Pseudo-Occult Phenomena and Christian Gullibility

“There’s a sucker born every minute…” P.T. Barnum

I remember my first exposure to “magic” when I was a young child, watching a television performer pull a rabbit out of a hat. The “magician” then did all of the other standard tricks which to be honest, are a bit lame in these days where illusionists make tanks, airplanes and even the Statue of Liberty disappear! But to a six year old, I was enthralled. The mature reader will understand and smile condescendingly at the gullibility of a child enthralled with magic tricks; but I clearly recall, at the time, being CONVINCED I was watching something wonderful and supernatural. MY older brothers of course were quick to destroy my enthusiasm telling me that these were all just “tricks;” even if they didn’t know exactly HOW they were done. And since my brothers loved debunking my childhood fantasies, (they had years before made sure that I knew Santa Claus was just Uncle Walt dressed up in a funny, red suit -well, the funny smell of that nasty brown liquid Uncle Walt liked to drink kind of gave it away) I was not allowed to believe in “real” magic for very long. But the whole concept still fascinated me.

When I was old enough to go to the library for the first time, (almost a little taste of heaven) I came across an old book that “exposed” the secrets of magic. That book became my favorite reading and I kept checking it over and over again, trying to master the art of the hand being quicker than the eye. Though I never got very good at “magic” (lacking good eye hand coordination-the word “clumsy” in the dictionary has my picture beside it) I did learn however how people can see what they want to see, or assume things they ought not to assume. In God’s providence, this turned out to be a valuable skill in life because long before I ever learned the term “critical thinking,” studied the scientific method, or discovered presuppositional apologetics, God was teaching me valuable lessons about the incredible capacity for human self-deception. And no where is that self-deception so evident as in people giving undue credence to occult phenomenon.

Satan is the father of false religion and hence all occultism. As mentioned in companion articles in this series, the occult deals with “hidden” knowledge apart from God’s own revelation. Satan introduced occultism in the Garden of Eden when he gave Eve the “hidden” knowledge that God was jealous of man and wanted to prevent him from becoming like Him. If Adam and Eve would trust Satan, he would reveal to them how to become like God, determining good and evil for themselves. But Satan is a liar, and by believing his lies, sin and death was brought into the world.

Thus, when we evaluate claims of occult power, we have to understand, at the beginning, that Satan cannot be trusted, and therefore, the claims of the occult cannot be trusted. Just because someone CLAIMS to have occult power does not mean that they necessarily HAVE any power. Yet many Christians actually fear the occult for its claims to power, when in fact, there is little if any credible evidence that the claimant is anything more than a charlatan.

Furthermore, in so far as we know, the Adversary, though a fallen angel, and therefore possessing SOME power, is limited in his power, presence and knowledge. Unlike God, he cannot be everywhere, doing everything. Yet even many Christians sometimes ascribe omniscience and omnipotence to the evil one, assuming that he personally must be behind every evil act. Those who self-consciously seek satanic power therefore assume that the Adversary will make good on his promises. But why should he? If Satan can give one person power and deceive millions with false expectations, then he has accomplished his purposes! His major weapon, throughout Biblical history is deception, not frontal assaults against God. While reading about great, heavenly battles between angels and demons might make for great fiction, there is very little said about this kind of spiritual warfare in Scripture. Instead, the Adversary wins by deceiving people into giving him undue credence-leading them away from the knowledge and worship of the true God. If people THINK that they can get power from the Adversary, then some will follow him regardless of whether he ever delivers on his promise. And that accomplishes his purposes just as assuredly as if they actually HAD that power.

Clearly, as Christians, we acknowledge the existence of angelic and demonic forces in SOME form, in some places in some times. The real issue though is whether any specific phenomenon is actually occult in origin, or simply another lying trick of the Adversary. I will argue that in this essay, when people claim to have witnessed occult power, often, usually, they do not see what they think they see. They therefore unwittingly give aid and comfort to the enemy by believing his false claims.

Our God is the true God, and those who worship Him must do so in Spirit and Truth (Jn 4:24). Untruth, no matter how sincerely or piously held, cannot honor God, and inhibits our own sanctification. Therefore the pursuit of truth MUST be a regular goal of every Christian, in every area of life. And that certainly includes evaluating claims of occult phenomenon.

