That was two and a half years ago. These days, no effort’s necessary. She just is, without me actively sustaining her; or rather, she actively sustains herself.

Christianity lacks the “direct” experience.

Personally, I don’t think Christianity as a whole lacks it. As far as I can tell, being “reborn in the Spirit” is pretty much all about that. But the emphasis on personal experience is certainly not there, especially within groups who believe that in order for them to be valid, any personal experience of god has to be theologically and doctrinally sound.

seeing unnatural things that appear very frightening

Do they mean like people who’ve been crucified to death unexpectedly getting up and walking around again?

Christianity lacks the “direct” experience. Even though in their own bible it talks about the living Word, the Holy Spirit, and that in the last days, the Word will be “written on their hearts and minds.” So when someone quotes to me out of the bible like a mindless parrot, I want to slap them and tell them the Spirit is alive, it exists in the here and now, in fact it’s looking right at you, dumbass.

Anyway, “occult” just means “hidden,” but there do exist evil spirits that will make you feel the haunted feeling, depression, or the voices in your head. That’s just from my own experience, I’m sure they could give you those other symptoms as well.

So I think they’ve confused “evil” with “occult.” But for all intents and purposes, much of the “occult” stuff out there is pretty evil, so the guide is practical, overall. I think if they encouraged more free thinking within their own ranks, people wouldn’t have to look elsewhere for that direct experience.

Yeah it’s amazing how much of my own personal beliefs are straight out of the bible, and at the same time, how much it differs from that of mainstream Christianity. There really is a lot of good stuff in there, if you don’t let other people put any “spin” on it.

for me, that`s pretty much a checklist of my youth.