Could the devil cause the whole world throughout the ages to hallucinate seeing Jesus, popes, catechism readings, etc.?

[Ben_Sinner]

I only want the answers of catholics/christians on this…(no offense to athiests, agnostics, etc.)

I ask this because sometimes I’ll have a fearful thought that all the things I see that validate Jesus’s divinity, truth and along with the church’s truth…could just be a hallucination made by the devil…

because I heard the devil can cause people to hallucinate. I don’t remember the details, but I remember someone say that the devil convinced someone that they went back in time and traveled to ancient greece via “astral projection” but in reality it was just an illusion made by the devil, etc.

Can the devil have such strong power…and if he did, how could we differentiate between his lying tricks and reality?

 

[Nigel7]

No. The Devil is NOT omnipresent. He has no power to do such things.

 

[DevotedChild]

The devil can only do so if we let him control us or we listen to his tempting voice. The difference in the “visions” from real ones is finding if anything, no matter how small, is off somehow, if he says something that is wrong or against the faith, or if something overall feels wrong… The presence of the devil and his demons is very strong and hard to mistake. Once you know it you never forget it. I know because I have felt them.

Unless you have felt extreme negative emotions or a sense of wrongness in your visions, I would say that you are divinely blest and nothing is wrong but I am no expert. I would suggest you get a spiritual director or a trusted priest to talk about this to.

God Bless.

 

[MidnightSun12]

The devil only has power in as much as Our Lord allows him to have power. God wants you in heaven more then you can possibly imagine so I can’t possibly fathom a circumstance where God would allow satan to trick you in such a manner.

Remember, for us to sin, it requires full knowledge and consent on our part… this means that anybody who turns their back on our Lord does so knowing full well what they are doing. Perhaps they do not fully understand the ramifications that their wrong-doings will have on them in the next life, but they know full-well that what they did was wrong.

Even though the devil tricked Adam and Eve in the garden, both of them knew full-well what they were doing was wrong. The devil isn’t able to pull the wool over our eyes to the point that we cannot recognize evil (and if he does, that’s a demonic possession which is not something that we are morally responsible for).

God bless!

 

[bzkoss236]

Do you really think that the devil would push you towards Christ? If anything, the devil would try to make you reject Christ and make you see errors that aren’t there to make Christ not seem divine.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

I only want the answers of catholics/christians on this…(no offense to athiests, agnostics, etc.)

I ask this because sometimes I’ll have a fearful thought that all the things I see that validate Jesus’s divinity, truth and along with the church’s truth…could just be a hallucination made by the devil…

because I heard the devil can cause people to hallucinate. I don’t remember the details, but I remember someone say that the devil convinced someone that they went back in time and traveled to ancient greece via “astral projection” but in reality it was just an illusion made by the devil, etc.

Can the devil have such strong power…and if he did, how could we differentiate between his lying tricks and reality?

1. The devil doesn’t have that much power and
2. The devil would not want to make people think they see Jesus or angels unless it was to somehow tear down people’s faith, not build it up.

Why would the devil want to make people believe in God by giving those kinds of illusions? Also if the devil is real enough to do that doesn’t that alone prove God is real if the devil is real?

 

[triumphguy]

The devil works on our wills. It’s our wills that choose to screw the world up.

 

[HansTrappist]

I only want the answers of catholics/christians on this…(no offense to athiests, agnostics, etc.)

I ask this because sometimes I’ll have a fearful thought that all the things I see that validate Jesus’s divinity, truth and along with the church’s truth…could just be a hallucination made by the devil…

because I heard the devil can cause people to hallucinate. I don’t remember the details, but I remember someone say that the devil convinced someone that they went back in time and traveled to ancient greece via “astral projection” but in reality it was just an illusion made by the devil, etc.

Can the devil have such strong power…and if he did, how could we differentiate between his lying tricks and reality?

The Devil does not have that kind of power.

I think some things Father Jose Fortea has written might help clarify this subject. He says:

"Demons - like the souls of deceased human beings - do not occupy space. This does not mean, though, that they are in some other physical dimension. What does being or not being in a dimension mean for a spirit? They are not anywhere. They exist, but they are not “here” or “there” in a physical sense.

A demon is said to be in a place when it acts in that place. If a demon is tempting someone “here,” one says that it is “here.” If a demon possesses a person’s body, we say it is present within the person. If a demon causes a chair to move, we say that he is in that concrete place. In all these cases, though, the demon is simply acting there.

In the world of demons, like that of people, some do one thing and others do different things. Demons, of course, cannot build houses, grow food, construct machines, nor do any of the things human beings spend so much time on. Most of the time, demons occupy themselves with going deeper into the world of knowledge, in having relationships among themselves, and in tempting people.

