of celebrated investigation in the field.

The Exorcism
The ultimate process of deliverance was lengthy and difficult. During the ordeal, the exorcist – Rev.
William Bowdern – underwent a fast of bread and water (referred to as the “black fast”) and
subsequently lost more than forty pounds. The process of exorcism took about two months and twenty
to thirty performances of the rite itself. The final exorcism was performed in May, of 1949, when the
possessing spirit identified itself as one of the fallen angels mentioned in the Bible and then departed.

Was the boy really demon possessed? The doctors at two catholic hospitals, various catholic authorities,
and other specialists were unable to help the boy through medical or psychiatric means. The parents
exhausted every possible medical or psychiatric avenue before they turned to the ritual of exorcism.
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Permission to use the ritual is granted only when there is strong physical, emotional, and spiritual
evidence of demon possession (my dad was an observer, of sorts, in one of these authorized exorcisms).

William Freidkin, director of The Exorcist, spent almost a year researching for the film before shooting
began. His information and reaction on the case are very interesting:

This particular boy in the 1949 case on which the film was based met all the
requirements for exorcism as set forth by the church. He was speaking in a voice not his
own, a language not his own. He was possessed of superhuman powers. He broke the
arm of the priest performing the exorcism [and another priests nose]. His bed shook up
and down….

The priest spent the night in the room on a mat that slid all over the floor. The furniture
tried to attack him. A bottle jumped off the wall and broke the tiles on the floor at his
feet and yet the bottle didn’t break. The boy would vomit strange-smelling fluids.
Doctors, psychiatrists, everyone they could get, examined him and nobody could figure
out what was wrong….

The original exorcism was performed at a hospital in St. Louis. It didn’t happen in
someone’s house or in a church or some place private where someone might’ve been
carried away. Doctors and nurses were in attendance and I have day-to-day account of
what happened. It’s the most incredible thing I have ever known.

The Root of the Problem

“How did this all begin?” is the next logical question I can see being asked. It all began when the boy’s
beloved aunt (who used a Ouija board and tarot cards and other New Age items on a regular basis) died,
and he missed her so much that he tried to contact her through the Ouija board. And it worked! The
“spirit” identified itself, at first as his aunt, and even told the boy things that only he and his aunt knew
or talked about. However, the contact became more prominent until this spirit inhabited the boy’s body.

Let me break here to recommend two books on the incident, one by an investigative journalist (a non-
Christian) and the other by the ex-Professor (Ed Gruss) of history and apologetics at Masters College, in
Santa Clarita, California. Professor Gruss is a local resident, a friend, and a Christian.

Book One: Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism, by Thomas B. Allen

Book Two: The Ouija Board: A Doorway to the Occult, by Edmund C. Gruss

Okay, let me begin this part with an interesting factoid: The December 1994 Consumer Reports
published the results of a survey among 17,000 young people ages 10 to 14. They answered a query
concerning what games they played with and which they enjoyed the most. Out of 83 games listed,
Monopoly was number one and the Ouija Board was number two.

~ Side Note: Some of the following quotes are by “psychics,” who, I would contend, are involved with
the same entities; the psychics, at least, that seem to give information above and beyond their realm of
knowledge (which is very few). Non-the-less, even they realize the dangers of occultism (or at least
some forms of it, of course not the kind that pays their bills)

Some Quotes
Psychic Alan Vaughan points out the following information, "It is significant, however, that the greatest
outcry against the use of Ouijas has come from the Spiritualists [and] not the parapsychologists. In
England, Spiritualist groups are petitioning to ban the sale of Ouijas as toys for children--not because of
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vague dangers of ‘unhealthy effects on naive, suggestible persons’--but because they fear that the
children will become possessed."

Psychic / spiritist Harold Sherman, president of ESP Research Associates Foundation in Little Rock,
Arkansas, agrees: "The majority who have become involved with possessive and other entities came by
this experience through the ouija board."

The irony however, is that, despite the warnings, most people continue to view the Ouija board as a
harmless pastime:

“Spiritualists, psychologists, psychiatrists, medical doctors, theologians, and other

informed persons have all given warnings on the hazards of using the ouija board and
similar devices. In spite of all they have said, it is evident that many persons are still
ignorant that dangers exist.

Those who know little or nothing about the occult and ouija board experiences do not
understand these warnings concerning the "innocent" use of the board. One who speaks
of physical, mental, spiritual, or other problems which might relate to Ouija use is often
viewed as an extremist, obsessed with groundless fears. How could the use of so simple
a device result in anything detrimental to the user? This is often the attitude until,
through personal involvement, the reality of the dangers is experienced, and the
warnings are then remembered. Often by this time permanent damage has occurred.”
(Edmond Gruss, The Ouija Board: Doorway to the Occult).

“Indeed, the dangers of the ouija board have been noted long before our modern revival
of the occult. Almost seventy years ago, the medium Carl Wickland, M.D. referred to his
own encounters when he wrote of ‘the cases of several persons whose seemingly
harmless experiences with automatic writing and the ouija board resulted in such wild
insanity that commitment to asylums was necessitated…. Many other disastrous results
which followed the use of the supposedly innocent ouija board came to my notice’” (Carl
A. Wickland, Thirty Years Among the Dead).

