Hearing From Angels

[motion]

Hello,

 

I was wondering if anyone has ever had any experience with someone (who happens to be a Christian) who claims to be able to get messages from angels. 

 

Somewhat like an oracle where the person presents a situation to “angels” and then supposedly gets a response back from one or multiple angles concerning the situation presented/ question asked.

 

I would like to know if anyone on here used to be able to do this or knows of someone that claims to have this "gift".  What are your thoughts/experiences about what is going on?

[florduh]

I had a neighbor who often heard from a small alien creature who followed her around the country no matter where she moved. Someone else having such hallucinations might attribute it to angels, demons, departed loved ones, whatever. It's still a mental disorder no matter what you call it. However, I never personally encountered anyone claiming to hear from supposed angels.

[par4dcourse]

"There's someone in my head, but it's not me."-- Pink Floyd "Brain Damage"

[gall]

I had a neighbor who often heard from a small alien creature who followed her around the country no matter where she moved. Someone else having such hallucinations might attribute it to angels, demons, departed loved ones, whatever. It's still a mental disorder no matter what you call it. However, I never personally encountered anyone claiming to hear from supposed angels.

 

Was this the alien your neighbor heard from?

 

 

[kolaida]

I once rented from a room for a woman who claimed to be seeing ghosts, possibly angels. She was very, very, full on Mormon.  Lived near the Temple in Salt Lake and everything. 

 

I got home from work one day and she asked if I'd turned down the furnace because it was so cold in the house and I was like, "No, I haven't touched it."  I was always taught to never, EVER mess with thermostats, etc as a child.  She responded, "Oh, it'd definitely been messed with, though." 

 

I was still a Christian at the time, but this was very shortly before complete de-conversion.  My automatic thoughts were, "Ohmygod, we need to check every closet, under the bed, and behind the door to see who else is in the house messing with the thermostat." Or "Maybe she forgot she messed with it? Or saw a different number?" 

 

Before I could say anything, she busts out with, "Oh, it must be the ghosts again."    ????   Then she launches into how ever since she was a kid she could see other people and how this house, particularly, there was a lot of activity in it.  She even went into detail about the "parties" they had in the basement and was able to describe several of them to me in great detail.  

 

I obviously moved out less than a month later because the woman was, while very, very nice, kinda nuts. (I also had financial troubles).  That's when I was really kind of like, "What the hell??"  about everything because I believe she truly believes she sees all that, but I don't think any of it is actually there. 

[motion]

The individual in question did not have this "gift" all her life.  She told me that her mom also had this "gift" and that before her mom died they got a message that god wanted the "gift" to remain in the family after which she started to hear from angels.

 

She has attributed some of her messages to be from angels such as Sachiel.  She does not appear to have a mental condition or any other apparent “questionable” behaviors.  At the end of the day I do not know if this person is making this whole thing up.

 

The thing that bothers me is that she gives medical advice, career advice among other things to others.  Once I point blank I asked her if she really does hear from angels.  She told me that she really does.

 

I asked her if she was worried that due to the messages she supposedly got from angles that she could be affecting the live of people who took actions based on the things she said.  She told me that she does not care as long as she is doing god's will.

[Ralet]

do the angel give her at least useful information that she cant come up with by herself? i think she lies for attention or she actually believes that her own ideas are given by angels. a lot christian say "god told me to pray for you/do a certain thing" and they actually believe it, but the thoughts come from themselves.

[kolaida]

The individual in question did not have this "gift" all her life.  She told me that her mom also had this "gift" and that before her mom died they got a message that god wanted the "gift" to remain in the family after which she started to hear from angels.

 

She has attributed some of her messages to be from angels such as Sachiel.  She does not appear to have a mental condition or any other apparent “questionable” behaviors.  At the end of the day I do not know if this person is making this whole thing up.

 

The thing that bothers me is that she gives medical advice, career advice among other things to others.  Once I point blank I asked her if she really does hear from angels.  She told me that she really does.

 

I asked her if she was worried that due to the messages she supposedly got from angles that she could be affecting the live of people who took actions based on the things she said.  She told me that she does not care as long as she is doing god's will.

