So it is with the question of the devil and demons. Lewis guides us in the larger context of our study. For he wrote so succinctly and wisely,. One is to disbelieve in their existence.
The evidence to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. Scott Peck, M. Some things can be said about it: most cannot. My only alternative would have been to write nothing at all. But that, I believe, would have been the greater sin. These things need to be talked of.
The believer must not fear the power of evil that feeds these hideous creatures. But she must respect it. Those without Jesus Christ are in a different category regarding the devil and his fallen angels. And I do not hesitate to urge you to fly to Jesus swiftly. However, any serious biblical consideration of demons must, in some sense, be an inquiry of the figure of Satan, i. John Milton , the great English poet brought these creatures to our attention in Paradise Lost.
The matter of demons is a remarkably contemporary question because the post-Christian, Postmodern, Enlightenment-infused, materialistic, and cynical Western culture has evident difficulty in coming to terms with evil. The answer is quite simple if not mysterious, and plain if not perplexing: Yes, evil is a real and present danger. Even more, there are supernatural powers, authorities, and disembodied creatures that are quite active, though unseen, in the realm of humankind.
Their history is revealed. Their powers are limited. Their activities are often predictable. Their allegiance is known. Their abilities have been unmasked. And their future is decidedly grim. Demons are, indeed, most real and most active. As we will learn in this article, even this has been refuted by scholarly and trusted sources. However, for the purpose of argument let us concede this premise as hypothesis. But can we? It is a logical fallacy to seek to prove a universal negative.
For instance, we cannot posit, merely because demons are unseen, that they do not exist. However, there is compelling evidence for many things that are invisible and yet real.
For instance, we cannot see love. But go to the maternity ward of your local hospital. There, you see a young woman cradling an infant in her arms. As the mom looks into the little eyes of her baby what do you see? How about an entire world that is unseen? Scientists believe there are organisms beyond Nano-scale. Yet, each of these mysteries exists. The evidence for the existence of demons begins with the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.
Robert L. We as believers must never assume that everyone believes the Bible is true. Many do not believe. But if the Lord Jesus is who He said He was He is , and if He is risen from the dead He did , according to the testimony of the apostles, whose lives were changed dramatically ending in martyrdom for their faith save the apostle John who died a natural death, though persecuted greatly , and if over saw Him alive after He was crucified and buried, as it is historically recorded they did , then the Bible is true.
For Jesus said it was so. Thus, Mark wrote,. From the evidence of divine revelation, we must add recorded human experience. Experience by itself is an unreliable witness.
And when experience counters Scripture we must be on guard lest we fall for yet another scheme of the devil. But when Scripturally-validated experience—case studies, reports by scholarly sources, and reputable sources—is coupled with the testimony of the Holy Bible we have a most reliable case study from which to gather facts about demons. Two-thirds of them contained a face pareidolia. The remaining 12 did not. Participants who had initially reported more hallucination-like experiences were also more likely to report faces in the flashes of random noise.
They were also better at identifying those images that contained face pareidolia. In the next few years, Smailes plans to study situations in which people might be more likely to see faces in randomness. It has to create more of your reality for you. In this type of situation, Smailes says, the brain may be more likely to impose its own creations onto reality. But it can also completely miss things that are there. This is called inattentional blindness. Want to know how it works? Watch the video before you keep reading.
The video shows people in white and black shirts passing a basketball. Count how many times the people in white shirts pass the ball. How many did you see? Partway through the video, a person in a gorilla suit walks through the players. Did you see it? About half of all viewers who count passes while watching the video miss the gorilla completely. If you too missed the gorilla, you experienced inattentional blindness.
You were likely in a state called absorption. He is a psychologist in England at Goldsmiths University of London. Some people are more likely to become absorbed than others. And these people also report higher levels of paranormal beliefs, he says, including beliefs in ghosts. How could these things be related? Some strange experiences that people blame on ghosts involve unexplained sounds or movements.
A window may seem to open all by itself. In one study, French and his colleagues found that people with higher levels of paranormal beliefs and higher tendencies to get absorbed are also more likely to experience inattentional blindness. They also tend to have a more limited working memory. If you have trouble keeping lots of information in your memory or paying attention to more than one thing at once, then you risk missing sensory cues from the environment around you.
And you might blame any misperceptions that result on a ghost. Anyone may experience sleep paralysis, hallucinations, pareidolia or inattentional blindness. But not everyone turns to ghosts or other supernatural beings as a way to explain these experiences. Even as a child, Dom never thought he had come face to face with a real ghost. He went online and asked questions about what might have happened.