Professor Gruss refers to a clipping from the files of the famous magician Houdini concerning a Dr.
Curry, a medical director of the State Insane Asylum of New Jersey, who stated the Ouija board was a
"dangerous factor" in unbalancing the mind and predicted that insane asylums would be flooded with
patients if interest in them did not wane.

Noted psychic researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren refer to one instance where the Ouija board was
used "as little more than a joke" – and yet it led to the house becoming "infested" with evil spirits.
Noted occultist Manly P. Hall founder of the Philosophical Research Society is considered as one of the
leading authorities on the occult in this century. In Horizon magazine for October-December 1944,
pages 76-77 he recalls, "During the last 20-5 years I have had considerable personal experience with
persons who have complicated their lives through dabbling with the Ouija board. Out of every hundred
such cases, at least 95 are worse off for the experience…. I know of broken homes, estranged families,
and even suicides that can be traced directly to this source."

Ed and Lorraine Warren, whom I cited above, state in their book Graveyard that (pp. 137-38): "Ouija
boards are just as dangerous as drugs. They’re not to be played with… just as parents are responsible
for other aspects of the children’s lives, they should take equal care to keep the tools of the devil from
their children… especially in an error when satanic cults are on the rise. Remember: Seances and
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Ouija boards and other occult paraphernalia are dangerous because evil spirits often disguise
themselves as your loved ones – and take over your life" (Edmond Gruss, The Ouija Board: A Doorway
to the Occult)

Dr. Thelma Moss, a parapsychologist on the staff of UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute prefaced her
discussion of the Ouija board in The Probability of the Impossible with: "Warning! For certain
persons, the Ouija board is no game and can cause serious dissociation’s of personality."

To Conclude
Why such a long treatise on the Ouija board? Because this is the most popular way to call up the spirits
of the dead, as well as loved ones… or so-called. These occurrences of contacting spirits via the Ouija,
is very similar to those of spirits contacted by mediums, or in seances, or even – believe it or not – UFO
abductions. After the initial contact, the entities are either violent, or most often, lie and mislead. And
they lie and mislead on one subject more than any other… the religious subject. They most often give a
religious message (mostly by automatic writing, like the Urantia Book, A Course In Miracles, or
Conversations With God, to name a few) that always deals with Christ not being God, but an “avatar”
or a “good teacher”, like Buddha or Confucius. These messages are relevant because, if, and what a
big if, the Biblical account of spiritual warfare is true, then this would be proof – of sorts – that these
“spirits” main goal is to get people involved in doctrines that would lead people away from the one true
God. How many people have you known that have been contacted by a spirit, or a departed “loved
one” join a healthy, well-balanced church and become a member? How many start getting involved in
New Age metaphysics that include the Ojai Board, tarot readings, meditations, and the like?

Again, for those who don’t believe in the Christian (theistic) presupposition or worldview, I sympathize,
but after studying this array of supernatural events, and investigating story after story of abductions,
possessions, and spirit contact, there is no better explanation that I have found. Mind you, there are
other explanations, but most are reached by people who neither take the time to really investigate all
avenues of research, or feel complacent with where they are with they’re own beliefs and lot in life.
With the recent rise and popularity of neo-paganism and in all that the New Age movement
encompasses, is it any wonder that spiritual contacts, UFO sightings, ghosts, etc., (real and fraudulent)
are on the rise?
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Biblography

Testing the Spirits, by Elizebeth L. Hillstrom

The Culting of America, by Ron Rhodes (especially chapter 12)

Alien Obsession: What Lies Behind Abductions, Sightings, and the Attraction to the Paranormal, by Ron Rhodes

Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religioons and the Occult, by Mather and Nichols

Occult Invasion: The Subtle Seduction of the World & the Church, by Dave Hunt

Biblical Demonology: A Study of Spiritual Forces at Work Today, by Merrill F. Unger

Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs, by Ankerberg and Weldon

The Facts on the New Age Movement, Ankerberg and Weldon

Occult ABC, by Kurt Koch

Christian Counseling & Occultism, by Kurt Koch

Occult Bondage and Deliverance, by Kurt Koch

Demonology, Past & Present, by Kurt Koch

Handbook of Today’s Religions, by McDowell and Stewart

The Occult Shock and Psychic Forces, Wilson and Weldon

Cults: And the Occult, by Edmond Gruss

The Ouija Board: A Doorway to the Occult, by Edmund Gruss

Ouija: The Most Dangerous Game, by Stoker Hunt

The Beautiful Side of Evil, by Johanna Michaelsen

The Occult Roots of Nazism, by Nicholas Goodrick

Witchcraft: Exploring the World of Wicca, by Craig Hawkins

UFO’s and the Alien Agenda: Uncovering the Mystery Behind UFO’s and the Paranormal, by Bob Larson

Encounters with UFO’s, by Weldon and Levitt

UFOs in the New Age: Extraterrestrial Messages & the Truth of Scripture, by William Alnor

UFO Cults & the New Millennium, by William Alnor

Alien Encounters: The Secret Behind the UFO Phenomenon, by Missler and Eastman

The New Age Cult, by Walter Martin

Beware! Deception & Delusion in the Church, by Bill Rudge