The House Built by Spirits

There are things acquired by one’s ancestors in the service of Satan that will never be used or sanctioned later on by the Holy Spirit. With some people the cloven hoof may only reveal itself at one’s death bed, or maybe at a time when the person wants to become Christian. Through experience, ministers have clearly understood that demonic powers can be active in astrology. The person who exposes oneself to this danger can perish by it. We learn that there are genuine powers of fortune-telling and that it is at least not at all fake. Medicine also does concede that many mental illnesses do have a magical factor. This is apparent in conversation with many schizophrenics who assert that they are either magically persecuted or bewitched. We must not miss the fact that in many cases, magic is the primary cause, and psychic disturbances are the effects and consequences. 20,000 cases carefully examined cases cannot be disregarded lightly. Besides this, our parapsychologist knows of diseases which have arisen after occult practices. Mediumistic psychosis needs to me mentioned only as one example. Christian counselling clearly reveals that spiritistic, magic or fortune-telling activities trigger off disturbances, which can often be proved magically. Moreover in almost every case the faith of the person involved can be seen to be damaged This indicates that the origin of the damage is primarily of a spiritual nature, as the Scriptures would have us know. For the treatment, then, the minister who as a Christian believes in the Holy Bible as the most qualified cure. Second to hums would be a believing psychiatrist. A young woman when to a graphologist and had ger handwriting and her hand lines interpreted. In the written forecast it was stated that she would be murdered in her 30^th years. Thereupon the girl told her family, “If I die so young, I want to enjoy my life to the full.” She engaged in prostitution and had several abortions. #RandolphHarris 1 of 15

Because of her dissolute life, she became seriously ill in her 24^th year and died of ulcerative colitis. The doctor states that she had ruined herself through her licentious living. It should be noted that after the sessions with the graphologist, mediumistic abilities had appeared in the girl. Christian education, tradition and custom have built up a protective wall around our lives unconsciously in a Christian World order, although one may rebel against it inwardly. Coming to grips with occult powers tears down these walls. Dark, turbid waters stream unhindered into the abandoned life. For instance, the sensual life of the young lady gained the upper hand and she was ruined by it. Occultism tends to stir up all one’s passions and addictions. Another example, a young woman had her fortune told through palmistry. The fortune-teller informed her that in her 40^th years she would die of cancer. As it happens the woman started wasting away possibly because of this suggestion. She lived under the delusion that she was going to have cancer. As a result, she lost 30 pounds and only weighed 60 pounds. A woman was working as a servant in the Winchester Mansion in the late 1880s, one day a fortune teller appeared at the door selling household articles. The girl refused to buy anything because the articles were so dear. Thereupon the fortuneteller snatched her hand in order to tell her fortune. The girl wanted to pull her hand away, but the sly woman used a psychological trick. She said quickly, “Oh, that’s interesting. You will marry within two years.” What girl would refuse to listen when married is mentioned? She now willingly let the fortuneteller read her hand. The woman continued with her prophecy. “Several men will ask you to marry them. You will marry the tallest one. In the first year of marriage, you will become a mother. But I see your life line stops quite suddenly. You will die during the birth of you first child!” #RandolphHarris 2 of 15

It so happened that several suitors did appear in the following two years. The young lady was already under the influence of the prophecy, and she consequently married the tallest one. During the first years of their marriage, she became pregnant. She struggled against the evil prophecy. As the time of delivery grew closer, her fear increased proportionally. Her family and husband tried to persuade her not to believe the prophecy. However, they were unsuccessful. The young woman did not have a strong enough faith to counteract the superstition. She had a normal delivery, but several days later she developed a high fever. The doctor could find no organic cause for the fever at all. Three weeks after the birth of the child, the mother became mentally deranged. She was taken to a lunatic asylum, where she died three days later. This is called the psychological phenomenon of the death wish. Death by suggestion exists not only among primitive people, but also among civilized Europeans, Americans and others. Psychological superstition’ can be distinguished between from magical superstition and mythical superstition and presentiment. Magical superstition is active. It puts int operation suggestive magical powers. It interferes decisively and formatively in the life of the one who seeks advice. Mystical superstition has an intuitive and an adaptive character. It is based on insight, meditation and sensitivity. The principle behind magical superstition is that the ego gains mastery over the World, while in the case of mystical superstition the ego is said to be merged with the World. The basic difference between these two is their said method of perception. It is said that prevision may be explained in two ways. Either humans carry their whole future within themselves in embryo and the information is tapped from this source, or it is supposed that the whole history and destiny of the human race is carried in a kind of World consciousness. #RandolphHarris 3 of 15

