Editor's Note: Ghosts, ghoblins and ghouls are the stuff of Halloween legends and costumes, but are they real? Christians know that their deceased loved ones live on eternally. Can they ever communicate with the living? And does Satan specialize in preying on people who long for just one more message from the dead?

“Someone has a connection to the number 7,” began the psychic.

A grieving woman raises her hand. “I was born in July, the seventh month.”

“I’m with you.” The psychic recognizes her desperation to hear from a dead loved one. More importantly, she is suggestible and easily led.

“I see a male figure holding a rose, which is their way of saying…”

The psychic continues: The woman supplies details and interprets symbols to fit with her loved one.

Since that infamous incident the Garden of Eden, Satan knows we can be easily deceived. For this reason, John advises: “Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God… This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God…” (1 John 4:1, 2-NIV).

Talking to and receiving messages from the dead is an old trick of the devil. And dangerous, too. Some spiritualists and psychics warn that demonic spirits masquerade as departed loved ones to fool people into opening up so that they can possess them.

In A Do It Yourself Guide to Communicating with the Dead, Lori Lothian writes: “Most communication attempts don't work, or may be faked, but there is ALWAYS the possibility of contacting or inviting something you could never, in your wildest imagination, be prepared for — the inhuman spirit.” Lothian warns that ouija boards and other occult practices can lead to dangerous encounters with demonic beings.