Month: March 2024

What is meant by the spirit of manifestation? In the ministry of deliverance, we speak of a spirit manifesting. By this we mean the demon expresses itself through the mind and body of the host in some recognizable way. It could be a look, a thought in the mind, spoken words, or some musculoskeletal expression. We describe this as the evil spirit “manifesting.” What then is the spirit of manifestation?

 The short definition is that a spirit of Manifestation claims to give the host the power to manifest some existential reality. It could be money, romance, power, or healing some sickness. Anything the person wants. Of course, the one manifesting, usually an individual enamored with New Age beliefs, doesn’t think the power to create a reality is evil or demonic. To them it is a visible form of wishful thinking. But embracing the idea of creating reality through the power of the mind opens the door to demons. One of those demons could be what I call the spirit of Manifestation—a demon I’ve dealt with!

In recent decades this idea of manifesting reality by the power of the mind has taken many forms. One variation is Norman Vincent Peale’s “power of positive thinking.” Another would be the writings of Napoleon Hill about how to “think and grow rich.” I don’t have time to analyze both thinkers, and I admit that much of what they said has some value. Not so with Rhonda Byrne who penned the “bible” of the manifestation movement entitled “The Secret.” Her 2006 self-help book, made popular by television personality Oprah, was based on pseudoscience. She claimed that by thoughts alone anyone can influence the objective circumstances of life.

Byrne had borrowed her ideas from the teachings of Wallace Wattle who wrote “The Science of Getting Rich” in 1910. Wallace was an advocate of metaphysical spiritualism at the turn of the 20^th century and was part of the occult New Thought movement. He had followed the thinking of the German philosopher Hegel who was trained in Seminary but eventually became a harsh critic of Christianity and a student of hermetic occultism. Another leader of the creative thought movement was Helena Blavatsky, a Russian spiritualist who helped to start the Theosophical Society. She got her ideas by adopting Hindu and Buddhist concepts. In Tibet she learned to spiritually communicate with the so-called Ascended Masters of Higher Consciousness.

All these advocates of manifesting the power of the mind taught what has become known as “creative visualization.” All one must do is form a mental picture of what one wants, and unseen energies will work to make it happen. This concept makes no room for biblical prayer to a sovereign god. As 1 Peter 4:11 says, “That in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever.” Manifesting reality is self-indulgent, magical thinking in which everyone becomes his own god with superstitious silliness. Worse yet, it opens one’s soul to possession by the demon of Manifestation. This demon then attempts to invent what appears to be created realities in keeping with the selfish motives of the creative visualizer. The spirit of Manifestation is a demon of mind control that surreptitiously tries to weave its thoughts with those of the host. If you’ve tried to create mental realities or studied “The Secret” then you may have this demon, and you certainly need an exorcism sooner rather than later.

The following is taken from Dr. Bob Larson’s QUICK GUIDE TO CULTS, the section on Buddhism. The entire teaching is available exclusively on our streaming platform XDUNAMIS. What follows is a portion of the teaching on how to get free from Buddhism.

With more than 500 million adherents, Buddhism is the world’s fourth largest religion (behind Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism). Its numbers in North America are estimated to be 30 million, and that doesn’t include “cultural” Buddhists who don’t formally identify but who practice the meditation techniques of Buddhism. The traditional Asian image of Buddhist monks with saffron robes and carrying begging bowls may be foreign to the Western mind. But the concept of joining a cosmic flow to abolish the ego goes down well in an age that has turned inward. While many Christians have focused on the dangers of witchcraft and Satanism, Buddhism had steadily gained far more adherents with its deception of offering inner peace through the negation of one’s ego. Those who look to the East for spiritual answers often find Christianity’s promise of heaven less attractive than Buddhism’s mystical, impenetrable “truths.” To many spiritual seekers, problem solving by constructive action appears less desirable than the subjective quest for nirvana.

Ironically, Tibetan Buddhism, one of the most complex forms of Buddhism has become increasingly popular in the West, thanks to the influence of one man: the Dalai Lama. After the Pope, he is the best-known and most widely recognized religious figure on the planet. He has become the de facto leader of mystical spiritual seekers.

But the faith he represents is an ancient and esoteric brand of Buddhism. Padina Sambhava, a famed pagan exorcist, introduced Buddhism to Tibet in A.D. 747. His reputation so impressed the king that the entire land soon was following his blend of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs mingled with spells and secretive tantric ceremonies. Devotees preceded acts of sexual union with the ritualistic consumption of wine, meat, fish, and parched grains. They instituted a priesthood of lamas (superior ones) and designed prayer wheels with inscribed litanies. Mantras and mandalas (mystic diagrams) were also adopted. Tibetan Buddhist mantras were believed to possess a sound able to induce transcendent experiences. The same with the popular New Age so-called Tibetan “singing bowls.”