These unusual human abilities are of an unknow origin, and are rather mediumistic abilities. Some people may unknowingly possess clairvoyance. Sometimes they are detected accidentally. In pastoral work, one notices that sometimes these mediumistic abilities disappear when the person is converted, but they are often dragged into the person’s new life. After the war, a woman gave a photograph of her missing husband to a pendulum practitioner to discover where he was. She afterwards experienced symptoms of clairvoyance. She had somnambulistic experiences, and found tht she could as it were send her soul out over great distance. In this plight she sought the help of a minister, and having repented and surrendered her life to Christ the mediumistic abilities disappeared. There are also both conscious and unconscious transferences of mediumistic abilities. Through the treatment of a highly mediumistic occultist, the patient can easily become mediumistic oneself. We have the demonic counterpart of laying on of the hands of the disciples in the Acts of the Apostles. Though the apostles’’ laying on of hands some Christians received the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 8.17, 19.6). The gift of sight is one of the subsequent effects of the occult activities of one’s ancestors. A well-known dowser was asked one day by a professor of medicine, to walk through the various buildings of the clinic with a diving rod and to note its reactions. The reason for the professor’s request was that fact that in one of the buildings belonging to the clinic an exceptionally high rate of deaths occurred. When a seriously ill patient was moved into this building their condition usually worsened. However, the professor did not tell this to the dowser. He wanted to have an unbiased report. The dowser went through the different buildings, and established that there were stronger impulses in the “house of death.” The professors, who in fact was very sceptical about the result, nevertheless had some screening put up to counteract the so-called impulses. The result was puzzling. The number of deaths there immediately declined. So as to avoid gossip, the professor was silent about this experience. #RandolphHarris 4 of 15

The dowser in question is not only able to use a diving rod, but is also a clairvoyant. He can for example state where members of his family are at any time. He is also consulted by insurance companies and real estate agents to determine the condition of building plots. In the course of his activities this dowser and clairvoyant confessed that he was unable to pray. An inner force prevented him one doing so. One pendulum practitioner casts spells over warts, corns, goitres, and eczemas etcetera. Added t this he experiments in the field of death magic. He also asserts that he can either make people sick of heal them. A Christian woman who knew nothing of his magical powers, thinking that the was only a nature healer, went to him for treatment. In the waiting room she prayed silently. Suddenly he addressed her and said, “You can go home. I can’t help you.” In spite of this, the woman began to have attacks of depression and thoughts of suicide. Her husband, who had no clear relationship with Christ, was treated magically by this same pendulum practitioner. The children born of their marriage since that treatment had all been affected and burdened. It is also worth noting that a doctor nearby sends some of his patients to this pendulum practitioner. Dowsing can paralyse a human’s desire to pray, while on the other hand the prayer of a believing Christian can paralyse dowsing. The woman praying in the waiting room prevented the magic pendulum practitioner from working. The power of the Holy Spirit and mediumistic abilities are mutually exclusive. A young man, being out of work, had a pendulum practitioner find jobs for him by using a pendulum over the “Vacant Jobs” column of a newspaper. In this way he had the offer of five jobs in one day. However, although he got a job immediately, after a few days he had to give it up again because he became emotionally disturbed. He then spent some months in a lunatic asylum. When his health improved, he turned to some monks for advice. #RandolphHarris 5 of 15

