Chapter
1
OCCULT STEPPING STONES
TO WITCHCRAFT
"The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils." (1 Timothy 4:1)
OCCULT PROBLEM
I have written The Walking Dead because of the rise and social acceptance of witchcraft in America. We have entered the supernatural age of progressive interest and involvement in the occult. Satan's ambassadors are very successful and extremely evangelistic, capturing spiritual slaves. I also believe Satanic worship, coupled with human sacrifices is widespread and happening now!
New York's Queens County District Attorney, John Santucci Claims he has evidence supporting "Son of Sam" killer, David Berkowitz' bizarre assertion that a devil-worshiping cult helped him murder six people. Since his conviction, Berkowitz has claimed that he was a member of a New York-based Satanic cult whose secret members were responsible for shootings that killed six and wounded seven people!
Fiendish devil-worshiping cultists areon the verge of spawning an insane bloodbath of murder and terror in cities and towns across the country. Recently, while I was evangelizing in Miami, a young girl who had escaped from a group of Satan worshipers told a frightening tale of human sacrifice and kidnapping: "They find old people who have no relatives and put them in cages. They torture them with hot irons and within three days their hair will actually turn snow white from terror! They tie them to a pentagram table (a table with a five-pointed star, a witchcraft symbol, on the top). Then they sacrifice them to satan! The satanist temple is located in a very elite section, she reported.
On September 5, 1982, a noted University of Florida nutritionist, Dr. Howard Appledorf, was found tortured and slain. He had been bound and gagged. His killers had put an ice-cube-filled canvas bag over his head and knotted it at his neck, police said. There were all kinds of words written on the walls; predominately the word "murder" spelled backwards, as in some killings that took place out West." Backward spelling of murder was a theme of the horror movie, The Shining.
The police said they also had found cryptic "apologies" to the corpse. Appledorf's nose had been smashed, and at least one cigarette had been extinguished on his stomach. Appledorf also was tortured in other ways, but Ward would not reveal them. Signs were all around that a strange cultic murder had taken place. (1)
Reader's Digest, July 1982, reports 100,000 missing children a year! The figures are estimates. But the few known facts are appalling: Thousands are murdered annually; then number of missing children is rising; and no one is keeping an accurate count.
"Kids who just disappear present a big problem that people had better start opening their eyes to," said Detective Sergeant Dick Ruffino of the Bergen County, New Jersey Sheriff's Office. (2)
When Adam Walsh was abducted from a Fort Lauderdale-area department store in 1981, it caused fear and revulsion throughout Florida, with the shock waves reaching Washington, D.C. During the fruitless 15-day search for the 6 year-old, his frantic parents, John and Reve Walsh, learned many things about the American people and about the nation itself. The grieving Walshes were buoyed by a great outpouring of generosity. They were appalled to find, however, that there was no central agency that kept a nationwide file on missing children. Fishermen found the remains of Adam in a canal in back of a neighborhood in Vero Beach, 90 miles from the site of his disappearance. Despite their heavy burden of sorrow, the Walshes embarked on a crusade to remedy the relative lack of national attention given missing children (as contrasted with vehicles and even large appliances!).
The state of Florida, in response, passed a Missing Children's Act and Senator Paula Hawkins, R-Fla., introduced a Missing Children's Act in Congress. The bill remained bottled up in committee a year after Adam's death, despite enough Congressional sponsorship to assure its passage. It languished in committee because of opposition from the U.S. Justice Department.
Several reasons were given by the Justice Department for opposing the bill. The reasons included the fear that the measure "may interfere with the FBI's management prerogatives to modify or expand the criteria" that govern what information is put in the FBI computers. (3) "What we're asking for is a pure bill... to link up agencies nationally..." (4) [Ed. note: A National Agency exists today, keeping track of reported missing/found children and related information, due to these and other efforts.)
Each missing child case has its own poignant drama and irony. In July, 1976, 12 year-old Dee Scofield disappeared while running an errand at a Florida shopping center. Two days later, a classmate reportedly saw Dee looking out of a van window, desperately forming the word "help" over and over with her lips. Dee was never found.
