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This page will provide an historical background and explanation of the typical practices and religions which arise from spiritualism. This page is lengthy and contains a great deal of information so we recommend that you make the most of the provided table of contents to navigate to the section of this page that is most helpful in answering your questions.
“You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying. Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God”
It is a popular statement in the West to say, “I’m not religious, I’m ‘spiritual'”. But what does that mean? Usually, the common idea of ‘religion’ in the secular mind is the practice of observing rituals and ceremonies in an effort to please and/or appease a deity. This is the “religion” that is rejected by the spiritualist who then engages in the practices, rituals and observations which please and appease ‘spirits’ in order to gain insight into one’s future and/or destiny.
Spiritualism religions, movements and faith systems like the Spiritualist Church, Theosophy, New Thought, New Age, satanism and the occult are all rooted in the most ancient of polytheist religions in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and Babylon. Polytheist priests, mediums, seers, and diviners would examine the livers of animals and determine the fate of the gods for national affairs. As Babylonians worshipped the Sun, Moon and Stars, they created a zodiac whereby ancient astrologers (seers) could look to these cosmic gods to determine the fate of the gods over one’s future and lot in life.
This primitive form of divination would eventually provide the basis for animist spiritism or “native animism” whereby the tribe’s shaman or witch doctor spoke to the “spirits” (usually departed members of the tribe) to appease them or they might read a pile of bones or tea leaves to reveal the destiny which has been determined by the gods.
As this primitive eastern thought migrated into the west, a more popular version of Spiritualism would emerge throughout 19th century western culture in the form of Spiritualism. This relatively “new” method of divination, sorcery and necromancy would take the form of Tarot Card readers, newspaper astrologers, psychic mediums and even revived Wicca where witches and warlocks conduct occultic practices like “spirit cooking”.
Before we dive into the various spiritualism religions, their practices and the history of spiritualism, we should first start with a definition: According to the secular book “The Dictionary of Mysticism”, author Frank Gaynor defines spiritualism as follows:
"The science, philosophy and religion of continuous life, based upon the demonstrated fact of communication by means of mediumship, with those who live in the spirit world..."
In his 1966 book “Challenging Counterfeit”, Christian author Raphael Gasson, a former medium himself, defines a spiritualist as:
- One who believes in life after death.
- One who believes in the possibility of contacting, the spiritis of the dead.
- One who considers it his duty to spread this "good news" to mankind.
According to the Australian Spiritualism Society the following 7 points are considered the 7 principles of Spiritualism Religions. They form a general ‘essentials of the faith’ list for spiritualism and tend to consistently appear in the various spiritualism religions which emerge from this 19th century movement. At first glance they all appear reasonable and rational but is this consisten with God’s word. We will address each of these point by point in a moment:
Spiritualism practices and principles have been around since ancient Egyptian and Babylonian polytheism (2600-2900 B.C.). But spiritualism as we know it today got its start (almost accidentally) in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was more of a “revival” of spiritualism whereby men and women in the “burned over” district of the New York area had undergone a hammering of false signs and wonders at the camp meetings of the Restoration movement.
This same movement would give us the Mormons and Joseph Smith’s stories of angelic visions and magic golden plates, The Jehovah’s Witnesses and their many predictions of the end of the world, and the 7th Day Adventists with the false visions and prophecies of Ellen G. White. The area was at a high pitch and quite vulnerable to fantastic teaching and claims. Eventually by 1897, spiritualism would explode to more than 8 million followers (primarily women) despite repeated exposés of fraud such as the Rochester tappings and the Fox sisters.
One of these false teachers which arose, claimed to be speaking for God and spun fantastic tales of frequently conversing with spirits and angels while repeatedly visiting heaven and hell. He also claimed to have visions, dreams and apparitions of Jesus on Easter weekend April 6th 1744, whereby this Jesus told him to write a book to “reform” Christianity. The resulting ‘reforms’ introduced were the following anti-biblical heresies:
He would have an astronomical impact on 19th century cultic and occultic beliefs. He would influence the materialist Immanuel Kant, the cultist Joseph Smith who would incorporate Swedenborg’s concepts of eternal marriage, 3 heavens and celestial heaven into Mormonism. Edward Hunter, the third Presiding Bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claimed in his book “Faithful Steward” that he heard Joseph Smith say that he was familiar with Swedenborg’s writings.
Swedenborg also had an impact on the missionary in Johnny Appleseed, Madam Blavatsky and her spritualism religion of theosophy, and Ralph Waldo Emerson and his transcendentalism which would the single starting point of two theologically aberrant Christian movements: Charismatic Word Faith and Seeker Sensitive Churches
One of the earliest “Quacks” in American history. He believed the tides of earth sun and moon affected the human body and that there was a natural energy transference between all animate and inanimate beings which he called “animal magnetism”. Eventually this phenomena that he believed in would be called Mesmerism.
