ANDREW OSTA
FORMER SHAMAN
I was baptized as an infant in the Orthodox tradition under communist rule
in the Ukraine. This was done undercover in our home, and my father was
baptized the same day. I remember having an icon (sacred symbolic image) of
Jesus Christ in the house, and my mother did attempt to read the Bible with
me once or twice, but overall, we were not a church-going family. Still, I
understood right and wrong as a child, and was a good and obedient son up
to the age of 12 or 13, when I began to rebel.
My family moved from the Ukraine to Canada when I was 11, and this move
exposed me to many negative influences. I became addicted to video games,
fascinated by money and material things, and also experienced bullying,
with the subsequent desire to be like the cool kids and fit in. Before
long, I was introduced to recreational marijuana, heavy metal music,
violent sports, etc. At thirteen, I became obsessed with a girl from my
class and in an effort to conquest her, turned to magic and witchcraft. It
was just around the time when the Internet first became widely available,
and I scouted web pages in search of magic spells and formulas. My memory
of this period is not vivid, but I know that I carried out more than a few
magic rituals and read whatever esoteric books I could find. At that time,
I had no idea of the possible dangers and repercussions of such actions.
A few years later, I experienced magic mushrooms with a friend and began to
seek out psychedelic experiences. This period lasted for many years, and
while I would never be a drug addict, I experimented with many different
consciousness-altering plants over a period of perhaps 10 years. These
experiences required explanations, so in an effort to understand them, I
turned to eastern religions and philosophies. I began meditating, chanting
mantras, and doing yoga. At 17, I became fully vegetarian, suddenly losing
all desire for meat. I remained a vegetarian for over 10 years.
When choosing which university to attend, I opted for the University of
Toronto, because I desired to get away from small town living and
experience new things. There, my spiritual search continued. I became
involved with a local Tibetan Buddhist temple, with the Hare Krishna
temple, and on a lesser level with a Siddha Yoga group and even the Church
of Scientology. All of my spare time was spent reading spiritual books,
chanting mantras, meditating, and sometimes experimenting with
psychedelics. Although I had a copy of the New Testament, I didn't really
give it a chance. I remember reading something about it being shameful for
men to have long hair and saying to myself, "This is not for me." (I had
long hair at the time.) Only later did I learn the difference between God's
word and the writer's personal opinion. Not every statement in the Bible
should be taken as God's explicit command applying to everyone, at all
times throughout history and without exception. Many of the customs that
were taken for granted 2000 years ago are not relevant today. In the end,
God is concerned with our hearts, not with our haircuts or traditions. This
one statement about the appropriate length of hair made me perceive the
Christian tradition as shallow and superficial, and I put away my New
Testament, leaving it untouched on the shelf for many years.
In the university, I experienced what is known as "kundalini awakening." It
is impossible for me to describe the experience, because it was so intense
and multifaceted that my memory was not able to record it with any
accuracy. I just remember that my breathing stopped, and a bolt of energy
rose up my spine and broke into my skull like a sledgehammer. This was
accompanied by sensations of heat, electricity, a buzzing in my ears, and a
flashback of many extremely vivid memories of scenes from my childhood. The
experience left me exhilarated and in awe. Over the years that followed, I
had this experience hundreds of times, though the first time was perhaps
the most intense. Reading whatever literature I could find on the subject,
I understood that awakening the kundalini was the goal of a number of
eastern spiritual paths, with people meditating for decades in hopes of
experiencing it. In my case however, the initial excitement faded and was
replaced by a sense of depression. "So, I achieved this awakening," I
thought, "and now what?" I could relate to John Lennon's Yer Blues
:
"My father was of the sky, my mother was of the earth
I am of the universe and you know what it's worth
Yes, I'm lonely, wanna die..."
I continued my search, meeting three or four big-name Hindu gurus, and
getting initiated by Amma. She gave me a mantra that I was supposed to
repeat at least 108 times every day, but I remember getting home and
chanting it just a few times before saying, "Sorry Amma, this is not going
to happen. It just doesn't feel right." Years before that, I was chanting
the Hare Krishna mantra 1728 times a day (the minimum!) and sometimes twice
as much as that. After a couple of years, the mantra became automatic in
me, and I would hear it in my head at all times, even when I was doing
math, reading books, or sleeping in my bed. The moment I opened my eyes in
the morning, the mantra was there resonating in my mind. I would catch the
end of it, meaning it had been going all night long. After a while, I felt
the mantra taking on a life of its own, and as I watched it spinning round
and round in my head, I realized that the sounds of it felt alien to me,
and that I had no idea what the words I was hearing 24 hours a day really
meant. It was certainly a prayer of sorts, but to whom and asking for what?
