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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Santeria and Strange Dream	Crystal	Sunday, August 10, 2014
Question: Dear Brother, I had wrote a post about this a while back in which you gave me great advice. Several years ago, I had Acquaintances who were in the Santeria religion. Many of them were very nice, however I had to disassociated myself with them because of their practices and due to God's deliverance. One particular individual who was a male, began to like me and when I rejected his advances; it seemed like I was besieged with a lot of misfortune. I did a lot of prayers and feel that I have been delivered from any demonic activity and/or curse. When I did associate with these individuals, I never attended any ceremonies or did any initiations; but I did on occasion buy one or two candles for good luck, as well as oils for the same purpose from stores called "Botanicas" and did have some tarot card readings. Botanicas are spiritual/occult stores that sell a multitude of religious/occult products for different purposes and also have psychic and tarot card readings done on the premises. After the Holy Spirit showed me that these were not the people I need to be associating with and their practices were deceptive; I ended my friendships and never went back into any of these establishments again. The other night I had a dream that I was in a Botanica store, but I was witnessing about Jesus and was trying to tell people in the store to stop buying these products and give their lives over to Jesus. In the dream, I saw one of my neighbors who is a Christian. I asked him why was in this store and he stated he was waiting for some one who owed him money. I proceeded to spread the Word of God, when a male clerk said I should start burning candles again because it helped me in the past and gave me bottles of oil to anoint myself and bathe in. When I refused to take them and told him I was a devout Christian, he shoved them in my hands and ran away and also noticed in my dream that my Christian neighbor had a bag filled with occult items and was walking out of the store and my dream ended. I don't really know the meaning of this, but I have said a lot of protection prayers and what is very puzzling is the presence of my neighbor in this dream. Although I feel delivered from any spiritual demonic activities, do you feel because of this dream that there may still be any attachments. If you could give me any insight into this matter, I would be very grateful. Thank you, God Bless, Crystal
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r), CCL, LTh, DD, LNDC Dear Crystal: I'm so sorry to hear about all of these traumas of your past. We will certainly pray for you. For the most part dreams are a creative way our subconscious deals with the various things going on in our life — such as trials and tribulations, fears, anxieties, insecurities, and sometimes even the joyous and positive things happening in our life. In my opinion, your dream falls into this category and does not mean that you have any attachments. On the contrary, your dream is very affirming and positive. In the dream when the clerk, who represents the devil, temps you to return to your past occultic ways, you resist. The devil then tries to force these occult items upon you by placing them in your hands against your will. Again you resist and the devil flees. The dream, therefore, is an affirmation that you have indeed left these things behind and have successfully rid yourself of attachments. The devil will try to tempt you to return, but you have resisted and the devil has fled. This is what the Bible says we are to do — resist the devil and he shall flee (James 4:7). The other Christian who's holding a bag of occult items and leaving the store represents the sad fact, which you have experienced yourself, of a Christian involving himself in the occult. It is always a sad thing to see this happen when Christians ought to know better. In our deliverance apostolate we routinely see clients who come to us who, because of their desperation to be delivered from demonization, seek help from shamans, psychics, and other occult sources. They ought to know better. When a client tells me that they have done this I shake my head and tell them that they just made deliverance from demonization ten times harder. We need to avoid anything that is not of God. We cannot go to the devil in order to cast out the devil, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:25-27. When I refer to the devil I am talking about any activity contrary to God. That means that we are playing with the devil if we involve ourselves in horoscopes, Ouija boards (perhaps the most dangerous activity we can involve ourselves in), tarot cards, spirit guides, palm reading, mediums, reading tea leaves, the I Ching, psychics, or any other activity that seeks to know the future or to know something about one's life. To even read one's horoscope in the paper can open the door enough to allow the devil to squeeze in. We need to stay away from Satan's sandbox. Seeking these occult sources is actually a violation of the First Commandment to have no other God before the true God. When we seek these occult sources we are asking for information to another being other than God. There only two sources of spiritual appeal — one is to the devil, and one is to God. There are no in betweens. Your dream, Crystal, is an affirmation that you put all these things behind you. The dream does not represent any attachment. It represents that you are successfully resisting the devil's temptation whenever he attempts it. Congratulations, and we will pray that you will always resist the temptations of the devil who will try to break through your defenses from time to time. For our readers there is much to learn in this dream. We learned that if we resist the devil he shall flee. We also learn of the stupidity of people who seek out occult sources to resolve their problems or to satisfy curiosity. No matter what spiritual, psychological, or emotional problem we have we must always seek the Christian way for the solution. It can be very hard to find an agency or a person who can help us according to a Christian worldview. This is especially the case when it comes to issues of paranormal phenomena or to issues of demonization. We must be careful in who we seek advice and help. Without question we should never seek out those who are not Christian. We should run from anyone who approaches these issues like those idiots on TV. But even among the Christian community we must be careful for there can be wackos in any community, including the Christian community. In our case, we are 100% in line with Christian doctrine on these issues. We approach the investigation of paranormal phenomenon and the problem of demonization in a way that is not only doctrinally correct but also with the scientific rigor. In that scientific rigor we recognize that science cannot investigate everything. There is much in the paranormal area as well as the demonization area that science cannot explain. But, before we can come to a paranormal or supernatural conclusion we must first eliminate any natural explanations. Doing this requires training. It is a lot more than just saying a few prayers of deliverance or blessing a house. Because of that our training is 3 to 4 years of academic and clinical studies, a one-year internship, and then after graduation a three-year "residency." Thus, it takes three or four years to graduate, or more, plus three years working as a full investigator or deliverance counselor under supervision. So the entire training process can be as much a seven years. There is no other training program in the world (Catholic, Protestant, or secular) that is so extensive. We encourage people with problems of paranormal phenomena and/or with problems of demonic harassment and such to contact us. We are obedient to the Church, fully in line with the doctrines of angelology, demonology, and all other doctrines that relate to this, and with the Christian worldview. The "Help" page is linked at the bottom of this page. I thank you, Crystal, for posting your dream as it is very instructional to everyone who reads this. 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

