ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

JACQUELINE FRATTARE—Without your constant poking and prodding, this manuscript wouldn’t have been completed. Your hunger and passion to see those caught in earth-based religions come to know the glorious light of Jesus has inspired me to keep on until this was completed. It is my hope that this book will not only offend the religious and break God out of the boxes we have put Him in, but also that many lost will see the light. Jaci, for all the souls that will be impacted by this book, you also share in that reward.

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UNDERSTANDING THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT

I have a bookshelf in my home that my friends and family humorously refer to as my “evil shelf.” As I have personally researched the material in this book over five years, I have gathered books from movements such as the New Age, Wicca, Paganism, and Satanism. On my evil shelf, I keep books with titles such as Occult Preparations for the New Age, Talking to the Dead, and Lucifer Rising. Basically, books most orthodox Bible-believing Christians would never read or allow in their homes.

I knew that my evil shelf had gotten a little out of control when my friend Adam called me and excitedly announced over the phone, “I am at the bookstore and they have this huge Witchcraft Encyclopedia on clearance for $5.99 and I thought of you! Should I get it for you?”

After a long pause, I hesitantly said yes and hung up. This might be the weirdest phone call I have ever received as a good little Christian author! I thought to myself.

Having grown up in legalistic Pentecostalism, I know well the paranoia about having occult books in my home. I had the cassette tapes that claim all rock music is satanic, and I read those terrible Chick Publications. No worries. I am up to speed on Christian superstition.

Since I am called to write this book, I believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to protect me in the process. When I bring a new book home for my evil shelf, the first thing I do is drop it on the floor and put my foot on top of it and declare, “You will not mess with the spiritual atmosphere of my home; you are here for research only, and I am the authority in this house.” Then I put it on my shelf and sleep soundly without any problem.

As I have researched, I have noticed a common misconception among Christians—that there is no difference between New Age, Witchcraft, and Satanism. This leads to a major problem in communication. For example, when people say they are into New Age, Christians seem to categorize them among witches and child sacrifice rituals, which is extremely exaggerated and disrespectful.

Instead, I have found it helpful to think of the New Age, Wicca, Animism, and Satanism as different streams of earth-based religion, each with their own unique history and distinctions. Similarly, Christianity has many denominations. Imagine a New Ager talking with a Lutheran and saying, “So basically, you are the same as a Catholic, right? You are all Christians, so what’s the difference?” Clearly, anyone who is a Christian recognizes the huge differences between Catholics and Lutherans, and many would even be offended by this generalization, Martin Luther included. The same applies to those in earth-based religions.

For this reason, we must understand the basic differences if we want to have clear, inoffensive, intelligent conversations with those in earth-based religions. I will begin with a simple overview of four different streams: Animism, Wicca, New Age, and Satanism. Then I will examine the history of the New Age movement, as it is the one stream I will be focused on in the majority of this book.

ANIMISM

According to The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World:

At the root of magic beliefs and practice, animism is the belief that every natural object, both living and non-living, has a spirit or life force....The animist sees movement in trees, rocks, streams, wind and other objects and believes that everything is inhabited by its own spirit.¹

Animism is behind the concept that if it does not rain and the crops fail the “rain spirit” must be displeased and we must, therefore, offer a sacrifice to appease him. This basic belief system is behind the ancient pagan polytheistic societies that lived as victims of the many angry and warring gods. Only the powerful Shamans (witchdoctors) knew how to use rituals, curses, and healing potions. Michael Harper has written extensively about this belief system in his groundbreaking work, The Way of the Shaman. Yet Animism is rarely observed in regions impacted by monotheism, such as Europe, Russia, and North America.

WICCA

The Witch Book: The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft, Wicca, and Neo-Paganism says:

Wicca is the preferred word for “Witchcraft” with most Witches today, since it does not carry the negativity associated with the stereotypical witch promoted by Christianity. It denotes the positive, nature-oriented Pagan religion derived from pre-Christian roots.²

Similarly, New Age author and lecturer Silver Ravenwolf writes:

Witchcraft is an earth-centered religion focused on raising an individual’s spirituality. Witchcraft is not, nor was it ever, a vehicle for Satanic worship.³

Wiccans generally have a lot in common with Animists. Interestingly, Wicca denies the existence of an individual spirit known as the devil. Therefore, they resent the way many Christians lump Witchcraft and Satanism together. Within Witchcraft/Wicca exists a range from white magic to black magic. Both can involve spells, potions, rituals, and incantations, yet the purpose is different. A “love potion” would be considered white magic, whereas a hex and a curse of death would be considered black magic. Black magic can be so common in some circles that books have been written about how to defend oneself against psychic attacks, such as Dion Fortune’s book, Psychic Self-Defense.

