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The power of positive thinking has taken an occult turn. After his UFC victory at the White House last month, Sean O’Malley told Joe Rogan that he had seen the outcome beforehand and manifested it into reality.Whether he meant those words casually or literally, they reflect an increasingly common belief among athletes, entrepreneurs, influencers, and podcasters. Success is no longer merely achieved through discipline and hard work. It is manifested — even conjured. Consciousness itself creates the future.Our thoughts influence our actions, but they do not govern reality. We make plans, set goals, exercise prudence, and work diligently. The outcome ultimately belongs to God.At first glance, this language may sound harmless. Athletes have long used visualization techniques. Coaches encourage competitors to imagine success before a game. Olympic athletes mentally rehearse routines. Quarterbacks visualize throws. Fighters picture victories.But modern manifesting goes far beyond sports psychology.Traditional visualization is straightforward. Imagining success can improve focus, reduce anxiety, build confidence, and prepare the body for performance. The athlete does not create reality through thought. He prepares himself to perform when reality arrives.Manifesting makes a different claim.It holds that consciousness participates in creating reality. The fighter does not merely prepare for victory; he helps bring it into existence. The entrepreneur does not merely work toward success; he attracts it. The individual does not merely respond to the world; he creates his own reality.This way of thinking has become so common that many people no longer recognize how strange it is. Yet it represents a significant religious shift in modern American culture.Ironically, little about it is new.The roots of today’s manifestation movement extend into 19th-century American religious history and, before that, into occult and hermetic traditions.One important source was Christian Science, founded by Mary Baker Eddy. Christian Science taught that matter is subordinate to mind and that many human problems result from false thinking rather than objective conditions.Christian Science differs from today’s manifestation culture in important ways, but both assign consciousness a far more fundamental role than traditional Christianity permits.Closely related was the New Thought movement. Its writers and lecturers taught that positive thinking could produce health, prosperity, and success. The message was simple: Change your thoughts, and you can change your reality.RELATED: How the WNBA’s biggest star became its biggest embarrassment Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty ImagesMany modern manifestation teachers merely repackage New Thought for the social media age.The vocabulary has changed, but the assumptions remain strikingly similar.Instead of speaking about positive thinking — the scientific language of that era — people now invoke frequencies, vibrations, energy, alignment, and quantum possibilities — the scientific language of ours. Instead of spiritual laws, they speak of neuroscience and mindset.The central claim remains unchanged: Your thoughts possess creative power.The fundamental reality, they teach, is consciousness. The awakened self is divine.This worldview also resembles older occult, esoteric, and theosophical traditions.Historically, occult systems taught that hidden knowledge gave initiates access to powers unavailable to ordinary people. Reality operates according to secret principles that could be learned and harnessed. The enlightened individual gained mastery by acquiring that knowledge.It is the promise of the serpent in the garden: You will know as God knows.Human beings know by discovering what is real. God knows as the creator who determines what is real.Modern manifestation culture often follows the same pattern. Its teachers claim that reality contains countless possible futures and that consciousness selects among them. Individuals are urged to discover hidden truths about their power, unlock limiting beliefs, raise their vibrations, and learn the principles by which the universe operates.The pattern appears throughout many nonbiblical religions: You are a higher consciousness trapped in a body and must discover the secret that will restore you to divinity.The problem is not sin but rather ignorance of your own godhood.You do not need redemption through Christ to restore communion with God. You need enlightenment to remember that you are God.That is why modern manifestation can accurately be described as a form of neo-gnosticism.Ancient gnosticism taught that human beings contained a hidden divine element. The fundamental human problem was ignorance of this truth. Salvation came through secret knowledge that awakened people to their true nature.Modern manifestation often follows the same structure:You possess hidden creative powers.You do not understand your true potential.Limiting beliefs keep you trapped.Special knowledge sets you free.The language differs, but the story remains familiar. And its attraction is obvious.Manifestation promises control in an uncertain world. It offers success without dependence, power without submission, and meaning without repentance. It assures individuals that they are not subject to forces beyond themselves but possess the power to shape their destinies.RELATED: What if the commies were right after all? Apic/Getty ImagesYet the system contains a serious flaw: It is self-validating.When someone succeeds, the success proves manifestation works. When someone fails, the failure is blamed on faulty manifestation. Success confirms the theory. Failure confirms it too.It resembles the gambler who remembers the one time double zero hit twice in a row and forgets every losing bet.A theory that can absorb every possible result explains nothing. It merely improvises a new explanation after the fact.Christianity begins somewhere else entirely.Scripture teaches that human beings are not creators but creatures. God alone exists from eternity. He created human souls and a material world, and he called that world very good.Our thoughts influence our actions, but they do not govern reality. We make plans, set goals, exercise prudence, and work diligently. The outcome ultimately belongs to God.The biblical question is not, “What reality can I create?” It is, “What has God ordained, and how should I respond faithfully?”That distinction may sound subtle, but it marks two radically different visions of the world.One places creative sovereignty in human consciousness.The other places it in God.So when O’Malley says he manifested his victory, he may mean only that he visualized success and prepared himself mentally. If so, there is little controversy.But if he means that consciousness itself helped create the result, then he is participating in a much larger religious movement — one stretching from 19th-century metaphysical spirituality through New Thought and occultism into today’s podcast culture.The language is modern. The temptation is ancient.