Early on, he would inject patients with a form of iron and then guide it around their bodies with external magnets. Because his first patient claimed that it made her feel better, it started to cause quite a stir.
His practice involved inducing trance-like states in patients, which led to the term “mesmerize” being associated with hypnotism. When in fact mesmerism would be foundational for the later invention of a trance susceptibility called hypnotism, a practice which would become wildly popular amongst spiritualists even to this day.
His bizarre use of long metal rods and magnets for healing (an early inspiration for divining rods or “water witching”) along with his tales of the spirit world would be the primary inspiration for many spiritualist charlatans which would follow soon after.
To the spiritualist, humans never die, they just pass on into the next sphere of existence which is the spirit world. This isn’t a new idea, it first appeared in ancient Egyptian and Babylonian polytheism. Modern spiritists, like their ancient polytheist counterparts, created practices around interacting with these spirits; for the ancient polytheist it was the temple priest or shaman who acted as the ‘go-between’ for mortals and spirits and for the modern spiritualist it is the medium, psychic or Tarot card reader.
The Lord makes it abundantly clear that all of these practices are forbidden. They are spiritually (and sometimes physically) dangerous in that they all open doors to the demonic realm and once these spirits are invited into the lives of the participants, the will not leave of their own accord. Libraries are packed with books on how to summon spirits and demons but there are very few books, if any, written about how to get rid of them once you’ve summoned them.
"When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you."
These practices leave the practitioner open and vulnerable to malicious spirits which appear as “angels of light” or they pretend to be the spirit of a deceased loved one, in either case claiming to have “profound truths” which usually are nothing more than messages of contradiction to the Gospel and to the word of God. Not all of these manifestations of spirits are legitimate, many times the experiences are found to be fraudulent gimmicks in order to make quick and easy money for the charlatan ‘psychic’ which we shall see.
"And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works."
Astrology – This practice is derived from the ancient astral religions of the Egyptians and Babylonians. The latter of which created a zodiac ca. 516 B.C. which segmented the calendar into 12 parts according to the visible constellations along the ecliptic. The Egyptians were the first to align the constellations to their gods and events in their societies but nearly every ancient polytheist nation made deities of the sun, moon and stars. It was the Babylonians who actually turned astrology into early pagan pseudo-science. Both the zodiac and astrology was eventually imported into Egyptian polytheism
"And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven."
During the boom of spritualism religions in the late 19th century, astrology experienced a curious “revival” only this time it was part of the main stream practice in western nations (many of whom claimed to be “Christian” nations!). Back in the days of the newspaper, the astrology section was the most often read apart from the comics and sports pages.
Today it is common in everyday conversation to overhear someone speaking about their “sign” and then expounding on their character traits according to their sign. The problem is, there are at least 4 glaring problems with astrology:
This polytheist fatalism was a foundational component of the ancient Greek philosophy of the Platonists, Stoics and Manichaens. Strangely, the early Christian theologian Augustine, who was a former member of all 3 Greek philosophical and religious systems would allow this fatalism to permeate his view of the Scriptures and his new theology known early on as “Augustinianism” but which today is referred to as the hard determinism of “Calvinism” or “Reformed Theology“. Prior to Augustine, this fatalism was only seen amongst polytheist religion.
"You are wearied with your many counsels; Let now the astrologers, Those who prophesy by the stars, Those who predict by the new moons, Stand up and save you from what will come upon you. “Behold, they have become like stubble, Fire burns them; They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame; There will be no coal to warm by Nor a fire to sit before!
One of the more common practices of spiritualism today in the west is palm reading. In major cities across America you can see little strip mall stores with a “palmist” sign and a map of the human palm out front. This practice, like astrology, is quite fatalistic in that your future is already written for you and clues to that future can be found in the lines on your palm.
This practice also finds its beginnings in Babylonian polytheism. Babylonian diviners were early exegetes of dreams, omens and reading the liver of a sheep or goat like it was a written tablet. They would examine the shapes of the veins and the lines they would form and from this they would determine the disposition of the gods. Like astrology, they would turn this practice into a religious pseudo-science that future polytheists would adopt. For instance, the Greeks and the Romans both employed Etruscan divination for the reading of livers and their formations. These livers came from the many animal sacrifices to their gods.
