The Exorcist Files - Reincarnation, Hypnosis and a Miraculous Healing

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Father Martins answers questions on Hypnosis, Reincarnation, Canonization and more. Thank you to our sponsors!FountofGrace- beautiful handmade Catholic jewelry. Use our promo code EXFILES for $15 off your order.BUBSNATURALS- The BEST Collagen out there. Seriously. Use promo code EXFILES for 20% off your next purchase . (no repeats)Want to join the Vault? Click Here. Some information on the research mentioned around reincarnation!https://uvamagazine.org/articles/the_science_of_reincarnationSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back to the Exorcist Files, the show where we are Galatians 5 free and tell demons to flee. I'm your co-host, Ryan Bithay, and today we have Father Martens with us to dive into a few very interesting topics, taking some fan questions and preparing for our final slew of case files to finish out season two. We get into reincarnation today, ministry in the remote wilderness of Australia, the organs of saints, and even hypnosis. We do want to thank our vault subscribers for their support. You help make this show possible. They're so grateful and as a special thank you,

we want to remind you that you will be getting the new dramatic episodes a day early when they drop. So stay tuned for that. If you want to subscribe to the vault and support the show, head to exorcistfiles.tv. That's exorcistfiles.tv. Or click on the show notes. So put that scripture and tradition together. Pour a glass of sparkling water.

Water is my favorite. and let's raise a toast to the Exorcist we call co-host, Father Carlos Martens. Welcome back to The Exorcist Files, the show where we tell demons they got to go. Here with me today for a special Q&A bonus episode is Father Carlos Barton's. Father, thanks for joining us today. Yeah, you're welcome. Good to be here. We have some wonderful questions that have come in, and folks, thank you so much for writing. We get hundreds of emails, and we can only answer so many.

of them. So we really appreciate the patients. We try to get to as many as we can. And so that's what we're going to do today. Father, what do you say we take one of the spicier, maybe more thorough questions to answer? How do you feel about reincarnation? We got a couple questions that came in on this. I tried to distill into one, but essentially it seems like there is some actual case studies or attempted research and some cases where people have been able to recall details. Little kids, in fact, this is from the University of Virginia, we'll link to these studies in the show notes, where researchers, I should say, have found that some kids are able to recall with strikingly accurate detail, details about people that they would seemingly have no knowledge about

and claiming to have personality traits or knowledge about these individuals. I didn't know this was actually a field of study, but it turns out it is. So, Father, any thoughts on reincarnation? Is it at all reconcilable with Christian doctrine? Absolutely not. So the church has always denied it, especially when it was popular in the surrounding cultures in which the church found itself. So in ancient Greece, there was a belief in this.

Many of the ancient Romans believed in it too. And of course, the church went into missionary locations, for example, India, where this was a widespread belief among the Hindus and even many Buddhists believe it. but it is absolutely incompatible with Christianity, right? So Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27, it is appointed unto men to die once and after this judgment. Right. So you get a particular length of days on earth. And after that, there are no other lengths of days that you get, like your time is up, so to speak. So I think at heart, those who subscribe to reincarnation have a misunderstanding of what the body is.

So the body is not something added onto you. It's not a tool that your soul uses, that your person uses to accomplish what it desires. you are your body so the soul and the body were never meant to exist apart from each other so another way to say it is that you are an ensued body you are an embodied soul so both two different ways of saying the same thing now because of original sin the consequence for that is death, which is the separation, which is an artificial separation. It was never meant to be part of the picture, right? So there's a separation of the two elements. And of course, everything that that entails, the decay of the body and so forth. But what Christ came to do

was to undo what was done. And so what he promises is not a reincarnation. but a uniting again of the soul with the same body that you had. The argument, of course, then arises or can arise, how can a soul be united with the same body if, for example, the body was destroyed, such as in cremation or through prolonged decay and so forth? So that's a mystery that we don't know on this side of heaven. But we know it's true because this is what the Word of God, promises us. This is what the word of God tells us. So that is not beyond the power of God. Keep in mind, Christ said that God is able to raise up children of Abraham from stones.

