It's taken a while but I've finally jumped on the bandwagon and
started watching 'Peaky Blinders'. In one episode the matriarch of
the gangster family, Polly, goes to see a medium because she has a
feeling that her daughter, who was taken from her at an early age, is
now dead. The medium says that her daughter is dead, and despite
Polly's daughter-in-law, Esme, warning that the medium is a
charlatan, we later find out that Polly's daughter is indeed dead.
The Druid and Celtic feast of Samhain held around this time of year
celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of the dark period of
winter. The boundary between this world and the world of the dead was
thought to dissolve and the dead returned to earth and created havoc
by playing tricks on people and damaging crops. Such ideas seem
laughable today, but the thinking behind 'psychic' mediums,
spiritualists and clairvoyants is similar – they claim to transcend
the boundary between this world and the 'world of the dead' so that
the dead can communicate with the living. And their continuing
popularity is proof that they are offering something that many people
want despite their disbelief.
Despite the seemingly accurate reading, Esme's warnings that the
medium is a charlatan are very plausible. Indeed Polly gives the
medium all the information: what happened in the past, how she feels
now and that she wants to know if her daughter is alive or not. The
medium has a fifty-fifty change of being right (although with
mortality rates it is more likely she is dead), and clearly Polly is
expecting to hear that her daughter is dead. Even if the medium is
wrong it is better for her to have given bad news than false hope.
Derren Brown in his book 'Tricks of the Mind' exposes some of the
tricks and tactics used by charlatan mediums, such as 'cold reading'
(starting with vague, general statements and through educated guesses
and questions getting more specific) and 'hot reading' (gathering
information beforehand). Other techniques are to explain incorrect
guesses by saying that they are only passing on what they hear, or
blaming the client for not remembering or understanding. They also
rely on the suggestibility of vulnerable, grieving people and the
human capacity to put meaning onto ambiguous statements, as well as
ignore the many inaccurate guesses.
Brown would probably say that all mediums use these techniques. Some
will do it knowingly; justifying their fraudulent actions by claiming
they are bringing comfort to their clients, or that's it's just for
fun, or that they do it for charity. Others will be doing it
unconsciously; genuinely believing they have a psychic gift, a belief
that's reinforced every time they get a guess right. But can they
actually make contact with the spiritual realms?
Brown
doesn't believe in anything supernatural or paranormal and so his
analysis fails to take into account something very important. There
are very real spiritual beings and forces and any attempt to contact
them, whether serious or not, can have very damaging
consequences. As God has forbidden these practices (e.g. Leviticus 19:31, Deuteronomy 18:9-12), no
force for good would use them, despite them seeming to be harmless or
even caring. St Paul warns us the “Satan himself masquerades as an
angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also
masquerade as servants of righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).
The
reality of malevolent forces also explains a common 'proof' that
mediums are really in contact with the dead; i.e. the client saying
that “the medium told me things only I and the dead person know”.
It may be true that no human could know those things but as these
forces are supernatural, they have knowledge that humans don't. A
medium, whether 'honest' or not, opens themself up to these forces
which can then exploit this opportunity to trick people into
believing that contact is being made with the dead. However the
question may be asked; why would evil forces want to trick people in
this way? The answer is that it is mainly to stop people believing in
the the true God who reveals himself in the Bible and to stop them
responding to the good news of Jesus.
The
'trick' of mediumship and other occult practices is to claim that the
spiritual realm (and by implication God as well) are able to be
controlled by humans: spirits can be summoned and also,
via spells, be utilised. The Bible reminds us that not only is God
is greater than we are (Isaiah 40:13; Job 38-41) but he is also far
superior to any other spiritual being (Psalm 97:9). It also warns us
that evil spirits are prowling around “like a roaring lion looking
for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
But mediums also purvey a false view
of life after death. We do not become spirits after we die and we
will not spend the afterlife waiting for a loved one to summon us via
a medium. Jesus' physical resurrection proves that we too can be
raised with a physical (but improved!) body. And worse than that
they offer a false hope. Unlike Polly, most people don't go to
mediums wanting to know if their loved one has died. Most go because
a loved one has died and they want to know that their loved one is
happy or 'OK'. Jesus taught clearly that on the Day of Judgement
humanity will be split into two groups (Matthew 25:31-46). Jesus
said that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal
life (John 3:16), and John the Baptist said “Whoever believes in
the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see
life, for God’s wrath remains on them” (John 3:36). This tells
us that belief in Jesus does not mean simply believing that he
existed but that it has something to do with God's wrath, his
righteous anger and judgement of sin. Paul explains the link: “God
demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his
blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through
him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him
through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled,
shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:8-10).
Belief in Jesus means
to repent of our sins and to accept his call to follow him as our
Lord. This is the good news: that we can have eternal life because
Jesus died for us. But this happy state is only for those who repent
and believe. I've yet to here about someone who has been to a medium
and heard from a 'loved one' who is not in that happy state, but who
instead warns their relative to repent and believe in Jesus! Nor
have I heard talk of a 'loved one' in that happy state who encourages
their relative to repent and believe in Jesus in order to share in
that eternal life. The message that mediums give is that everyone,
regardless of whether or not they believe in Jesus, attains a happy
state after death. If this is true then Jesus is a liar.
Both
charlatan and 'honest' mediumship are always unethical because they
exploit people's vulnerabilities and expose them to dangerous
spiritual forces, who seek to prevent them responding to Jesus' offer
of eternal life. There is only one person who has spoken from
'beyond the grave': Jesus Christ who died and was raised to life
again, and now reigns far above all powers. And he invites you to
repent and believe now, before it's too late, so that you may join
him for all eternity.
Almighty
God,
give
us grace to cast away the works of darkness
and
to put on the armour of light,
now
in the time of this mortal life,
in
which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility
so
that on the last day,
when
he will come again in his glorious majesty to judge the living and
the dead,
we
may rise to the life immortal,
through
him who lives and reigns with you
and
the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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