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Delusions from the Sixties 
Haight-Ashbury District
San Francisco

The stained-glass window in our Victorian tower turned the glory of the late afternoon sun into an unearthly light as seemingly divine intelligences gathered from a higher plane to lead us in our Calling. 
Through the centuries, seekers had used such drugs as LSD to penetrate spiritual realms, and now I, too, reached out to grasp the promised power. As I moved into the drug’s deeps, my surroundings seemed to yield before a mysterious power that transformed before my inner eyes into a portal to ancient, secret knowledge. But terrors came with the knowledge too. 

Sometimes I thought I sensed weird vibes from great UFOs sending out their telepathic signals to any soul unlucky enough to heed them. At such times, great terror engulfed me—terror that I would lose my sanity and be controlled by something ‘out there,’ and I tried to hide my naked soul from the contact they were initiating. 

But despite such experiences, nothing deterred us from our search—now religious in nature—and we continued to avidly soak up the psycho-spiritual views and techniques pouring in from both West and East. 

Sadly, we thought we were on the cutting edge of new revelation for the human race. 
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Deceptive experiences and deceiving spirits go together in the psychedelic realm, as my account above reveals. 

So, while last month, I explored the mystical experience as central to the psychedelic experience, this month we’re looking at another common element of that experience—what’s referred to by some professionals as the “entity encounter,” but which we know better as simply a demon encounter. 
If you have trouble believing that’s what it is, please make up your mind after examining the evidence. 

Individuals vary greatly in their responses to psychedelic drugs, but it’s well known that a large number of people who take them encounter beings or “entities” and experience everything from supposedly “higher” teachings to manipulation to outright assault from them. 

Some even consider meeting these entities a main benefit of taking psychedelics. That’s the position of a 2020 article in the Journal of Psychedelic Studies, which suggests that psychedelics are therapeutic not only because of their ability to create a mystical experience but because of what it refers to as the “entity encounter.” [1]
Research suggests that the clinical and therapeutic effects of psychedelics are related to their ability to induce a mystical-type experience. One particularly interesting feature of the psychedelic mystical experience is the entity encounter.

Revelation with a Pill? That they exist and do appear to many who take psychedelics such as LSD, DMT, psilocybin, etc. is well established. The real questions are who are these beings, what do they teach, and what is so “therapeutic” about what they do in an encounter—if it is? 

Dozens of descriptions of such entities exist online and in the literature. They range from ’’‘beings,’ ‘guides,’ ‘spirits,’ ‘aliens,’ ‘helpers,’ ‘angels,’ ‘elves,’ and ‘plant spirits’…” to “prankish elves, ultra-dimensional teachers and guardians, reptiles, bees, robots, and extraterrestrials, to Buddha, Jesus Christ, Krishna, deceased loved ones, and ascended masters,” as well as “sci-fi aliens fitting descriptions of greys, blues, reptilians, Pleidins sic, Arcturians and more, employing the use of probes, implants, or surgeries usually for ‘research or ‘healing purposes.’”

Some view these encounters as among their most meaningful, while others are terrorized by alien abduction scenarios and visions of an eternity in Hell. Here are a few examples:
“…emotionless entities with a mechanical quality…began…‘deconstructing’ my reality.”
“…a giant mantis-like entity descended from the ceiling…” 
Psychedelic therapist Daniel McQueen calls all these beings ”aliens and god-like entities,” and he says that, “Your nervous system [on psychedelics]is super activated. It isn’t just floating around the earth—it’s having direct encounters with entities.” 

Three main theories exist about the nature of these entities. They are:
1.    Manifestations of ourselves, 
1.1  Drug-induced hallucinations, or 
1.2  Real spiritual beings. 

One clue to their real nature is the fact that shamans and witches have contacted them using psychedelic/hallucinatory drugs for centuries. The Bible makes their nature explicit: they are demons, and to conjure them is sorcery, which a holy God calls detestable. Deuteronomy 18:9-20 reveals God’s condemnation of such practices.

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord.

Note that the New Testament word for sorcery is the Greek term pharmakeia, which is the root of our word pharmacy—a dispensary of drugs. The connection between psychedelics and sorcery is all too obvious. But in our Bible-illiterate age, the importance of this connection is easily overlooked or ignored. 

But the article from the Journal of Psychedelic Studies goes on to assure us:
While there has been little empirical research into psychedelic entity phenomena, qualitative studies and anecdotal reports suggest that entity encounters can have profound and lasting positive after-effects. 

That’s good news, isn’t it? We don’t have to worry whether some mantis-shaped entity hanging from our ceiling is a threat or whether an Arcturian will chase us with an implant because of the possibiilty of “profound and lasting positive after-effects” to such encounters. 

So, let’s look at what the article calls “profound and lasting positive after-effects.” (Would you want them?)

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Matthew 24:24 (ESV).