NEW AGE

Trying to define the New Age movement is a very difficult challenge. The basic concept is that the world has entered a spiritual Age of Enlightenment, and through self-improvement and personal empowerment, human perfection and tranquility can be found. If a Creator God exists, all paths of love will lead us to Him or Her. The New Age is like a patchwork quilt made of pieces from ancient shamanism, Paganism, Wicca, eastern mysticism, and reincarnation. This blended philosophy has no formal structure and is highly individualized. The main goal is typically to be a better person and have a better society without the restrictions that traditional religions would bring.

SATANISM

This category hardly deserves to be put alongside Animism, Wicca, and the New Age, as these three are very different from Satanism. However, I include it here because Christianity has typically lumped them all together, and I would like to bring clarity to this error.

Satanism’s core value is to be the antithesis of Christianity. Without Christianity, there is no Satanism. Satanism takes all the ordinances of Christianity, “Thou shalt not,” and turns them into “thou shalt.” It is chaos, destruction, anarchy, and disorder in its purest form as a religion. It gained a major upsurge through the writings and practices of Aleister Crowley and was institutionalized by Anton LaVey when he founded the Church of Satan in San Francisco in 1966. The 1970s and ’80s were filled with heavy metal bands and horror films that glamorized Satanism for financial gain. Christians fell right into their trap by protesting and authoring countless books against rock and Satanism. This led to incredible exaggerations of Satanism’s power and even to outright fraud, such as the famous Christian comedian Mike Warnke’s bestseller, The Satan Seller, in which he lied about his background inside Satanism.

With these brief and very basic definitions of Animism, Wicca, the New Age, and Satanism, we can clearly see the vast difference between the first three earth-based religions and Satanism, which is explicitly anti-Christian. It is important to keep this in mind as we look now at the history of the New Age movement and begin to compare it to Christianity.

HISTORY OF THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT

The New Age movement was founded by people who were, in some ways, very much like me. I have always been fascinated by the supernatural. Yet as a child raised in a Christian family, I attended a church that didn’t talk about or operate much in the supernatural. Because many churches do not talk about the supernatural, many young people like me begin to search it out. For me this meant going to the public library and reading the shelves of ghost stories and supernatural unsolved mysteries. I was captivated. I knew there must be more than the physical universe. I also knew, if the darkness had supernatural power, the God of light must have even more, even if my church didn’t talk about it. Just by reading the Bible, I could recognize the supernatural should be natural. It was not reserved for the pastor or the televangelist but was available to every simple follower of God.

As I grew, I discovered an entire movement within the Church distinguished by a belief in God’s supernatural power. They believe Christians can experience visions, dreams, supernatural healing, and miracles without being weird or trying to extort money. Immediately, I hungrily began pursuing and walking in the supernatural as a Christian.

I also began to research the New Age movement. I found it fascinating that people without religion were operating in the supernatural. Through my research, I discovered the movement had its beginnings inside Christianity, and only over time did it grow apart. This pattern has repeated itself often; a very high percentage of those in the New Age grew up in Christian families and later left. Their reason for leaving is one that none of us want to hear. Inside the Church, they felt rejected and uncomfortable being supernatural individuals.

Thus, both individual New Agers, as well as the whole history of the movement, started within Christianity and developed out and away from it because the supernatural was unwelcome at church. This is not just a random coincidence. The fact that the six major founders of what has morphed into the modern New Age movement essentially had Christian roots is a sign of something significant. Let’s examine these six founders briefly.

