In the first part of this article we covered the amazing human powers described in the Bible that are well known in the human experience. In the field of paranormal research there are many concepts which are found in the Bible, as well. Most of these are rejected by the Church outright as evil, with little consideration of how they are portrayed in the Bible. This is not to say that many of these concepts are rejected as something humans should avoid, but the generic portrayal of these paradigms as evil and highly dangerous must be examined in the true way they are presented in the Bible. Ghosts and hauntings, witches and wizards, magic, enchantment and divination, evil and unclean spirits, conjuring up the dead, trances, astrology, and oracles are all the staples of the paranormal world. Ghosts, hauntings, and contact with others in the "spiritual" world are the most obvious paradigms dealt with in the paranormal reality, and perhaps, the least understood by the Church.

Ghosts in Scripture

Ghosts are generically classified as evil in mainstream Christian thought, yet are dealt with as a natural event in the course of human experience in the Bible. Death, itself, is described as "giving up the ghost" in many biblical verses such as: "Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people." (Genesis 25:8) And, it is also found in many other scriptures.

It is no stretch of the imagination to consider that this biblical event is a classic description of an encounter with a "ghost", which anyone could recognize: "Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?" (Job 4:14-17) There is no evil associated with this apparition and it actually seems to be imparting wisdom to Job.

The Near-Death Experience

A near-death experience, NDE, is a well documented phenomenon reported by many people, who came very close to death, or actually died, or who experienced clinical death and were then revived. This paradigm is generally either ignored, or confusingly considered as both good and evil by mainstream Christianity, depending on a particular denomination's dogma. A simple view of the paradigm and a single biblical verse will show that near-death experiences, and how the Bible describes the actual experience of human death, seem to be in perfect harmony.