God is above the natural order. That body that you have, you are promised, that you will exist forever with that body. Right. So after the general judgment, you will once again be reunited with that same body. So that body that you possess is a permanent and lasting gift. So take care of it because you're stuck with it for eternity. Now, in the case of those who are saved, it will be a glorified body. In the case of the damned, it won't be glorified. It'll add to one's punishment. So it'll add to the shame. It will add to the horrific state in which such persons who reject God definitively exist. But reincarnation makes the mistake of believing that the body is not a fundamental part of the person, and it is. It's not an object, a thing that is out there as

part of the world. It is literally part of me. Now, in the case of the alleged studies at the University of Virginia, I don't have a comment on them. I don't know what they've studied. I don't know their basis for positing that these people have evidence of a memory prior to their existing. Because a university makes it claim, I don't automatically believe it is true. Their methodology, their honesty, they're subjecting themselves to academic scrutiny from others, all of this factors in. So I don't have an explanation offhand for what these alleged subjects in the study, are alleging, but I do know that they did not exist prior to their conception, period. Amen.

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It starts January 20th. So go to Exodus 90.com slash X-Files to learn more about Exodus 90. That's Exodus 90.com slash EX files to join tens of thousands of men from all over the world for Exodus 90. Again, it begins Monday, January 20th. God bless you. So, Father, it sounds like reincarnation is not something that is compatible.

And I am curious, though, because obviously to play devil's advocate here, there are some cases. There's one in particular that I found during prep for this episode about a woman named Shanti Devi, and it looks like she was able to, as a young kid, recall some very interesting information and specifics that she could have known, including locations of a floorboard where she had, in a past life, allegedly hidden some money. She was able to navigate the streets and locate a home that had been bored and up and forgotten.

And there's actually a few cases that, you know, just really beg the question, what is going on there? So are you inclined to believe in some of these stories that if someone was able to recall, it's more likely just chance that there's other factors influencing the consciousness or that it's demonic manipulation or a combination. Well, look, if somebody is able to demonstrate a knowledge of certain locations, of certain objects that are within a location, if that knowledge is there, it begins to question the possibility that this is just pure chance. I mean, if we're going to be a rational people, we at a certain point have to come to a conclusion that this defies randomness, that there really is a knowledge here.

The question is, what is the source of the knowledge? Okay. So it absolutely cannot be reincarnation because that contradicts what we know to be the highest truth, and that is the Christian faith. But nevertheless, how could that knowledge be there? Well, first of all, the question arises whether these people were honest. And I don't have an answer to that. But I'm just going to throw this out there. Secondly, on the supposition that they were honest, I mean, if such a person could do this with regularity in completely random and new situations, places and so forth, now that's saying something.

But if all you're saying is that this is where I lived at one time in a past life and there are no others, well, then it becomes a little bit more difficult to establish the fact. that there wasn't a coordination here, that there's not some kind of scheme. Regardless, on the supposition that there was no scheme, that there's perfect honesty being executed here. Well, all of this information, this preternatural information, preternatural knowledge, we see all the time as exorcists. You don't have to resort to reincarnation to establish this. It could simply be a demonic feeding. But even with that, that doesn't exhaust the possibilities.

God could give a particular knowledge to somebody to accomplish some good. I think of, for example, some folks where somebody has been murdered, a body is dumped somewhere, and they wake up with a very precise location of where this body is. And they lead the police to us. So the claim is that there's no way that they could have known where this was, that they are automatically excluded from being the murderer, but nevertheless, they had the knowledge that this body is where it was found. And so what is going on there?

Well, God could have simply given that as a grace. He could have just simply done that out of his own goodness. So I don't think we need to resort to something that contradicts revelation in order to give an explanation. At the same time, I'm more than happy to go on record say, I don't know what's going on in these particular situations. But it's very difficult to establish a certainty in these situations that these persons, they are acting at a completely honest level. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I don't lend my credibility to some fantastic claim simply because somebody claims it. say we granted that a young kid is claiming to be a reincarnated person of someone else and then

verifies it with all these details that also doesn't rule out that it could be maybe some mental illness then actually like it would fit plausibility that demons would use this to confuse and further cement like a false narrative right that has to be one of the possibilities as well right yeah you know i'm given those parameters i'm just not comfortable answering that because there's a lot of different possibilities for error in a situation in a given study. But there's too much that has to be taken at face value on this situation. And in doing so, you're committing yourself to something that I don't want to commit to. I'm not familiar with the study. I'm not sure how they conducted it. I'm not sure of their methodology. But I'm not willing to say that it was automatically

demonic and I'm not willing to say that it was not. So look, there are a lot of weird stuff out there. And as a Christian, we believe that the highest truth is revealed truth. That truth revealed by God himself. So we know that as the truest truth. So anything that's going to contradict that, then that has to be greeted from us with the greatest skepticism. And there's lots of room for that when I look at these quote unquote studies.

