Many vampire tales—including Dracula— feature blood-sucking villains that cannot enter a house unless allowed in by one of the inhabitants. Thereafter, the vampire may come and go at will. This imagery aptly describes the relationship between residual UFO (RUFO) encounters and the demonic world of the occult.
Participation with occult phenomena opens the door to UFO encounters and other experiences that carry negative consequences for a person’s overall health and vitality in this life and the next.
Scripture expressly forbids involvement in any occult practices (Deuteronomy 18:10–12). UFO experiences involve such occult beliefs and practices as mediumistic “channeling” of alien entities, automatic writing, telepathy, teleportation, dematerialization, levitation, and psychokinesis.1
To engage in this hidden world is to seek knowledge—and power—apart from God’s intended and freely given revelation of truth. Occult practitioners submit themselves to spiritual authority other than God’s, with devastating results.2
Trance channeling most clearly reflects the occult. Scripture warns, “Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them” (Leviticus 19:31).
Theologian and apologist Ron Rhodes defines a channeler as “a person who yields control of his or her perceptual and cognitive capacities to a spiritual entity or force with the intent of receiving paranormal information.”3 If and when real contact is made, that link connects the person with “the powers of this dark world” (Ephesians 6:12). Because channelers allow entities to take over their minds and bodies, they are susceptible to, and may indeed become, oppressed or possessed by demons.
This emphasis on danger and malevolence doesn’t mean that UFO experiences necessarily appear horrific. Some appear, at least initially, as uplifting encounters. But the apostle Paul warns that a messenger of darkness may “masquerade as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14–15).
Demons are powerful and dangerous. But we need not feel hopeless or powerless in the face of their attacks or temptations. God’s power is greater. By His gracious provision, God makes His power available to humanity through Jesus Christ. Through Him, all occult invitations can be cancelled, totally nullified.
Endnotes
J. Gordon Melton, “The Contactees: A Survey,” in The Gods Have Landed, ed. James R. Lewis (New York: State University of New York Press, 1995), 126–27.
Michael Green, Exposing the Prince of Darkness (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant, 1991), 118–24).
Ron Rhodes, New Age Movement (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), 41.
Resource: Adapted from chapter 15 of Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men, available for purchase at our Web store.
Flying saucers, aliens, abductions, and channeled messages. In a scientifically enlightened age, global interest in UFOs shows no signs of waning. How can Christians-or...
