Sam Goodchild trained as a multi-faith minister, which fitted perfectly with her New Age beliefs. But with Halloween now a major festival in our once-Christian nation, she explains – graphically – her journey out of spiritual darkness
I didn’t need Jesus. I was content with my spirituality and the path I was on. I’ve seen testimonies where people have found God after hitting rock bottom or in the midst of great tragedy. But that’s not my story…
Training as a reiki healer in 2002, I embarked on a self-healing mission: reiki, counselling, singing bowl healing, crystals, quantum hypnosis, past life regressions, spirit medium and angel card readings – you name it – I’ve tried it.
In 2013 I trained as a multi-faith minister and also started teaching mindfulness and meditation. I had more therapy and settled into a stable relationship, doing work that I enjoyed and living in a nice home.
Living in Brighton, it was easy to enrol on various ‘spiritual courses’; I read many ‘New Age’ books and developed my own view of God. He was ‘Source’, impersonal and disinterested, a nebulous energy.
Strange scratch marks had appeared on my arms and shoulders
Next I started practising ‘law of attraction’, working hard to raise my vibration and visualise a perfect world (because we “create our own reality”).
I avoided negative thoughts and when bad things happened, I blamed myself, thinking I must have ‘attracted’ it!
So I thought I was OK – but I was lost.
The hole in my soul was being plastered over with temporary relief from various ‘New Age practices’. It was just enough to keep me going back for more, but never completely fulfilling.
But by early 2022 I was having night terrors. Waking up in the middle of the night, I would sit up in bed screaming while struggling out of sleep.
I would have a sense of being underwater and paralysed, shouting “Help, help!” as I surfaced. It often woke my partner, who would soothe me saying, “It’s only a dream.”
I also suffered sporadic sleep paralysis. Some mornings I woke up exhausted with a sensation of being bruised all over. Strange scratch marks had appeared on my arms and shoulders.
Then I received ‘positive messages’ – whisperings and channelled writings telling me to start learning the tarot. So I did, and got friendly with the teacher.
Over coffee, she rolled her eyes and told me her Christian friends were praying for her. “I bet it doesn’t even say you can’t do tarot in the Bible!” I exclaimed.
I had a mentor who knew the Bible so I asked him and he referred me to Deuteronomy. “Demons love that stuff”, he said.
He turned into a green-skinned, zombie demon before my eyes
When I told him about my strange nocturnal experiences, he said, “If anything like that happens again, say ‘I cast you out in the name of Jesus Christ!’”
But I shrugged off his advice. Meanwhile, the ‘exhausted with bruised skin’ mornings were becoming more frequent, the night terrors were getting worse….
Then one night, I woke up with sleep paralysis. I couldn’t move or speak. I felt the usual panic but ‘thought’ the words, “I cast you out in the name of Jesus Christ…”
It stopped instantly. I couldn’t believe it!
The sense of peace, acceptance and fulfilment I feel now I’ve found Jesus Christ is incomparable
In the morning, I threw away my tarot cards and ordered a copy of the Bible.
The next night, during a lucid dream, a handsome young man was walking by my side. “I’m your friend,” he said.
I smiled – then was suddenly suspicious. “Reveal yourself in the name of Jesus!” I demanded. Before my eyes, he turned into a green-skinned, zombie demon. I started shouting, “I cast you out in the name of Jesus!”
On the second repetition, he disappeared – but my voice sounded demonic. At the third repetition, I started coughing and he came up out of my mouth. I woke up, shocked but feeling inexplicably free.
During another spiritual battle, I awoke with a circular-mouthed, saw-toothed demon clamped around my mouth. I could feel a sucking sensation and a spreading prickling soreness, with pins and needles in my face. I couldn’t move or speak.
Mentally, I called on Jesus – it held on tight. After three repetitions, it let go and disappeared. I was left with a slightly bruised, tingling sensation in my cheeks.
Realisation dawned. It was that thing that had been syphoning my life force for the last 18 months.
Two days later, as I walked along the street, it suddenly occurred to me that Satan is real. Then the realisation hit: “God is REAL”, followed by “So Jesus must be real!”
As I stared down the street, the scales fell from my eyes. Everything looked different.
It suddenly came to me: “We’re living in Satan’s playground”.
I got a glimpse of God
Then I got a glimpse of God. A tiny, split-second glance at his awesome power. In that moment, I knew that God loves us SO much.
He respects free will absolutely. But he is always calling us.
All this happened in February to April 2022, and I was helped by a local Christian couple who invited me to their group meetings. In May I started attending an evangelical church and am hoping to be baptised in November (the earliest the pastor can offer!).
“So Jesus must be real!”
To warn those in the local New Age community, I started doing talks about my experiences, which were met with very mixed reviews! But some have started coming to our local Christian group to find out more about Christ.
The New Age is full of lies and all its practices are invitations to demons. I have no need for all these practices anymore.
The sense of peace, acceptance and fulfilment I feel now I’ve found Jesus Christ is incomparable. It turns out I did need him.