Psychics

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monina said:
On one level, I can accept that. If my Mother tells me to steer away from something, I do. I implicity trust our Church’s guidance.

However, I would like to be able to understand *why *the Church teaches to avoid divination. Why do psychic abilities “contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone”? Why does the Church feel occult forces could be involved in extra-sensory perception, but not in, say, the ability to be ambidextrous? Couldn’t we also infer that Leonardo Da Vinci’s ability to write upside down and backwards could have been demonic in origin?

I am not trying to be argumentative and silly. I just want ammunition when I am confronted by friends who think I’m being narrow-minded for not attending a party with a psychic.

Thank you,
monina
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I respect very much the humble approach you’re making to this question.

In answer, first of all, the comparisons you’ve made are invalid because they relate to things that have natural explanations. Being ambidextrus or having a photographic memory are natural abilities. Divining the future, on the other hand, any real scientist or biologist will tell you is not a natural human ability. People don’t have a “natural” ability to know the things revealed in extra-sensory perception. Many people in modern culture want to believe such knowledge is a “gift,” however, or something natural, for people often tend to get weak-kneed when facing the tide of political correctness. They don’t want to see anyone they know as likely communicating with demons. That is a far more uncomfortable perspective to hold than the one that says happily, “It’s a gift!”

Seeing as extra-sensory perception is supernatural, the logical question that follows must be, “Where does it come from?” Now here, people that assert, “It’s a gift,” don’t tend to know how to answer. They’ll say they think it’s from God but won’t be able to explain why it might not be from a demon. The best they can probably do is say, “Well, good comes of it, so it must be from a good source.” However, the Ku Klux Klan also did a lot of charity work, as did the Nazis and Leninist rebels in Russia to garner support for their cause.

Divination has at least one serious root problem, and one of the greatest of these is pride. God uses the humble more mightily than anyone else. If people are not looking for power, these are the people He can safely empower and use. For then the power will not go to their heads and cause them to fall into the delusions of pride.

Everyone who engages in witchcraft has gone in search of power for themselves. Witchcraft is about elevating the self. Psychic powers are much the same as witchcraft; one often goes looking for these powers unless one has them from birth, but even then one often goes looking into trying to develop them. One tries to nurture these powers, to control them and use them effectively to impact people’s lives. One is pursuing self-empowerment, not self-renunciation, which is the Christian ideal.

God gives power in the opposite way. Those of His followers that have most renounced themselves, that truly are not interested in or seeking power, that are trying to be invisible, hiding their good works and seeking to appear less worthy in other people’s eyes, people that are crucifying their flesh and spirits and seeking God alone without regard or desire for anything of the self, these are the people to which God gives power. And they often don’t want it. They often ask God to take it away, or at least to hide it from others. This is the opposite of psychics. This attitude puts God first so completely that He can give them much more of Himself than He can give to most of us. The attitude of psychics or spiritists is opposite to this. They seek after the power for themselves, try to enhance and expand it, and elevate themselves in their own minds and the minds of others. Pride has the same evil affect on them that money has on so many of the wealthy. It reenacts the sin Eve committed in the Garden of Eden when she listened to the Devil who told her, “you can be like gods.” This wickedness puts God lower and elevates the psychics higher, thus pushing them out of the presence of God, unless saved from this darkness.

** lynnmarie**, thank-you for sharing your story.
 
I think the problem with psychics is that they’er SEEKING information, and that’s what’s forbidden by God. So even if a psychic considers their ‘powers’ from God, that’s not necessarily the case! and since they’re going against the Church teaching here, then it’s actually PROBABLY not from God, cause He wouldn’t go against what He told the Church and what He put in Scripture.

many of the Saints, like St Padre Pio, had extraordinary gifts, yet they NEVER sought any information, they were very humble, and submitted to their superiors… they didn’t WANT the gifts… they just used them for the glory of God. Also, they lead very holy lives. Many psychics lead ordinary lives like us… and even if they are really into spirituality, is it Catholic spirituality? what about ouija boards and such? that’s all forbidden by the Church… if God wants to tell someone something, He will. We can’t “make” Him do anything, He’s God… we can’t “make” spirits say things to us… if we think we can, those spirits are demons and they’re deceiving us.

