Recently,Jacklyn Miller whose real name is Sherry Uwanawich pleaded guilty in federal court in West Palm Beach to one count of wire fraud. She had convinced a medical school student she had “God-given psychic abilities that allowed her to sense a generations old curse that was placed on the student’s family.”
Miller said she could remove the curse but it would take time and money, $550,000 worth. The victim transferred some of the money via a Western Union wire transfer making it a federal crime. Miller was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.
Sounds like something out of the playbook of the New Age Movement that became fashionable in the 70s with mediums “channeling” the wisdom of ancient “masters” charging outrageous prices for a seat at the séance.
If you have a cellphone and a credit card you can still dial-a psychic for a “reading.” One such mystic entrepreneur, Madame Cleo, mismanaged her psychic profits and went bankrupt, (you would have thought she would have seen that coming).
I remember vividly an account that appeared in an article titled “Mystics on Main Street” published in U. S. News and World Report back in the 70s that highlighted the practical dangers inherent in the mysticism of the New Age Movement.
A woman had fallen in love with a married man who ignored her advances. In desperation the woman sought out the advice of a medium. The medium told her they would not be together in this life, but would meet and marry when reincarnated in the “next life.”
Trusting the medium’s advice, the woman went and purchased a handgun, found the man she was in love with and killed him, and then turned the gun on her self. Thinking they would not be united in this life she decided to get this life over so they could move on to the next.
The English journalist G. K. Chesterton trenchantly said, “It has often been suppose that when people stop believing in God they believe in nothing. Alas, it is worse than that, when people stop believing in God they will believe in anything.”
The apostle Paul prophetically warned us, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away from the truth and will turn aside to myths,” 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
Teachings that run counter to those of the Christian Scriptures harbor danger in both the temporal and eternal realms. Many have not figured that out yet, I hope they do before it is too late in either instance. Sadly, as people turn from the truth to myths, stories like these will become more common.
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