Unbound

The gentle type of deliverance ministry

Now that I’m between jobs again, I’m keeping my eyes and ears open for prompts from the Holy Spirit on what to do and where to go next. So I was delighted when L., one of my Catholic neighbors, asked if I’d be interested in weekly “Unbound” training sessions, starting next Thursday at 9:30 AM. Funny thing is, if she didn’t know that I was unemployed right now, she probably wouldn’t have asked me (and I couldn’t have attended). What a blessing, VatiGod!

Although I’d heard of the program from other people, I wasn’t really familiar with it, so L. suggested I read the book, Unbound: A Practical Guide to Deliverance, by Neal Lozano, pastor and director of Heart of the Father Ministries. It’s an especially gentle kind of deliverance—there’s no shouting at the demons here or other dramatic gestures. I think I like this a lot.

The tagline of the book is, “God has a plan for your life. Don’t let Satan steal it.” That got me intrigued right away. Even though I renounced the New Age and all of its fixings quite some time ago, I sometimes feel that the enemy still has a hand in my life. There are moments (though much rarer now than they used to be) where I do or say something clearly self-sabotaging, but it usually happens so fast that I don’t even have time to think, “Uh-oh,” let alone to stop myself. It almost feels like it’s out of my hands.

Imagine my surprise when I read chapter 2 where Lozano lists SEVEN different entry points for diabolical influence in one’s life… and most of them applied to me (gulp).

#1: Response to Trauma

Here, a person’s reaction to traumatic events early in life (like abuse, neglect, loss of a parent or sibling, etc.) can open a portal for demons to attach themselves to the person. The person, Lovano explains, “searches for a way to deal with it, a way to protect self and be safe. Whether it is denial, fear, hatred, shame, or a host of other responses, evil spirits want to exploit us through those responses, to exert influence and hold us captive.”

I did some soul searching on the matter and found that my most traumatic experiences all revolved around love, sexuality, and the betrayal of trust. When Mama didn’t defend me against a sexual predator… when my boss in the advertising agency turned from fatherly mentor to lewd stalker… when my teenage friends pretended that a cute guy had a crush on me, just to laugh their heads off when I fell for it (and him).

I wonder if this was the reason that I later, as a young woman, became such a “free spirit,” aka sexually promiscuous. Fighting fire with fire, initiating encounters, being a co-predator instead of prey.

#2: Involvement in the Occult

I already wrote a lot about that time in my life, but few people know the extent of it. You can fit a lot of occult stuff into 30+ years of a New Age existence, including trance-dance drumming circles, Native American sweat lodges, witchcraft, past-life regressions, Law of Attraction/manifestation practices, Reiki, Tarot readings, sorcery à la Carlos Castaneda’s “Don Juan” books, spirit guides… you name it.

One of the few things I didn’t try was channeling because it frightened me too much. Praise be to God that He kept me away from it; inviting “disincarnate entities” to speak through you is a guaranteed way to full-on possession.

Not that I didn’t try everything else: shamanic journeys into the “underworld,” psychic training, Wiccan spellwork, out-of-body experiences and lucid dreaming; divination of every kind (Tarot, runes, astrology, numerology)… a real hodgepodge from the witch’s kitchen.

For a while I had a spirit guide who called himself “Hesekiel” (the German form of “Ezekiel”). I loved having an invisible friend—until one day, as I was driving in the car talking to him, a humanoid figure began to manifest in the passenger seat… and it did not feel like a benevolent entity. It gave me enough of the creeps that I called on Jesus for protection and stopped talking to this “spirit guide” altogether. Becoming a Reiki master gave me new “guides,” though. In time, I also acquired an invisible cat, a familiar spirit that my roommates in Sedona were able to perceive as well.

As a consequence of all this dabbling over the years, I had to deal with real-life hauntings in various places where I lived; and yes, it looks and feels exactly like in the movies—unexplained noises in the house at night; the feeling of being watched from behind; horrible nightmares; insomnia; black smoke coiled beneath the ceiling, ready to strike.

People don’t talk about this, but most New Agers are scared out of their wits, all the time. That’s why there’s so much New Age literature on “psychic protection” from evil spirits. This was considered par for the course; we believed that “the astral world” was populated by good spirits and bad spirits, and on your spiritual journey to advanced knowledge and enlightenment, you’d encounter both. Little did we know that every spirit eager to talk to humans is an evil one.

#3: Self-Inflicted Curses or Pacts with the Devil

Lozano brings the example of a young woman who, when God wouldn’t heal her sick mother, turned to the devil for help and subsequently started hearing voices. A deliverance session stopped the spooks.

As a New Ager, I naively put myself into the path of, if not the devil himself, shady occultists, thinking they could teach me valuable lessons. Well, they kind of did, but not in the way I thought they would. I consorted with witches, warlocks, satanists (unknowingly), shamanic healers, Native American teachers, and more. I underwent a “Ninth Wave” priestess training together with some witchy friends. I attended Tara initiations performed by Tibetan monks. I took an intensive weekend retreat with Neale Donald Walsh, author of the bestselling (yet demonic) Conversations with God series. I’m very blessed to have made it out of all of this alive and with my soul intact.

#4: Circumstances of Birth

“It is quite common for children who have been adopted or children of divorce,” writes Lozano, “ to benefit from prayer to be set free from spirits of rejection and abandonment. “Conception out of wedlock” is another way that spirits can attack. Both apply to me. If they do to you, consider getting the book.