Steve Hemphill is the former CEO of a seven-figure tech company, lifelong cessationist, and now one of the most unusual ministers in America.Hemphill tells BlazeTV host Steve Deace that his life changed after his father suddenly passed away of a heart attack, leaving behind an “ancient safe.” What he found was a sealed envelope addressed to him and his brother.“It said, ‘If you boys find this envelope after I’m dead, do not open it. It is not important. Destroy this envelope without opening it, Dad.’ And it was dated about five months before he died very suddenly and unexpectedly,” he explains.“So, we burned it without reading it. And I think about it every day.”“I became very curious about heaven because of the envelope from Dad. It made me curious about what was in the envelope. But that also led to a curiosity about what’s eternity really like,” he explains.As Hemphill began looking deeper into the Bible, he began to realize that spiritual warfare is real.“If you don’t have the Holy Spirit, you got a demon spirit instead. In other words, only people with the Holy Spirit can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’” he says, recalling a run-in he had with a retired professor from Stanford.The professor walked into a Burger King, saw Hemphill there reading the Bible in a booth, and began to say “some very strange things about the Bible.”“So, I gently interrupted this guy and said, ‘Dr. Smith, let me ask you a question. Is Jesus Lord?’ This guy got so angry at that simple three-word question that he jumps up out of the booth and starts running circles around the Burger King dining room there, screaming at me at the top of is lungs, ‘No, who is Jesus? I don’t know who Jesus is. I’m wasting my time talking to you,’” he recalls.“I looked up at him and said, ‘Sir, I’m going to pray for you that someday you can know Jesus as Lord.’ And that made him even angrier. He leaned into me, and he’s spitting through gritted teeth, and he shakes his finger right in my face,” he continues.“He says, ‘Don’t you dare pray for me.’ And I don’t know why I did this because I’ve never done it before or since. I smiled and said, ‘I can pray for you right now. You can’t stop me.’ And he screamed and ran out of Burger King and slammed the door,” he adds.“So, that was the story that turned the tide for me and began to open my eyes that there’s modern-day situations where demonic activity is still happening,”This recognition of spiritual warfare eventually led to Hemphill using “stakes,” which refers to putting the word of God on evil land.“My buddy was a Christian, and this guy he was friends with was not a Christian. And so, when I met the guy, I said, ‘What’s wrong? What’s your spiritual warfare problem?’ And he said, ‘I have demons on my property, and I’m getting ready to commit suicide,’” Hemphill tells Deace.“I said, ‘Let’s take some tent stakes and write Bible verses on them and hammer them all the way in the ground on the four corners of your land where this is happening. Let’s read the verses out loud to honor God and pray and ask him to make all these bad things stop in your life and see what he does,’” he explains.“The next week he became a Christian and wanted to be baptized. And that was just bizarre to me. It was hard for me to swallow,” he adds.But when another woman came to him for help after having terrifying demonic dreams every night at 3 a.m., he tried the same thing. Her nightmares stopped.“Next thing you know, they’re asking me to stake out this public school. And we did that, and all the problems went away there. The guy causing them died of a heart attack immediately, 30-year-old guy,” he explains. “I can’t make this stuff up.”Want more from Steve Deace?To enjoy more of Steve's take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

For years, we've been force-fed the same sickening story. Young Americans aren't getting married because they simply can't afford to. The economy is disastrous, wages are too low, and housing costs require selling a kidney. If we could just inject another thirty grand into everyone’s bank accounts, young lovers would magically sprint down the aisle. It’s a beautiful, thoroughly victim-centric fairy tale that makes everyone nod along. It’s also absolute nonsense.Government handouts and cultural decay have combined to tell men that effort is for suckers.A recent report from the Institute for Family Studies dismantles the narrative. The data reveals that the slow-motion suicide of American marriage has less to do with stagnant pay and much more to do with a mind virus that has convinced an entire generation they are too poor to love. We love blaming the system because it absolves us of our crippling neuroses. But the numbers don’t lie, even if our Instagram feeds do.Money changes everything?Inflation-adjusted median earnings for young men recently hit a near 50-year high. Meanwhile, marriage rates continued their downward spiral. If money were the magic libido potion that many claim it is, these trends should move together. Instead, they look like two bitter, screaming divorcees tearing away from a shattered home in opposite directions.Young men today generally out-earn the idealized pipe-smoking fathers of the 1960s and '70s. Those mid-century men somehow managed to marry and breed without first acquiring quartz countertops, stainless-steel appliances, or a diversified stock portfolio. They didn't postpone children until they could afford a five-star Disney excursion. Instead, they embraced the brutal reality of starting with absolutely nothing, expecting to build a life with someone they could love and trust.Contrary to conventional wisdom, today's married 30-year-olds own homes at roughly the same rate as their counterparts in 1970. And those homes are massive, bloated monuments to excess, full of technology that would have looked like witchcraft a few decades ago. Somehow, grandparents survived the unbearable trauma of raising kids without an automated espresso maker, a smart home cinema system, or three streaming subscriptions to numb the existential dread.RELATED: Masked daredevil couple climb to top of Empire