Evaluating Occult Claim; Self-Deception and Learning Theory

In my critical thinking skills course, I take a slightly different approach than many of my peers who emphasize instruction in formal logic. While the details are too long to go into here, my reason is that based on research studies on how people learn, and how they evaluate evidence, formal logic is often not helpful outside of a narrow set of circumstances. Unlike a geometric or algebraic formulae, real life does not come to us in isolated bits that we can independently verify to be “true” so that we have a firm foundation for creating a logical syllogism. Instead, we learn things from our parents, our teachers, our friends, and our own life experience. As a consequence, we might well reason logically from what we believe to be true, but if the premises are wrong, then the conclusion will be wrong, no matter how logically correct the process itself.

For example, everyone has convictions that they hold sincerely to be true. But what most people do not understand is that the very concept of “conviction” is a sociological and psychological phenomenon. None of us has the time or resources to investigate every claim that comes to our attention. Therefore, being bombarded every day with thousands of claims, all the way from “This breakfast cereal has all the nutrients you need for a healthy life” to “Bill and Susan are having marriage problems” to “the President’s policy in the Mid-East is failing” we have to find some way to organize and evaluate the data. Life is not a logical exercise and we never have ALL the facts before we are forced to make decisions. Therefore, we tend to develop convictions based upon the evidence of others. If we hear the same thing, from two or more sources, then we tend to accept the claim as “true.” If the people making those claims are authority figures, or people we like or trust, the likelihood of accepting them goes even higher. We trust our parents, friends, teachers, pastors, (and despite every reason to the contrary) even our favorite politicians not to lie to us.

Thus we can often have sincere convictions that are in reality based simply upon the testimony of others. But where did THOSE people get the information that made THEM believe what they believe? In short, what we believe about the nature of the world is often a vicious circle; we believe certain things, because other people believe those things, but the reason why THEY believe those things in part is because WE believe those things!

All of this has been empirically verified by solid research studies, done with good statistical analysis; and every psychology of learning student reads through the material at even the undergraduate level. Yet most people do not understand this dynamic and assume they have arrived at “truth” because their opinion matches everyone else’s. And for most areas of life, this short-cut works because we do have to trust other people, otherwise we could never do anything. We accept that food nourishes the body, and poisons kill it and what we have learned about the difference keeps us from intentionally drinking bleach or drain cleaner. Little children have not yet learned this distinction, and tragically, every year, some poison themselves.

So what are we to do? The basic rule of thumb is that strong claims require strong evidence. If in fact something IS true, then there ought to be strong evidence for it. A crucial aspect of my class on critical thinking is teaching students to require the evidence before accepting a claim. Just because everyone in your church or fellowship believes that a house is haunted, or someone is being plagued by demons, or that God is filling rotten teeth with gold, or raising people from the dead, does not mean that any of these things are true. We need to be like the Bereans and check out the evidence before accepting the claims.

In the same way, never under-estimate the human capacity for self-deception; we often want to believe things because it give us psychological or emotional comfort; regardless of whether it is true or not. Research studies have repeatedly shown that humans are likely to attune to information that supports their basic beliefs, and ignore data which might undercut it. Hence, not all evidence is given equal weight. We have all personally witnessed this aspect of human nature when arguing some point with even close friends. There are just some things you cannot discuss with some people because their minds are made up and NOTHING you say will convince them otherwise. They believe all sorts of erroneous things, and no amount of research, facts, or arguments will convince them otherwise. Usually, this means that if we want to remain friends, we refrain from discussing certain subjects.

But the reality of course is that ALL of us have the same tendency to be stubborn in certain areas. And one of the reasons why we cannot be convinced to change our opinions is the tendency to be selective in what we actually hear. In certain areas, we just discount the evidence that would undermine our position, while we subjectively place a great deal of emphasis on the evidence that supports our position.

Even more subtly, as we go through life, we are exposed to many different ideas, “facts” and concepts. Whether we realize it or not, we tend to pick and choose between these so that ideas or “facts” that support our basic presuppositions are heard and adopted, while information that would require us to change our opinion are devalued or ignored. Thus sometimes Christians will tune out evidence that calls the authenticity of occult phenomenon into question because evidence of the occult is reverse evidence for Christianity. If occultism and demonism are true, then logically, Christianity must also be true. Therefore we are predisposed to accept claims of the occult as being authentic, despite what might otherwise be very weak or even non-existent evidence.

