How Could I Possibly Convert to Orthodox Christianity? A Book for Psychics, Magicians, Diasporic Religious Practitioners, and Infiltrators
“I never chose to have these [psychic] abilities, so why would God have made me this way?”
“The church thinks that both me and my abilities are evil”
“What if my abilities help me to navigate right from wrong, or to protect my loved ones?”
“My ancestors have been doing magic inside the Catholic [or Protestant] Church for generations, why should I behave any differently inside the Orthodox Church?”
“What would my life be like if my abilities were never from God, and He were to take them away completely?”
Written by someone who knows what it’s like to grapple with these questions, How Could I Possibly Convert to Orthodox Christianity? A Book for Psychics, Magicians, Diasporic Religious Practitioners, and Infiltrators draws from the work of St. John Cassian, St. John of the Ladder, Fr. Seraphim Rose, Elder Ephraim of Arizona, Blessed Fr. Cosmas of Grigoriou, St Ignatius Brianchaninov, and more
PURCHASE:
The ebook is now available through Artos and Etsy
The paperback is available on Amazon
AUTHOR INTERVIEWS:
READ THE FIRST CHAPTER BELOW
I. The Normalization of Psychic Abilities in Various Fields
In our modern western culture, many individuals struggle with discerning the spiritual nature of extrasensory perception, the reading of minds, and a plethora of similar phenomena. One doesn’t need to travel to a storefront with a neon sign that says “Psychic Readings”, with a cushion-filled lobby and a steep hourly rate in order to see a person who thinks they have extrasensory abilities.
Many martial artists, sensitive to the body and muscle movements of their opponents, start to feel as though they are not only able to predict their opponent’s movements, but are starting to expand into intuiting their opponent’s thoughts. They appear to sense the emotion or thought of their opponent, and somehow know how to respond accordingly. Every time their intuited movements land on their opponent in the exact way they knew it would, it validates their reality, that they have a sensory ability. Every time they pummel their opponent, they themselves are getting pummeled, drilled into a different way of viewing the validity of their thoughts and senses. They may have rendered their opponent physically vulnerable, but they themselves have become spiritually vulnerable.
Herbalists are often tempted to adopt pagan spirituality in order to work with plants on a deeper level. Instead of focusing on phytochemistry, they often start to rely on intuition or spirit communication in order to formulate their medicines. If their practice was not already intertwined with shamanism or another similar concept, the temptation to adopt these practices to some capacity is significant. It becomes less about the plant having chemical capabilities, and more about the herbalist having a god-complex, wanting to be the one to create and to heal others. In rootwork, shamanic practices, or folk medicine, it’s oftentimes led by “ancestors” or other spirits, and the individual makes this jump, if they haven’t already been initiated through their lineage, out of a desire to shortcut formulations or to have special powers and authority in this world.
Many stage magicians historically and in present day understood that during a show, information about someone in the audience may just “pop into [the magician’s] head”. More experienced stage magicians counsel the less-experienced ones to “go with it”, and use that information on the fly, as it is often “correct” information that will embellish the act.
Pretty much every industry or demographic has the capacity to produce people who are willing to overly rely on their senses in order to attain more information than what can be deduced from physical facts. A mother’s intuition, intelligence workers, energy workers, individuals in high-stress survival situations, gamblers, businessmen, politicians, etc.
The normalization of mind-reading or utilization of information that comes to a person by means of sensuous perception often makes them feel powerful and in control, so why would they want to acknowledge it enough to seriously address where it comes from?
Most individuals see themselves as a protagonist. They typically view themselves as either “good” or at least “justified”. So where does spiritual delusion or prelest come in? How does it sneak into peoples’ lives. Is spiritual deception reserved for situations comparable to the story of St. Nicetas ? Is the situation always obvious? At times, it’s very subtle, and can often go unnoticed as an issue, or something to address for an individual.
Oftentimes, people consider the ability to be attached to their identity, or they are dependent on the results that the information brings. But where is this information coming from? If all information outside of an individual has a source from which it is coming, who or what is that source? Many people will tell themselves that this information must be neutral. It must be some natural occurrence, where it is not a matter of the influence of spirits.
“Oh, it must be just information from the collective consciousness! It must be heightened natural human intuition!” they will say to themselves. This perspective may stay with them for years or even decades, if they never have any deeper thought or further experiences to reveal the nuances and realities of the spiritual world. This is where things can become spiritually dangerous.