1.   They can alter our fundamental conception of reality. It’s widely accepted that psychedelics can radically transform one’s view of reality, including initiating psychosis. One survey study (2020) of 1,561 entity encounter experiences reported that 80% believed that the experience altered their fundamental conception of reality. So, whatever you may think of their variety or reality, their presence can substantially alter your beliefs about reality. Therefore, it’s vital to understand what they teach and where they lead. And that’s why we should look at the increasingly popular claims that such encounters can be “therapeutic.” 

…but test everything; hold fast what is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 (ESV).

2.    The most terrible deception these “entities” often bring is a false peace about dying without Jesus Christ.  Sadly, psychedelics are being used today in therapy sessions with those facing death. In one recent survey study of 168 people, the people reported that the message received from their entity encounter included themes about death, the afterlife, the pre-birth state, or reincarnation. Their comments included, “There was insight that death is not the end” and “Death is just the beginning of another greater universe.” This deception is widespread in entity encounters for they preach a New Age Jesus who isn’t Jesus Christ Crucified and Risen at all. Here’s an example from the article that shows how subtle this transformative process can be. 

“I then was given the understanding that all life, all we know, all I am, is energy, this energy is timeless and will continue on. I knew now the reality of this time and space is just something my energy has chosen to reside in for now.” 

In other words, the entities' teaching is that reality is only impersonal energy; after death you just continue on infinitely; there is no Father God, no personal relationship, no fallenness and sin, and no need for a Savior. 

3.   “Entities are frequently felt to be supremely powerful, wise and loving and encounters are often accompanied by positive emotions such as joy, trust, surprise, love, kindness and friendship (although fear is also a common emotion associated with entity encounters)…” I certainly experienced some of those positive feelings only to find later how cruelly deceptive they were. 

4.   Entities often give information, assign tasks, reveal purpose, insight, etc., which can make them seem beneficial. We encountered this often on psychedelics as well as in the spiritualist church. Demons will help you at one point in order to draw you into deeper bondage, and they delight in taking over your life.

5.   Sometimes seekers attain psychological insight on psychedelics. While you may get enough bits of truth to want more, you will certainly not receive the divine truth and guidance that only God and the Bible can give, and far more likely (speaking from experience), dependence upon this source will draw you far astray from real truth. What secular therapists deem “therapeutic” can be way off from what the Bible calls truth and healing.

Author Carl Teichrib sums up the demonic counterfeit message of these beings well: 

“We can become as gods. It’s the same messaging all the way through, isn’t it? Doesn’t matter if you read the writings of channeled UFO entities, if you take a look at what the New Age teaches, what Eastern spirituality gives us, or what the messages that come through the psychedelic experience show us. It always points back to Genesis 3: ‘We will be as gods.’ This is a gateway… a form of forbidden fruit.” [1]

There’s no doubt psychedelic experiences are incredibly transforming of life and beliefs. They can promise healing and transformation and a package of other wonderful-sounding changes, but they are a doorway the Bible firmly commands remain closed for very good reasons. 

As someone once said, there’s no way the devil and his demons can spin Hell as looking good, but they sure can spin the way there.

In conclusion, consider the following two quotes, the first by the discoverer of LSD himself, chemist Albert Hofmann; the second by psychiatrist Rick Strassman who extensively studied DMT research subjects and wrote a book about it. 

Hofmann writes:
“A demon had invaded me, had taken possession of my body, mind and soul. I jumped up and screamed, trying to free myself from him, but then sank down again and lay helpless on the sofa. The substance, with which I had wanted to experiment, had vanquished me. It was the demon that scornfully triumphed over my will.” —Albert Hofmann, chemist founder of LSD, about his LSD experience.

Psychiatrist Rick Strassman found at least half his research subjects had encountered an entity after taking DMT. He sums up his investigation like this:
“I was neither intellectually nor emotionally prepared for the frequency with which contact with beings occurred in our studies, nor the often utterly bizarre nature of these experiences….Their business appeared to be testing, examining, probing, and even modifying the volunteer’s mind and body. One patient described it this way: ‘It’s more like being possessed. During the experience there is a sense of someone or something else there taking control. It’s like you have to defend yourself against them, whoever they are, but they certainly are there. I’m aware of them, and they’re aware of me. It’s like they have an agenda.’” 

Clearly, these “entities” that come through the psychedelic portal are not benign. They are not reliable, honest, or safe. They do not point us to the truth. On the contrary, they are emissaries of Satan’s kingdom sent to deceive and ultimately destroy us, and they are intent on fueling a false revival.
Let us run from false teachers, whether on earth or in spiritual realms, and turn to the one pure source of truth and revelation that will never mislead us: the Holy Bible.

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For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 ESV

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3 ESV

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Ephesians 6:10-13 ESV

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MAIN ARTICLE: “Entity Encounters and the Therapeutic Effect of the Psychedelic Mystical Experience,” by Anna Lutkajtis, the University of Sydney, Australia. November 11, 2020. Journal of Psychedelic Studies, (4), 2020, 3, 171-178.

RE THE MISSING END NOTES: I'm having technical problems with the endnotes entering correctly. Hopefully, I can get it fixed, but if you need the information now, contact me at [email protected].