He used critical thinking. And he got the answers he needed. When an episode happens now, he uses a technique that Jalal developed. He just focuses on his breathing, tries to relax as much as possible and waits for it to pass. I just sleep and enjoy sleeping. She wondered if people with stronger critical-thinking skills might be less likely to believe in the paranormal. So she and her mentor, psychologist Philip Tyson, recruited students for a study about their paranormal beliefs. The students majored in a wide range of different fields.
Students with higher grades tended to have lower levels of paranormal beliefs, this study found. And students in the physical sciences, engineering or math tended not to believe as strongly as those studying the arts.
This trend also has been seen in research by others. However, previous research has shown that science students tend to have stronger critical-thinking skills than art students. And thinking critically can help you scout out likely causes for an unusual experience without involving ghosts or aliens, or Bigfoot. Even among science students and working scientists, though, paranormal beliefs persist.
So if someone tells you a ghost story this Halloween, enjoy it. And yet a growing number of respectable scientists refuse to write off the possibility that these orbs, which are starting to appear on cameras around the world, just might offer a fascinating glimpse into the unknown.
Earlier this year, the world's first conference on orbs took place in Sedona, Arizona, where several scientists controversially stated that they believed orbs were indeed a genuine paranormal phenomenon. Their conclusions, if correct, could have huge implications on the way we view the universe and our part in it. The experts say that just because something has not yet been scientifically proven, it doesn't mean that it is not real.
Professor William Tiller, a theoretical physicist who spent 35 years researching consciousness and matter at Stanford University in California, reminded the conference that what we see with our physical eyes comprises less then 10 per cent of the known universe. This is because human vision operates only within a limited range of the electromagnetic spectrum. For instance, we cannot see radio waves, which carry huge amounts of information, yet we know they exist.
Similarly, Miceal Ledwith, a former professor of Theology, who for ten years was President of Maynooth College at the National University of Ireland, reminded the sceptics that when, in , Dr Ignaz Semmelweis had claimed there might be some unseen link between surgeons who didn't wash their hands and the high rate of infection in childbirth, his mainstream colleagues ridiculed him.
There are not just a few pictures of orbs, which could easily be faked, but hundreds of thousands from all over the world. To date, Ledwith, who was also a member of the International Theological Commission at the Vatican, has a collection of more than , orb pictures. I believe this is because we can see the orbs only through the process in physics known as fluorescence.
The camera flash sparks this fluorescence process, making the orbs visible to the camera. Ledwith is still uncertain about what these orbs might actually be, but he has no doubt that they are some sort of paranormal apparition.
They may turn out to be the spirits of those who have passed on; or, as some spiritual teachers state, they might be spirits waiting to be born into a physical body,' says Ledwith. There are hundreds of different types of orb. Many of the scientists at the conference believe the orbs are plasma-like balls of energy - but an energy that can be detected by physical means, and which appears to have some control over its own shape and form.
It's certainly the case that they can often be photographed best at places of psychic significance. Perhaps they assist in the spiritual healing process. Take the case of Anna Donaldson, a freelance photographer who was commissioned to take pictures of Keith Watson, a medium who had been drafted in to help solve the disappearance of Sarah Payne, the little girl who was snatched while playing near her grandparents' home in West Sussex seven years ago.
The shoot took place at the exact spot where Sarah was last seen, because the medium had suggested that he 'might pick something up'.
Sure enough, when the pictures were developed, a mysterious glowing dot appeared in one of the crucial images. Still sceptical, Anna had the film and images analysed for technical faults, but again no one could provide a logical answer - until a member of the Psychic Institute suggested that the pictures could indeed be evidence of 'auras'.
In this case, Anna was told that the blueish colour of the orb suggested the presence of a very young soul. Still intrigued, Anna arranged to photograph Watson again - at the exact spot from where another young child had disappeared, this time in Greece. To her astonishment, the photographs again showed the presence of a blue orb.
And when Anna repeated the shoot the next day, in a bid to rule out a trick of the light, she got the same result - only this time it was two orange orbs. Terri Caldwell, a healer from Belbroughton, in Worcestershire, is among those who are convinced that orbs are a visible manifestation of human spirits.
But not everyone is convinced. Gary Schwartz, Professor of Psychiatry at Arizona University, has conducted many experiments into orbs with the help of optical scientist Katherine Creath and remains sceptical. That does not deter those, like Miceal Ledwith, who feel orbs are simply too widespread to be written off as a misunderstanding. It's illogical to think that what we cannot see is not real, because the human eye is able to receive only a very narrow part of the light spectrum.
Many animals can see in spectrums invisible to us. As Professor Heinemann summarised: 'Research into orbs is only in its infancy. But the photographs of these spirit emanations offer evidence - as close to scientific proof as we have ever come - in proving the existence of spiritual reality. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.
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