DeAnne Loper
NEW AGE MYSTICISM: DRUGS AND SORCERY IN THE LAST DAYS

I would first like to thank you for this website and for sharing the testimonies of those who have had experiences in these areas. I can tell you that many of the practices that are being taught to the body of Christ right now are pure sorcery, including the Blue Mystic Flame, opening portals, visiting other realms through the “Jumper Anointing,” angels appearing as orbs, and certain “third heaven experiences. I spent eleven years in the New Age Movement and am very familiar with the “terminology” and occult practices of the New Spirituality that are now flooding into Christianity. After years of research I have concluded that what is currently happening in the Body of Christ is a well organized infiltration of demonic doctrines to prepare and bring the Church to the place of receiving the teachings of Mystery Babylon.

One of the strongest warnings in scripture regarding the end times is that of the great falling away. In 1 Timothy 4:1 the Holy Spirit speaks expressly through the Apostle Paul that in the last days some shall depart from the faith, as they begin to listen to and follow after seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. The days we are living in are certainly leading up to that time, as new “light” and new “revelation” based on mystical experiences seems to be the standard for spiritual truth instead of the living Word of God.

Someone once said that witchcraft is taking by force and manipulation, what God would otherwise give to those who love Him, those He can trust to do His will. The following testimony tells how I fell away from the faith and turned to new age occultism, Hinduism, reincarnation beliefs, and drug use for spiritual fulfillment. All of this culminated in an experience in the spirit realm in which my soul was cast into outer darkness (Matthew 8:12, 22:13, and 25:30) and I experienced the loss of my soul and eternal separation from God.

Revelation 9:21 and 18:23 both speak of a time when every nation on earth will be under the power of sorcery and witchcraft (See also Galatians 5:20). “For by thy sorceries were all the nations deceived (Rev. 18:23).” According to scripture this will be a time when all the mystery and occult teachings will culminate in a one-world religious system the Bible calls MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT (Revelation 17:5). The original Greek word in these scriptures for witchcraft and sorcery is pharmakeia, where we get our words pharmacy and drugs from, and includes the use of drugs to produce a spiritual experience.

Through His Word, the Lord has given me a greater understanding of the role of drug use and new age spirituality in end-time events. Many times people will attempt to justify their drug use by asking, “What’s so bad about using plant drugs like marijuana, peyote and “magic” mushrooms? The Indians use them.” They say, “They are part of nature and God would not have created them if we were not meant to use them.” These statements are especially convincing in light of the pantheistic teachings of the New Spirituality that God is “within” His creation and that man and nature are one with God.

The Word of God clearly teaches that these plant drugs were not a natural part of the original creation of God but are in their current form due to the fall, a part of the curse that came about as a result of sin. With the rest of creation, they are under the bondage of corruption, groaning to be delivered from this present evil age (Gen. 3:17, 18, Rom. 8:21, 1 John 5:19). These drugs have been used for thousands of years by shamans of indigenous cultures to communicate with demonic spirits. They are a direct doorway to the spirit realm and are the quickest and easiest way for Satan to gain control of a person’s will. This is why Jesus said, “I am the door. I am the way, the truth and the life.”

Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” I was raised in a Christian home and had a true faith in Jesus Christ. My parents were true believers but, due to the absence of adequate teaching on spiritual warfare at that time, they lacked knowledge in areas of the Bible where God forbids occult practices and contact with “ghosts” or familiar spirits (Deut. 18:9-11). As a young girl growing up, my parents would tell my sister and I stories about spirits that haunted our first house. Both my mother and father said there was one “ghost” in particular that would come into my room, “visit” with me, and turn my light off and on. They also said I frequently talked to this spirit, as I was only a toddler. Later on we acquired a Ouija board which we played with regularly until it frightened my older sister so badly one night that she put it away for good. This is a form of divination, a practice that always leads to contact with demonic spirits and which is forbidden by the Lord for our own protection. I believe these were doorways for the enemy to wreak havoc upon our family.

When I was twelve years old my parents suddenly divorced. The separation came without warning while we were on vacation visiting friends. My mother took my sister and me away on a train to another city, we completely stopped going to church, and I did not see my father again for six years, until I was eighteen years of age. In the next year we moved three times and I attended three different schools. All of this caused me to become bitter and full of rage. I hated everything and everyone. By the age of thirteen I had pushed every memory of the past out of my mind, as I turned to drugs for an escape; a lifestyle that would last for the next eleven years.

