In his book The Holographic Universe, author Michael Talbot relates something very strange that he observed in the mid-1970s. His father hosted a party for some close friends. For entertainment, he hired a professional stage hypnotist. Michael Talbot watched the performance. It began as expected with the hypnotist giving various tests to the group to determine who would make a good subject. A man named Tom was selected and he went into trance very quickly. It should be noted that Tom had never met the hypnotist before and did not know what he was going to do. What followed was the usual hilarious hypnosis show. Tom was convinced that a giraffe was in the room which caused him great amazement. He ate a potato and thought it was an apple. That sort of thing.

Then came the climax of the performance. It involved Tom’s teenage daughter. The hypnotist gave Tom the post-hypnotic direction that when he awoke he wouldn’t be able to see her. The girl was placed directly in front of him. When he was brought out of the trance he was asked if she were in the room. He looked around. Though she stood right in front of him giggling, he replied, “No. Not here. ” Over and over, Tom was asked if he could see her and over and over, while his daughter’s giggles grew louder, he said that he couldn’t. Now all of that is still typical Hypno show tricks. Then the hypnotist did something else.

He stood behind the girl so that Tom couldn’t see him. Then he took an object out of his pocket keeping it hidden from everyone in the room. Cupping it in his hand, he placed it against the girl’s back and asked Tom what it was that he was holding. Tom leaned forward, stared straight at his daughter’s stomach and correctly identified the object as a watch. The hypnotist asked him if he could read the name and inscription on the watch. He did it accurately. The person who owned the watch was not known to any of the guests in the room. Later when Talbot questioned him, Tom said that he never saw his daughter at all. It just looked like the hypnotist was holding up a watch in his cupped hand.

I have studied stage hypnosis and seen performances. I have never seen this test demonstrated. My first response would be that it was a trick. Stage hypnotists often use secret assistants from the audience. So the simple answer would be that Tom had been secretly recruited and knew what the man was going to hold up. But that explanation doesn’t really work. This was a small gathering of personal friends. Tom was a friend. Michael Talbot questioned him. Tom would have known that Mr. Talbot was going to use his experience in a book that he was writing dealing with quantum physics and paranormal experiences. It’s difficult to believe that Tom would have allowed a personal friend to use that experience as an illustration if it hadn’t been real. If it was real what are we to make of it? In some people, hypnotic trance can open the door to paranormal experiences and strange abilities.

The U.S. government has done extensive research into a paranormal ability called Remote Viewing. That is the ability of some people in a mild trance state to see physical objects such as buildings and other landmarks, many miles, even continents away. The research involved placing the remote viewer into a semi-darkened room then giving him map coordinates with the instructions to describe what he saw at that location. Some of those tested were very accurate in their remote observations.

Trance is a tremendous power and influence in our lives and all of us experience it.

It can make us see illusions that appear to be real but are not. Trance can be most dangerous when it is experienced collectively. Probably you have seen films of Hitler’s Nuremberg speeches. To us, they just look weird. They took place at night. Partial darkness can be important in inducing a collective trance. As the vast crowd stands watching, many of them in uniform and in rigid formation, the scene is lighted partly by searchlights and partly by fires. There is dramatic music that assists in mass trance induction. I’m sure if you had been there and spoken German it would have been a mesmerizing experience because Hitler’s speeches were carefully orchestrated grand dramas. He put an entire nation into a trance creating illusions of power and glory. From them grew a delusion that almost destroyed the western world and murdered millions of innocent people.

But it doesn’t take pageantry to induce mass delusion. All it takes is fear. Throughout history lying delusions have taken control of huge masses of people and those delusions have led to the most awful brutality, violence, and injustice. In reading the history of mass delusions, many of the things that have happened cannot be described except as Satanic in origin.

Most often mass delusions appear when there is a large-scale breakdown in a society.

People lose faith in formerly trusted institutions, leaders and each other. There is a breakdown in communication that creates an environment of deep and pervasive fear. Then suddenly, someone drops a rumor. It’s like a deadly virus in a weakened body. Almost instantly, it metastasizes. The rumor is everywhere and even worse, it constantly mutates into darker forms. The result is a vortex of fear that can lead to utter destruction. Formerly decent people become vicious beasts.

