Q. Are Ghosts or Spirits Good or Bad?
A. Both. There are good” ghosts” (spirits) sent to us by God. These spirits appear for our benefit, as the appearances of Angels as we see in Scripture or even the souls of the departed as reported by Saints.Then there are the appearances of the Immacualte Conception-Our Lady of Lourdes or Fatima. Then there are also bad “ghosts” which are really demonic spirits sent to lead us astray, doubt Our Lord and His power, or cause other sorts of mischief.
We are warned against attempting to contact spirits for the simple reason that Satan and his demons are only too happy to comply with this request. So, we are not contacting benign entities but rather demons.
“Ghost” is simply another word for “spirit” (geist means “spirit” in German). Spirit is of three kinds:
- The human soul/spirit which combined with the body make up a human being until death
- The Spiritual being that has no body, such as angels and Demons (fallen angels)
- The infinite Spirit, or God, of Whom the Third Person is the Holy Ghost.
When someone asks whether ghosts exist, he usually is thinking of the human spirit of someone who has died. Fr. John Hardon defines “ghost” as
“a disembodied spirit. Christianity believes that God may, and sometimes does, permit a departed soul to appear in some visible form to people on earth. Allowing for legend and illusion, there is enough authentic evidence, for example in the lives of the saints, to indicate that such apparitions occur. Their purpose may be to teach or warn, or request some favor of the living” (Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, Modern Catholic Dictionary (Garden City, New York: John A. Hardon, ©1980) published by Doubleday and Co., p. 229).
The last sentence of Fr. Hardon’s definition implicitly gives the Church’s teaching on ghosts. Appearances of the departed souls of human beings are understood with regard to our salvation and by the purpose and power of God. Ghosts can come to us for good, but we must not attempt to conjure or control spirits.
The Church teaches that “spiritism,” seeking recourse or power from ghosts, is contrary to the virtue of religion (i.e., the Commandment “You shall have no other gods before Me”). And because you will probably snag a demon rather than some vaguely benign spirit.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church
2117 “All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others — even if this were for the sake of restoring their health — are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity” .
Thus, while the Church recognizes the existence of spirits / “ghosts”, we are not to intentionally seek them out — for good or for ill. Because this is condemned as a form of divination.
Leviticus 20:6 ” ‘I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people.
Deuteronomy 18:9 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in [a] the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. 12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD,
So, “ghosts” can be good or evil.
1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
The Catholic Church has documents and priests trained to help us test the spirits. Obviously any spirit that blatantly contradicts our Faith is from evil. So, also is any spirit that inspires in our hearts disbelief in God, Jesus, the Catholic Faith and Church, or even doubt.
Anyone who, without seeking spirit contact sees them anyway should find a good and holy spiritual confessor/director.
Filed under: Satan | Tagged: clairvoyant, demons, ghost, mediums, spirits
i really need more information on these spiritual items because many prophets are rising we are not sure weather there are from God or not.Please reply my email.
May God bless you
My house has been blessed by a Catholic Priest. I still get visited from spirits. I am Catholic. I really need to know how to test them. What documentations should I ask the priest for?
Dear Jianna,
I honestly don’t know. The one thing I would do is bless my house every day or night with Holy water by sprinking it in each room, try to make sure my life and everyone in the family or in the house was as holy as possible by going to confession and receiving Holy Communion frequently. Keep Holy Water by the door and bless yourselves with it going and coming. Beyond that you should consult your priest and ask for a referral if he doesn’t know what else to do. You may have to be persistent to find a priest who will take you seriously.
Do you have Holy order of priests near you? Opus Dei, Fraternity of St. Peter, Miles Christi, are ones I know personally but I am sure there are others. No doubt you are faithful in prayer also. I will ask my confessor too.
Dear Jianna,
This may sound crazy, but I will share my experience. You may want to pray specifically if there is something in your house that needs to be removed. Ask the Lord to reveal to you something that you might not even be aware of. If you have children, you may want to pray about movies, video games, pornography, mystical items (such as magic 8 balls, horoscope or ouija boards, dungeon and dragons games, etc.) or even friends with whom someone in your home associates. They might have a spirit that is attaching and entering your home. One of my children had a friend in a abusive home and when she would visit she would come home with a violent nature attached to her. I had to address it several times and pray over her and finally decided it was not in our best interest that she be in that home, even for a short visit!
When my oldest daughter was in 6th grade she got a computer. It was the beginning of the internet and she began with basically just email. She started having horrible nightmares and night time became hell for us. I was at a bible study that taught about all the things I spoke about above. At first I thought what a load of bunk. As we went through several months of this I began to pray just that prayer. “Reveal to me the source of this distress to her and if it is something here….Show me!” I even slept in her room a few nights and I, too experienced something! In prayer it was revealed to me and my prayerful parents that she was leaving her computer on at night. Now, I am not a magical, mystical, believe in ghosts type woman , mind you, but ….I did start turning off the computer. I did not ever say that to her directly (until a later time). It WORKED! End of dreams, end of story. I don’t know, like I said may sound crazy, but made me a believer! I have friends with similar stories!
Pray directly about your home and it’s activities. You, your family and even where you live.
I will pray for you also!
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
Ally
Jianna,
Try getting Epiphany water. It is very powerful, perhaps the most powerful of Holy Waters. It is Exorcist properties and it would probably be beneficial for your situation. Also, don’t underestimate the St Michael’s prayer.