THE ROAD TO THE OCCULT

What You Read, Watch, or Listen to - Really Matters

 DATE OF PUBLICATION: SEPTEMBER 2002  

There are five levels of reading. Remain on the highest levels. The lower ones can destroy you.

THE HIGHEST LEVEL

The highest level is the Gods Inspired Writings. The Holy Bible can prepare you for heaven. Only God's Holy Word can lead you on the path to heaven.

Next to that are stories of great Christians and missionaries, along with stories of Christians who have been faithful in earlier centuries. These are always helpful. Reading them encourages you to want to live like them, true to God to the end.

THE REAL WORLD

The next level down is current events. Here we have the news of the day, some of which is worth learning about. Also included here is history, technology, and scientific facts. (Not included here is evolutionary theory, which is a form of fantasy, a far lower level.)

THE FICTITIOUS WORLD

The next level down is fiction. The best type consists of books and articles which try to warn of spiritual dangers and encourage you to live a better Christian life. But this is not the best level of reading. Gods Word is.

Below this comes a variety of fiction which is very bad for you. There are millions of books which belong here. Although the stories are generally set in the real world, they encourage you to like vicious, licentious, and all kinds of evil things.

People who read fiction find it harder to handle the duties and problems of everyday life with Christian patience and trust in God.

THE FANTASY WORLD

Now we drop still lower to the world of fantasy. These are stories about impossible things in make-believe worlds, inhabited by giants and gremlins, talking animals and strange creatures. This is an unreal world, and learning to like it is not good. The reading of fairy tales prepares you for the next level down, which is witchcraft.

In this category, we find Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland, J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and C. S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia.

Both in this category and the next, we find many of the Andersons and Grimes fairy tales, also  the Oz stories by Frank Baum--which are about actual witchcraft.

THE SPIRIT WORLD

Now you enter the world of horrors. By the time a person reaches this level, he has learned to enjoy the things of witchcraft.

Here we find stories about witches, vampires, and other horrible creatures which, although imaginary, are actually the things used by spiritualists to frighten and catch you.

Anton Lavey's Satanic Bible would fall into this category.

THE OCCULT WORLD

Next we come to books which actually instruct the reader in the details of witchcraft. These books do more than merely talk about witches, they explain in detail their training program and how they carry on their magic.

Here we find the actual instructional books for witches in training. Included here are J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. They provide entry-level instruction.

The Ordo Anno Mundi (OAM) Series are books for professional witches. They contain instruction only somewhat in advance of the Rowling books. They have complete witchcraft instructions yet are little different than the Potter books!

Here is a comparison between the professional witchcraft training series and the Harry Potter books:

OAM has seven degrees of Magical Training, and includes classes strikingly similar to those offered at Hogwarts, Harry Potters school.

OAM General Education primer: Ancient Runes. / Here is an example from the Harry Potter books: Those are my books for . . Divination, the Study of Ancient Runes (Prisoner of Azkaban, p. 57, original edition).

OAM First Degree: Divination. An example in Harry Potter: We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year (Prisoner of Azkaban, p. 103).

OAM First Degree: Spell casting. An example in Potter: All students should have a copy of each of the following: The standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) (Sorcerers Stone, p. 66).

OAM Fourth Degree: Animal Transformation (witches also call it transfiguration). An example from the Potter books: Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts (Sorcerers Stone, p. 134). My transformations in those days were terrible. It is very painful to turn into a werewolf . . [My friends] could each turn into a different animal (Prisoner of Azkaban, pp. 353-354).

OAM Fifth Degree: Magical Lore  An example from Potter: Their very last exam was History of Magic (Sorcerers Stone, p. 263).

In addition to incantations, the Harry Potter books contain the most horrible stories about people being killed by Hogwarts students, who laugh about it then and afterward.

There is also profanity in the books. For example, in Book 4, you will find it on pp. 43, 62, 127, 232, 344, 470, 561, and 626.

Such books should be read neither by children nor by adults. They are evil and a menace to the eternal welfare of the soul.  

God has expressly forbidden all pretended communication with departed spirits. In the days of the Hebrews there was a class of people who claimed, as do the spiritualists of today, to hold communication with the dead. But the familiar spirits, as these visitants from other worlds were called, are declared by the Bible to be the spirits of devils. (Compare Numbers 25:1-3; Psalm 106:28; 1 Corinthians 10:20; Revelation 16:14.) The work of dealing with familiar spirits was pronounced an abomination to the Lord, and was solemnly forbidden under penalty of death. Leviticus 19:31; 20:27. Great Controversy, 556.

There are few who have any just conception of the deceptive power of spiritualism and the danger of coming under its influence. Many tamper with it merely to gratify their curiosity. They have no real faith in it and would be filled with horror at the thought of yielding themselves to the spirits control. But they venture upon the forbidden ground, and the mighty destroyer exercises his power upon them against their will. Let them once be induced to submit their minds to his direction, and he holds them captive. It is impossible, in their own strength, to break away from the bewitching, alluring spell. Nothing but the power of God, granted in answer to the earnest prayer of faith, can deliver these ensnared souls. Great Controversy, 558.

Many will be confronted by the spirits of devils personating beloved relatives or friends and declaring the most dangerous heresies. These visitants will appeal to our tenderest sympathies and will work miracles to sustain their pretensions. We must be prepared to withstand them with the Bible truth that the dead know not anything and that they who thus appear are the spirits of devils. Great Controversy, 560.

Spiritualism, which numbers its converts by hundreds of thousands, yea, by millions, which has made its way into scientific circles, which has invaded churches, and has found favor in legislative bodies, and even in the courts of kings, this mammoth deception is but a revival, in a new disguise, of the witchcraft condemned and prohibited of old. Great Controversy, 556.