Regardless of how appealing they might appear, spirit mediums are engaging in one of the most dangerous practices - contacting the supposed dead - and often do so in rooms full of people who are all at risk for infestation from the "dead relatives" they allegedly contact.

One such medium is Maureen Hancock, who presents herself very well on her website.  Posing alongside a loveable looking chocolate lab, she seems like the "girl next door" but when you read her bio, you discover quite the opposite.

Billing herself as an "internationally renowned Spirit Medium, intuitive, teacher, lecturer, Holistic Healer, and author of the bestselling book, The Medium Next Door: Adventures of a Real-Life Ghost Whisperer, she regularly conducts workshops and conferences with the intention of "demystifying the overwhelming subject matter of death" by helping people to "flex their intuitive muscle and tap into messages from spirit."

The same bio identifies her as having a "large Irish Catholic clan of siblings, and, saint of a mother, Grace Agnes."

Unfortunately, famous mediums like Hancock, the Long Island Medium and John Edward, all of whom flout their co-called Catholic roots, appeal to the poorly catechized among us and actually convince people that they're an exception to the Bible's very clear condemnation of those who practice necromancy.

“Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead.” (Deuteronomy 18: 10-11)

“Do not go to mediums or consult fortune-tellers, for you will be defiled by them.” (Leviticus 19:31)

A medium is a medium is a medium - regardless of whether they have a statue of Mary on the front lawn (Long Island Medium) or pray the rosary before conducting their seances (John Edward) - they are still engaging in a practice that God strictly condemns.

Ms. Hancock also brags about consulting with law enforcement "including the FBI" as if psychics are responsible for solving even a single crime in the U.S. (They're not, at least not according to the FBI.)

She's also known to conduct "readings" for audiences who are not aware of the typical bag of tricks used by psychics to convince the public that they've got special abilities. For instance, some use cold reading to glean information from the way people act, speak, dress, etc. and use high probability guesses about the nature of their audience. For instance, in a room full of 500 people, the chances are pretty high that someone out there had a grandmother named Mary. In hot reading, people disguised as door-to-door salesmen go into neighborhoods near where the show is being filmed to acquire information about their prospective audience.

I was not at all surprised to read that Ms. Hancock is gunning for her own TV show and recently completed a pilot.

Perhaps the saddest part of this story are all the people, including Catholics, who really believe their deceased loved ones can be contacted through someone like Hancock who employs the same methods God explicitly condemns in Scripture. Like them, Hancock may also be completely naive about the spiritual realm and believe it is inhabited by a plethora of fictional characters such as "spirit guides", "lost souls", "avatars" and "ascended masters." It's not.

The spiritual realm is inhabited by God, angels (both good and bad) and disembodied human souls. Because God has condemned such practices, we know without a doubt that He is not responsible for any of the contacts made through a medium, nor would He allow His angels to do so. Theologians tell us that disembodied souls do not have the capacity to contact the material world once they have left their bodies behind and need a preternatural force to enable them to appear. That means either God or an angel has to make this happen. We already know God won't become involved in this kind of activity, nor would a good angel - so who's left?

Demons.

This is who Ms. Hancock is summoning. Demons who are more than happy to masquerade as whoever she wants them to be in order to convince people to turn away from God.

Regardless of how "normal" a medium seems, he or she is still a medium and is still consorting with evil spirits.

They should be avoided even more stridently than the plague because the plague can only kill your body, but a medium can kill your soul as well.