Spirit Guides
Angels or Demonic Visitors?

Some mediums claim a spirit guide is a highly evolved spirit with the sole purpose of helping the medium develop and use their skills. The mediums claim they assist in following their spiritual path. Other mediums claim a spirit guide is one who brings other spirits to a medium's attention or carries communications between a medium and the spirits of the dead. Many mediums claim to have specific guides who regularly work with them and "bring in" spirits of the dead. Some mediums claim that spirits of the dead will communicate with them directly without the use of a spirit guide .

The relationship between the medium and the guide may be providential, or it may be based on family ties. In 1958, the English-born Spiritualist C. Dorreen Phillips wrote of her experiences with a medium at Camp Chesterfield, Indiana: "In Rev. James Laughton's seances there are many Indians. They are very noisy and appear to have great power. The little guides, or doorkeepers, are usually Indian boys and girls who act as messengers who help to locate the spirit friends who wish to speak with you."  Then, describing the mediumship of Rev. Lillian Dee Johnson of Saint Petersburg, Florida, she noted, "Mandy Lou is Rev. Johnson's guide. She was, on earth, a slave to Rev. Johnson's grandmother."

Many practitioners of touch therapies such as Reiki, Therapeutic Touch and Healing Touch often claim that their spirit guides are angels in attempt to make their clients feel more comfortable. However, as believers in Christ Jesus we know that the only angel they are contacting are "fallen angels" or demonic spirit guides. 1 Peter 5:8  warns us, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring  lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."

Peter and Jude discuss the reality of these angels. 1 Peter 2:4 reminds us about the reality of such angels, "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment". Jude 6 repeats the reality of such demonic visitors. He refers to those same demonic familiars that 1 Peter warns about, "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

We need to be aware that when touch therapists talk about spirit guides they are instead talking about fallen angels who are in fact nothing more than demonic spirits. I leave you with this admonition, "Be sober, be vigilant. . . " (1 Peter 5:8).

What's Behind All the

Crystal and Aroma Therapies?

Crystal Reiki

The use of stones, minerals, and crystals in the arts of healing date tackle literally to the Stone Age. Evidence of such healing is found in the traditions of shamanism as well as in documents dating back to ancient Egypt, Sumer, and Greece, which list different stones and their metaphysical properties when carried or worn. These cultures all had traditions of Magick, crafting talismans, and charms from the stones and empowering them with divine blessings to catalyze their natural spiritual properties .The art of Crystal healing found his way into the New Age movement and eventually into the healing traditions of Reiki. I'm not surprised, as the two systems are very complementary and compatible.

Plant Reiki

Reiki is compatible with our allies from the mineral world, and it is equally helpful with our green allies in the plant world. The Magic of herbs and trees is powerful for healing and transformation. The first healers were the medicine folk who knew the herbs, medically and spiritually. Some Reiki treatments from the green world involve herbal medicine, aroma therapy, and the essential oils which are made from the base of flower essences.

Both of these therapies are widely used throughout Hospice and in many hospitals. Its easy to get "sucked in" to crystal Reiki because the stones are so beautiful. Its equally as easy to get involved in the pleasing scents of aroma therapy and essential oils. On the surface, nothing may seem wrong with enjoying these elements of nature but if we understand the spiritual origins of these therapies we will want to be very careful as believers how we participate in them. I Peter 5:8 reminds us, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

Reiki and Ghosts
What Reiki Practitioners Believe

Reiki can give the practitioner a greater awareness of the spirit world, but it can also be used to heal those trapped between worlds without physical bodies to touch. More and more we hear about people using Reiki for exorcisms, house protection, cleansing, and banishing unwanted spirits. This is a natural extension of the healing process of Reiki.

Most cultures have a concept of ghosts, or unsettled spirits, the souls of the living who resist crossing to the next existence when the physical body dies. Sometimes these souls are obsessed with something, and are trying to finish it but can't with the body. Usually, ghosts are simply stuck and most often times need help to continue on to the next world war return to its source.

Increased Awareness
Once you start contacting spirits your awareness will keep increasing and expanding in all levels of your life. On occasion, you will discover spirits are sending you messages in your everyday life.
 
Your Connection in A Different Place
Sometimes when you have a spiritual connection you will be taken to a different place other than the room you are in. It could be an out of the body experience or you will, sense, or see yourself in this different place. Don't be alarmed. Just flow with it and receive the information and messages sent. Most of the time you will be contacted where you are.
 
What to Do During a Spiritual Connection
During a session, when you are receiving information in messages sent from spirits, it is extremely important never to analyze or judge. Just witness and experience it. If you start analyzer judges information arrives, you will soon get stuck in miss the rest of the information and message. Or it will still stop flowing altogether.
 
Step By Step
I always recommend if possible for those wishing to contact spirits, to take a psychic Attunements sometime in your life though not mandatory, it will help you with your connections.

Reiki Belief System

Reiki Psychic Communication

The occult is used in many ways in Reiki. Reiki communication comes in many forms, because we all receive information differently. Some people are audio-oriented, hearing things. This is called Clairaudience. Other people are visually oriented, and those with visual psychic skills are called clairvoyant. Others input information by simply knowing, without a real sense of words or visions. They are called Clairsentient. People can have endless variations of these gifts. In fact, we all have these gifts, but have simply forgotten how to use them.

Reiki Spirit Guides

In Reiki Two, the recipient is introduced to the concept of Reiki “spirit guides”. Those who use Reiki spirit guides believe that there is a group of spiritual beings who were once human, who now reside in the non-physical realm, but can interact with, and to assert and extends influence, in the physical world. They are said to be Reiki practitioners from the past ages, not simply Usui Reiki practitioners who have crossed, but those from the ancient origins of Reiki. Once attuned to Reiki, you are part of a vast network, and when you are attuned, the Universal Life Force assigns to you a Reiki guide to help you with your Reiki healing experiences.

 As with all spiritual work, some people believe that they are just talking to an aspect of their own consciousness and giving it a shape, form, voice, and personality. That could be true. Many, however, truly believe that they are spirits from the past guiding the future, like spiritual ancestor spirits. In either case, the practitioner gets a sense of guidance, of not being alone in a situation, of having a spiritual support person or, in some cases an entire team to guide the 

 Identifying Spirit Guides

 Who are all the guides? Space some believe they are the spirits of Hayashi, Acosta, and Usui , like a divining Trinity, to guide their sessions and classes. We can also look to the Reiki Masters of the modern era who have passed from this world as potential spirit guides, as well of the souls of ancient Reiki practitioners from Lemuria, Atlantis, and other mystical lands.