Parents always ask the inevitable question: Why? Why would someone steal a child? Why my child? Could some of these deaths be attributed to Satanic cults?
Arne Johnson, a 19 year-old charged with the bizarre murder of Alan bono, age 40, was using demonic possession as his defense: The soft-spoken teenager claims he was possessed by the devil when he suddenly flew into an uncontrollable rage and fatally stabbed his best friend in Brookerfield, Connecticut.
In Belle Glade, Florida, Wayne Callender, a 23 year-old murderer of an elderly, sleeping couple explained: "The Devil promised to make me rich if I killed them." Such statistics continue to swell daily, while millions dabble in psychic phenomena, witchcraft, black magic, voodoo and satanic cults.
The most publicized psychic activity in America and the one which people in great numbers are embracing today is divination. This goes under the names of: telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, hypnotical trance, spiritualism, psychic research, etc. Although the term "psychic research" has a respectable sound, it involves the same old witchcraft referred to many times in the Bible. Sorcery or traffic in familiar spirits is strictly forbidden in the Scriptures. (See Lev. 20:6; Lev. 20:27; Is. 8:19).
OCCULT RESPECTABILITY ADVANCED
The American media have found a new horror to promote. Full page advertisements and articles show these powers as being helpful... not harmful. A typical advertisement may read: "Whatever it is you need or want, Witchcraft can get it for you quickly, easily, and automatically, say these experts. You'll discover how it can bring abundant and overflowing wealth, find or bring back a lover, ward off evil influences, and much more... Step-by-step in plain English, with complete easy-to-follow instructions!"
Magazines and newspapers do not seem to realize the terrible forces they are unleashing on the deceived individuals who will respond to the power of witchcraft. Hundreds of thousands have become spiritual slaves. They are captives because of the media's spiritual blindness. They don't see the psychics, for example, as dangerous influences on society.
Research at major universities has given a measure of respect to precognition, telepathy, clairvoyance and clairaudience. For years, Rice University has been studying positive and negative thought vibrations, but the first notable acceptance of parapsychology in the scientific community came at Duke University in 1930.
Receiving a grant in 1927, the institution began a program of ESP study under the direction of Dr. William McDougall. Later, biologist, J.B. Rhine and his wife, Louisa, received even greater notoriety for their part in the Duke studies. Satisfied that the scientifically exacting tests of London psychologist S.G. Sole had demonstrated the reality of telepathic communications, early experiments relied heavily upon mediums and psychics in search of proof that life exists after death. Later efforts graduated to the use of symbol-inscribed cards and sophisticated electronic measurements for discovering the psychic sensitivity levels of different types of volunteers. (5)
The discovery and verification of ESP, psychokinesis, clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition, psychometry, and other forms of psychic power have produced evidence that the human mind exists separate from the brain in a non-physical dimension beyond space, time, and matter. The late Dr. J.B. Rhine, father of American parapsychology, declared:
The evidence of PK along with that of ESP establishes the case for the reality of mind in spite of the fact that a couple of generations of psychologists had been trying to discourage the idea and supplant it with a model of mechanistic behaviourism. "The man in the pulpit... was right in preaching that the human spirit is something more than the material of his body and brain." (6)
Dr. Milan Ryzl (formerly of the Czechoslovakian Academy of Science) has summed up the implications of recent laboratory discoveries: "Apparently, we are heading toward the finding that our 'physical' universe is only a part of a more extensive reality... (where) the former contradictions between 'matter' and 'spirit' disappear... We can further assume... parts of the human personality that exist outside the material universe... (which) could survive even after the material part has been destroyed by death. There are indications that what we know as the 'material world of physics'
is only a part of a far wider reality..." (7)
More recently, Stanford Research Institute (SRI) had opened shop on the subject - with aid from the United States Government. (8)
Science has moved into the spirit dimension where it is ill-equipped to venture. Despite the sophisticated scientific instruments and computers, scientists are no less vulnerable to spiritual deception than anyone else.