Thus, after reaching such a high level of mantra meditation, I forced
myself to stop, because the mantra's persistent self-repetition inside me
began to scare me. Several years later, I returned to mantra practice with
100,000 repetitions of a mantra to the Hindu god Shiva, at the suggestion
of another Amma devotee.
Meanwhile, I also became interested in the shamanic plant called Ayahuasca,
the vine of the dead. I read through hundreds of experiences with it on
Internet forums, found out where to buy it, and began experimenting with
it. More indescribable experiences followed, which I have neither the time
nor the desire to expound on. By taking this substance, I made myself
available to entities - whether spiritual or physical, I don't know - who
could see me from very far away and come to visit me. At the time, my
worldview did not have a place for the concept of evil. I basically
imagined that all entities are essentially good, and that spirits only
existed to edify and serve people like me.
My focus turned to reading all the books on Amazonian shamanism I could
find, and I quickly made up my mind to go to Peru to experience contact
with spirit entities under the guidance of an experienced shaman. To make
this possible, I took on a year-long job in South Korea teaching English to
save money. There, I met a Christian girl who became my first real
girlfriend, and who, no doubt, prayed for me. While in Korea, due to
extremely strict drug laws, I abstained from all mind-altering substances
for an entire year. When my friends in Canada offered me to smoke with them
upon my return, I could no longer enjoy it. The ever more potent Canadian
marijuana incapacitated me completely, so I renounced that part of my life;
but I still wanted to go to Peru and study shamanism.
My first visit to Peru was for three weeks, followed by a longer one later,
which lasted eight months. There, I participated in ceremonies involving
ayahuasca and other plants under at least half a dozen different shamans.
Before long, I became a student of one, keen on eventually becoming a
shaman myself. This part of my life is described in detail in my first
book, "Shamans and Healers", which I wrote in the form of a day-to-day
journal during my stay in Peru. By this time, I had fallen in love with
another Christian girl, who was also, no doubt, praying for me. In fact,
meeting her was an answer to a prayer, because although I was living like a
lost soul by Christian standards, I still had the habit of talking to God,
and I asked Him for a life companion shortly before meeting her.
The eight months in Peru weren't easy. The experiences I had there were as
powerful as my earlier kundalini awakenings and were soon followed by a
similar sense of hopeless depression. It was as if the more I experienced,
the more miserable I became. The only thing that interested me was the
supernatural. Over those eight months, I lost all connection with the
material world. I never talked to anyone who was not deeply involved in
shamanism, except for occasional phone conversations with my girlfriend,
whom I left back in Canada.
After several months of faithfully serving and obeying my teacher, it
dawned on me that he was consistently lying to me, using me, and
manipulating me. I entered into a love-hate relationship with him, loving
and admiring him on one level for all the amazing things he could do, but
hating him for taking me for a fool. During my last two months, I moved out
of his house and went into seclusion, fasting and praying in a little hut
in the jungle. When my teacher would come to visit, I would avoid him as
much as possible. This difficult period culminated in a crisis. Every day,
I felt exhausted, hopeless, and near to suicidal. Then, in one ceremony, I
had a vision of Jesus, and realized that my time in Peru was done. There
was nothing else I needed from the shamans or the plants. Still locked up
in my hut, I found myself praying for healing and forgiveness, intuitively
singing "Lord Have Mercy" in Russian, part of the Jesus Prayer. Tears
flowed from my eyes as I paced around my hut, going through layers and
layers of sadness, frustration, pain, and anger. I realized that the path
of shamanism was not for me and returned to Canada, but my inner crisis
continued.
Because of my involvement with shamanism, many unnerving supernatural
things began to happen in my house. Things would go missing, music would
turn on and off by itself, the lights would turn on and off, and from time
to time, demonic voices would come through on the telephone, which was
absolutely horrifying. Almost every night, I would get panic attacks,
accompanied by extremely rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath, and I was
filled with a terrible anxiety. When I did sleep, my shaman teacher entered
my dreams and ordered me around: "You have to come back to Peru." Instead,
I went to Mexico to visit my girlfriend. For three months, I tried to
recover from my time in Peru and get back to normal. What I really wanted
was to wipe the slate clean and start over. This is what I was praying for
deep in my heart, but I did not know where the answer would come from. I
had several more ceremonies with shamans and healers in Mexico, but if they
helped at all, the relief was only temporary.
