Making Contact with Spirits or Ghosts

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Cruciferi said:
What’s the ghost question?
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You tell me … you are the one who stated:
Infrared cameras will capture some evidence if your house is infested.
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I find it somewhat nonsensical for the reasons stated above.
It might make sense on Ghostbusters but that is TV not the real world.
But I am willing to be enlightened - though you have addressed none of my queries as yet.
 
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Not everything is officially stated in the Church, you know. For instance, where unbaptized babies go. Or how the creation of the world went down. Or Mary being the mediatrix of graces.
 
Any camera is sufficient; however, having it motion activated and able to see under low light conditions is ideal for inside a house. As I see it, no matter the method used it just gives you a clearer enhancement. I’ve seen shady figures move about in broad daylight; however, they’re hard to distinguish due to the amount of surrounding light.
 
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You stated:
It’s been widely believed by Catholics that souls in Purgatory often finish their time on earth,
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This is nonsense. I don’t accept this. The majority of mature educated Catholics I know don’t believe this. No priests or theologians I know accept this. It isn’t taught anywhere - not even as a valid hypothesis (Limbo is stll officially held as an acceptable Catholic position btw) as far as I know.

To suggest on a Catholic Forum it is in any way an acceptable teaching, even a hypothetical one, put forward by the Catholic Church is erroneous.

You do not seem to understand the actual status of this “teaching” and many would be surprised that you are touting as “Catholic” a heterodox belief that in fact comes from other religions/movements and has never been embraced by the Church - even if it has been by large numbers of poorly Catechised US Catholics (reinvigorated by the Spiritualist movement I believe)

By all means feel free to hold this unusual belief. It seems to have arisen in the era of Early Church amongst Gnostic Christians. Gnosticism itself has been condemned. This particular belief of theirs was not specifically condemned, but the Church has clearly walked away from it and never embraced it or taught it for 1700 years now.

Check out “Aerial Toll Houses”. This is where your Gnostic view, always tempting for the less well Catechised, seems to come from.

en.wikipedia.org

Aerial toll house - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Do note there seems to be a vestigial hint of this cultural view (in Judaism) in the Gospel of Matthew where there is the strange verse about souls rising from their graves after Jesus’s death on the cross and roaming through Jerusalem appearing to people up until the Ascension.

But please don’t suggest on a Catholic Forum that it is in any way a Church teaching or taught as an acceptable hypothesis like Limbo or creation by evolution. It isn’t sorry.
 
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Well, Saint Faustina often had sisters who had passed away visit her and ask for prayers, and so did St. Padre Pío. I also remember my grandma had a small book she had gotten at church that had stories about the saints and other holy catholic lay people who had Souls from Purgatory come to them and ask for prayers and help. Though I absolutely abide by Our Holy Mother’s teaching, so long as she has not said that something is incorrect, and saints she has raised to the altars seem to have had experiences of this sort, I don’t believe it would be against her teaching to believe it. After all, and I don’t know (you seem to know more so you may know), is there a church document that condemns the view? Or am I misreading the argument here? Maybe, if there isn’t one, we close ourselves off to a lot of good things by being so closed to ideas that have not been condemned and have been experienced by the saints. Like in the video above, Fr. Mike talks about some sisters who were having problems with this kind of thing on a particular wing of their convent. An official exorcist told him the story. It turns out that having mass offered in the room where these things were happening helped the soul because the activity stopped. Sometimes, they are asking for our help. If you haven’t, you should look up Fr. Mike’s video on YouTube. It’s called “ I ain’t afraid of no ghosts”
 
April29 said:
Well, Saint Faustina often had sisters who had passed away visit her and ask for prayers, and so did St. Padre Pío. I also remember my grandma had a small book she had gotten at church that had stories about the saints and other holy catholic lay people who had Souls from Purgatory come to them and ask for prayers and help. Though I absolutely abide by Our Holy Mother’s teaching, so long as she has not said that something is incorrect, and saints she has raised to the altars seem to have had experiences of this sort, I don’t believe it would be against her teaching to believe it. After all, and I don’t know (you seem to know more so you may know), is there a church document that condemns the view? Or am I misreading the argument here? Maybe, if there isn’t one, we close ourselves off to a lot of good things by being so closed to ideas that have not been condemned and have been experienced by the saints. Like in the video above, Fr. Mike talks about some sisters who were having problems with this kind of thing on a particular wing of their convent. An official exorcist told him the story. It turns out that having mass offered in the room where these things were happening helped the soul because the activity stopped. Sometimes, they are asking for our help. If you haven’t, you should look up Fr. Mike’s video on YouTube. It’s called “ I ain’t afraid of no ghosts”
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Saints are canonised for their holiness not their teaching sorry.

Unless of course they are made a Doctor of the Church as well.
I would not hold my breath waiting for either the above to ever be accorded that privilege.

Yes priests are happy to do all sorts of likely silly things if that is where loyal Catholics are at and it is likely to bring them comfort and resolve their superstitious fears and sensitivities.
 
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But you see, Inwas hoping you’d help me learn. I genuinely want to know the truth. I mean, from Fr. Mike’s video I believe he doesn’t see it as a bad thing, and if he did, teaching it would be a sin ( especially for him right?). This exorcist seems to have taken it very seriously as well. Also, a person would not be canonized if their teaching were incorrect, right? I know that there have been saints, like St. Catherine who have at some point have accidentally preached heresy, but then later on corrected it. These saints never went back on these claims. If anything, they held in to them quite strongly. Also, you know so much about official church documents, is there an official document that condemns this view? If so, please let me know :)! Thank you!
 