Bottom line, I'm always asked to accept the testimony of somebody I don't know. I'm always asked to accept the premises under which they began this study or they conducted the study. I'm always asked to take as true their own academic rigor and their own honesty. Well, we know for a fact that academic studies, many of them, have been fudged. Now, I'm not speaking about these in particular that you brought up, but dishonesty exists everywhere because we're human beings, we're fallen creatures. And so I think that when one begins to give credits to something that directly contradicts

the Word of God, then we've already made our choice. Once you've decided to do that, once you've denied the highest truth, then lots of other things are going to appear to make sense to you that really have no sense in God's world. So to paint yourself into a corner is to paint yourself into a corner. At the end of the day, you have only yourself to blame. Well, we're going to leave reincarnation behind here once and for all. But because we talked last week about healings, we wanted to share a note that had come in. This is a testimony that came in a few days ago, actually, about Father's Relic Tour and someone who experience to profound healing. So I'm going to make it anonymous here, but I just want to share

this because I know a lot of people have questions like, is this actually a thing? Is it happening? And this is a note that just came in and you listeners can decide. But a listener writes in and says, I just listened to the Xist Files podcast episode on the Gifts of the Spirit. And I wanted to share my healing two years ago after visiting the tour of the relics of the treasures of the church with Father Carlos Martins in San Antonio, Texas. I'm 41 years old, a wife and have four small children. I have suffered tremendously from Crohn's disease for over 25 years. In addition, I've had terrible migraines that caused me to vomit every few days for about 15 years. I've seen dozens of doctors, was on many medications, I was even on biological injections

in conceding that one day I'd probably just lose part of my colon. After attending the relics display and asking for the intercessory prayer of the saints to join me present through the relics in the room that day, I was completely healed of both my crones and migraines. It took me months to stop my medications just because I was in absolute disbelief. And then almost a year to even come to the realization and belief that I was miraculously healed. I didn't feel worthy of Christ's mercy to be healed, actually. And yet, he's a good, good father and showed me that I am, in fact, healed. Since then, I've had two clean colonoscopies, and I have been off medication completely for a year and a half. Praise be to God. I give my hands

to the church community in service as a way to show my Thanksgiving. I'm beyond grateful the Father Carlos' sacrifice and ministry that he provides us so many in Christ through Mary, listener. So what do you think, Father? Pretty inspiring, huh? Yeah, it is certainly a blessing. You know, the ministry that I have with Relics, I always introduce it as a healing ministry, because that's what it is. So what happened in this individual here, in all glory to God, is what is supposed to happen. And in fact, prior to me, beginning each and every exposition, I guarantee people that they're going to experience.

God in a way like they never have. Now, God is the one who chooses the effect of that. Some, he decides to heal in exactly the way they desire to be healed. Others, he doesn't heal their physical ailment, but it gives them something else. And when you talk to those people afterwards, like, remember one individual, he had just a really terrible post-nasal drip and a kind of semi-parallysis on his right hand. he wanted desperately for those to be healed. But he came away with such a conviction of God that he received something better and acknowledged

it after. Like if I received a healing, it would be great. But gosh, I would never trade my healing for what I experience inside right now, that knowledge, that experience of God, the feeling of being enveloped by him in love, that I wouldn't trade for anything. But if our faith is true, there's going to be signs of its truth. And in my ministry and my work, I want to convey that, that if it is true, then Christ's words are going to be verified. He said, greater works than what I do, you will do. He says that to his followers, to his saints who followed him during his day.

