In the first installment of this series on the paranormal, several anomalous human powers were shown to be evidenced in the Bible. Levitation and psychokinesis, astral projection, telepathy, pyrokinesis, metamorphosis, glossalia, physical transmutation, invisibility, and super human strength are all passed off as quaint Bible stories, which are seldom heard from the pulpit in their proper perspective. Just the thought of anyone claiming a human with enough belief in their own capabilities could do the impossible, will earn the labels of heresy, blasphemy, or lunacy, despite the fact that Jesus clearly declared it so. Could it be that the church does not want its captive audience to think they may have power and, therefore, more difficult to threaten and control?

Up to now, we have also discussed ghosts, communicating with the dead, near-death experience, out-of-body experience, and shown no evil connected with them. And, sorcery, magicians, sorcerers, witches, and wizards are, either not what the church portrays, or less of a threat than the pulpit declares. Yet, as with human power, attempting to trivialize or question any aspect of these anomalies as anything other than pure evil will get the same result. Is the radical demonization of these anomalies used as further unwarranted threats to keep the flock in fear? Perhaps a better historical understanding of how the purging of witches will give the answer and show the prejudiced environment that prevailed during the translation of the Bible by King James.

The War on Witches

Almost never considered is why paranormal phenomena are presented in the Bible the way they are by the original translators, which were strongly influenced by a 17th Century social environment. An environment focused on witch hunts and burnings, and a purging of everything even remotely considered evil by the church, which was led by a monarch with personal obsessions that would shame even the most perverse.

The Demonic Association Begins

Originally the concept of supernatural power was completely dismissed by the church. In the 5th Century AD, Saint Augustine of Hippo, an influential theologian in the early Catholic Church, argued that God alone controlled the laws of the universe. Thus, neither Satan, nor witches, had supernatural powers or were capable of effectively invoking magic of any sort, and it was an error of pagan thought to believe in some other divine power other than the one God. If witches were indeed powerless, the Church had no need to overly concern itself with their spells or other attempts at mischief. The move toward labeling all things unusual in the Bible as dangerously evil to humanity did not begin until centuries later. Pope Innocent III began an assault in the early 13th Century on Cathar heretics, who believed that God and Satan both had supernatural powers and were at war, by spreading stories that the heretics personally worshiped Satan. Propagandists for the Church depicted Cathars in such a vicious way that the public's perception of Satan was changed from that of a mischievous spoiler to a deeply sinister force.