While the Babylonians were reading livers, the ancient Hindus of the Indus valley were reading palms and the various lines and shapes that they formed in order to determine one’s own personal destiny. Many centuries later, far eastern diviners would read tea leaves for intuition or events. This practice founds its way into 19th century spiritualism and like many of the other practices, uses the deceptive practice of a “cold read” of the person requesting the service and then “suggesting” general truths while leaning heavy into those ‘truths’ which elicited an enthusiastic response from the customer.
A seance is small group of people usual gathered around a person thought to be in contact with the “spirit world” called a medium. This medium is usually thought to be possess psychic powers and offers their services for hire. The medium instructs the group on what they need to do to optimize the chances of successfully contacting a spirit e.g. close their eyes, join hands, chant an incantation etc. This spirit is typically supposed to be the spirit of a departed person close to one of the members of the group. Sometimes the phenomenon of materialization may occur whereby the spirit makes an actual physical appearance in the room.
A couple of notable historical figures reveal that the United States has been under the influence of occultic spiritualism at the highest levels. Mary Todd Lincoln used to organize seances to attempt to speak to her son who died in the war and Nancy Reagan sought an astrologer before every move that President Reagan made. Spiritist researcher William J. Petersen has this to say about seances within spiritism:
"After. a time of meditation, an object may move. Sometimes it is a glass on the table. Sometimes it is a small board on which a message is automatically written. Then the medium may go into a trance. His body may seem to be possessed by the spirit. When he opens his mouth, the voice you hear is different from the medium's voice. In fact, the entire personality of the medium seems to have changed.”
This process of attempting to “contact the dead” is not new nor was it new in the 19th century when it experienced a revival with the new spiritualism religions. This practice goes back thousands of years in the form of necromancy and sorcery. There is even a record of a seance in the scriptures which was held in rebellion to the Lord and ended the life of Israel’s first King, King Saul.
"Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.” And his servants said to him, “Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at En-dor.” Then Saul disguised himself by putting on other clothes, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, “Conjure up for me, please, and bring up for me whom I shall name to you.” ...v11 Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.”
The truth is that the dead cannot be contacted by the living as the Lord makes it clear in Hebrews 9:27 that “It is appointed once for man to die and after this is the judgement” and Jesus describes the afterlife as a great fixed chasm between the righteous (those who trusted in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins) and the unrighteous (those who trusted in false religions, themselves, money etc). Those that attempt to contact the dead show a clear failure to trust the God of scripture and is one of the reasons why Bible-believing Christians condemn the Roman Catholic practices of praying to Mary or the saints who have died and are now in the place of the righteous.
"And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there[o] is no light in them."
The word ‘hypnosis’ was coined by James Braid in the 1840s using the Greek word ‘hypnos’ which means ‘sleep’. He rejected Mesmer’s theory of animal magnetism but realized that through this farce of magnetic treatment still seemed to produce results based on the ‘power of suggestion’. He then engaged in the practice of using psychological states of focused attention, thus attempting to turn it into a ‘science’ which opened it up to mainstream avenues like psychology, therapy and even weight loss.
The truth is, this practice has been around since the most ancient of pagan polytheist practices of the Egyptians, Greeks, Hindus and even the Buddhists. The Egyptians had “sleeping temples” where the practitioner would sleep in a special temple and drop into an altered state of consciousness whereby they would encounter dreams, visions and even ‘visitations’ of the god (Isis, Imhotep and Serapis) himself. The Greek temple priests practiced ‘sleep’ or ‘dream’ healing and the Hindus and Buddhists still to this day practice deepened meditation resulting in an altered state of consciousness or “hypnosis”.
Hypnotism involves surrendering control of the mind and achieving an “altered state of consciousness” as a human being. This leaves a person wide open to demonic suggestion and in some extreme cases demonic possession. Of course these nefarious fallen spirits do not come with a visible or audible label on them which identifies them as demonic, but the word of God does identify them as demonic in that any spirit that is not of Him and that does not profess Jesus as Lord of Creation, is satanic and is, in fact, the spirit of Antichrist. Therefore any practice which leaves us vulnerable to their suggestion is to be avoided.
Automatic Writing occurs when a spirit takes control of a human who then writes uncontrollably without conscious effort or awareness of what information is coming through or ending up on the page. That information is usually outside of the knowledge, training or expertise of the medium producing written works that the author supposedly could not have known previously.
The earliest form of automatic recording dates back to c. 800 B.C when the Oracle of Delphi (in Pythia) entered trance states and claimed to deliver messages from the Greek god Apollo. This practice by the Pythians was recorded multiple times over the centuries following.
However, it was Franz Mesmer mentioned above who would begin to make the “trance-like” state a staple of early spiritualism. It was then made a popular practice by mediums in the spiritualism revival of the 19th century.
