Though he was never one of Dionne Warwick's "psychic friends," Christian speaker Brian Flynn spent some time studying and doing "psychic readings" before giving his life to Jesus Christ. The most surprising thing about his experience? Finding out that it's not all fake.

Flynn, who now presents a seminar titled "The Now Age" through the Minnesota-based ministry Faith Studies International, grew up in a Catholic home, but his family left the church when he was 10. "I didn't really have much of a basis in biblical truth," he recalls. "When I was a teen I did Tarot card readings for fun. Christians said it was satanic, but nothing bad ever happened to me, so I kept doing it. When I left home I got involved in transcendental meditation. I was warned that it was satanic, but again nothing bad ever happened to me, so I thought Christians were wrong again."

Through a friend Flynn learned about a year-long course he could take to learn to do psychic readings. "I wasn't as intrigued with doing readings as I was with the fact that he seemed to be connected to something. Since I had nothing in my life, this sounded better than nothing."

Flynn signed up for the course. "It takes no psychic ability of your own, because you are taught to contact 'spirit guides.' You're taught to remove your will so the spirits can speak through you without prejudice. What you're doing is allowing yourself to fall into the textbook definition of possession."

After graduating, Flynn did readings for about a year. "A lot of the time I was very accurate, but the information wasn't from me. A lot of people look at psychics as fraudulent -- and a great many are -- but I wasn't. I never set up anything. I just went over, got myself in a certain state and did the readings. I wasn't really predicting the future, but was giving people perspective on where they were, where their friends were in their lives."

Flynn was amazed by how often he was accurate, though he found that a high accuracy rating was unnecessary for a psychic. "It doesn't really matter," he explains. "If you can get a few things right, that impresses people. If you get 20 percent right, people don't care about the rest."

Things started to go sour in Flynn's personal life, and during one of his low points a friend invited him to visit an evangelical church. "I was so down that I decided to check it out," he says. "For the first time I met Christians who walked their talk. That impressed me and bothered me at the same time."

The friend told him about a study led by Dr. Don Bierle, founder of Faith Studies International, designed to explain Christianity for skeptics. "I'm a pretty intellectual guy, so I decided to go," Flynn says. "The seminar blew me away. I never knew there was so much evidence to support the Bible -- that it was accurate and not a legend. After the class I accepted Christ."

On his way out of church Flynn heard the familiar voice of his spirit guide insisting that nothing special had happened. Over the next few days he experienced great temptation and drank heavily. "I went off the deep end," he admits. "After that experience I had to ask myself why I was engaging in this behavior at this time. Satan was attempting to keep me where he was, but in so doing he was revealing who he was. I understood that these spirit guides were demonic and that I had been deceived for a long time. The spirit guides were never upset when I engaged in any other kind of spirituality -- only when I moved to Christ did they take action."

Flynn has left the world of psychic readings and spirit guides behind, but his experience taught him that there is something genuine behind some so-called psychic abilities. "Was I just fooled into believing I knew some of these things?" he asks. "My position is that I could not have gotten these things right just by guessing. The images that would come to my mind were too often things I could not have known."

Even psychics who are in touch with demonic forces don't always get their information right, says Flynn. "Demons do not know everything," he insists. "They do not know the future. But I think they have access to knowledge outside of me and can make reasonable assumptions."

Why would demons want to give people useful information? Flynn believes the strategy is designed to undermine true spirituality. "Let's say you're a Christian. After a psychic reading you tell your pastor about it, and he tells you it's satanic and against the Bible. But if you think it was a good experience, your faith could be undermined. And if you have no faith you're going to be depending on a psychic for answers instead of seeking God. Plus there's the hope that you'll get the answer you want. Sometimes the answer from God is not the answer you want to hear."

He continues, "It's an easy route to go, a quick answer, but in the long run it's not going to lead you in the direction you want to go. It may give you some guidance temporarily, but it's not consistent enough to build your life on. A parent sometimes tells you no for a reason you just can't understand at the time. Since demons want you to depend on them, they'll tell you what you want to hear, rather than what's best for you. A loving God has to give you discipline and rules. A 'god' who doesn't care about you says whatever you want."

People are drawn to psychics because they're looking for a quick fix, says Flynn. "It's easier to pick up the phone and call a psychic than it is to be patient, pray to God and wait for an answer," he explains. "You can pick up the phone and get instant gratification."

The gratification may be instant, but it's not cheap -- many psychic hotlines charge a per-minute rate that works out to $240 an hour. "You're not going to get on and off in 10 minutes either -- they're going to keep you on for a minimum of 20 minutes," explains Flynn. "That's how they make their money. You have people who are lonely and frustrated, who don't know who the real God is, and even if you're a churchgoer you may be so biblically illiterate that you don't even know this is something the Bible forbids. Most of my seminar is aimed at churchgoers who are borderline Christians, living the philosophy of the New Age during the week, but showing up for church on Sunday."

How can Christians protect themselves from the temptation of a psychic quick fix? "You need to have confidence and faith that God is sovereign and wants what's best for you," Flynn concludes. "If you have that confidence and faith, you won't go running to psychic hotlines. You'll know that God is working out his will for our best, even if at present you can't quite understand what's happening."

-- Doug Trouten