Randall Baer’s New Age involvement began in his teens when, like many of his peers in the 1960’s and 1970’s, disillusionment with the Church and traditionally patriotic ideals set in. By the age of 14 he was full of questions about God, the Bible and life, but sadly nobody was prepared to sit down and discuss things with him. In his own words:

“Something snapped in me. I no longer wanted to attend what I perceived as sterile and lifeless Church services and study groups. I suddenly knew that what I was searching for wasn’t there. In the years ahead, I would hear many New Agers telling a similar story. I started going to various libraries searching for truth on my own. The realm of books, I felt, would open up the doors to new horizons.”

Randall had a powerful urge to discover the truth about who he was, and who God was. He searched through books on religion, philosophy and the occult.  At age 15, he began practising hatha yoga and meditation and had accepted the ‘all is oneness’ philosophy of the New Age movement.

Although he was very successful at school and college, he turned to marijuana in order to open up a ‘deeper’ spiritual worldview. He says: “One evening I felt that I had an encounter with what I thought was ‘God’. While slowly inhaling the marijuana, all of a sudden the surrounding room disappeared. I found myself floating in the cosmos beyond all sense of time. The boundaries of my body and sense of identity miraculously expanded as I became the ‘light’ and the ‘light’ became me. Feeling like I was effortlessly soaring through infinity, I believed that I had met ‘god’ and was one with the Universe. This was what the Eastern religious philosophies were talking about – pure oneness and enlightenment.”

His world view rapidly changed and he began to see ‘Nature’ as the source of peace and truth. If he could really become one with it, like the American Indians, he would find answers to his questions. Wordsworth and Thoreau became two of his major inspirational writers. Randall recalls:

“Wordsworth wrote: ‘Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher.’ This became the driving theme of my search.”

From marijuana he progressed to LSD and hallucinogenic drugs.

“A succession of experiences with LSD, mescaline, peyote buttons, psilocybin mushrooms, and hashish with others in my Asian studies house ‘blew my mind’.  Catapulted into extraordinary dimensions beyond my wildest dreams, I rapturously explored what I felt were the indescribable ‘heavens’ of the supernatural realms. Incredible vistas of dazzling rainbow light, beings of pure energy, and mind expanding transformations unfolded with each new experience. I felt that the psychedelics afforded me access to the very essence of Nature and the cosmos. Here, I thought, I was privileged to know the innermost secrets of the universe known only to mystics, saints and psychedelic voyagers.”

“When I would read some of the books in the college courses I was taking on Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Yoga and Western mystics, time after time my psychedelic experiences matched precisely with these traditions.”

All was not well however, as Randall relates:

“A few years later, though, I had an LSD experience that should have warned me of the deceptions I had embraced.  Shortly after gliding up a crescendo into the peak of the LSD ‘high’, an overwhelmingly powerful demon-spirit took possession of me.  I was no longer in control of myself as this demonic force took over the reins.  While part of me watched helplessly, the demon-sorcerer cast a number of powerful spells and gave me visions of hideous darkness.  After several hours of tremendous inner torture on this ‘bad trip’, the demon ‘blew my circuits’ and left me like a rag doll.  I could not speak for two entire days, and the psychological damage took six months to heal.”

Randall rejected drugs as a shortcut to nirvana and instead focused all his efforts on achieving enlightenment through ‘natural’ methods. He engaged in Buddhist chanting and Silva mind control. According to the writings of ‘Seth’, a famous spirit channelled through the trance-medium Jane Roberts, Randall’s experiences were outlined and presented as ‘higher psychic powers’. By doing Silva mind control, he hoped to train and develop his psychic ability and mind in the ‘right’ direction. During a course he experienced two spirit guides whom he describes as American Indians. He says with hindsight:

“What I didn’t realise at the time was that everything in Silva mind control was based on occult philosophy. The occult was simply repackaged in a de-religionised, Western format that would be acceptable and even appealing to middle-class America. Inner counselling is a type of Biblically forbidden practice of ‘acquiring familiar spirits’, that is, inviting demons disguised as spirit-friends into one’s life.”

