The New Age DECEPTION [Viewer Discretion is Advised] –by Diane Wampach Article source: JOY! Magazine I stumbled across the New Age arena some twenty years back, while seeking desperately for meaning to my life. I had lost my marriage and my home and life seemed without meaning. Suffering from depression and anxiety through the shock of this loss, a deep buried childhood pain from the death of my father also surfaced. I was engulfed with the spiritual realm Meditation seemed a blessed tonic for my nerves and I spent hours every evening after work tuning out of my sad life into realms of rainbow coloured hues. Until one night I had a visitation from a being of light, which radiated peace and love to me, filling my body with tingles. I became hooked at this electric charge of energy that lifted my heavy yoke of burden, setting me alight with possibilities. Life didn’t seem so harsh anymore as the nightly visitations increased until I was positively radiant with other worldly ‘communication.’ My third eye was opening and I marvelled at what looked like angelic beings wishing to make contact with me. Clearly they were there to heal me of my emotional pain and brokenness I assumed. Ignoring every warning bell With this ‘exciting’ unseen world opening its secret doors to me, I began to search for further esoteric knowledge and tools. Before too long I was visiting tarot card readers, healing courses, and reading metaphysical material. An insatiable hunger for the occult burst within me. I began to break all the rules I had been taught as a young child at Sunday school and ignored every warning bell that rang. Dabbling in the occult I soon found a mystical healing school to join and learned how to channel spirits as a medium ‘gift’ developed. I was continually seeking ways to transcend my humanness and mundane everyday life, and the spirit world was meeting that need. The ‘voice’ that had warned me began to disappear as the voices of the spiritual world became louder. Pushing guilt aside, I studied the tarot and began to read the cards as my medium ability grew. But the appetite for more thrilling ways to reach the unseen world was still gnawing at me. So I began to visit a sangoma or African traditional doctor for bone throwing sessions. Suddenly ancestral spirits began to call me into their world and before long I was initiated as a thwaza or initiate, dressed in beads and carrying a sacred stick. I now yearned to be a practicing sangoma and planned to quit my well-paid job. But my training faltered and I pulled away from this calling to offer full time tarot readings rather. A ‘curse’ surrounded me For ten years I intuitively read the fortune of those who consulted me and taught new age tools. I believed this was my life purpose and passionately led others to break all spiritual rules as we tailor made our road to the divine. But out of the blue I experienced evil for the first time, with a visitation from a tormenting spirit that would not leave me alone. For five years this spirit plagued me and curses lashed out against me. I had no way to defend myself because I had opened countless doors into the supernatural. I searched the new age arena for a saviour, but none could help me. I knew I was cursed but every occult tool I had learned was powerless against the evil psychic attacks I endured almost daily. Offended by Christians Because I was taught that the new age path was the high road to God, I didn’t consider Christianity an option. Jesus had been portrayed as a gentle Master in the esoteric teachings and Sunday school memories of Him were similar. How could He possibly be my Saviour I thought? Tormented and in a pit of hell, I began to ‘see’ a teacher coming to help me. I searched the new age network for this man but couldn’t find him. I was becoming weak and ill and knew I didn’t have much fight left to survive the spiritual battle I was in. One day a Christian neighbour invited me for coffee and worn down from fighting this fiend, I confided in her. To my horror, she placed her hand on my head and prayed ‘satan loose this woman.’ Jesus reached out to me I was highly offended and stormed out of her house. I was the spiritual teacher and fumed at her nerve, believing satan had nothing to do with my spiritual hiccup on this enlightened path. But home I found myself envying her spiritual authority and fearless prayer. She had not cowered from my oppressor like many others who had abandoned me once facing my enemy. At the end of my strength I decided to give Jesus a chance and asked Him to help me if He was real. Nothing immediately happened so I went off to shower but was blinded by a Light, which brought me instant relief and peace. Jesus had heard my cry and from that moment began to take my hand and deliver me, day by day. I had found my long awaited Teacher.