 In today's episode of Weird Darkness, an email from François contained this. I am also Catholic, and growing up I was never sure if my interests in the weird were really compatible with my beliefs as a Catholic slash Christian. Most people around me always reinforced that uncertainty. Apparently one could not believe in God and also in ghosts and aliens. Your podcast confirms to me that yes, these interests and beliefs really can coexist. It also confirms to me that I am not alone. In a 2017 survey, 52% of people in the U.S. and in the U.K. said they believed in ghosts. And about that same amount, around 50% believe extraterrestrial life does exist. 20% of Americans think ET has already visited our planet. But what of François' predicament? Can you be a good church boy or girl and also believe in the paranormal? Let's tackle the easiest question first. Aliens. Is there intelligent life on other planets? Never mind the fact that we have found no intelligent life on our own planet yet. Does the Bible say anything about extraterrestrials? The simple answer to that question is… no. The Bible doesn't say anything about life on other planets. Its focus is on this planet and its need for God. There well may be life on other planets. With God being the wonderful Creator He is, I'd have a hard time believing He didn't put life on other planets. When you're an omnipotent, omnipresent being, you'd probably get bored creating and watching over just one planet. But the Bible simply doesn't say one way or the other. It also doesn't mention five-hour energy drinks, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Or that I survive on them, like right now working on this afterward. So for the meaty question, ghosts, what do you really think about them? Most will admit at least a small degree of love for scary stories. But what about reports of real ghosts? Is it okay to believe in ghosts if you're a Bible-believing Christian? Both children and adults alike wonder about the existence of ghosts. Some reject the possibility outright. Others insist that ghosts do exist and even cite experiences. Their own or a friend of a friend's story is proof. Of course, either a thing exists or it doesn't. No amount of belief will cause ghosts to exist if they don't. Nor could personal opinion cause ghosts not to exist if, in fact, they truly do exist. Tales involving apparitions drift down to us from ancient times. Various languages contributed words such as Wraith from the Scottish, Phantom from the French, Spectre which is Latin, Shade which is Old English, Banshee, Gaelic, and Poltergeist, German. In ancient Iraq, the epic of Gilgamesh portrayed Gilgamesh conversing with the spirit of his dead friend, Enkidu. Old Egypt left a cryptic tale about the ghost of Nebusamech chatting with the High Priest of Amun-Re. Such stories prove nothing, of course, except that the concept goes back a long way. In fact, even Christ's 12 disciples fearfully mistook Jesus for a spirit when he appeared walking on the sea at night. In Mark 6, verse 49, it says, But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a ghost and cried out. So even Jesus owned disciples believed in ghosts. So if you believe in the paranormal, I guess you're in pretty good company. Homer included ghosts in Hisodicy and Iliad, and Shakespeare cast roles for spirits in Hamlet and Macbeth. Whether these authors believed in ghosts is unknown. What they understood, however, is that a truly chilling ghost story can grip an audience. Yes, ghost stories have been around for ages, and some, such as Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, have become fixtures in modern culture. However, in recent decades the genre has exploded with an abundance of movies, such as the Conjuring series or the Paranormal Activity films and TV shows like Supernatural. These films and TV shows depend on spirits to drive the plots. Nonfiction programs such as Ghost Hunters attempt to investigate claims of ghosts using infrared cameras and other devices. Most reports of ghost sightings include details that defy logic, which is what makes ghosts so intriguing and mysterious. But there are some questions that defy logic as well. For instance, most alleged apparitions are clothed. But if a ghost is the spirit of a dead person, shouldn't a spirit appear unclothed after shedding his earthly body in its garments? Is one to conclude that pants, shirts, dresses, and medieval armor contain spirits of their own that faithfully cling to the ghost of a person? Or does the afterlife have its own clothing store? Or perhaps a mall of heaven.com? Wait, that would probably be .org, wouldn't it? Nonprofit. But then again heaven would be full of prophets, never mind. And then there are stories of ghost ships, such as the Flying Dutchman, Ghost Trains, and similar accounts. Does a vehicle constructed by human hands gain a soul that reappears later? People who listen to ghost stories around campfire understand that their friends have concocted those tales. The wish to embellish a spooky yarn naturally explains the addition of such silly details as ghostly nightgowns and horse garages. But what about people who insist they really did see spirit manifestations? Clothes and all. And what exactly is a ghost? Although definitions vary, the most common definition is that ghosts are the disembodied spirits of dead people that linger on earth. According to tradition, ghosts are invisible but can permit humans to see them. We'll come back to that definition a little later. There are other definitions of ghosts, however. In fact, science has a couple of interesting theories of what they might actually be. For decades, a Canadian neuroscientist named Michael Persinger has been studying the effects of electromagnetic fields on people's perceptions of ghosts, hypothesizing that pulsed magnetic fields, imperceptible on a conscious level, can make people feel as if there is a presence in the room with them by causing unusual activity patterns in the brain's temporal lobes. Persinger has studied people in his lab wearing a so-called God helmet, finding that certain patterns of weak magnetic fields over someone's head for 15-30 minutes can create the perception that there is an invisible presence in the room. Some subsequent research has pushed back on this theory, arguing that people were responding to the suggestion that they would feel a ghostly presence rather than to the electromagnetic field. However, Persinger counters that this experiment followed very different protocols than his own research. Other scientists have also found that environments that have a reputation for being haunted often feature unusual magnetic fields. Infrasound is sound at levels so low humans can't hear it, though other animals like elephants can. Low frequency vibrations can cause distinct physiological discomfort. Scientists studying the effects of wind turbines and traffic noise near residences have found that low frequency noise can cause disorientation, feelings of panic, changes in heart rate and blood pressure, and other effects that could easily be associated with being visited by a ghost. For instance, in a 1998 paper on natural causes of hauntings, engineer Vic Tandy describes working