unholy spirits occultism and new age humanism

UNHOLY SPIRITS Other books by Gary North Marx% Religion of Revolution, 1968 An Introduction to Christian Economics, 1973 Unconditional Surrendq 1981 Successful Investing in an Age of Eru.y, 1981 The Dominion Covenant: Genesis, 1982 Government by Enwrgeruy, 1983 The Last Train Out, 1983 Backward, Christian Soldiers?, 1984 75 Bible Questions 16ur Instrudors Pray lbu Won’t Ask, 1984 “ Coined Freedom: Gold in the Age of the Bureaucrats, 1984 Moses and Pharaoh: Dominion Relip”on V2rsus Power Religion, 1985 Negatrends, 1985 The Sinai Strategy: Economics and the Tm Commandments, 1986 Conspiracy: A Biblical View, 1986 Inherit the Earth, 1986 Honest Mong, 1986 Dominion and Common Grace, 1986 Fighting Chance, 1986 [with Arthur Robinson] Resurrection vs. Entropy, 1987 The Pirate Economy, 1987 Liberating Planet Earth, 1987 (Spanish) 12010g’a de Liberacibn, 1986 Books edited by Gary North Foundations of Christian Scholarsh$, 1976 Tactics of Christian Resistance, 1983 The Theology of Christian Resistance, 1983 Editor, Journal of Christiun Reconstruction (1974-1981) UNHOLY SPIRITS Occultism and New Age Humanism Gary North Dominion Press Ft. Worth, Texas Copyright ‘1986 by Gary North All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles. Published by Dominion Press 7112 Burns Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76118 Printed in the United States of America ISBN 0-930462-02-5 This book is dedicated to Bob Mumford TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. The Crisis of Western Rationalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 2. The Biblical Framework of Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 3. Paranormal Science Since 1960 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 4. The World of a Sorcerer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125 5. Psychics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 6. Edgar Cayce: From Diagnosis to Gnosis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 7. Demonic Healing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226 8. Magic, Envy, and Foreign Aid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 9. Invaders From ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 10. Escape from Creaturehood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 11. Is This the End of the World?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .396 SCRIPTURE INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403 GENERAL INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407 vii INTRODUCTION I hate to revise my books. The older the book is, the more I hate to revise it. I always feel compelled to read lots of books and articles that have been published in the interim that deal with the topic of the book in question. The longer the book has been out of print, the stronger my compulsion to read and revise extensively. So I tend not to re-release my older books. Marx’s Religion of Revolution (1968) has been out of print for over a decade; An Introduction to Christian Eco- nomics (1973, with revisions through 1979) has been out of print for five years. The original version of this book was written in 1974. It was pub- lished in early 1976 under the title None Dare Call It Witchcraft. It has been out of print since about 1979. It went through three printings, but then the original publisher, Arlington House, went bankrupt. While there has been a continuing trickle of inquiries about where to buy the book, I just did not have time to revise it. I have written and published about eight books since 1979, plus I completely reworked a ninth book into a new format, plus I have had to build up my news- letter business and the Institute for Christian Economics by launch- ing about ten newsletters (and killing several as bad decisions). I have just not had the time to revise it thoroughly. I have decided to compromise. I have made a few revisions in this book, but the text is very close to the original. I have added some chapters but have removed the original appendices by Rushdoony, Molnar, and Ketchen. These essays are still in print in TheJournal of Chrdian Reconstruction, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Winter, 1974): “Symposium on Satanism: which I edited. This journal is published by the Chalce- don Foundation, P. O. Box 158, Vallecito, California 95251. Writing this Book The original version had an odd history. In the summer of 1972, I was lecturing to a group of students at a conference sponsored by the Midwest office of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (I. S. I.). I 1 2 UNHOLY SPIRITS discussed aspects of the relationship between religion and econom- ics. I referred briefly to certain characteristics of the occult, and one student asked me if I planned to write a book on the topic. I replied, “Yes; I’ll call it None Dare Call It Witchcraft.” Gary Allen and Larry Abraham had just released their None Dare Call It Con@iracy, a title mimicking John Stormer’s best-selling paperback, None Dare Call It Treason (1964). None Dare was a catchy title in those days. Months later, I received a note from the student. “Have you writ- ten None Dare Call It Witch.crajl yet ?“ Naturally, I hadn’t. I hadn’t even thought about the project. It was only a title invented on the spur of the moment. Besides, I was working for Leonard Read’s Foundation for Economi; Education (FEE), and Leonard, who was a dedicated free enterprise publicly, was a dedicated socialist organizationally. When he hired me, he informed me (after I had arrived at FEE’s headquarters in Irvington, New York) that I would have to turn over to FEE 100% of any money I earned “on the outside .