THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ANGELS

There was some slight variance with respect to educational background, annual income, political ideology, age and gender; however, in all categories the numbers of believers remained high. Moreover, in another poll conducted by CBS News in 1993, the numbers were even higher with over 80 percent of the public not only believing in angels but believing that they personally had guardian angels.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the literature on the psychology of angels from the standpoint of people who believe in angelic beings. Specifically, the paper examines what those who believe in angels believe that angels do and why they do these things.

It is important to note that the majority of this research is either biblical (based on scriptures) or anecdotal consisting primarily of interview data collected from people telling their stories of angelic encounters. Therefore, the bulk of the research reviewed in this paper consists of these two types of research.

Also, as noted by Anderson (1992), the anecdotal literature on angels tends to be collected from two categorie

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ted that in almost every case of a near-death experience where an individual saw an angel, the angel was experienced by the person as a guide or an escort. Also, in all of these experiences, angels were described as beings of light. Sparrow (1995) reports that not all guidance provided by angels is related to physical healing. In some cases, angels are sent to guide a person into the presence of God. For example, Sparrow describes the case of a man who was considering becoming a minister of a New Age Church. The man was participating in a group meditation when he suddenly found himself in a place of light that was filled with angels. The angels pointed and he could see that he was standing in an aisle and that the aisle led to a throne of light. He walked forward and immediately and intensely experienced the presence of God. Angels as Messengers of God Douglas (1982) states that angels experience great joy in delivering God's messages to people. Perhaps the most well-known encounter in this regard is the archangel Gabriel's message to Mary informing her that she was to be the mother of the Messiah. According to MacGregor (1988), the nature of messages brought by angels are primarily of three types: (1) messages of w
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Approximate Word count = 2662
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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