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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Chain Letter and Stronghold attached to Acquaintance	Crystal	Saturday, January 12, 2013
Question: Dear Brother, I had written to you a few months involving Friendships I attract with people whom are into New Age and other Spiritual practices that are non-Christian. I followed the advice you me and I had mentioned that after witnessing to one of my acquaintances, who happened to be of the Presbyterian faith; she had thrown away some occult materials she owned. As I told of her the dangers of certain practices and how they are against God and not of Christianity. Most recently, this woman sent me an e-mail whereas it was a chain letter with Christian content. I contacted her and told her that even though the letter had biblical scripture, it was still a chain letter and they are considered part of the occult. She did apologize and stated that it was sent to her, but I noticed every time I speak to this woman; I find myself feeling ill and right after I read that chain letter; I immediately got a Migraine headache followed by an upset stomach. My friend also stated that she had gotten ill from eating something a few days ago and could this be the effect from the chain letter? I do like this woman, but I feel that it's necessary that I end our friendship because she continuously gets involved with occult-like matters and I wanted to know could she possibly have a Stronghold on her; as she was into Astrology, Chakras and more at one time in her life. I also wanted to know, in being associated with her is it affecting me? As whenever I talk to her, I always feel sick afterwards or is it just coincidence and something I should not be that concerned about. If you can help with this, I would appreciate it. As I really don't want to end a friendship because she is a nice person; but I also don't want to be associated with anyone whom is curious and/or practices with occult-like things. Also the prayers you have told me to use are great and have strengthened my walk and faith with God! Thank you, God Bless, Crystal
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r) Dear Crystal: I am happy to see you testifying to the Christian faith. A chain letter is not occultic in-an-of-itself. At best chain letters are annoying. But, the typical chain letter contains elements that can terrorize people. For example, words to the effect "pass this along or have something bad happen" can have a terrorizing effect or words to the effect of "pass this along and your prayer will be answered" promotes the sin of superstition. Such chain letters are rude and potentially harmful to the vulnerable and gullible. One of the most annoying aspects of chain letters is that they put my email address on the email where everyone can see it without my permission. If an email is to be sent out to multiple people the email address need to be place in the BCC field and not the TO field. If one does not know how to do that then DO NOT send the email.This is how email addresses can end up on spam lists. I take a VERY dim view of anyone who does this to me. Yet another problem of chain letters is that the people who forward them are usually people who are nearly computer illiterate. Thus, they use the forward function to pass it on. As a result, the email I get may be a forward of a forward of a forward of a forward, making the email such a mess it is hard to find the message itself. If one does not know how to clean-up such a mess and to properly format the email then DO NOT send the email. Bottomline: people need to stop sending chain letters. If you there is a nice message that someone send you and you want to share is. retype the message, and send it one-by-one to your friends, instead of sending a single email to multiple people. If one does not know how to do this then DO NOT send the email. Since we are on this subject, I guarantee that if anyone sends me a chain letter I will ban that person from our website. I have ZERO tolerance for this. The most probable reason you and your friend felt sick is that you and she are psychologically responding, a kind of self-fulfilling ill effect, and not from any actual occult issue. If your friend was involved in things like Astrology and Chakras and the like, she may indeed have an attachment. She needs to renounce those things and ask God to forgive her for being involved in this ungodly philosophies and practices. If this woman has poor discernment about these things, whereas she is likely to make foolish decisions all the time, then you may need to keep your distance from her. Even though she is not Catholic, I still recommend that she follow the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance, linked below. She can edit the prayers to remove elements that are specifically Catholic. The principles of the Seven Steps applies to all Christians of any denomination. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Chain Letter and Stronghold attached to Acquaintance

Crystal

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Question:

Dear Brother,

I had written to you a few months involving Friendships I attract with people whom are into New Age and other Spiritual practices that are non-Christian.

I followed the advice you me and I had mentioned that after witnessing to one of my acquaintances, who happened to be of the Presbyterian faith; she had thrown away some occult materials she owned. As I told of her the dangers of certain practices and how they are against God and not of Christianity.

Most recently, this woman sent me an e-mail whereas it was a chain letter with Christian content. I contacted her and told her that even though the letter had biblical scripture, it was still a chain letter and they are considered part of the occult.

She did apologize and stated that it was sent to her, but I noticed every time I speak to this woman; I find myself feeling ill and right after I read that chain letter; I immediately got a Migraine headache followed by an upset stomach. My friend also stated that she had gotten ill from eating something a few days ago and could this be the effect from the chain letter?

I do like this woman, but I feel that it's necessary that I end our friendship because she continuously gets involved with occult-like matters and I wanted to know could she possibly have a Stronghold on her; as she was into Astrology, Chakras and more at one time in her life.

I also wanted to know, in being associated with her is it affecting me? As whenever I talk to her, I always feel sick afterwards or is it just coincidence and something I should not be that concerned about.

If you can help with this, I would appreciate it. As I really don't want to end a friendship because she is a nice person; but I also don't want to be associated with anyone whom is curious and/or practices with occult-like things.

Also the prayers you have told me to use are great and have strengthened my walk and faith with God!

Thank you,
God Bless,
Crystal

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r)

Dear Crystal:

I am happy to see you testifying to the Christian faith.

A chain letter is not occultic in-an-of-itself. At best chain letters are annoying. But, the typical chain letter contains elements that can terrorize people. For example, words to the effect "pass this along or have something bad happen" can have a terrorizing effect or words to the effect of "pass this along and your prayer will be answered" promotes the sin of superstition. Such chain letters are rude and potentially harmful to the vulnerable and gullible.

One of the most annoying aspects of chain letters is that they put my email address on the email where everyone can see it without my permission. If an email is to be sent out to multiple people the email address need to be place in the BCC field and not the TO field. If one does not know how to do that then DO NOT send the email.This is how email addresses can end up on spam lists. I take a VERY dim view of anyone who does this to me.

Yet another problem of chain letters is that the people who forward them are usually people who are nearly computer illiterate. Thus, they use the forward function to pass it on. As a result, the email I get may be a forward of a forward of a forward of a forward, making the email such a mess it is hard to find the message itself. If one does not know how to clean-up such a mess and to properly format the email then DO NOT send the email.

Bottomline: people need to stop sending chain letters. If you there is a nice message that someone send you and you want to share is. retype the message, and send it one-by-one to your friends, instead of sending a single email to multiple people. If one does not know how to do this then DO NOT send the email.

Since we are on this subject, I guarantee that if anyone sends me a chain letter I will ban that person from our website. I have ZERO tolerance for this.

The most probable reason you and your friend felt sick is that you and she are psychologically responding, a kind of self-fulfilling ill effect, and not from any actual occult issue.

If your friend was involved in things like Astrology and Chakras and the like, she may indeed have an attachment. She needs to renounce those things and ask God to forgive her for being involved in this ungodly philosophies and practices.

If this woman has poor discernment about these things, whereas she is likely to make foolish decisions all the time, then you may need to keep your distance from her.

Even though she is not Catholic, I still recommend that she follow the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance, linked below. She can edit the prayers to remove elements that are specifically Catholic. The principles of the Seven Steps applies to all Christians of any denomination.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.