I have often heard the following-- :"Angels read each others minds now, and when we die our souls will do the same with each other.So, why can't demons read them...". Here are some thought re: demons reading our minds.
1. True mind reading is a divine prerogative--an extension of His omniscience..see #7
2. In the Mark gospel, and scripture in general, the miracles of Christ are given as a validation of His divinity (divine Messiah) In Mark 2: 1-12 is a wonderful story of where four friends of a paralytic lowered him from the roof so that Jesus might heal him--it was so crowded they could not get in otherwise.Jesus was delighted with their faith and told the paralyzed man that his sins were forgiven.In v 7 it says that the scribes were thinking to themselves that Jesus was blaspheming because only God can forgive sin. v.8 Immediately, we are told that Jesus knew what they were thinking (real mind reading) and He then asked them which was easier: to forgive a man's sins or to heal a paralytic. Since the process of sin forgiveness is invisible Jesus gives them empirical evidence of ability to forgive sins, and therefore is God...and he does this by healing the paralyzed man. The miracle proved his deity,but note that central to this whole divine validation is Jesus reading their minds.It is the first of three miracles designed to show He is God: he reads minds, he forgives sins, he heals a paralytic.So, to say that only God can read minds is actually an integral part of this text.
3. Nowhere in the bible is Satan or his demons said to read minds...BIG omission if true
4. What appears to be demonic mind reading is really demonic influence. They project thoughts into your mind, which sounds like your "mind-voice"...no raspy voices and hisses in the mind. Then they turn around and tell you what you were thinking about, trying to seem like they have the ability to read your mind.But all they have done is parrot back what they projected in there. So simple...so crafty...so persuasive to the undiscerning.
5. In my opinion, mind reading by another creature would be tantamount to mind-rape...an unnerving access or forced entry into our most secret, sacred, private place. God's goodness would not allow this unwarranted intrusion....especially with His adopted children in union with Christ.
6. As a corollary to #5, Satan tries to convince us he can read our minds because it instills fear
7. The Lord knows the thought of man (Ps. 94:11);You perceive my thoughts from afar (Ps. 139:2) there many verses in the bible which speak of God knowing what is in our minds or hearts.In Ps. 139:1-6 David is worshiping God for His omniscience--in that context His knowledge of our thoughts is stated. Though intelligent, filthy spirits are not all-knowing. We must not attribute divine traits of the Creator to any creatures.
Any attempts by experiment (e.g. The Rhine Inst.) to engage in telepathy will expose one to demonic oppression.
8. In a section that is dealing with this very issue of who is privy to our thoughts, we read ..."No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit." (1 Cor.2:11) The stress is on inability...Inaccessibility to our thoughts by anyone but God is similar to the fact that only God Himself knows what He is thinking.Nobody has the ability to know our thoughts, or God's thoughts.It is as if Paul said. "Only a person;s own consciousness is aware of his secret thoughts, just like nobody but God is privy to His own unrevealed thoughts." The Holy Spirit, as part of the Trinity, knows and reveals to us God's thoughts...or some of them. Do you see the force of this argument....Only God knows His own thoughts, and only we know our own thoughts.If you question the latter then, you must question God as well...and we are all in agreement that demons cannot (inability) read God's mind.To me, this text is conclusive...BUT
9. What of the point that angels read each others minds now, that we will read each others minds in heaven, and that must mean that demons can read our minds now.....Well, do angels really read each others minds? I don't think so. Let me explain, and I admit of using some conjecture. Unfettered mind reading is a mind-rape as we said.
We assume that angelic communication is telepathic, but I would urge caution here. What I mean by telepathy is direct communication from one mind to another mind. But what if there is another form of communication that we are unaware of? For example, what if there is a higher/different form of verbal communication that is spoken and heard? Perhaps a different frequency is used in angelic or demonic communication, but it is still basically verbal communication, and not telepathic as we conjecture. God, pure Spirit (except for Jesus' glorified body in heaven), SPOKE the entire universe into existence. Also, in the book of Acts we are told that God spoke Hebrew to Paul, while he was on the road to Damascus. I don't know, and may I humbly suggest that nobody really knows, how angels and demons communicate. I am simply suggesting that the finite categories of our minds cannot envision all the possible means by which pure spirits might communicate. I admit that telepathy sounds plausible, but again, are there other means of communication between angels that we haven't even thought of? Clearly the bible is not clear on this matter, and humility should guide us.
Let us assume that angelic communication is similar to what we call telepathy. What then? Let me offer a model that does not entail mind-reading. Given the arguments above, it behooves us to not attribute divine traits to creatures.
Angelic communication, as well as soul-to-soul communication in heaven, will be achieved via passive receiving and active transmitting.The angel or soul that is "talking" is the active transmitter of thought, and the one listening is the passive receiver of that information.Then the roles are reversed when the receiver wants to answer--he then actively transmits his thoughts to the others mind, while the others mind receives it.But, and this is crucial, at no point is the angel or soul having their mind "read".There is not involuntary or forced access to our minds, even in heaven. The problem arose when we wrongly assumed that, for mind-to-mind communication to happen, we must "get into another person's head or mind".That assumption is a non-sequitor...meaning, it dos not follow (wrong conclusion) The back and forth of mind-to-mind communication does not necessarily entail accessing the contents of the other's mind...just transmission and reception.
A body-less soul, even in heaven,is incomplete.. For we will put on heavenly bodies; we will not be spirits without bodies. (2 Cor.5:3) It is a fascinating paragraph, which speaks of our desire to be clothed with our glorified bodies. These "spiritual" bodies will be physical in nature, but perfected and endowed with new powers...much like Jesus's post-resurrection body in which He was able to walk through walls or just appeared, but He ate fish as well (Luke 24:43) "And they gave Him a piece of broiled fish, and He ate it as they watched." No vaporous apparition was He! He HAS a glorified human body now, and will for all eternity. But in this state, His communication was NOT telepathic...it was voice to eardrums during the 40 days before He ascended. The purpose of salvation is not to free us from the prison house of the soul--the physical body--which is what Plato and the Gnostic taught. Rather, the gloriously grand sweep of redemption is to restore to us the fullness of our perfected humanness. Only a gloriously excellent Savior could bring about such a glorious salvation!
Mark Hunnemann is the author of Seeing Ghosts Through God's Eyes: A Worldview Analysis of Earthbound Spirits. It's also available in eBook format.