And I'm here to bear witness and testify that that is exactly what's going on. and their works are even greater than Christ, you could say, because with just fragments of their bodies that they are performing the healing works. So the prophecy of our Lord is fulfilled. They are doing even greater things than what he did on earth. Father, another interesting observation is that she said that she actually didn't believe that she was healed. And I know there's a whole concern about, you know, just having enough faith to be healed, et cetera, and that can get into sort of word of faith and prosperity gospel notions. But do you find interesting that there was a kind of disbelief and then also

mentions that they didn't feel worthy of the healing, which I found very interesting. Do you find that that's something where people sometimes may not believe that they're healed because of a sense of unworthiness? Oh, that happens all the time. You know, if you ask a Christian, is God capable of healing? Every Christian is going to say yes. But then if you ask that same Christian, do you believe that he will heal you of your affliction. Now that's a different thing. It's a lot more difficult for many to say yes because of their own lack of grace towards themselves,

of a poor self-image, of a feeling of non-desert like this individual felt, and we're all non-deserving. But the point is then, when a healing does come through, when it is fulfilled. Many people are hit with an incredulity where they're in disbelief of it. Now, part of the reason also for that disbelief is that when God heals, he typically does so gently that it is unperceived. There's not a legion of angels blowing a trumpet.

There isn't like a sign for many people. There isn't. Some there is, but there isn't a sign of like a snobody. nap, a sound, like some feeling. It just happens so gently that they wake up or that in the next moment, they're free of the affliction and they're just incredulous. I remember a man, his name was Charlie. He helped me at an exposition to pack up that the volunteers that had signed up decided, gosh, it went too late in the night and they just went home, but they didn't tell me that they were leaving. So at the end of the night, I had this elderly priest and

Charlie, who had severe Parkinson's, his hands were trembling. So he was the one who was helping me put away relics. And I have to admit, I was nervous because of the shaking of his hands. I didn't want him to drop anything. But he was very careful and he didn't. The next day, he went on his computer at home looking to see where else I would be in the area because he wanted to go again. And what he noticed is when he typed in the website address, the address of my website,

where the schedule was posted, he didn't make any errors, like he didn't hit any keys accidentally. And so he looked at his hands and the tremors were gone. And so he waited until three days afterwards before he believed in himself, before he was comfortable enough to tell himself, I'd been healed. I will receive a testimony from somebody who will say something typically like seven years ago, you came to my parish, and I was healed of Affliction X. I was healed of cancer. I was healed of a stroke effect. I was healed of osteoporosis, of Bersitis, whatever. And when they get to the part of the letter where they disclose why it took them so long, they'll often list something like this.

It took a long time for me to accept it. And then by that time, so much time had elapsed that I felt silly to communicate it to you, but something happened to me recently or I read something in scripture. I came to a passage where I, only one of the 10 recipients of a healing for Christ was grateful enough to come and thank him that it convicted me to reach out to you. But it's a normal course of affairs that people have an incredulity when they are hit with the miracle. and part of that incredulity is caused by the gentleness with which God heals. Yeah, and Father, I'm also, it's interesting, it's a little adjacent, but I was thinking about, and the book of Acts, when Paul talks about seeing that someone had faith to be healed,

I'm curious, you know, is there a, because obviously we don't ever want to subscribe to a fact that it's your own healing and you're responsible for it, right? There'd be a lot of people walking who want to walk, and it's been, I've been in those circles where people are like, oh, if you just had enough faith, you could accept your healing, et cetera. But when you have verses, though, like when Paul is preaching in the book of Acts and says, seeing that they had faith to be healed, they called out, stand up on your feet and walk. What's that tension there, Father, between the faith to be healed and the sense of worthiness to be healed? Do you think there's an element where we have to go in with a belief that we can be healed?

Yeah. So, look, Christ healed people in script. when he began his ministry, when he inaugurated it, no one believed in him. No one believed in him. So is it the case that some faith is necessary for there to be a healing? No, because no one did when Christ began his ministry. They started to take him seriously when he began doing that. And if you notice in the scriptures, he didn't begin his great big moral teachings

or his disclosing the fullness of his self-identity until he put an awful lot of miracles under his belt. Why? Well, because he had to show people the money first. He had to establish himself as somebody worthy to listen to because there's been all kinds of idiots in history who claimed to be extraordinarily special and listen to me, even being the Messiah. So he had to show that he was worth listening to.

