Tarot Cards Nearly Destroyed Her Life

"I really believe I opened a lot of spiritual doorways and that's when the torment began,” Laura Danley said about her life after delving into the occult. “I started seeing things. There were whispers all around me all the time. It was all downhill from there.” Laura grew up with Christian parents, going to church and praying to Jesus. But the love she had for God turned into resentment after she was diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition at fifteen.

“They said that my aortic root was double the size it was supposed to be,” Laura said. “All I heard was, ‘Your life just got a lot shorter and you can never run again.’ I was running track and cross country before that happened. I felt betrayed by God because I thought I'd been a good kid. I remember silently yelling, ‘I don't want you part of my life anymore. I will get through this on my own.’”

She began ditching classes and continued to run in secret. Then one evening after rehearsing for a school play, Laura was assaulted by a group of boys. She broke free and escaped, but the experience left her traumatized and filled with shame. Laura started looking for anything that would give her a sense of control over her life, so she bought a book on how to read palms. “People would just flock to me,” Laura said. “It was forbidden and I wanted power. I wanted to try everything. So, at first it seemed innocent enough.”

At seventeen she went to a cardiologist who told her she had been misdiagnosed and that she was actually healthy. The good news only emboldened Laura to continue on with her journey into the occult. She then joined the Air Force at age 20 to become a pilot. One of her fellow cadets was a Wiccan, and he encouraged her to try a Ouija board. After buying one from a local toy store, she brought it back to the base where she began speaking with a spirit claiming to be a Civil War soldier.

“And it wasn't long after that, mentally, I really started going downhill,” Laura said. “I couldn’t think straight. I started having flashbacks to the assault in high school. Emotionally I was just not stable anymore. I knew that I should not be flying, so I ended up getting out. It was devastating, it really was. I worked really hard for my wings.”

Laura put away the Ouija board, though still went on to adopt the Wiccan religion. After moving to Roswell, New Mexico, to attend aviation maintenance school, she met another Wiccan at a party who taught her how to read Tarot cards. The power of divination was enthralling for Laura – however it came with a price.

“I remember trying to get to know my Tarot deck one night and I was supposed to sleep with it underneath my pillow,” Laura said. “I woke up slammed, like I had been attacked. I was covered in these scratches, even on places on my back that I couldn't reach. It got so bad that I was afraid of the dark. I think I had given demonic entities an opportunity to mess with me and that's what they were doing.”

This went on for the next three years. Eventually Laura married and had a daughter, Hailey. Although she loved her daughter, paranoia and depression were consuming Laura’s life and she felt her family would be better off without her. So, she planned to disappear after taking Hailey to her next health checkup. But, at the pediatrician’s office, a nurse came over and put her hand on Laura. What she did next changed everything.    

“She said, ‘I want to pray for you.’ I was so desperate at that point I said, ‘fine whatever.’ She stayed in that office, I believe for an hour and a half, praying over me,” Laura recalled. "I thought, ‘I don’t know what’s going on, but okay.’ All I know is that when I left that doctor’s office I was walking across the parking lot and I had my daughter, Hailey, in her infant carrier, and I looked down at her and I said, ‘You know what? I may not be the best mother, but I'm your mother and I'm not going anywhere.’ I looked at the sky and I said, ‘If You're out there then show me, I need to know.’ When I got home, I saw those stacks of books, and the Tarot cards, and the candles and everything, and I realized, ‘All this is nuts.’ I just didn't want it around me anymore.”

She then went to her mother-in-law, a Christian, for guidance. She took Laura to church where a pastor answered the questions about God and the spiritual realm she had. Returning to her vehicle, Laura paused. “I just bowed over and started praying, and crying, and telling God, ‘I have been so wrong, I tried to do all of this by myself for so long. I thought I was so strong.’ I prayed and asked Jesus to take control of my life,” Laura said. "I felt clean. I felt like there was some serious change that happened all of a sudden. Looking back, I realize that all those doors that I had opened to the spiritual realm, I believe in that moment God was like, ‘Okay, let's close those now.’”

The same passion Laura once had for learning about the occult, she then put toward reading the Bible, praying and going to church. She also went to counseling, working through the traumas of her youth. It’s been eighteen years since Laura gave her life to Christ and the nightmares that haunted her stopped.    

“How grateful I am for what He's done, words cannot define it,” Laura said. “Not only did He rescue my daughter from a completely different life, but He rescued my marriage. We have another child now. My home is so free of that spiritual oppression. I want to talk to people about this. I want them to know that if they've seen things in the occult or they've been exposed to it, and they're frightened, and they don't know who to talk to, I want to tell them that there is hope. We’ve got to give it to Jesus and let Him heal us.”