 Another popular concept in new age lower is the idea of Ascension. The session material is often tied into the Reiki world, and although they are complementary in many ways, they are not the same. The word ascension means different things to different people. In its more basic interpretation, it means that the consciousness of sense to a higher level of spirituality and love, or one achieves what other cultures would call enlightenment, Nirvana, Buddhahood, Christ-Consciousness, sainthood, or personal Mastery.

 The most popular form of guide for those in the general public is the angel. Practitioners call upon Guardian Angels, Archangels, and the like to aid in the healing work. Angels are not considered Reiki guides, specifically, but many who are involved in Reiki are also involved in angelic lore. Although they seem to be specifically from the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, the concepts of angels can be found in the texts of Sumer, Egypt, and India. We are most familiar with the Angels Hebrew names and Judeo-Christian lore the best-known Angels are the archangels Michael, Rafael, Gabriel, and Uriel.

The Purpose Behind Reiki

Connecting with Your Spirit Guide

• In Reiki Two, the recipient is introduced to the concept of Reiki “spirit guides”. Those who use Reiki spirit guides believe that there is a group of spiritual beings who were once human, who now reside in the non-physical realm, but can interact with, and to assert and extends influence, in the physical world. They are said to be Reiki practitioners from the past ages, not simply Usui Reiki practitioners who have crossed, but those from the ancient origins of Reiki. Once attuned to Reiki, you are part of a vast network, and when you are attuned, the Universal Life Force assigns to you a Reiki guide to help you with your Reiki healing experiences.

• As with all spiritual work, some people believe that they are just talking to an aspect of their own consciousness and giving it a shape, form, voice, and personality. That could be true. Many, however, truly believe that they are spirits from the past guiding the future, like spiritual ancestor spirits. In either case, the practitioner gets a sense of guidance, of not being alone in a situation, of having a spiritual support person or, in some cases an entire team to guide the

• As Christians we must remember that practicing Reiki comes with a price that God will extract from those who delve into false spiritualities that are an abomination to the Lord. God's Word declares, "Be not deceived. God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7)

Famous Personalities
Celebrities and the Occult

We don't want to ever put ourselves in the position of becoming too enamored with celebrities and other well-known individual. Sometimes we discover that although they are popular individuals with people we know and even the rest of the general public, they may support views quite contrary to the Word of God.

One such individual was Katherine Kubler Ross, the renowned psychologist who wrote the book, "On Death and Dying: the Four Stages of Grief". Ross was a brilliant researcher and writer. Most people don't realize that in writing her book, she worked with many chaplains and ministers in the Chicago area as she interacted with terminal patients and made her observations. Nevertheless, Ross was deeply involved in Spiritism, the world of the occult.

Kubler Ross was a friend of Dora Kunz, the co-founder of Therapeutic Touch and at one point, offered her some spiritual advice. Ross advised Kunz that she should contact a medium and attempt to connect with a spiritual source to help her gain additional insight when using Therapeutic Touch with her clients. According to Kunz, she took Ross's advice. She writes, that at the seance she attended, she was introduced to a spirit named "George". George was to become her spirit guide and befriend her for life. In return for this relationship, "George" aided Kunz in many of her client sessions.

Other celebrities have been fans of the occult as well: writer James Fennimore Cooper, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of many early science fiction books, Thomas Alva Edison the inventor, Mary Todd Lincoln, Nancy Reagan and Madonna. Spiritism is very popular among the elite celebrities of past days and today.

As Christians, we must be careful of who we let influence our lives. Some individuals who are constantly in the spotlight are often involved in practices that oppose Christ. Imagine the impact that their writings or lyrics have had on untold thousands of people. Some of that impact has paranormal fallout and has affected people negatively in a spiritual sense. We must be careful to watch the things we read, the music we hear and the movies we watch. Many media choices may be popular, but like the apostle Paul wrote, "Not all things are expedient".

The Purpose of Reiki
Contacting Spirits with The Reiki

Sometimes people need help in acquiring closer to heal and move on in life and their loved ones or friends have crossed over. Closure may be difficult for some people because they did not get a chance to say goodbye, if the crossing was said. One of the best ways to augment this need people express is to contact spirits. We want to examine several aspects used in the process of contacting spirits:
 
The first important thing is to distinguish spirits can be angels, or people who have died and crossed over to the other side. But, there is a difference between the two. Angels have never had a human form on earth and are here to help, protect, and guide us, it is said we all have at least one guardian angel. People who have died in crossed over have been in human form. There is a belief that they can also help and guide us when contacted.
 
The Spiritual Connection
Spiritual connection is when you go to a higher state of awareness. You are then receptive to spirits and are able to communicate with them. It's this state of awareness that you are going to enhance the use of the Reiki.
 
My Contact Spirits
As previously mentioned, people want to make spiritual contact for many different reasons. They can be for guidance, closer, healing, giving and receiving messages, finding lost objects or it could be as simple as saying hello or goodbye. Spirits can help you in all areas of your life.
 
Spirit Contact
At various times throughout our lives spirits do contact us. It's a matter of being aware, listening, seeing and understanding the science of communication. Once you open up your spiritual connection, you will start becoming more aware of these contacts. You will be able to understand and accept the information and guidance to help you in your life.
 
How Do Spirits Communicate?
Spirits communicate through intuition, sound, touch, voices, color, hunches, déjà vu, thoughts, symbols, visions, dreams, feelings, smells, writing and other creative ways. A small percentage of the time they may even appear in front of you. Once you become aware of the way you personally received communication from spirits, that's usually the way you will receive it from then on.
 
Receiving Answers and Messages
You will always receive answers and information in some form when you make spiritual contact. The challenge is to be aware of and understand it. Sometimes you will instantly understand what is being sent to you. This process must be developed with practice, patience, and at your own pace.
 
 
Understanding Your Answers And Messages
There are many different ways you may receive messages and answers when you make spiritual contact. This information is filtered through your own belief system for your interpretation and understanding. Spirits are aware of this and communicate with you in a way your belief system will be able to understand.
 
 
Spirit Personality
Spirits have personalities. You will discover angels will have their own unique personalities when they communicate with you. When you contact spirits of people who have died in crossed over, you will find they still have their same personality, including quirks and sense of humor unique to them.
 
For Meditation
In part, usually you are asking for something. In meditation you are listening for the answer or guidance in contacting spirits you use a combination of both.