Psychologist Louis E. Bisch states that the phenomena of automatic writing can be achieved by psychological “disassociation” which is a practice where an individual can carry out one motor skill without being psychologically attuned to that motor skill but rather seemingly paying attention to some other practice. An example of this is talking, eating, putting on makeup all while driving a car, navigating turns, operating turn signals, operating brake accelerator clutch etc. In short, it would be what in the common vernacular would be called “auto pilot”. Some can write notes, draw pictures etc. while speaking to someone else about a completely different topic. In Bisch’s words:
"Disassociation is common to many normals but automatic writing is liable to be displayed by people who are prone to hysteria, in which such proclivities are heightened. Give such a person a pencil, then talk to him. Such a person will answer the questions, write about something else and talk about a distinctly different matter...With one part of his conscious mind he was talking, with the other he wrote. The medium is canny enough to take advantage of such facts of psychology and make use of them often to the detriment of the client"
It isn’t just the practice of automatic writing that we are to be aware of and completely avoid, it is the very books that such a practice has produced which we are to mark and avoid as well.
Any written work that comes from this practice will only introduce deception into a person’s life: for the unbeliever it will draw them away from repentance and faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins i.e. eternal life. Or, as a believer (one with serious discernment issues) it will pull that person into a life of deception, worldly thinking and, because it is an abomination to the Lord, severe discipline. This video from Doreen Virtue, a former spiritist will go into more detail on this subject.
The following are books that were written via channelling i.e. the author went into a trance and gave motor control of writing over to the unknown spirit (demon) which then provided the content for the work – notice the “Biblical” names used to pull the unwitting religious person into the ruse; names like ‘God’, ‘Jesus’, ‘Abraham’, ‘The Angel____’ etc:
When I was about 11 years old, I discovered a deck of cards in a bright yellow box on our family coffee table. To this day I do not know how they got there but I come from a big family so I just assumed they belonged to a sibling. I opened the pack and discovered amazing bizarre pictures on the cards that didn’t look at all like a regular set of cards. I read the instructions which told me that these cards are called “the Tarot” and that they could tell me my future if I laid them out in a specific way. I was immediately fascinated and began to offer my friends in the neighborhood a “reading”.
This went on for a few days when suddenly I began to experience bizarre psychological episodes where I had troubling blackness which appeared to be assaulting me day and night. These terrifying experiences would go on for days until embarrassingly, I mentioned them to Mom. We were a Catholic family so I expected to be in trouble but instead she said I should probably burn them! I went into the backyard, dug a hole, threw pack of Tarot cards in it and burned them.
Within a very short while these black/dark episodes would start to abate until they very rarely happened at all. Shortly after this, I asked a spiritist friend of my sister about this whole ordeal with Tarot cards and her only response was, “It sounds like you got a hold of a bad deck! This is the sad naivety of spiritualism. When these clearly demonic effects take place in their lives, they treat the gateways as if they were nothing more than bad pieces of fruit. This is also the case with witchcraft whereby they believe there are “white” witches and “dark” witches but the Bible makes no such distinction. All of witchcraft is an abomination to the Lord.
Eventually I would put my faith in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and by the grace of God through prayer, repentance and taking my thoughts captive these demonic attacks would go away altogether. Through reading and applying the word to my life as a bible-believing Christian, I would grow in discernment which would help me to recognize occultic spiritualism and warn others.
"I will set my face against anyone who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute themselves by following them, and I will cut them off from their people. A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads."
Tarot cards are elaborately illustrated cards with symbolic characters on them which are used to forecast the future of the person for whom they are “read”. They have become one of the most popular methods in psychic shops around the U.S. and work in a very similar way to astrology, psychic “readings” and palmistry.
There are two types of Tarot decks, the Major Arcana which consists of 22 picture cards as previously described and which have no relation whatsoever to each other within the deck. The second Tarot deck is called the Minor Arcana which is 52 cards (formerly 57) and which is divided into 4 suits: diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs. Originally they were coins, cups, swords and staffs which represented commerce, spirituality, war and agriculture. Tarot first appeared on the scene in the 1300s in Italy and a century later in France as a sort of “parlour game”. However, the exact origin is lost to us. Some assert that these were originally the Egyptian “Book of Thoth” who was their god of wisdom, others believe them to come from the mystical Hebrew Cabala and still some others say the Bohemians. (Dennis Wheatley, “The Devil and All His Works”, 1971)
In the Spiritualism revival of the 19th century, they were widely used as tools of divination and in the early 20th century Aleister Crowley, the grandfather of satanism, produced a customized deck of Tarot cards specifically for the purpose of conjuring spirits. (Though he never shared how to make them leave once they were conjured).
