Understanding ESP and "psychic" "ability"

While surfing the net looking for attractive images of the saints, flora and fauna to add to my scrapbook of “favorite things,” I came across a very sad, and all too alarming, memorial site. Thus I realize I need to repeat, with even more clarity of explanation, what I have said before. This should help those who are new to my site, or who are actually paying attention and respect to what I am saying for the first time. Also, as I’ve explained before, I will revisit subjects over and over because I realize humans tend to believe crap the first time, and the truth and quality they only believe after repeated explanation and signs.

The memorial site was constructed by parents and a sibling of a young man who had died suddenly of some heart ailment. That they loved him and are grief stricken is obvious. They are a believing Catholic family (which is how I found their site, by searching for images of a certain saint) and they have wonderful trust in God, commending their son to his care. Well, except for one thing. As I read further through the memorial site, I saw that they believe they have “contacted their son” through “psychics.” Sigh.

I am going to explain now step by step why it does absolutely no good to work with “psychics,” particularly those who claim to communicate with the dead. They most assuredly do not communicate with the dead, not at all, not a single time, ever. So I am going to give you the science and the theology of what is really going on so that you can understand with no excuses. You will have greater faith and comfort once you lose the succubus of belief that psychics “communicate” with the dead.

First of all, it is a scientific fact that humans have to varying degrees ESP, which stands for extra-sensory perception. What that means is that people have the ability, to various degrees, to obtain information using “extra” (which means additional or other than) senses (ones that are not the five senses of vision, hearing, touch, etc) by which they have perception. Perception is a tricky concept. Notice it is not called extra-sensory fact finding, ESFF? Nor is it called extra-sensory intelligence gathering, ESIG? It is called perception because it means that one has the impression of gaining insight or experiencing some stimulation, and that may or may not be valid, or it may or may not lead to genuine additional information. For example, when you meet a person for the first time and he is gruff, you may perceive that you have met someone who does not like you. You may be correct, or you may be wrong, and that the gruff exterior masks a very affectionate interior. That is the problem of perception: one receives an impression of information and it may or may not be true.

So I am here to assure you that ESP does exist and there are some people who have only marginal talent in that regard, and some who are formidable in the extent to which they have use of ESP. There are lots of fakers too, who pretend to be psychics but obtain in advance information about you from stalking and spying. They are around in abundance and I can assure you that many “psychics” know your social security number and blood type before you even contact them, and I can assure you that they did not receive that information as “validation” that they are “communicating” with your dead Aunt Nellie. But I will limit myself to discussing those few with truly genuine ESP capability.

What you must realize is that ESP events take place one hundred percent in the material world of matter, energy and time. They do not and never actually access God’s realm (or Satan’s) of life after death. Thus a person who using ESP legitimately believes he or she is communicating with your dead relative is not actually communicating with them or anyone else at all; that person is not in contact with their soul, nor are they granted access to heaven, purgatory or hell. That honest, though misguided, person is in contact with the spiritual and electromagnetic “residue” that remains on earth of your loved one’s life.

While people do not understand the mechanics of ESP, let me describe it to you this way. Thoughts and actions are electromagnetic, and thus there is a continual and to varying degrees cumulative effect of a person’s life left like fingerprints on earth. Thus not only the consequences of deeds live on after the person but an electromagnetic residue. This is not a living or self aware spiritual entity or force, anymore than one’s fingerprints left on a crime scene is “the fingerprint spirit” LOL. So to make it easiest for your self in understanding ESP in this application, think of this fingerprint analogy.

The only difference is that the fingerprint is not necessarily left in one location, but it can be thought of as floating fingerprints. Thus some few genuine talented people can, using their ESP ability, detect one or more ESP “fingerprints” of your dead relative, loved one or friend. Not to be too blunt, but what that means is that the “psychic” can pick up “happy camper” “messages” from your deceased loved one, even though your loved one’s soul in actuality is not in that happy camper place in heaven, if you know what I mean. They are taking your money or at the very least your self respect and telling you that your loved one is in that “better place,” while they actually have no way of knowing that is true. In fact, I have read books by such people and watched them on TV and have known for a fact that certain people they have claimed to have “contact” with and who are “watching over you from heaven” are, actually, doing no such thing and are burning in hellfire.

