arieljhatch

I agree with "Watchful." I was just looking up that talk. :) Elder Bednar talks about Second Life directly in it, so it could give you some insight. Here's a link CES Fireside 2009 - Bednar

I hadn't read this yet when I made my last post. I'm basically just saying the same thing: I disagree. I'm sure if one IS choosing evil practices, evil spirits could be present. I'm not trying to say you must have been wrong in your experiences. But I've also heard there hasn't yet been an apostle who didn't deal with evil spirits when he was called. I'm not trying to circulate gossip or speculation: I simply think your claim is false. Perhaps mainly because a person very close to me, when they were becoming more and more spiritual and before making one of the biggest, most righteous decisions of their life, was possessed and had to have their father and a brother cast it out. They had things in their past that they weren't proud of, but they didn't have these struggles when they were making those wrong choices in the past. The struggle with the evil spirit came when they were growing more and more spiritually.

I think I slightly dis-agree with what you're saying. I suppose I got out of your comment evil only comes when you're being unrighteous. I think we need to remember the more spiritual you are, the harder Satan will work on you. I do agree, however, that we do often have the power to cast out Satan. We know from the scriptures, God will never allow more to happen to us than we can bear. I think that includes He will always provide a way for us to get rid of an evil spirit, whether it's getting rid of it ourselves, the ability to call someone with greater authority, etc. And absolutely, I agree we should live as righteously as possible! But that one's a given. It can mean successfully helping others when they are past helping themselves, when influenced by an evil spirit.