Again he was told to seek the help of a pendulum practitioner. Finally he sought the counsel of magic charmer. The result was that a few days later he had attacks of temporary insanity and was take again to the mental hospital. A Protestant minister used a pendulum to find water and ore. He could also diagnose diseases and establish the character of medicines with the pendulum. A Swiss university professor tested his ability. With his medical assistants and students present, he introduced twenty [patients to the pendulum practitioner. With the help of the pendulum the man made a correct diagnosis on all 20 patients. The minister was also not immune to the effects of his practice. His wife had a fatal accident. All his children died unnatural deaths. He himself has now been in an asylum for a number of years. A minister in Germany used a pendulum in dealing with diseases and medicines. He also practised healing at a distance. Sick people would send hum their photographs and he would hold the pendulum over them to find out the medicine that should be prescribed. A believing Christian woman sent him her photograph for the same purpose. Her illness was diagnosed and the necessary medicine determined. However, later on she became insane and was taken to an asylum. Members of her family reported this to the church authorities and the minister was later brought to court. These examples reveal a fact that can be verified by hundreds of similar cases. Pendulum therapy can indeed accomplish a certain relief and healing in the organic field. This organic relief, however, must be paid for by disturbances appearing in the psychic field. Demons are not the unnatural offspring of angels and antediluvian women. Two premises are necessary to establish this theory. The first is that the sons of God, of Genesis 6.2 are fallen angels who have pleasures of the flesh with mortal women, producing a race of giants, partly human and partly angelic called Nephilim in Hebrew (fallen ones), rendered “giants.” #RandolphHarris 6 of 15

This term giants refers not so much to human size and strength, but to the Greek gegenes (Earth born), and is used for the mythical Titans, who were partly of celestial and partly terrestrial origin. That these “sons of God” were angels and not “godly Sethites,” as some scholars maintain, is supported by the uniform use of that term in the Old Testament, where it appears restricted to angelic beings (Job 1.6; 2.1; 38.7). Although the first premise of the above theory seems established, the second is mere supposition in the face of the silence of revelation. It is pure speculation to imagine that the monstrous offspring of fallen angels and corrupt pre-flood women became disembodies spirits or demons after their bodies were destroyed in the deluge. That the fallen angels who thus sinned were consigned to Tartarus is revealed in the New Testament (2 Peter 2.4-9; Jude 1.6-7), but the fate of their giant offspring is not told in the Scripture. Demons are unconfined fallen angels. In view of the Holy Bible’s silence regarding the origin of demons, the best supported deductions from scriptural hints is that demons are fallen angels. When Lucifer rebelled and introduced sin into previously sinless universe, he drew with him a great number of lower celestial beings (Matthew 25.41; Revelation 12.4). These demons are free to roam the Heavens under their leader prince, who became Satan, also called “Beelzebub, prince of the demons” (Matthew 12.24), “Satan and his angels” (Matthew 25.41), and “the dragon and his angels” (Revelations 12.7). In Satan’s kingdom and under his rule, demons are his subjects and helpers (Matthew 12.26). They are also so well organized that satanic strategy can use them as effectively as a commander-in-chief wielding a great army (Ephesians 6,11-12). Satan’s abode and base of operation is not in hell, but in the Heavenly realms—not, however, in the third Heaven or Heavens of Heavens (2 Corinthians 12.2) There the ascended Christ is seated “far above all, rule, and authority, and power, and dominion,” (Ephesians 1.21). #RandolphHarris 7 of 15

Satan was expelled from this highest Heaven, evidently not at the time of his primeval fall (Job. 1.6), but after Christ completed his redemptive work and glorious ascension. As “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2.2), Satan and his wicked minions are confined to the first and the second Heavens. During the great tribulation, Satan and his evil accomplices will be cast down to Earth (Revelation 12.7-12), where they will make a last futile attempt to seize control of humans and the Earth (Revelation 19.20; 20.2-3). Demons also include confined or imprisoned fallen angels. In addition to the hosts of demons who are at liberty and serve Satan in the Heavenly spheres, multitudes are confined in abyss (Luke 8.31; Revelation 9.2, 11). This is evidently a temporary prison for evil spirits, who are apparently too depraved and harmful to be allowed to roman upon the Earth. However, after the Church has been glorified and removed from Earth (1 Thessalonians 4.13-18; 2 Thessalonians 2.1-9), these vile spirits will be let loose to afflict and deceive wicked humans who will follow Satan in the last demon-energized rebellion against God (Revelation 9.1-21; 16.13, 14; 2 Thessalonians 2.8-10; Revelation 13.1-18). Why these demons are imprisoned is not explained in Scripture. They were originally numbered among Satan’s free hosts, who roam the Heavens. Perhaps their loss of freedom was divine penalty for possessing human beings to satisfy their illicit desires or to perpetrate especially heinous crimes. Perhaps their victims’ suicide left them helplessly exposed to the abyss. Apparently demons expelled from possessed people were automatically confined to the prison of the depraved spirits, as in the case of the Gadarene demoniac (Luke 8.31). Scripture does reveal, however, that the angels who left their “first estate” are bound in “Tartarus” rather than in the “abyss” (2 Peter 2.4, 5; Jude 1.6). These are thought by many scholars to be “the sons of God” (fallen angels or demons) who cohabited with moral women, producing moral chaos in God’s established order of created beings. #RandolphHarris 8 of 15