Now, to be fair, there are also those Christians who discount ALL evidence of the occult just because they graduated from certain institutions where the supernatural was devalued and ridiculed. Many of my professors in college and seminary appeared to fall into this camp. For them, the occult was slightly embarrassing; they had to acknowledge the reality of the supernatural because they were teaching in supposedly evangelical institutions, but their own graduate work was done in places that had long ago rejected the supernatural character of the Scriptures. Therefore, several instructors, in class, proclaimed that demonic possession was in reality merely some sort of psychopathology that was just misunderstood by the writers of Scripture. And of course, since I was a dual major in psychology AND theology, I was better equipped to discuss psychopathology than the average theology professor who only knew what his own professors had mentioned to him. This led to some “interesting” class-room discussions-but the point of course is that the tendency to reject information that conflicts with one’s basic presuppositions works both ways.

The solution of course is to have the CORRECT presuppositions in the first place. God’s word is self-attesting and the ultimate standard of authority. We start with faith in God’s own revelation and work out the implications from there. Therefore, when evaluating the claims of the occult, we have an objective standard in Scripture. Clearly Scripture records genuine instances of occult phenomenon; demons do possess people, some sorcerers DO demonstrate supernatural power (such as the ones in Pharaoh’s court), therefore we MUST acknowledge that such things CAN exist. The only real question is whether or not a specific instance is actually occult in nature, or has a different explanation.

For example, there is a tendency for people to find relationships between events when no relationship actually exists. Again, this is a well documented aspect of human thinking. If people are shown a random series of dots on a page, and then told to find the hidden pattern, the average person WILL find the pattern, even if NO PATTERN ACTUALLY EXISTS! Our minds want to find meaningful relationships between events, and therefore, every day, we look at what happens in our lives and try to relate things together. OK, sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong; no harm, no foul, UNTIL we begin dealing with certain fundamental areas of life.

Say a person reads his horoscope and takes it seriously. Now first, this is an act forbidden by God but still common today, even among many sincere, professing Christians. To be honest, I prefer fortune cookies myself over astrology because the credibility of the information is just the same, and at least you get to eat the cookie. But if by random chance, something happens in your day that vaguely resembles the horoscope; the above principles all tend to confirm an irrational conviction of the predictive power of astrology.

First, if people around you give SOME credence to horoscopes, you are predisposed to believe it may have some “power.” Secondly the horoscope is deliberately written in such a way that it COULD apply to millions of different people; so the likelihood of it applying, in general to YOU is very high. Thirdly, because we attune to facts that tend to support our presuppositions, when the horoscope thus SEEMS to apply to you (and the odds are that they way it is written it cannot help but be applicable because it could apply to EVERYONE), we remember it, but when it gets things wrong, we tend to forget it. Fourthly, now that both our social environment and our presuppositions are reinforcing our convictions, add to that mixture, the tendency of trying to make sense out of what is essentially random information. There is a tendency to find SOMETHING in our life, that day that relates back to the “prediction.” If the horoscope says, “A friend will disappoint you today” then ANY time ANY person with whom we have the VAGUEST relationship does ANYTHING we do not like, it qualifies as a fulfillment and therefore reinforces our commitment to this belief!

And the cycle goes on; every time we receive some sort of “confirmation” of our basic presuppositions, it merely strengthens our commitment to that presupposition, making “discordant” data even less relevant and less likely to be dealt with. And of course there are other psychological mechanisms about human learning [for a detailed analysis, you'll have to take my critical thinking course :-)] that all goes to demonstrate that sincerity of belief is no substitute for the truth. This is an oft neglected principle amongst many modern Christians; today, it is the depth of commitment you have to an idea that is more important than whether that idea has any basis in truth. Hence, many Christians are predisposed to accept the most outlandish claims without ever giving them even the slightest rational scrutiny.

