Do you believers in the paranormal have trouble accepting paranormal things that happen in churches?

Question

I know you believe there are "healers" in the paranormal...and many have visions etc..and see auras. Are you able to feel the same if it happens in churches? (This is a little different from my last question.)Have any of you had anything paranormal happen to you in a church?

Answer 1

Not everyone that believes in the paranormal sees things or has visions... and Im not sure what you mean by "healers" (if you mean faith healers then few people besides their followers believe int hat stuff) but paranormal activity can happen anywhere be it a church or not.

I have not had anything weird happen to me in a church except for the creepy feeling in the dark old parts of the churches, but things can happen anywhere. Churches are very spiritual places, you hear all the time about statues crying and paintings... those things are "paranormal" but most religious people call them miracles.

Answer 2

Yes, A lot of what is happening in the churches in not paranormal. Some of it is fake, and some of it is emotionalism. But, Yes  I have experienced some truly paranormal things in churches. Like Divine healing on more than one occasion. Once my infant son was healed in a church 2 days before he was scheduled for surgery.  Also on several occasions I recieved spontaneous answers to questions I did not ask aloud, things no one could have even guessed I would be thinking.

Answer 3

On a whole, people who believe in the paranormal do not have a problem with events that have been reported and might happen in church.  On the other hand, alot of main stream religion frowns on the paranormal as being of the devil, evil, satanic...take your pick...I have heard it all.

Answer 4

Sigh. Can't we have one thread without an unprovoked insulting slam against skeptics? Not you Deenie, it was an answerer.

Anyhow, to answer your question, long ago when I harbored some beliefs in the paranormal, I was also an active Christian. I didn't have any trouble believing in God working miracles or some Tibetan monk, somewhere far away, levitating above the ground.

I hadn't experienced or observed anything in church which I thought was paranormal at the time, though. By the time I started changing the way I think, the church I was attending was going the opposite direction and diving into the evangelical, fundamentalist, faith-healing kind of Christanity going around at that time. I think it's still going around. When the traveling preacher visited and started slapping everybody on the forehead and they fell on the floor in what was supposed to be a spiritual bliss, that's when I left!  That's the only "paranormal" I witnessed and I didn't buy it. No offense to anyone who believes in such things, but the Benny Hinn stuff was too much for me. Nobody actually got healed to my knowledge, by the way.

Answer 5

The paranormal happens in churches, a church is no different than any other building other than the architecture and open space. Some churches around the world have weeping statues, weeping paintings, statues with bleeding stigmata. I doubt that these churches would allow the testing of these items because of the faith factor.

Other churches around the world keep relics of the saints and martyrs and keep the crypts of the clergy underneath the church - as we all may have read and heard from other stories living over or near a burial ground isn't a good idea unless the spirit associated with the body is at peace. I'm pretty sure some priests or church caretakers experience wierd things but might attribute it to the divine.

Answer 6

As far as the crying statues and other "miracles", the Bible (God's Word) says that only an adulterous generation seeks after a sign and no sign shall be given.  Trust Christ.

Answer 7

Not at all. I think the difference is in the interpretation. Church goers may believe the healing is from God, where paranormal believers may believe it is accomplished through mental powers (like psychokinesis) of the healer and the being healed controlling cell growth and other medical healing factors. Skeptics that are actually open to evidence I would suspect would conclude that the placebo effect (the power of belief) was at work.

Can't say anything paranormal happened to me (or that I saw anything paranormal) in the little time I have spent in churches.

Psi

Answer 8

I think, yes

Answer 9

Christians should know that there is more spirit to life than so-called reality. Most of reality is unseen. The only paranormal things happening at church should be guided by the Holy Spirit. Angels protect and sanctify a place of worship so dark forces can't defile the sacred.

Answer 10

I believe there are an awfully lot of 'energy healers' performing something that seems miraculous to anyone who disbelieves in energy healing.  Some of those healings are done by people who are also Christians, some are done in Christian churches.

I don't believe the settings have much to do with energy healing.  Other 'miraculous happenings' have to be taken each for its own merit, examined, and your own conclusions formed.

For instance, I don't believe the 800 foot high Jesus reported by Oral Roberts, telling him to raise money for a hospital, qualified in my own mind as a miraculous event.

However, I do believe Oral Roberts performed thousands of 'miraculous' healings during his tenure in his ministry.  I don't see them as miraculous, but I do see the subsequent events in his life as an illustration of what I call the 'guru mentality' that corrupts energy healers frequently.

