The Paranormal Christian – Residual Musings

By Pastor Michael Frisbee, DD/DM

Even though I have been a studying Christian Demonologist for over 22 years now, and a practicing ordained deliverance pastor for over 17 years now, never do I assert that I know all.  There is always something to be learned, some “ah – ha” moment when a belief you held for a long time gets challenged.  I saw that happen during the Orlando seminar I held on Christian Demonology this past weekend.  When I presented to those in attendance the material and position that the current method of collecting EVP’s used on TV shows and mimicked by those who watch these shows is no different than doing a Ouija session, I saw a lot of light bulbs pop on in the eyes and faces of the attendees.

I had one of those “ah-ha” moments as well this week, which challenged my long held positions on residual haunting.  I had bought into the whole residual energy imprinting and replaying, and I should be ashamed for I am also a science guy, and totally ignored the Laws of Thermodynamics to hold to these beliefs.

What shook that position and belief, was an article written by my co-host on The Paranormal Christian, author of “Seeing Ghosts Through God’s Eyes”, and my friend, Rev. Mark Hunnemann.  His article is titled, “Musings About Residual Hauntings”.  The full text of what he wrote can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=321910397845058 , and I highly recommend that you read it, especially if you are an investigator and researcher.

After reading his article, I did a lot of praying and some further reading.  I then sent Rev. Mark an email thanking him, for opening my eyes and my heart, for touching my spirit through God’s Word and wisdom.  This has affected me to the point I am changing my position on this area and adapting my seminar materials to reflect this change as well.

Here is an excerpt from Mark’s article:

For the sake of those without prior knowledge, a residual haunt is a paranormal hypothesis which states that inanimate materials can absorb some form of energy from living beings, during moments of high tension (eg traumatic death). This stored energy can be released, resulting in a display of the recorded activity. These "hauntings" are not intelligent but simply non-interactive recordings similar to a movie or a tape recorder.

Thomas Lethbridge spoke of this phenomenon in Ghost and Ghouls in 1961.  Earlier discussions of this theory date back to the late 19th century. The hypothesis was jump-started in the 1970's in the play “The Stone Tape”. Currently, residual haunt, like verbal solicitation of EVP's, is held so firmly that its truth is seldom questioned, except by a few academics. I will talk more about this next time, but the paranormal community is what sociologists would call a plausibility structure. It enables belief of certain unconventional concepts to be easily believed. Due to shared assumptions about reality and a common web of beliefs, there is a safe environment for certain concepts to be deemed plausible and firmly believed. Unconsciously, certain beliefs become axiomatic...unassailable. The notion of a residual haunt has attained such status, in my opinion, with virtually everyone in a monolithic consensus; just a few (one, that I'm certain of) in the paranormal community would take exception. The point being, there are psychological and sociological forces at work, which makes my attempt to persuade an especially challenging task. Lest you think my discussion of plausibility structures is a putdown (which it is not), the local church should be a plausibility structure...making folks feel safe to believe, in a culture which is becoming increasingly hostile to Christianity. It is simply a sociological perspective. Having blown the whistle on soliciting EVP's, this is a further attempt to help people I care about.

Let us think for a moment about the significant ramifications of this belief. Even if you jettison intelligent human haunt and poltergeist (as I have argued on here), it is still the belief of many Christian investigators that, over three-fourths of legitimate paranormal or supernatural activity is residual. The inference being that real demonic activity is a small percentage of true supernatural activity. A moments communion with common sense reveals the crucial role, for good or ill, which this omni-accepted belief entails. It either has tremendous explanatory power  (85% of paranormal phenomena), or Satan has us whipped. The stakes are high and Christians cannot afford to be wrong on this one--too much is at stake. Let me use an analogy to illustrate the latter--Satan has us whipped.. BTW, if you are feeling negativity in your gut right about now, it may be due to the influence of the plausibility structure. There is reason I mentioned it...


The drug cartels in Mexico and elsewhere take for granted that a certain number of drug shipments coming over our border will get nabbed. In fact, at times they will intentionally send a decoy in order to distract away from a larger shipment. The point being that the cartels are willing to take some losses, as long as the bulk of the drugs is getting across and their profits are running high. Similarly, if all residuals are really demonic, then the vast majority of demons will not be detected during investigations. Even if you do a walk through, quoting scripture, praying, and digital recorders running, that is not going to be sufficient in exposing all demonic activity. If a full cleansing (commanding in Jesus’ name any demons present to leave) is not done, then we have no biblical warrant to expect demons (especially stronger ones) to make their true identity known. Sure, the reading of the bible and prayer is irritating and painful, but all they have to do is ride it out...as long as they are not commanded in the name of Jesus to leave. The demon knows in advance that all it has to do is either shut up entirely or play-act as an imprinted memory, and they will be left alone. It is not uncommon for a demonically active location, to suddenly become very quiet when we come snooping around. Time is different for them...they can hide in a crawl space for weeks until the threat is over. Like the cartel, they know a certain number of detections or losses are inevitable, but as long as the majority of demons are identified as residual, then they are home free. Since 85% of this demonic activity is presupposed by investigators to be residual in nature, they can afford a few losses; the majority is slipping past and the human profit (carnage) is high. If demonic activity is relatively rare, then why are so many investigators having "visitors"...Because Ed Warren tended to "search the cars for drugs" via biblical provocation, his educated analysis was that about 50% of paranormal activity was demonic; when biblically provoked, the seeming non-interactive entity or activity suddenly became quite interactive! We need to ask: why was his percentage so much higher than ours today?

Read the full article here:  http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=321910397845058

Tomorrow night on The Paranormal Christian, we have author Patrick Meechan, whose book, “220 Fifth Street: A Terrifying True Story”, will be the focus of our discussion.  Patrick will be sharing with us his real experiences regarding the demonic and how he finally rid his life and home of demons through direct application of God’s Word and prayer.  Join us at 7 PM EST Saturday February 10th.  http://www.theparanormalchristian.com