Let me give another example. Recently, there was a prime-time special from the masked magician who reveals the secrets behind many popular illusions. This time however, he was exposing “psychic” phenomenon; and therefore the program especially caught my interest. In one of the “tests” he had a fake palm reader give five different people a “cold” reading using EXACTLY the same script; a script that had been deliberately worded so as to apply to as many people as possible. Each of the “victims” of course believed they were talking to a “real” psychic and were utterly astounded by the woman’s “incredibly detailed” knowledge of their past life experiences, and their present personality and problems. These people were absolutely CONVINCED that they were experiencing a genuine psychic event, even though it was a scam.

And though some will undoubtedly be offended by this observation, I offer it for consideration and evaluation. Many times I have seen pseudo-occult practices with the same, lack of rational analysis actually being TAUGHT in Christian churches. Visualization as a means of obtaining answered prayers, prophecies that are about as relevant and accurate as the daily horoscope, “words of knowledge” that depend upon the same over-generalizations as palm-readers, etc., all bear witness that the same phenomenon in a gypsy tea-room is going on INSIDE the church. Some Christian practitioners might be self-deceived about what they are really doing; but enough exposes of faith-healing ministries has been done over the years to show that this is just another variation of the con-game. When a “healer” plants stooges in the audience, gathers information about potential subjects BEFORE the meeting, uses concealed radios to transmit that information while supposedly receiving a “word of knowledge” and then proclaims a “healing” that cannot be verified by an objective medical doctor, meanwhile making himself rich in the process; I think its time for Christians to wake up and realize they are being scammed. God is not honored by such displays, and the Christian refusal to think critically BECAUSE they want to “see” something supernatural is a sad commentary on the state of the church.

The Lack of Empirical Evidence

All legitimate human knowledge is based on two fundamental criteria; that which God Himself has revealed about His being, plans and purposes in Scripture, and that which we can learn from a detailed, empirical study of His creation. The Scriptures come first of course, because they give us the basic presuppositions by which we interpret sense experience. What we learn in creation can never contradict or overturn Scripture (even though some Christian college and seminary professors might be inclined to do so) because God Himself is the basis of all true knowledge. Therefore, if we want to know if something is true, we must be able to establish it either by appeal to the Scriptures, or prove it by direct observation.

Science is not an enemy of Christian faith but rather a supplement to it and is dependant upon Christian presuppositions to operate correctly; the secular scientist can only function by being inconsistent with his own presuppositions and borrowing philosophical capital from the Christian worldview. Science is a method of observing creation and ensuring that our theories about that creation can be sustained. Science of course is limited in what it can do, but the rational process has allowed man unprecedented power over the natural world that our ancestors would have considered “miraculous.”

The real purpose of scientific investigation is to ensure that what we think we know to be true, can be demonstrated to be true. For example, for thousands of years, everyone assumed that life could come from non-life. This presupposition was universal and verified in every day experience; if you left some dead meat out, eventually maggots would crawl out; how much clearer could it be than that? This basic assumption colored our whole view of the natural world and in many respects, laid the foundation for modern evolutionary thought.

Then, one day, some bright boy decided to test the hypothesis by keeping meat free from outside contaminants. He placed the meat in a jar where flies and other insects could not reach it and surprise, surprise; the meat did not grow maggots. Life it seems cannot come from non-life. However, since the presupposition was so firmly implanted in the popular mind, even today, otherwise brilliant, well educated secular scientists insist that at ONE point in history, life DID come from non-life. He has to postulate this because otherwise he cannot exclude God from creation which is his deepest desire of rebellious men (Rms 1:18).

The point here though is that science gives us a mechanism to ensure that what we think is true actually IS true because it can be demonstrated repeatedly. Therefore, if occult phenomenon is “real” then there ought to be repeatable evidence for it. Scientists have been studying various types of occult phenomenon for more than a century and thus far, no actual PROOF of its reality has been sustained.

Granted, as Gary North points out in his book, “Unholy Spirits” part of the reason is that scientists themselves are predisposed by their materialistic presuppositions to discount evidence of the occult because it does not fit into their worldview. Any scientist who DOES find evidence of occult phenomenon is likely to find his grant money disappearing, or his tenure in question. But even so, there are foundations who want to support occult research, and there is a lot of money to be made by PROVING that someone really does have ESP, or that a particular house is actually haunted, etc. But where is the evidence? Some like Dr. North will insist that the evidence is there but actively suppressed. However, both the materialist scientist and the sincere investigator such as Dr. North are BOTH susceptible to the same psychological dynamics we mentioned earlier about how people form strong convictions. Could it be that BOTH sides attune to the data that supports their presuppositions and ignores the data which might over-turn them?

