Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.
—I Timothy 4:1
3931 The Occult Boom
The occult boom prevalent today began with the wildfire spread of astrology. It then extended all the way from Satanism and Witchcraft to the edge of science.
One American in five expresses belief in astrology. Adherents of other movements include: Transcendental Meditation (4%), Yoga (3%), Mysticism (2%), and Eastern Religions (1%).
3932 Occult Books, Magazines, Films
Occult book sales doubled in the last four years. More than 800 different titles were involved. The occult movement has its own trade magazine called Occult Trade Journal. Doubleday’s new book club of occult titles zoomed to 100,000 membership in two years.
One of the busiest bookstores is Metaphysical Center in San Francisco, selling about $12,000 a month. It offers courses in palmistry, reincarnation, astral projection, numerology, and others. Another bookstore sells ritual robes, amulets, incense, crystal balls, etc. The film Exorcist gained $70 million in a year, and the book by that title has 10,000,000 in print. Big colleges and universities offer credit courses on the occult.
3933 More On The Movement
People are anxious to know what lies ahead, good or ill, and they are willing to pay for predictions.
Palm readers, psychics, numerologists, and other assorted diviners all have devout followings, as do Ouija boards, the I Ching, and even the lowly tea leaves.
Astrology is enjoying an unprecedented boom according to the American Federation of Astrologers: which boasts a thousand active members.
Meanwhile, the gypsy fortune-tellers have been joined by government-sponsored think tanks with names like Rand Corporation and Hudson Institute.
Industry and academia have lent respectability to star-gazing with such organizations as the Commission on the Year 2000, sponsored by the prestigious American Association of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute for the Future, formed by a consortium of companies including Monsanto, Du Pont, and Chase Manhattan.
Abroad, the Club of Rome, the Futuribles of France, and Britain’s Committee on the Next Thirty Years earnestly prognosticate.
Crystal balls have been replaced by computers, and instead of soothsayers making prophecies, we get systems theorists with world models, statistical projections, and extrapolated scenarios.
—Prairie Overcomer
3934 An Observation
The present trend of interest in the supernatural did not happen by chance. Satan really does not want a supernatural-rejecting world. He wants the world to be religious, but in his sense of that word.
Satan wants a religious world, but which rejects Christ and God’s offer of personal relationship through Christ. In order that his true nature and plan could not be discovered, Satan’s first step must be to discredit the Bible and true Christianity.
Hence, in Satan worship, the rites are held opposite to Christian beliefs. They have the upside-down cross, reciting the Lord’s Prayer backwards, an altar containing a dead baby, sign and costume of a goat, etc. Even in the seemingly “innocent” study of Transcendental Meditation, the effect is spiritually disastrous. A three-year study of TM has been made. The conclusion: “TM tends to make a person skeptical of God, doubt any concept of life after death, and discard any belief one had before one delved into it.”
3935 The Protective Barrier
It appears that within man there is a protective barrier sheltering him to a certain extent from the baneful influence of demons. Once a person begins dabbling in the occult, this protective fence is broken down.
The victim henceforth becomes the prey of wicked spirit forces. Occultly-subjected people often confess that it was not too difficult to make contact with the spirits. But once they become aware of the diabolical nature of their spirit intercourse and sought to renounce this evil, they found that no power on earth could free them.
3936 Pan-American’s Psychic Flight
Pan American World Airways once advertised in a magazine about the scheduling of a “Psychic Tour” of Great Britain for $629. The tour would include visit to a psychic healing center there, a seance, a day at Stonehenge with the chief of Britain’s Most Ancient Order of Druids. Each one also receives his own astrology chart. And, of course, flight dates are astronomically plotted to be favorable in every way.
3937 Frenchmen And The Occult
Frenchmen spend more than a billion dollars a year on clairvoyants, gypsies, faith healers, seers and prophets. In Paris, there is “one charlatan for every 514 citizens and one priest for every 5,000.”
If you want to hear what the future has in store for you, perhaps you should see your travel agent for the fastest way to France. But try to avoid the need for a doctor or a priest—their services are rather scarce.
—Hal Lindsay
See also: Satan ; Superstitions ; II Thess. 2:8; Rev. 9:21; 18:23.