Increased Awareness
Once you start contacting spirits your awareness will keep increasing and expanding in all levels of your life. On occasion, you will discover spirits are sending you messages in your everyday life.
 
Your Connection in A Different Place
Sometimes when you have a spiritual connection you will be taken to a different place other than the room you are in. It could be an out of the body experience or you will, sense, or see yourself in this different place. Don't be alarmed. Just flow with it and receive the information and messages sent. Most of the time you will be contacted where you are.
 
What to Do During a Spiritual Connection
During a session, when you are receiving information in messages sent from spirits, it is extremely important never to analyze or judge. Just witness and experience it. If you start analyzer judges information arrives, you will soon get stuck in miss the rest of the information and message. Or it will still stop flowing altogether.
 
Step By Step
I always recommend if possible for those wishing to contact spirits, to take a psychic Attunements sometime in your life though not mandatory, it will help you with your connections.

Nurses
Why Do People Become Nurses?

People choose to go into the nursing profession for many reasons. Nurses are helpers, which can be appealing. Also appealing are the ability to work in a respected profession, to earn a good salary, to work flexible hours and to work in different settings.

Help People

1. Nurses can work in direct patient care. During the course of her day, a nurse may help deliver a baby, administer a vaccine to prevent illness and alleviate someone's pain.

Flexible Hours
2. Some nurses may work flexible hours. Since nursing is a 24-hour profession, nurses may work mornings, afternoons or evenings.

Varied Settings
3. Nurses work in many different settings. She may work in a hospital, nursing home or school. Nurses often move easily from one work setting to another.

High Pay
4. Nurses can expect a salary starting in the mid-five figures. Nurses may also expect bonuses, if they meet certain criteria. Some are given the option to work overtime, which lets them gain additional funds.

Educational Requirements
5. You can become a nurse in a relatively short time period, compared to other medical professions. Registered nurses must complete at least 2 years of college classes. An RN can choose to further

Caring
6. The biggest reason people become nurses is because they care.

Florence Nightingale

Nurse With a Calling

• Florence Nightingale was born into a rich, upper-class, well-connected British family at the Villa Colombaia, Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and was named after the city of her birth. Florence's older sister Parthenope (pronounced [pɑ:'θi:nəpɪ]) had similarly been named after her place of birth, a Greek settlement now part of the city of Naples.

• Her parents were William Edward Nightingale (1794–1874) and Frances ("Fanny") Nightingale née Smith (1789–1880). William Nightingale was born William Edward Shore. His mother Mary née Evans was the niece of one Peter Nightingale, under the terms of whose will William Shore not only inherited his estate Lea Hurst in Derbyshire, but also assumed the name and arms of Nightingale. Fanny's father (Florence's maternal grandfather) was the abolitionist William Smith.

• Inspired by what she took as a Christian divine calling, experienced first in 1837 at Embley Park and later throughout her life, Florence announced her decision to enter nursing in 1845, despite the intense anger and distress of her family, particularly her mother. In this, she rebelled against the expected role for a woman of her status, which was to become a wife and mother. Nightingale worked hard to educate herself in the art and science of nursing, in spite of opposition from her family and the restrictive societal code for affluent young English women.

• She cared for people in poverty. In December 1844, she became the leading advocate for improved medical care in the infirmaries and immediately engaged the support of Charles Villiers, then president of the Poor Law Board. This led to her active role in the reform of the Poor Laws, extending far beyond the provision of medical care. She was later instrumental in mentoring and then sending Agnes Elizabeth Jones and other Nightingale Probationers to Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary.

• Nightingale was courted by politician and poet Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton, but she rejected him, convinced that marriage would interfere with her ability to follow her calling to nursing. When in Rome in 1847, recovering from a mental breakdown precipitated by a continuing crisis of her relationship with Milnes, she met Sidney Herbert, a brilliant politician who had been Secretary at War (1845–1846), a position he would hold again during the Crimean War. Herbert was already married, but he and Nightingale were immediately attracted to each other and they became lifelong close friends. Herbert was instrumental in facilitating her pioneering work in the Crimea and in the field of nursing, and she became a key adviser to him in his political career. In 1851, she rejected Milnes' marriage proposal, against her mother's wishes.

• Nightingale also had strong and intimate relations with Benjamin Jowett, particularly about the time that she was considering leaving money in her will to establish a Chair in Applied Statistics at the University of Oxford.

• Nightingale continued her travels with Charles and Selina Bracebridge as far as Greece and Egypt. Though not mentioned by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, her writings on Egypt in particular are fascinating testimony to her learning, literary skill and philosophy of life. Sailing up the Nile as far as Abu Simbel in January 1850 she wrote that "I don't think I ever saw anything which affected me much more than this", considering the temple: "Sublime in the highest style of intellectual beauty, intellect without effort, without suffering... not a feature is correct – but the whole effect is more expressive of spiritual grandeur than anything I could have imagined. It makes the impression upon one that thousands of voices do, uniting in one unanimous simultaneous feeling of enthusiasm or emotion, which is said to overcome the strongest man."

• At Thebes she wrote of being "called to God" while a week later near Cairo she wrote in her diary (as distinct from her far longer letters that Parthenope was to print after her return): "God called me in morning and asked me would I do good for him alone without reputation." Later in 1850, she visited the Lutheran religious community at Kaiserswerth-am-Rhein where she observed Pastor Theodor Fliedner and the deaconesses working for the sick and the deprived. She regarded the experience as a turning point in her life, and issued her findings anonymously in 1851; The Institution of Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, for the Practical Training of Deaconesses, etc. was her first published work.

• On 22 August 1853, Nightingale took the post of superintendent at the Institute for the Care of Sick Gentlewomen in Upper Harley Street, London, a position she held until October 1854. Her father had given her an annual income of £500 (roughly £25,000/US$50,000 in present terms), which allowed her to live comfortably and to pursue her career. James Joseph Sylvester is said to have been her mentor.

• Florence Nightingale's most famous contribution came during the Crimean War, which became her central focus when reports began to filter back to Britain about the horrific conditions for the wounded. On 21 October 1854, she and a staff of 38 women volunteer nurses, trained by Nightingale and including her aunt Mai Smith, were sent (under the authorization of Sidney Herbert) to Turkey, about 545 km across the Black Sea from Balaklava in the Crimea, where the main British camp was based.

• Nightingale arrived early in November 1854 at Selimiye Barracks in Scutari (modern-day Üsküdar in Istanbul). She and her nurses found wounded soldiers being badly cared for by overworked medical staff in the face of official indifference. Medicines were in short supply, hygiene was being neglected, and mass infections were common, many of them fatal. There was no equipment to process food for the patients.