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (1688–1772)

Emanuel Swedenborg is considered by many to be one of the earliest founders of the spiritualist movement, which later became the modern New Age movement. Emanuel’s father, Jesper, who came from a wealthy mining family, spent his youth traveling abroad and studying theology. His eloquence earned him favor with the Swedish king, Charles XI, and eventually, through the king’s influence, Jesper became a professor of theology at Uppsala University and the Bishop of Skara. However, Jesper aligned himself with the dissenting Lutheran Pietist movement, which eventually caused him to be charged as a heretic. Growing up with a father who wanted to see the Church change its doctrine made a deep impression on Emanuel.

As an adult, Emanuel followed his father’s path even farther. His heart intentions seemed good, and some even consider him a Christian mystic. Perhaps, as a Lutheran, he imagined himself to be walking in the very footsteps of the great reformer, Martin Luther. Yet the foundations he laid did not move the Church toward greater health. Instead, he established many unorthodox teachings that eventually became the foundation of spiritualism and the New Age movement. For example, he taught that communication with the dead was a viable source of spiritual information. He also rejected the idea of a final judgment of sin, teaching rather a universal salvation of all people eventually. He placed a higher value on his own dreams and visions than upon the Bible, which is always a slippery slope. As a result, he had no standard for testing his dreams and visions.

In all, Swedenborg wrote eighteen published theological works and several more that were unpublished; his most recognized work is Heaven and Hell (first published in Latin in 1758), which has had over fifty-five printings. His teachings influenced such notable individuals as William Blake, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Carl Jung, Johnny Appleseed, and Helen Keller.⁴

FRANZ ANTON MESMER (1734–1815)

Franz Anton Mesmer followed closely on the heels of Swedenborg, although he was more of a scientist than a theologian. He believed a magnetic fluid existed in the human body, and he referred to its effect upon a person as animal magnetism. The “mesmerism” he formulated and practiced in his animal magnetism teachings is the foundation of what has come to be known as hypnosis. Not surprisingly, from his name the word mesmerize is derived.

Mesmer was trained under the Jesuits and was very well studied in science for his day. In fact, in 1784, without Mesmer requesting it, King Louis XVI appointed four members of the Faculty of Medicine as commissioners to investigate the animal magnetism theories, including the American ambassador Benjamin Franklin.

I believe Mesmer stumbled across the reality of the spirit realm, yet he approached it as a scientist. Essentially he taught that the human body has an energy that, when unbalanced, causes sickness. Unfortunately, because he tried to speak of spiritual realities as a scientist, he received much ridicule and persecution. If he had looked in the Bible, he might have found Third John 2, which says, “I pray that you would be in health, even as your soul prospers.” The Bible clearly establishes a very real connection between our health and the state of our souls.

In writing, Mesmer left an eighty-eight-page book on his theory of animal magnetism, which postulated his famous twenty-seven propositions. Yet his most famous contribution to history is his name, which has become associated with the trance-like state of mind referred to as being mesmerized.⁵

ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS (1826–1910)

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series, said of Andrew Jackson Davis:

Davis does not appear to have been at all a religious man in the ordinary conventional sense, although he was drenched with true spiritual power. His views, so far as one can follow them, were very critical as regards Biblical revelation, and, to put it as lowest, he was no believer in literal interpretation.⁶

As Doyle implies, we do not know what Andrew Jackson Davis’ interaction with Christianity was. What we do know of Davis is that his views were very clearly built upon the foundation Swedenborg laid. As the story goes, in 1844, Andrew Jackson Davis had an experience that changed the course of his life. On the evening of March 6, Davis was suddenly overcome by a power that led him to “fly” (in the spirit) from Poughkeepsie, where he lived; in a semi-trance state, he hurried off upon a rapid journey. When he regained full consciousness the next morning, he found himself amidst the Catskill Mountains, some forty miles away. There, he claimed to have met two very distinguished men, whom he later identified as the philosopher Galen and the Swedish seer Emanuel Swedenborg, both of whom were, of course, dead. He also claimed to have experienced a great mental illumination and revelation.

Davis was not widely known in his day, yet he was highly influential to the development of the spiritualism movement. He was a follower of Swedenborg, yet he also studied and practiced mesmerism. In 1847, he published The Principles of Nature, Her Divine Revelations, and A Voice to Mankind, which in 1845 he had dictated while in a trance to his scribe, William Fishbough. He began to tour and lecture, but with very little success, and eventually he returned to writing books as his primary means of teaching, publishing about thirty in all.

