The Testimony of Former
Spiritists
The testimony of many former
spiritists and occultists is that the spirits they once completely
trusted were really demons who were seeking to deceive them. Their
once-friendly spirit guides turned on them and/or attempted to destroy
them. These frightening accounts are reported by Raphael Gasson in
The Challenging Counterfeit, Victor Ernest in I Talked With
Spirits, and Ben Alexander in Out From Darkness, all of whom
are former long-standing spiritistic mediums.
Douglas James Mahr was the
author of Ramtha: Voyage to the New World. Mahr had a significant
personal history with "Ramtha." Yet today he is convinced that Ramtha’s
true identity is not that of a venerable "mystical embodiment of 35,000
years of life experience," but rather that of a lying, demonic spirit.1
Doreen Irvine was a leading
European witch who relates her horrifying story in Freed From
Witchcraft. Johanna Michaelsen was a former psychic and assistant to
a noted Mexican psychic surgeon. Michaelsen discusses her experiences in
The Beautiful Side of Evil.
All of these people agree
that the spirit guides they once considered divine or enlightened
entities were actually demons.
The Phenomenon of Spirit
Possession
This malevolent phenomenon
has occurred in nearly every culture and religion, ancient or modern.
Former witch Doreen Irvine declares, "Demon possession is real, very
real and is increasing at an alarming rate in this present day and
age."2 Indeed, the very act of a spirit invading and controlling a
person implies, even demands, hostility and malevolence (see Mark
5:2-7). In People of the Lie, well-known psychiatrist M. Scott
Peck observes: "It seems clear from the literature on possession that a
majority of cases have had involvement with the occult—a frequency far
greater than might be expected in the general population."3
Dr. Peck also records an
incident he witnessed personally at an exorcism:
When the demonic finally
spoke clearly in one case, an expression appeared on the patient’s
face that could be described only as Satanic. It was an incredibly
contemptuous grin of utter hostile malevolence. I have spent many
hours before a mirror trying to imitate it without the slightest
success. I have seen that expression only one other time in my
life—for a few fleeting seconds on the face of the other [mentioned]
patient, late in the evaluation period. Yet when the demonic finally
revealed itself in the exorcism of this other patient, it was with a
still more ghastly expression. The patient suddenly resembled a
writhing snake of great strength, viciously attempting to bite the
team members. More frightening than the writhing body, however, was
the face. The eyes were hooded with lazy reptilian torpor—except when
the reptile darted out in attack, at which moment the eyes would open
wide with blazing hatred. Despite these frequent darting moments, what
upset me the most was the extraordinary sense of a
fifty-million-year-old heaviness I received from this serpentine
being. It caused me to despair of the success of the exorcism. Almost
all the team members at both exorcisms were convinced they were at
these times in the presence of something absolutely alien and inhuman.
The end of each exorcism proper was signaled by the departure of this
Presence from the patient and the room.4
The phenomenon of possession
is well documented in both Christian and non-Christian literature.5 Dr.
John Warwick Montgomery asserts:
The problem involved in
determining whether demon possession occurs and whether witchcraft
works is absurdly simple. The documentation is overwhelming. Even if
ninety-nine percent of all witchcraft cases are thrown out (and that
would be very difficult to do) the remainder would easily establish
the reality of the phenomenon.6
In a major text on altered
states of consciousness, Religion, Altered States of Consciousness
and Social Change, Dr. Erika Bourguignon (ed.) observes that of 488
societies surveyed, fully 74 percent believed in possession by spirits:
"It will be noted that such beliefs occur in 74% of our sample
societies, with a maximum of 88% in the Insular Pacific and a minimum of
52% in North America. The beliefs are thus characteristic of the great
majority of our societies."7
In The Devil’s Bride:
Exorcism Past and Present, psychic researcher Martin Ebon observes,
"The uniform character of possession, through various cultures and at
various times, is striking."8
Therefore, we must ask
ourselves where, in fact, such a dominant belief came from if not from
the fact of spirit possession itself? Are rationalistic explanations
credible? We don’t think so. Rather, we think its very uniformity
suggests (in Ebon’s words) the "universal presence of devils, demons or
possessing spirits."9
Note the following
illustration from John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy.
Here we see not only the universal fact of spirit possession in Africa
but also the resulting bondage to the alleged spirits of the dead:
Spirit possession occurs in
one form or another in practically every African society. Yet, spirit
possession is not always to be feared, and there are times when it is
not only desirable but people induce it through special dancing and
drumming until the person concerned experiences spirit possession
during which he may even collapse. When the person is thus possessed,
the spirit may speak through him, so that he now plays the role of a
medium, and the messages he relays are received with expectation by
those to whom they are addressed. But on the whole, spirit
possessions, especially unsolicited ones, result in bad effects. They
may cause severe torment on the possessed person; the spirit may drive
him away from his home so that he lives in the forests; it may cause
him to jump into the fire and get himself burnt, to torture his body
with sharp instruments, or even to do harm to other people. During the
height of spirit possession, the individual in effect loses his own
personality and acts in the context of the "personality" of the spirit
possessing him. The possessed person becomes restless, may fail to
sleep properly, and if the possession lasts a long period it results
in damage to health. Women are more prone to spirit possession than
men.10
If belief in spirit
possession is a dominant belief of the vast majority of cultures
throughout human history, is it not a bit presumptuous to deny the fact,
especially if such a denial is based on personal preference or
presupposition, not real evidence?
(to be continued)
Notes:
1 Cf., Douglas Mahr,
letter, in SCP Newsletter, Vol. 16, No. 3, Dec. 1991, p. 3.
2 Doreen Irvine, Freed
From Witchcraft (Nashville, TN: Nelson, 1973), p. 138.
3 M. Scott Peck, People
of the Lie (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983), p. 190.
4 Ibid., p. 196.
5 Cf., John Ankerberg, John
Weldon, The Coming Darkness (Eugene, OR: Harvest House
Publishers, 1993), p. 325, note 14.
6 John W. Montgomery,
Principalities and Powers (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany, 1975), p.
146.
7 Erika Bourguignon, ed.,
Religion, Altered States of Consciousness and Social Change
(Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1973), pp. 16-17, Table 2.
8 Martin Ebon, The
Devil’s Bride: Exorcism Past and Present (Harper & Row, 1974), p.
11.
9 Ibid., p. 14.
10 John Mbiti, African
Religions and Philosophy (New York: Doubleday/Anchor, 1970), pp.
106-107.
