# Conversion Testimonies ## Intro This collection gathers a specific kind of testimony: people who came out of atheism or the dark end of the spiritual world, witchcraft, satanism, the occult, the New Age, and turned to Christ because of something they experienced. Not because someone won an argument, but because an encounter broke into their lives. A vision. A voice. A deliverance. A near-death experience. It is filtered on purpose. This genre attracts fabrication, and some of its most famous "ex-satanist" stories are proven hoaxes. So every case here is graded for how well it holds up: Is the person real and named? Can their old life be documented apart from their own word? Has anyone caught them lying? The strongest cases are the ones where the "before" is on the public record, not just in the storyteller's mouth. ## In full A veracity-graded collection of encounter-driven conversions to Christ from hostile or unbelieving worldviews. The scope is deliberately narrow (see the vetting standard): the convert must have come from atheism, witchcraft, satanism, the occult, the New Age, or a comparably committed non-Christian position, and the conversion must be driven by a personal supernatural encounter rather than by intellectual persuasion alone. Purely evidential conversions (the atheist argued into faith by the historical case for the resurrection) belong in [Miracles](/codex/miracles/) under the conversion category or on a person page, not here. The collection is the sister of the [Miracles](/codex/miracles/) hub. Miracles grades medical and documented supernatural events; this hub grades personal testimonies. The grading axis here is the strength of the "before": a vivid conversion story is worthless as evidence if the dark past it claims to leave was never real. ## Why this collection - **Experiential evidence against naturalism.** A documented, costly reversal of worldview, driven by an encounter the subject reports as supernatural, is a data point strict materialism has to explain away rather than absorb. It is strongest when the prior worldview is independently documented, so the encounter cannot be dismissed as a believer projecting familiar imagery. - **The reality of the spiritual realm.** Testimonies of deliverance from occult bondage bear on the biblical claim that dark spiritual powers are real and that Christ has authority over them. - **Inoculation against the frauds.** Because this genre has been repeatedly faked, naming and grading the cases ourselves, including the ones we reject, is stronger apologetics than repeating dramatic stories uncritically. The rejection log below is a first-class part of the collection. ## Credibility tiers - **Tier 1, Documented** (highest): the person is publicly identifiable, the prior life is documented independently of their own testimony (their own published occult or atheist works, media, court or organizational records, a documented public career), the testimony sits on a durable public record, and no credible exposé of fabrication exists. - **Tier 2, Attested**: named person, on-record testimony, internally consistent, some corroboration, but the prior life rests largely on self-account. No credible debunking. - **Tier 3, Reported**: named public testimony but thin corroboration. Illustrative only; not load-bearing in debate. - **Disputed / Rejected**: credible exposé, demonstrable falsehoods, anonymity, or claims that collapse on checkable facts. No entry; logged below. Each entry declares its tier in frontmatter. ## The collection by background Grouped by the world each person came out of, the way people actually search for these stories. Credibility tier in brackets. ### Out of atheism (ex-atheist) - [Howard Storm](/codex/howard-storm-nde-1985/) [Tier 1], atheist art professor, 1985 Paris near-death experience - [Ian McCormack](/codex/ian-mccormack-ex-atheist/) [Tier 2], skeptic surfer, box-jellyfish near-death experience - [Lacey Sturm](/codex/lacey-sturm-ex-atheist/) [Tier 2], atheist teenager stopped from suicide by a stranger's word of knowledge ### Out of Islam (ex-Muslim) - [Nabeel Qureshi](/codex/nabeel-qureshi-conversion-2003-2014/) [Tier 1], Ahmadiyya apologist converted through dreams and a vision ### Out of the New Age (ex-New Age teacher, ex-oracle-card reader) - [Steven Bancarz](/codex/steven-bancarz-ex-new-age-teacher/) [Tier 1], ran one of the largest New Age sites online - [Doreen Virtue](/codex/doreen-virtue-ex-new-age-author/) [Tier 1], best-selling angel-card author - [Warren Smith](/codex/warren-smith-ex-new-age/) [Tier 2], A Course in Miracles teacher who judged it a counterfeit ### Out of witchcraft (ex-witch, ex-medium) - [Kristine McGuire](/codex/kristine-mcguire-ex-witch/) [Tier 2], "Christian witch," medium, and ghost hunter - [Jenny Weaver](/codex/jenny-weaver-ex-witch/) [Tier 2], teenage Wicca to worship leader (biography only) ### Out of satanism (ex-Satanist) - [Riaan Swiegelaar](/codex/riaan-swiegelaar-ex-satanist/) [Tier 1], co-founder of the South African Satanic Church - [Deborah Lipsky](/codex/deborah-lipsky-ex-satanist/) [Tier 3], solitary Satanist to Catholic faith ### Out of the occult and spiritism (ex-occultist, ex-spiritist) - [Klaus Kenneth](/codex/klaus-kenneth-ex-occultist/) [Tier 2], occult and Eastern-religion wanderer - [Roger Morneau](/codex/roger-morneau-ex-spiritist/) [Tier 2], secret spirit-worship society ### Out of Freemasonry (ex-Freemason) - [Serge Abad-Gallardo](/codex/serge-abad-gallardo-ex-freemason/) [Tier 1], Worshipful Master converted at Lourdes ### Out of tarot and mediumship (ex-tarot reader, ex-psychic) - [Jenn Nizza](/codex/jenn-nizza-ex-psychic-medium/) [Tier 2], professional psychic medium and tarot reader A note on the "ex-warlock" search: it turns up almost entirely fabricated or unverifiable accounts, the