Amanda, a 28-year-old Los Angeles resident, prays nightly and believes in Jesus.
She also chants, goes to Kundalini (yoga), meditates with a group and is into crystals. “The energy they hold is this ancient energy,” she said. “It helps your own energy when you work with them; when you’re near them.”
According to a recent Pew Research poll, she’s not alone. Most Americans “mix traditional faith with beliefs in psychics, reincarnation and spiritual energy that they say can be found in physical objects such as mountains, trees and crystals.”
A staggering 41 percent of Americans believe in psychics. A stunning 42 percent believe spiritual energy can be located in physical objects.
I recently did a series on the paranormal. You can get the installments in .pdf or .mp3 format HERE. I could tell it was one of the more eye-opening series I had ever done. Why? Because people genuinely didn’t know the difference between authentic spirituality and the world of the occult.
I started off by mapping the spiritual world, specifically the great spiritual conflict in the heavens and the nature and work of angels and demons.
Then I took the rest of the series to walk through the three marks of the occult.... Read More
On his blog Kevin DeYoung is posting an article series dealing with expressive individualism, which I suspect is an important cultural factor behind the interest of Westerners in the occult in this century. The first two articles are "What Is Expressive Individualism" and "Why Is Expressive Individualism a Challenge for the Church?" Expressive individualism is a strong influence in popular culture in North America, particularly in the United States.
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