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.

Remember, the Church believes that “ghosts” are likely evil spirits who masquerade as the dead. This position is based on common logic. The dead – once they have left their bodies – have no capacity to communicate with the material world. In order to come back and “haunt” a place, they would have to enlist the help of either a preternatural or supernatural being that has the power to give them a “voice” or provide a “body” that can appear to mortals. 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, and facilitates their appearance as needed.

However, He clearly condemns all forms of necromancy (summoning the dead) such as what is done through mediums like the Long Island Medium. In Deuteronomy 18:10 He refers to all people who “seek oracles from the dead” to be an “abomination”. Therefore, He would never contradict Himself by facilitating the appearance of a dead soul to a medium.

Angels, who are preternatural beings, also have this power, but the good angels exist only to do His will so they can be eliminated from the list of those who are capable of facilitating an appearance.

And because the dead are not capable of appearing on their own, this leaves only one other source of the kind of power needed to effect an appearance – the devil.

If you open yourself to the belief that the dead can “come back to haunt you”, you may be tempted to give in to attempts to communicate with them, which is where you really run into trouble.

As I said, Satan might not 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.

This article gives a good explanation of the Church’s position on ghosts and is definitely worth a read!