Their crimes was so enormous that these lawless spirits (demons) and perhaps their monstrous offspring, were punished with imprisonment in Tartarus, the Greek nether World, comparable to hades, rather than in the regular prison of demons—the abyss. The flood may have been another indication of the enormity of their crime, in which God destroyed the offspring of this bizarre union. Evidence that demons exist prompts another question: Are demons interacting with our modern World of science and so-called enlightenment? Skepticism and ignorance concerning the Word of God produce appalling misapprehension of reality. Humans who deny the existence of Satan and demons betray their rejection of biblical teachings; people who deny the activity of demons in contemporary life betray their ignorance of significant portions of the Holy Bible. This is the plight of many liberal churchmen and of untrained Christians. They leave the safe moorings of the Word of God and are caught in swirling currents of occult fortunate telling, spiritism, magic, and false cults. A notable example is the late Bishop James A. Pike, who in September 1967 allegedly communicated in a televised séance with his deceased son (a suicide), through a well-known medium, Arthur Ford (now deceased), who was at the same time a Disciples of Christ minister. This sensational séance startled people all over the World and altered Bible students to the reality of modern occultism and traffic in demonism. Satan knows biblical terminology. He is also a master in masquerading under the guise of divine power. Alleged miraculous cures or manifestations often are accompanied by doctrinal errors. Every believer should realize that Satan can use doctrinal errors to his advantage, but he cannot overcome the Christian’s defenses in God’s Holy Word! This is our bulwark against demon incursion. In the measure that we neglect or abandon the Word of God, demonism flourishes. The scope and power of modern occultism staggers the imagination. Millions are open to the occult. During one of Mrs. Winchester’s séances in her Blue Séance Room, they were using the solid gold key to communicate with the spirits. One participant had the giggles. She tried to suppress them, but suddenly broke out in uncontrollable laughter. The floating gold key immediately plummeted to the floor. #RandolphHarris 9 of 15

There was a gasp in the group as she cried out, “Oh, now I have done it! I have grieved the spirit.” Her body tensed. Spontaneously she prayed: “O thou great and infinite spirit of light, have mercy on me. Forgive me for my levity.” The gold key rose again in the air and whirred across the room to stop in front of the offender. For several minutes the spirit lecture her about her irreverent conduct. Of course, Mrs. Winchester know about the dignity and order demanded by the spirit World from its subjects. Later on, the spirit became vexed about some of the questions being asked by the group, and asked “My child, why do you doubt? Why do you not believe? You have been this long with s; why do you continue to doubt?” The medium, deep in trance, was catapulted off her chair. She fell in the middle of the floor and was screaming in agonizing pain. The turbulent sounds suggested that the spirits were angry. That is another reason for the absolute prohibition of occult in the Bible. People do not understand the forces they are messing with. It is thought the believer who disobeys the admonitions of Scriptures will be chastened by the Lord and may be opening the door for demonic attacks. Sometimes it is far better for us to live without this occult knowledge. If a could knew that the husband and father would die at a young age, leaving his wife and small children, they would not be able to enjoy the present nearly as much as they can without such precognition. God has promised to provide grace for His children when the difficulties and trials actually come. And He does. “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law,” reports Deuteronomy 29.29. “In Ireland, there was one Thomas Moor, who had his wife brought to bed of a child, and not having made use of her former midwife, who was malo famo, she was witched by her so that she dies. The poor man resenting it, she was heard to say that that was nothing to which should follow. #RandolphHarris 10 of 15

