Talking to the dead


I'm sure someone has already talked about this but I've never come across it.

The underlying revelation was that all the unfortunate people in the past who went insane being unable to deal with encounters with the souls of dead people didn't have to go insane. The little boy was on the same road to insanity as an adult until the dead doctor Willis informs the boy that the dead souls are really harmless and only want to talk. Once the boy understood that, he lost his fear and terror of ghosts and was able to speak with them on a comfortable basis.

Would anyone like to know where does the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and many of the Protestant denominations think about communicating with the dead?

It is prohibited by God for the living to speak to the dead and for the dead to speak to the living. There is a 'but', however, if God gives permission for the dead to contact the living. But in all other circumstances God is extremely displeased by any attempt of communication between the living and the dead.

The human souls of the dead in purgatory, can, with God's permission, to manifest to the living, asking (pleading, begging) for prayers of deliverance and Masses dedicated in their name. Any of this greatly shortens the amount of time the human soul has to spend in purgatory.

This said, Christian religious authorities warn us living people that any 'apparent' human soul that manifests and desires to engage in conversation and a relationship is NOT a human soul. It is a demonic spirit disguised as a human soul attempting entry into a hapless living human person. A human soul consigned to purgatory will appear very silent and sad and maybe looking desperate. The human soul might utter just a few words like, 'help me', or, 'pray for me'. That human soul will typically disappear after that but will never, never engage in further conversation because it is forbidden. And God abhors a living person trying to engage in conversation with a dead person's soul, especially for some kind of material gain.

I write that because while in THE SIXTH SENSE the ghosts speaking to the boy are supposed to be real human souls, they should not be contacting the boy like that. Although in the movie it appears a few of the ghosts are behaving appropriately, contacting the boy with few or no words seeking help.

Last word. You can choose to believe me or not, it's your choice. I only have the word of other people who actually experienced this kind of stuff to go by. I hope I never experience until the moment of my death.
P.S. If a human soul manifests or appears to you, don't ask, 'Who are you?' Instead, always ask, 'What do you want?'

reply

I would venture to guess that the filmmakers and scriptwriters do not share your theological beliefs and that you will need to suspend disbelief in order to accept the opening premise of the film: namely, that ghosts are lost human souls that must heal some sort of psychic damage or find closure before they can move on to their place in the afterlife.

_____
Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you find the real tinsel underneath.

reply

As an Orthodox, I would like to make the following notes:

First, the entire existence of purgatory is only believed by the Catholics. The Orthodoxs and the Protestants don't believe in its existence at all. So it is not an agreed upon Christian belief like you seem to think.

Second, the idea of any actual deceased soul that isn't a saint appearing to someone living is clearly disproven by The Lord's telling of the rich who, after dying and going to hell, asked to appear to his brothers to warn them not to do what he did and was clearly refused. So no, souls don't appear and say "help me" to people.

Third, I have no idea what your point of that P.S. even was, or why you said that.

Fourth, this movie is a piece of fiction. It is allowed to create its own version for the purposes of entertainment, and it obviously never claimed that version as truth, so I am not sure why you are acting like it made a mistake.

Peace and love be with you.

reply