By this time, my girlfriend was also back in Mexico with her highly devoted
mother. They suggested I go to a Christian center in the mountains of
Oaxaca to see how Christian healers work, how they compare to Peruvian
shamans. I had very little interest in Christianity, but thought the visit
would be worthwhile from a purely scientific point of view (I wanted to
know how these people operated, and whether their songs and prayers really
helped anyone). And so, I met Jose and Ela, a married couple in their 50's,
who had gone through nearly two decades of deep involvement with eastern
religions, drugs, and the occult. Independently, each of them received a
vision of Jesus, telling them to renounce everything and follow Him,
because He was the only way. Both were scared to follow the calling,
thinking that it could mean divorce, but when one of them finally decided
to make that leap of faith, it turned out that the other was thinking
exactly the same thing. Shortly after they gave their hearts and lives to
Jesus, people began asking them for prayer and healing. They prayed, and
miracles happened. Thus, their ministry began, and continued full time for
over 16 years, totally free to all who sought their help.
Unfortunately for me, Jose was not very talkative. I had tea with him and
over approximately 40 minutes, he only said two or three words. When I
found out that Jose would be driving back to the city two days later, I
asked him for a lift into town. "There is nothing for me in this place," I
figured. For about half an hour, we drove in silence, then I attempted to
start a conversation. After some time, Jose frankly told me, "Look, you
need help."
I felt highly advanced spiritually. My spiritual ego was huge. I had
amulets and talismans from all kinds of gurus and shamans "protecting me,"
hanging from my neck and around my wrists. And yet, Jose's words rang true.
His specialty was deliverance ministry. I asked him whether it could be
possible that I had any demons or negative entities attached to me. He
didn't have to evaluate me before replying, "Of course you do. It's
impossible not to have demons attached to you, after doing all those things
you did." And so, I decided to stay at the center longer. I came in the
name of science, so I figured I would test out whatever Jose and Ela
offered. After wandering around the city for a day, I returned to the
mountain with Jose and told him I'd be willing to go through the
deliverance process. I renounced my past, buried all of my amulets, and
accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior in a humble prayer. I realized that
the idea that I didn't need a savior was just another aspect of my big ego.
I always wanted to be in control, mixing and matching spiritual teachings
as I saw fit, forming my own religion, which I could always change to fit
my own desires.
One night, I had a vision that promised total healing if I would stop
living in sexual sin. However, my will was not strong enough to do that,
and I had to go through about four years of needless suffering as a result.
Some nights, I would get spiritual visions, but I also struggled with
achieving faith. I did not know the answer to many of the questions in my
mind. I did not know whether I truly believed the Bible or not, but I was
willing to give Jesus a chance, because everything else I had tried up to
this point had failed me.
My deliverance was a slow and rather painful process. Right before my first
session, I was tormented by demons all night. They showed me horrible
scenes involving my family members and loved ones. When I awoke I was
terribly anxious, like a tiger in a cage. It was an anxiety I had
experienced many times before. An unbearable urge to smoke came over me,
and although it was against the rules, I chain-smoked my cigarettes until
Jose suddenly called me in for prayers. I began confessing and repenting,
while Jose prayed to God to forgive me and accept me in the name of Jesus.
Sometimes, he prayed in tongues, and I didn't know what he was saying, but
I felt the power. There were both physical and emotional effects, and once
the prayers were finished, I felt a sense of relief and liberation. It was
almost like being born again, and although I felt better, many more such
sessions would follow. After my first session with Jose, I threw my
cigarettes into the fire and never smoked again, except two or three times
in moments of extreme anxiety. I also renounced all mind-altering
substances and all esoteric practices the same day, never returning to them
again.
Although I was baptized as a baby, I decided to get baptized again by Jose
and Ela. In retrospect, I believe that my baptism as an infant helped me by
protecting me during my wanderings as a lost spiritual seeker, because
everything could have turned out differently, probably much worse than it
actually did. Immediately after my baptism, a tremendous weariness came
over me, and I again felt tired, miserable, and hopeless. I fell on the
ground, about to break into tears, because my baptism didn't take away my
pain and sorrow the way I had expected. As my knees hit the ground, I heard
the audible voice of God saying, "He wants to be miserable, but I won't let
him."
Over the next few years, I did little to move further along my newfound
Christian path. The best I could do was just hang in there, enduring the
spiritual attacks coming against me from my enemies, who had once been my
allies. I was almost always tired. The eight months in Peru took a toll on
every part of my being. My hair turned grey, my teeth were full of holes,
my intestines had parasites. I had visited so-called healers hundreds of
times, but nobody helped me prevent the health problems I began having. In
fact, I was sicker and weaker than ever.