• Death rates did not drop; on the contrary, they began to rise. The death count was the highest of all hospitals in the region. During her first winter at Scutari, 4,077 soldiers died there. Ten times more soldiers died from illnesses such as typhus, typhoid, cholera and dysentery than from battle wounds. Conditions at the temporary barracks hospital were so fatal to the patients because of overcrowding and the hospital's defective sewers and lack of ventilation. A Sanitary Commission had to be sent out by the British government to Scutari in March 1855, almost six months after Florence Nightingale had arrived, and effected flushing out the sewers and improvements to ventilation. Death rates were sharply reduced. It is directly through her thorough observations that the association linking sanitary conditions and healing became recognized and established. “Within 6 months of her arrival in Scutari, the mortality rate dropped from 42 percent to 2.2 percent“. Florence insisted on adequate lighting, diet, hygiene, and activity. “She understood even then that the mind and body worked together, that cleanliness, the predecessor to our clean and sterile techniques of today, was a major barrier to infection, and that it promoted healing”.

• Nightingale continued believing the death rates were due to poor nutrition and supplies and overworking of the soldiers. It was not until after she returned to Britain and began collecting evidence before the Royal Commission on the Health of the Army that she came to believe that most of the soldiers at the hospital were killed by poor living conditions. This experience influenced her later career, when she advocated sanitary living conditions as of great importance. Consequently, she reduced deaths in the army during peacetime and turned attention to the sanitary design of hospitals.

The Lady with the Lamp

• During the Crimean campaign, Florence Nightingale gained the nickname "The Lady with the Lamp", deriving from a phrase in a report in The Times:
• She is a ‘ministering angel’ without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her hand, making her solitary rounds.

Changes In Ministry
Chaplain Uses Alternative Therapies

Thanks for your inquiry.  I find spiritual care changing slowly, but still changing.  I've brought in an acupuncturist to help a pt. in a psych unit, dealing with an over stimulated kundalini.  I've seen massage and aromatherapy help to put people at ease.  I have even used Reiki at times.
 
Most importantly, I have used visualizations to help people get to a deeper level.  I was formerly employed at a large tertiary-care hospital and the issue was getting enough time to see the patients.  How many times I could see them before they were discharged?  Simply talking was too slow and not efficacious enough.
 
I hope that helps. 
 
All the best,

Senior Life Chaplain
Skokie, IL 

Spiritism

Definition of Possession

Within the context of Spiritism, we use the term obsession, as Suely Caldas Schubert writes, to identify the situation in which "someone, discarnate or incarnate, exercises a negative mental constriction over someone else, for whatever reason, by means of subtle suggestion, inducement, or coercion, and with the objective of dominion, a process which is continuously repeated on Earth as well as in the inferior spiritual planes."

The presence of a spiritual obsession always indicates a moral deficiency, in both the obsessed and the obsessor. Likewise, spirits who obsess others are always of an inferior nature, as elevated/ superior spirits are always noble in their sentiments and behaviors. The latter to try to advise us in our thoughts and actions, but such an influence is always positive, and they never seek to impose their will over our own.

The obsession can be directed from discarnate to discarnate, discarnate to incarnate, incarnate to discarnate, or incarnate to incarnate. When we use, see, or hear the term, obsession, in a Spiritist context, however, it most often refers to the case of a discarnate spirit's harmful influence over an incarnate person. After all, this is probably the easiest and most frequent to occur, due to the advantage that the discarnate spirit has when he is able to remain invisible to his victim. It is this type of obsession that we will focus our discussion on here.

Mode of Action

As you can read in the web subsection, “We're All Mediums" (see menu at left), we are all, whether ostensible mediums or not, open to the influence of the inhabitants of the spiritual plane, though we vary in our degree of sensitivity.  As was also stated previously, the nature of such influence relates directly to our own vibrational qualities, in other words the moral nature of our own thoughts, intentions, and actions; this is because of the law of affinity, by which we attract those who think like, and about, the same things we do, and whose desires and behaviors are similar to our own. The key point here is that, regardless of the cause for the obsessive action of the spirit upon his victim, it is the vibrational affinity between the two that allows for the spirit to exercise any degree of thought control and/or vibrational alteration upon the individual.

The key characteristic of an obsession, as opposed to a passing, negative spiritual influence, is the regularity and consistency of the spirit's maleficent influence over the individual. Obsessing spirits who act intentionally are extremely persistent and believe, even when encountering an initial or eventual resistance in their victim, that through perseverance, they will eventually achieve and sustain the domination that they desire. Even when unconscious of their negative influence, the affinity and tuning that is established between the obsessed and the obsessor, keep them both bound to one another and subject to the consequences of such.

Progression

An obsession can be found in varying degrees of advancement, thereby presenting characteristics that also vary in nature and severity. The "lightest" degree of influence is called a simple obsession, in which the spirit begins to persuade the thoughts and ideas of his subject through repetitive suggestions that the individual eventually captures and, most often, confuses as his own. Likewise, through the effect of these altered thoughts and/or through the transfer of fluids, or energies, that the obsessing spirit impresses upon his subject, via the involvement of his own perispirit with that of the subject, the obsessed individual will experience alterations in his emotional state and/or an aggravation of an already unhealthy, emotional imbalance.

If the obsessed person does not recognize and take effective action to change his unhealthy thought patterns and any resulting behaviors, the door that he has opened to the spirit that targets him will only widen, whereby he will further concede to the increasing mental constriction and fluidic involvement exercised by the spirit.  An additional consequence is that the spiritual imbalance and emotional disturbance can reflect in the physical condition of the individual, resulting in some kind of physical illness or disturbance.  With time, and with no action taken to stop it, the obsession will naturally progress, allowing the obsessing spirit, at each step, a greater degree of control. Eventually, the process can reach the more severe stages of subjugation, sometimes referred to by others as possession, which involve a constriction of great intensity that blocks the will of the victim, who then acts in function of the will of his oppressor. This progression can culminate in an absolute dependence of the victim on the spirit(s) that subjugate him, and in which the obsessor dominates even the physical body of his subject, without the incarnate spirit of the latter ever completely leaving the body (as this complete separation only occurs with death).