Mandalas, circular, geometrically designed cosmograms of the universe, were also used as an aid in worship. They are now common interior design items in the West, along with the ubiquitous Buddha heads or seated Buddha statues that adorn many upper scaled homes. The center of the mandala was thought to be a focal point of the universe. Adherents of Tibetan Buddhism were taught that merely glimpsing a mandala could start them on the road to nirvana.

Tibetan Buddhists also developed the legend of Shambhala, an imaginary kingdom of enlightened citizens, the Asian version of the fabled Atlantis. This central Asian civilization was said to be the spiritual inspiration of the entire world. Their “warriors” were believed to be people of compassion and awareness who still serve as models of Tibetan Buddhist aspirations.

Zen is the Buddhist variant best known for paradoxes and imponderables such as, “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Most people would easily recognize this riddle without knowing either its purpose or source. This conundrum, and seventeen hundred others like it, is known as a koan, a paradoxical question concerning imponderable thoughts. The perplexity posed by the koan is designed to lead the mind toward intuitive truth. In the world of Zen, logic and reason are taboo. As one Zen practitioner put it, “Be nothing, think nothing.” Zen may be defined as concentration with an empty mind.

While the precepts of Buddhism may not be based on specific theological doctrines, the inherent Buddhist worldview that results from such non-Christian meditation causes the meditator to see himself as an integrated part of the whole. Buddhism presupposes that only one essence exists and that we are all somehow part of this one essence (monism). This teaching is contrary to the Christian assertion that the God, the Eternal One, created the world and man out of nothing. Thus, no part of this material existence is part of God. There is an eternal distinction between the Creator and the created.

The inherent contradictory nature of the anecdotal koan in Buddhism conditions the devotee to reject reason and logic and instead rely on mystical experience to test truth. Buddhism is an egocentric search for subjective authority while inherently denying any objective authority for morality.

Since Zen has no God, the priests have no role of intercession for sin. There is no speculation on the nature of creation or the future of an afterlife since everything considered important is embodied in the experience of the moment. Meditation is the quintessential essence of Buddhism, liberating the meditator from all life’s miseries. Christians may see this process as a false perception of spiritual insight.

Those who have embraced the practices and beliefs of Buddhism, and what is popularly known as “mindful meditation,” have given themselves over to a diabolical belief system that is filled with openings for demonic forces. As an exorcist, I have discovered that some of the most powerful and most difficult demons to dislodge are those found in the many variants of Buddhism. Its meditative processes invite strong evil spirits of mind control to enter, and these demons take time and persistence to dislodge.

For the individual leaving Buddhism and seeking a personal relationship with Christ these ten steps are necessary:

1. Renounce Buddhism in general and any particular variant, such as Zen.
2. Break soul-tie connections with Buddha, an historical figure and also the name of the demon behind this system.
3. Renounce soul-ties with all Buddhist spiritual mentors, including instructors in what is known as dharma, the teaching and false eternal cosmic “truths” of Buddhism.
4. Renounce the variant of Buddhism you aligned with, Zen, Zazen, Mindful Meditation, Theravada, Mahayana, or the currently popular Pure Land Buddhism.
5. Discard all Buddhist texts, books, or paraphernalia, such as mandalas, singing bowls, bells etc.
6. Stop all focused breath meditation. Ask the Holy Spirit to remove all koans from your mind.
7. Renounce empathic meditation, taking unto yourself the pain and suffering of others. Christ alone is the one to whom we hand our pain. Claim the promise of Matthew 11:28 that Christ is the one who gives us rest.
8. Renounce every effort to connect with past lives.
9. Renounce any so-called “deity meditation,” a fast-track way (especially in Tibetan Buddhism meditation schools) to obtain compassion by invoking what the Bible calls demons.
10. Renounce Samsara, the false Buddhist definition of attachment to pleasures of the world, and instead focus on 1 John 2:15, “Love not the things which are in the world.” Samsara is a diabolical substitute for the true Christian ethic of abstaining from the pursuit of ungodly indulgences.

Do these ten things and you will be on your way to freedom from Buddhism.

Is it possible for a non-Christin to be delivered from demons? It’s a common question I get. The answer is, YES. Having said that, I’ve got a lot of explaining to do. My answer raises other questions.

• Have I ever cast demons out of a non-Christian? YES.
• Is it necessary for a demonized person to have faith in Christ to be freed from demons? NO.

Having jarred your thinking, I’ll further explore this question. But before I delve into this deeper, let me add some qualifiers.

1. I would only cast demons out of a non-Christian if they are moving toward Christian faith and an exorcism could push them to the point of salvation.
2. I have commanded demons to leave a non-Christian on extremely rare occasions.
3. Exorcising a non-Christian is an aberration not a regularity.

