Halloween is this weekend, in case you haven’t noticed. But it’s hard not to notice. Halloween has become the second-largest retail holiday in North America. It’s second only to Christmas in sales generated by the strong consumer desire to party with the dead and macabre elements. Imitating ghosts and demons may seem like harmless fun. It’s not. Playing with the darker elements of this world is inviting strong forces into your life. You do this at your own peril.

I recently interviewed a lady who spent 20 years as a practicing witch. Her story was the centerpiece of a Beyond Today program called “Dancing With the Dark Side.” The program aired last week on WGN America and drew considerable comment from viewers.

One viewer wrote asking for help counseling a child who wished to become a witch. Another wrote detailing the disastrous impact on his family from involvement with the dark, satanic world. As my interview with “Mary” (the pseudonym for the woman who was once a witch) shows, you do not want to go down that road. Here is part of that interview.

McNeely: What do you think you were looking for when you entered into that world?

Mary: Power. To be special, to be unique.

McNeely: You think that’s what other people are looking for, as well?

Mary: Oh yes. Yeah. I mean, you get into it seeking power to control your life, manifest or will things into your life, but the bad thing about it is after it progresses, it starts taking on a negative tone. I started out with Wicca. I started out with thinking I was just worshipping the earth because I wanted something tangible, something I could see, something I could adhere to. The equinox, the sabbaths in Wicca. It soon didn’t feel like enough.

I felt compelled to check out or read books about necromancy and voodoo, and like I said, I was in it for about 20 years and there toward the end, I felt like if I hadn’t had the car wreck, I would’ve been gone, because I would’ve opened myself up to channeling. I’d already started using my own blood in my own rituals, in my own spells. I’d already started making voodoo dolls and casting bad spells on people.

McNeely: Did you actually see those spells come to pass?

Mary: Mhm.

McNeely: You did?

Mary: Yes.

McNeely: Things happened?

Mary: Yes. Things always happened.

Mary went on to explain that people who dabble with the dark arts are looking for a power to control their lives and that of others. They end up being controlled by a darker power they do not understand. Fortunately for Mary, she escaped the hold of the dark side and is building a better life for herself. She finally is in control of her life, in a right way.

Why not watch the entire Beyond Today video, “Dancing With the Dark Side,” on our BeyondToday.tv Web site.

Satan offers a clever counterfeit path to power for those who venture into his dark world. But the tragedy is that his path is a dead-end street filled with wrecked and broken lives. Evil is a very real force in this modern world that scoffs at the existence of a spiritual dimension. This Halloween, instead of celebrating a holiday for the dead, why not educate yourself in the truth? Our booklet Is There Really a Devil? provides solid biblical teaching on the subject.

Though the media often trivializes it today, there is indeed a dark spiritual world, and it wants to deceive and destroy you. Don’t let it happen. Resist it, and cling to the incredible future God has prepared for you.