There are many weird, bizarre and unusual things that are on the fringes of scientific enquiry, but positive evidence that any particular person is actually demonstrating occult powers is lacking. Repeatedly, when careful investigation is done of some claim, trickery, misdirection, and mis-interpretation of the evidence undermines the occultist claims. People can CLAIM to demonstrate all sorts of powers; investigators can CLAIM to have WITNESSED those powers, but when subjected to the rigorous controls of scientific study, none of those claims to date can stand the test. Are demons afraid of the scientist laboratory for some reason?

There are many examples that could be used here, but perhaps the most potent are those dealing with psychic surgery; something Dr. North gives a lot of space to. He insists that people actually insert knifes into patients’ eyes, remove tumors, cure diseases etc., and that these could NOT be faked. However, every magician can perform the same functions through misdirection. As an outsider, I cannot speak authoritatively whether any particular psychic healer is a fraud or might actually have some sort of demonic power. All I know is that NONE of them have passed the stringent tests of scientific study. Thus to accept someone’s testimony that “So and so can plunge his hands into a living body” seems naive at best; where is the proof that the “healer” is actually DOING what he CLAIMS to be doing? I haven’t seen it, and neither has anyone with a shred of scientific credibility. Therefore, as the old maxim says, “if you hear hoof steps in the distance, it is more likely to be horses, than zebras.” The best explanation is the more normal explanation.

If psychic healers, or astrologers, palm-readers, spiritualists or anyone else claiming occult powers actually HAD them, then where is the scientific proof, apart from anecdotal evidence? If they had them, then why can they not SHOW them in ways that would convince even the most skeptical observer? The fact that after a hundred and fifty years of serious inquiry and not ONE claim has been sustained leads me to the conclusion that occult power is far more limited than we think.

And in a way, this makes sense given the two premises we made at the beginning of this essay. First, Satan is a liar and therefore we ought to distrust ANYTHING he says about himself. Secondly, he is limited, and what point in giving power, when by confusion, lies, false thinking and human gullibility he can convince people without actually having to DO anything? Therefore while in general, Christians are required to believe in the existence of the occult, we must be very careful in saying any specific event is evidence of that existence.

Examples of Pseudo-Occult Phenomenon;

Just for the record’s sake, let us look briefly at some “occult” phenomenon that in reality have perfectly “natural” explanations. The first are all concerned with something scientists have noted for years about the relationship between the mind and the body called ideomotor action. Ideomotor action is the unconscious moving of the body, especially the hand. If you hold your hand straight out, the average person will see a slight tremor (if it is more than a slight tremor, you should see a physician!). All of us have probably been so agitated, frightened, irritated at times that we were literally “shaking.” Others of us have found our hands doing things we did not consciously tell them to do when we were lost in thought.

This relationship between mind and body actions can be used to simulate certain occult phenomenon IF the people involved do not understand these principles. For example, the OUIJA board was a game invented at the end of the 19th century when spiritualism was a hot topic. It has no ancient, occult association other than someone trying to capitalize on a market demands. The inventor (the name “ouija” comes from the French and German words for “yes”) made up a game that young people could play to supposedly contact the spirits. OK, we recognize this from the start as being occult to the core, but do people ACTUALLY contact spirits or demons with ouija boards? There is certainly a lot of personal, eye-witness testimony to people playing with ouija boards getting creepy answers and everyone involved denies that THEY moved the little pointer; so what is?

Well, two explanations; first, never discount the possibility that your friend is playing with your head and moving the pointer. From personal experience I KNOW that often such messages have their origin in the perfectly natural inclination of teenagers to mess with people’s minds. However, even if this explanation is discounted, ideomotor action may well account for the rest. Your hand is always trembling; when placed LIGHTLY on ANYTHING, the movement of the hand will tend to move the object. Two such people placing their hands on a light object will therefore tend to move the object. If for example you hand your hands on the pointer, and felt it move, apparently ON ITS OWN, this would tend to make you feel anxious, excited, nervous, thus increasing the ideomotor actions of your own hands. Ouija boards often give “messages” that are pure gibberish, what we would expect from random ideomotor actions, but what about those times when the message is clear and meaningful? Have the people made contact with the “other side?”

