"Occult practices can cause dissociation... splitting of consciousness,... apoplexy,... psychological disturbances,... development of psychic ability,... seeing ghostly spirits,... warping and distortion of character,... extreme passion,... emotional disturbance,... possession,... mental illness,... bigoted attitude against Christ and God etc."

Many today are coming under the influence of occult and new age practices. These all involve altered states of consciousness which are forbidden by the holy Bible.

1. hypnosis-occult practice used for thousands of years by shamans and spiritist medicine men to accomplish healing and magic arts. Made popular in modern times by astrologer MD Anton Mesmer. Mesmer called his seances animal magnetism. Benjamin Franklin et al debunked his claims to healing as a gigantic lie, likely to have a detrimental effect upon the faith of Christians.

2. street drugs-LSD and Angeldust{pcp} are well known to produce breaks with reality and flashbacks of questionable validity-many other illegal drugs do the same including: Mescaline, Peyote, Cocaine, heroin, speed, Ritalin, Psychedelic mushrooms, and marijuana.

3. prescription drugs and alcohol-any psychotropic drug causes an altered state of consciousness and alters normal brain chemistry--effects of long term use of most such drugs on the market today are largely unknown-there have been many reports concerning alleged negative side effects for drugs such as prozac, including suicide and homicide and loss of sanity. The long term effects of alcohol are well known and very destructive.

4. new age practices involve a type of hypnosis and relaxation leading to altered states of consciousness--these include meditation, reflexology, biofeedback, body massage, crystal healing, rolfing, enema therapy, yoga, numerology, astrology, horoscopes, fortune telling, i ching, chanting, psychic phenomena, divination, out-of-body experiences and similar practices.

5. new age churches and cults including: Unity school of so-called christianity, Unitarian-Universalist, Christian Science, Scientology, Moon cult, and many others.

6. eastern religions

7. satan worship and witchcraft and other pagan practices

8. psychotherapy which seeks to relax the patient while suggesting symptoms and scenarios which are "repressed" and not conscious in the mind of the patient. Such practices are a type of hypnosis and have been seen to confuse reality with imagination the same as does formal hypnosis while increasing the degree of belief by the patient in their imagined fantasies. Some psychotherapy involves drugs such as sodium amytal, inner-child work, trance writing, journaling, guided imagery, visualization, dream interpretation, etc.

Resulting conditions may be misdiagnosed MPD, victims of childhood abuse, satanic ritual abuse victims, victims of alien abductions, etc. There are many mythical mental illnesses assigned to many who are simply exhibiting the effects of occult contact and other symptoms of sin and guilt.