[This is an extract which I have just written and inserted into the upcoming second edition and updating of “The Serpent & the Cross”. This extract forms part of a vast, all-encompassing 170-page chapter, which is entitled “Sorcerous Apprentices: The Occult ‘Mind-Sciences’ in the Church Today”. This extract is just a 10-minute read]

In the New Age scene, using ‘mind-power’ or ‘word-power’ to generate material goods or achievements is called “The Law of Attraction” or “Manifesting Abundance”, while in the pseudo-‘Christian’ scene it is referred to as “Possibility Thinking”, “Praying with the Imagination”, “Imagineering”, “Prosperity Theology” or “Incubating Prayer”.

First, I would like to place this whole realm of ‘manifesting’ through visualisation or the use of ‘positive confession’ where it rightly belongs: Under the label of idolatry. The sin of idolatry is not confined to bowing and scraping to some wacky physical effigy made of wood or stone. It is also about revering the material above the spiritual, above the glory of God and one’s communing with that glory. One “cannot serve God and worldly wealth” (Matthew 6:24). This is why the New Age and/or pseudo-‘Christian’ practice of using allegedly spiritual ‘tricks’ to get material ‘abundance’ — that all you have to do is visualise something or speak as if you already had it and you will attract (or, as they say, ‘manifest’) it into your life — is a complete travesty and a total counterfeit of the true spiritual pathway which leads to life. Even many celebrity pastors perpetuate this delusion.

To believe in that so-called ‘Law of Attraction’ in order to bring wealth to yourself (as exemplified in the book and film called ‘The Secret’ — counterfeit spirituality for a godless mind) is a Faustian kiss of death and a classic case of darkness posing as light. Dare I call it ‘satanic’? Too right! Sure, you can easily attract ‘abundance’ and loadsamoney to yourself through these means — trying to gain prosperity in one’s own strength — but it comes at a price and that price is your soul. For it is like a ‘Faustian kiss’ in which a contract of idolatry and attraction to the material is being made with the demonic realm, for that is who will respond. Guaranteed. God does not honour such manipulation and egocentricity, but Satan does, and God permits him to do so in judgement. This practice is so far removed from the spiritual life as to be hideously laughable and is really mingling so-called ‘New Thought’ teaching (‘Christianised’ witchcraft) with what is known as ‘sympathetic magic’ — a form of sorcery. For as Christ clearly said:

“Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But accumulate for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

For all those seeking to bolster their bank-balance as a sign of their spiritual growth, that Bible text is one punch in the eye! Better to attract heavenly treasure. As we are clearly told by John, who was the closest disciple to Christ in His earthly lifetime:

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the eyes’ desires and the boastful arrogance of the material life [hubris] is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:15-16).

The New Age people have the audacity to misuse some words of Christ to support their teachings about ‘manifesting money’ or ‘gaining abundance’. Those words are: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:9-10). Talk about playing fast and loose with Christ’s teachings! Those words are not referring to “manifesting money” or “gaining abundance” in one’s life. They refer to the prayerful requests for spiritual blessings which are in sync with what God wants for us, as the context clearly shows and especially when Christ concludes that teaching by saying: “…how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).

The reality is that the teachings of Christ are completely at odds with the modern New Age or pseudo-‘Christian’ idea of the accrual of material ‘abundance’ as being a sure sign of spirituality or of “being right with God”. It is actually a satanic inversion designed to ensnare would-be spiritual pilgrims with the falsehood that spiritual blessing is proven by material acquisition. When people begin to be ensnared by the idea that ‘money is only energy’ (as the New Age people say), it soon becomes their god. It is not money in itself which is the problem (for money is just a means to an end in the system devised by this corrupted world); it is “the love of money” which is a major root of all evils in this world (1 Timothy 6:10a).