Through the “doorway” of drug use I developed a deep interest in the supernatural and the occult. I began experimenting with tarot cards, another form of divination, in an effort to know my future. I practiced eastern meditation and incorporated yoga into my exercise times. I began to have out-of-body experiences, known as astral projection, in which I could see myself in two places at once and could pull my spirit back into my body at will with my mind, believing this was a sure sign my spiritual powers were increasing. I began to sense spirits around me but believed they were harmless spirit guides helping me in my quest for knowledge. All of these practices promised spiritual enlightenment and inner fulfillment, yet each one left me feeling increasingly isolated and empty inside. This is because the “Mysteries” of Satan are always kept out of reach so that the seeker delves deeper and deeper into the web of deception.

In 1987 I participated in the Harmonic Convergence, meditating with friends in Miami Beach. The event, scheduled for August 16th and 17th, had made front page headlines in The Miami Herald, a sure sign of spiritual validity in our eyes. The date and the event, according to the Mayan calendar and prophecies, were based on the alignment of the planets with the sun and moon and was to usher in a new age of peace and harmony as “light workers” gathered together in sacred places to meditate and visualize world peace. This was to be the first of many such events over the next twenty-five years that would culminate in 2012, marking the Earth’s and humanity’s spiritual evolution and entrance into the Golden Age. We were gods after all, fallen from our original perfection, and only needed a transformation of consciousness – a new way of thinking and believing – to remember who we really were. But at the end of the day I did not feel like God, and wondered how long it would take us to reach Nirvana.

At the time I experimented with psilocybin mushrooms, I was deeply into Hinduism and reincarnation beliefs. I truly believed I had lived many previous lives and that at death I would live again. I was deeply depressed and often thought about suicide, believing I would just come back to Earth in another life. I had completely walked away from faith in Jesus Christ and was studying a book on Hinduism. This book contained illustrations of the soul “transmigrating” or being reincarnated into a new body at death. There was something eerie about these pictures, an evil presence. Yet I couldn’t put the book down and carried it with me everywhere. When a friend suggested I try mushrooms with him, I eagerly accepted his invitation, desperate to reach a level that would finally satisfy my deepest desire for knowledge. I went to his house and watched as he prepared the mushroom tea. Just as I took the drug he received a phone call and said he had to go, leaving me alone at his house.

I was standing on the front porch when the drug took effect. Suddenly, it was as if my soul was thrust or propelled a million miles out of my body and back. At the same time I saw a flash of light pierce into my mind like a sword. At that moment the spirit realm opened up to me and I had all knowledge of spiritual deception. I immediately spun around and pointed to the book on Hinduism that I’d brought with me that day and said out loud, “That book is a lie! I have to burn it. It’s a lie!” I had never heard or read in Acts 19:18-19 how the new believers in Christ all came together to burn their occult books and arts, though I knew this is what I needed to do, as I now understood this book was from a purely evil source. I knew that everything I had put my trust in up to that point was a lie, but was still blinded from calling on Jesus Christ. Just then there was an old rock song on the radio with the words, “It’s all too beautiful,” and I could hear a demonic voice telling me to kill myself and come to the other side where it was beautiful. At that point I was overcome by a strong urge to take my own life with a loaded gun my friend kept in his home for protection. It was as if my will was completely taken over, possessed, and the driving thought of suicide became overpowering. However, I knew if I took my life, I would not be reincarnated, but would go straight to hell, something I did not believe just moments before. Terrified, I ran from the porch into the woods to escape. As I ran I could still hear this evil spirit laughing at me, mocking my fear.

I ran as far from the house as I could. I had never felt so lost and out of control. Suddenly, without warning, I felt my soul leave my body again. In a split second I was surrounded by darkness, a mist of darkness so deep and dark there are no words to describe it, for there is nothing like it on this Earth. Yet I knew I was there, in a literal place of eternal darkness, completely conscious of where I was. Jesus called this place outer darkness and described it as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2:4 both speak about a portion of the fallen angels who are now being held in chains – thick mists – of darkness, awaiting judgment for their rebellion against God by breaking out of their appointed boundaries from the spirit world to this world. Though I had never heard these scriptures growing up in the Church, I knew right away that I was cut off from the presence of God. I knew that my soul was eternally lost and that I would never see my family or friends or the light of the sun on the Earth again. I was completely alone. The isolation was indescribable. The hopelessness and despair was maddening, because it is the soul, the conscious mind, which goes on forever.