Santeria and Strange Dream

Crystal

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Question:

Dear Brother,

I had wrote a post about this a while back in which you gave me great advice.

Several years ago, I had Acquaintances who were in the Santeria religion. Many of them were very nice, however I had to disassociated myself with them because of their practices and due to God's deliverance. One particular individual who was a male, began to like me and when I rejected his advances; it seemed like I was besieged with a lot of misfortune.

I did a lot of prayers and feel that I have been delivered from any demonic activity and/or curse. When I did associate with these individuals, I never attended any ceremonies or did any initiations; but I did on occasion buy one or two candles for good luck, as well as oils for the same purpose from stores called "Botanicas" and did have some tarot card readings.

Botanicas are spiritual/occult stores that sell a multitude of religious/occult products for different purposes and also have psychic and tarot card readings done on the premises. After the Holy Spirit showed me that these were not the people I need to be associating with and their practices were deceptive; I ended my friendships and never went back into any of these establishments again.

The other night I had a dream that I was in a Botanica store, but I was witnessing about Jesus and was trying to tell people in the store to stop buying these products and give their lives over to Jesus.

In the dream, I saw one of my neighbors who is a Christian. I asked him why was in this store and he stated he was waiting for some one who owed him money. I proceeded to spread the Word of God, when a male clerk said I should start burning candles again because it helped me in the past and gave me bottles of oil to anoint myself and bathe in.

When I refused to take them and told him I was a devout Christian, he shoved them in my hands and ran away and also noticed in my dream that my Christian neighbor had a bag filled with occult items and was walking out of the store and my dream ended.

I don't really know the meaning of this, but I have said a lot of protection prayers and what is very puzzling is the presence of my neighbor in this dream.

Although I feel delivered from any spiritual demonic activities, do you feel because of this dream that there may still be any attachments.

If you could give me any insight into this matter, I would be very grateful.

Thank you,
God Bless,
Crystal

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OMSM(r), CCL, LTh, DD, LNDC

Dear Crystal:

I'm so sorry to hear about all of these traumas of your past. We will certainly pray for you.