THE HOLISTIC HEALTH CULTS
As early as 1973, the World Health Organization had recommended that the medical profession accept the validity of native cures such as those used by witch doctors. Recognizing the fact that about 80% of its 4 million whites consult witch doctors, in 1979, Witwaterstand University in Johannesburg staffed a special medial clinic with witch doctors. Witwaterstand psychology professor, Dr. T. Leonard Holdstock had expressed the belief that the "mind power" used by witch doctors can diagnose and treat the mentally ill. Dr. Herbert Benson of the Harvard Medical School has also recently expressed the belief that modern medicine may have much to learn from the "mind power' of witchcraft. Voodoo and witchcraft are among the folk remedies now studied by candidates for a bachelor's degree in nursing at the University of Alabama. These are only a few of the indications that medical science has been turning back to its occultic origins.
In Roman mythology, Aesculapius was the god of medicine. His symbol was a staff with a snake coiled about it. According to the legend, he had received a healing herb (drug) from a serpent's mouth. The connection between the serpent and sorcery (pharmakia in the Greek New Testament) has contined to the present day. Aesculapius' staff now has not one but two serpents coiled around it in the familiar and honored emblem of modern medicine. The tradition behind this symbol is kept alive by the medical profession. Though the name of Jesus Christ and prayers to God the Father have been excluded from our schools, at the time they receive their M.D. degrees, graduates of medical colleges still repeat in unison the ancient Hippocratic oath which begins: "I swear by Apollo the Physician, by Aesculapius, by Hygeia, Panacea, AND ALL THE GODS AND GODDESSES..." (9)
PSYCHIC EXPLOSION
When the Society of Psychical Research was founded in London in 1882, its original intent was to separate the psychical from the supernatural. Instead, the two realms gradually blended into what is now known as parapsychology. Psychics today embrace every form of occult practice, including fortune-telling, Eastern religion and astral projections.
A recent issue of Psychic Life carried articles on astral travel, reincarnation, psychic healing, meditation, spirit guides and prayer to "Your God" - whoever He might be. Psychics are being used by police to help solve murders and give "valuable information" in other crimes. The use of mediums or psychics by institutions and conservative law enforcement agencies is not new and, lately, it has become commonplace. With society generally accepting the validity of ESP, the increase of psychic activity can be seen everywhere. A book recently published in the San Francisco Bay Area, The Psychic Yellow Pages, has a 177-page directory listing 130 "genuine" Bay Area psychics, astrologers, holistic centers, palmists, numerologists, graphologiste, tarot card readers and research organizations. (10) (Ed. note: Is it any wonder that so many UFO's are sighted in the Bay area? They (demonic apparitions) have been welcomed and entertained there!
CASSADAGA
Typical of the many spiritualist groups around the world is the community of Cassadaga, Florida, located in the misty lake country a few miles southwest of Daytona Beach. More than 100 spiritualists live in Cassadaga, and 24 of them are "certified mediums" who make their living communicating with the dead to obtain information for paying clients. (11)
The usual trivia that pours through mediums is only incidental. In Casssadaga, as everywhere else, the real purpose of the spirits is to preach the same Cosmic Gospel that UFO cults receive by psychic transmission from "Space Brothers"... that there is no death, that Jesus did not die for our sins... that God is not personal but a Force... that all men are divine and only need to realize it. And that godhood can be achieved through occult enlightenment, mystical power, and generating good karma (how can one have 'good' karma or 'good' anything when satan is the controller of all these mediums?) The central theme is always, "You won't really die, for there is no death."
A 1979 study by These Times magazine showed that of 250 forecasts made by the "leading psychics" for the previous year, only six could be listed as "reasonably fulfilled!" Nonetheless, "prediction issues" outsell every other tabloid year after year.