Not necessarily; again, it has to do with the way that the mind and body interact with one another. The human brain has two hemispheres; one which controls language, reason, and logic and one that focuses more on the spatial, emotions and conceptual. Normally, these two aspects work together; you see a drawing of a dog and you say the word, “dog.” But with a little training, you can disconnect these portions so that one side does not really interact with the other. Thus with a ouija board, you empty your mind, focus on nothing, and try to put yourself in the right frame of mind basically disconnecting the rational from the attitudinal. Then, amazingly, the ideomotor action starts moving the pointer and a mysterious message is spelled out. But the best explanation is that rather than contacting the dead or a spirit, in reality, you have just disassociated one hemisphere of the brain from another-without even realizing it.

Pendulums, dowsing, table tilting and automatic writing; are probably all best explained by this connection of ideomotor action with right and left hemisphere disconnections. Now the point here, as was made in the companion article on the Christian and the Occult is that the prohibition against ALL of these kinds of divination activities has NOTHING to do with whether they actually work, but that they are all attempts to obtain knowledge in unlawful ways. Pendulums are used by many people to predict the sex of an unborn child by letting a needle swing over a pregnant woman’s stomach. If it swings in a circle it means one thing, if it swings back and forth it means another. Those who use it will CLAIM to be incredibly accurate. But again, where is the proof? People tend to remember times when the pendulum was “right” and forget about the times when it was “wrong.” And after all, you’ve always got a fifty-fifty chance anyway; odds no casino or racetrack will ever give you!

But the real explanation is that the slight tremors in the hand cause the needle to either swing in a circle or go back and forth. Any relationship to the sex of the baby is purely coincidental. Dowsing is trying to find water with sticks or diving rods. The adherents will claim to be successful; but in any place where there is a good water table, ANYWHERE they pick to dig a well will eventually find water. But again, the times when they are right are remembered, the times when the well was dry was forgotten.

Many people have been astounded by fire walking which is just basic physics. The coals are allowed to burn down and the person “walking” actually does something more like leaping and running to minimize the amount of time his feet are in contact with the coals. As a result, his feet do not get hot enough to actually burn. But it looks impressive to the gullible to suggest these people have some strange, “mind over matter” ability.

Mediums, psychics and fortune tellers have been exposed by so many people, so many times that there really is no reason to go into detail about them here other then what we have already mentioned. However, when they ARE accurate, it is usually because they have previous knowledge or done research on the mark. In some spiritualist “temples” large data bases of potential customers have been found that gives the “medium” all the information the need to accomplish his task; which is to separate a fool and his money as quickly and painlessly as possible.

One of my favorite examples of “occult” powers was the infamous spoon bending ability of Uri Geller and his imitators. Though proclaimed as a genuine psychic by many true believers, eventually he was exposed as a fraud, using slight of hand to disguise the fact that he had already bent the spoon before anyone noticed. Many supposed “proofs” of psychic or occult powers have been exposed this way. Telekinesis, the ability to move physical objects with “mental” energy has never been substantiated. All of the best cases have been exposed as ever new, subtle frauds where someone used perfectly natural methods to convince gullible investigators they had supernatural powers.

Many Christians untrained in the deceptive tricks used by pseudo-occult personalities unwittingly given needless credibility to charlatans and deceivers; possibly as we noted before because evidence for the occult is reverse evidence for Christianity. Furthermore, because we assume, based on God’s word that the occult is real, we EXPECT to see convincing evidence of it. In my library I have a number of serious investigative books by such men as Kurt Koch, Tim Timmons, Gary North, etc., who sincerely and Biblically want to relate a Biblical worldview to what they perceive to be contemporary phenomenon. Yet, when one looks for the actual EVIDENCE to support all the claims of hauntings, possessions, demonic oppression, ultimately it is far too often anecdotal and subjective and not only open, but actually supportive of other explanations.