Tarot cards and similar systems (including destiny cards or astrology) are categorized as tools of divination even though they may be packaged and sold as “fun games”. They attempt to reveal hidden knowledge apart from God whereby the Lord says in His word that the “hidden things belong to the Lord”. Tarot cards also foster reliance on fate or spiritual forces rather than divine providence just as we cited in Isaiah chapter 8 previously on this page “…Should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”
Also, if there happens to be event that comes to pass which a user read on a card previously, it is clearly one of two things: deception by dark spirits which use these things to lure people away from repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus alone or secondly, it is just a matter of coincidence. I found when I did readings that they were very basic, general and generic in the same way palm readings, psychic channels or more recently charismatic :prophetic words” work. They are so general that something is bound to be right in the same way that a stopped clock is correct twice a day.
Imagine being in a dark room and summoning a loved one who has passed away. The medium has his or her hands on the table, eyes closed and into the dim red light of the room arises a trumpet, through which the spirit of a deceased loved one (or some other spirit begins to hold forth with so-called secret information and the participants in this process are filled with awe.
This practice of spiritualism was exposed as a fraudulent phenomenon by a former medium named M. Lamar Keene who claimed to invent the technique in his 1976 book “The Psychic Mafia”. He describes his own approach to pull off the trumpet speaking scam:
"Some mediums just sit or stand in the darkness and talk through the trumpets...Our trumpets had a luminous band so that the sitters could see them whirling around the room...The trick was the old black art business. My partner and I and other confederates wore head-to-toe black outfits which rendered us invisible in the darkness..."
Table turning worked the same way as trumpet speaking. It was consistently found to be the work of a team that worked with the “psychic” and sometimes the lifting/tilting device was easily hid in the center column of the table and the movement began at the signal of the medium whose hands were on the table along with the participants. This workded until escape artist Harry Houdini became a whistle blower on these practices in order to warn unsuspecting dupes from spending their money on these fraudulent services.
In the 1920s Harry Houdini, the famous escape artist and magician set out to show the fraud of mediums – even giving away many of their most cherished tricks which they used to scam money. He once said “Up the present time everything that I have investigated has been the result of deluded brains.”
When I was a boy in the 1970s I recall watching a television show called “That’s Incredible” which would feature many so-called psychics to come on and move the pages of a telephone book (you might have to Google telephone book) or bend spoons or move pencils on a table without touching them. It was really quite “incredible” to me as they seemed to accomplish this from a few feet away without touching the table and while in front of a live studio audience. I remember thinking, “There has to be some sort of power or force causing such amazing things to occur!”
This fascination with spoon benders and page turners would all come crashing down (along with the show “That’s Incredible” when a man named James Randi who was himself a magician, began to offer a $10,000 check (about $100,000 today) to any “psychic” that could prove the legitimacy of their psychic powers in a secure and controlled environment. Mr Randi died a few years back and despite numerous attempts, no psychic ever passed a single test. He died with the check still intact and uncashed. This exact broadcast dating back to my childhood (saved by good ol’ YouTube) was a major eye-opener for me.
Because of the exposé of Houdini, Keene, Randi and others, it was an eye-opener for many others and so many of these hoax practices would temporarily fade away only to be replaced by other methods to separate unsuspecting psychic supporters from their money. In their book “Fakers”, authors Danny Korem and Paul Meier list 11 deceptive practices that spiritist charlatans use to imitate supernatural phenomena:
It should be noted here that although nearly all of these practices of spiritualism religions involve sheisters trying make a quick buck or a name for themselves, there are also instances of real supernatural phenomena taking place usually even to the shock of the medium herself. The supernatural is real but the word of God reveals that these spirits are not of Him and any spirit that is not of Him is a demonic spirit. It bears repeating that attempting to contacting the spirit world like its a game or titillating hobby can result in demonic disaster. Here is an example from Scripture which reveals the source of a child medium’s “gifting”:
"It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. 17 Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, “These men are bond-servants of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you [g]the way of salvation.” 18 She continued doing this for many days. But Paul was greatly annoyed, and turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” And it came out at that very moment. 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities..."
This little girl was demonically possessed by a spirit which provided her with powers of divination whereby it simply communicated to and through her what it saw in the unseen spiritual realm. It could clearly see who the Apostle Paul and his companion were and actually spoke the truth but because it was coming through such a foul source, their message was at risk of being discredited. The point is, the demonic realm is real and for the careless person it is real dangerous, especially for someone who is not a believer in Jesus and thus without His protection.
Despite the warnings of spiritual danger which arises from “playing” with spirits for fun and despite the exposés by former spiritists on the fraudulent practices of spiritualism, Americans were still trying to communicate with spirits in simpler, faster ways. The Ouija Board was created and marketed as exactly that, only without requiring a medium of any kind.