To study the evil effects of mass delusion, all you have to do is look at the plague years of the middle-ages in Europe. The Black Plague came in waves sometimes with decades in between. Fear of its arrival was constant and when it did arrive, terror took control. Rumors are like forest fires. They have specific points of origin. They don’t happen by chance. Some evil person concocts a lie and tells it to others who spread it. During the plague years, very often rumors had to do with blame. A group of people had brought the plague and were consciously spreading it. Jews have always been an easy target. For centuries during the Middle Ages, mindless hatred was directed toward them. In 1285 in Munich, Germany 180 Jews were burned to death because someone spread the rumor that their community had sacrificed a child as part of a satanic ceremony. So when the plague arrived the liars were ready to blame them.

In Milan, Italy in 1629 rumors spread at the highest levels of government that people were spreading the plague across Europe through sorcery and contagious poisons. When the plague arrived in 1630, someone started the rumor that Jews were poisoning the water supply. The rumors and terror spread faster than the plague stoked by stupid, evil people. One night in Milan, someone or some small group began smearing the buildings with an unknown substance. Here is an eye-witness description. When people awoke the next morning, “In every part of the city they saw doors and walls of the houses stained and daubed with long streaks of I know not what filthiness, something yellowish and whitish, spread over them as with a sponge.” In the ensuing fear and rage, many innocent people were suspected of spreading the plague. They were dragged from their houses, beaten, thrown into prison and killed.

Here is an example of the horror recorded by another eye-witness.

It happened in a cathedral. “An old man was observed, after kneeling in prayer, to sit down, first, however, dusting the bench with his dark cloak. ‘The old man is anointing the benches’ exclaimed some women who witnessed the act. The people who happened to be in the church fell upon the old man. They tore his gray locks, they heaped upon him blows and kicks and dragged him out half-dead, to convey him to prison, to the judges, to torture. I beheld him dragged along in this way, nor could I learn anything further about his end. Indeed, I think he could not have survived many moments.” This is what mass delusion can do and we see examples of it throughout history in every culture.

Very often in the cold light of day, the rumors and delusions are clearly ridiculous. In 1914, Canada joined in the First World War against Germany. But the United States didn’t join until 1917. During those years rumors spread through Canada that German Americans – at the time there were 10 million living in the U.S. – were getting ready to launch bombing and espionage raids from America. At one point it was rumored that 80,000 well-armed German-Americans were training near Niagara Falls for an invasion of Canada. This rumor was promoted by no less than the British Consul General in New York and prompted the Canadian Prime Minister to order an investigation. Quickly, it was discovered that the whole thing was bogus.

In Indonesia between 1937 and 1981, over and over, appeared the “headhunter” rumors and delusion. The idea was that a human head was needed to supernaturally strengthen various large construction projects and that the government had sanctioned headhunter teams to acquire the necessary items. People were terrified to leave their houses at night or to walk through the forest alone in the daytime.

From headhunters, we could go to the sublimely ridiculous.

Do you remember the “Paul McCartney is dead and replaced with an impersonator” rumor that began in 1969 and went on for years, bolstered by imagined proof – hidden messages in the Beatles’ music and album covers, etc. This was taken seriously enough by major newspapers that they sent reporters to investigate. It seems that the rumor was first published in the student newspaper at my alma mater, Northern Illinois University.

If you want to look more deeply into the insanity of delusions I recommend two books: First, an old one published in 1852 entitled Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay and one published in 2015, A Colorful History of Popular Delusions by Robert Bartholomew and Peter Hassall. In our scientific age we are just as prone to illusions and delusions as in the past. The difference is that with “social” media they can grow to horrific, worldwide proportions in hours. The delusions of QAnon are a current example. Never in history has there been such a dark potential for manipulation, mind control, evil and violence.

So what patterns do we see in all of this?

Humans are very susceptible to outside control. This can come through trance, through misreading sensory illusions that have been presented to us. It can come through our own desperate desires that keep us from seeing the truth and it can come through belief in lies and lying rumors. Any and all of these can create powerful delusions that will control our lives and lead us to destruction both individually and collectively. Shock, terror, and desperation make us far more vulnerable to such delusions.