Eternity was stretched out before me and I knew if I didn’t get back to my body that I would be in this darkness forever. From the depths of my heart I cried out to God for mercy and I was instantly back in my body, shocked and dismayed by what had just happened. As I began to walk toward the main road another friend, whom I’d called earlier for a ride, pulled up and I got into the car. He could see that I was shaken, but I said nothing of what had just happened. As we made our way down the long dirt driveway my body felt as if it was trying to shut down. I then looked down and saw the arms of a demon wrapped around me. This demon held me from behind and his arms were long and thin and green with scales and long black claws. I knew this demon was real and I knew he had the power and authority to take my soul to hell if I died right then. It took awhile, but as my mind “came down” from the drug, the veil to the spirit world was closed so that I could no longer see this evil spirit, though I could sense its evil presence for some time. This experience left me with the profound knowledge that each person’s soul is a precious gift, that it can be lost forever, and that no price can be placed upon a human life.

It was just a few weeks later that I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. One day I came home from work to find a small book with a letter attached to it on my front door. The book told of the second coming of Jesus Christ, but it was the letter that really got my attention. The letter was written by a lady who had gone door to door, pleading for souls to come to Christ. Her passion for God and love for people could be felt in each word. As I read the letter it was as if a light came on inside of me and grew brighter and brighter, pushing out the darkness and confusion that had been there for so long. I knew the words she spoke were true and said, “That’s it. That’s the truth. Jesus is the way and the One I’ve been searching for.” I then called this woman of God and she led me in prayer to receive Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

As I began to read the Word, I found the answers to every question I’d ever had concerning life, including a scriptural basis for my recent spiritual experience through the doorways of witchcraft and sorcery. In His mercy, God had lifted the veil and allowed me to see my true spiritual condition and my eternal destiny of being lost without Jesus Christ. I truly understood the Lord’s words in Mark 8:36 & 37, “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

The religious system of the end times will be a mixture of occult witchcraft and science based on research into things like quantum physics and exploration of the mind; all in the name of spirituality and technology. The deception has become more and more subtle over the years and there is still an “underground” subculture which looks to hallucinogenic substances, along with eastern practices, as a path for spiritual enlightenment, especially in our colleges and among many new age proponents of shamanism. In a recent statistic it was reported that 75% of Christian students are walking away from their faith as they enter college, many within the first thirty days. I believe the current rapid rise of shamanism and witchcraft is a major contributor to the spiritual choices of this current generation, as sorcery is even being taught in our universities in the context of anthropology and sociology; as in the Carlos Castaneda books about an Indian sorcerer who teaches his apprentice to travel into the spirit realm through the use of the hallucinogenic drugs, magic mushrooms, peyote and datura, all in the pursuit of knowledge.

Many people do not realize that LSD (the spiritual phenomena of the 1960s) was synthesized in 1938 from a microscopic fungal mushroom called Ergot which was used for over 2,000 years (up to the time of Jesus and the Apostles) in the Eleusinian Mysteries to reveal the demonic spirits of the gods to the citizens of Greece. Paul the Apostle alludes to this in 1 Corinthians 10:21 when he says, “You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of demons.” This fungus blight, a part of the curse, attacked the wheat and barley fields and in ancient times was referred to as a “reddening corruption” also known as rust. This is amazing in light of the commandment of Jesus to build our treasure in heaven and not on Earth where moth and rust corrupt. Another interesting fact is that the Rig-Veda, the oldest religious text in Hinduism, was written under the inspiration of psilocybin or magic mushrooms, called Soma or “divine” mushrooms. The Vedic text itself testifies to this and is a fact agreed upon by many scholars and so called philosophers.

Shamans and those involved in the New Spirituality who travel through the spirit world tell us that the things they see in their journeys are more real than anything they experience in this world, and indeed the spirit world is real. However, when it comes to things like darkness, evil and demons, we are told to believe that these things are only an illusion, a part of the psyche of man’s soul which he must face to overcome his fears, and that they cannot harm us. This is the great deception of Satan, for he allows his followers to see only what he wants them to see.

We do have a very real enemy, but through the cross and the shedding of His own blood, Jesus Christ defeated sin and death and triumphed over principalities and powers once and for all openly. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; that God came in the flesh, laid down His own life for us, and was raised from the dead to give life to all who will believe in Him.