From Explore Spiritism
An Introduction to Spiritism, codified by Allan Kardec

Beliefs and Practices of Spiritism 
The Five Points of Spiritism

1. There is a God, defined as "The Supreme Intelligence and Primary Cause of everything";
  
2. There are Spirits, all of whom are created simple and ignorant, but owning the power to gradually perfect themselves;

3. The natural method of this perfection process is reincarnation, through which the Spirit faces countless different situations, problems and obstacles, and needs to learn how to deal with them;

4. As part of Nature, Spirits can naturally communicate with living people, as well as interfere in their lives;

5. Many planets in the universe are inhabited.

Many of the practices include:
 -Clairvoyance

The term Clairvoyance (from 17th century French with clair meaning "clear" and voyance meaning "vision") is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses,[1][2] a form of extra-sensory perception. A person said to have the ability of clairvoyance is referred to as a clairvoyant ("one who sees clearly"). Claims for the existence of paranormal and psychic abilities such as clairvoyance are highly controversial. Parapsychology explores this possibility, but the existence of the paranormal is not accepted by the scientific community.

- Clairsentience (touching)

In the field of parapsychology, clairsentience is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires psychic knowledge primarily by means of touch. The word is from the Latin clarus, “clear,” and sentiens, derived from sentire, “to feel”.
In addition to parapsychology, the term also plays a role in some religions. For example: clairsentience is one of the six human special functions mentioned or recorded in Buddhism. It is an ability that can be obtained at advanced meditation level. Generally the term refers to a person who can feel the vibration of other people. There are many different degrees of clairsentience ranging from the perception of diseases of other people to the thoughts or emotions of other people.

- Clairaudience (hearing/listening)

In the field of parapsychology, clairaudience [from late 17th century French clair (clear) & audience (hearing)] is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires information by paranormal auditory means. Clairaudience is essentially the ability to hear in a paranormal manner, as opposed to paranormal seeing (clairvoyance) and feeling (clairsentience).  Clairaudience may refer not to actual perception of sound, but may instead indicate impressions of the "inner mental ear" similar to the way many people think words without having auditory impressions. But it may also refer to actual perception of sounds such as voices, tones, or noises which are not apparent to other humans or to recording equipment. For instance, a clairaudient person might claim to hear the voices or thoughts of the spirits of persons who are deceased. Clairaudience may be positively distinguished from the voices heard by the mentally ill when it reveals information unavailable to the clairaudient person by normal means (including cold reading or other magic tricks), and thus may be termed "psychic" or paranormal

- Claircognizance (knowing)

In the field of parapsychology, claircognizance [presumably from late 17th century French clair (clear) & cognizance. It is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires psychic knowledge primarily by means of intrinsic knowledge. It is the ability to know something without a physical explanation why you know it. like the concept of mediums.

- Astral projection (or astral travel)

Is an esoteric interpretation of a type of out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it. Astral projection is experienced as being "out of the body". Unlike dreaming or near death experiences, astral projection may sometimes be practised deliberately as well as occurring spontaneously.

The idea of astral travel is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife  in which the soul's journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an...out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in his/her subtle body (or dreambody or astral body) into ‘higher’ realms."Though there is little evidence for astral projection beyond subjective personal accounts of the experience, belief  only on the existence of an "astral" body and plane.

- Psychokinesis

The term psychokinesis (from  "psyche", meaning mind, soul, heart, or breath; and , "kinesis", meaning motion; literally "movement from the mind"), also known as telekinesis  literally "distant-movement"), sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by publisher Henry Holt  to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy. Examples of psychokinesis could include distorting or moving an object,and influencing the output of a random number generator.

- Telepathy

Telepathy meaning "distant" and "to be affected by", refers to the transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five senses. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, specifically to replace the earlier expression thought-transference.  A person who is able to make use of telepathy is said to be able to read the thoughts and stored information in the brain of others. Telepathy, along with psychokinesis forms the main branches of parapsychological research, and many studies seeking to detect, understand, utilize telepathy have been done within the field.

This is not an exclusive list of Spirititist practices but it does give the reader an understanding of the practices which God has said in His Word that are an abomination to him because they connect to a spiritual realm outside of Christ. Learn to be aware how often you see these practices being portrayed on television and through films and popularized. The enemy wants us to become fascinated by the occult so that we will begin to tinker with darkness and walk away from God's marvelous light.

The Desire for Security

Occult Alternatives to

Knowing the Future

Thousands of people would give anything if they could know future events in their lives or the lives of loved ones. Their questions revolve around love, money, success, relationships, job opportunities, family relationships, health and so much more. The Bible states that only God knows the future with certain accuracy. James 1:2 exhorts us that "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally". According to the Bible, knowledge concerning the future rests in God's hands. The means for discerning His will for our future rests in asking Him for wisdom and insight.

Unfortunately, when it comes to wanting to know the future, many people leave God out of the equation and turn to methods condemned by scripture. The Bible calls other methods of discerning the future the occult or paranormal and wholly condemns them because they leave God outside of the paradigm of gathering information.

There are many wrong ways to seek information about future events. There are Tarot Cards, Palmistry, reading of Tea Leaves, Horoscope and Astrology. People turn to Ouija Boards, seek Psychics, and dial phone numbers offering psychic information. Some even turn to seances and talking with spirits or with deceased loved one. PEOPLE ARE DESPERATE TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR FUTURE!

The all-consuming need to know the contents of the future is based on the human emotion of FEAR. The Bible tells us as believers over and over again, "Fear Not, for the Lord your God is with you!" The lives of Christians are not to be governed by fear, but instead, by trust and dependency upon God.

Matthew 6:30-33 instructs us, "do not be concerned about what you are going to eat or drink. These things are what the pagans run after. Behold, the lilies of the fields. They neither labor nor spin yet I tell you that Solomon in all of his glory was not clothed as one of these. Instead, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." The passage precedes these statements by reminding us to consider the sparrows of the air. God know when each one whenever it falls from its nest. Then the scripture makes the main point, "Are you not worth many sparrows?" Christian, your life is all important to God. He knows your going outs and your comings ins; he knows the number of hairs on your head and whether they are black or white. Our Father loves us and He implicitly tells us that we can completely and without reservation trust our future to Him. Our lives are hidden with God in Christ and no man can pluck us out of the Father's hand.

We don't need Tarot Cards, we don't need Palmistry, horoscopes or 1-900-Psychic phone numbers. We simply need God. God knows our future and he will share with us what we need to know. Jeremiah 29:11 encourages us, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

In conclusion, let me say, lets determine to trust God with our future and not some Satanic shortcut that would subvert revealing God's direction for our lives. We must determine to, " Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him,and he will direct your path." Provers 3:5,6.