for a medical equipment manufacturer whose labs included a reportedly haunted room. Whenever Tandy worked in this particular lab, he felt depressed and uncomfortable, often hearing and seeing odd things, including an apparition that definitely looked like a ghost. Eventually he discovered that the room was home to a 19 Hz standing wave coming from a fan, which was sending out the inaudible vibrations that caused the disorienting effects. Further studies also show links between infrasound and bizarre sensations like getting chills down the spine or feeling uneasy. If electromagnetic fields or infrasound is what is causing the phantoms and specters to appear and you know that this is the cause and you're not believing it to be paranormal, then there's no danger whatsoever regarding the God vs. Ghosts question. But back to that definition from earlier. The most common definition of ghosts is that they are disembodied spirits of dead people that linger on earth. Here in the Weird Dark Church afterwards, I can get preachy, so here it goes. If you read your Bible, even if you haven't been reading it all that long, you might notice that there is not a single instance of a soul lingering on earth after death. The immediate destination of heaven or hell upon death rules out the possibility of one lingering after death. In Luke 23, verse 43, while Jesus is hanging on the cross, he looks over at one of the two thieves hanging next to him, the one who asked Jesus to remember him, and Jesus told him, Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. That would only happen if upon the man's death he would be immediately escorted through the pearly gates. Then again the Bible does affirm the existence of non-caporial beings and intelligences. Check out Mark 5, verses 2-15. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, What of you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High? Adjure you by God, do not torment me. For he was saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And Jesus asked him, What is your name? He replied, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him saying, Send us to the pigs, let us enter them. So he gave them permission, and the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country, and people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the Legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. In Acts 8 verse 7 it reads, For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. Philip was preaching, and the unclean spirits came out of the people. Later in Acts 19 verses 14 through 17, seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who were you? And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. So the man was inhabited by a demon. The sons of Sceva tried to exercise it, but the man attacked them. In these cases, though, they are not ghosts, but rather demons or fallen angels. Bible scholar Charles Ryrie noted the very fact that demons can enter human or animal bodies shows they can pass through barriers that would restrict human beings. Demons are not humans, neither are they God, but they are superhuman, with superior intelligence and experience and powers. To deny the existence of demons is not skepticism, it only displays ignorance. To be unrealistic about their power is foolhardy. Demons can possess a person, taking over their body and mind. Demons can oppress a person, tormenting them from outside the body, which we can see as poltergeist activity or unexplainable maladies. Demons throw things, make noises. Anything you've read about or heard in weird darkness from a ghostly entity, demons are capable of creating. That being said, the Bible does record one occasion when the living appeared to contact the dead. In 1 Samuel 28 verses 7-21, King Saul donned a disguise and visited a medium to summon the dead prophet Samuel. I won't read the entire section to you, it's rather long, but the part I'm pointing to is that an apparition that looked like Samuel appeared to the witch, causing her to cry out in fright. However, this passage does not suggest that seance's work, and it absolutely does not condone witchcraft. In fact, it may not have been Samuel at all, as the prophet made some claims that later turned out to be false. For example, the apparition warned that all of Saul's sons would die on the next day, and while many did die, some survived. If it had been a connection to Samuel in heaven, it would have been accurate. Also, you can be fairly certain it was not in God's plan for Saul to seek advice through a medium, as he died the next day. In fact, like many, like Saul, who claimed to have encountered someone from the dead, they have some prior involvement in the occult. You're probably asking yourself, but why would demons want to deceive the living by impersonating the dead, right? As servants of Satan and enemies of God, they would have every reason to cast doubt on God's word and its warnings about future judgment. Getting people to believe in ghosts automatically forces them to reject key Bible verses, such as Hebrews 9, verse 27, and just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. So you need to get it right the first time you visit earth, because that's the only time you'll have. Not to put any more pressure on you, but coming to a wrong conclusion about the afterlife has eternal consequences, and the wrong choice on this side of the grave can condemn a soul to eternal agony on the other side. While there is no physical evidence showing that the spirits of deceased people can loiter on earth, there is no physical evidence saying that they can't either. So I guess it's between you and God as to whether or not you can believe in the paranormal. Pray about it, ask him for wisdom and discernment, and be prepared for an answer, possibly an answer you don't want to hear. I've settled on believing that ghosts do exist, but only due to demonic creation. That's why I don't have an issue with the ghost stories. I just feel in my heart that those stories, if they're real, are demons taking the form of a dead loved one in order to try and trick that person into believing something that isn't true. Bringing that person one step further away from the truth of God. But that's a conversation you'll need to have with the Creator yourself. Meanwhile, if you're sitting in shirts someday, or sitting in a Bible study and begin wondering if your love of the paranormal and extraterrestrial makes you less of a child of God, reject that. That's also a demon playing mind games with you. You will always be a child of God if you've given your life to him, don't worry. If you've not given your life to God, and you feel you want to right now, you can follow me in this prayer. Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness of my sins. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead, not as a ghost, but as the living, breathing Son of God. Today, I turn from my sins, and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life, to live inside me, to guide me in my actions and thoughts. I want to trust and follow you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you. Amen. If you prayed that prayer for the very first time, welcome to the weirdo family in Christ.