And then when he did that, that's when he gave the full disclosure of his self-identity, the great big moral teachings, the teachings about God and so forth, because he was worth listening to and he showed that. But as time went on, he reveals something else that faith predisposes. disposes us to receiving what God wants to give us. God doesn't need faith in order to bring about healing. But what Christ reveals is that God prefers for there to be faith and he is able to do more to a person who believes. So that's pretty clear. So that in the passage that you mentioned about Paul, saying that they had the faith to be healed, Paul, that discernment, well, they have a disposition to believe that God is going to give them something

that day and they're ready to accept it. Well, heavens, this is exactly the kind of relationship that Jesus Christ came to establish, that God is our father and he desires to give us good things. And so we believe that he will, and that in and of itself incarnates God within us. once he's incarnate within us, then for him to give us that which we need, whatever healing it is, what is that to God? It's nothing. But otherwise, you see, if God imposes it upon us without our belief, he could be violating our freedom. And God is a perfect gentleman. He would never do that. He would never impose something upon us that would violate our freedom. But also, too, out of a pastor,

sense in a pastoral care, God may have a very good reason for not giving us the healing that we desire, even if we don't ask for it, or a healing, maybe we don't even desire. We've come to accept that this is wrong with me, and that's just that. Because if we receive a healing and then don't change our lives, we will be judged more severely for it after the fact. And so God doesn't just heap things on us, apart from us being predisposed for them, because in the end, it just merely increases our punishment if we don't, if we choose not to convert as a result of them. Okay. All right, Father, I've got a couple quicker questions here. This is an interesting one. We have a listener write in and say, if a holy person, a saintly person not yet officially

canonized, however, were to donate their organs, hypothetically, would the recipient of the organs become a relic? How might a demon react to a person bearing the organs of a holy person? I realize this is a bizarre question, but I'm just curious, does the status only offend the demon once it has been canonized? Okay, a number of things there. So canonization adds nothing to the holiness of a person, of that saint, nor to their relics. If it is true that they are a saint, which canonization proves, then it was always true. true that since their death, they were, said that they died a saint, in other words. So an organ received from a saint. So this is purely hypothetical, but let's just entertain

this. So for example, a heart, a heart was able to be preserved from a saint who died in an accident and we know that this person is a saint through subsequent canonization. Or let's make it even a little bit more obvious. Let's say the person died at a martyrdom, but the heart was preserved. And let's say there was an intention to harvest the organs of this person who happened to be a saint. But the death was obviously a martyrdom. So any Christian who dies in a martyrdom is automatically a saint, right? Martyrdom equals sainthood, period. Even if someone were filled with mortal sin,

the martyrdom washes away all of that from the soul. Okay, so now we have this heart that was harvested and placed inside an individual. Well, that heart never ceases to be the heart of the saint, even though it is now inside your body. Now, your body is using that heart, but it never ceases to be the heart of the same. Do you have a relic inside you?

Yes. Are you a relic? No. Only things can be relics. So while you are alive, your body is not called your relic. The very definition of relic is a fragment of something that existed, but now is no more. It is a fragment of some former existing thing. And so the arrangement, the body and soul composite of a person, we don't call any of those things relics. But after the

separation of the soul and the body, then the remains could be called relics. Sacred relics are those appellations that we give to the bodies or bodily parts or the belies. Or the personal belongings of somebody who was a saint. So you have a much higher dignity than just being a thing. You are a baptized child of God. Okay. Although, Father, I hear as we get closer to 40, we start feeling like a third-class relic. Is that true? If you say so, sure. Would no. I'm not near there, but, you know, just asking for a friend. All right, Father, we have a listener who does actually ministry in Australia alongside the Aborigines, and they said there's no doubt that the Aboriginal people have a belief in evil spirits. It's actually part of their storytelling and safety even today,

and they have their way of dealing with and preventing evil spirits from interfering in their lives. After colonization, Aborigine people are often forcedly converted to Christian faiths depending on location, Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, and I often see cultural practice of casting away evil spirits overlap with Christian beliefs. Do you think there is a value of cultural practices for dealing with evil spirits, especially, for example, when the Aboriginianic culture is one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth. So look, there is no privilege that any people uniquely possesses. No people is worth more than any other people. The Aborigines in Australia are not worth more than the ancient Romans, are not worth more than the modern-day Irish.