“She witches him, also, so that a certain tyme of the day, towards night, the Devil did always trouble him, once every day for the space of 10 or 12 yeirs, by possessing his body, and causing it to swell highly, and tearing him so that he foamed, and his face turned about to his neck, having a most fearfull disfigured visage. At which tyme he was held by strong men, out of whose grips when he gott, he would have rushed his head against the wall in hazard of braining himself, and would have leaped up and down fearfully, tumbling now and then on the ground, and cryed out fearfully with a wlyd skirle and noise, and this he did ordinarily for the space of ane hour; when the fit was over he was settled as before; and without the fit he was in his right mynd, and did know when it came on him, and gave notice of it, so that those appoyned for keeping of him prepared for it. He was, by appointment of the ministers, sent from the perish to parish for the ease of his keepers. At length, people being wearied with waiting on him, they devysed a way for ease, which was to put him in a great chyer [chair] fitted for receiving of his body, and so ordered it that it clasped round about so that he could not get out, and then by a pillue [pulley] drew him up off the ground; and when the fit came on (of whilk he still gave warning) put him in it and drew him up, so that his swinging to and froo did not hurt him, but was kept till the fit went over save fra danger, and then lett down till that tyme of the next day, when the fit recurred. Many came to see him in his fitts, but the sight was so astonishing that few desired to come again. He was a man of good report, yet we may see givin up to Satan’s molestations by the wise and soverainge God. Complains were given in against her [the midwife] for her malefices to the magistrate there, but in England and Ireland they used not to judge and condemn witches upon presumptions, but are very sparing as to that. He was alive in the year 1979.” #RandolphHarris 11 of 15

The concluding words of the story would lead us to infer that trials for witchcraft has taken place in Ireland, of which Law had heard, and from the report of which he formed his opinion relative to the certain amount of common-sense displayed by the magistrates in that country, in contradistinction to Scotland, where the very slightest evidence sufficed to being persons to torture and death. Medically speaking the families of those involved in fortune-telling may reveal in a remarkable way such things as nervous disturbances, psychopathic and hysterical symptoms, cases of St. Vitus’ dance, symptoms of paralysis, epileptics, abnormalities, unable to speak or hear, causes of mediumistic psychoses, and a general tendency towards emotional and mental illnesses etcetera. Mrs. Winchester suffered greatly from arthritis in her later years. She passed away in her sleep from heart failure on 5 September 1922 and was buried that the Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut bedside her loving husband and daughter. At the time of her death, the unrelenting construction has rambled over six acres. The sprawling mansion contained 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and 6 kitchens. Carpenters even left nails half driven when they learned of Mrs. Winchester’s death. According to the provisions of her will, Mrs. Winchester’s personal properly, including the furnishing, house hold goods, pictures, jewelry, and papers were left to her niece, Mrs. Marian Merriam Marriott, who promptly had the furnishings auction off. It required six trucks working six weeks to cart the furnishings away! The mansion and farm were not mentioned specifically in the will. They became part of Mrs. Winchester’s estate and were sold by her trustees, the Union Trust Company of San Francisco. In those days, explorers had attempted to penetrate into the mystic interior, but many never came back again, and to this day is not known where their bones moulder. There who did return were gaunt, famine-stricken, hollow-eyed, for they had looked upon death, and the stories they were told were calculated to appeal to everyone but the most daring and reckless. #RandolphHarris 12 of 15

People forgot all about the ghost stories, forgot all about the dangers, and privations they would have to endure, they started off sneaking into that mansion and thousands literally were never seen again. The experiences of some of these unfortunate people are in themselves amongst the most pathetic and moving of human stories. Allerton and Darby MacCaa were part of the moving crew. Mrs. MacCaa purchased a horse and a buggy and set up shop in the mansion, taking the thing she wanted and sleeping there to catalog items as they were being loaded on to the trucks. Gossip had it that this little, blue-eyed flaxen-haired woman was the richest person in San Francisco. Two months later, her husband still being absent, the community was startled one morning by a report that Mrs. MacCaa had been murdered. The report proved to be only too true, and the story told by a female servant in the mansion was this. She went to the lady’s room to see why she had not appeared, it being an hour and a half after usual time of raising. She found the door locked, and, repeated knocking having failed to elicit a response, she informed the butler, and expressed fears that something was wrong. Henry at once went upstairs, and failing to get an answer, he at once broke open the door, and then a terrible sight revealed itself. Lying across the bed was the body of Mrs. MacCaa. She was dressed only in her night-dress, which was disarranged and torn as if she had struggled desperately, as in fact she had, for further evidence of this was forthcoming. She was on her back, her head hanging over the farthest side of the bed. Twisted tightly round her neck until it had cut into the flesh was a crimson cord sash or belt, such as in those days was common—these sashes, or, more correctly speaking scarves, being worn by men round their waists to keep their trousers up, instead of braces. The horribly distorted features showed that the poor woman had been strangled, and subsequent medical examination brought to light that her head had been forced back with such tremendous force that the neck was absolutely broke. #RandolphHarris 13 of 15