 

Well, the woman I lived with didn't appear crazy and she didn't generally go around telling random people this stuff. She told me because she was kind of freaked out at the time and this woman had a VERY successful career, her own radio show (totally unrelated to ghosts or even religion, I think it was just advice), got invited to huge parties (some big former basketball player's Christmas party and she took me as her guest and damn, was that guy's house even bigger than hers, I felt like some random poor person charity case there, lol-- it was FUN, though!).  The woman was practically rolling in her own money to boot.  Honestly, I had thought that she was just a little zealous in her religion; something I could relate, too--- until she started bringing up the ghosts and possibly spirits and a couple times she wondered if they were angels.   And, you know, to this day, I sometimes wonder if she was making it up because it just seems so unlikely and while she had some random quirks, for the most part, she seemed like a pretty smart and decent woman. (But to me, seeing parties in the basement kinda makes you a little nutty and being that I was still slightly religious at the time, I was kind of freaking out myself even though I didn't believe in ghosts) 

 

Also, just because someone does not "appear" to have a mental condition, does not mean they do not have it.  There are various forms of mental disorders, I'm not sure what these ones would fall under, honestly (something with hallucinations, I'd guess).  To most people, I do not "appear" to have OCD or extreme social anxiety; I just come across as an organized, snobby bitch most times.  No one is really ever quite what they appear to be. 

[RaLeah]

I think you are referring to channeling. Some people think they are listening and talking / interpreting for spirits, higher beings, or angels. 

 

It's kind of a mind trick, and the person doing it really does buy into it themselves. It doesn't "feel" like their own voice and thoughts that they're sharing with others, as the person speaking for the angel has undergone a type of hypnotic state. But it really is still their own brain and nothing else. 

 

You can look up some example of channeling on YouTube if you type "channeling" into the search bar. I don't think there is any validity in psychics or channelers (no matter what sort of invisible entity they think they're hearing in their head), but you can see what it looks like if you're curious. 

 

For what it's worth, I do NOT think most people who do this are deliberate scam artists. I think they really do buy into it and believe it themselves. They delude themselves before they delude other people. 

[kolaida]

I think you are referring to channeling. Some people think they are listening and talking / interpreting for spirits, higher beings, or angels. 

 

It's kind of a mind trick, and the person doing it really does buy into it themselves. It doesn't "feel" like their own voice and thoughts that they're sharing with others, as the person speaking for the angel has undergone a type of hypnotic state. But it really is still their own brain and nothing else. 

 

You can look up some example of channeling on YouYube if you type "channeling" into the search bar. I don't think there is any validity in psychics or channelers (no matter what sort of invisible entity they think they're hearing in their head), but you can see what it looks like if you're curious. 

 

For what it's worth, I do NOT think most people who do this are deliberate scam artists. I think they really do buy into it and believe it themselves. They delude themselves before they delude other people. 

 

The last bit is the same conclusion I have come to as well. 

[Lilith666]

No, but my mother claims that she used to be able to speak in tongues. I have never heard her actually do this.

[BendyLine]

The individual in question did not have this "gift" all her life.  She told me that her mom also had this "gift" and that before her mom died they got a message that god wanted the "gift" to remain in the family after which she started to hear from angels.

 

Many times mental illness doesn't manifest itself in children; it tends to come later in life, generally around adolescence, teenage years, or early 20's. If this person is actually hearing voices, and her mother was actually hearing voices, there is likely some kind of schizophrenia running in the family. </uneducated guess>

 

This story reminds me of an episode of Godless Bitches; they had a guest from Mississippi who grew up in a very religious home. When she was about 14 or so, she started hearing voices telling her to do things like hurt herself or hurt her family. When she finally had the courage to tell her family about it, they believed it was demons, so they turned the religion up to 11 (sending her off to religious conferences and what not). Of course, that didn't help one bit, and her condition continued to get worse. Finally at one point when she was about 30 or so, she told her mother that she was going to be the mother of the Antichrist. At that point her mother finally decided to get her some help from an actual doctor, but only because her claims did not match up to the mother's theology. So she got the treatment she needed and eventually became an atheist. It's a fascinating story and I'm really not doing it justice, so if you're interested here's a link (it's episode 3.07): http://godlessbitches.podbean.com

 

I think you are referring to channeling. Some people think they are listening and talking / interpreting for spirits, higher beings, or angels. 

 

It's kind of a mind trick, and the person doing it really does buy into it themselves. It doesn't "feel" like their own voice and thoughts that they're sharing with others, as the person speaking for the angel has undergone a type of hypnotic state. But it really is still their own brain and nothing else. 

 

You can look up some example of channeling on YouYube if you type "channeling" into the search bar. I don't think there is any validity in psychics or channelers (no matter what sort of invisible entity they think they're hearing in their head), but you can see what it looks like if you're curious. 

 

For what it's worth, I do NOT think most people who do this are deliberate scam artists. I think they really do buy into it and believe it themselves. They delude themselves before they delude other people. 

You know, I've heard of channelling before, but for some reason this time it reminded me of the whole "tongues and interpretation" thing that people do in charismatic churches. I don't know why I've never made that connection before, because they really are pretty similar.

[miekko]

I think you are referring to channeling. Some people think they are listening and talking / interpreting for spirits, higher beings, or angels. 