I freely admit to having only a very basic knowledge of Church law. But unless there’s an official teaching contradicted by the testimonies of St. Faustina and St. Padre Pio (is there any such teaching?) then the faithful are allowed to believe their testimonies if they so choose.

If there is an official teaching that these saints contradict, then please share politely. If not, then please respect other posters their right to believe them.

I’m not asking you to change your opinion. Just be polite.
BlackFriar said:
Yes priests are happy to do all sorts of likely silly things if that is where loyal Catholics are at and it is likely to bring them comfort and resolve their superstitious fears and sensitivities.
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I would hope encouraging devotions to canonized saints does not fall under this category.
 
April I am not interested in conducting an online personal tutorial sorry.
My views have been fairly clearly stated:
  1. Aerial Toll Houses and similar gnostic views were known in the Early Church as it was a widespread cultural belief of the time - it never became a formal Church teaching despite this.
    So you may personally believe in this silliness (now resurrected by Victorian Spiritualism and popular TV shows) if you wish - it has not been formally condemned as I say. The Church only tends to address/condemn such views when they become widespread.
    However it cannot be called a Church teaching. It is over the top to try and suggest it is.
  2. Saints are canonised for their holiness and charity not their writings.
  3. Priests are fallible and idiosyncratic like us laity. If you look specifically for a priest to back your own “Catholic” views on angels, demons, superstition, the death of Mary, the Pope being used by Satan, the Vatican has fallen etc…I am sure you will find one online somewhere.
  4. Gnosticism is a heresy and a distraction from the right path to God. The sorts of belief’s mentioned here were part of their “corpus”. While not specifically condemned the movement was. That should give loyal Catholics pause for thought re these fancies of souls needing to work out their “purgatory” on earth and in the places where they have “unfinished business.”
    That is also a belief of Victorian Spiritualism. This has also been condemned by the Church.
    It is alive and well in the “folklore” of the less well educated in the USA - including Catholics it seems.
 
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Not that I could easily explain. It feels like someone is watching me, but from all angles. And like a really intense stare, not just a “meh there’s a human let’s lazily look at him”.
 
Talitha712 said:
I would hope encouraging devotions to canonized saints does not fall under this category.
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Why would you think that?
They are put before us to emulate their charity and love of God.
Their writings are not canonised as somehow wholly inspired or infallible like the NT. That is silly.
 
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I understand.

I was told this, in a sense, by another poster further up in the thread.
 
I am so confused, so the Nihil Obstat given to their writings means that there is nothing in their writings that contradicts Catholic teaching. I thought people couldn’t be canonized if they weren’t in communion with church teaching. What is happening? Lol
 
If you cannot understand what I have observed perhaps others can better explain it to you.
 
It was the placement of your comment about priests doing “silly things if that’s where the Catholics are” right below your explanation of saintly holiness vs saintly teaching. When I read it, it seemed to suggest that priests who share what saints have taught (assuming they were not contradicting Church teaching) were in the wrong. If I misunderstood you, I apologize.

I never suggested that the saints are infallible. Only that, as long as doing so doesn’t contradict Catholic teaching, people are allowed to believe them if they so choose.
 
Too the guys debating the use of IR, that was a mistake of mine. Though IR may provide an advantage, as might UV, I meant to say thermal imaging. I couldn’t think of the term at the time when I was writing originally.

Of course thermal would only work if it is true that a ghostly presence really is colder than the surrounding air. Though there is nothing to say that that is 100% true, there is also not 100% proof that it is not true. Thermal imaging would provide a visual on any cold masses in the area. And if there is a cold mass, floating… well… it could be just a cool drift from the last time the door was opened. But it should be considered that a plain cool air mass would be nearer to the ground, not high enough to pull anything off a shelf.

Of course there is no knowledge on what substance, if any, a ghost is composed of so who knows how our technology would interact with the presence.

P.s. I do not claim to be an expert.
 
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CharlesFulkerson said:
I think that there is a ghost presence, or multiple, in my home. I have brought it up to my family but I’m not sure how serious they think I am.

The reason I think there might be multiple presences because at times it feels not too freindly, and at other times it feels indifferent or freindly.

I think the spirits have communicated with me in a way. I hear the words they are trying to say, and I feel their presence and it often relates to the words (if the words are hostile, that’s how the presence feels for example).

On place were there’s a lot of action is in the garage, were I do wood work and make flutes. Objects will fall off of shelves, and land a distance from the shelf. A song will come on Pandora, normally it is a song that I like, and I will “hear” something along the lines of “turn it off” or “what is this noise? Make it stop or get out!”. This seems to be more frequent when I have Christian music on. This spirit, I think, is the most hostile one, but at times it is quite indifferent.

Things fall, doors slam, shadows move etc. etc.

When I am “contacted” should I reply?

I want to go to my pastor about this but I want to make sure there is actually something going on.

Thoughts?
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Do Not Talk With Them.
Go to your pastor and ask what to do, but do not attempt to speak with the presences. Especially not the one that seems hostile to Christian music.
 
Sometimes when I hear him I think (I’m weird, I don’t like talking to a silent room, so I simply think what I would of said. It’s just one of my quirks) to yell at him to “F*** off”. I haven’t yet but…strong text
 
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