The Physical and Spiritual World -Why I No Longer Believe in Messages from the Dead

This is how I understand it now.

This reflection began in a very ordinary situation, but it stopped me in my tracks.

A friend of mine came from abroad to Finland for a funeral. Death was suddenly there, not as an idea, but as a real person who was no longer present. Before the funeral, we talked about life, death and what happens after.

At one point my friend said she wished she could receive some kind of message from the person who had died. A sign. Something that would confirm that everything continues somehow. Then she asked me whether I would want a message from her if she died.

I answered honestly: of course I would. Who would not? The thought that someone you love could still somehow be in contact is deeply human and deeply comforting.

But at the same time, I said what I now believe.

I said that although my feelings may pull one way, my faith and reason pull another. And because I believe the Bible, I cannot believe messages from the dead are truly from the dead, no matter how beautiful or comforting they may feel.

I see reality as physical and spiritual

I see reality as both physical and spiritual.

In the physical world, I live, move, make choices and answer for my actions. The spiritual world is real too, but it is not under my control. I cannot enter it on my own terms. I cannot open doors, call anyone or ask for messages.

This is where many people see things differently, and that is okay. This is my understanding, not something I am trying to force down anyone’s throat.

According to the Bible, a dead person does not wander here or answer calls. After death, a person is in God’s hands. To me, that is a comforting thought, not a cold or harsh one.

That is why I cannot believe that a loved one who has died would be sending messages here, even when the longing is enormous.

What about mediums and messages people believe they receive?

I know many people experience something that feels real. I do not want to belittle those experiences or say everything is imagination or fraud. I have gone to mediums myself. I have desperately searched for contact with the dead and received countless messages that were said to be from my father. Those messages were comforting, recognizable and felt real.

That is exactly why I cannot just shrug this topic off. For me, this is not theory or judging other people’s experiences from the outside. I have been there. I know what it is like when grief and longing make you search for comfort at almost any cost.

Still, today I understand it differently. The experiences did not simply vanish from my past, and I am not pretending they never happened. But believing the Bible has changed how I understand where those experiences came from.

From a biblical perspective, an experience does not automatically mean the source is what it appears to be. Not everything spiritual is from God just because it feels real or comforting.

For me, the decisive point is this: if I accepted the idea of messages from the dead, I would have to set aside what I believe the Bible teaches about this. And because I trust Scripture, I cannot do that.

That does not mean I despise other views. It means I have chosen the foundation on which I build my own life and faith.

Why Jesus is the key for me here

For me, Jesus is the boundary and protection in spiritual reality.

I do not seek contact with spirits. I do not ask for messages. I do not try to control the unseen.

In prayer, I am not opening a door to anything and everything. Prayer has one direction: toward God, through Jesus.

That feels safe to me precisely because I do not have to know everything, control everything or get answers immediately. My task is not to move around in the spiritual world on my own terms, but to trust that God knows better than I do.

Longing is not wrong

I want to say this clearly.

Longing is not wrong. Grief is not spiritually suspicious. Wanting to hear someone’s voice one more time is profoundly human.

The Bible does not forbid longing. It warns us not to seek comfort from the wrong place.

For me, comfort no longer comes as a message from the dead, but as hope that life does not end here and that everything is ultimately in God’s hands, not mine.

This has changed the way I relate to death. I no longer search for messages from the other side. Reading the Bible has helped me understand that God does not call us into that. So I leave the questions of death in His hands. If He has given us life, He also knows what happens after it.

It is enough for me to believe that there is a time and place for reunion, if that is what God gives. My task is not to hurry those moments, but to live this life and trust that God holds the whole picture. Waiting does not feel empty in the same way anymore. It feels safer.

Finally

Longing for messages from the dead and faith do not always walk the same road. For me, what matters more than my own wishes is the foundation I have decided to trust.

And I believe that the physical and spiritual worlds are both real, but they are not the same. I am not called to move in both on my own terms.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
(2 Corinthians 5:7, KJV)