“ There was not much incentive to produce. (Even the check I received for those 1.S.1. lectures had to go to FEE, even though I gave them during my vacation. It has never ceased to astound me that Read could not un- derstand that his socialist policy at FEE would depress staff output just as surely as socialism in the Kremlin does. ) Nevertheless, I de- cided that since I had the title, maybe I should write the book. By that time, I knew I wouldn’t be working for FEE forever, and the royalties (if any) would be handy when I left. I inquired with Arlington House’s Mitch Wright, a former sem- inary classmate (Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia), if he thought Arlington House would be interested. He said yes. So I signed a contract. (It was at that same meeting that I suggested that they publish the manuscript by Rushdoony that later became The Politics of Pornography and the history of the National Council of Churches by Gregg Singer that became The Unho@ Alliance. It was a fruitful meeting.) I did not really begin to write the book for another year, after I had left FEE. I wrote the bulk of it in 1974 and early 1975. In retro- spect, I would not recommend that other people follow my lead without a special calling from God. Burying oneself in the literature of the occult may initially seem exhilarating, but eventually it be- comes depressing. Only to the extent that an investigator is search- ing for connections between occult philosophy and occult practices, and in turn between occult philosophy and humanist philosophy, Introduction 3 should the project even be considered. The goal should be to find contrasts, culturally and philosophically, between Christianity and occultism, and then to emphasize the positive ethical, intellectual, and cultural aspects of Christianity that necessarily reduce the influ- ence of occultism when Christianity is put into widespread practice. A study of occult practices as such is a negative endeavor that can- not, in and of itself, do anything to reverse the drift into occultism. Such an investigation necessarily pushes the student too close to the borders of evil. Few people are ready for such an encounter. I have seen serious investigators turn into quasi-occultists them- selves. They began to believe what the occultists claimed for them- selves and their religion just because the investigators saw that the occultists could, in fact, display supernatural powers in certain in- stances. The manifestations of occult power (which are all too real) blinded the investigators to the misrepresentations of the nature and source of such power. They became hypnotized by Satan’s power re- ligion because they were not grounded in God’s ethics religion. The book was published in early 1976. From start to finish, 1972-76, I went through three editors at Arlington House. The book sold moderately well, but set no records. It went through three print- ings. I have retitled it Unholy S’irt”ts: Occultism and New Age Humanism. I had not used the term “New Age” in the original book, though I was familiar with the term. It has long been a common phrase in oc- cult circles. The term is now well known in Christian circles, 1 so I have adopted it in this version. The basic theme of the book is simple enough, and has not changed since I wrote it: the rise of occultism as a cultural force in the United States began around 1965, and paralleled the rise of the counter-culture and the breakdown of the older Establishment hu- manism, the “can-do” pragmatism which was apotheosized post- humously as Kennedy’s “Camelot .“ Kennedy’s death on November 22, 1963 was in fact the death rattle of the older rationalism. (In- terestingly, the man who in our day best understood the devil and his kingdom, C. S. Lewis, also died that day, as did Aldous Huxley, grandson of Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s first great promoter. Aldous 1. Constance Cumbey, The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow: The New Age Movement and Our Coming Age of Barbarism (Shreveport, Louisiana: Huntington House, 1983); Dave Hunt, Pecue Pros@i~ and the Coming Holocaust: The New Age Movmrent in Propheq (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House, 1983). Dave Hunt apparently hates commas almost as much as he hates New Age philosophy. 4 UNHOLY SPIRITS was a proponent of mysticism and drugs in the name of opening “the doors of perception.”) As I say in chapter nine, which deals with “flying saucers,” it is my thesis that personal occult creatures whose goal is to confuse men, delude men, and keep them in a form of bondage, can do so by manifesting themselves in a form which is acceptable to men. When men are willing to believe in supernatural forces but not in God, then mankind is very close to the end – either the final battle, or at the very least, the end of the anti-Christian world of humanism. I think we face the latter. 