Consider the account of Paul and Silas in Acts chapter 16. A woman possessed with a spirit of divination followed Paul for “many days.” There is indication that Paul prayed with this woman to become a Christian. She undoubtedly heard the gospel, but the Bible doesn’t specifically say that she converted. According to verse 18 the woman’s deliverance came when Paul’s patience ran out and he was, in biblical language, “greatly annoyed.” After that exorcism in Philippi, Paul and Silas were beaten by the magistrates of the city and jailed. You may make all kinds of suppositions about this biblical account, but nowhere does it declare the woman said a sinner’s prayer. We may conclude that once the demon was gone that she turned to Christ, or that during some point while following Paul she surrendered to the Lord, but that is an assumption.

Also, consider the ten lepers that Christ healed in Luke 17. Only one of the 10 returned to thank Jesus, and that man was a Samaritan, hated by Jews. Jesus said to him, “Your faith has made you well.” But the other nine were also healed, and there is no statement that they had faith for their healing. As students of Bob Larson University know, I make the case that all healing is deliverance, and all deliverance is healing. In Scripture leprosy is presented as a “type” of sin, a quintessence of the loathsomeness of evil. Yet Jesus cast out demons from nine lepers who had apparently not recognized him as the Messiah.

 In addition, Matthew 12:15 says that multitudes followed Christ and, “He healed them all.” Did all of them believe He was the Messiah? Of course not. And remember that many of these healings were also exorcisms. I AM NOT encouraging doing deliverance on non-Christians. In 99.9999% of deliverances, the attending minister should make every effort to lead the person to Christ before attempting an exorcism. Casting out a demon involves the faith of BOTH the exorcist and the supplicant, agreeing together. That can only happen if the seeker is saved! However, anyone seeking God’s mercy for deliverance, whether they have formally converted to Christianity, should not be forbidden to have prayers of deliverance. Forcing their demons to leave may be the proof they need that the devil is real, and Jesus is Lord. Take what I have shared and proceed with caution, remembering that Jesus said in Matthew 5:45, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” God is merciful and he doesn’t always play by our assumptive rules.

In my previous blog, which was the first part of this series, I explained the concept of soul trafficking. Be sure to watch that before proceeding here. I pointed out that spiritual soul trafficking allows someone to take your soul, your mind, and emotions, by deceptive persuasion. As I further explained, we see this with the New Age and in certain Christian circles. I cautioned that sincere seekers of God need to beware of forming a soul-tie with a convincing religious leader who offers simple solutions to complex moral and theological issues.

I could easily give contemporary examples of popular soul traffickers, many of them with large internet followings. Every day I hear from ministry clients about some new individual with a prophetic word or New Age insight that will solve every conundrum. What the sincere seeker doesn’t realize is that once that soul tie with the soul trafficker has been forged, it may be possible for a fragment of soul consciousness from the cult leader to be deposited in the mind of follower. This is a form of mind control well known to those in the dark arts of black magic. The acolyte becomes a mini-me who uncritically follows the directions of the trafficker in matters ranging from strict adherence to esoteric belief systems to control of everyday actions.

Another hook of soul traffickers is to offer quick spiritual insights, so called “instant karma.” To the adherent of eastern religions, this means no more transmigrating reincarnations. No need for endless hours stretching into weeks, months, even years to receive enlightenment. Hinduism has the concept of what’s known as “Shaktipata.” This is the instant transmission of spiritual energy and knowledge directly from a guru or Hindu god. It can be done by a look or touch, particularly at the center of the forehead, the third eye, one of the yoga charka centers. At this point, the consciousness of the guru is said to enter the disciple. A soul trafficking bond has been formed.

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the late founder and leader of the Unification Church Moonies, had an even more clever and deceptive method. It was reported that, when severing communion to cult followers, Rev. Moon would put a small drop of his own blood into the liquid. In this way he sought to embed in each participant a microscopic particle of his own DNA. Whether this happened, the soul-bonding intention was clear. An example of Soul trafficking.

Christians need to be aware of the mesmerizing effect of any so-called apostle or prophet of God who claims to know what no one else knows, and that leader wants to deposit his or her insights into you. If you experience such an appeal to exclusive information, whether it has political or eschatological implications, watch out. Serious spiritual bondage can result.

In summary, the purpose of soul trafficking is to gather around one leader a group of like-minded people who mimic the teachings of the leader, who in turn gradually veers away from Christian orthodoxy to “new revelations.” These new paradigms often include beliefs concerning the supernatural. The key is when the leader majors on a minor aspect of Christian thinking and teaches a formulaic means of achieving spiritual gratification–usually in the area of finances, healing, demonology, or End Times predictions.

If the leader is Hindu or Buddhist, the soul trafficker may present a way to instant nirvana or oneness with the universe. In the Christian world, the goal is often healing of every disease, quick financial abundance, and the solving of life’s conundrums with quick access to an answer from God, if the right procedures are followed. Of course, I am speaking in generalities here lest anyone take this concept of soul trafficking and turn it into a witch hunt condemning a ministry that one dislikes. But the warning stands.

As Second Timothy 4:2-4 says, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.” (NKJV)

Fables disseminated by soul traffickers.