The Ouija Board contains giant letters and numbers and a supplied planchet. Typically, there are 3-5 participants like a DIY seance, all of whom place their fingers on the edges of the triangular planchet which has a hole in the middle to supposedly allow for the contacted “spirit” to slide the planchet around the board along with all participant’s fingers and spell out answers to the questions asked by the participants.
Skeptics have repeatedly stated that the Ouija Board is powered via “ideometer”. That is, the participants unknowingly slide or go along with someone else’s slide to various letters of their own choosing. However, this is naive thinking at best. This “game” puts spiritually ignorant people in the same vulnerable position of danger as seances, hypnotism, tarot cards and other practices of spiritualism.
Attempting to contact the dead by any means opens the door of the will for nefarious spirits to enter a person’s life and wreak havoc, often times the torment cannot be abated and in some instances can result in demonic possession, for which there is no cure apart from the deliverance offered by the Lord Jesus through His people.
Despite this real danger, the Ouija Board was marketed as an entertaining user-friendly spirit communication tool but in reality it was formed by combining practices like table-turning, automatic writing and seances and like these other spiritualism practices, the Ouija Board tried to tap into an American fascination with the afterlife in the 19th century which continues today.
It was invented and patented by Elijah Bond who had an interest in the esoteric and his sister-in-law Helen Peters Nosworthy who was a medium and a devout spiritist. As the story goes, the two of them had a seance using the board whereby the planchet named itself “Ouija” which means “yes-yes” (yes, no and ‘goodbye’ are preset words on the board which can be selected. Oui in French is yes, Ja in German is yes.
Bond’s Ouija board idea would be funded for mass production by Charles Kennard and then heavily marketed nationwide by William Fuld. It was originally sold by the Kennard Novelty Company but was purchased by Parker Brothers and sold as a children’s toy. Today it is still sold as a “game” by Hasbro.
Bond would go on to launch a business called the “Swastika Novelty Company” where he would embrace the swastika as a primitive spiritualist “good luck” symbol. This symbol originally comes from Hinduism and is still seen throughout India today. Under this company name he would also create another spirit board called “Nirvana” all of which revealed his fanscination with esoteric mysticism and spiritualism which are demonic in nature. The Ouija Board is anything but a game, it is a dangerous tool which opens the spiritually ignorant (foolish) person up to the dangers of the demonic realm.
Spiritualism religions deny that their beliefs are against the Bible and in some cases claim that these practices are actually “compatible” with Christianity and the Bible. But are they? Let’s take a look.
1. The Fatherhood of God – To the spiritualist, “God” can be anything you want it, her, him to be as they, like their New Age Spirituality cousins, are largely syncretic (all expressions of god are equally valid). This stands in sharp contrast to the word of God which states that no one comes to the Father (God) but through Jesus alone the only eternally begotten Son:
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks [a]a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.”
2. The brotherhood of man – There is a form of “brotherhood” amongst mankind but according to God’s word, there are either children of God who have been born again by faith in the Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of their sin:
The Lord says that those who are not His are actually “sons of the devil” and this position clearly reveals that there isn’t one single “brotherhood” but two brotherhoods – brotherhood of Christ and a brotherhood of satan:
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
“The one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
3. The Communion of sprits and the ministry of angels – This is the idea that spirits and angels can be contacted by “mediums” or “psychics” and they will “commune” with mankind through that medium. We will look closer at this practice in the next section as it has been shown to be a fraudulent practice by those seeking to earn money from contacting one’s dead relatives. The Lord tells us in His word that after we die, we only experience judgement if we are not trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins.
"...But now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him."
4. Continuous existence of the human soul – According to spiritualism religions, the human soul goes on after life on earth. This soul can drift, wander, haunt or be contacted (c.f. native animism beliefs) some forms of spiritualism claim that there are levels of heaven and levels of a “purgatory-like” hell (see principle 6 to follow).
The Bible does say that the human soul/spirit goes on after life on earth, either to eternal separation from God, the author and sustainer of life which is agony, a place of eternal death called hell because of their rejection of the Son of God and His forgiveness. The second group are those that have been born of God through faith in Jesus and they go on to eternal life and joy in the presence of God, the giver of all good things.
"He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
"And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. "
5. Personal responsibility – This principle of Spritualism religions is to state that the spiritualist has a personal responsibility to the world around them. This can be met by sharing the truths of spiritualism or “paying things forward” or “sending out positive vibes” (similar to the New Age approach).