In his student days, Randall spent time in ‘ashrams’ in America, and became a disciple of the well-known yogi, Swami Babaji. He also received a degree in Religious Studies after which he pursued a profession in holistic medicine. He became a naturopathic doctor after studying for two years and attaining a thorough knowledge of alternative medicine and New Age healing practices. He says:

“I went about opening up a ‘Natural health centre’ in a medium-sized city in East Texas. In a small, business-zoned house, I offered personalised health care programs, bodywork treatments, weekly ‘Awakening Your Potential’ classes, iridology analysis, meditation and hatha yoga classes, health care products, and a host of other products and services. I even had a carefully planned ‘deep relaxation environment’ in one room where a special arrangement of colours, plants, aromas, art and subliminal tapes and New Age music was created to induce ‘therapeutic deep relaxation’.

While running the ‘Health Centre’ he met Vicki, who was the director of a ‘New Age Awareness Centre’. It was Vicki who introduced Randall to ‘crystal power’ via her spirit guides. She gave him a ‘power object’ stone which had originally belonged to an American Indian medicine man. He describes his experiences with this quartz crystal:

“Only minutes after focusing on the crystal in a state of trance-like meditation, my consciousness was catapulted into electrifying domains of extra-natural light, the likes of which I had never before perceived. The upper part of my head felt like it wasn’t there, like it had become invisible, as my awareness raced upwards at the speed of light. From a high distance, I could see in my mind’s eye that my body was trembling and shaking as the power of the experience rattled through it. This was my ‘crystal initiation’ into an entirely different supernatural realm. Wow! Was this ‘crystal power’ or what?”

It was in the 1980’s that Randall and Vicki were married and decided to move to Santa Fe, New Mexico because it was a ‘Vortex area’ – a place which attracts all sorts of psychic phenomena. Immediately they began to experience the paranormal. Randall writes:

“The spirit world began to speak to us explicitly and directly. All of a sudden Vicki would go into a trance.  Then a spirit would come into her body and animatedly speak. I couldn’t believe what was happening.  The variety of spirits coming and going was astounding – I talked with spirits identifying themselves as ‘Moses’, ‘Mozart’, ‘White Eagle’, ‘White Cloud’, ‘Serapis Bey’, ‘Ascended Master Kuthumi’, ‘Mary’, ‘Golden-Helmeted Ones’, ‘Green Ray Master’ and a host of others. The power emanating from these spirits was overwhelming and entrancingly intoxicating.”

These spirits told the Baers to call out in their meditations to the ‘Space Brothers’, who were part of the ‘Intergalactic Space Federation’ in the solar system. The extraterrestrials were coming together to assist Earth in its ‘purification process’ to take it to its evolutionary conclusion – the New Age. The spirits also said that the ‘Space Brothers’ were working together with the ‘Great White Brotherhead’, a universal hierarchy of ‘Ascended Masters’, archangels, angels and other types of spirit beings who administrate and control all aspects of creation. Randall’s task was to teach the techniques of ‘crystal power’ so that many people would be ‘activated into a higher consciousness of light’. The ‘Higher Councils of Universal Masters’, the ‘Supreme’ spiritual beings had ordained it. Over the next few years the Baers set up a successful ‘New Age Awareness Centre’ in New Mexico, lecturing on and propagating almost all forms of New Age belief and practice. But Randall’s real breakthrough came with the publishing of his books on crystals and sacred science. These books were written under the inspiration of spirit guides. He says:

“Approximately three months after moving to the northern New Mexico area, my ‘spirit guides’ gave me instructions to write a book on the subject of crystals … the spirit guides told me to take 12 quartz crystals and lay them out in a circle, to tape another one to the occult ‘third eye’ and to suspend a large pyramid overhead. I was to sit in the very centre of the crystals with my head underneath the pyramid. This was supposed to create a ‘crystal energy field’ having amplified ‘higher vibrations’ for receiving channelled thoughts from the spirit guides.

“To my amazement, as I would enter a kind of semi-conscious trance, discernible thoughts, inspirations, and pictures would appear in my mind. All this was not my own doing – the spirit guides were transmitting their thoughts and influences to me. My job, effectively, was to take notes and then shape up the material into book form.”

Randall’s book Windows of Light: Quartz Crystals and Self-Transformation (Harper & Row, 1984) launched him onto the American national circuit of New Age celebrities. This book was generally regarded as the best book on this subject in the world at that time. His second book, The Crystal Connection: A Guidebook for Personal and Planetary Ascension (1985) was marketed as an essential reference, ‘light years beyond the rest’.

