What Christopher Lee Said About the Occult

It was sadly announced today that Sir Christopher Lee, perhaps my favorite actor of all time, died on June 7th shortly after his 93rd birthday.

To dispel a popular rumor, Lee did not have a vast library of occult books. When giving a speech at the University College Dublin on 8 November 2011, he said: "Somebody wrote I have 20,000 books. I'd have to live in a bath! I have maybe four or five [occult books]." He further admonished the students against baneful occult practices, warning them that he had met "people who claimed to be Satanists. Who claimed to be involved with black magic. Who claimed that they not only knew a lot about it," however he himself had certainly never been involved: "I warn all of you: never, never, never. You will not only lose your mind, you'll lose your soul."

The Last Words and Warning of St. Luke of Simferopol

My children, very much do I entreat you,

Arm yourselves with the armor that God gives,

That you may withstand the devil's tricks.

You can't imagine how evil he is.

We don't have to fight with people but with rulers and powers, in effect the evil spirits.

Take Care!

Some Physical Signs of Demonic Possession

Saint Gregory Palamas, displaying here a remarkable knowledge of the medical science of his day regarding demonic possession, which he probably personally studied and observed, explains with some detail in his commentary of Mark 9:17-18, certain physical signs of demonic possession of the more violent variety. This is taken from his Homily on the Fourth Sunday of Lent.

"Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away" (Mark 9:17-18).

Hans Holzer (1920–2009), A Critical Look at the Dean of Ghost Hunters

By Joe Nickell

During the second half of the twentieth century, “Dr.” Hans Holzer, a self-styled parapsychologist, was the dean of ghost hunters. Attracted to the supernatural in childhood, he went on to pen over a hundred books on occult subjects. He was also a Wiccan high priest and claimed to have had past lives—for instance, supposedly having been present at the 1692 “Battle” of Glencoe (“Hans Holzer” 2009a).

Dubious Background

Holzer — who was born in Vienna, Austria, on January 26, 1920 — used to enthrall his fellow kindergarten pupils with ghost tales that he pretended to read but actually only “made out of whole cloth” (Holzer 1963, 9). By age six he was guilty of “regaling my mother’s family in Moravia with tales told me, allegedly, by the wood spirits in the trees along the little river that flows through the city of Bruenn” — tales “about as far from factuality as you can go” (Holzer 1968, 10). Such antics set the stage for Holzer to become not the scientific “parapsychologist” he posed as but one of the most successful raconteurs of “true” hauntings.

Astrology Is Astrolatry

Father Alexander Karloutsos

"When our soul departs from life, we shall not be accused because we have not worked miracles, or have not been theologians, or have not seen visions, but we shall all certainly have to give account before God, because we have not wept unceasingly for our sins."

-St. John Climacus, Author of the Divine Ladder

Christian man does not have to be a miracle-worker, brilliant theologian or heavenly vision soothsayer or maker, but he does have to account for not being aware of his sins. A sin in the Orthodox Church is understood in the spirit of the Greek word "amartia." In Ancient Greece, when a person aimed to hit the bull's eye and failed, they called it "amartia," "he missed." Falling short of the mark, not reaching your goal, not attaining your purpose is sin. When a Christian does things that keep him away from Christ, he sins because he does not live up to his purpose, and that is to live in Christ. When we do not live up to our goal, being the image and becoming the likeness of God, then we sin. When we allow the stars of heaven to guide our actions and not God, who created the stars, then we are sinning. When we run to the newspapers to look up our horoscopes and our futures, and do not seek wisdom and learning from the Bible, then we are sinning. When we do, or don't do, this and that because astrologers say so, and close our ears to God's Commandments, then we are sinning. We are sinning when we pray to our Christian God and, simultaneously, take somewhat seriously the zodiac. We are not Aquarians, Pisceans or Librans, sons and daughters of stars; we are men and women, sons and daughters of God.

Documentary: "Ancient Aliens Debunked"

Ancient Aliens Debunked is a 3 hour refutation of the theories proposed on the History Channel series Ancient Aliens. It is essentially a point by point critique of the "ancient astronaut theory" which has been proposed by people like Erich von Däniken and Zecharia Sitchin as well as many others.

The film covers topics like:

Ancient building sites: Puma Punku, The Pyramids, Baalbek, Incan sites, and Easter Island.

The Monster Within: Where Horror and Theology Meet

- "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man." 

(Jesus in Matthew 15:19-20)

- "Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win." 

(Stephen King)

- "In each of us, two natures are at war – the good and the evil. All our lives the fight goes on between them, and one of them must conquer. But in our own hands lies the power to choose – what we want most to be we are." 

(Robert Louis Stevenson in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)