The Hidden Danger of Consulting Familiar Spirits

The Hidden Danger of Consulting Familiar Spirits: A Christian Warning

Consulting Familiar Spirits: A Deceptive Path That Leads to Destruction

The term consulting familiar spirits may sound archaic, but the practice is alive and well under modern names like "channeling," "spirit guides," "psychic readings," and even “mediumship.” What many believe to be communication with a departed loved one or an angelic being is, in truth, direct contact with demonic spirits, cleverly disguised as helpful or benign.

What Is a Consultant of Familiar Spirits?

A consultant of familiar spirits engages in ongoing communication or relationship with spiritual entities that present themselves as known figures, such as dead relatives, guardian angels, or cosmic guides. These spirits often provide information, advice, or “healing,” drawing people deeper into dependence on them. However, biblically, these are unclean spirits, also called demons.

Leviticus 19:31 states: “Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.”

How Does It Work?

This practice typically involves rituals, meditations, or altered states of consciousness in which the person becomes receptive to spiritual voices. These spirits often use flattery, false comfort, or esoteric knowledge to draw the individual in. Over time, what began as "comfort" becomes spiritual bondage. Familiar spirits aim to gain access and influence, eventually controlling a person's thoughts, emotions, and decisions.

What’s so deceptive is that these spirits often masquerade as light (2 Corinthians 11:14), claiming to be angels or high-vibrational beings. In truth, they are demonic forces sent to distract and destroy.

Where Did It Come From? Who Is the Founder?

The practice of consulting familiar spirits traces back to ancient pagan cultures—Babylon, Egypt, Canaan, and Greece—where priests and oracles acted as mediums between the physical and spiritual worlds. While no single founder exists, the modern revival of these practices can be largely attributed to the Spiritualist Movement of the 19th century.

A key figure in this movement was Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772), a Swedish philosopher who claimed to have contact with angels and spirits. Later, Helena Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy, promoted communication with spiritual beings to gain divine wisdom. These teachings greatly influenced the New Age movement and continue to shape practices today.

Religious Beliefs Behind It

Most consultants of familiar spirits subscribe to New Age spirituality, which blends Eastern mysticism, Gnosticism, and occult principles. It teaches that spiritual enlightenment comes through personal experience with the "spirit realm"—often bypassing God altogether. It denies biblical truth, the personhood of Jesus Christ, and the reality of sin and salvation.

Instead of relying on the Holy Spirit, individuals are taught to trust unseen voices—opening themselves to deception and spiritual oppression.

Why Christians Should Avoid It

For believers, the spiritual world is not a playground. Consulting spirits is not just forbidden—it’s dangerous. Any guidance not from the Holy Spirit is a counterfeit, and Satan is a master imitator. Engaging with familiar spirits can lead to confusion, fear, mental torment, emotional instability, and even physical affliction.

Many who leave New Age or occult practices report:

• Nightmares and sleep paralysis

• Depression and anxiety

• A feeling of being watched or followed

• Difficulty reading the Bible or praying

• A sense of spiritual heaviness or oppression

These are not just psychological side effects—they’re spiritual consequences of opening doors to demonic influence.

It Pulls You Away From Christ

The most devastating effect is spiritual. These spirits will subtly draw your heart away from Jesus. They often affirm all paths to God or downplay the need for repentance. They deny the lordship of Christ and the truth of Scripture.

This deception can seem enlightening initially, but its end is spiritual death (Proverbs 14:12). Jesus warned us in Matthew 24:24 that even the elect could be deceived if they’re not vigilant.

There Is Hope and Freedom in Christ

You can be free if you’ve consulted spirits, knowingly or unknowingly. Jesus Christ has authority over every power of darkness. Repent, renounce the spirits, and invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in their place. Deliverance and restoration are available to all who turn back to the Lord.

Methods of discernment:

• Who was the founder of this modality?

• What was his/her spirituality?

• What culture did it come out of?

• What were their beliefs?

• Who is their God or gods?

Many occult practices in Christianity need to be discerned.  Another method of discernment is the Word of God. The word of God is our measuring stick. The more we read the word, know the word, and have a relationship with the Lord, the more we discern right and wrong. We perish from a lack of knowledge.

Hosea 4:6 declares, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.”

By Teresa Morin, President of Touch of God Int'l Ministries of Healing and Deliverance. 

See list of occult practices. 

If you've been involved in a new age, occult, or cult, it can invite demonic spirits to torment you. If you feel tormented, you may need deliverance.

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