Nuggets from Occult Invasion—A Basic Problem: Power Corrupts

Furthermore, if occult power exists innately within all things and all beings, as Archie Fire Lame Deer declares, then far from bringing peace and unity to mankind, the opposite would be true. If “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” the prospect of mankind developing unlimited occult power is frightening rather than encouraging. The temptation to seek greater and greater power in order to outdo the competition would seem inevitably to corrupt everyone, even those ostensibly using the “light side of the Force.”

Here we confront a basic problem with the occult: unlimited power to be used for “good” by “white witches” and for “evil” by “black magicians.” But who is to define “good” and “evil”? All who master the Force can use it to their own ends, to get what they want out of life in opposition to all others. There is no personal God of infinite love, holiness, impartiality, and authority in charge of the universe—and thus the “Force” could never bring peace to earth. The same would have to be admitted of the entire Human Potential movement. Power brings greater conflict, not peace.

The Bible claims that God is a personal Being of infinite love, wisdom, and power who made man in His moral and spiritual image and to whom man is accountable. Occultism, in contrast, holds out the promise that each person can acquire Godlike powers and thus become his own god. Of course, some occultists believe they must look to the spirit entities who allegedly control these forces. From this concept developed complex rules for obtaining favors from the gods, which were passed on from initiate to initiate in the form of occult rituals.

It is easy to see that the teaching of Positive Mental Attitude in the worlds of business, academia, and psychology is an appeal to call upon the “light” side and avoid the “dark” side of the Force. So it is with Positive/Possibility Thinking, popularized within the church by Norman Vincent Peale and his chief disciple, Robert Schuller. An the same can be said of the Positive Confession (speaking forth the “word of faith”) of today’s charismatic leaders. Each person’s mind (or tongue) can become the channel for this Force so that what one thinks or speaks aloud (“positive” or “negative”) will come to pass.