 

It's kind of a mind trick, and the person doing it really does buy into it themselves. It doesn't "feel" like their own voice and thoughts that they're sharing with others, as the person speaking for the angel has undergone a type of hypnotic state. But it really is still their own brain and nothing else. 

 

You can look up some example of channeling on YouYube if you type "channeling" into the search bar. I don't think there is any validity in psychics or channelers (no matter what sort of invisible entity they think they're hearing in their head), but you can see what it looks like if you're curious. 

 

For what it's worth, I do NOT think most people who do this are deliberate scam artists. I think they really do buy into it and believe it themselves. They delude themselves before they delude other people. 

Isn't the term channeling kind of restricted to certain 'styles' of experience this - e.g. a person who walks around and thinks they run into a ghost all of a sudden and exchange a few words with them wouldn't normally be said to be channeling? Channeling usually involves some kind of 'provocation' causing the experience (usually, surprise surprise, of a theatrical kind!), whereas some people may have mental conditions that aren't triggered by that kind of thing, and instead just happen at random. I don't seem to recall ever having seen anyone refer to the latter by that term?

[motion]

What are your thoughts on the fact that the mom had the same "gift" which her daughter then claiims.

The lady told me that when she started hearing the voices her mom walked her through the process.

I remember her saying something along the lines of them praying to make sure that they voices she was hearing were from "good spirits/angels" as opposed to the "bad" ones.

[miekko]

What are your thoughts on the fact that the mom had the same "gift" which her daughter then claiims.

The lady told me that when she started hearing the voices her mom walked her through the process.

I remember her saying something along the lines of them praying to make sure that they voices she was hearing were from "good spirits/angels" as opposed to the "bad" ones.

Mental problems such as these may very well have genetic components as well as behavioral components:

 

genetic:

- the mother has genes that increase the likelihood of certain kinds of mild crazy -> the daughter is likely to have those genes too

 

behavioral:

- the daughter hears this stuff from her mother all her life -> daughter gets very convinced this is the normal way and that her mother expects it of her, and she develops the same mild crazy

[RaLeah]

Channeling refers to a person who sits there and talks as if the entity (angel) is speaking through them.

It's similar to automatic writing, which is where you imagine the entity is using you to write what it wants you to write.

 

Hearing voices and then later telling other people you received an angelic message is different. One of my former roommates had a mother who started to hear voices after an intensely stressful period in her life. She thought they were angels at first, but then started hearing demonic voices warning her she or loved ones were going to die. She checked herself into a mental health facility for treatment, which is what she needed to do.

 

I know of some other people who've said they've heard voices in their head before, but it wasn't frequent nor were the voices dangerous. While I still think it's tied to a psychotic episode rather than a real communication with angels or spirits, not everyone needs medication to control it. I still think these voices are generated by the person's own brain. It often seems to be tied to exhaustion or stress or depression.

[gall]

Channeling refers to a person who sits there and talks as if the entity (angel) is speaking through them.

It's similar to automatic writing, which is where you imagine the entity is using you to write what it wants you to write.

 

Hearing voices and then later telling other people you received an angelic message is different. One of my former roommates had a mother who started to hear voices after an intensely stressful period in her life. She thought they were angels at first, but then started hearing demonic voices warning her she or loved ones were going to die. She checked herself into a mental health facility for treatment, which is what she needed to do.

 

I know of some other people who've said they've heard voices in their head before, but it wasn't frequent nor were the voices dangerous. While I still think it's tied to a psychotic episode rather than a real communication with angels or spirits, not everyone needs medication to control it. I still think these voices are generated by the person's own brain. It often seems to be tied to exhaustion or stress or depression.

 

Of course they are generated by the person's own brain. That doesn't make it any easier to deal with for that person. A lot of crazy people know they are crazy but it doesn't keep it from happening. Not all people need meds. Some people need people to talk to that can help them understand and be there for them.

 

I hear shit in my head all the time. It is just different aspects of who I am. I think a lot of peeps get confused and think it is coming from some place external while it is just them talking to themselves in their own head. A community of one.

[SquareOne]

In my experience, people who talk about seeing angels rarely behave as a person would if one actually saw an motherfucking angel.

 

I would jump out of my freaking skin and never stop telling people about it in dread seriousness.

 

But these people talk about it as though it's a "ho-hum" fact of life.  That's how you know it's bullshit.

[florduh]

Astute observation, SquareOne.

[SquareOne]

Thanks!

[Denyoz]

Hi motion,

 

Interesting topic.

 

I think hearing from angels, ghosts, aliens, is similar to dreaming.  Are dreams real?  They sure seem real when I am having a nightmare.  It is only when I wake up that I realize that "it was just a dream".  We all have these two types of awarenesses: the dream state and the awakened state.  We switch automatically from one to the other with the cycle of day and night.  Which one of these two types of awarenesses is the "real" one?  Is one realler than the other?