Here is where the error comes in (again, I am referring only to those few who legitimately have some ESP ability and who are not willfully scamming). In order to have a dialogue with, well, “fingerprints,” they use a mental device which is to “bring the fingerprints ‘to life.’” Think about the leaving of physical fingerprints to better understand this. If you are a child with small hands you leave correspondingly small fingerprints, if you are a woman with long finger nails, your fingerprints may be demarked accordingly, if you have scars or a “working man’s hands,” your fingerprints may be rough and leave those distinctive marks. CSI people can therefore sometimes form a “mental picture” of a suspect just by looking at their fingerprints. Those few who genuinely use some sort of ESP likewise form a “mental picture” that is in actuality quite limited based on their contact with the loved one’s ESP “fingerprint.” They think they are totally accurate because they think their contact is “heaven sent,” but it is not. Thus they do not understand the boundaries and ultimately the total lack of usefulness of their “service.” It would be as if the CSI people issued an all points bulletin with a description of an entire person, down to their red hair and love of animals, based on one fingerprint left behind. It is one thing to have a mental image based on factual work, such as examining a physical fingerprint. It is another thing to think that one knows what that person was really like AND what they are “doing” “after they are dead” based on an ESP fingerprint that was made and left while they were still alive.

Thus the honest psychics (those few) think they are having conversations and communication from the dead, but they are actually having a conversation with the person’s fingerprint, left while that person was alive, and ‘bringing them to life’ in their mind, supplementing the information with their own living ESP abilities. It’s like putting a doll together where the only accurate part is that you have one fingerprint, and you pick the rest of the information about what the doll would look like by just making stuff up in your own head, and using some legitimate ESP based gathering of information yourself… but all of it confined to the residue on earth. None of this information is at all from the soul of the person who is deceased, nor is the information from any part of heaven, purgatory or hell.

I have continually cited the passage in Luke where Jesus Christ most clearly explains that there is absolutely no communication between the dead and the living, in the story of the rich man in hell.

When the Bible and other sources mention “raising people from the dead” or communicating with the dead, they are referring to exactly what I have explained above, except of course the authors at that time did not understand much about the brain, neurology and so forth. So let us spend some time showing that three types of perceived “communication with the dead.”

God will on very rare occasions send prophets back to earth for a brief message. An example of this is when Jesus is Transfigured, and in the presence of Moses and Elias. Matthew 17:3: And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking together with him. Jesus did not “raise Moses and Elias from the dead” nor did some psychic “get in touch with them in heaven.” God sent them to earth for that particular purpose of his, for the Apostles to witness Jesus Transfigured in their presence. So the first example of communicating with the dead is extremely rare and totally initiated by God, since God sends an image of the dead to earth for a given purpose. Another example of this is when Jesus dies on the cross, as his spirit leaves this opens the door and many of the dead are briefly seen to walk the earth again.

Matthew 27:51-54
And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were rent, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep arose; and coming forth out of the tombs after his resurrection, they came into the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, they were very much afraid, and they said, “Truly he was the Son of God.”

Thus on rare occasions and entirely at God’s will and behest the dead who are at rest in heaven will appear in some form when God requires a message or a sign to be given. These are not events that are “summoned” or initiated by human beings.

The second example of “raising from the dead” or communicating with the dead is when a genuine prophet of God restores to life a person who has recently died. The most well known examples are of Jesus raising Lazarus and others from the dead, not in communicating with them as they remain dead, but to give life back to them.

Mark 5:38-42
And they came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and he saw a tumult, people weeping and wailing greatly. And going in he said to them, “Why do you make this din, and weep? The girl is asleep, not dead.” And they laughed him to scorn. But he, putting them all out, took the father and mother of the girl and those who were with him, and entered in where the girl was lying. And taking the girl by the hand, he said to her, “Talitah cumi,” which is interpreted, “Girl, I say to thee, arise.” And the girl rose up immediately and began to walk; she was twelve years old. And they were utterly amazed.

