Temptation is a Witch or a Spirited Past (Bah!)

RV3 was surprised to learn that I was recently studying eastern mysticism but I reminded him that I have personal experience with some of the occult arts. Ever since I was very young I was fascinated with anything and everything that involved using the sixth sense or delving into realms not seen by the naked eye and not tested by empirical means.

When Time-Life came out with the "Mysteries of the Occult" series, I remember longing to read about everything like the "third eye" and the secrets of the pyramids.

This is why I became involved in the New Age movement: it encompassed all that "secret knowledge" and promised to bring me to a closer understanding of God and the purpose of life.

Needless to say the movement failed to deliver on those promises ans I eventually abandoned meditation and other such practices in favor of a search for a church where I could worship. I made a list of denominations and researched them but when I set my mind to investigate each one by attending, God instead sent me a disciple to share their faith with me and bring me to the church I still attend, which is non-denominational and follows the Bible by modeling itself after the first century (and authentic) church.

But before ever getting to that point I was first rejecting my birth-faith of Catholicism and venturing further and further into New Age beliefs which did not match my previous religion at all. I had been indoctrinated into the whole "Jesus is God" and "heaven upon death" basics but everything in between was fuzzy. Mainly it has to do with the Catholics' lack of usage of the Bible by the congregation (study is left to clergy) and by my own rejection of most of its doctrine.

A boy I knew got me into astrology and before long I was into reincarnation and a whole new worldview regarding where I'd come from and where I was going. It had its good points, I suppose, but it left me confused and ever searching.

I remember reading books in my high school's occult section (!!) and being both terrified and fascinated by historical accounts of witchcraft. One book, which was neither advocating nor disparaging the practice, happened to include as an example a spell that a maiden could try in order to find out who her future husband would be but I was too chicken to try it.

One of the books I am studying now on mysticism (from a Christian perspective) is written by a man who went from spiritist to Christian but that conversion is to me unremarkable compared to his conversion from Jew to Christian!

Which brings me to a perplexing question: why are people like Jewish convert Whoopie Goldberg so offended by the Jews for Jesus movement? She herself, being a convert to a religion other than what she was raised as, should not criticize someone's decision to expand or turn back from their birth faith. Actually, all the converts of Jesus during his lifetime were fellow Jews (save for a few Roman soldiers and a couple of non Jewish women). They were waiting for their Messiah, after all, and he convinced them at the time of his being the fulfillment of their scriptures. Nowadays it's harder for a Jew to convert but when they do people should not subject them to persecution and hate. Whoopie seems to think it is ridiculous for a Jew to be "for Jesus" as if Jesus was somehow a nasty character. True, some ignorant and evil people have persecuted (and worse) Jews in the name of Jesus but Jesus himself would have never advocated the hatred of his own people.

Anyway, the man's experience with spiritism (the practice of necromancy or speaking with the dead) was of course negative. I say of course because what can you expect in a Christian book? But before you think everything like this is biased, I myself know several people with very similar negative experiences and I remember these helped me to be put off by spiritism even at the time in which I was practicing "New Age" mysticism.

They usually go like this: the person starts dabbling in the occult, especially necromancy, and is then visited more and more by unwanted spirit aparitions until desperation sets in and this often leads to suicide attempts. I know one girl who drowned at 16 after years of these practices and it is believed it was suicide. Another girl I know proceded to scare the living daylights out of me by telling me one day at my house that she was possessed by an evil spirit she encountered on the Ouija board and that she often chased her brother with knives! Yet another practitioner was found jibbering nonsense outside her house by her family. She had just had a horrific afternoon of poltergeist activity she still won't describe in detail after a long time of dabbling with the Ouija board.

The thing is that with the Christian perspective, it is easy to see where demonic activity comes into play. Demons are able to impersonate the spirit of the dearly departed and so deceive the bereaved into thinking there's contact with a loved one (a la "Ghost"). Their purpose is to get people to not worry so much about the after life. Everyone is always in heaven or in a great place and at peace and "watching over us". Meanwhile, the real spirit of the departed might actually be awaiting judgment and hell.

Of course, other religions WELCOME apiritions because they have a completely different view of the afterlife and to them spirits are actually either departed "Masters" or "Avatars" who have moved on to a higher plane of existence and can impart wisdom on us or maybe they are even gods. But demons impersonate not only the dead (loved ones) but also such beings of light as "highly evolved" avatars as well as angels (and in some cases aliens from outer space).

I didn't mean to delve into that topic as I'm sure there are different opinions out there about that. I actually just wanted to say that it is curious that in human nature we tend to want to have control over everything. We want to achieve either power, wealth or love and whether we employ a pantheon of "gods" or meditate intently or use spells or invocations (or even in some cases, prayer) we still want that control. That's why people are attracted to such practices and even "secular" ones like human potential or humanistic psychology and "self-help". I even know people who are usually staunch rationalists and materialists who will go for horoscopes because we want in this insecure world to have no surprises. That's why they'll do astrological forecasting, Tarot cards or psychic readings.

I am still tempted by all this as I too feel insecure. But by faith in God I subvert control to Him and have faith in His will for my life.