Touch Therapies
A Christian Response

“As a Christian, how do I respond to the dangers associated with touch therapies?” Please consider some of the following options as possible responses.

Nurses, Physicians and Other Professionals

•    Point out to management the medical studies mentioned in this book and other places concerning the inefficacy of touch therapies. It is difficult to argue with medical literature.
•    Point to position statements from major medical institutions such as those mentioned in this book that indicate that many large health care systems do not support the use of touch therapies in their treatment plans.
•    Point out the spiritual nature of touch therapies and inform management that not only do they contradict your faith, but they cause you to impose a particular belief system on your patients. Refer patients interested in touch therapies to other health care professionals who perform these treatments.
•    Find like-minded co-workers willing to support your position and stand together.


Chaplains and Spiritual Counselors

•    Inform management of your discomfort in providing touch therapies, and offer to act as a liaison between the patient requesting services and a practitioner in the community.
•    Refer patients to other chaplains who have no qualms about providing such services.
•    Ask to be dismissed from training sessions regarding touch therapies on the basis that it violates your ministerial code of ethics.
•    Ask not to be required to perform alternative therapies because it contradicts the denominational commitment you are required to uphold as a minister in good standing.


Patients and Family Members

•    Refuse to accept touch therapy treatments. You do not have to give a reason; you have the right to refuse any medical treatment you choose.
•    If medical personnel begin treatment without asking permission, or if they begin doing something you feel uncomfortable with, tell them to stop immediately! If this continues to be a problem, report it to management and your treating physician.
•    If your choice is not respected, do not hesitate to move your loved one to another health care facility that will respect your choices.
•    Purchase copies of this book to use as a means to educate others about the dangers of touch therapies in our hospitals and hospices.


Pastors, Teachers and Professors

•    Consider hosting a seminar with the author to speak on this topic to your class or congregation.
•    Preach a series on the dangers of the occult from the standpoint of Christian apologetics.
•    Conduct small group studies of this book based on the study guide within
•    Consult with the author to ask questions and learn more through his website.
•    Use this book as required reading for your class.

You and I are not powerless to take a stand against the occult or the dangers associated with touch therapies and alternative medicine. Ephesians 6:11-16 admonishes us to, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” We must always keep in mind that “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4)

Reiki Versus Christianity
Areas of Conflict


The International Center for Reiki Training (India) has a number of points in philosophy to which many of the Reiki branches also adhere. Christians might readily agree with a few of these principles; for example, having honesty and clarity in one’s thinking and respecting the right of others to form their own values and beliefs. The following four principles, however, should be problematic for Christians: “trusting completely in the Higher Power regardless of the name one chooses to call it”; “basing the value of a theory or technique on the verifiable results it helps one achieve”; “placing greater value on learning from experience and inner guidance than on the teachings of an authority”; and making “the complete expression of Love…the highest goal.”

Christian Response

The Higher Power in whom Christians believe has a name and He has made it quite clear that he does not receive or tolerate the worship of a Higher Power by any other name (Exod. 20:1–6) . The New Testament reminds us that if we are trusting in any other so-called higher power, we really are trusting in Satan, who is the ruler of a whole host of spiritual forces (fallen angels) that work to keep the world under his deluding influence (see, e.g., Eph. 6:11–12; 1 Cor. 10:19–20; 1 John 5:19). In the Old Testament, false prophets apparently were successful at performing signs and wonders (which arguably could have included healing signs and wonders), but they also urged God’s people to go after and serve other gods (Deut. 13:1–4). God’s instructions were clear: His people were to put the false prophets to death, thus purging the evil from Israel’s midst (Deut. 13:5–11).


A theory or practice should be judged not only on results but also on the veracity of the claims on which it rests. To base the truthfulness of a theory or value of a technique solely on the verifiable results it might help one achieve, such as relaxation or pain relief, is not consistent with a biblical worldview; it is not even consistent with sound medicine. A practice may achieve results, but one must examine its effect on the whole person, not just on the presenting problem. The rash of recent lawsuits against drug companies is one reminder that any alternative healing practice, like any drug, can have dangerous and even fatal side effects that can cancel out any of its claims to efficacy. From a biblical standpoint, those side effects can be spiritual as well as physical.


The focus in the practice of alternative therapies such as Reiki is experiential in nature. Reiki literature abounds with advice that encourages trainees to follow their hearts and to be guided by their intuition so that the only valid authority is their inner authority and the only true guide is subjective and self-validating. For the Christian, however, all experience must be subject to the higher authority of the Scriptures (see, e.g., Isa. 8:20)

Touch Therapies and the Church 

Compatibility: the Great Lie 
Healing Touch Spiritual Ministry Program

The Spiritual Ministry Program is now an affiliate of the Colorado Center For Healing Touch, standing on its own as an interpretation of energy healing concepts in Judeo-Christian language. Linda Smith, founder, writes, "the program was born 3 1/2 years ago to answer the unique needs of those who wish to learn hands-on healing for church and spiritual ministry settings". The program appeals especially to parish nurses and nurses - wishing to understand the laying on of hands and other healing touch techniques. The program also appeals to ministers from all denominations as well as chaplains and the lay community who seek to explore the spiritual healing ministry. The aim of the program is to help bring back healing into our faith communities and ministry/service settings everywhere.

The content of the courses in the program parallel those of the regular Healing Touch program but are framed in Judeo-Christian language. The history of healing in Jewish and Christian traditions is presented, giving the foundation for healing touch as an act of service to others within one's faith. Each course is taught with the spiritual focus. Biblical explanations are used to assist students in understanding the nature of healing. Personal spiritual development is emphasized so that the healer can continue to receive more energy and guidance from the unlimited Source of all Energy. The program is reaching leaders within the churches, and Linda has recently presented at the Pontifical Institute Of Priests Of Pastoral Theology For Health care In Rome.

Alternative Medicine and the Church.

The impact of questionable alternative medical practices on the church is alarming. Some practices are generally harmless from a spiritual perspective, since they do not invoke a non-Christian belief system to explain their operation. Other practices, however, can be physically and/or spiritually dangerous. Physical danger occurs, for example, when unproven or spurious practices are the therapy of choice for a serious disease. An example of spiritual danger can be found in various forms of energy-based healing, which is a recurring theme in alternative medicine. Some Christians involved in these practices argue that such “energies” are really the Holy Spirit or the “breath” of God; however, these practices are rooted in worldviews that are decidedly opposed to Christian theism, such as Jin shin do, Reiki, Shiatsu, and Therapeutic Touch.