are not worth more than any other people that have existed throughout history. And so the same applies by extension to their cultures. So while learning about and understanding a particular culture is a good thing. You know, for example, we study ancient Greek culture, ancient Roman culture, Jewish culture, native culture, aborigine culture, and so forth. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, on the contrary, it is a good thing. thing. Christ in his incarnation entered into the world and became a member of it. He came bringing

not just a new understanding, but a new identity to each person. And at heart, his message is that all of us, because of original sin, belong to the kingdom of darkness. But the good news is that God is building his own kingdom of light, the heavenly kingdom, and he's calling us to be members of it if we accept it. And so there you have, at heart, in plain simple terms, that what Christ came to offer is worth more than the earth ever possessed than whatever understanding we had of human reality, of spiritual reality, etc. And this is why Paul then says in Galatians 3, there's neither Jew nor Greek, nor slave, nor free, nor male, nor female. You were all one in Christ Jesus. What Christ came to give supersedes that which came before. So to point to the Aboriginal customs as something that were uniquely good and that could be seen on the same level or even supersede the Christian anthropology that Christ

brought, the understanding of human life and human beings is absolutely false. No culture can lay claim to that. Christ entered into humanity and brought something that completely supersedes that. He is offering membership as a citizen in Kingdom of Heaven. So that whatever was present in any culture, however much truth it possessed, it cannot be as much truth and cannot supersede the truth brought by Christ. We just have an interesting note. Something, it's a similar observation we've had from multiple listeners. We have someone who works at a prison write in and say, Father, I had a quick question about something I saw. I went to speak to an inmate and his eyes went completely black. By completely black, I mean, there were no whites, no whites, no.

No pupil dilation. It was simply, I googled medical conditions that could cause this, and none of them looked this extreme. Is this a sign of possession or demonization? Prayers are appreciated as I work in this place. Yeah. I've seen that reality in some people who are possessed, where their eyes become two perfectly black spheres. So nothing else other than pure blackness in the sphere of their eye. So were you looking at a possessed person?

I have no idea. But what I can say is that in some possessed individuals, that has been present and which I took to be a sign of that possession, or it was a concomitant part of their state of possession. So that would be my comment on that. Father, is hypnosis a doorway to demons, for that matter, is anything that alters one state of mind or purports to a sin? Yeah, you know, so I have friends in psychiatry. And hypnosis is a fascinating area of study.

However, for the Christian, under no circumstances, should a Christian allow himself or herself to be hypnotized. We don't know what it is. No one really knows what it is. And the effects that hypnosis can cause, there is just not enough understanding and information for it to be engaged in safely. the church has put out an advisory that Christians are to avoid being hypnotized for their own safety, for their own good, spiritual, and otherwise. And then what about just anything that purports to alter one state of mind? Is that why, for example, drunkenness is condemned because it can cause the mind to

degrade and act in a way that is not bearing the glory of God? Well, the thing about hypnosis that is, is very concerning is that one is being rendered into a state where a different individual takes over and can cause you to do things that you ordinarily would have no intention of doing. And I'll give you a case in point at a party at some dance club way back when I was in the early years of university. A friend of mine, I wasn't present for this, but he told me about it afterwards. So they had this hypnotist on stage and he hypnotized three people, my friend being one of them.

Now, my friend, you have to understand, he was one of the shyest human beings that you've ever met. Just very painfully shy. Well, he agreed to be a volunteer for this hypnosis, which that in and of itself astounded me because it meant a great number of people were looking at him. The hypnotist got him to do things that he would never do and act like. like a complete fool, including stripping down to his underwear in a room filled with hundreds of people looking at him. And then pretending like he was in love with this other girl who also was hypnotized and then being told, even though she's standing right in front of him, that she just died and he'll never see her again. And so he's sobbing and bawling like a madman, like this actually happened. And this is a scary reality.

And I asked the individual who was present. Now, not only he was present, but other friends of mine, and they all verified everything. I asked him, were you aware that this was happening? He said, yes, I was aware of everything. I could recall everything. But I couldn't stop it. when he told me, now you're going to cry. When I snap my fingers, you're going to believe that she has just died, that you're never going to see her again,

and you're going to cry and have the greatest sadness that you've ever had in your whole life. And he snaps his finger. Boom. And then it happens. He had no choice in the matter. And yet now this individual has achieved something really incredible with this individual. So you can see how dangerous this is, just how much of a violation of a person's integrity this can be. And then, Father, any thoughts on things that alter one's state of conscious like hallucinogenic mushrooms or things like that?