God led me to meet a number of amazing people, and they prayed for a hunger
for God to come alive in me. I often wondered why I had been so hungry
earlier for all things New Age, but felt lukewarm when it came to all
things Christian. I didn't feel the same hunger and fire for Christ as I
had felt previously for New Age spirituality, but I kept praying for it
year after year, and the hunger eventually came. When I finally started
learning about Christianity, I realized that it is a much more interesting
world view than I had first assumed. Even now, I have a list of things I
wish to learn about my faith that will no doubt take years to comprehend.
Once you really get into the Christian path, you will never get bored.
Although I was through with shamanism, many unpleasant aftereffects
persisted. The years that followed were some of the most difficult of my
life. My relationship with my girlfriend nearly failed a number of times,
but in 2014, we finally got married. Having been raised Presbyterian, my
wife did not believe in the gifts of the Spirit, while I certainly did,
having experienced the shadow side of them in shamanism. I kept praying to
receive the gift of tongues for my edification. In 2015, while on our
honeymoon in Europe, my wife went to a deserted Presbyterian church to
pray. Before long, she realized that she didn't really know how to pray.
She could pray in her own words for 10 or 15 minutes, but afterwards the
inspiration dried up and she could think of nothing else to say. Leaving
the church, she sat on a bench by the entrance thinking about her
predicament. "Why can't I pray longer, God?" she asked in her mind. "I want
to pray, but I just don't know how."
She sat there for a few more minutes, when a car pulled up to the old
church and a Korean lady stepped out. She spoke almost no English.
"You... like... pray?" she asked.
"Yes," my wife replied.
"Come," said the lady, entering back into the church.
That afternoon they prayed together for over three hours, with tears and
tongues. When my wife came home, she could pray in tongues fluently.
Later, I attended Russian Orthodox services in France, which raised more
issues. After each Sunday worship, the pastor invited everyone to tea and
snacks, and the visitors asked spiritual questions. He answered everything
very wisely, and bit by bit, my theological doubts began to disperse. I
started understanding the events in my life from God's point of view,
looking for a deeper meaning behind everyday events. I studied theology for
several years on my own, until Christian doctrine began to make perfect
sense, and I began to feel I could answer most of the difficult questions a
new ager or an atheist might ask a Christian.
Coincidentally, my career as an artist took off the year I decided to
follow Christ, and it has been on the rise ever since. It is by no means an
easy profession to have, but God has provided in an impressive manner. At
the time of writing this, I own my dream home, which I was able to buy the
year my wife became pregnant with our first child. As in everything else in
my life, God put all of the puzzle pieces in place to make this possible.
Long before my baptism in Oaxaca, people used to ask me whether I was a
believer, seeing Christian symbols in my paintings, but I had no idea what
they were talking about. I didn't even know that fish was a Christian
symbol, but I certainly painted a lot of fish. Overall, this has been an
amazing, unpredictable journey full of blessings and miracles, and I sure
hope that I'm nowhere near the end of the ride yet. Not for a second do I
miss my previous life or wish to go back. Through the years, the passions
and addictions slowly faded, leaving a peace I could not even have dreamed
of when I was younger.
My road hasn't been easy. Even now, challenges and trials persist. And yet,
I am blessed to feel God's loving care, protection, and provision
everywhere I go, so when there seems to be no way out, I call out to my
God, and He answers. In times of stress or anxiety, all I have to do is
pray and peace comes over me. If you give your heart to God and ask Him for
what you need with the faith of a child, He will surely answer. Jesus never
claimed that our path would be an easy one, but we must remember than
nothing is impossible for God. Difficulties don't have to bring us down. We
can use them to practice having faith, worshipping God no matter what, just
like Job did.
I don't believe in easy salvation, or in a one-step formula for accepting
Jesus and being instantly saved. It might happen that way for some people,
but it would be a big mistake to think of yourself as saved if you are
still living in sin. A marriage does not come to its culmination when the
newlyweds walk down the aisle. The wedding is just the first step of a very
long journey together; it is a promise of commitment, but without actual
faithfulness - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year - a wedding
means almost nothing. A wife cannot be faithful for two hours every Sunday
and unfaithful the rest of the time. Likewise, a Christian must be a
Christian both inside and outside the church. We need to be praying for a
hunger for God and a repulsion towards evil. Only then will we become fully
protected from the dark side. As long as we keep holding on to sinful
habits, regardless of how insignificant or harmless they may seem, we are
opening doors to the enemy and giving the devil every right to torment us.
If you're thinking about dabbling in the new age or the occult, don't,
because it doesn't lead anywhere worth heading. And if you are already
involved in these things, do yourself a favor - get out, repent, and don't
look back.
Andrew Osta is a full time painter, songwriter, and author of three
books. He may be contacted through his website:
www.AndrewOsta.com
or through his Facebook page.
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