It is purported that Davis performed séances for Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln (the Lincolns were very interested in séances because of the death of their son Willie) and predicted many major inventions. Notably, the following prediction of the automobile was recorded in his book, The Penetralia (1856):

Question: Will utilitarianism make any discoveries in other locomotive directions?

Yes: look out about there days for carriages and traveling saloons on country roads—without horses, without steam, without any visible motive power moving with greater speed and far more safety than at present.

Carriages will be moved by a strange and beautiful and simple admixture of aqueous and atmospheric gases—so easily condensed, so simply ignited, and so imparted by a machine somewhat resembling our engines, as to be entirely concealed and managed between the forward wheels. These vehicles will prevent many embarrassments now experienced by persons living in thinly populated territories. The first requisite for these land locomotives will be good roads, upon which with your engine, without your horses, you may travel with great rapidity. These carriages seem to me of uncomplicated construction.⁷

Davis, who was sometimes called the John the Baptist of spiritualism, also predicted its advent. In his most famous work, Principles of Nature (1847), he states:

It is a truth that spirits commune with one another while one is in the body and the other in the higher spheres—and this, too, when the person in the body is unconscious of the influx, and hence cannot be convinced of the fact; and this truth will ere long present itself in the form of a living demonstration. And the world will hail with delight the ushering in of that era when the interiors of men will be opened, and the spiritual communion will be established.⁸

One year later, the Fox sisters began hearing the spirit rappings that inaugurated the spiritualism movement. Davis believed this a fulfillment of his prophecy.

Davis was a spiritual descendent of Swedenborg and Mesmer, and Davis in turn directly influenced the psychic, Edgar Cayce (1877–1945), who adopted trance diagnosis and similar activities, with few modifications, from Davis. In fact, Davis’ complete library is now housed within the Edgar Cayce Library. Edgar Allan Poe was also inspired by Davis, whose lectures on mesmerism he had attended. This is especially evident in Poe’s short story, “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” (1845).⁹

THE FOX SISTERS

One of the most significant dates in New Age history is March 31, 1848. In Hydesville, New York (now known as Arcadia, twenty miles east of Rochester, New York), a small Methodist family began to hear strange tappings on the inside of their cabin walls. The two younger daughters of the family, Maggie and Kate (ages fifteen and twelve) began to communicate with the tappings by asking yes-or-no questions using a system like “one tap for yes and two taps for no.” The girls began to refer to the phenomena as talking to “Mr. Splitfoot,” which was a nickname for the then common hoofed depictions of the devil.

“Mr. Splitfoot” told the girls he was the spirit of a traveling peddler who had been killed years before and buried in the basement of their Hydesville home. At this news, their father called in the Methodist pastor for spiritual help. He also gathered the neighbors to help him dig in the basement in search of a body. When they struck water, the dig halted. But many years later, in 1904, a false wall in the basement collapsed, revealing the remains of a man with a peddler’s box.¹⁰ See the YouTube Video of the encased foundation.

From these young sisters sprang the major expansion of the spiritualist movement. From 1848 to 1888, they essentially toured, taught and demonstrated mediumship all through America, especially the Northeast. Through their demonstrations, the movement began to establish spiritualist churches and even a famed summer camp near Buffalo, New York, named Lily Dale. See the YouTube Video of the spiritualist monument and Lily Dale.

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1859–1930)

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on May 22, 1859, into a Roman Catholic family, and he attended Catholic schools. At age seventeen, he began studying medicine at Edinburgh University, eventually earning his doctorate of medicine. While at Edinburgh, he decided he no longer subscribed to the Catholic point of view. About this, he wrote in his autobiography, Memories and Adventures:

I remember that when, as a grown lad, I heard Father Murphy, a great fierce Irish priest, declare that there was sure damnation for everyone outside the church, I looked upon him with horror, and to that moment I trace the first rift which has grown into such a chasm between me and those who were my guides.¹¹

As a man of tremendous renown, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a strong advocate of the spiritualism movement. Although he was born eleven years after the Hydesville incident with the Fox Sisters, Doyle gave the movement a lot of momentum in its later years. He is most famed for his Sherlock Holmes novels, which contained much of the spiritualism he ascribed to. Doyle also made a major contribution to spiritualism by writing, The History of Spiritualism (1926).

