BY LESLIE N. POLLARD

uppose I shared with you that my wife, Prudence, and I had been fasting and praying about purchasing a home. Suppose I told you that my mother, Lillian, paid us a surprise visit a few days ago, knocked on the door, was welcomed into the living room, greeted her grandchildren, came up the stairs, and found me on my knees, praying. She then touched my shoulder and told me that more than a week earlier the Lord had impressed her to visit us. What would you say if I told you that she told me, "Les, I just feel impressed that you should purchase that home, because the asking price is going to double in the next few weeks"? Would you not say that Mother's timing was a blessing and her counsel a gift from God?

What would you say if I told you that my mother has been deceased for 14 years?

On the popular television program Crossing Over, with spiritualist medium John Edward, experiences such as the one I proposed are reported all the time. Mr. Edward purports to communicate with the dead. His gentle demeanor and kindly way have won him audiences across the country. He regularly hosts sold-out events in major U.S. cities. In fact, Edward taped shows immediately after September 11 in which he claimed to communicate with deceased victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Apparently, for reasons of public taste, the segments were never broadcast.

In North America many television shows, much popular preaching, and a number of Hollywood celebrities advocate the benefits of discourse with the dead, and October 31 is the one day of the year that clearly celebrates the spurious teaching that the dead are consciously with us. This doctrine of spiritualism asserts that the dead are not actually dead-not r-e-e-e-aly dead. Gone physically? Sure! But gone beyond our ability to communicate with them and they with us? Absolutely not.

Interestingly, this idea presents the first irony represented by Halloween: many today have been tricked but not treated. After all, our foreparents bought the first false promise to fall from the lips of Satan: "Ye shall not surely die" (Gen. 3:4). This false promise forms the foundation for the present increase and future expansion of paranormal, spiritual phenomena. Ellen G. White wrote: "The foundation for the success of Spiritualism has been laid in the assertions that have been made from the pulpits of our land. The ministers have proclaimed, as Bible doctrines, falsehoods that have originated from the arch-deceiver. The doctrine of consciousness after death, of the spirits of the dead being in communion with the living, has no foundation in the Scriptures, and yet this theory is affirmed as truth. Through this false doctrine the way has been opened for the spirits of devils to deceive the people in representing themselves as the dead. Satanic agencies [im]personate the dead, and thus bring souls into captivity. Satan has a religion, he has a synagogue and devout worshipers. To swell the ranks of his devotees he uses all manner of deception" (Signs of the Times, May 28, 1894).

Many spiritually minded persons find it difficult to deny the reality of the supernatural in their lives and outlooks. Moderns hunger for contact with their deceased loved ones, or the need for decision-making guidance, or the desire to know the future. A host of other motives will drive women and men to accept "answers" wherever, whenever, and however they find them. Once again Mrs. White predicted: "Spiritualism is about to take the world captive. There are many who think that Spiritualism is upheld through trickery and imposture; but this is far from the truth. Superhuman power is working in a variety of ways, and few have any idea as to what will be the manifestations of Spiritualism in the future" (ibid.).

Let's help men and women know that the only answers to life in the now and in the hereafter are found in the truths of God's Word. The truth concerning the dead is found in Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalm 88:10-12; Psalm 115:17; 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Only as we embrace this truth will we avoid being tricked and mistreated.

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Leslie N. Pollard serves as vice president for diversity at Loma Linda University Adventist Health Services Center.