S4T 13 Ex Spiritualist goes from spiritual torment to spiritual life - Laura Maxwell

Laura's Website

Laura Maxwell’s Story.

‘What Spiritualism Means To Me Now.’

Laura

Supernatural phenomena interested me since childhood. I loved reading children’s books containing ‘ghost stories’, or watching TV programs about ‘ghosts’. If Harry Potter had been written then, I’m sure it would have been one of my faveourites!

A few psychic episodes as a child added to the intrigue I felt. My mother had also experienced psychic events since her childhood, but didn’t pursue it seriously until later.

By the time I began Secondary School, she felt ready to experiment further. When walking her dogs in the park one day, a Medium approached, telling Mum he saw her potential as a Medium and invited her to a Spiritualist Church in Glasgow, Scotland, where we lived.

Very quickly, Mum became totally engrossed by the supernatural. As a new member of the Spiritualist Church, she attended Sunday services, mid week psychic development groups and Yoga classes. She shared everything she learned with me and I also became fascinated. Her heart’s desire was to train in Mediumship and the other Mediums encouraged this, asking her to join an Open Circle to learn to meditate to channel ‘spirits of the deceased’. Mum was keen to develop her abilities of Clairvoyance, Clairaudience and Clairsentience and to learn from other Mediums.

Every time Mum booked a Private Sitting for a Life Reading with a resident or visiting Medium, she would buy a recording of the session and we’d listen to it later that day. It amazed me that a half-hour recording could contain so much communication from spirits. Minute details were relayed about our lives. Precise names, places and dates were often given. It was obvious the Mediums weren’t charlatans, falling upon names by sheer chance. They accurately described the physical appearance, personalities and even repeated common phrases of our apparent dead relatives as they supposedly conversed with them.

I also joined the Spiritualist Church in Glasgow. Mum and I devoured mystical books on Yoga, opening the chakras, Crystal Healing, Reincarnation, Alternative Therapies, etc. Attending New Age Centres and Psychic Fairs, we absorbed as much information as we could to help in our spiritual enlightenment. With our passion for environmental and conservation concerns, social justice and international peace, we gladly participated in attempting to heal people and animals, through either contact or distant psychic healing.

We also read books on positive thinking. A faveourite was, ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’, by Norman Vincent Peale, a 33rd degree Free Mason, who also believed in Clairvoyance, claiming to see his dead dad at meetings.

Going Deeper

Eventually, we attended Transfiguration Sessions. Mum developed in the area of Automatic Writing. Mediums predicted I’d become an author on behalf of Spirit Guides and a Psychic Artist, drawing portraits of ‘dead relatives and Spirit Guides’ for clients. I experimented with Kirlian Photography; using infra red film I captured images of ectoplasm as it formed.

Over the next 10 – 15 years, we’d often hear of Mediums who could no longer control when spirits spoke to or through them. Many Mediums had nervous breakdowns. Some attacked people claiming their Spirit Guides had forced them to, or were admitted to psychiatric wards. We heard reports of poltergeist activity in Medium’s homes. At first, we accepted explanations that mischievous or obnoxious spirits could sometimes come through and it was a potential hazard of the job. But when it happened to us, it became difficult to tolerate and almost impossible to function properly.

Our beloved friends, the other Psychics and Mediums, kindly tried, but failed to free our home from spirits. The spirits spoke to Mum constantly, depriving her of sleep, attacking her physically, chapping loudly from within wardrobes, slamming all the doors, etc.

On one of the occasions when they forced her into a trance against her will, she was frying food. When she came out of trance, the kitchen was consumed by fire. I arrived home after the Fire Brigade had extinguished it, just before it spread to other rooms. We all realized Mum, our dogs and cats could have been killed. One afternoon, Mum’s elderly Aunt who had also visited Spiritualist Churches, felt invisible hands grab her and throw her down our stairs. Her wrist was broken. Another day, while approaching shops, I watched in horror as Mum was lifted from the ground and catapulted from the pavement, landing on the bonnet of a passing car. This particular incident happened more than once.

Hellish Encounters

We decided to withdraw from Spiritualism and told our Spirit Guides to leave. To our shock, they laughed and insulted us. They began to physically attack us. This was perplexing, as they had provided guidance and kindness for many years. It became obvious they’d clearly deceived us, pretending to be benevolent, when in reality they were wicked all along.

The biggest shock however came when even our supposedly ‘dead relatives’ turned against us. They also mocked and hit us. The spirits warned we couldn’t leave the occult, as we had unknowingly given them control from the first day we invited them into our lives.  It became clear to Mum & I there was something not right about Spiritualism, if even the Mediums who had brought our ‘spirit friends’ to us had not discerned their true identity.