Remember that in the future God is going to send the most powerful delusion of all upon the Earth. It will be so convincing and overwhelming that if it were possible even the elect, God’s own children would be fooled by it. When it arrives, many people will fall away from belief in God and His Son, Jesus Christ. Many will turn to false Jesuses. Based on the history of delusions, what can we imagine about this terrible period? First, it will have been prepared for a long time. As they sink into the delusion, people will look back and perceive what they consider evidence for the lie that has been overlooked or misunderstood thereby creating an historical basis for them to believe it. For instance, when delusions appeared about the Jews that led to violence against them, always they were based on centuries of lies and false evidence. When the people of Indonesia believed delusions about headhunters, those delusions were based on centuries of belief in the power of sorcery and evil spirits.

Destructive mass delusions do not appear out of nowhere.

They may be instigated by lying rumors that are presented as facts, but always they are based in some form of lies that have been seeded in history. So I think we can say that the lies upon which the Greatest of Delusions will be based exist right now. When it does arrive, very likely it will come at a time of worldwide terror and vulnerability. The human race will be in shock. The systems upon which we depend for order and survival will have broken down.

Very often mass delusions offer a kind of dark hope. If you kill these people or do this desperate act, the plague may stop. If you kill all the aristocrats, all the rich, with their greed and despotic governments, the common people can thrive. That delusion led to the bloody French and Russian revolutions and many more. So in the Great Delusion, we can expect to see horrible violence directed against groups of people who are chosen to be scapegoats. Being the Greatest Delusion, it will offer the greatest false hope. Destroy these people and save the planet. Delusions are most successful during catastrophes such as economic crises, wars, plagues, famines, and other disasters. So if it is the Greatest Delusion we can expect some of the most devastating catastrophes ever seen to be taking place around the world. Jesus predicted that just before His return there would be terrible wars, diseases and other disasters. People will be attacking each other, the perfect environment for illusions, delusion, rumors and false hope.

So what illusions and delusions are controlling your life right now? If you say there are none, perhaps you haven’t taken a close enough look. There are people today who have placed their hope in the delusions of a political party and philosophy. Others are controlled by delusions of wealth, prosperity and success. Many believe the delusion that there is no God and this life is all that exists. Others are enslaved to the delusions of false religions that have existed for thousands of years.

God is in the business of awakening us from our lying illusions and freeing us from enslaving delusions.

Sometimes it takes a brutal experience to accomplish that. What follows is the first-person account of a man named Athet Pyan Shinthaw Paulu, a former Buddhist monk. The account is dated 14 July 2005. His awakening from delusion was truly brutal.

“My name is Athet Pyan Shinthaw Paulu. I am from the country of Myanmar. I would like to share with you what happened to me, but first I would like to give some brief background information from my life growing up. I was born in 1958 in the town of Bogale, on the Irrawaddy Delta area of southern Myanmar [formerly Burma]. My parents, who were devout Buddhists like most people in Myanmar, named me Thitpin [which means ‘tree’ in English]. Our lives were very simple where I grew up. At the age of 13 I left school and started working on a fishing boat. We caught fish and sometimes also shrimp from the numerous rivers and streams in the Irrawaddy area. At the age of 16 I became the leader of the boat. At this time I lived in Upper Mainmahlagyon Island [Mainmahlagyon means ‘Beautiful Woman Island’ in English], just north of Bogale where I was born. This place is about 100 miles southwest of Yangon [Rangoon], our nation’s capital city.

One day, when I was 17, we caught a large number of fish in our nets. Because of the many fish, a large crocodile was attracted to us. It followed our boat and tried to attack us. We were terrified so we frantically rowed toward the riverbank as fast as we could. The crocodile followed us and smashed our boat with its tail. Although no one died in this incident, the attack greatly affected my life. I no longer wanted to fish. Our small boat sank because of the crocodile attack. We had to go home to our village that night on a passenger boat. Not long after, his employers transferred my father to Yangon City [formerly spelt Rangoon]. At the age of 18, I was sent to a Buddhist monastery to be a novice monk. Most parents in Myanmar try to send their son into a Buddhist monastery, at least for a time, as it is considered a great honor to have a son serve in this way. We have been observing this custom for many hundreds of years.