The Jews were very aware that on extremely rare occasions God will give a prophet the power to raise from the dead and one of the great miracles of Eliseus is recalled:

4 Kings 4:32-37
Eliseus therefore went into the house, and behold the child lay dead on his bed. And going in he shut the door upon him, and upon the child, and prayed to the Lord. And he went up, and lay upon the child; and he put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands; and he bowed himself upon him, and the child’s flesh grew warm. Then he returned and walked in the house, once to and fro; and he went up, and lay upon him, and the child gaped seven times, and opened his eyes. And he called Giezi, and said to him: Call this Sunamitess. And she being called, went in to him, and he said: take up they son. She came and fell at his feet, and worshipped upon the ground, and took up her son, and went out.

Thus all who witnessed the great miracles of Jesus, especially when he raised some from the dead, instantly knew that this was an extraordinarily rare grace that can only come from God himself. This is why the Bible will refer to the ability to “raise from the dead,” but by no means is there the suggestion that humans can do this, for only God can do it and wills it only on the rarest of occasions through the hands of his prophets.

The third example is that which I have already explained in the bulk of this posting, which is the perception that one is in communication with the dead. This is why the Bible is very blunt about such acts which, if they are not of the rare examples given above, considered a work of sorcery. Exodus 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. Yes, the Bible states that there is the death penalty for sorcery. Here is why.

As I have cited above, genuine contact with the dead is rare and only initiated by God. In other words, God alone allows a genuine and rare contact with the dead and he sent that ability at the time it occurs to the prophets of old. In other words, it’s not like people walked around with the “talent,” “gift” or “ability” to raise or communicate with the dead. God sends the power, ability and grace to do it at the time of the God willed action by a prophet. Moderns have fallen into the trap, which is why the Law as given by God is so harsh about sorcerers, of believing that communicating with the dead is a legitimate “gift” or “talent,” that can be invoked at will by a human being at his or her behest. That is absolutely and simply not true. Even Jesus did not walk around in a continual “on” state of being able to communicate with the dead and raise people from the dead and restore them to life. Each time that Jesus performed a miracle he was given that ability on the spot from God. We know this because we can read in the Gospel Jesus explain to the disciples that for certain miracles he makes certain preparations of prayer and fasting.

Likewise after Jesus died, resurrected and ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit descended and gave certain Apostles the ability to perform certain miracles at certain times. It’s not like Peter, for example, was “always” in possession of the “gift” that he has now “developed.” Lord, no. Again, the Bible is clear throughout the centuries that only certain prophets are given on certain occasions the ability to cross the boundary between life and death, and that God and only God is the one who is actually bringing forth that miracle.

So, sorcerers and fortune tellers and others of their ilk have all made the same mistake, which is to believe that it is a “talent” or a “gift” to do certain extrasensory things, one that they possess and can invoke. In actuality what sorcerers do, or perceive that they are doing, is to, as I explained above, use certain earth bound extrasensory perceptions to perform acts that they think span the gap between the living and the dead, but they do not. As I’ve said, many are greedy and power hungry charlatans, while a few are genuinely talented in ESP based activities, and just misunderstand their own abilities, both where it comes from (not God) and what are its limitations (they are projecting their own inner information onto very small remnants of a person’s lingering or active mental and spiritual fingerprints). This is why the Law is so harsh and required the death penalty, since sorcerers promote their ability as a God given gift, which is blasphemous and in error. As I pointed out, even Jesus Christ himself did not walk around “promoting” his “ongoing” “gift” to raise the dead, for example, since that simply would not have been true. Jesus Christ is careful to point out that each and every miracle is at the behest of God and is a singular granting of that gift by God through Jesus, neither a sorcerous “talent” nor an ongoing “divine gift.”

Thus modern psychics, those few who are genuine, imply and often believe that they are in possession of an ongoing “gift” that is divinely approved, and it most assuredly is not. What they have is the same as if they had really good eyesight, or perfect pitch, or really keen hearing. Suppose that a person was born with the extremely subtle ability to smell odors like a bloodhound, or to hear outside of the human range, like all dogs do? Is that channeling a “gift from God” of “direction from heaven?” Um, no; it would be an example of someone through their earth bound genes having particularly keen sensory ability. People with ESP have no reason to thank God for it any more than someone with great vision thanks God for their super eyesight every day. ESP is a biological and electromagnetic capability; it is not miraculous, it is not “spiritual” in the sense of holy, justified or approved, and it does not span the real world of the living and the soul based world of the dead. It is like having really great hearing, really great eyesight, or a really great nose.