Giving supernatural explanations for natural phenomenon can actually hurt all the people involved. Let me put it this way; if a man came to me saying he heard demons whispering in his ear, telling him to commit vile, evil acts, I would FIRST recommend that he see a good physician who could prescribe anti-psychotics. I know that certain forms of schizophrenia are actual biochemical disruptions in the brain and can be treated by the right kind of medication. Hearing voices is one of the signs of brain dysfunction-and not as many assume, something the Bible associated with possession. Demons must be allergic to Thorazine or other major drugs because people claiming to be possessed, often get remarkably better if the physician can fix the problems in their brain chemistry.

However, if such a person did NOT respond to medical treatment, and demonstrated other aspects the Bible associates with demonic possession, I would consider it as a real possibility. But simply because someone CLAIMS that there is a supernatural element to a certain phenomenon, does not mean the explanation is the correct one.

Conclusion

The above essay was written, not to debunk the existence of the occult, but rather to put things in perspective. Even if 99.9% of occult claims to power are erroneous, they are still things that God says He detests and from which Christians must keep themselves separate. It is no coincidence that insanity, depression, suicidal inclinations and immorality are all closely associated with those who are involved in ANY aspect of the occult. Whether this means that mentally unstable are drawn TO the occult, or that involvement in the occult LEADS to mental problems; either way, we ought to stay as far away from it as we can. Christians need never fear demons or spirits, but they ought to fear the God who specifically warned them to stay away from such areas.

Being deceived is always bad even if the person so deceived is sincere. Truth is something worthy of pursuit because it is a communicable attribute of God. Therefore, we need to get rid of the pious lie that sincerity is a substitute for truth. Sometimes, attributing supernatural explanations for naturally occurring phenomenon can cause severe damage in a family or relationship. It may cover up serious problems that require good Biblical counseling. Over the years, more than a few people have come to my counseling office asking me to drive out the demons of lust, pride, arrogance, fear, etc., that were haunting them. It does not need to be said that never ONCE was the problem an inner demon, but a heart that was in rebellion to God. Dealing with the ethical was sufficient to restore a person to a sound and sober lifestyle where God was honored and their lives given stability and hope.

Furthermore, giving undue credence to the occult CAN lead to involvement with the occult or seduce other Christians into dabbling with the occult. When a person is under a severe trial, when a child is sick and the doctors cannot help, when the situation is desperate and a little knowledge of the future could give great peace and hope, when a loved one has died and left certain issues unresolved, even Christians can be tempted to visit a psychic healer, palm reader of medium. They turn to such people because they believe they actually have the power to help them, even though God has forbidden us to do so. And like Saul, who lost his kingdom and life for consulting a medium, we risk bringing God’s own wrath down on our heads for participating in something He finds “detestable.”

Because God is real, Satan is also real; because God so chose, He has allowed Satan limited power. And on occasion, the Adversary or his demons might demonstrate that power in various ways in creation. But the Adversary’s purpose is to deceive people away from knowledge of the true God by any means possible. If he can con people into giving anti-Christian religion credibility by giving the illusion of occult power, he will-and we will suffer as a result.

Being overly concerned about occultism prevents people from getting on with the serious work of growing, exercising dominion and sharing Christ. On more than one occasion, when the enemies of Christ were working hard against His Kingdom and rule, Christians were more concerned about “praying against the powers of darkness” than they were actually obeying Christ in their personal lives, relationships and churches. The lure of the occult for the Christian is that like our father Adam, it places the responsibility for evil on forces outside of our own ethical failure; “the devil made me do it” is not just a cliché but an actual defense mechanism for many Christians. The problem with a person’s lust is not a demon, but their own refusal to follow Biblical principles of sanctification. The problem with a person’s abuse of alcohol or drugs is not a demon of addiction but a lack of self-control and submission to King Jesus. The reason why a church is not growing has nothing to do with the local coven of witches making satanic incantations against the Kingdom of God, but with Christians learning to persevere through adversity and humbling themselves before His providence.

All of the above are actual explanations given to me over the years for why people were experiencing various problems in life and ALL were counter productive to actually solving the problems and seeing the victory Christ has won for us and will exercise through us. As long as we blame demons, witches, or the occult for our problems, we can never deal with the sin and wickedness we inherited from our father Adam. The true key to victory over the occult is not exorcisms or “binding” the powers of darkness-but in humble submission to our God by knowing, loving and keeping His commands.