Around the same time, Harry Houdini, the renowned American illusionist and escape artist, began to debunk many of the fraudulent spiritualists and mediums. At this, Doyle began to regularly communicate with Houdini. He would send Houdini information regarding certain mediums, and Houdini would then expose their tricks. It was not Doyle’s goal to see these mediums exposed, as he was a sincere believer in spiritualism. The interactions between these two giants is recorded in amazing detail in the Final Séance by Massimo Polidoro.

Arthur Conan Doyle also had an interaction with the famous Pentecostal healer John G. Lake. In Lake’s own words:

Finally a meeting was arranged between Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, W.T. Stead, and myself. I want to say a word concerning these two great men. Both have been knighted by the King as Knights of the Realm because of their contributions to scientific knowledge. What I want you to see is that a man must have contributed something of unusual value to the Empire in order to be knighted. Both men were great men, great as men speak of worldly greatness; great men intellectually; great men in the secrets of science.

Lake first honored those he met with. He then regaled them with several supernatural stories, as Lake’s ministry was filled with supernatural healings and miracles. As they listened, they were stunned and replied:

Mr. Lake, that is the most wonderful thing we have ever heard. That is the best case of spiritualism we know of. If you will just give us the privilege of publishing that story.

As I have already mentioned, the founders of spiritualism grew up in a form of Christianity that did not operate in the supernatural. Yet when these spiritualist leaders encountered John G. Lake, they became hungry for what he was experiencing (just like Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8). The reason many New Agers left the Church in the first place was because the Church is not moving in the supernatural as it is supposed to! To these men, Lake replied:

Now let me review a moment. Spiritualism is trying to drag the dead up to you. Christianity, bless God, is making the blood-washed spirit go free to the Lord. They are just as opposite as night and day.

Lake went on to record in his journal regarding this meeting:

In these days when this stuff is being proclaimed around the world by men like Lodge, Doyle, and others who have been recognized as leaders of thought, naturally people are ready to listen.

Years afterward as I considered these things, and discussed them with a brother, he said, “Lake, you had a wonderful opportunity. Tell me, what was the effect in your own soul of that night that you spent with these men?”

I said, “Brother, I left there next morning with profound sympathy in my heart. I said as I walked away, ‘Dear God, here are the greatest intellects in the world, but concerning the things of God and the light of the Spirit they are just as blind as though their eyes were sealed.’”

He later wrote:

One other thing, Conan Doyle is greatly distressed about President Coolidge, and he thinks the proper thing to do is to immediately confer with the spirit of the late President Harding and be directed about the things of state, or he will make some blunder. This is advice of one of the greatest scientists of all the world, a man who has been knighted by the King of England because of his knowledge of scientific methods. [He is a] bright mind filled with knowledge of this world but a darkened soul without a knowledge of eternal things.¹²

EDGAR EVANS CAYCE (1877–1945)

Edgar Cayce, also known as the “sleeping prophet,” was famous for the trance state he would go into while giving revelations. As a child, he aspired to become a missionary and was raised as a member of the Disciples of Christ denomination. He was very devout and claimed to read through the whole Bible every year. From a young age, he experienced strange supernatural phenomena, but a turning point happened when he was thirteen. A woman appeared to him in the spirit and offered to grant him any request. Edgar responded that he wanted to help people when they were sick, especially children.

Later in life, he developed an ability to give people psychic advice regarding their illnesses, which led to many cures. Also, while still young, he had the supernatural ability to sleep with a book under his pillow and awake the next morning with the contents photographically imprinted in his mind.

I was fascinated to read that as a young man Cayce met the famous evangelist D.L. Moody. Moody was traveling through Cayce’s town, and Edgar shared with him about the visions and voices he heard. Moody then warned him possession by an evil spirit could create such things. However, according to Cayce’s official biography, There is a River, the evangelist also left open the possibility that Edgar might be a prophet as described in Numbers 12:6, “Listen to my words: ‘When there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.’”¹³ I believe Cayce’s calling was to be a prophet according to Numbers 12:6, but he walked off into some serious error. In fact, many regard Cayce as the father of the New Age movement. In my studies, I have come to understand him as the bridge between the old guard (Swedenborg and the Fox Sisters) and the newer developments of the movement.¹⁴