Orthodoxy stance regardingTV shows involving "hauntings" or "ghost hunting"

[J. Maria]

 There seems to be a larger number of "ghost haunting" or "paranormal' TV shows than in previous years. All of these shows postulate that there are souls of dead people, in addition to "dark spirits" (demons) who inhabit homes and building. Furthermore, they advise 'living with the entity" or telling it to "go to the light".  They frequently use mediums or psychics to help them communicate or interpret the backgrounds of ghostly beings.
 My belief is that all of these entities are of demonic nature - since why would God use his Holy angels to reside in a building, scaring or harassing the living. Does Orthodoxy leave any room for considering these entities being the souls of humans who may be in the state before the Second Coming of Christ?

[PoorFoolNicholas]

Hello and welcome to the forum! I have added a tag at the bottom of this page which will take you to a thread that I started a while back about this. The short answer about this is, We simply don't know. As far as the mediums, psychics, and other paranormal investigators, they probably are communicating with something. What we must remember is that most, if not all of them, are outside of the Holy Orthodox Church. With that said, we should be so cautious about what we see from these shows and investigators.

On the other hand, could some of these "hauntings" be human spirits? Maybe. But for us humans, there is so much deception that comes from the spirit world, that we should tread extremely lightly. Like I said check out the thread I started as well, there were some great responses. And again, welcome!

[mabsoota]

i am sorry, i would like to disagree.
it is forbidden to attempt to connect with the dead.
there are many references to this in the old testament, and in the new testament (luke 16:19-31) we have the story of lazarus and the rich man which clearly states that there is a 'great chasm' between the resting place of lazarus and the rich man in hades. lazarus is NOT permitted to go back to the earth to contact the rich man's relatives.

if anything supernatural happens in the ways we know it can from the Bible (forgiveness of sins, healing of the sick in the name of Jesus etc), then we can praise God for His mercy shown through His church.
but if anything supernatural happens which is not through the name of Jesus and through His church, then it must be through the evil spirits, or else it is just a trick or a joke.

there is ONLY ONE GOD, not many good spirits all competing for our attention. if something is not form God, it is either a joke (a waste of our time that we could spend in better ways), or, worse still, it is from the devil, who seeks to kill and destroy and confuse us and turn us from our faith.
 
the new testament letters are full of warnings against false teachings and idolatry. it is a very serious situation to be lead astray by false teachings and thrills and 'fun'.

i can't imagine any medium being in any orthodox church! 
certainly in my church (coptic) and the eritrean church and in my friend's antiochian church, it is 'haram', forbidden, and a very serious sin.

[Achronos]

I can create my own ghosts with a fog machine and a flashlight.

[mabsoota]

yes, aposphet, but to get interested in these tricks can lead to interest in evil spirits - not all these shows are 100% tricks.

i would like to add that the 'spirits' doing the haunting are not human spirits. human spirits are not permitted by God to wander around or return to earth, however the devil and his evil spirits (demons) do that, as we can see in job 1 verse 7.
so the 'hauntings' are done by demons deliberately to deceive people and to make them interested in this spiritual activity.

the only spiritual activity you need as a Christian is the Holy Spirit of God in your life, convicting you of sin and showing you the unspeakable beauty of a life with God.
when you learn the excitement of meeting God in the Eucharist, sharing your faith and overcoming your rebellion and pride to walk ever closer to God, then the other things become much more dull in comparison.
come and see some evil spirit shaking his fist, or come and share in life with the living God?
only one of these choices leads to abundant life...

[stashko]

Question..........
What About the XXXXXXXXXX church, And The Spooks ,Spectre, Phantoms,Ghosts ,Goblins, Demons ,That Appear to them  ,Masquerading as XXXXX and XXXX, and they believe in and Follow and Name churches After........what about That..........

Hi Stashko--You have been warned often in the past about stepping outside the topic to bash your favorite target. This time I have just modified your post. Next time, I will delete the post and put you on moderation. Please control yourself. Second Chance

[bogdan]

In Orthodoxy, we believe the spirit moves on to its destination soon after death (I believe 3 days is the traditional timeframe).

Since the spirit is taken away from here, there can be no such thing as haunted places where dead people's spirits stay for years and years. And since these ghosts cannot be human spirits, they can only be demons. The whole phenomenon, and how people respond to it, is similar to UFO phenomena, which many believe to be demonic in nature as well.

Remember, demons don't need to actually possess people and make them raving lunatics. If the demons can simply attract people away from the Church, consuming a person's time and interests with UFOlogy or ghost-hunting (or any number of things), that is enough. They will be less likely to come to Christ, because that basic human desire for a connection with the supernatural—God—will be met by their cavorting with demons in costume.

And since they're demons, it is exceedingly dangerous to mess around with them. We should never attempt to communicate with spirits, or go looking for places where they congregate. The lives of the Desert Fathers are full of this kind of demonic activity. If many of them could not stand up to demonic forces, then we certainly could not.

[bogdan]

Here is a clip of an Orthodox priest talking about ghost hunting TV shows and hauntings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NYjcWplsgY

[PoorFoolNicholas]

i am sorry, i would like to disagree.

What about my post do you disagree with?

[PoorFoolNicholas]

Since the spirit is taken away from here, there can be no such thing as haunted places where dead people's spirits stay for years and years.

The problem with this statement is chiefly, we don't know that this is the case 100% of the time. I absolutely respect your POV, and commend you for the sobering warnings about this subject overall. But ultimately, we don't know that they are always demon spirits. I also think that you are correct that much of this phenomonon is used to lead people away from Christ and His Church. So I agree with you on all points but one. We can never be 100% sure about the spirit world and it's inhabitants. God Bless You!

[sprtslvr1973]

I am sure this has been tackled before, but how does one assume that we are talking to Holy Christians in Heaven (Saints) and not demons? I was always a little confused by this.

[mabsoota]

we are not encouraged to 'talk to them', like having a conversation; we ask them to remember us before the throne of God, and ask Him to forgive our many sins.
then it is up to God whether they hear us (like we don't get a 'message received' confirmation).
most of our prayer should be to God, as we know He hears us, and His plan is to give us what is best for us, which is often different to giving us what we want.
please let me know if i have understood your question properly.

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