"And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. "
As Spiritualism isn’t a monolithic religious system but rather has variances and nuances across each group, there can’t be a definitive statement made about what this responsibility entails or how it is met exactly or even what the consequences are for not meeting one’s own personal responsibility. The spiritualist cult of satanism might have a much darker form of “personal responsibility” than that of the simple spiritist practitioner (though both versions serve the same evil spirit).
Jesus gives a brilliant statement which spells out the personal responsibility of the unbeliever, to follow Him and for the believer to deny self and carry one’s cross day, continuing to follow Him:
"Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross [b]daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."
6. Compensation and retribution for all good and evil deeds done here on earth – This principle of Spiritualism religions states that in the afterlife a person will be recompensed for their “good and evil” deeds. The only problem with this is, there isn’t a moral code within Spiritualism religions which indicates whether a particular behavior is either good or evil. Most likely, they, like the atheist, have to borrow the moral code from Judaism and Christianity which was laid out by the Lord to Moses. e.g. Thou shalt not commit murder, steal, commit adultery, etc. but most likely, the spiritualist will pick and choose which commands they agree with and skip the rest.
The other issue is that there is no clear understanding of exactly how this compensation and retribution actually takes place in the afterlife. The original Spiritualists (Swedenborg) might say that one attains to a particular level of heaven or encounters a particular level of purgatory-like hell to burn impurities off etc. but this is not universally held by all spiritualism religions.
"But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him."
The idea of paying for one’s own sins and earning one’s own way by good deeds is in direct contradiction to the word of God which states that no one is good and that all are unrighteous and evil – requiring a Savior which is the Son of God Himself.
7. Eternal progress open to every soul
One of the common beliefs among Spiritualism religions is in a form of reincarnation. Often times spiritists will go to a psychic medium and allow themselves to go under hypnosis to reveal who they were in former life. Spoiler alert: it is always someone great and grandiose which contradicts this principle of “progression” since in their past life they were someone greater than they are at the point of contacting the medium.
"...But now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him."
The Bible is clear about what happens to a person when they leave this earth – they are held in account to the Maker of their souls. It is for this reason that all men and women are strongly urged to reconcile with the One true God preached in the Bible as soon as possible as our very next breath isn’t guaranteed.
The Spiritualist Church is the more formalized version of spiritualism. These churches are mostly found in the U.S. and in the U.K. – both of which are experiencing a “revival” of sorts in spiritist occultism.
These churches practice the use of mediums, holding séances and spirit communication. Organizations like the Spiritualists’ National Union and the National Spiritualist Association of Churches are Spiritualist Church organizations.
New Thought was a 19th century metaphysical healing movement founded by mental healer Phineas Quimby who was a “disciple” of Mesmerism. He was extremely influential on many of the Spiritualism Religions that followed him (see chart). He borrowed metaphysical aspects of Spiritualism but shifted his focus to mind power, healing and the law of attraction.
This chart of influence shows just how far and wide, Phineas Quimby’s influence would reach. His New Thought would lead to the Christian Science cult, the Unity School of Christianity cult (which borrowed heavily from both New Thought and Christian Science), E.W. Kenyon’s Charismatic Word Faith cult, and in a bizarre twist, he even had an indirect influence on the Nation of Islam cult as well.
Yet another Spiritualism religion emerged in the 19th century: The Theosophical Movement. “Theosophy” as it has been called was founded in 1875 by Helena P. Blavatsky, sometimes referred to as simply “Madam Blavatsky”. The word Theosophy means “wisdom of God” – which theosophists believe is found in all religions. This is a comparatively new iteration of an ancient polytheist idea that all gods are representative of their particular ‘main’ god. For the Egyptians this would have been Ra, for the Babylonians this was Marduk and for the Greeks this would have been Zeus. This is also comparative to the Hindu idea that all gods and all creation comprises Brahama.
Theosophy has no ‘scripture’ which it follows but rather they tend to listen to the wisdom of adepts’ which theosophists believe to be ‘perfected spiritually, intellectually and are physically the ‘flower’ of evolution (The Theosophical Movement p 112). Blavatsky was the first to hear from these perfected beings which told her that God could not be known on a personal level because this god they claimed was “THE” God who is not a personal god. This stands in direct contradiction to the God of Scripture:
"Then God said, let us make man in Our image according to Our likeness."
Blavatsky also claimed that these beings taught her that man consists of 7 total parts:
These adepts also presented Blavatsky with a different Jesus Christ than the Jesus Christ preached by the Apostles in the Bible. The Jesus of Theosophy is “no man but the divine principle in every human being” (Studies in Occultism, Blavatsky p. 134). She claims that “Christ” is not Jesus’ unique title as scripture says but rather it is an office that he occupied. This contradicts scripture which says that Jesus was no mere ‘concept’ but God dwelling among men:
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
In addition to rejection the God of Scripture and the Son of God preached in Scriptures, Theosophy also rejects the Biblical Gospel which tells mankind everywhere how they can be saved from their imminent eternal damnation. Instead they teach of reincarnation which is in keeping with nearly all of Spiritualism and Spiritualism Religions. Like Hinduism, they believe that we are living in current conditions which are the direct result of our behavioral choices in past lives.