After a national tour Randall was acclaimed one of the top three authorities on crystal power in the world, alongside the famous Marcel Vogel. health and business professionals, as well as famous celebrities, attended his ‘Advanced Crystal Energetics Training Program’. Randall had by this time incorporated into his house what he called ‘The Ascension Chamber’, which also contributed to his national fame. It was a room filled with crystals, pyramids and occult symbols. He used New Age music, subliminal tapes and special trance-inducing equipment and films to encourage out of body experiences. But Randall’s life was about to change dramatically.

“One night, while in the Ascension Chamber, my spirit was roaming some of the farthest reaches of ‘heavenly light’ that I had ever perceived. Waves of bliss radiated through my spirit … Suddenly, another force stepped in. What I saw was the face of devouring darkness! Behind the glittering outer facade of beauty lay a massively powerful, wildly churning face of absolute hatred and unspeakable abominations – the face of demons filled with the power of Satan.”

He describes the ensuing conflict:

“My body was shaking involuntarily, sometimes rather violently. This nightmare continued without respite for a full week. I thought I was going stark raving mad. In a month’s time, though, my grave situation gradually settled down to some semblance of sanity and normality.”

Randall looks back and sees this experience as God intervening in his life:

“At this point, though, I only knew that some force greater than that of the devouring darkness had done two things: (1) It had shown me the real face of the New Age ‘heavens’ and ‘angels’ that I was so deeply involved with, and (2), it had delivered me from certain doom. What I knew at this time was that I had made some serious errors in my New Age involvement. I also knew that if those errors weren’t corrected, I might face the same horrific experience again. And quite possibly the next time I wouldn’t get away.”

Randall turned to searching the Bible for answers. He compared scripture with New Age thought. The more he analysed it the more he discovered that the New Age picks and chooses what suits it from the Bible and discards the rest. He also discovered that he had broken God’s laws and was separated from God by his sin, the consequences of which would be judgement and hell. As he read further he saw that God was so full of love that He sent His own Son, the Lord Jesus, to pay the penalty for sin (death) on the cross. There was hope – eternal life was available as a free gift. The God against whom he had sinned could forgive him.

Randall knew that he had become possessed by a demonic power and felt a spirit force taking more and more control until finally, the day came, when he repented of his sin and accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour. He was watching a TV programme during which the gospel message was presented. At the end of the sermon, the preacher called on interested viewers to call on the name of the Lord for salvation and forgiveness. Conscious of his guilt and need of a Saviour, Randall confesses:

“I was in such a state now that I was way past feeling self-conscious or silly … I gently dropped to the floor. As this happened I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit pierce my heart and I wept in acute repentance … I had never prayed like this before … The Lord had cut through my horrific satanic bondage and set me free as he washed my scarlet sins as white as snow.

“With an absolute certainty, I knew that this was what I had been looking for all my life and never had found till now. This made even the most powerful mystical New Age experience completely pale in comparison … Satan’s glowing counterfeit fineries are as cheap, filthy rags compared to the Truth.”

Randall’s conversion to Jesus Christ stirred up a storm of hostility. Some, like his wife Vicki, also renounced her New Age involvement and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Others became angry and abusive; especially when he began to expose what Randall now called ‘the deception of the New Age Movement’. The little group of ex-New Agers suffered a good deal of persecution but through it all stood firm in their faith in the Lord Jesus.

Randall wrote a book, telling of his experiences and conversion to God called Inside the New Age Nightmare (Huntington House, 1989). The week it was published, Randall met with a puzzling and untimely death. Upon completing a lecture tour in New Mexico, during which he further exposed the New Age movement, his car ran off a mountain pass. Several investigations have been unable to uncover whether it was murder or an accident.

One thing is sure, Randall is now in heaven in the presence of Christ, the Saviour he accepted when he turned from the occult and repented of his rebellion and pride.

Examining The New Age Movement
Gods and Gurus of the New Age
Obtaining ‘New Age Enlightenment”
Yoga and Christianity – Are they Compatible?
What You Should Know about Reiki
The Spirituality of Oprah
New Age Christianity and Christian Witchcraft in the ‘One World’ System
What is the New Age
What is Wrong with the New Age
The New Age Deception
The Disney Occult Deception
The Occult
Occult Questionnaire
How to Help those in the Occult
Prayer of Release from the Occult and False Religion
Prayer to Restore a Fragmented Soul
Prayer for Divine Healing and Health