2 A Revival of Ancient Paganism C. S. Lewis makes the observation in The Abolition of Man (1947) that occultism and humanism appeared in Western history at about the same time, during the Renaissance. Humanist philosophy and occultism were two sides of the same revival of paganism. Thus, he argued, occultism and humanistic rationalism are not enemies in principle but rather cooperating philosophies that are united against Christianity and Christian civilization. This is the theme of his great masterpiece, the novel That Hideous Strength. I read this book in the spring of 1964 as a class assignment at seminary, and it was by far the most important book anyone ever assigned me in any class I ever . took. I also met David Ketchen at seminary, who had himself been involved in table-raising as a youth, and he introduced me to the writings of Kurt Koch, a European exorcist. This two-fold background, both philosophical and practical, alerted me to the significance of occultism and its links with revolu- tionist, mysticism, and the quest for power. This understanding made it far easier for me to interpret the years of the counter-culture (1964-70), which began the following semester, when the student revolution broke out in the United States at the University of Cali- fornia at Berkeley. (I was enrolled at UCLA that semester, and transferred to UC Riverside in the spring of 1965. ) That revolution shook the foundations of the older liberalism. It launched a series of “scientific revolutions” or “paradigm shifts” in every social science. s 2. David Chilton, Paradtie Restored: A Biblical Theology of Dominion (Tyler, Texas: Reconstruction Press, 1985). 3. Gary North, “The Epistemological Crisis of American Universities: in North (cd.), Founddiom oj Christian Scholarship: Essays in the Km Til Perspective (Vallecito, California: Ross House, 1976). [...]... Communism, which is the power religion of our era, and which is utterly bureaucratic, parasitic, and destructive, or New Age humanism, the major escapist religion, which is compromised by occultism and the theology of occultism Neither can lead to a new civilization The new occultism is not at odds with the new humanism It is only partially at odds with the older humanism This is why the transition came overnight,...Introduction 5 Simultaneously, the appearance of occultism pointed to a revival of the same old Renaissance alliance The new humanism and the new occultism of the late 1960’s produced a new world view, which has in recent years begun to be identified as the New Age movement or New Age humanism Such phenomena as “holistic healing,” Eastern mysticism, “higher consciousness,”... (New York: Scribners, 1971) 14 UNHOLY SPIRITS estantism, but the occultism of the Enlightenment went underground into the various secret societies and revolutionary groups that simmered throughout the nineteenth century 14 Only since 1965 have we seen the revival of visible occultism This revival of occultism marks the end of an older rationalist civilization and points to the establishment of a new. .. understand them from the beginning, the book will make a lot more sense to you as you read Let me offer several of these themes (You may detect others as you read it.) 1 The rise of occultism takes place at the end of civilizations, 1 From ghoulies and ghosties and Iong-leggety beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us! 15 16 UNHOLY SPIRITS and temporary outbreaks of occultism. .. section of this book The reason why serious readers need to understand this section is because of 16 Immanuel Kant, Critique oj Pure Remon, trans Norman Kemp Smith (New York: St Martin’s, [1929] 1965), section B xxxiv, pp 31-32 26 UNHOLY SPIRITS the overall thesis of this book: that the rise of New Age humanism and the revival of occultism since 1965 really does constitute a break with over three... partyings of Miss Tate and her late associates A week after the murders, the famous “Woodstock” rock festival in upstate New York marked the high water mark of the counter- 8 UNHOLY SPIRITS culture It was peace and love everywhere, and drugs and fornication: “Woodstock Nation,” Mr Yippie himself, Abbie Hoffman, later dubbed it – Abbie, of Chicago Seven fame, of Steal This Book fame, and much later, of... have begun to drift into occult practices They call themselves New Age humanists 5 Christianity, not atheism, was the original philosophy which created Western science and technology Thus, as the West has become increasingly atheistic and Darwinian, it has become vulnerable to anti-rational social philosophies and practices 6 As New Age humanism becomes more widely believed, especially in tax-supported... after 1970 a new series of weird phenomena appeared: pseudo-Eastern mystics, outright occultism and witchcraft, and the Jesus (Freaks) People There was also a revival of fraternities and sororities, which had fallen on hard times, 1965-70 There was a shift from hard drugs to marijuana and cheap wine, and an almost total internalization of concern — personal salvation, grade point average, professional... University Press, 1970) 6 For a popular introduction, see Philip Ziegler, The Black Death (New York: John Day, 1969) 22 UNHOLY SPIRITS ror and pessimism to Europe, which was reflected in European art 7 It was a century of enormous social change and confusion 8 Occultism and magic escalated during the Renaissance (1400-1600), and it was the intellectual leadership that dabbled in it 9 Western civilization from... created 7 J Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Aga (New York: Anchor, [1924] n.d.), chaps 1, 2 8 Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (New York: Knopf, 1978) 9 Frances Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (New York: Vintage, [1964] 1969) 10 F R H Du Boulay, An Age of Ambition: English Soci&y in the Late Middle Ages (New York: Viking, 1970) 11 On the pessimism of Freud’s . records. It went through three print- ings. I have retitled it Unholy S’irt”ts: Occultism and New Age Humanism. I had not used the term New Age in the original book, though I was familiar with the. of our era, and which is utterly bureaucratic, parasitic, and destructive, or New Age humanism, the major escapist religion, which is compromised by occultism and the theology of occultism. Neither. Rainbow: The New Age Movement and Our Coming Age of Barbarism (Shreveport, Louisiana: Huntington House, 1983); Dave Hunt, Pecue Pros@i~ and the Coming Holocaust: The New Age Movmrent