AMERICA IS EXPERIENCING A MYSTICAL REVOLUTION
Psychic prophets, astrologers, spirtualists, ESPers, hypnotists, flying saucers, space saviors, mind mixers, mind manipulators, mind movers, false prophets of the East, witchcraft, devil worshipers, seances, occult games and occult movies are presented as having the answers to all of life's problems. People have been sold the bill of goods that occultism is exciting and wonderful.
Occultism is big business, representing a billion dollars each year! Supermarket and drugstore racks are full of books and magazines promising to tell you the hidden secrets of the "other world" (or you own psyche). More than a thousand daily newspapers carry astrological forecasts, and few would dare drop this popular feature. Computers pop out "instant horoscopes" for about twenty dollars. Two well-known country clubs in Florida have "Psychic Nights," when they invite fortune tellers and psychics. These nights are packed to capacity with seekers. Shopping malls hold a "Psychic Fun Day" as a money-making, promotional gimmick. People pick the methods to predict their future and are given material to help them to join the groups.
People today have an insatiable thirst for knowledge of the "other world." Many are convinced that life holds mysteries beyond what our five senses reveal. They are right!
Everyone from presidents to common people, the educated to the unlearned, the spiritualist to the entertainer, is affected by this intense yearning to know how to cross the bridge between two worlds. That the "beyond" exists is commonly accepted today.
GODDESS CONSCIOUSNESS
There is a reawakening today of "goddess consciousness", which the L.A. Times reported upon in 1978 as the spiritual power behind the women's movement.
That the Force is really female is one of the foundational beliefs in witchcraft. This is expressed in the terms "Mother Nature" and Mother Earth". The head of a witches' coven must be a woman. Witchcraft is known as the "Old Religion (Wicca); it claims to be as old as the human race. It began with Eve's deception by the serpent. Witches worship 'the Force', which they believe permeates all of nature; and they use it in their spells. The connection between the environmental (back-to-nature) movement, the women's movement (the matriarchal cult), and witchcraft is undeniable. Of the many persons involved, most are believed to be unaware of this.
WITCHCRAFT AND THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
An accredited course held at the University of California at Santa Cruz in April, 1978, illustrates what is happening in our universities and the real spiritual power behind the women's liberation movement Billed as a course to raise the consciousness level of participants in the women's movement the study program was called "The Great Goddess Re-emerges". Women had to be turned away from the course, which could only accommodate 450 students. Participants danced bare-breasted on the campus to the beat of bongo drums in scenes reminiscent of "frolicking wood nymphs." The following excerpts from a L.A. Times Article covering the course speak for themselves. Remember, this was a University of california course for which credits were granted...
"...Eerie monotones... reverberated on the U.C. Santa Cruz campus. Cheers and whoops went up for the goddesses of your choice - Isis, Astarte, Demeter, Artemis, etc... The event was indicative of burgeoning spiritual dimensions of the women's liberation movement in America..."
Christine Downing, head of San Diego University's religious studies department, estimates that many, if not most spiritually sensitive women in the women's movement are willing to replace the biblical God with a frankly pagan and polytheistic approach.
Witchcraft is aiding the women in their search for roots and rituals, without the connotations of evil usually associated with witchcraft. A Santa Cruz woman said, "Some of the women think of themselves as witches, but not all."
A brief, unscheduled appearance met with enthusiastic applause, was made by Z. Pudapest. A self-described witch - the Goddess movement knows her more as a leader of the Susan B. Anthony Coven No. 1 in Los Angeles and a charismatic spokeswoman for a mean brand of Wicca, an ancient women's religion (witchcraft).
The goddess movement, also called the women-spirit movement, apparently considers its first major gathering to have been a conference attended by about 1200 women at the University of Massachusetts in late 1975.
The ancient Mediterranean world, pagan Europe, native American and Hindu traditions are all sources for goddess imagery, Dr. Christ (rhymes with 'grist') said. (Dr. Christ is head of San Jose State University's women's studies program.)
