By Daniel Owusu-Koranteng



It is becoming increasingly evident that the number and influence of people who lay claim to the possession of spiritual solutions to every physical problem had been growing exponentially. I do not have the spiritual tools to assess the unverifiable claims of these spiritual people. Indeed, it would be a fruitless effort to attempt to discuss the growing menace of false prophets in that manner.I am simply a normal human being whose cognitive ability does not go beyond the physical realm.



The booming spiritual industry



Despite my proclaimed limitations in spiritual matters, I have shown keen interest in these matters over the years and gained considerable experience in how these confidence tricksters use religion to play on the minds of their subservient and confused disciples. I have cause to worry about the increasing influence of people who lay claim to all manner of spiritual powers in our society because their methods are becoming more sophisticated and they seem to be ahead of many of our credulous citizenry.



Recent developments in the booming spirituality industry give credence to my deep worry. Though these spiritual charlatans may not have very formal training in the field of psychology, they employ highly sophisticated mind control methods to manipulate their trusting clients and disciples and as a result, become rich. I describe these self-proclaimed so-called spiritual people as mind control practitioners who have gained substantial experience in the practice of getting their victims to depend on them totally for spiritual direction in all aspects of their lives.



Mind Control Practitioners and their methods



I have followed up on the modus operandi of these mind control practitioners and have come to the realisation that their ingenuity in combining different mind control methods including scare tactics,background information gathering on clients, love bombing, among others works like magic in the programming of their clients. In the scare tactics, the mind control practitioner blames some mishap that has occurred in the life of the client such as sudden death of a loved one, marital problems or sickness on spiritual forces and then gets the client to believe in the prescription of spiritual solutions.In most cases, mind control practitioners gain the confidence of a client by carefully providing general or concrete facts about the client. The concrete fact about the client which is necessary for prophesy may be the result of information that the mind control practitioner may have gathered about a client through agents of the practitioner.



Practice they say makes perfect and some mind control practitioners have gained enormous experience in predictions through practice and can give predictions about their clients, which would be close to the truth by just observing their clients’ attitudes, dressing, age, body language among others. The mind control practitioner is aware that every user of their service seeks spiritual solution to a physical problem. The behaviour of clients could easily give a clue as to their deep-seated suspicions and frustrations. The mind control practitioner only needs to create a platform for the client to speak and they would provide a store of information about their personality and worries which could be packaged in the form of a prophesy. In effect, the client gives the watch to the mind control practitioner whose duty would be to tell the client the time. The mind control practitioner only needs to cast the netwide and move from the general to the specific.



Lessons from specific cases



It would be helpful to share some few concrete examples of the operations of these fraudsters. I closed from work one day and when I was getting close to my vehicle, I observed from afar that a nicely dressed young man was hovering around the car. When I was about to enter into my vehicle, the young man came close to me and tried to catch my attention as if he was just passing by my car . He greeted me nicely and started narrating that he got a spiritual message about me when he was passing by my car. He did not know that I had observed him from afar, as he hovered around the vicinity of my vehicle. I immediately sensed what he was up to and knew that it was possible he had spent some time around the office building, gathering information about me and other colleagues,especially when he said something concrete about me. What he did was meant to catch my attention. I simply told him I was an old dog and could give him as many prophecies as he could give me.It is most likely that he had been successful in gaining some clients among my colleagues through such acts.



There is the story of a young man around Abossey Okai who earned some income by being an operative for some so-called prophets who claimed to have spiritual powers. The young man, who was a very good swimmer,was usually employed by these “prophets” to swim in the sea around midnight with a red torch light when the “prophets” who had employed his service were performing some spiritual cleansing exercise for their clients at the beach. His duty was to swim in the sea with the red torch light close to where the spiritual cleansing was taking place and the “prophet”would point to the red light in the sea to convince the client that the red light constituted the spirits responsible for the problems that had afflicted the client. On the appearance of the red light in the sea, which the client would see, the fake prophet would offer very strong prayers until the red light in the sea vanished, signifying the conquering of the evil forces that had been disturbing the client. The fact that the client saw the red light in the sea in the dark hours of the night and that the red light vanished with the prayers of the spiritualist, would make the client a confused disciple of the false prophet forever. What the confused disciple would not know is that a young man with swimming skills had been contracted by the false prophet to be in the sea with a red torch light at those unholy hours of the night. My checks have revealed that some of the spiritualists have gone hi-tech by purchasing diving suits and communication gadgets for their accomplices which makes it possible for the accomplices to give prophesies from under the sea. Wow!!!.Confused disciples of fake prophets have no idea the extent to which these “prophets” would go in the manufacturing of the fake prophesies.



This fake but convincing miracles help the spiritualist to have total control over the vulnerable client who would be ready to obey the spiritual commandments of the spiritualist. The young Abossey Okai swimmer used to earn about GH?50 some years ago anytime he performed the red torch light fake miracle in the sea. This helped the fake prophets to make a lot of fortune from their clients. He sometimes threatened to reveal the secrets of spiritualists who refused to make immediate payments after contracting him to perform such fake miracles.