Or those, does the church have any specific teachings on anything that alters one state of mind? Yeah, they shouldn't be engaged in. It's no different than, say, alcohol, such that reason and control is usurped. Because what's happening is, one. freedom is being set aside. And freedom is one of the greatest gifts that God gave you. So you are not free to simply set it aside. Some people, when they drink, and I know this as a confessor, they don't have to even be drunk. They have one drink or two and their inhibitions go. Then they're willing to engage in behavior, which they know is destructive. But in that moment,

They're not inhibited from doing it, whether it's something sexual or something emotional, like an anger. You know, some folks, they have one beer and all of a sudden the monster comes out of them. And so for those people, this is evidence. Look, what this is telling you is you shouldn't be drinking. Other people can handle a beer or two or maybe even three. But you can't because Mr. Ugly or Mrs. Ugly comes out. And so a decision to drink is a decision to let that ugliness out, for which you are responsible. Good thing.

We're not going to a sponsorship here from Anheuser-Busch. Our last question comes in from my mental health counselor. It says, I am humbled and disturbed by the amount of clients, a great deal of them children, reporting demons, voices, and ghosts telling them to do evil. Do you have any guidance for me on this? And secondly, I have come back to the Catholic faith after being raised by my occultist father. who was a Freemason and a theosophist, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. Do you have any advice on how I can associate and converse with him and his beliefs

without losing divine favor for myself by making a covenant with his blasphemy? I want to present the gospel and word to him in opposition to his occultism. He still defends these things to me. So maybe we'll start with the first one there. Advice for dealing with children reporting voices, demons, and ghosts, telling them to do evil. Yeah. So look, many health conditions manifest themselves as voices or hallucinations. Some can be visual, some can be auditory.

And I'm thinking one of the cases that I was asked to investigate years ago was that of an adolescent girl, her parents moved across the country and she was, or maybe it was a middle school. She was around 13, 14 years old. And one month after settling in this new location, she began to complain of hearing voices and seeing things and then all of a sudden she would get violent and she would get erratic in her behavior. Now, her parents who were both well-educated professionals, they thought, you know, something's happening at this new school that brought this about because she was perfectly normal at her previous school.

And so after a series of medical tests, what it was discovered is she had schizophrenia. And schizophrenia typically manifests itself in the teen years. And often there is a trigger of some sort of trauma. Well, moving across the country, leaving your friends and leaving your house and all of your surroundings, that certainly qualifies for a trauma. but there were perfectly natural explanations for all of these things. Now, she claimed to hear voices and they were telling her to do violent things, take that pair of scissors and put it in your mother's skull,

take those matches over there, light the house on fire, stuff like that. But there was nothing demonic about it. So I think that all of these individuals need to be given the best medical exams that we have, and then we need to take it from there because it's not an ipso facto thing. It's not an automatic thing that because people are quote unquote hearing voices that this is a demonic work.

The second question with regard to coming back to the Catholic faith and having an occultist father and how do you converse with them? You just converse with him. We Christians were not out to overpower other people, not physically and not parliamentary, in a sense that we're not looking to drown other people out, but we simply, straightforwardly, and as a matter of factly, convey the goodness we have found in the faith,

and we are very willing to point out how that faith is superior to anything else. And so we need to be ever ready to present that hope that is within us. So I think with regard to your father, it can be very difficult at times to evangelize a family member, but it absolutely is not impossible. First and foremost, you need to show how happy this has made you, because I guarantee you, if he's an occultist, he is not happy, period. No occultist is. No occultist is. So you present that happiness that will have a world of effect on him. Okay. Awesome. Well, I think that's all the time we have for today. The next time you hear from us, it will be some dramatic recreations.

They're finally back. And so we are just so grateful for the opportunity to keep making these for you. So you will hear from us in a little while. But right now, in the words of our Savior, it is better that we should go. So thank you so much for listening. folks. We really appreciate it. God bless you all. Father, any parting words? Yeah, God bless you all. And thanks for listening in.