From the Michael Brown Q-and-A, The Day Will Come, 1997, on apparitions, locutions, miracles, and prophecies:
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How further do we discern supposed seers and the like?
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“There are a number of things, besides what we have discussed, to look for.
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“There are some intellectual sign posts. A false or low-level locution is often rambling and unexceptional. It goes on too long. It is ‘uneconomical.’ It sounds like it could well be the seer’s personal ideas or musing, a product of the mind’s internal dialogue. Or, it sounds like it may be a mixture of the subconscious with certain inspired ruminations but also the susurrations, the murmurs, of a deceptive spirit.
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“There are many gray areas.
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“We all have good thoughts and bad thoughts and inspired thoughts. We all hear God and also our own subconscious. It’s very difficult to separate inspirations unless the locution is a powerful one.
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“Most locutionists have messages that are low-powered or have been filtered through their personalities and thus are only as pure as the seer himself. I would stay away from messages that go on too long with lurid details and dates, with years for future events. At Medjugorje the Blessed Mother said, ‘Those who make catastrophic predictions are false prophets. They say, “In such a year, on such a day, there will be a catastrophe.” I have always said that chastisement will come if the world does not convert. Therefore, I call everyone to conversion. Everything depends on your conversion” (15 December 1983).
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“But she added: ‘Today’s world lives amid high tensions and walks on the brink of a catastrophe. It can only be saved if it finds peace. But it can only have peace by returning to God’ (15 February 1983). And she said, ‘I have come to call the world to conversion for the last time. Later, I will no longer appear on earth. These are my final appearances’ (2 May 1982). ‘Make haste to convert. When the promised sign is manifested on the hill, it will already be too late’ (2 September 1982). And, ‘Today, I am calling upon you for the last time’ (21 February 1985). She definitely warns of future and major disasters if we don’t change and immediately.
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Is there a frame of mind as far as approaching the mystical?
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“Through the eyes of love. Humility and love. Without those, we have blindspots. When we love, when we let love fill our hearts, we recognize God because God is love. God gives us peace. He blends with our spirits. And He casts forth an illumination, a spotlight.
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“Today many, even the devout, are deceived if they are not practicing love ‘without ceasing’ (just like prayer). Too many are wrapped up in politics and other worldly ways of viewing the world, when we’re called to view it from above, with the Lord Jesus.
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“Love is the truth of the Light and it’s best coupled with faith and humility, which distance us from the wiles of the enemy.
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“Look for goodness. Look at an alleged seer’s disposition and personal life. Look at the way they treat people. Look to see if they want to be hidden or if, to the contrary, they crave any form of money or attention. It’s when you look ‘backstage’ that the alarm often goes off. It rings at any bit of pride or disharmony in the seer’s family or psychological makeup.
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“Any oddities in the way of ecstasy should also cause concern—any peculiar facial expressions or movements of the eyes—and naturally, any message that doesn’t conform with doctrine or the Bible and that inspires persistent division. Those should be immediately cast off, no matter how much you want to believe them. Just one percent of falsity, of errancy, of the plethoric, is enough to serve as a warning signal.
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Do theologians give us ways to decide legitimacy?
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“I could further cite scholars such as Poulain and Tanqueray or documents from Rome but in the end, however valuable certain guidelines can be, discernment is a spiritual and not an intellectual process. There’s no academic formula. Most false messages are too cunning for simple logic. I’ve seen them fool some of the most prominent theologians, and the same has been true throughout history. One cardinal writing in the seventeenth century enumerated more than twenty condemnations in his time against mystical simulators. In sixteenth-century Spain, a nun tricked priests, bishops, and cardinals with mystical gifts, including apparitions and stigmata that she later admitted were from a demon. Stigmata can be especially problematic. The same for hemography–scrawling, drawing, or writing on a ‘seer’s’ body or a nearby item.
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That was in the 1500s. There are more today. They come in all forms, and they can vex the highest intellect. They fool upon first impression. That’s why we must discern on a spiritual level; one is given the gift of healing, and still another miraculous powers of cognition.
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“Prophecy is given to one; to another power to distinguish one spirit from another.
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“But all of us are given discernment to some degree and in addition to humility, we can augment discernment by watching out for words or that paint an apocalypse in overly tremendous detail or that give dates.
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“Stay away from spectacular language, or what Fr. Joaquin Maria Alonso, the expert on Fatima, called cataclysms of the latter times ‘predicted in the most grotesque manner.’
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“Trust those who are shy about discussing their gifts.
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How do false apparitions occur? Are there mental images that are good and inspired, but that are misrepresented as apparitions? How else do we judge? What else do we look for? What else do we avoid?
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“A truly high-level locution instructs us without loss of time and with words that operate on several levels. Every word is rich. Every one counts.
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“In traveling widely, I was startled by the false ones. Knowingly or unknowingly, some visionaries are using the powers of mediumship and psychic phenomena. Even a legitimate seer, when functioning as a medium, can become the instrument of both good and evil. We must beware because the beginning of an apparition can be from God but the rest may be conjured by the devil. It’s said that St. Ignatius once had a true vision of the Blessed Trinity but a few days later, when the Lord appeared again, something about it troubled Ignatius and when he made the sign of the Cross the apparition suddenly transformed into a serpent.
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“The devil always attempts to spoil legitimate mysticism. And because a ‘seer’ is a nun or priest hardly means it’s authentic, though it helps.
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What about visionaries who have missed in certain of their prophecies?
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“It’s certainly a cause for great concern, of course, but by itself doesn’t always disqualify the seer. There may have been an unconscious distortion. The prophecy may have been conditional. There are those instances in which a prophecy would be better defined as a conditional warning. On seeing that Nineveh survived after forty days, on seeing that the repentant city had been spared, and not destroyed as he warned, Jonah was very distraught and even angry (see Jonah 4:1). He didn’t realize that many of God’s prophecies would be better described as warnings based upon our response. Because Nineveh wasn’t destroyed, he felt like a false prophet.
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“Look for the fruits that last! And look for the gentle voice. God speaks as softly as dew on a flower. He tries to communicate with all of us all of the time and especially seeks nonverbal union. He wants our nonverbal thoughts raised up to Him. That’s the highest form of mysticism: not a locution or vision but Divine union, raising our minds to Him in love.”
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