When I turned 19 years and 3 months old (in 1977), I became a normal monk. The senior monk at my monastery gave me a new Buddhist name, which is the custom in our country. I was now called U Nata Pannita Ashinthuriya. When we become a monk we no longer use the name given to us at birth by our parents. The name of the monastery I lived at is called Mandalay Kyaikasan Kyaing. The senior monk’s name was called U Zadila Kyar Ni Kan Sayadaw [U Zadila is his title]. He was the most famous Buddhist monk in all of Myanmar at the time. Everyone knew who he was. He was widely honored by the people and respected as a great teacher. I say he “was” because in 1983 he suddenly died when he was involved in a fatal car accident. His death shocked everyone.

At the time I had been a monk for six years. I tried hard to be the best monk I could and to follow all the precepts of Buddhism. At one stage I moved to a cemetery where I lived and meditated continually. Some monks who really want to know the truths of Buddha do things like I did. Some move deep into the forests where they live a life of self-denial and poverty. I sought to deny my selfish thoughts and desires, to escape from sickness and suffering and to break free from the cycle of this world. At the cemetery I was not afraid of ghosts. I tried to attain such inner peace and self-realization that even when a mosquito landed on my arm I would let it bite me instead of brushing it off!

For years I strived to be the best monk I could and not to harm any living being. I studied the holy Buddhist teachings just like all my forefathers had done before me. My life proceeded as a monk until I got very, very sick. I was in Mandalay at the time and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment. The doctors did some tests on me and told me I had both Yellow Fever and malaria at the same time! After about one month in the hospital I was getting worse. The doctors told me there was no chance for me to recover and discharged me to make arrangements to die. This is a brief description of my past. I would now like to tell you some of the remarkable things that happened to me after this time…

After I was discharged from the hospital I went back to the monastery where other monks cared for me. I grew weaker and weaker and was lapsing into unconsciousness. I learned later that I actually died for three days. My body decayed and stunk of death, and my heart stopped beating. My body was prepared for cremation and was put through traditional Buddhist purification rites. Although I faded away in my body I remember my mind and spirit were fully alert. I was in a very, very powerful storm. A tremendous wind flattened the whole landscape until there were no trees or anything else standing, just a flat plain. I walked very fast along this plain for some time. There were no other people anywhere, I was all alone.

After some time I crossed a river. On the other side of the river I saw a terrible, terrible lake of fire. In Buddhism we do not have a concept of a place like this. At first I was confused and didn’t know it was hell until I saw Yama, the King of Hell [Yama is the name ascribed to the King of Hell in numerous cultures throughout Asia]. His face looked like the face of a lion, his body was like a lion, but his legs were like a naga [serpent spirit]. He had a number of horns on his head. His face was very fierce, and I was extremely afraid. Trembling, I asked him his name. He replied, “I am the King of Hell, the Destroyer.”

The King of Hell told me to look into the lake of fire. I looked and I saw the saffron-colored robes that Buddhist monks wear in Myanmar. I looked closer and saw the shaven head of a man. When I looked at the man’s face I saw it was U Zadila Kyar Ni Kan Sayadaw [the famous monk who had died in a car accident in 1983]. I asked the King of Hell why my former leader was confined to this lake of torment. I said, “Why is he in this lake of fire? He was a very good teacher. He even had a teaching tape called ‘Are You a Man or a Dog?’ which had helped thousands of people understand that their worth as humans is far greater than the animals.” The King of Hell replied, “Yes, he was a good teacher, but he did not believe in Jesus Christ. That’s why he is in hell.”

I was told to look at another person who was in the fire. I saw a man with very long hair wrapped on the left-hand side of his head. He was also wearing a robe. I asked the King of Hell, “Who is this man?” He replied, “This is the one you worship: Gautama [Buddha].” I was very disturbed to see Gautama in hell. I protested, “Gautama had good ethics and good moral character, why is he suffering in this lake of fire?” The King of Hell answered me, “It doesn’t matter how good he was. He is in this place because he did not believe in the Eternal God.”