There are also, surprisingly, a number of Christian books that seem to be fascinated with longevity. This is a recurring theme in many alternative medicine circles and in works by authors such as Deepak Chopra, but it seems out of place in books by Christians. There is nothing wrong with wanting to live a long, healthy life, but a fixation on extending the current physical state is odd in light of the Christian belief that we are creatures who will be resurrected and live forever.

What Can Christian Apologists Do about Dangerous Forms of Alternative Medicine?
 The topic is controversial, but one thing Christian apologists should not do is remain silent. As Walter Martin often said, “Controversy for the sake of controversy is sin. Controversy for the sake of truth is a divine command.”

1.) The church needs to be awakened to the dangers of spiritual error in the area of health care. The apostle Paul offers excellent advice: “Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thess. 5:21 NASB).

2.) Christians need to apply this principle to matters of health as fervently as they apply it to matters of theology.

3.) Apologists need to take a stand and the church needs to be educated concerning problematic forms of alternative medicine; but, as apologists we must always keep in mind the directive to defend the faith “with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15 NIV). 4.) This means we need to acknowledge the very real human factors of pain and suffering and respond accordingly. If someone is dying of cancer and is desperate for an effective treatment, for example, we must not condemn that person for considering a dangerous alternative medical practice; instead, we must present carefully reasoned insights compassionately, prayerfully, and above all, lovingly.

In-Roads Into the Church
The Deceiving Power of Healing Touch

Nontraditional health-related practices that involve the hands, based on the assumption that people are energy fields, are becoming increasingly popular. One of the most widely used is Healing Touch, a practice rooted in a variety of belief systems, including Theosophy, spiritism, and Buddhism. Nurses and others certified as Healing Touch practitioners are expected to read a wide range of books on occult philosophy and engage in experiential training that includes information on contacting and channeling “angels” or “spiritual guides.” Healing Touch and related practices such as Therapeutic Touch and Reiki are being welcomed into Christian churches uncritically in the guise of Christian healing practices, based on the belief that the healing associated with them is the same form of healing practiced by Jesus and the first-century Christians. These churches appear to be ignoring biblical injunctions that warn the people of God to have nothing to do with aberrant belief systems, mediums, and with any practices associated with divination.

Some of the nurses who are flirting with techniques such as Therapeutic Touch or Healing Touch are Christians. Many of the nurses with experience in this arena are available for presentations, training workshops, and healing seminars in recreation centers, public libraries, workplaces—and even your neighborhood church.

Healing Touch Spiritual Ministry is described in a program brochure as “a continuing education program for parish nurses, ministers in parish ministries, chaplains and nurses in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices, and the lay community seeking to explore a spiritual healing ministry involving the laying-on of hands and other Healing Touch techniques.” A 2004 issue of the Healing Touch Spiritual Ministry Newsletter indicates that the educational focus in ministry settings includes “prayer, energetic healing and anointing with essential oils”; all three are considered forms of “vibrational healing” that “formed a foundational stone and marked the success of the early Christian community.”  Continuing education units for workshops throughout the United States are granted through the Colorado Center for Healing Touch; the program is an approved provider of continuing education by the Colorado Nurses’ Association and the California Board of Registered Nursing. The Healing Touch Spiritual Ministry is also approved to grant Continuing Chaplaincy Education units by the Association of Professional Chaplains.

According to their official ministry Web site, the program has “an energy-based therapeutic approach to health and healing that includes the practice of many modern-day Christian healers.” The ministry states that its “deeper roots…go back to the prayer, the laying-on of hands and anointing with oil modeled by Jesus as a major part of his ministry.

A PERSONAL ACCOUNT

Jill Dickson, R.N., described her experience of attending one of Mentgen’s three-day Healing Touch workshops:The second day was as amazing as the first. We learned many more energetic techniques with Janet, including the powerful Lymphatic Drainage sequence—a form of energetic release used to help relieve congestion and pain in the lymph system. I also spent time learning from my Healing Touch colleagues….Several people were repeating this course for the third and even fourth time because of their love of Healing Touch. There were hospital nurses from all disciplines, massage therapists, ministers, and psychologists, even someone who had worked as a high executive with a pharmaceutical industry. We shared stories of how Healing Touch had entered our lives, and how it had profoundly impacted our lives and our practices. We laughed, we cried, and we healed. I slept soundly that night. Janet had taught us how to introduce spirit guides into our work, and as I slept, I felt enveloped by the love of my colleagues and my spirit guides.

Healing Touch, in particular, has been making significant inroads into churches of all denominations in the guise of a “Christian healing modality.” It has been doing so primarily with aggressive promotion by the Healing Touch Spiritual Ministry. Parish nursing also may be a vehicle for incorporating Healing Touch and related therapies into churches, often through the avenue of a church health fair, although the premises, assumptions, and foundations of basic parish nurse training are generally sound and based on a biblical understanding of health and healing.

HEALING TOUCH AND THE CHURCH

The standard teaching of the Healing Touch Spiritual Ministry is that the contemporary Christian church has lost its original focus on healing and needs to reclaim it. There is, it could be argued, some validity to this assessment, though there has been a renewed focus on healing in many Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches since the early 1970s in particular, sparked by books reflecting various denominational perspectives. Healing has long been a focus in churches reflecting Pentecostal or charismatic traditions. There is also a rich historic tradition of books on healing by missionaries and ministers such as Andrew Murray (1828–1917), author of Divine Healing, and Christian and Missionary Alliance founder A. B. Simpson (1843–1919), author of The Gospel of Healing. The parish nurse movement is one of the most visible and recent expressions of a holistic healing focus influencing churches of all denominations.

If this rich historic and contemporary tradition is the case, why, then, does a practice such as Healing Touch appeal to so many within the church? How is it possible that a practice so clearly rooted in Western occultism and esotericism, Eastern metaphysical beliefs, and even spiritism, can be considered compatible with a Christian worldview or even be allowed in a church in the first place?

Some answers to the foregoing questions are found in what Healing Touch claims to offer and what it may deliver to the practitioner; this includes an emotionally satisfying experience couched in the context of an appealing ritual. Healing Touch is highly aesthetic and highly ritualistic, from the initial step of meditative centering, to the patterned series of hand movements believed to assess, unruffle, and modulate or even flick away “negative” energy. The practice seems designed to meet a human need for a sense of order, beauty, and balance. In nursing literature, practices such as Therapeutic and Healing Touch are, in fact, frequently referred to as healing rituals evoking “art, beauty and soul care.”

