I live in a two-family house. I live in the apartment upstairs and my mother lives in the downstairs apartment. Every once in a while I'll go down there to see her. I went down to her apartment yesterday to borrow a book. I discovered a bunch of occultic material! An encyclopedia of witchcraft and neo-paganism. Books on astrology, palm-reading, and "white" magic. I brought it up to her and told her why it's evil and she gave me the old "it's white magic, which means it's good" nonsense. She said it wasn't serious, but that she only "dabbled" with it. We had a huge fight about it and I'm not sure what to do. I'm not comfortable living in this house knowing the kind of activities that may or may not going on in the apartment below mine.

Would it be wrong to take these books from her and burn them?

Possessions and hauntings can occur when people mess aroung with occultic stuff - even if they don't really believe in it. The Exorcist is based on a true story - except the girl in the movie was actually a boy in real life. He got possessed after he did the Oujii board with his aunt - who was into the occult. Ghost sightings and parnormal ghost activities in a house are demonic in origin. Usually, if you do your history on the house, you will discover that someone who once lived there did something occultic,  - such as having a seance to contact the dead, doing Oujii boards, having a psychic reading, etc... These activities, even when done for fun, can invited a demon or demons into your house. If you mother dabbles in that stuff, there is a possibility your house will become haunted (or she might get possessed or obsessed).  


Fr. Amorth (the exorcist of Rome who wrote the book "An Exorcist Tells His Story") explains that proximity to evil places or persons can bring about possession. This includes attending spiritualistic session, dabbling in magic, or consulting magicians, witch doctors, and some card readers; also, practicing the occult, belonging to satanic sects, or practicing in rites that climax with black masses, and so on, put us at great risk.

Alex is right -- the Devil is real and he DOES involve himself with our world.

Seances, etc. basically INVITE the Adversary into our lives. Anything "beyond the normal" -- where you desire any kind of power -- invites the devil to get involved. It's not something a Catholic should dabble with.

Exorcist is a very real profession, and they've never been out of work, that I know of.

Only in the Catholic Church can you find powerful defenses against the devil and his influence: The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Scapular, Miraculous Medal, St. Michael Prayer, Holy water, Crucifixes, other blessed objects, the names of Jesus and Mary, etc.

Without SUPERNATURAL HELP from above we humans are as weak before the devil as an ant is before a human being.

Matthew

Much of what has been said has already crossed my mind (scapulars, having the house blessed, etc.). This is all good advice, and much appreciated, though my question was not answered. I would like to know if it would be wrong for me to take these books from her and burn them, in order to stop her from using spells and whatnot.

My parents have a whole lot books in their library room. Once, when I was purusing through the stuff, I found a book on astrology and another one about the difference between the sexes that had some nude pictures in it. I secretly threw them away. I also threw out a couple of Protestant bibles that I found among the Catholic ones. I did not want my brothers getting a hold of any of these books and that is why I threw them out. If I had asked them first, they wouldn't have let me throw them away. Anyway, I knew they would never find out I threw them away because they have too many books to keep count.

I had to first struggle with the question as to whether I had a right to take their stuff and throw it out - whether it was no different than stealing. But then I remembered that the story of when St. Paul went into a certain pagan city and destroyed all the idol statues that he came across. Did he have a right to destroy another person's property? Apparantly, he thought so if it was for the spiritual good or protection of another. So, likewise, I believe that there are certain instances where it is OK to destroy a person's property if it is to protect another person's soul that this person is endangering.

But since your mother isn't endangering the soul of any other of your family members (as was my case), then I don't think you would be justified. Your mother is a grown woman and she has free will (if she wants to play with fire, that's up to her). Anyway, it will only anger her if you throw away her books. The best you can do convince her that dabbling with this stuff is dangerous to her soul (and is against the Bible). And of course, pray for her.  

There was one time that I was glancing over some magazines at a 7-Eleven store and I found a sacriligious cover on a goth magazine. It had a woman in a bikini type outfit posed in a position where she held a crucifix toward her private part and made as if she wanted to put it in there. I was so furious. I was tempted to tear the magazine right then and there - infront of the store clerk. But then I chickened out and I just hid the magazine behind some other magazines. But I always look back and wish I had torn it up (I'm a lot stronger now) . I would have refused to pay for tearing it up too and waited for the clerk to call the police on me (I would be willing to go to jail for that). When you are attacking sacrilege or blasphemy, I also think it is OK to destroy blatantly sacriligious property in order to come to the defence of Christ.