You just lost a loved one, and you want to know if the person is okay. Therefore, you seek out a clairvoyant or a shaman to contact the person. Perhaps you might even be looking for information about the future from the dead….

But of course, the question is whether it is really a fact that the clairvoyant contacted your loved ones our relatives during the actual seance? The simple and short answer is no!!! You mean the whole thing is a crock? …And the answer to this is another no, because the clairvoyant actually does speak with the spirit world and has “a team of personal helpers” in the spirit world, as they like to describe it. They have convinced themselves, however, that they are communicating with the dead.

Now, how can I be so sure about that…? Well, simply because when we die, the soul leaves earth and ends up either in Heaven/Paradise or in Hell, depending whether or not the deceased had surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. To give you a few examples of places where both are mentioned in the Bible, Luke 23:43 says about “Paradise”: “And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise,’” and the existence of Hell is noted in Matt. 18:9 “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.”

Once the soul is in Heaven/Paradise or in Hell, we can no longer communicate with the soul/spirit of the deceased – It’s not one of those ideas of “the soul finding no rest”. But what happens, then, when a clairvoyant speaks to one of “the dead”? One of two things may be happening. If the deceased was possessed by a demon, this demon can become “homeless”, as the person where the demon lived has died. This demon knows everything about the deceased, anything from habits to favorite foods, thought patterns, etc.! Because of this, the demon can relate just about anything about the deceased, and it will all seem very authentic. The same exact thing happens when a house is haunted – it is a demon. It has NOTHING to do with the soul failing to find rest and needing “help to cross to the other side,” because the soul was placed immediately – in Heaven/Paradise or in Hell. Matthew 12:43 has a very good description of a demon becoming homeless:

Matthew 12:43 (NKJV)
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.

Matthew 12:43 (AMPC)
But when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it roams through dry [arid] places in search of rest, but it does not find any.

However, if the deceased was not possessed, the clairvoyant is most likely communicating with a spirit of divination. In Acts 16:16-20, we read about a spirit of divination being cast out.

Acts 16:16
“Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.”

Spirits of divination can both “foretell the future” – or at least place a prophecy over your life, but a spirit of divination can also go back in time and produce experiences from the past which you actually have never experienced yourself. This is what happens, for instance, with “memories” elicited during a “regression” (a so-called soul journey to a “previous life”) when people believe in reincarnation. Here, actual necromancy takes place as well, making you believe that you personally appeared at certain times and places in a previous life. The places, times, and people are correct as well, because the spirit being communicated with has been there, but the actual “memories” or “images” elicited have nothing to do with your life / previous life, but rather they come from different people altogether.

But does the Bible have something to say about all of this? Yes, it tells us simply to stay away from all this stuff.

There are many translations of the Bible, and the language between them varies a lot, so let me cite this passage from both the New King James Version and from the Living Bible.

Deut. 18:10-13 (NKJV)
There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and because of these abominations the Lord your God drives them out from before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God.

Deut. 18:10-13 (TLB)
For example, any Israeli who presents his child to be burned to death as a sacrifice to heathen gods must be killed. No Israeli may practice black magic, or call on the evil spirits for aid, or be a fortune-teller, or be a serpent charmer, medium, or wizard, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone doing these things is an object of horror and disgust to the Lord, and it is because the nations do these things that the Lord your God will displace them. You must walk blamelessly before the Lord your God.

The Bible actually speaks very clearly about talking to / praying to the deceased, fortune-telling, etc.… and this includes contacting Mary the mother of Jesus as well as all kinds of saints, because remember Maria and the rest of them were just perfectly normal people who were used by God. They had no divine status or anything – and worshipping them or praying to them would be idolatry and/or contacting the dead. Furthermore, it says in Isaiah what will happen to those who ask clairvoyants for advice in spite of the admonition.

Isaiah 8:19-22
And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. They will pass through it hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall happen, when they are hungry, that they will be enraged and curse their king and their God, and look upward. Then they will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

Okay…. Got it now: There is no contacting the dead! …but what about angels then? It’s not like they are dead, they are out helpers… we can contact them, right? No – we can’t! The only time we can communicate with an angel is if it physically appears before us. We are not to contact them – and no, an angel can’t protect you or do you any good, unless it was sent by God. It’s a little like an army. If you ask a private for help, his superior may very well say no. It’s the same way with angels. If you want to ask for help, you need to ask Jesus to send guardian angels. Then you’d better believe that He will know whether to send 1 or 15 angels to protect you. The individual angel cannot and may not show up on its own initiative, since an angel is GOD’s messenger and not our servant. Therefore, when an “angel worshipper” manages to contact an angel, it’s not an angel from Jesus Christ, but rather a demon (a fallen angel) pretending to be an angel of light – i.e. a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. The Bible states clearly that we as Christians are not to “follow those” who worship angels.

Colossians 2:18
Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.

Remember!!! In Jesus Christ we have EVERYTHING we need. If we have faith and trust in Him, we don’t need to seek out a fortune-teller, a clairvoyant, Maria, a saint, or angels, because God provides for us as long as we place all our confidence in Him. Only when we do that, can he bless you with all the “rich blessings of Heaven”.

…and if you are into the occult with necromancy, healing, astrology, fortune-telling, clairvoyance, etc., I can only recommend that you give it all up, submit to our supreme Lord, Jesus Christ and live through the Holy Spirit instead of living in Satan’s deceit.

Andreas Slot-Henriksen
September 2016