CH writes: “I greatly enjoy watching ghost shows such as ghost adventures, can me watching this show or shows like it open a door for Satan to enter my home?”Satan might not be able to get into your house while you are watching these shows, but he can certainly get into your head which is why watching these shows can be a problem.
Watching them purely for entertainment is okay, but it's much too easy to start to believe in the shows' portrayal of the afterlife which is rarely - if ever - Christian.
For starters, the plot is usually about a soul who got "stuck" after death and is wandering around the universe looking for someone to help him "come into the light"
As Father Jose Francisco Syquia, Director of the Archdiocese of Manila Office of Exorcism, explains, there is no such thing as a “wandering soul.”
In his book, Exorcist: Spiritual Battle Lines, Volume Two, he explains that if this was true, “then Jesus and his Church would absolutely have a ministry for these souls since they are souls totally in need of compassion and mercy.”
What could be worse than being stuck wandering the earth in some form of unfinished business? However, there has never been such a ministry in the 2000-year history of the Church, only to praying for the poor souls in purgatory.
As Father explains, the reason why Jesus never got involved in leading the wandering dead to the light is because this ministry goes against the teachings of God. The Church teaches that when a soul leaves the material body it is immediately judged in the Particular Judgement and sent to its final destination. At the same time, it is also enlightened by God and sees things as they truly are, which allows the person to clearly see why they merited the destination assigned to them.
“Therefore, it would be impossible that a soul would not even know that he is dead and must wait for someone to tell him that he is and then be persuaded to enter the ‘light’,” Father writes.
In addition, why would a God who cares so intimately for a soul on earth that even the hairs of his head are counted allow that person to find himself in a state of confusion and aimless wandering on earth? “This is not the picture of God that Jesus is teaching us," Father says.
Last, he quotes the writings of the great theologian Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP who states that if a person were to die and be left by God to uncertainty about his final judgment, this would be contrary to the wisdom of God as well as to His mercy and justice.
“Hence, when a person dies, he immediately knows where he is supposed to go and is not left in a state of uncertainty, roaming this world in oblivion until a psychic/medium comes along and convinces him to go the ‘light’,” Father Syquia writes.
But this isn't the only popular ghost story plot line. Others involve the spirits of people who supposedly hang around buildings where they were killed. According to Adam Blai, Peritus of Religious Demonology in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the spirits who infest these crime scenes are not the victims but the demons who inspired the crime.
"A murder or suicide can lead to a demonic infestation where the demon that inspired the action remains in the location," Blai writes in his book, Possession, Exorcism and Hauntings. "They generally do remain if they are able."
But what about souls from Purgatory who appear to the living to ask for prayer?
We know from the annals of the saints that God does sometimes give the dead permission to appear in order to ask for prayer or for some other important reason, but He has to facilitate their appearance because the disembodied soul is not capable of appearing in bodily form. The dead – once they have left their bodies – have no capacity to communicate with the material world.
Therefore in order to appear on earth they would have to enlist the help of either a preternatural (angelic) or supernatural (God) being that has the power to give them a “voice” or provide a “body” that can appear to mortals. God, and subsequently His angels, will only facilitate the appearance of disembodied spirits for specific reasons such as to ask for prayer or to issue warnings to the world such as appearances of Our Lady and the Saints. The only other being with the power to facilitate an appearance is the devil who is more than capable of masquerading as the dead. This is why the Church teaches that demons are more than likely behind alleged "hauntings" and appearances at seances.
It's easy to see how watching an enthralling ghost story could persuade a person, especially one who is not well catechized, to believe in these secular versions of the afterlife.
As I said, Satan might not be able to enter your home while you are watching these shows, but he can definitely enter your mind and plant all kinds of suggestions that you are best not to heed.
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