# Does Satan Give Psychics Real Power? (Holly Pivec) **Summary.** [[Holly Pivec]] interviews a Christian magician (an illusionist who debunks the paranormal) about whether Satan or demons give psychics, mediums, and self-described prophets genuinely supernatural information. The guest answers no: most such cases reduce to ordinary technique (cold reading, statistical base rates) and to memory distortion in how stories are retold. He affirms demons and angels exist but refuses to go beyond what Scripture says they demonstrably do. (Source: [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/Does Satan Give Psychics Real Power|Does Satan Give Psychics Real Power]]) - **Source type:** YouTube interview (evangelical apologetics) - **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMVh4zSHgxQ - **Tradition represented:** evangelical / cessationist-leaning skepticism of occult and NAR prophetic power claims ## Key claims 1. **The prompt.** Pivec reads two occult-affirming Christian authors — Joanna Michaelsson and Neil T. Anderson — who argue Scripture's condemnation of occultism presupposes that occult power is *real*, not fraud. She asks whether Satan or demons can implant accurate thoughts in psychics' or "prophets'" minds. 2. **Cold reading vs. hot reading.** *Hot reading* uses secretly obtained advance information; *cold reading* infers from probabilities, body language, and high-base-rate statements ("95% of women experience this"). The guest repurposed a Bill Gothard "Basic Youth Conflicts" list as cold-reading material. 3. **Memory distortion.** Uncanny anecdotes inflate over time — he produced at most two doves in his act, yet a woman recalled "all those doves" decades later. 4. **The controlled-test argument.** "Andre" offered $25,000 for any supernatural feat under controlled conditions. An astral-projection test: a subject "read" *God is love* off a concealed board that actually said *Billy is a boy*. The guest catalogs the recurring excuses ("I can't read in my astral body," "God would take the ability away if I took the money"). 5. **Scriptural exegesis.** On the demon-possessed slave girl in Acts 16, the text affirms she was demonized but does *not* say she could read minds — people read more into the text than is there. ## Notable quote > "I can't argue your experience, but I can argue your interpretation of your experience." — the central epistemic move: concede the datum, contest the supernatural explanation. ## Connections to existing wiki - A new angle for [[Fallible Prophecy]] and [[New Apostolic Reformation]]: ex-NAR participants who believe they prophesied un-knowable information are offered a **naturalistic alternative** (cold reading, base rates, exaggerated retellings) rather than a demonic-power explanation. - Sharpens [[Spiritual Warfare Theology]] by drawing a line between affirming that demons exist and attributing telepathic power to them ("doctrines of demons" = false teaching, not mind-reading). - Same author as the book source [[readwise-nar-pivec-geivett|Pivec & Geivett, *A New Apostolic Reformation?*]]. > [!contradiction] Is occult/prophetic power real or technique? > Michaelsson and Anderson (cited by Pivec) hold that Scripture's occult prohibitions presuppose *real* supernatural power. The guest holds that the experiences are real but the supernatural *interpretation* is not — most reduce to cold reading and memory distortion. Both sides affirm demons exist; they disagree on whether demons confer demonstrable secret knowledge. ## Source caution The guest is a single apologetics voice; his controlled-test anecdotes ("Andre," the Russia astral-projection test) are relayed secondhand and not independently sourced here. Useful as a framework (concede experience, contest interpretation), not as a settled catalog of what demons can or cannot do. ## Related - [[Holly Pivec]] · [[Spiritual Warfare Theology]] · [[New Apostolic Reformation]] · [[Fallible Prophecy]] · [[readwise-nar-pivec-geivett|Pivec & Geivett — A New Apostolic Reformation?]]