I then saw another man who looked like he was wearing a soldier’s uniform. He had a large wound on his chest. I asked, “Who is this man?” The King of Hell said, “This is Aung San, the revolutionary leader of Myanmar.” I was told, “Aung San is here because he persecuted and killed Christians, but mostly because he didn’t believe in Jesus Christ.” In Myanmar the people have a common saying, “Soldiers never die, they live on.” I was told that the legions of hell have a saying “Soldiers never die, but they go to hell forever.”

I looked and saw another man in the lake of fire. He was a very tall man and he was dressed in military armor. He was also holding a sword and a shield. This man had a wound on his forehead. This man was taller than any person I have ever seen. He was six times the length between a man’s elbow and the tips of his fingers when he stretches his arm out straight, plus one span of a man’s fingers when he spreads out his hand. The King of Hell said, “This man’s name is Goliath. He is in hell because he blasphemed the Eternal God and His servant David.” I was confused because I didn’t know who either Goliath or David were. The King of Hell said, “Goliath is recorded in the Christian Bible. You don’t know him now, but when you become a Christian you will know who he is.”

I was then taken to a place where I saw both rich and poor people preparing to eat their evening meals. I asked, “Who cooked the food for these people?” The King of Hell replied, “The poor have to prepare their own food, but the rich people get others to cook for them.” When the food had been prepared for the rich people they sat down to eat. As soon as they started a thick smoke came up. The rich people ate as fast as they could to ease their consciences. They were struggling to breathe because of the smoke. They had to eat fast because they were fearful of losing their money. Their money is their god.

Another King of Hell then came to me. This being asked me, “Are you going into the lake of fire too?” I replied, “No! I am only here to observe!” The appearance of this creature was very terrifying. He had ten horns on his head and a spear in his hand that had seven sharp blades coming from the end. The creature told me, “You are right. You came here just to observe. I cannot find your name here.” He said, “You must now go back the way you came.” He pointed me toward the desolate plain that I had first walked along before I came to the lake of fire.

I walked a long time until I was bleeding. I was hot and in great pain. Finally, after walking for about three hours I came to a wide road. I walked along this road for some time until I came to a fork. One road, going off to the left, was wide. A smaller road went off to the right-hand side. There was a signpost at the fork saying that the road to the left was for those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The smaller road to the right was for believers in Jesus. I was interested to see where the larger road led so I started down it.

There were two men walking about 300 yards ahead of me. I tried to catch up with them so I could walk with them but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t catch them up, so I turned around and went back to the fork in the road. I continued to watch these two men as they walked down the road away from me. When they reached the end of the road they were suddenly stabbed. These two men cried out in great pain! I also cried out when I saw what happened to them! I realized the bigger road ended in great danger for those who traveled down it.

I started walking down the believers’ road instead. After traveling for about one hour the surface of the road turned to pure gold. It was so pure that when I looked down I could see my own reflection perfectly. I then saw a man standing in front of me. He was wearing a white robe. I also heard beautiful singing. Oh, it was so beautiful and pure! The man in the white robe asked me to walk with him. I asked him, “What is your name?” but he did not answer. After I asked his name six times the man answered, “I am the one who holds the key to heaven. Heaven is a very, very beautiful place. You cannot go there now but if you follow Jesus Christ you can go there after your life has finished on the earth.” The man’s name was Peter.

Peter then asked me to sit down and he showed me a place to the north. Peter said, “Look to the north and see God create man.” I saw the Eternal God from a distance. God spoke to an angel, “Let us make man.” The angel pleaded with God and said, “Please don’t make man. He will do wrong and will grieve you.” [In Burmese literally: “He will make you lose face.”]. But God created a man anyway. God blew on the man and the man came to life. He gave him the name “Adam”. [Buddhists do not believe in the Creation of the world or of man].

Then Peter said, “Now get up and go back to where you came from. Speak to the people who worship Buddha and who worship idols. Tell them they must go to hell if they don’t change. Those who build temples and idols will also have to go to hell. Those who give offerings to the monks to earn merit for themselves will go to hell. All those who pray to the monks and call them ‘Pra’ [respectful title for monks] will go to hell. Those who chant and ‘give life’ to idols will go to hell. All those who don’t believe in Jesus Christ will go to hell.” Peter told me to go back to the Earth and testify about the things I had seen. He also said, “You must speak in your new name. From now on you are to be called Athet Pyan Shinthaw Paulu [“Paul who Came Back to Life.”].

