Klingon or Time Lord Jesus? Mary Celeste? Salem Witch Trials? And More Patron Questions

**Dom Bettinelli** (0:00)
Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World is brought to you by the StarQuest Production Network, and is made possible by our many generous patrons. If you'd like to support the podcast, please visit givemysterious.fm.
You're listening to episode 433 of Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World, where we look at mysteries from the twin perspectives of faith and reason. I'm Dom Bettinelli, and I'm joined, as always, by Jimmy Akin.

**Jimmy Akin** (0:30)
Howdy, Dom.

**Dom Bettinelli** (0:32)
This is a special bonus episode that we recorded to thank our patrons at patreon.com/starquest for their generosity in making this and all our shows at StarQuest possible. We gave them early exclusive access, but now we're sharing it with you to show you one of the benefits of being a patron. Please enjoy the show.
So let's get right to the questions. Our first one is a video question that came in from Ashley Talwar and her son.
Ashley writes, Attached is a short video of my son asking about telekinesis. He wants to know if it's real and if so, if it's demonic. Thanks for your time. We love your shows. PS. Your apologetics are part of what helped me make the decision to join the Catholic Church. I entered the church on Divine Mercy Sunday just recently, and my son will have his first communion next spring.

**Jimmy Akin** (1:24)
Well, congratulations to Ashley and your son, and notice also if you send a video question, it gets bumped right to the top of the line.

**Dom Bettinelli** (1:34)
It does. So here's the question.
Are you ready?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:40)
Hi, Mr. Jimmy. I've been wanting to know if telekinesis is real, and if it's possible, and if it's demonic, and if it's good sometimes. And also, I have one more question.
Is Skinwalker Ranch actually has skinwalkers?

**Jimmy Akin** (2:06)
Okay, so let's take the questions one by one. The first question was, is telekinesis possible? Now I'll just mention that here you're calling this phenomenon telekinesis, and that is how it's commonly referred to. Most people use that term, but just so you're aware, it's in parapsychology, which is the science that studies this area, it's more commonly called psychokinesis, which means basically the use of the mind to control material stuff. You'll often hear it summarized as mind over matter. So the first question was, is it possible? And well, okay, let's think about that. God, apart from the incarnation, does not have a body, but God made the world, and the world is made out of matter. So, that would be psychokinesis or mind over matter or telekinesis, if you want to call it that. And so, it's definitely possible. We know God can do it, because he would have used it to create the world. We also know that it's not limited to God, because angels also do not have bodies, and yet scripture shows that they can affect matter. So, angels also have psychokinesis. They have the ability to use their minds to control matter. So, angels are also psychokinetic. Then, there's the question of, well, do humans have psychokinesis? And that's one that scripture does not directly address, and the church does not have a formal teaching on this. So, this is a matter of opinion, and people can have different opinions.
There have been major theologians in the history of the church, some of whom were doctors of the church, like St. Thomas Aquinas and Pope St. Gregory the Great, who believed in what today would be called telekinesis or psychokinesis.
They had reports of it happening, and they took those reports seriously. Modern science has also, via parapsychology, modern science has also found evidence of it being real and as something that humans can do. So I would say we definitely know it's possible, and we have good evidence that humans can also do it in at least some circumstances. It's not something we have a lot of control over, we can't do it robustly, but there is some evidence that humans can do it. The second question, is it demonic? Well, demons are bad angels and angels can do it. So the answer would be, well, sometimes psychokinesis would be demonic, but not all the time. It's obviously not demonic when God does it. It's obviously not demonic when a good angel does it, and it's obviously not demonic if a human does it.
So, psychokinesis can be demonic. You also asked, is it sometimes good? And well, it depends on what you're doing with it. God creating the world was good, and angels, typically the good ones, typically use it for doing good stuff. And there are situations where humans try to use it for good things, like healing other people. And that may be part of how God himself uses humans via the spiritual gifts that he gives people to heal other people. We know from the New Testament that God has given some humans, at least in some cases, the ability to help heal other people, which is a good thing. And it's possible that God is using the psychokinetic ability that he built into human nature to accomplish that good.