Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, 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, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. Deuteronomy 18:10-12
The Bible speaks out against spiritists
or psychics, people who consult and talk to the dead. But how do they seem to have
the incredible insight you hear and see about?
These practices are manipulative,
meaning spiritists know when someone comes to them, that they are open and
susceptible to any suggestions. Spiritists
have more training in psychology and human behavior, reading people's faces,
body language and dress, than possessing the power to talk to spirits.
Here are some tricks of the trade that
could make psychics appear to know things that no one else knows.
INTUITION - Some people can
just read people, their body language, the tears that fall from their eyes, the
inflection of their voice. Psychics are
intuitive and can tell by the way people answer questions that they need to
keep focusing on a certain topic.
ATTENDANCE - If someone comes to
see a psychic, chances are there is someone who has died in their life or they
have some sort of pressing need, usually relational. It's not a stretch to ask "Someone close
to you has died" or "You been through a difficult relationship." Most can say yes to these questions and if
they are at a psychic, it usually means one of these two things have happened
to them.
QUESTIONS - Psychics ask a lot
of questions, leading them to the right answer. They get lots of
"no's" before they get to the "yes." Is it really that
amazing if you say, "Is there a person in your life whose first name
begins with a J?" Most people know
someone with the letter J in their name.
If the answer is no, the questions go to "Or it's an M?" Why must psychics ask so many questions? Why is it amazing that that they get a YES
after the third NO? "Wow, how did
you know?" The answer is...they
guessed.
TV
EDITING
- We see psychics on TV where the shows are edited. The wrong guesses are
edited out making the audience at home think the psychics are right all the
time.
ENCOURAGEMENT - Psychics tend to be
encouraging, making people like them and respond positively to them. "Your loved one wants you to know
everything is okay." We all want to
hear that about loved ones who have passed and we’re willing to believe
anything to make it true.
UNVERIFIABLE
FUTURE EVENTS - Psychics make predictions about things that sound
good, but at the time we have no idea if they will happen. We give them credit for making the prediction
but not for the prediction coming true.
NON
SPECIFIC PREDICTIONS - Psychics make common sense predictions. "I predict this year will be tough with
lots of change." Sure, most years
have change. But to say "Tomorrow
at 9:32 a bomb will explode in a building" is different story. Psychics are very general in their future
predictions.
REAL
SPIRITS
- Sometimes the readings are amazingly accurate leading us to one conclusion,
the psychic is speaking to spiritual forces that have information from the
other side. If this is true, then one
should avoid a psychic because we cannot trust these spirits because they may
be trying to deceive us.
The demonic world can tell us
information about things that happened. However,
demons cannot read our mind. They can
see a person at a psychic and feed the medium information that has occurred in
that person's life with impressions and whispers to the psychic.
Demons know conversations and events
that they have witnessed but that's the limit of their effectiveness. The demonic world cannot tell us with
pinpoint accuracy what will happen in the future.
Anyone who reads their astrological
forecast, consults a palm reader, goes to a séance or reads a book about a guy
who talks to the dead is saying that there are spirits and practices outside
the Lord that control or know our destiny. It is saying that God shares his
power with these spirits or that God doesn’t exist at all.
Only God can be trusted with what
happens in the spiritual realm and with our future. We don't need mysterious spirits telling us
the future or comforting us with false hope.