Dr Paul Allen

Please note: the author of this article is an evangelical-Arminian academic who examined the occult and the borders or boundaries of Christianity.  ............................................................................................................. For much of my life, I have been intensely interested in certain aspects of occultism (very broadly defined as hidden or secret spiritual powers and realities related especially to divination and/or magick—the manipulation of hidden spiritual powers to create or alter reality). When I was a child, growing up in the “thick” of American conservative Christianity, I was often warned away from things like ouija boards, fortune-tellers, psychic and paranormal phenomena, practices, etc. I was taught that these things were all “doorways” into Satan’s territory and, when dabbled in, could open oneself up to demonic possession. Once, when I was about eight years old, just beginning to think for myself and act on my own, I wandered into a fo