Rituals are powerful tools, engendering strong emotional responses as well as experiences that may or may not be accurately interpreted as spiritual. The Old and New Testament Scriptures are replete with examples of rituals God commanded His people to engage in, including rituals of healing (see, e.g., 2 Kings 5:13–14 and John 9:7). The primary purpose of these healing rituals, however, invariably led to restoration of physical, emotional, social, mental, and spiritual health. A radical repentance was also foundational to the practice of much healing in Scripture, accompanied by recognition of one’s humanness and total dependence on God as opposed to a belief in one’s innate divinity (see 2 Kings 20; Num. 21; James 5:13–16). The most powerful healing ritual of all for Christians was, in reality, the Roman ritual of crucifixion. Isaiah 53:5 tells us, “With His stripes we are healed” (ESV), we are not merely rebalanced.

True biblical healing on any level really is a “power encounter.” The power encountered is God. In many cases, however, there is a lack of discernment or recognition of other powers or of spiritual realms of existence that are considered “off-limits” to Christians. There is power in these realms too, though power of a different nature. Angels, including fallen ones, really do exist, but are not ours to invoke, conjure, or channel. The consequences for accessing angels, and for attempting to access deceased humans as well, can be quite severe, as Saul found out when he attempted to channel Samuel’s spirit through a medium (see 1 Sam. 28:3–19). God forbids it (see also Lev. 19:31 and Deut. 18:9–14).

Healing practices that appeal to extra-biblical sources of authority appear to have a particularly strong appeal to the senses. A pastor from Sackville, Nova Scotia, Canada, who wrote about introducing Therapeutic Touch in his church immediately after the communion service, noted that some of the congregants who remained at the altar to receive the laying-on of hands experienced “tingling, heat,” and “seeing light.” Physical sensations such as these may be legitimate responses to the traditional Christian experience of the laying-on of hands and prayer, but the focus of true Christian healing is not on feelings and experiences but on God, who bids us to come to Him in our brokenness.

There is another side to many energy-based healing techniques, including dangers accompanying the raising of one’s own or another’s “kundalini energy.” Explanations of these dangers vary greatly. Training on handling “psychospiritual crises” is now included in more advanced Therapeutic Touch workshops. Christians would be wise not to subject themselves to experiences or practices that specifically are designed to awaken or manipulate energy in any form.

Practices such as Healing Touch are also self validating; that is, they fall into the category of subjectively validated as opposed to objectively validated experiences. Whereas the former are evaluated within the context of one’s private network of feelings where the heart blindly approves, the latter are evaluated within the context of a biblical system of thought where the mind carefully appraises, embracing reason rather than escaping reason. An informed and engaged mind should make us more critical rather than less critical about the nature of this world, as well as any spiritual worlds that may not be ours safely to explore.

Healing Touch proponents have attempted to legitimize this practice to the church by promoting the idea that the type of healing Jesus engaged in was energy-based healing, consistent with new discoveries in quantum theory. To support this belief, they use, for example, the healing by Jesus of the woman with the issue of blood. Mark 5:27 describes her touching the garment of Jesus from behind. In response to her touch, power immediately came out of Jesus and the woman was healed, instantly and completely. The source of the power to heal seems clear in this passage; it was from God, given to the Son by the Father, residing in Jesus. To equate this dynamic healing power of a personal God with the subtle and impersonal energies of prana or chi, capable of being manipulated and channeled independently by human intentionality or with the assistance of spirit guides or other-than-human intelligences, implies an equivalence that simply does not exist.

“I don’t believe we can be content with natural abilities and gifts—we have to continuously review and update our studies and methods until Energy and Angel Medicine becomes so dramatically effective and widely accepted that it becomes a natural thing to just have these treatments and readings as required,”wrote Elisabeth Jensen, the nurse mentioned at the beginning of this article who practiced a wide variety of occult and energy-based therapies, including Healing Touch. Her statement should be a wake-up call to Christians to get back to legitimate Christian prayer for healing. True Christian healing should never be considered “natural,” but a supernatural act of grace. Those who are promoting energy-based healing in the church have made healing an autonomous act, relying on human manipulation.

Francis Schaeffer wrote about an autonomous notion of nature “eating up grace.” When this happened historically, Schaeffer noted, philosophy “became increasingly free” and “was separated from revelation.” It “began to take wings, as it were, and fly off wherever it wished, without relationship to the Scriptures.” The greatest need of the church in relation to a renewed and restored focus on healing is to let our philosophies of healing and our practices of healing be fully informed by the Scriptures and by the God of history who desires to teach us to heal and to be healed only through His power. That is both our heritage and our hope.

From: "Healing Touch: Trouble with Angels" Sharon Fish Mooney.

Who's Who and the Occult
Celebrities and the Occult

We don't want to ever put ourselves in the position of becoming too enamored with celebrities and other well-known individual. Sometimes we discover that although they are popular individuals with people we know and even the rest of the general public, they may support views quite contrary to the Word of God.

One such individual was Katherine Kubler Ross, the renowned psychologist who wrote the book, "On Death and Dying: the Four Stages of Grief". Ross was a brilliant researcher and writer. Most people don't realize that in writing her book, she worked with many chaplains and ministers in the Chicago area as she interacted with terminal patients and made her observations. Nevertheless, Ross was deeply involved in Spiritism, the world of the occult.

Kubler Ross was a friend of Dora Kunz, the co-founder of Therapeutic Touch and at one point, offered her some spiritual advice. Ross advised Kunz that she should contact a medium and attempt to connect with a spiritual source to help her gain additional insight when using Therapeutic Touch with her clients. According to Kunz, she took Ross's advice. She writes, that at the seance she attended, she was introduced to a spirit named "George". George was to become her spirit guide and befriend her for life. In return for this relationship, "George" aided Kunz in many of her client sessions.

Other celebrities have been fans of the occult as well: writer James Fennimore Cooper, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of many early science fiction books, Thomas Alva Edison the inventor, Mary Todd Lincoln, actor Glenn Ford, Nancy Reagan and Madonna. Spiritism is very popular among the elite celebrities of past days and today.

As Christians, we must be careful of who we let influence our lives. Some individuals who are constantly in the spotlight are often involved in practices that oppose Christ. Imagine the impact that their writings or lyrics have had on untold thousands of people. Some of that impact has paranormal fallout and has affected people negatively in a spiritual sense. We must be careful to watch the things we read, the music we hear and the movies we watch. Many media choices may be popular, but like the apostle Paul wrote, "Not all things are expedient".