 

One thing I noticed is that we experience dreams as real, whether or not they are.  Surely there is a good reason for this.  Apparently it keeps our minds balanced and if we didn't dream we would all go crazy.

 

Now consider day-dreaming.  I think people who claim to see spirits or whatever are simply engaging in a form of day-dreaming or conscious dreaming.  There is nothing wrong with this, the person doing it is having an experience that might or might not be useful to them.  It's their business.  The problem is when that person starts thinking that her "visions" should be relevant to everybody else.  The person's day-dreaming experience is usually not relevant to others, just like my dreams are usually not relevant to my wife.

 

To each his own dream.

 

When you think about it, isn't this exactly what the Christian church has done?  They took ancient prophets' day-dreaming experiences and turned them into dogma, saying "Everybody should believe this because it comes from God!"  They took the written records of these "useful" day-dreams and called it The Holy Bible, God's Word.  These books might have been important to the people who experienced them, but for those of us who didn't, they are often useless and even harmful.

 

To say that people who see and talk to angels are fakes, delusional and mentally sick is going a bit far I think.  It's not helpful, except to pharmaceutical companies who will do anything to sell more pills.  We still have a lot to learn about the human psyche and spirit (if there is such a thing).

 

I've been experimenting a lot with "channelling" in the last year, and I never had so much fun in my life.  I'm learning a lot about the mysterious aspects of my selves.  But I'm prudent enough to keep my mouth shut.  I don't talk about it to my family.  I've been to a psychiatric hospital once and I don't want to go back. 

[motion]

I've been experimenting a lot with "channelling" in the last year, and I never had so much fun in my life.  I'm learning a lot about the mysterious aspects of my selves.  But I'm prudent enough to keep my mouth shut.  I don't talk about it to my family.  I've been to a psychiatric hospital once and I don't want to go back. 

Can you elaborate and explain what you mean by channelling?

[Denyoz]

 

I've been experimenting a lot with "channelling" in the last year, and I never had so much fun in my life.  I'm learning a lot about the mysterious aspects of my selves.  But I'm prudent enough to keep my mouth shut.  I don't talk about it to my family.  I've been to a psychiatric hospital once and I don't want to go back. 

Can you elaborate and explain what you mean by channelling?

 

 

By "channelling" I meant communicating with a disembodied spirit.

 

I don't think this forum is the place to elaborate and explain this phenomenon.  I don't like being laughed at in public.  There are many websites and blogs dedicated to this subject.  If you wish to discuss in private I don't mind, you can send me a private message.

[Loboperdido]

Hi motion,

 

Interesting topic.

 

I think hearing from angels, ghosts, aliens, is similar to dreaming.  Are dreams real?  They sure seem real when I am having a nightmare.  It is only when I wake up that I realize that "it was just a dream".  We all have these two types of awarenesses: the dream state and the awakened state.  We switch automatically from one to the other with the cycle of day and night.  Which one of these two types of awarenesses is the "real" one?  Is one realler than the other?

 

One thing I noticed is that we experience dreams as real, whether or not they are.  Surely there is a good reason for this.  Apparently it keeps our minds balanced and if we didn't dream we would all go crazy.

 

Now consider day-dreaming.  I think people who claim to see spirits or whatever are simply engaging in a form of day-dreaming or conscious dreaming.  There is nothing wrong with this, the person doing it is having an experience that might or might not be useful to them.  It's their business.  The problem is when that person starts thinking that her "visions" should be relevant to everybody else.  The person's day-dreaming experience is usually not relevant to others, just like my dreams are usually not relevant to my wife.

 

To each his own dream.

 

When you think about it, isn't this exactly what the Christian church has done?  They took ancient prophets' day-dreaming experiences and turned them into dogma, saying "Everybody should believe this because it comes from God!"  They took the written records of these "useful" day-dreams and called it The Holy Bible, God's Word.  These books might have been important to the people who experienced them, but for those of us who didn't, they are often useless and even harmful.

 

To say that people who see and talk to angels are fakes, delusional and mentally sick is going a bit far I think.  It's not helpful, except to pharmaceutical companies who will do anything to sell more pills.  We still have a lot to learn about the human psyche and spirit (if there is such a thing).

 

I've been experimenting a lot with "channelling" in the last year, and I never had so much fun in my life.  I'm learning a lot about the mysterious aspects of my selves.  But I'm prudent enough to keep my mouth shut.  I don't talk about it to my family.  I've been to a psychiatric hospital once and I don't want to go back. 

You  have very  good points Denyos  about  the angel's or demon voices  influencing religions.