Unholy spirits : occultism and new age humanism

516 Pages·1986·3.21 MB·English

by  North

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).