In general I dislike all psychics for that reason, since they have an uneducated and invalid vanity regarding the loftiness of their “gift.” The more that they parrot about God the less humility they are actually showing, since they are still linking their ESP ability to divine matters, and that simply is not true. What would be appropriate prayer? Again, think of the CSI example, of the fingerprint specialist, or of the person born with some incredible and bizarre ability to use his or her sense of smell like a bloodhound. They should pray that they are as responsible in the use of their talent and capability as they can be, just as all normal people should pray to God that he guide all that they do in life and that they only perform his will and do only honest good, not self serving “good.” However, it would be a vanity for a CSI fingerprint expert, for example, to think that his talent is miraculous, and that his dead uncle Freddy is “guiding” him from “up above.”

Likewise a man who was born with a bloodhound’s nose might pray for guidance about using his talent (and standing the stench of much of what he would smell, LOL) but it would be lunacy and error to think that he’s “channeling” some saint who had a big nose. Really, I’m almost embarrassed on behalf of modern humans when I type this. As usual I marvel that I have to keep explaining this over and over again. But as Jesus explained, Abraham told the dead man in hell that the people had Moses and didn’t listen to him, so why would his living brothers believe even his testimony of the reality of hell? It seems that every generation is worse and worse at ignoring the centuries of wisdom and truth in the Torah, the Bible and the Koran, and making stuff up to self aggrandize and fool the public as they go.

So when those few genuine psychics do an extraordinary thing, such as have an imaginary “conversation” with the residue of your dead loved one, or manipulate cards in a casino (LOL), or use psycho kinesis to make the other team drop the football, or accurately predict your next pregnancy, they are not using a “divine” “gift.” It is not God approved or God provided, any more than someone with particularly good eyesight or perfect pitch. It is simply an extreme capability of an earthly phenomenon and thus like everything else it is up to the person to either understand and use with morality, or misunderstand and abuse, and thus will answer for when the time comes. In animals we marvel and call it “instinct,” and study the biology of things like how a homing pigeon navigates, or a butterfly migrates thousands of miles. But we do not say, “Wow, God made that homing pigeon psychic” or “that butterfly must be channeling the spirit of the saint who was the best map reader.” I mean, use your common sense people.

I hope and pray that you have found this helpful.

Exodus 25:21-22
And thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.

Bible Readings and commentary

There is a basic about Bible reading and comprehension that many who have not been well formed in their faith do not realize. When one reads the Bible, there are many little footnotes per page, in the tiniest reading (I need glasses AND my magnifying glass to read them myself!) Many Bible readers ignore them, and for quick looking up of a passage and enjoyment that is fine.

Others assume that the footnotes are the way modern books indicate "if you want more information, go here." And so people mostly assume they don't need more information and think that that is that.

Still others glance at the footnotes and in the Gospel, seeing they reference other Gospels, assume that the footnotes just point you to the same events that you are reading about, referenced in one of the other three Gospels, or cited by the Apostles in the Epistles. Or they assume, and this is also often true, that the footnotes are provided by the Bible scholars to point back in the Old Testament to prophesies that pertain to Jesus so you can see the event as being one of those prophesied by the prophets.

But here is an extraordinary thing that everyone once knew, and many have forgotten, which is that the footnotes help you read exactly the scripture that Jesus himself quotes from! Jesus preached daily in the Temple (when in Jerusalem) or in the local synagogues. So Jesus did much more preaching than is recorded, obviously, in the Gospel. Nothing important is left out, but I am teaching you that Jesus did what many do today, which is to preach and to abundantly "quote scripture!"

Here is one of the most famous of the sayings of Jesus, evidence of what I am saying that he preached daily, and further, I want to help you understand the solid scriptural foundation of what Jesus said, and how he constantly referenced to the Old Testament prophets and the teachings of God.

Luke 19: 45-48

And he entered the temple, and began to cast out those who were selling and buying in it, saying to them, "It is written, My house is a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves."

And he was teaching daily in the temple.