A religious phenomenon virtually unknown outside feminist circles, "goddess consciousness' will be widely kown in three to five years, predicted Dr. Christ. (12)
THE WITCHES' CRADLE
That the relationship between mystical experiences and psychic phenomena is well-established indicates that the same spirit beings create both for the same purpose. Parapsychologists have developed a free-swinging platform called a "witches' cradle," patterned after devices used by witches centuries ago. When deprived of all light and sound, the subject occupying the platform experiences altered states of consciousness due to the subtle movements of the "witches' cradle." Psychic powers are manifest while in the cradle. At the same time, the subject has mystical experiences very much like those of TM practitioners. Typical is the following report during a laboratory experiment:
"I am expanding, expanding... I can... read the secrets of the universe... beautiful forms are alive... unity unified; it is the experience of the Unity... as if all were unifed in me!" (13)
YOUTH SEDUCTION
Even teenagers are being seduced. Satanic demons operating through occultic oriented rock performers have flourished throughout the land. The Beatles had a record called, "Revolver". The song was teaching meditation. It said: "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream, listen to the voices - are they not speaking...?" It was about spirit beings guiding you into cosmic-consciousness.
"Sgt. Pepper", had all kinds of enticements to get kids into LSD. "Magical Mystery Tour" had a lot of Eastern mysticism in it. They encouraged the use of LSD, and then later advocated Maharishi Mehesh Yogi after they'd quit taking drugs and gotten into TM. The Beatles, I think, were largely responsible for initiating hundreds of thousands of kids in the U.S. and England and Europe into the Eastern way of thinking. (14)
AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," released in 1978 said it all. Their "deeds" included lyrics too explicit to quote in this book. "Highway to Hell", was delivered with a lascivious growl by lead singer, Bon Scott, with a direct lyrical invitation for Satan to claim his soul. Scott declared hell to be the "promised land," and warned that nothing would stop him from cashing in his "season ticket" for a one-way ride. One night at 33 years of age, Scott's arrogant affront to God was literally fulfilled.. He died of an overdose.
In the K(ings) I(n) S(atan's) S(ervice) album God of Thunder, children can be heard crying: "I don't want to go to that place." Other lyrics include: I gather darkness to please me", "I command you to kneel before the god of thunder and rock and roll", "The spell you're under will slowly rob you of your soul."
Gene Simon extends his tongue (a sign of demon worship; and they refer to themselves as demons while on stage).
ELO/Electric Light Orchestra sings: "We'll see if eternal life is meant to be." The real message hidden in backward masking is: "For He is the nasty one - Christ, you're infernal." (Infernal means inferior, abominable, and inhuman.)
In Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven. thr eerie words sound like a message from the dead..."Satan is Lord". "I'll give you 6-6-6." "Jesus betrayed us". "I sing because I live with Satan".
These messages are heard when the recording is played backward! This is the very latest thing in rock music. Subliminal messages hidden in the music. You don't hear them when the record is played forward but if you reverse the music, the hidden message can be heard. Psychologists maintain that the hidden messages can be heard and our mind can decipher them subconsciously. The sales pitch is implanted into the mind then as truth because our conscious mind filters out 'untruth' allowing only 'truth' to settle in to our subconscious. Backward masking and other subliminal advertising/messages are used by satan to implant lies as truth into peoples' minds!
If someone told you to worship satan as god, you'd probably reject that. Your mind would reject that thought. But when these thoughts enter the brain backward or sublimally, they pass throught he brain without being filtered by the conscious mind and without being rejected. The thoughts are then stored in our subconscious mind for future us as truth! If you receive this backward information, you'll not only receive it, but you will begin to believe it, also!
Raunch and Roll's Oat Arkansas' The Day Electricity Came to Arkansas begins with demonic sounding laughter... then they say: Dog se e; Dog se e; Natas. Natas. Translated: Satan he is god. Satan he is god. This is how they are programming our youth to receive Satan as god!
[Editor's note: As a former owner/director of a dance school in Washington state for 23 years, I spent lots of time with teenagers in classes. After teaching there for 11 years, I came to know the Lord, then burned the old records - (none of the music was the above-mentioned... just worldly music). One jazz dance student objected to the new Christian pop music and wanted the world's rock hits to be played, sulking and interrupting the class to express her opinions. I took the opportunity to share the latest newspaper article concerning the 3 recent teenage suicides in our area's towns... all mid-teens, all shot themselves with shotguns (very difficult to do), after police searches of their rooms, all reportedly had the same heavy metal 'music' cassettes with song lyrics depicting hell as a great party place and telling listeners to kill themselves if their parents and teachers didn't understand them. Coincidence? I doubt it. The demon music god in that girl raged and screamed out, "I don't have to listen to this!" and she stormed out of the studio, (or rather, her demon took her out) - never to return. Her idolatrous worship of 'her music' was greater than her love of dance, apparently. The rest of the class was as shocked by her behavior as they were my sharing about backward-masking in 'their music'. They stayed... they were Christians. The worst record I'd had (before Jesus) and the hardest to burn, melted with an eerie whistle coming out of it and bright tourquoise flame... a "Queen" record containing the piece, "Another One Bites the Dust" - a few of the teenage students that had attended a summer dance workshop at Whitman College had learned a dance to that song there, so I bought the record. They taught the dance to a young man who had a poor relationship with his Dad - abusive. He went away to Pacific Lutheren College after graduation and within a few months, had killed himself there. Later on, I heard that the Queen record had backward masking that said, "smoke marijuana" on that song. (It had a depressing, funeral dirge rhythm, too). Some of the other records, Beatles' LPs, melted with chartreuse-colored flames and shrieks coming out of them. (Records, tapes, C.D.'s, videos, books and art figures that contain demons are very hard to make burn. They will usually make unusual sounds or have wierdly colored flames); note: one should bind the demons to the object, telling them to remain there 'til judgment day, or if burning the object, bind the demons, forbidding them to enter anyone or anything else, and to go to the feet of Jesus, immediately].
Aleister Crowley, a 20th century satanist wrote a book, Manual on Magic. On pages 481-482, he advises: "Think backward, write backward, speak backward, walk backward are the ways to get into the other world." Thus, "I am he" would be said, "eh ma I".
Pink Floyd in Goodby Blue Sky through backward masking says: "Congratulations, you've just discovered the secret message. Address your correspondence to..." and the beat goes on while the most popular groups are those who identify themselves with witchcraft, drugs, sex and Satanism. They brazenly place satanic symbols on the album covers.
WARNINGS FROM EXPERIENCE
Harold Sherman, author of Thoughts Through Space, an expert in the field of telepathy, gives some serious warnings to those who week to meddle in psychic phenomena. He points out that the sovereignty of the human mind is definitely endangered by the practice. He found at times when he became attuned to the subconscious that a panoramic series of mental images and impressions rushed through his mind which he could not control. These unbidden experiences were frightening. They took a terrific emotional toll and he had serious physical after-effects. He said that it required a great exercise of will power to overcome these forces that were seeking control of his mind. (15)
Mr. Sherman declared that in his explorations into telepathy, he suffered a loss of health from emotional and physical strain which resulted in stomach ulcers, causing hemorrhages which nearly took his life. (16)
The physical menace of the occult affects dissenters also. In Be Free, I cited the experience of Tillie Damon, who had been strongly connected with the occult:
"They called me last night, Pat, about midnight. They said, 'We'll pick you up at 1:30 tomorrow for the meeting.' I said I wasn't going. They just said, 'okay'. But early this morning, my doorbell rang. I thought it was one of the ladies in the apartment building. These kind of people (occultists) have got ways of knowing things. Anyway, I answered the door. I thought it was a neighbor wanting some sugar or something. But there was a man and woman from that occult group standing there. They wanted to come in, just to talk. I went in the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. I offered them a cup, but they refused. 'You'll be down to the meeting this afternoon, won't you?' I told them, 'no'. Then I turned to go back to the kitchen, as I remember. Suddenly, from behind, I felt something around my neck! It was powerful. They about broke my neck. There're still the rope marks on my neck, Pat. They were strong. Something snapped in my mind. I staggered, opened my mouth and out came a loud croak. That must have frightened them. They let me go, and moved toward the door, but paused before they left! 'There'll be more!' they shouted.