There is the story of two friends who completed apprenticeship in the repairs of Television, wireless and other electronic gadgets. They decided to apply their electronic skills in the prophesy business. They formed a church and then erected a big cross at a place designated as “holy grounds”. These so-called prophets asked their clients who sought their help in spiritual matters to go to the “holy grounds” to present their problems to Jesus Christ after which they came to meet the “Prophets” in a room not far from the “holy grounds” for spiritual direction. These fake prophets could tell a client exactly what his or her problems were. The so-called spiritual powers of these electronic “prophets” made them very popular and many people trooped from all corners of the country to their church, which was located in a small town in the Eastern Region of Ghana. It came out that the fake prophets had connected a microphone under the cross at the “holy grounds” to the room where they prophesised to their clients. As their clients unknowingly thought that they were pouring out their problems to Jesus Christ, the two fake prophets listened to all the frustrations of their victims through the electronic gadgets. When they establish contacts with their clients, they had power over them because they have information on their deep-seated worries, which no human being could have access to. With this level of power over their clients, they controlled them until they run out of luck. They fought over the sharing of the booty they had made from their confused disciples through fake prophesies and ended up exposing their tricks to the public.



Fake prophesies and family problems



Fake spiritualists are wreaking confusion, panic and suspicion in families, workplace, and many parts of the country. I want to share a few experiences. Relying on the prophesy of spiritualists, a well-educated person locked up her mother in the room and gave her severe beatings to force her to confess that she was a witch. She did this with the support of her sisters who had all developed strong belief in the prophesy of a pastor that their mother was a witch and had been responsible for their marital and personal problems. I had known this person to be a kind-hearted person who loved her family and for her to be programmed to the extent that she could beat up her mother based on the prophesies of a spiritualist shows the power of the mind control strategies of the fake prophets.Vulnerable members of families such as House Helps and relations have been accused of been witches and suffered extreme brutalities based on the prophesies of fake prophets. The Ghanaian Times( 17th February 2012) carried the story of a 6 year- old House help who was branded with hot metal on all parts of her body including her private parts by her 29 year-old mistress on the accusation that the little girl was a witch. This is a clear manifestation of the handiwork of a false prophet. Many of such acts are occurring in families at the blind side of the media and the law.



A reliable source gave me an insight into another interesting case. A Ghanaian who had lived abroad for over 20 years brought down all the savings he had made in the period amounting to about $50,000 because he had decided to settle home. He confided in somebody that he was interested in investing in the business of importing rice, sugar and other consumables. A different person convinced him about the need to seek spiritual protection once he is back home after a long stay outside since many of his relatives may use spiritual means to destroy him out of envy. He bought into the idea of spiritual protection and then followed this seeming benefactor to a spiritualist. The spiritualist gave a prophesy that he had returned home from a long stay outside Ghana and went further to tell him about his intention to engage in the importation of rice and sugar as a business. The returnee was shocked to the marrow about the power of the spiritualist to read his intentions and business plans. After gaining the confidence of the returnee, the pastor proposed that he had some people who lived outside Ghana who could become very useful business partners. At the time that I got the story, the fake prophet had duped the returnee of his lifelong savings. It is worth noting that there was a chain of confidence tricksters unknown to the returnee, which included the person he confided in about his business plans. The second person created a condition, which made the returnee feel insecure physically and spiritually and the need for spiritual protection became an obvious choice for the returnee. The pastor had designed information-gathering strategy and made a fortune out of it.



My nephew Yaw Fori, whom I like so much nearly died through the work of such fake prophets. Yaw had been sick for some time and he suspected malaria. He had gone to the hospital a few times and was not getting better so he decided to seek a spiritual solution since he suspected that his sickness may be related to the land dispute with a family member. A spiritualist confirmed that his sickness was caused by a spiritual curse imposed on him by the other person in the land dispute. Yaw had started having a distended stomach and when I was informed, I rushed to the village with a strong team including my wife, brother and father-in-law to take him away from the control of the prophet. Yaw was convinced about the prophesy that he had been cursed and pleaded with us to let him continue with a fasting prescribed by the prophet. The fake prophet threatened us that if we made a mistake to take Yaw to the hospital, he would surely die because his problem was a spiritual one and not a normal disease. It took the deep respect that Yaw had for us which helped him to reluctantly agree to move from the fake spiritualist to the hospital. Yaw was diagnosed of typhoid, which had perforated his intestines. Yaw survived because he had access to immediate surgery. Yaw’s case shows how reliance on fake prophesies to deal with physical ailments could lead to avoidable death.



Many marriages have broken up and families divided because some people have moved from rational and critical thinking to reliance on fake prophesies.



Predisposing factors



The spirituality industry is a booming one indicating a very high demand. Our belief system of finding spiritual answers to life challenges has contributed to the spiritual boom. The prosperity theology and the desire of our generation to fast track prosperity make us vulnerable and make many people susceptible to the manipulations of mind control practitioners. When life becomes challenging and we face problems relating to finances, families , relationships, sicknesses, unemployment and deaths, we must understand that these are natural happenings. One cannot imagine life without problems.Indeed, the problems of life have to teach us to have a deeper understanding of the reasons for existence. Those who want to be on this earth without these useful ingredients would always fall prey to the mind control practitioners. Miracles occur each minute of our lives and we do not have to go beyond ourselves to look for it. The methods of these prophesy manufacturing confidence tricksters abound,so beware.