“When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything.” 

G. K. Chesterton

 

Blame it on my granddaughter.

A few years ago my granddaughter heard that in the dim past (sometime around the Civil War) I had been a magician.  This was true. When I was young I loved magic because I love mystery, wonder, surprise and good stories.  When it’s done well magic combines all of these.  But long ago I had laid magic aside and for over 30 years it had been out of my life.   That changed when Tori asked me to perform a magic show at her birthday party.  How can you turn down your granddaughter? So I pulled out the dusty old trunk and opened a world of memories.  Needless to say I expended a lot of sweat trying to recover lost knowledge and dexterity.  Most of it was gone forever, but I got back enough to do what had to be done.  I performed a little show with colored scarves, coins, ropes and boxes.  Rusty though I was, to my great relief the kids seemed to enjoy it. But something happened that I didn’t expect.

My granddaughter’s friends stayed for a sleepover with her.  The next morning I noticed that some of them were looking at me rather strangely.  I discovered that they had a serious question which they were afraid to ask, so Tori asked it for them.  They wanted to know if I was “really magic.”  I was shocked.  Really magic as in Harry Potter?  At first the question made me feel good.  Obviously, my performance had been impressive.  (Okay, let me have my fantasy.) Of course, I told them that I wasn’t “magic,” that all of it was just a collection of tricks.  But their question bothered me.  And it bothers me still.

Not in all the kid shows that I had done in the 1960’s had such a question ever been asked.  The children of that generation had known that I was just doing tricks.  The challenge was to keep them from figuring out the secrets.  If I didn’t perform well some brat would yell to the whole audience exactly how a trick was done.  Here I was doing the same stuff a few generations later but the gullibility of the children was shocking.  And these were bright fifth graders from a private school.

Welcome to the New Dark Age.

It’s an age that claims to be sophisticated and rational.  In reality it’s an age of stunning credulousness where people believe anything that appears on a screen.  As in a previous Dark Age a Church is in control. But this time it’s the Western Church of Religious Irreligion.  Its priests are the sleek and successful agno-atheists of pop culture who instruct the gullible through slick productions and puerile mockery. Their philosophy of inclusiveness allows for any belief other than in the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ.  With consummate skill they weave the stories that define our culture. I have known many of these people. They are masters at telling lies and the most vulnerable among us become their victims.  Little wonder that our children and grandchildren are screwed-up messes who think they’re living in a Harry Potter world.

Believe enough lies and your life will be controlled by fear.

All sorts of fear. 

And for many that includes supernatural terror. 

Back in 1992 the Roper Group took a poll to determine how many people in the United States might be having what they believed to be frightening supernatural experiences.  Among a series of questions the respondents were asked if they had ever awakened from sleep paralyzed unable to move or speak with the sense of a Malevolent Presence in the room.  Fully eighteen percent replied, “Yes.”  Based on their randomly selected sample of 5,947 respondents and with a margin of error of + or – 1.4% it is projected that at that time over 33,000,000 people in our country were having such experiences.  Do you think the numbers have diminished since then?

Millions live with “The Terror That Comes In The Night.”

Sociologist David J. Hufford has documented this horrible phenomenon in his book, The Terror that Comes in the Night: An Experience Centered Study of Supernatural Assault Traditions.  Beginning while he was a professor in Nova Scotia and continuing when he became a professor in Arizona, Hufford discovered that on a regular basis a significant percentage of his students were experiencing supernatural “assaults.”  These terrifying manifestations came during the night.  The victim would awaken to an Evil Presence that would physically descend upon them crushing down so hard that they were unable to breathe.  The experiences were viewed as absolutely real by those who described them.  Some became so fearful that they didn’t want to fall asleep.  Why hadn’t they told anyone?  They were afraid their friends and family would think they were crazy.  Based on his research Hufford projected that as much as one sixth of the population may be experiencing such horrifying events.  From other research it’s clear that these hideous experiences can begin in early childhood.

Now this is a spiritual crisis.  It does no good to complain about how such evil has swept over our culture.  We need to do something about it.  It’s time for the Church to take the battle to the Enemy instead of constantly letting him bring the battle to us. It’s not enough for a church to be a worship club.  We need strategies and tactics that will take us out into enemy territory.

Beyond Reality.

