MENTAL ILLINESS AND INVOLVEMENT IN THE OCCULT
By Francis Fawkes
One
overlooked area in secular psychology is occult involvement. Psychiatrists
gloss over this issue thinking that it is fantasy. In his book,” Occult
bondage and Deliverance,” the author states that in his “40 years
of counseling, he has come across 20, 000 individuals in which occultism was
the root cause of mental and emotional problems.” Even though the
profession of psychiatry is full of skeptics and humanists, from time to time
he has met Christian psychiatrists whose spiritual eyes have been opened. He
recounts in one instance that a Christian neurologist once said 60% of the
inmates of his psychiatric clinic “are not so much suffering from mental
illness as from occult subjection even demonization.”
Insight into emotional problems also became
apparent when a psychiatrist living in
There is also another dimension that
Christian counselors are taking into consideration in resolving problems that
plague the patient. Previously, it was thought that they were certain mental
problems that were exclusively the domain of the secular psychologist. Among
the disorders were schizophrenia and dyslexia. It was conceived that since they
had an organic or chemical basis, they could only be dealt with by the secular
psychiatrist with the use of medication, and other secular approaches. Now
these afflictions are being treated by deliverance ministers using the
spiritual and charismatic approach.
It is noteworthy what Jesus did in delivering
“The Demonic of Gadara.” In Mark 5:8 Jesus said: “Come out of
the man, thou unclean spirit”; In Verse 9, He asked: “What is thy
name? And the demoniac answered saying my name is legion; for we are
many.” We see in this situation that the demonic of
Likewise, if the Christian counselor has
divine revelation from God there can be healing and deliverance. In the book,
“Pigs in the Parlor” by Frank and Ida Mae Hammond, the Lord showed
the author that there is a spiritual component to schizophrenia. He said that
many have come to him for deliverance that had a schizophrenic pattern. The
Lord revealed to him in each case that the person actually had more than one
personality. He indicated that there is a nest of demons that made up the
personality. The author writes that the real self has to fall out of agreement
with the demons, and break old habit patterns. The real self must become strong
enough in Christ to carry through on the right decision.
In his book “Evil Spirits of arrested
Development” - author Win Worley writes about neurological disabilities
that are spirit-induced. Examples are dyslexia; difficulty in decoding words or
letters; dyscalculia – poor memory when working with one or more numbers
at a time; dysgraphia - difficulty with the written language - grammar,
spelling, and the inability to write legibly”. Other related disorders
are distinguishing left from right, or the inability to follow instructions
– especially written instructions. Another is Attention Deficit
Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). This is a disorder in which “spirits keep
victims form focusing on a required task.” Through a deliverance
minister, these spirits can be dispelled. The patient is therefore, returned to
normalcy.
As a matter of fact, there are many people
that go to secular psychologists with baffling problems that do not seem to
respond to medicine or medical treatment. They are emotional and mental
problems resulting form occult involvement, or other problems of a psychic
origin. These secular counselors are not trained to deal with such matters
because they have no knowledge of the spiritual realm, or understanding of the
principles that govern God’s Kingdom. Therefore, their patients are not
delivered from their troubles and continue to suffer. It is then that the
discerning and competent Christian counselor can take over with the desired
results.
In dealing with any situation, the counselor
should also be able to sense whether the counselee is suffering because of
spiritual activity or a physical situation. He should be able to advise the
counselee accordingly. Firstly, he should be able to tell by his Spirit whether
they are spirits of confusion, spirits of infirmity, jealously, control,
competition, legalism, skepticism. He should be able to diagnose fears or
phobias. He should also make the believer aware that he has authority in
Christ. After this, the counselor should show his client how to use the weapons
of warfare in resolving mental and relationship problems. Jesus said to his disciples: “And
these signs shall follow those who believe; in my name they shall cast out
demons” - (Mark 16:17). Sometimes,
it is necessary to teach the counselee self-deliverance.
Many times, the counselee opens himself to
spiritual attack (Deuteronomy 28:1). The counselor might explain to his client
that by living in accordance with God’s statutes and ordnances, the enemy
from the spiritual realm cannot gain entry into his life. According to
Galatians 5: 22, there are some things that will open a person to spiritual
attack. These works of the flesh are: “adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealously,
wrath, factions, sedition, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness and reveling
…”
A good Christian counselor would also advise
the counselee to get rid or destroy any object that would hold him in demonic
bondage. In Acts 19:19, “Many of those who used magical arts bought their
books together, and burned them before all men, and they counted the price of
them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.” Some other things
that cause bondage, pain and oppression are books and movies in which there is definitely
psychic content. Obsession with things of that nature does attract demonic
entities. Movies of such nature like “Harry Potter” should not be
viewed by children or adults. Books of an occult nature should be burned not
just hidden somewhere. Any graven image, occult object or toy, such as a doll
or soldier should be destroyed. This is because is some cases pains, curses or
demonic attachments result because of the possession of these objects. The
localized pains in people correspond to broken part of the anatomy of the toy.
When the toy or graven image is destroyed the pains or the curse goes.
For this very same reason God told the
Israelites not to take anything from the men of Ai. Achan disobeyed and took a
“…Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a
wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight…” For this Achan and his
family were stoned and burnt with fire afterwards - (Joshua 7:25).
In summing up, we as Christians have to
realize that there are conflicting schools of thought among the secular
psychologists. We see this when we study the works of the early psychologists
who were atheists, agnostics, humanists, evolutionists and occultists. Their
ideologies have tricked right down to this generation of psychologists. The
common rationale among them was that man is essentially material and nothing
more. Unfortunately, their premise was wrong and that is why there were so many
conflicting conclusions among them. If their premise was the correct one, they
should arrive at one single and correct conclusion.
The common failing among them was not to take
into consideration the spiritual component of man and how God factors into the
equation. Man has chosen to ignore God and his absolutes so that he can do
exactly what he wants. He desires to believe that he is a complex animal, and
this is the epitome of self–deception.
If the psychiatric patient experienced
temporary relief because of psychotherapy or even scientific advances in
psychopharmacology, he still encircles the deep abyss of despair, waiting to
fall back in. This is because man was made by God for God. In scientific
studies it was observed that man is neurologically wired to believe in God.
Furthermore, you cannot live a God-transformed life on psychopharmacology
alone.