Discolourations about the mouth indicated that a heavy hand had been pressed there to keep her from screaming. There was also deep indents and bruises on the wrists, which proved that she had struggled and been firmly grasped there by the murderer. Other parts of the body were also terribly bruised, as if in the struggle she had been banged repeatedly against the massive wooden bedstead. Murder had been done, that was certain. Tremendous force had evidently been used. It was no less certain that robbery had been the motive, for a very large travelling truck or box had been forced open, in spite of an unusually strong lock, and two iron bands round it which were secured with padlocks. All the poor creature’s clothes had been turned out of the box, and were scattered about the floor, as well as her jewelry, nothing in that was being taken. Now what did that prove? The murderer, with the cunning of a devil, knew that in such a place to possess himself of her jewelry, valuable as it was, would almost certainly lead to the murderer’s detection. No, it was neither her jewelry nor clothes he wanted, but the nuggets of gold Mrs. MacCaa had discovered hidden in the mansion. Hoards of gold could be sold ready cash for below their value. At the time of the murder, 30 people had been in and out of the house, mostly men. The News about Mrs. MacCaa murder reached her husband and nearly drove him mad. Mr. MacCaa returned to the mansion and slept in what was his wife’s room for the time, as the continued to move stuff out of Mrs. Winchesters mansion. While he was sleeping, something had touched him. He has seen a vision of a woman, and she tried to lure him out the door-to-nowhere. He shuddered like one seized with palsy. The sky was inky in its blackness. Not a star shone out from the ebony vault. Now and again, unusually terrific squalls came howling through the halls in the mansion, and outside there were showers of jagged ice and hailstone as big a marbles. It was a night of horror and danger such as those who have never been in the mansion at night. #RandolphHarris 14 of 15

“My God! what is that?” Mr. MacCaa exclaimed, for his horrified gaze there appeared in the room a mass of trembling light that in an instant seemed to change into a woman’s figure, a woman with long, steaming, dark hair. He was transfixed with horror. Then the apparition rose, waving her arms the wile, and floating out over the howling hallway; and as she rose there suddenly darted from the room, out the door-to-nowhere Mr. MacCaan, his hair streaming in the wind. He screamed of despair, and fear froze his blood as he disappeared like a flash of lightening. Mr. MacCaa, lured by the ghost, jumped out of the door-to-nowhere never to be seen again. In the study of demonical origin and identity, scriptural reserve demonstrates that the practical consideration is not where the demons came from nor precisely who they are, but that they actually exist, they may be depraved and malevolent and the human race is the prime target of their evil designs. The Bible clearly outlines how humans can be delivered from sin and evil supernaturalism through redemptive work of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Demons have methods they use in tempting, deceiving, and enslaving human beings. If magical were only a harmless superstition, then a warning such as this would not be so urgently needed. However, many people are being ruined through their foul ways. Many people in the Victorian days were troubled and burdened and sought nature healers and unqualified doctors, who relied upon occult methods for their healing success. The devil and his angels are indeed a terrible reality. Magic will appear in different lights. People are sharply divined and opinions range from considering it to be nonsense to it being an addiction. Magic is the much disputed art of or at least an attempt at knowing, and ruling the spirit, human, animal, plant and spirit World, together with the World of dead matter, through extrasensory means with the assistance of the mystical and accompanying ceremonies.” Demons are spiritual beings or personalities. This is how the Winchester Mystery House became known as “the house built by the spirits. #RandolphHarris 15 of 15