Reincarnation is mankind’s (or a demon’s) attempt to solve the problem of evil but in reality it only perpetuates it because every evil act requires a reciprocal evil act to ‘work it off’ of one’s Karma – meaning that in order for the world to be ‘perfected’ it would require a world of evil doers to carry out ‘correcting’ behavior on those being perfected and then that evil world needs another evil population to carry out evil deeds and on and on and on it goes.
The rejection of God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit and the Gospel once for all delivered to the Saints carries with it some particularly heavy ramifications which should not be ignored:
"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was called the “Sleeping Prophet” because he would lie down and enter a hypnotic state to provide answers and “insights” on just about anything he was asked: health, the future, life, death etc. He would seem to draw on informational resources that were far beyond his training and education and once he was awakened from this trance state, he had little to no memory of what was said.
Cayce was the primary driver and developer of a Spiritualist religion known as the New Age. He considered himself a Christian as most cult founders do. Based on his practices it isn’t surprising to learn that New Age practitioners employ many occultic methods in order to achieve a “oneness with the universe” such as crystals, Tarot cards, meditation (Eastern Hindu style), psychic energies, Reiki healing techniques etc.
In reality, New Age is simply a mix of hinduism, occult and pseudo-Christian religious systems and beliefs. Monotheism is abhorrent to the New Ager as they believe that there are many gods that lead to “The One” or “The Infinite” which closely resembles Hindu pantheism. To this end, Cayce’s teachings included
Any claimed communicated revelation outside of Biblical authority should be rejected outright especially when it introduces doctrines or “hidden truths” which contradict or subvert scripture.
"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private [a]interpretation, 21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but [b]holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit."
Cayce’s New Age is not a harmless “spiritual” alternative to “organized religion” as some assert. Rather, like other cults, it is a deceptive counterfeit of Christianity mixed with the occult which causes it to draw or tempt the natural/fleshly person looking to control the uncontrollable. New Age appears to be light but in truth it brings great darkness:
"And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works."
Over the course of time spiritualists have come to embrace ancient pagan practices – even spawning a satanic cult in California called the church of satan under Aleister Crowley understudy Anton Lavey.
Aleister Crowley was an occultist “warlock” of sorts who infamously wrote books on how to conjure demons – even driving his own wife into an insane asylum after conjuring a demon to possess her. He was called the “most wicked man alive” by the press in the 1940s as he was said to be selfish, domineering and cruel.
"Sometimes I hate myself. I am perplexed. Satan, get out...”
He is cited as an inspiration to the Beatles (appears on Sgt Pepper album cover), Led Zepplin (Jimmy page purchased and lived in his vacant house) , Jay Z, Beyonce, Elvis, Ozzie Osbourne, Mick Jagger and many others. He believed himself to be the antichrist (son of the devil) and believed that satan would come and establish his throne at any time…this all came crashing down when he was on his deathbed and aware that death was imminent:
Spiritualism, New Age, Theosophy, satanism and the others mentioned are all attempts by mankind to bring the uncontrollable under their own control whether it is the future, the afterlife, loss of loved ones or just power over the will of other people. The truth is, these things are outside of our control and can make us feel helpless but seeking dangerous and demonic means to attempt to bring them under our control will only result in more uncontrollable chaos and pain.
It is for this reason that the God of all creation, the Maker of mankind exhorts his creation to avoid this destructive behavior and instead repent of our sinful hearts and put our faith in Him i.e. trust not the stars but rather the Maker of the stars. Click the “How to Know You Have Eternal Life” button below to see how you can put yourself in the safety and protection of the Living God. There is good news for fearful, lost and broken no matter what background you come from.
Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?
"Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?” says the Lord God, “and not that he should turn from his ways and live?"
No one receives eternal life and eternal presence with God (from Whom all good things come – James 1:17), by belonging to the right church, denomination, world religion, or by having a particular world view. Rather only those who trust in the Lord Jesus (preached by the Apostles in the Bible) for their own sin.
We will not trust in a Savior for sins that we either don’t believe we have or that we think aren’t deserving of hell. But the Bible says that ALL have sin and the wages of that sin is eternal separation from God (death). The good news is that the Bible says that you can know that YOU have eternal life. Click the button below to see if you are genuinely saved from your sins according to the Bible: