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by Matt Slick
As a Christian researcher and defender of the faith, I delve into many areas of the occult, world religions, and Christian-based cults. From the Christian perspective, all non-Christian religions are false and are ultimately demonically inspired. But being false does not mean that they have no power. The devil is active and powerful and he uses people to accomplish his desires. So, the problem is knowing whether the power that comes from various religious systems is good or bad. Of course, as Christians, we would state that all things that are filtered through a false system are ultimately bad.
The reason I am divulging this information about my past, is because I know that there is a spiritual world out there. The question is whether or not what we contact is good or bad. I present the following as my experience in the occult, before I was saved. It is verification that those who seek to contact that which is unholy, will ultimately find it.
When I was a teenager, before I was a Christian, I was intrigued by spiritual issues. Christianity meant nothing to me. In fact, my younger brother who had been a Christian for a number of years, was constantly witnessing to me. I distinctly remember threatening him physically if he did not stop bothering me with this Christianity stuff. I was more interested in my attempts to contact the dead and to see things in the spiritual realm. I wanted results and the perceived droning of Christianity "morality and rules" did nothing but get in the way of my personal desires regarding spiritual pursuits. So, into the darkness I went.
My high school friends and I began to dabble with necromancy (contacting the dead), séances, Ouija boards, pendulums, table tilting, astral projection, and other such practices. We got results. What I'm going to tell you is true. I am not exaggerating anything nor making any of this up. The reason I'm disclosing my involvement is not to draw attention to it, but to convince people that it is real and that it is dangerous. You see, with success in the occult comes darkness. And I am forced to ask a question. What does Wicca come in contact with, the God and goddess manifestations or something else?
Before I was born my mother would have dreams about a man coming to her. He would be dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up to about his elbows. He wore black pants and black shoes and sometimes a short brimmed hat. This dream would be so upsetting to my mother, that she would wake up. She then would sit in bed and look at the wall across from her and watch as the man materialized through the wall, approached the bed, and stared at her. She was so disturbed by this that she would wake up my father who could never see him but would go turn the light on at which time this figure would disappear. Now, you might conclude that my mother was seeing things, or on medication, or something like that. The problem with this is that the dreams occurred over a two-year period. My mother's IQ was genius level and she was extremely rational in everything she tackled (She passed away in 2004). This figure would follow her from house to house since my father was in the military and had moved several times during the two-year period.
After I was born, my mother said that one night she had the dream again. As usual, the dream woke her up and she waited in bed for him to materialize. He did. At this time, he went over to where I was lying in the crib and stood half in the wall and half out of it, looking down at me. My mother told me that there was something different about that visitation, but she did not know what it was. She nudged my father who got up and turned on the light. The figure disappeared. Soon after that, he stopped appearing altogether. As a young man I never told anyone about these "visions" my mother had because I thought it would be too "weird" and embarrassing and that my friends might think my mother was strange.
Later, when I was 17 years old and just beginning my involvement in the occult, I was trying astral projection. This is a practice where a person attempts to have his spirit leave his body and travel around. Now, I was never able to achieve that, but I was able to get various results including very strong sensations of movement, lifting, floating, and sometimes vertigo. Nevertheless, I was never able to fully succeed and when I told one of my occult-delving buddies about it, he said that he was able to do it regularly. My doubts were increasing so I offered him a challenge. I asked him to astral project over to my bedroom that evening and to take a look at my desk. On the desk I would arrange a series of pencils and pens and books in a certain pattern and then the next day when we were going to high school, he could tell me what he had seen after he astral projected over to my house. He said it wouldn't be a problem at all.
That night I arranged my desk and went to bed. The next morning my friend and I were heading off to school and I asked him if he was able to astral project over to my place and look at my desk. He told me he could not do it. Initially, I scoffed. But then he told the reason why. He said that as he was astral projecting towards my house a man dressed in a white long-sleeved shirt with rolled up sleeves, black pants, black shoes, and a black hat would not let them enter. To say the least, since I had not told him about my mother's visitations I was dumbfounded.
Deeper into the Occult
The fact that my friend told me something he could not have known about was very intriguing. We were encouraged and he and I and two other friends began to delve further into the occult. I remember very clearly one night when all of us were together in a room, waiting for the spirits to manifest (I will not disclose how we did this). My three friends and I would see lights moving around in the air. This got me further interested and so I tried to invite spirits to come in contact with me. At first, nothing happened. But, I began to notice things like seeing a blue aura around someone, dreaming the same thing one of my friends would dream, hearing voices in the night when no one was around, etc. I also remember very clearly the more we got involved, the more I was interested in dark things. I distinctly remember getting posters of demonic creatures and hanging them up in my room and thinking that they were "cool." Skulls became interesting as well. Then, I started listening to heavy metal music that was definitely "dark" in its overtones. I also found more and more resistance to things of Christianity.
Finally, one night a friend of mine and I were in my room trying to contact the dead. We both watched as a ball of blue light materialized in a corner near the floor and began to grow in size. We watched it change its form and took the shape of a man in a crouching position. This man had a cape on and his back was to us. He stood and as he began to rise he turned to face us. Right when he had fully faced us he disappeared and in place of him a yellow cross materialized in midair. Even as I write this now, I can still see it in my mind's eye. It was beautiful. It glowed and lit the room up and had that same blue color emanating as an aura around it that had comprised the color of the "man." Then the cross moved. It did not accelerate. Instead, from a non-moving position it was suddenly moving at a constant velocity until it was right in front of us where it immediately stopped without decelerating. It then hovered right before us, glowing, and lighting up my entire room. This manifestation was so profound that it scared my friend and me, and we immediately left. We did not know what to do. We talked to some people who were involved in the occult and even they said that it was bad. We needed to stop.
That experience and the others spooked me enough for me to begin reconsidering everything that I was doing. After all, my friend and I had seen something very profound and very real. We were not drinking and weren't doing drugs (to this day I have never done any drugs at all). But, the good news is that shortly after that time, the Lord saved me in a very real and dramatic way and I turned from all my occult activities.
Some people will not believe that these things occurred. If you don't believe me, that's up to you. But as the Lord is my witness, it happened. I bring this up because I know that there is a spiritual world out there and the people in Wicca will be able to contact spiritual forces. The question is, what are they? How do they know if they are good or bad?
Those in Wicca are unwittingly contacting demonic forces and because of that, they gain a form of power. But, that power has a cost. The cost is darkness. I remember very clearly the anti-Christian attitude that gradually grew in me the further into darkness I went. I also remember the fascination with things of darkness such as skulls, pentagrams, the darkness of night, and a general defiant attitude. The more I got involved with that, the more these things increased. There is definitely a spiritual connection with the author of the power behind the occult. Likewise, there is definitely a power that comes from the true and living God, Jesus Christ. He has far more strength, clarity, and truth than anything Wicca can offer. Though the occult is real, God is, too, and the only safeguard against the enemy is salvation in Jesus Christ.
Source:
http://carm.org/religious-movements/wicca/my-involvement-occult
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