"I was stunned! My head was in bad shape. I ran over, slammed the door and locked it, looked out of the peephole, but they were gone. Really, I thought they were going to kill me. I think they would have, too, if I had not made all that noise." They got scared someone would hear them and come, probably. "It was the blood of Jesus Christ that protected me, or I would be dead today. My girlfriend, Jamie said I could be standing on the street corner and they'd try to run over me. I guess I'll have to watch out. But Pat, I've had to bear some marks on my body for the sin, but I'll never go back! They can kill my body, but they can't touch my soul. Christ is worth it all. Before I knew Jesus, this traumatic experience would have thrown me into seizures... but, I didn't have one then.
"People are going to have to pay a price for the gospel. What I went through yesterday makes me know Him in His suffering and His resurrection power. I did what you told me to do and I'm going to come out on top. Something came over me that Tuesday at your meeting and it hasn't left me. I promise you, Pat - the occult life for me is over."
A person has no resistance at all to demons without Christ. The Word (Philippians 4:13) says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." The natural man without Christ is spiritually weak and highly susceptible to infestation by demons. There is little he can do about fighting off evil spirits if Christ is not dwelling inside.
Dabbling with the occult and developing one's potential paranormal powers can be dangerous. No safeguards exist for those who invade strange territory. Dr. Allen Y. Cohen, a California clinical psychologist, asserts, "There are at least 2,000 documented cases of individuals needing psychological help, (as a result of) trying to develop psychic powers." (17)
Even the psychological sophisticated are vulnerable when experimenting in this realm. Harmon H. Bro's observations in this regard are enlightening:
"The proportion of casualties (among the sophisticates) in the modern West who seek to cultivate psychic ability is probably quite large. A quick review of twenty-two cases of individuals training in psychic capacity for four months to twenty years shows that about half of the cases achieved positive results with favorable consequences for their careers and health. The other half show mental and physical illness, divorce, vocational calamity, drug addiction and sexual deviation." (18)
Witchcraft or occultism is only a vague doctrine in most seminary training although the Bible has much to say about such manifestations. Most ministers have never been called upon to deal with someone who is under the influence of an evil spirit. However, due to the widespread phenomenon of the occult, we will begin to witness more and more people who must be freed from evil spirits, not in Africa or some remote regions of the world... but here in America. Nineteen centuries ago the Apostle Paul warned Christians: "Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men - after the rudiments of this world, and not after Christ." (Colossians 2:8).
Many have suffered greatly because they started investigating these things and have eventually been brought to destruction when they have attempted to free themselves from it. Homes have been broken up. Suicide and lunacy have afflicted those who, once in it, dared to seek deliverance from its power. I have ministered to many people in mental institutions who were bound by occult devils. Those who have found deliverance can only give thanks to God for His grace and mercy.
There are, however, many thousands who have been unable to get free from the Arch-fiend because they have never been told of the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are as unaware as if they lived in the depths of heathen lands that if they call upon the Name of the Lord, they shall be saved. This seems incredible in this so-called Christian country, but it is nevertheless a sorrowful fact.
Hal Lindsay wrote of the occult: "I believe that people are given superhuman powers from Satan in order that they may promote his work on earth. We are only at the beginning of this explosion. There will be inventions which will come from the spirit world and fantastic displays of miracles and wonders that the ancient Scriptures predict would occur in the days just before this present civilization would end." (19)
Mr. Lindsay stated further: "I do not believe this trend of history has happened by chance. Satan does not want a world that rejects the supernatural; he wants a world that is 'religious' and accepts super-naturalism, because it sets the stage for him to be worshiped in the person of the coming world leader known as Antichrist." (20)
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