God bless
 
Everyone who engages in witchcraft has gone in search of power for themselves. Witchcraft is about elevating the self. Psychic powers are much the same as witchcraft; one often goes looking for these powers unless one has them from birth, but even then one often goes looking into trying to develop them. One tries to nurture these powers, to control them and use them effectively to impact people’s lives. One is pursuing self-empowerment, not self-renunciation, which is the Christian ideal.
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God gives power in the opposite way. Those of His followers that have most renounced themselves, that truly are not interested in or seeking power, that are trying to be invisible, hiding their good works and seeking to appear less worthy in other people’s eyes, people that are crucifying their flesh and spirits and seeking God alone without regard or desire for anything of the self, these are the people to which God gives power. And they often don’t want it. They often ask God to take it away, or at least to hide it from others. This is the opposite of psychics. This attitude puts God first so completely that He can give them much more of Himself than He can give to most of us. The attitude of psychics or spiritists is opposite to this. They seek after the power for themselves, try to enhance and expand it, and elevate themselves in their own minds and the minds of others. Pride has the same evil affect on them that money has on so many of the wealthy. It reenacts the sin Eve committed in the Garden of Eden when she listened to the Devil who told her, “you can be like gods.” This wickedness puts God lower and elevates the psychics higher, thus pushing them out of the presence of God, unless saved from this darkness.
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YES 👍 🙂 very true imo.
 
monina said:
According to Catholic teaching, Catholics are discouraged from consulting psychics and other forms of divination.

I have a friend who considers her “psychic” powers a gift from God. She does indeed seem to have clairvoyance. Why is it wrong to consult with her? Weren’t there holy men and women in scripture, such as Anna in the temple during our Lord’s baptism, who were given special gifts of extra-sensory perception and the ability to interpret dreams and such?

thank you
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Monina:
I, too, have been told that I have a “gift” and, furthermore, I took money for doing “readings.” (I am very grateful for Catholic Answers guest Sharon Lee Giganti for warning about the dangers of the ‘new age.’) I wish I had never done it.

Even if, even if, and even if …insert the situation…], your friend will have something happen to her that freaks her out like what happened to me. I still keep my tarot decks (they’re historical reproductions, less ‘occult-y’, and one of them’s the Salvador Dali deck. However, I have walked away from trying to give spiritual insight to others based upon ‘psychic’ gifts I may or may not have.

Two people just died in Sedona, Arizona at the hands of James Arthur Ray, a ‘new age guru’ who hijacked an American Indian ‘sweat lodge’ tradition for ‘for-profit’ purposes. That happened about an hour away from where I live, I know - on friendly terms - some of the same people who have forked over 10K+ to attend his events (not to mention the events of Abraham-Hicks, etc.) I know people who could have gone and they’d be dead if they did go.

If your friend is convinced her gift is of the Holy Spirit, or of the angels, or in any way inspired by God…she will be inevitably proven wrong - not by any thing anyone brings to your attention, like a passage in the Catechism, but by personal experience that will freak her out and make her wary of it.
 
If your friend is convinced her gift is of the Holy Spirit, or of the angels, or in any way inspired by God…she will be inevitably proven wrong - not by any thing anyone brings to your attention, like a passage in the Catechism, but by personal experience that will freak her out and make her wary of it.
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that’s what I heard about a lot of people who were involved in this… they saw it as something harmless, but then something happened to them that really scared them, - I think maybe eventually the “spirits” start manifesting themselves to the person… and they see the “spirits” are not Angels or Saints but something else (demons)

I used to be involved in the new age a bit, and I’m soo glad God rescued me from that.
 
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