A Christian Encounter

Susan, a Christian I’d met in a Psychology Tutorial, at university, invited me to her Pentecostal Church, explaining other Psychics who had experienced similar tragedies were set free from spiritual attacks when they accepted the Biblical Jesus Christ as their Saviour, (not the New Age false Christ). I renounced Spiritualism & became a Christian.
A Darker Tragedy Strikes
During my 2nd year at university, Mum’s health deteriorated & her ‘Spirit Guides’ threatened to use her to kill people. Mum’s doctor couldn’t accept poltergeist activity & diagnosed as Schizophrenic, Mum was detained in a Psychiatric Hospital, much to the utter shock of my Mum & I.
Although my Mum gave her heart to Jesus a few months later, the Pentecostal Church I’d joined had no experience at that point, of helping people like Mum. At that time, they didn’t have the Deliverance Ministry. As a baby Christian myself, I didn’t yet know there were Christians who could’ve cast those demons out of my Mum in Jesus Name. After months of heavy sedation, the psychiatrists discharged her, but when she returned home, she endured further harassment from spirits. Sadly, the church I belonged to didn’t yet have experience of casting demons out of homes or people. So, sadly, my mother committed suicide.
Although not rare for someone to do … over the past 17 years I’ve heard of many around the world, affected by the New Age or Occult have been in psychiatric wards or killed themselves. Therefore, I feel it emphasizes the crucial importance for Christians to embrace the Deliverance Ministry, and be God’s instruments to bring freedom to such tortured people in Jesus Name. (Over the years as a Christian, I have been honoured & delighted that the Holy Spirit has used me to see people & homes be set free from demonic harassment/poltergeist type activity, etc). “Greater is He (Jesus), that is in you; than he (satan) that is in the world.”

Later, another Pastor more experienced in Deliverance prayer & casting out demons & the co-Pastor, visited my mum’s home, successfully cleansing it the first time they prayed. At the Name of Jesus, all the spirits left & never returned. Later, I sold Mum’s home without worrying the new tenants would be harassed.

The Pentecostal Church did not portray dead religious traditions, instead it was lively, loving and joyful. Members are trained by the Holy Spirit to prophesy about the future, bodies are healed and other miracles, signs and wonders occur. Actually, in a couple of years I saw more peopled healed in Pentecostal Churches than I ever saw in over ten years at Spiritualist Churches.

Deception Exposed

When I became a Christian, even before I had read the Biblical warnings of the Occult in Deuteronomy chapter 18, I instinctively realized what had happened. The missing piece of the jigsaw fit into place. When our ‘dead relatives and Spirit Guides’ began to attack Mum and I, it indicated they were actually evil spirits who had deceived us, merely impersonating our loved ones. It made complete sense when Christians explained that it’s impossible for dead souls to return to talk with us, as they remain in heaven or hell for eternity.

Also, spirits are evil ‘fallen angels’. They’ve existed since creation, possessing psychic knowledge of our families & historical figures down the generations. They can easily disguise their evil form to pose as our ‘deceased family,’ to mimic ‘Spirit Guides,’ or any famous celebrity that ever lived. The Bible says that the entities who work through Witches, Mediums, Ghost Hunters, etc, are called ‘familiar spirits’, as they are psychic & very familiar with how all your ancestors looked & spoke. Thus, these entities can impersonate them perfectly. The Hebrew word for familiar spirits actually means ‘demon,’ evil spirit.

This was confirmed as I read in 2 Corinthians 11 to 14 : “And no wonder! For Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” The evil spirits working through Spiritualism, serve Satan in deceiving precious people into believing they are their dead relatives and Spirit Guides.

This make sense, because many top Mediums even claim that Lucifer is god and the source of all psychic powers! (Benjamine Creme, David Spangler, Madam Helena Blavatsky, etc). They believe Lucifer is still an angel of light; god; the Saviour, and that he did not fall and become Satan, as the Bible states. Thus, Luciferianism is one of the roots of the New Age and Spiritualism. Madam Helena Blavatsky, a self proclaimed Luciferian Medium, was called the ‘mother of the New Age movement’.

Before I left the Occult, I was unaware the Bible advises in 1 John 4 verse 1 to 3 : “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God … every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God … And this is the spirit of the Antichrist …”

(Please see my note with directions on how to Test The Spirits, in the menu bar at the top).

A Crucial Observation

Since I left Spiritualism and became a Christian, I have never been contacted by any spirit claiming to be a ‘dead relative’ or ‘Spirit Guide’! All such supernatural activity stopped, when I knew the truth, that they were demons impersonating family or spiritual beings! You’d think, if they were truly real, they’d still try to ‘contact’ me!

Sharing With Others

As a Spiritualist, I had believed Jesus was just a cosmic force; part of the universal consciousness, or a great Psychic Healer. Since my conversion in 1994, I’ve met, spoken to & read of many Ex Psychics, Ex Gypsies, Ex Mediums, Ex Witches, Ex Luciferians, and even Ex Satanists who also discovered the entities of their ‘Spirit Guides’ or ‘dead relatives’ were not who they claimed to be. These people were also set free from demonic attack after receiving Christ into their lives & receiving His deliverance & freedom.

Two successful Glasgow Mediums, Sadie Bryce and Geordie Aitken also became Christians. Sadie went to the same Spiritualist Church I did. She spoke of her occult past in BBC programs and an audio tape, while Paul Watson wrote a book detailing Geordie’s experience. As Christians, Sadie and I wrote to each other and I met Geordie several times, discovering we all had been misled by convincing spirits in the same ways.

Jesus healed me of fears, phobias and physical conditions. He has given me joy and peace I simply never knew existed. His very tangible Presence of pure love is more real than any powerful encounter I experienced within Spiritualism.

Revelation TV, Europe.

After sharing my life story in churches, on satellite TV and radio, I’m delighted & blessed to continue to hear from people worldwide, who have also been saved out of the Occult – by the transforming, mighty power of our loving Lord Jesus Christ.

Visit her website here.