Answer 11

I have party to many healings, many not just physical but financial, mental, emotional and seen answers to unasked questions made manifest. Things that the people praying for an individual did not know of the needs of a person but the person erceived them just the same. I've seen people harrassed by dark spiritual forces be set free from that oppression. Prayer is powerful.

Answer 12

I believe in healers and laying on of hands and actually have experienced this for myself.

I was raised Roman Catholic and in this religion the belief in the paranormal is highly discouraged. this directly conflicted with my Irish American roots and the fact that all my life I sort of "knew" things and "felt" things that I had no reason to be aware of but they were true or did occur. Of course I did not tell anyone because I did not want to have to go to confession or worse yet the mental hospital. As an adult I have had experiences that I know were not of this world and have had healing expriences when a healer has laid hands and prayed or meditated on me and a condition has been healed. I was on a retreat last year which was held at a Catholic Monastery though it was a nondenominational retreat. We had a healing ceremony in the Chapel of the Monastery which is a consecrated holy place. The man who was healing us placed his hands on my head and all the other retreat participants surrounded me, laying hands on me. The leader's hands grew hotter and hotter as I sat and received the healing grace.

The energy in that room could have powered New York City.

Definitely a paranormal experience in a religious place.

Answer 13

As I under stand it, even a church graveyard is considered part of the church, I have seen ghosts in the graveyards of churches. I think paranormal things happen anywhere they want to happen.  I think most people that have paranormal experiences are also religious. I can't remember anything happening in an active church, only somethings in old missions in California.

Answer 14

First off, whom ever believes that the Catholic church "discourages" the paranormal has not simply studied into the religion.  

***The Catholic rite of exorcism was revamped in 1998. The rite of exorcism is a liturgical or ceremonial work. A bishop must authorize the exorcism before it can be performed by a priest. The priest can use the old or new version as both have the same power. Ordering the demon to leave, the sign of the cross and the use of water all remain important elements of the Catholic ceremony. There are warnings to take care that any of the symptoms are not caused by psychological reasons or reasons of the imagination.

In the Catholic rite, the spirit is addressed as unclean spirit, transgressor and monster. Important theologian and popular author Father Malachi Martin performed many exorcisms in his thirty years as an exorcist. The late Pope John Paul II reportedly carried out at least three exorcisms as pope. The last exorcism performed by Pope John Paul II was in September of 2000 at St. Peter's Square according to the Catholic News Service.***

Being a Roman Catholic all my life myself, Yes I do believe in Paranormal events of the church.

****Since the earliest of the apparitions, Lourdes has been the subject of intense debate regarding their nature. The earliest investigators, including the priest Abbe Dominique Peyramale and the Chief of Police, Dominique Jacomet, were both initially convinced they were dealing with a hoax (each later changed his mind), and several researchers have since called several aspects of the Lourdes phenomenon into question.

The apparitions at Lourdes took place against the backdrop of a rich network of superstitious beliefs, which were common throughout the Pyrenean region in the 19th century. In the decades leading up to 1858, several children in small Pyrenean villages (on both sides of the border) claimed to see apparitions of the Virgin Mary in remote locations. Critics argue that Bernadette was simply repeating a well-tried trick to gain attention and notoriety.

Although Bernadette herself shunned attention and personal gain from the apparitions, it is clear that her family, previously in severe poverty, became very wealthy and influential as a result. Critics argue that the family encouraged Bernadette in order to escape their poverty.

Modern Lourdes has no shortage of glitz on display. Many visitors are shocked or repelled by the blatant commercialism which is still practised in Lourdes, with neon-emblazoned gift shops overflowing with tacky souvenirs and dubious holy artefacts[18]. Lourdes has been called the "Disneyland of the Catholic Church", and parallels with Las Vegas are occasionally drawn. Critics argue that the Lourdes phenomenon is nothing more than a significant moneyspinner for the town and the region, which therefore has a strong vested interest in keeping the pilgrims coming[19]. Whilst this commercialisation is undoubtedly repugnant it is worth noting that that church itself distances itself from it. The myriad of trinket stalls are privately owned and hawkers are strictly forbidden inside the sanctuary itself.

Many people remain sceptical about Lourdes and its supposed healing power, arguing that any improvement offered by the shrine is no more than the placebo effect, and that the ceremonies and processions are no better than faith-healing on a grand scale. In the 1980s, a priest called Ralph DiOrio practised faith healing which he claimed was due to the power of Lourdes, although never submitted to scientific scrutiny. DiOrio, who may have been influenced by other prominent faith healers such as Kathryn Kuhlman, was strongly criticised by James Randi in his book The Faith Healers.[20]******

Answer 15

not me but my granmda has and she said that she was in  church and something really scary happened and she was just praying