What is the Role of Drugs in the Occult?

Commenting on the effects of drugs, Dr. Peter R. Breggin makes the following observation:  “At the root lies a dangerous assumption that it is safe and effective to tamper with the most complex organ in the universe.”1  When the normal connection between man’s brain and mind is loosened, the door is wide open for demonic spirits to control the brain.  Nobel Prize winner, Sir John Eccles, did research on the brain that led to his conclusion that the brain can be operated by a nonphysical entity in the same manner that a human being manipulates a machine for his purposes.2

Craving for transcendence, or wholeness, many people become involved in drug usage.  The spiritual dimension is often times obscured by the physical dimension.  The quest for deeper spirituality has to be satisfied by more drugs, while many do not realize that their chemical dependence is the result of a spiritual problem.  Psalm 42:1 states, “As the hart panteth after water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”  Augustine described this thirst as the “God-shaped vacuum” within each and every person, and unless God fills that void man will resort to all manner of concupiscence.

It is beyond doubt that drugs do become a substitute for dependence on Christ.  Even the secular world recognizes the dangers of drug use.  It is through the use of drugs that many become involved in the occult.  For instance, the Beatles friendship with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi came about while recording the album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, the band’s “fruit” of LSD influence.  Later, these same drug induced states were found to intensify with the practice of Eastern Mysticism.

For the simple reason that no one knows how drugs work or the full extent of drug usage, especially long term, and the long association with the occult a strong prohibition is in order.  In fact, God has condemned the use of mind-altering drugs.  The New Testament mentions sorcerers twice (Acts 13:6, 8) and sorceries four times (Rev. 9:21; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15).  Likewise, both are condemned in the Old Testament (Ex. 7; Isa. 47; Jer. 27; Mal. 3).  The Greek word for sorcery in the New Testament is farmakeia.  This is the equivalence of today ‘s shaman or sorcerer, who enter altered states of consciousness to contact spirits.  The judgment in the Book of Revelation came upon an evil, unrepentant world and drug usage is a large part of their wickedness:  “Neither repented they…of their sorceries…” (Rev. 9:21).

1 Peter R. Breggin, Talking Back to Prozac:  What Doctors Aren’t Telling You About Today’s Most Controversial Drug (New York:  St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 1994), p. 40.

2 Sir John Eccles and Daniel N. Robinson, The Wonder of Being Human:  Our Brain and Our Mind (New York:  The Free Press, 1984).