But the chief priests and the Scribes and the leading men of the people sought to destroy him; but they found nothing that they could do to him, for all the people hung on his words.

Just about everyone knows about Jesus kicking the moneychangers out of the temple. And many know that he made "a quote." But if you do not look up the footnote, you will miss seeing the actual scripture that Jesus is quoting, and its full glory! Jesus is not just repeating some saying. Jesus quotes either God or one of the prophets directly from holy scripture. So when he quoted, trust me, the faithful recognized what he was saying and recognized directly the source. So when Jesus quoted My house is a house of prayer read from where he is quoting:

Isaiah 56: 1, 7

Thus says the Lord...

them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; their holocausts and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

Jesus is quoting God in the scriptures.

But hold your hats, wait until you see the second section of scripture that Jesus is citing. Follow the footnote in your Bible to Jer 7:11.

Jeremiah 7: 1, 11

The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord...

Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves?

See, if you follow the footnotes and read the Old Testament that Jesus is citing, you not only know more clearly what he is saying, and you see his authority as he not only teaches but preached with more knowledge to even the wise, but most importantly you hear and comprehend Jesus exactly as a pious and devout listener would have heard him. He was not just giving some rabble rousing political or spiritual speeches, as those who try to detract today in modern times from Jesus like to allege. When you read the actual parts of the scripture that Jesus is citing in its fullness, you recognize that the listeners of his day knew right away what passages he was citing and the authority from God that he was invoking. That rocked the world.

See, many Jesus detractors today think people came "just for the miracles," assuming of course that the miracles "actually happened." And yes, many, many people brought their sick to be cured. But they stayed and listened, and THIS is the type of thing that they heard. It is what Jesus said, not what miracles he performed, that changed the world. You see, the ability to perform miracles came from God, and so he performed miracles out of love for their suffering, but also to show in a way that everyone could understand the authority he had received from God. Because, obviously, only God could provide the ability to perform the type of miracles that Jesus performed for the benefit of thousands of people.

But Jesus equally powerfully asserted his authority through words, by quoting God and the prophets and then fulfilling those words. THAT "wowed" the people and demonstrated his authority just as much as the miracles.

Go back to the first reading. Notice something? Jesus is not performing miracles in the temple at all. He is preaching, and he is packing them in. "And he was teaching daily in the temple... for all the people hung upon his words."

Do you see more clearly why the chief priests and the Scribes hated and feared him so? He was able to fulfill admonishments from the Lord God himself to keep the temple a house of prayer, and not a den of thieves, and then literally move in there and preach the authoritative word of God day after day, packing the people in (who prevented his enemies from making a move to harm him) and all without the use of miracles.

Ha, ha, now you can really savor what happens next. I won't type it in here, but if you read the beginning of Chapter 20, you will see just what I am saying happens. Jesus goes on preaching day after day, until finally the chief priests and Scribes regrouped and challenged him. And what do they say? "Tell us, by what authority dost thou do these things? Or who is it that gave thee this authority?"

See, they recognized all that Jesus preached and knew full well whose authority he was citing, as all the priests and Scribes would know by heart what Jesus cites. So that is why they use the word "authority" in their challenge to him, because they knew absolutely very well whose authority Jesus invokes. They try to trap him into saying so, but Jesus eludes them with a counter-question, which they cannot answer.

I hope you find this helpful, on several levels. It deepens your faith to understand what exactly Jesus is saying, and how he established his authority through not just miracles, but by sound and firm scriptural references that resonated with all the people who thronged to listen to him. He took over the temple, essentially, preaching to the crowds but not in a "praise and worship" kind of way that many modern Christians think of when they hear "preaching." Jesus preached the word of God as already revealed in the scripture, and pointed out the failure of the chief priests and Scribes to remain true to what God has commanded. So you can better understand Jesus and all the events, plus deepen your faith by seeing the continuity between what was said and prophesied in the Old Testament and how Jesus cited and fulfilled it day by day, not just at his death and resurrection. Also, you can "take your place in the crowd," by hearing the words Jesus said just as how he would have meant them and how the faithful would have recognized what he cited of God's word and how people can implement and be faithful to what God truly wants from them. This is how Jesus performed his ministry.