For the most part dreams are a creative way our subconscious deals with the various things going on in our life — such as trials and tribulations, fears, anxieties, insecurities, and sometimes even the joyous and positive things happening in our life.

In my opinion, your dream falls into this category and does not mean that you have any attachments. On the contrary, your dream is very affirming and positive. In the dream when the clerk, who represents the devil, temps you to return to your past occultic ways, you resist. The devil then tries to force these occult items upon you by placing them in your hands against your will. Again you resist and the devil flees.

The dream, therefore, is an affirmation that you have indeed left these things behind and have successfully rid yourself of attachments. The devil will try to tempt you to return, but you have resisted and the devil has fled. This is what the Bible says we are to do — resist the devil and he shall flee (James 4:7).

The other Christian who's holding a bag of occult items and leaving the store represents the sad fact, which you have experienced yourself, of a Christian involving himself in the occult. It is always a sad thing to see this happen when Christians ought to know better. In our deliverance apostolate we routinely see clients who come to us who, because of their desperation to be delivered from demonization, seek help from shamans, psychics, and other occult sources. They ought to know better. When a client tells me that they have done this I shake my head and tell them that they just made deliverance from demonization ten times harder.

We need to avoid anything that is not of God. We cannot go to the devil in order to cast out the devil, as Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:25-27. When I refer to the devil I am talking about any activity contrary to God. That means that we are playing with the devil if we involve ourselves in horoscopes, Ouija boards (perhaps the most dangerous activity we can involve ourselves in), tarot cards, spirit guides, palm reading, mediums, reading tea leaves, the I Ching, psychics, or any other activity that seeks to know the future or to know something about one's life. To even read one's horoscope in the paper can open the door enough to allow the devil to squeeze in. We need to stay away from Satan's sandbox.

Seeking these occult sources is actually a violation of the First Commandment to have no other God before the true God. When we seek these occult sources we are asking for information to another being other than God. There only two sources of spiritual appeal — one is to the devil, and one is to God. There are no in betweens.

Your dream, Crystal, is an affirmation that you put all these things behind you. The dream does not represent any attachment. It represents that you are successfully resisting the devil's temptation whenever he attempts it. Congratulations, and we will pray that you will always resist the temptations of the devil who will try to break through your defenses from time to time.

For our readers there is much to learn in this dream. We learned that if we resist the devil he shall flee. We also learn of the stupidity of people who seek out occult sources to resolve their problems or to satisfy curiosity. No matter what spiritual, psychological, or emotional problem we have we must always seek the Christian way for the solution.

It can be very hard to find an agency or a person who can help us according to a Christian worldview. This is especially the case when it comes to issues of paranormal phenomena or to issues of demonization. We must be careful in who we seek advice and help. Without question we should never seek out those who are not Christian. We should run from anyone who approaches these issues like those idiots on TV. But even among the Christian community we must be careful for there can be wackos in any community, including the Christian community.

In our case, we are 100% in line with Christian doctrine on these issues. We approach the investigation of paranormal phenomenon and the problem of demonization in a way that is not only doctrinally correct but also with the scientific rigor. In that scientific rigor we recognize that science cannot investigate everything. There is much in the paranormal area as well as the demonization area that science cannot explain. But, before we can come to a paranormal or supernatural conclusion we must first eliminate any natural explanations.

Doing this requires training. It is a lot more than just saying a few prayers of deliverance or blessing a house. Because of that our training is 3 to 4 years of academic and clinical studies, a one-year internship, and then after graduation a three-year "residency." Thus, it takes three or four years to graduate, or more, plus three years working as a full investigator or deliverance counselor under supervision. So the entire training process can be as much a seven years. There is no other training program in the world (Catholic, Protestant, or secular) that is so extensive.

We encourage people with problems of paranormal phenomena and/or with problems of demonic harassment and such to contact us. We are obedient to the Church, fully in line with the doctrines of angelology, demonology, and all other doctrines that relate to this, and with the Christian worldview. The "Help" page is linked at the bottom of this page.

I thank you, Crystal, for posting your dream as it is very instructional to everyone who reads this.

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.