I didn’t want to go back. I wanted to go to heaven. Angels opened a book. First, they looked for my childhood name (Thitpin) in the book, but they could not find it. They then looked for the name I had been given when I entered the Buddhist monkhood (U Nata Pannita Ashinthuriya) but it wasn’t written in the book either. Then Peter said, “Your name is not written here, you must return and testify about Jesus to the Buddhist people.”

I walked back along the gold road. Again I heard beautiful singing, the kind of which I have never heard before or since. Peter walked with me until the time I returned to the earth. He showed me a ladder that reached down from the heaven to the sky. The ladder didn’t reach to the earth but stopped in mid-air. On the ladder I saw many angels, some going up to heaven and some going down the ladder. They were very busy. I asked Peter, “Who are they?” Peter answered, “They are messengers of God. They are reporting to heaven the names of all those who believe in Jesus Christ and the names of those who don’t believe.” Peter then told me it was time to go back.

The next thing I was aware of was the sound of weeping. I heard my own mother cry out, “My son, why did you leave us now?” I also heard many other people weeping. I realized I was lying in a box. I started to move. My mother and father started shouting, “He is alive! He is alive!” Other people who were farther away did not believe my parents. I then placed my hands on the sides of the box and sat upright. Many people were struck with terror. They cried out, “It is a ghost!” and ran away as fast as their legs could carry them. Those who remained were speechless and trembling.

I noticed I was sitting in smelly liquid and body fluids, enough to fill about three and a half cups. This was liquid that had come out of my stomach and my insides while my body was lying in the coffin. This is why people knew I had indeed been dead. Inside the coffin, there was a type of plastic sheet fixed to the wood. This sheet is placed there to retain a corpse’s liquids because many dead bodies release much fluid like mine did.

I learned later that I was just moments away from being cremated in the flames. In Myanmar people are placed in a coffin, the lid is then nailed shut, and the whole coffin is burned. When I came back to life my mother and father were being allowed to look at my body for the very last time. Moments later the lid of my coffin would have been nailed shut and I would have been cremated! I immediately started to explain the things I had seen and heard. People were astonished. I told them about the men I had seen in the lake of fire, and told them that only the Christians know the truth, that our forefathers and us have been deceived for thousands of years! I told them everything we believe is a lie. The people were astonished because they knew what kind of a monk I had been and how zealous I had been for the teachings of Buddha.

In Myanmar when a person dies their name and age are written on the side of the coffin. When a monk dies, the monk’s name, age and the number of years he has served as a monk are written on the side of the coffin. I had already been recorded as dead but as you can see, now I am alive!” (End of statement.) Along with this statement came the following report:

Since ‘Paul who came back to life’ experienced the above story he has remained a faithful witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. Burmese pastors have told us that he had led hundreds of other monks to faith in Christ. His testimony is obviously very uncompromising. Because of that, his message has offended many people who cannot accept that there is only one way to Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ. Despite great opposition, his experiences were so real to him that he has not wavered. After many years in the Buddhist monkhood, as a strict follower of Buddhist teachings, he immediately proclaimed the Gospel of Christ following his resurrection and exhorted other monks to forsake all false gods and follow Jesus Christ with all their hearts.

Before the time of his sickness and death, he had no exposure to Christianity at all. Everything he learned during those three days in the grave was new to his mind. In a bid to get his message out to as many people as possible, this modern-day Lazarus began distributing audio and video cassette tapes with his story on them. The police and Buddhist authorities in Myanmar have done their utmost to gather these tapes up and destroy them. The testimony you have just read has been translated from one of those cassette tapes. We are told it is now quite dangerous for citizens of Myanmar to be in possession of these tapes.

His fearless testimony has landed him in prison at least once, where the authorities failed in their bid to silence him. Upon his release he continued to testify of the things he saw and heard. His current whereabouts are uncertain. One Burmese informant told us he is in prison and may have been killed, while another informant was told he is now released from prison and is continuing his ministry. (End of attached report)

This near-death experience has been viciously attacked.