The intellectual world is such a vast world that the demons occupy themselves in it completely like us. In a university, for example, there can be hundreds of professors with each one specializing in some branch of knowledge. Hundreds of professors and deans work hours daily in a university and all this work and activity produces just one thing: knowledge. The same thing happens in the world of the angelic spirits.

Relationships among pure spirits may not seem important, but the demons have real, complex social relationships. These relationships are not based merely on knowledge but also on the pleasure of communicating with one another and helping each other tempt humans."

 

[Julia_Mae]

I only want the answers of catholics/christians on this…(no offense to athiests, agnostics, etc.)

Hey, Ben! You know what? It’s time to get some sunshine. Srsly, it’s the mid-winter lack of light that can really set off all the heebie-jeebies and strange imaginings and fears. Especially at night. Makes 'em seem so real.

And you know what? If the devil could do that (which he absolutely cannot) there wouldn’t be any atheists!

Take a walk at noon! You’re okay and everything is going to be fine. God bless you very much, Ben.

 

[Robert_Sock]

Hey, Ben! You know what? It’s time to get some sunshine. Srsly, it’s the mid-winter lack of light that can really set off all the heebie-jeebies and strange imaginings and fears. Especially at night. Makes 'em seem so real.

And you know what? If the devil could do that (which he absolutely cannot) there wouldn’t be any atheists!

Take a walk at noon! You’re okay and everything is going to be fine. God bless you very much, Ben.

Sounds like a mockery of Ben Sinner!

 

[Julia_Mae]

Sounds like a mockery of Ben Sinner!

No, not at all. Some nights we get this way. It can be very much related to seasonal affective response to the lack of sunlight. I would never mock anyone at any time for having these kinds of thoughts and fears. You know why? Because of how painful it is to be in this place. Know how I know how painful it is? Because of how often I have been there.

 

[empther]

Nonsense from post 8

Relationships among pure spirits may not seem important, but the demons have real, complex social relationships. These relationships are not based merely on knowledge but also on the pleasure of communicating with one another and helping each other tempt humans."

---

So who said the priest who wrote that is right?
I read another priest who wrote: “Since pride is the enemy of society, there is no community among the devils. They hate each other as they hate God.”

This sounds more likely to be hell than “These relationships are not based merely on knowledge but also on the pleasure of communicating with one another and helping each other” which sounds ridiculous to me.

As for the demons causing hallucinations in people,
this would give the demons too much power. People couldn’t resist them.
God wouldn’t allow it. It’s that simple.

 

[fhansen]

I only want the answers of catholics/christians on this…(no offense to athiests, agnostics, etc.)

I ask this because sometimes I’ll have a fearful thought that all the things I see that validate Jesus’s divinity, truth and along with the church’s truth…could just be a hallucination made by the devil…

because I heard the devil can cause people to hallucinate. I don’t remember the details, but I remember someone say that the devil convinced someone that they went back in time and traveled to ancient greece via “astral projection” but in reality it was just an illusion made by the devil, etc.

Can the devil have such strong power…and if he did, how could we differentiate between his lying tricks and reality?

Goodness can exist without evil-goodness can be thought of as wholeness- for a thing to possess full integrity so it can be what it is intended to be. Evil is any degree of lessening of that wholeness, of that intended goodness.

So, to the point, Satan, evil personified, couldn’t even exist unless goodness exists first of all, so it follows that the good things we value and hope in would tend to not only exist but also to be the permanent, eternal, first things in the overall order of things, the very goodness we’d expect Satan -evil- to resist, lie about and try to tear down, destroy, etc. making

 

[Linusthe2nd]

No, not at all. Some nights we get this way. It can be very much related to seasonal affective response to the lack of sunlight. I would never mock anyone at any time for having these kinds of thoughts and fears. You know why? Because of how painful it is to be in this place. Know how I know how painful it is? Because of how often I have been there.

Yes, the seasonal weather conditions can be a strong factor. By the way so can our diet and general life styles. We need a well balanced diet with as few additives as possible, very easy on stimulants like coffee, daily moderate exercise ( or perhaps physical labor would be just as good), sufficient rest and sleep, a solid spiritual life. And my favorite, wean yourself off visual entertainment, most of this is an absolute invitation to the evil one - especially T.V., some good spiritual reading.

 

[DexUK]

Simple answer.

No.

The Devil cannot make us do good and would not and could not not ‘con’ us into a religion that directs people away from him and towards God. He only wants to deceive and create doubt and division. He exploits weakness by tempting people and sowing fear and confusion.

So don’t even think about the question - it’s just another whisper from the Deceiver to try and steer you away from the right path.