I discovered magic in early high school and it became an obsession that continued into college. Then in 1966 I went into the army and got married.  When I returned from Vietnam the world had changed.  My diseased generation was wallowing in narcissism, drugs and the occult.   Wanting to do our small part in countering this pot-headed incantational narrative (this was long before I started writing) my wife Carel and I created a live show called Beyond Reality.

During my teen years I had known about a branch of magic called “Mentalism.” I had seen one of the greatest mentalists of the century, Dunninger, perform his miracles on TV.  While Mentalism shares many of the principles and secrets of traditional magic it has a far greater impact because mentalists purport to read minds, predict the future and accomplish all sorts of other supernatural feats.  No scarves and ropes and rabbits here.  Whereas a traditional magician can’t hide the fact that he is doing tricks, most mentalists are very vague about where their “powers” come from.   It’s a dangerous form of magic that can mess with your mind because it’s just so much fun to be considered a miracle worker. 

In 1970 I stopped doing magic and became a mentalist. 

Our show Beyond Reality was performed for many groups all over the Midwest.  But our show was different from others.   For thirty minutes we would demonstrate what appeared to be telepathy, prophecy, telekinesis and more.  At the halfway point we would stop and tell the truth.  What we had done was based on the simplest trickery.  Mind you we never revealed how each effect was accomplished.  We weren’t in the business of training psychics.   For the last half of the program we would talk about the real Powers of Darkness and why humans are so easily fooled and enslaved by them.  We would tell people how Jesus Christ can heal spiritual blindness and set them free through the Power of His shed blood. 

Beyond Reality came to an end when we moved to California. There just wasn’t time to pursue a career in Hollywood and maintain professional level performing skills.  But that little magic show for my granddaughter opened my eyes to the needs of a new generation.  In response to those needs Carel and I want to do our small part so we have created a new live program called Illusions of Power.

What if a person could…

Predict the future?

Mysteriously control the actions and choices of total strangers?

Read thoughts before they were spoken?

Act as a human lie detector?

See without the use of the eyes?

Reveal dreams and nightmares?

Bend metal with the mind?

Answer hidden questions?

Cause impossible ghostly touches and other supernatural manifestations?

Safely perform dangerous “psychic” tests with broken glass, steel traps, and fire?

Where would you say those “powers” came from?

Apparent miracles such as these are being used every day by professional “psychics” and “spiritual” swindlers to fool millions.  All are tricks based on subtle manipulation and lies.  But here is a startling fact.  In this new Dark Age of Sophisticated Irrationality researchers have discovered that even after being told the truth many people refuse to believe it insisting that what they saw was real. 

Psychologists at California State University/Long Beach conducted a study of students who believe in supernatural phenomena.  A magician performed some of the demonstrations listed above.  Afterward 75 percent of the participants believed that what they had experienced was true miraculous power.  Even after being told that they were tricks fully half continued to insist that they were real.

Sadly, the same spirit of superstition and ignorance is alive in American churches.

Many examples could be cited but one stands out.  Over the past 20 years a particular TV “evangelist” has been caught in the most flagrant trickery.  Claiming to have “Spiritual Knowledge” he has been exposed on national television using secrets of the mentalist to make people in his audiences believe that he knows things about them that no one could know without Power from Heaven.  Though he has been shamefully debunked and ridiculed in the secular media his “ministry” continues and Christians flock to his spiritual circus shows.   

Revealing lies isn’t enough.

In this New Dark Age the level of spiritual ignorance is appalling.  Most people under 40 know far more about Harry Potter than they do about Jesus Christ.  Is it any wonder that these new generations are living in bondage?  Simply telling them the truth isn’t adequate.  They have to be guided into experiencing the Truth of Jesus in all of its power.

Illusions of Power is dedicated to setting spiritual prisoners free.

In it we perform what appear to be strange and powerful “psychic phenomena.”  Then we stop and confront crisis questions such as:  What are the spiritual and psychological secrets that make humans prone to believing lies?  Why do we see what we want to see rather than what is real? And what is “real” anyway? Why does the “scientific method” not protect us? How can we keep from falling under the control of powerful delusions?  Why did Jesus Christ call people sheep and why did He call Himself the Good Shepherd?  How can we stop attacks of Supernatural Evil, the Terror that comes in the night?

Illusions of Power is geared toward diverse audiences from thirteen through adult.

If you would like to schedule Illusions of Power for your group call 818-773-1924 or to email us click here

 

Confronting Illusions of the Mind and Spirit.

Exposing the deeds of darkness.  

Ephesians 5:11