It has been called a lie, an illusion and a delusion. Very likely, this is because many people only want to hear messages that agree with them and make them feel good in whatever they have chosen to believe. Which could argue for their desire to maintain an internally consistent delusion themselves. In my opinion, the fact that this experience does not bring such comfort argues for its veracity. It is difficult for me to believe that it was fabricated “whole cloth” to prove Christianity. Such a lie would go against the basic tenets of the faith it was trying to promote. And what would be the advantage? It would not be a popular message in Myanmar and certainly could bring persecution and trouble in any Buddhist country.

The underlying reason for all the hate that has been directed toward this man’s testimonial is very clear. It stands against the most pervasive modern delusion which is this: If you believe in an afterlife at all you must believe that all roads lead to Heaven because everyone worships the same “god”. This is nothing but ignorance. The major religions of the world have diametrically opposed definitions and descriptions of who “God” is. They do not mesh. Also, foolish people choose to believe that Jesus taught nothing but “non-judgmental” messages of love that point to everyone worshipping the same “God”. Once again, this is nothing but deadly ignorance. He was very clear when he said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” Heaven is where the Father is. To get there, belief in Jesus is the only way. That is the ultimate message of this former Buddhist monk. Do you consider that message to be true or false? Making the right choice means everything.

We live in a world awash in a mighty ocean of illusions and delusions, lies both monstrous and small. Yet, at the same time truth exists if we want to find it. But often the truth is very painful, that’s why we prefer our delusions. Giving up precious delusions can be one of the most difficult choices of our lives. As a professional storyteller, I have wanted to tell stories that are true, stories that do not spread delusions that lead to spiritual death and that is what delusions always do. As I have grown older, my great desire has been for wisdom. And that is quite different than knowledge. I know many people who have a wealth of knowledge but are not wise at all. Their life choices have brought disaster to themselves and those around them. Where does wisdom begin and how can we get it? When you give your life to Jesus Christ, true wisdom begins that leads to Eternal Life. In the days ahead, we’re going to need the wisdom and love of Jesus because the world is ripe for the Great Delusion. I’ve written about that in my four-part series, Dark Illusions.

I want to leave you with a final and very serious warning.

There are many ways to make ourselves vulnerable to illusions and delusions. Certainly, drugs and alcohol can do this, but a life of foolish, selfish choices can do it as well, along with filling ourselves with lying words and images, pornography being a good example, but there are many others. With this vulnerability comes the greatest danger. We open ourselves to the influence and control of supernatural powers of evil. Of course, if you are a materialist you will think such an idea is ridiculous. I submit that your belief system makes you extremely blind and vulnerable. When we give opportunity to the powers of evil they will guide us to personal destruction creating in us hate, bitterness, lust, and rage that will grow more terrible year by year. They can even speak through us to those we love bringing damage and heartbreak. You will be made to say things that you never intended and do not believe. During sane moments of control, you will wonder where such evil words came from.

Not only can the Powers of Darkness speak through you, they can speak into you with lies meant to crush you into hell itself. Imagine that a dark power exists that can speak words directly into your mind and they come in the first person using “I” and “me” to make it seem as though they are your own thoughts. But they aren’t. What you hear is, “I am worthless. No one cares about me. I should just kill myself”, and they spew over and over filling you with mind cancer. You start repeating them and believing them. Playing into this is the materialist delusion that such an evil influence is impossible, so they must be your thoughts. Your mind becomes an echo chamber of lies. How can you stand against such evil? There is only one way, through the Power of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit that He gives to protect and heal you when you put your faith in Him.

In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There is no greater slavish labor or heavy burden than to be dying inside under the raging lies, illusions, and delusions of Satan. I urge you to place your faith in Jesus Christ who loves you more than you could ever know and died so that you could be released from crushing burdens of fear, hurt and anger. What have you got to lose?

If I can be of help to you write to me. My email is colemanluck@gmail.com.

I invite you to listen to my dramatic podcast Dagon’s Illusion with Coleman Luck. It is an on-going story about the invisible war.

https://anchor.fm/coleman-luck