As I recall, all the first disciples of Christ lived very simply, often supported by sponsorship provided by those sympathetic to the cause (Luke 8:3). They were continually persecuted and all but one of them were executed by the authorities. The genuine spiritual pathway involves falling out of love with the physical world (and all the material baubles that it has to offer) and falling in love with God, as personified in the incarnate Christ. This is the real story of the developing soul who has given his or her life to the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus teaches about the way that wealth is misused and concludes his teaching by saying, “You cannot serve God and worldly wealth [mammon]” (Luke 16:13), it is then written:

“The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and ridiculed Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘You are the ones who justify yourselves in men’s eyes, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight’” (Luke 16:14-15).

That last sentence is the crux of the matter and highlights the difference between the spiritual and non-spiritual human: “What is highly prized among men is utterly detestable in God’s sight”. This is why the disciples of Christ are the true counterculture, at variance with the world-system and its corrupt ways. With a great deal of relevance, Paul says: “Some people in reaching for money have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many pains” (1 Timothy 6:10b). If one has a love of money and material gain — no matter how cleverly it is disguised behind New Age blather about ‘energies’ or any other pseudo-justifications (e.g. “It’s dog-eat-dog in this world”) — then going through the narrow gate onto the pathway strait, and all the painful ‘strippings-down’ of a person which that necessarily involves, will seem abhorrent. The person who lives for material consumption and the accumulation of wealth will vehemently rebel against that idea. But Christ will seriously ‘finger us’ in whichever areas there are in our hearts where we cling onto the accumulation of material wealth and what are euphemistically known colloquially as ‘goods’. This is why, when Christ told the eager man who claimed that he had kept all God’s laws since being a youth that in order to inherit eternal life he had to sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor and then follow Him, it is said, “But at this statement, the man looked sad and went away sorrowful, for he was very rich” (Mark 10:17-22). It is not wealth itself or material goods which are the real problem but the desire to cling onto them and use them as some kind of narcissistic outgrowth of oneself which is the real stumbling block in this life.

We can see this principle in action in the life of Job. He was already a very devout man, yet God permitted Satan to afflict him terribly with both severe material and family losses and a disfiguring disease, because Satan reckoned that Job would curse God if he were in great difficulties (Job 1:6 – 2:10). However, he did not. And when Job acknowledged the sovereignty of God to do as He pleases, plus he repented for any possible residual sin within, and confessed that he now knew God for real (Job 42:1-6), all that he lost was then restored and “the Lord blessed the second part of Job’s life more than the first” (Job 42:10-12). The principle here is that the true disciple is willing to lose everything for God, and counts all material assets as either superfluous to needs or merely as some occasional “icing on the cake”, which he or she can take or leave, according to God’s will. As Christ said: “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life because of Me will find it” (Matthew 16:25).

This does not at all mean that every disciple of Christ needs to ‘take a vow of poverty’, for that too would be as dethroning of God as vowing to get rich. It is for God to decide what our circumstances will best be in this life in order for us to fulfil the mission He has set for us. Maybe He will use a bunch of moolah to enable you to get to places to which it would be impossible to get without it (if He thinks you can handle it). Maybe He will bring people into your life to put a roof over your head and keep you from starvation while you serve Him. Maybe He will have you be as poor as a church mouse, so that you can be a different kind of witness to a different kind of people. Though I have to say that disciples of Christ will ordinarily never starve to death and will generally have their needs met — sometimes in extraordinary ways — if they live according to the will of God.

There is a vast difference between arrogantly ‘manifesting’ what one wants in this life through sorcerous techniques and humbly praying to God for what one needs in it. The former is the way of hubristic witchcraft while the latter is God’s way, as exemplified in the life of Christ.

If we pray to Him to hone us into the people He wants us to be, doing the things He wants us to do and having whatever He wants us to have, then we will enjoy whatever He provides for us, whether better-off or not, in whatever location it is to which He sends us… and all without a single trace of covetousness, bitterness, arrogance or resentment.

That concludes the Excursus on the New Age and pseudo-‘Christian’ practice of ‘Manifesting’ material goods. Now we go on in the next section of this chapter to expose the use of hypnotic suggestion in churches to generate deceptive (and addictive) religious experiences in the lives of the gullible.

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2025
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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