State Building to unfurl banner with message L-R: Jason Mendez/Getty Images; Michael Nagle/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesMergers and acquisitionsSomewhere along the line, the classic vow "for richer or for poorer" was replaced with "call me when your credit score hits 800." Marriage is no longer the launchpad for adulthood, but the prize handed out at the end of an exhausting corporate obstacle course. You don’t get married to build a life any more; instead, you do it to signal to your peers that you have successfully conquered capitalism. What was once the beginning of a life is now a form of social proof.We can thank Hollywood and Silicon Valley for this psychological castration. For decades, pop culture has glorified permanent adolescence and consequences-free swiping. Algorithms have transformed regular, middle-class existence into an agonizing, daily comparison against 20-year-old crypto-millionaires who rent private jets for 10 minutes to take a selfie. When every engagement announcement looks like a royal wedding funded by an oil cartel, an ordinary life feels like an insult.The sickness runs deeper than mere vanity, though. We are also witnessing a strange strike among prime-age men who have voluntarily withdrawn from the workforce to master video games in permanently darkened rooms. Government handouts and cultural decay have combined to tell men that effort is for suckers. Why bother putting on a pair of pants and clocking in when you can just opt out entirely and vape in peace?'Know your worth'Meanwhile, modern relationship advice reads like a venture capital prospectus. Young women are bombarded with articles treating courtship like a hostile corporate takeover. "Know your worth," the influencers scream. "Never settle. Demand a partner who matches your tax bracket." And if you find him, make sure he can cook, make you laugh, and respond to texts immediately.It sounds empowering, but it’s actually a recipe for dying alone with 12 cats. A dependable plumber making a healthy living is discarded because he doesn’t match the lifestyle of a fake TikTok entrepreneur posing next to a Lamborghini he almost certainly doesn’t own. Reality cannot compete with a manufactured version of it.The ultimate irony is thick enough to choke on. The richest, safest, most pampered generation in human history genuinely believes it is too destitute to commit to another human being. We’ve systematically dismantled every single rung of the societal ladder and are now standing around scratching our heads, wondering why the birth rate resembles a flatline on a hospital monitor.Until young Americans recognize that a good marriage is built on character rather than curated luxury, churches will remain empty, dating apps will remain an endless purgatory, and cats will eventually inherit more apartments than children.

Most of the time when people talk about spiritual warfare, the focus is on the demonic — oppression, possession, attacks, or counterattacks.But angels are also part of the unseen realm. In fact, according to standard biblical interpretations of Revelation 12, holy angels outnumber demons by about two to one.And just like demons, angels interact with human beings. Hebrews 13:2 warns, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”“There are stories about angel encounters that have been handed down throughout history — I'm talking about going all the way back to World War I,” says BlazeTV host Rick Burgess.On this episode of “Strange Encounters,” Rick revisits two of history’s most remarkable stories about angelic encounters. Psalm 34:7 in action: Angels surround missionaries on cannibal islandIn 1858, Scottish missionary John G. Paton and his wife arrived on the island of Tanna in the New Hebrides to bring the gospel to cannibal tribes. One night, hostile natives surrounded their mission station, intending to burn it down and kill them. As the Patons prayed, the attackers suddenly withdrew in fear.Roughly a year later, they learned from the chief, who had converted to Christianity, why the locals had fled that night: hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords encircled the Patons' house.Both Paton and the chief believed the army to be made up of angels.Over the following decades, the gospel message spread, and thousands upon thousands of former cannibals turned to Christ across the islands.“Truly a miracle,” says Rick. “And how was this done? With the appearance of big men in shining garments with swords protecting a missionary.”He then reads from Psalm 34:7: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.”“This one almost sounds like exactly what happened to John Paton,” he remarks.The white cavalry of 1918: Golden-haired angel leads charge against the GermansIn May 1918 during WWI, British troops in France were in a desperate position and about to be overwhelmed by a massive German advance. Suddenly, the German soldiers stopped their attack and began firing wildly at something the British could not see. The fighting halted in confusion.The British later captured two German officers. When interviewed, the officers described seeing a cavalry charge of men in white uniforms riding white horses shining like sunlight bearing down on them. Leading the troop was a towering angelic figure with golden hair, wielding a great sword.The Germans opened fire, but the riders kept advancing unharmed. Terrified, the German troops broke off their assault and fled in terror.The heavenly intervention bought enough time for American troops to arrive and capture the Germany army.“It led to the allies turning toward victory in World War I against the Germans,” says Rick.While many think that angels do not intervene in human affairs to this scale any more, Rick pushes back.“I think when we get to heaven that it may be very likely that we meet an angel or angels that we get to converse with that says, ‘You don't have any idea how many times I was sent into your life to protect you and to help you,”’ he predicts.To hear more, watch the episode above.Want more from Rick Burgess?To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.