most famous of which, John Ramirez, is on the rejection log below. No credible, independently verified self-described "warlock" conversion was found. The nearest documented male occult-leader case is [Riaan Swiegelaar](/codex/riaan-swiegelaar-ex-satanist/). ## By tier - **Tier 1, Documented:** [Bancarz](/codex/steven-bancarz-ex-new-age-teacher/), [Virtue](/codex/doreen-virtue-ex-new-age-author/), [Swiegelaar](/codex/riaan-swiegelaar-ex-satanist/), [Abad-Gallardo](/codex/serge-abad-gallardo-ex-freemason/), [Qureshi](/codex/nabeel-qureshi-conversion-2003-2014/), [Storm](/codex/howard-storm-nde-1985/). - **Tier 2, Attested:** [McCormack](/codex/ian-mccormack-ex-atheist/), [Sturm](/codex/lacey-sturm-ex-atheist/), [Kenneth](/codex/klaus-kenneth-ex-occultist/), [Morneau](/codex/roger-morneau-ex-spiritist/), [McGuire](/codex/kristine-mcguire-ex-witch/), [Nizza](/codex/jenn-nizza-ex-psychic-medium/), [Smith](/codex/warren-smith-ex-new-age/), [Weaver](/codex/jenny-weaver-ex-witch/). - **Tier 3, Reported:** [Lipsky](/codex/deborah-lipsky-ex-satanist/). ## Investigated and rejected Naming the fabrications is part of the work. The following well-known "conversion from darkness" accounts are **not** included because credible investigation found fabrication or fatal inconsistency. Skeptics cite these to discredit all conversion testimony; the honest answer is to concede them plainly and rest the case on the documented ones above. - **Mike Warnke** (*The Satan Seller*, 1972). The signature "former Satanist high priest" testimony of its era, dismantled by *Cornerstone* magazine's 1992 investigation "Selling Satan": an impossible timeline, a coven that shrank from 1,500 to about a dozen under questioning, and photographs contradicting his "strung-out priest" period. He later admitted embellishment. - **Lauren Stratford** (*Satan's Underground*, 1988). Investigators found no evidence for the central claims; the publisher withdrew the book in 1990. The author later reinvented herself as a fake Holocaust survivor, a pattern of serial identity fraud. - **John Todd**. Claimed to be a former Illuminati insider and witch; exposed as a fabricator with false military credentials and a documented history of deception. - **Rebecca Brown and "Elaine"** (*He Came to Set the Captives Free*). The author's medical license was revoked by the state of Indiana; her demon-diagnosis claims were discredited by medical-board records. - **Bill Schnoebelen**. His ever-expanding résumé (Satanist, witch, high-degree Mason, Illuminati, priest, and more) rests on demonstrably false credential claims, including a Masonic "degree" that exists only in a hoax invented and confessed in 1897. - **Zachary King**. The "satanic wizard" organization and rank he claimed do not exist; the Church of Satan disavows the story, and the ritual-abortion narrative recycles earlier debunked accounts. - **Doreen Irvine** (*From Witchcraft to Christ*, 1973). The "Queen of the Black Witches" occult career is uncorroborated, uses a title that is not a real occult rank, conflates witches and Satanists, and includes a medically impossible claim. Not to be confused with [Doreen Virtue](/codex/doreen-virtue-ex-new-age-author/), a documented and accepted case. - **John Ramirez** (claimed ex-Santería / Palo Mayombe "high priest"). His current evangelist identity is public, but the pre-conversion occult life has no independent corroboration, and a *Skeptical Inquirer* investigation ("Minister or Mountebank," 2024) documents the story drifting toward greater drama over time (his initiation age and key details shift across retellings) and a contradiction in his blindness timeline. It fits the reformed-devil-worshipper fraud pattern the collection screens for. - **Emmanuel Eni** (*Delivered from the Powers of Darkness*, 1987). Unverifiable as a historical person; the content is physically impossible (undersea satanic cities, demon laboratories), and peer-reviewed scholarship treats such West African narratives as a testimony genre rooted in economic anxiety, not history. - **Afshin Javid** (former militant Muslim, Malaysian jail-cell encounter). The encounter account is vivid, but the case carries a credible cloud: a co-founder of his ministry resigned and went public with misconduct allegations, his ordaining body revoked his credentials, and the widely repeated "Hezbollah fighter" label is factually wrong (his background was the Iranian Basij). Excluded pending resolution. ## Out of scope Several real and often credible conversions are excluded not for doubt but because the encounter is not load-bearing (the conversion came through argument, reading, or gradual conviction rather than a supernatural experience): Nicky Cruz, Brian "Head" Welch, Dave Mustaine (teenage occult dabbling and a gradual rehab-era turn, with no load-bearing miracle; the often-preached "a witch's curse paralyzed his arm" story appears to be an embellishment), David Berkowitz (whose satanic-cult claims are also discredited), David Wood (a documented former atheist, but his conversion was intellectual), and Marcia Montenegro, among others. Intellectual conversions of former atheists (Lee Strobel, Antony Flew, Sarah Irving-Stonebraker, Holly Ordway) belong on person pages or in the [Miracles](/codex/miracles/) conversion category. ## See also - _conversion-testimonies-schema, the vetting standard and entry template - [Miracles](/codex/miracles/), sister collection (medical and documented supernatural events) - [NDEs (Near Death Experiences)](/codex/ndes-near-death-experiences/), the broader concept hub the Storm case feeds - [Christian God is the Only True God](/codex/christian-god-is-the-only-true-god/), the cumulative-case argument these testimonies support
## Common questions this page answers **Q: Are there real testimonies of atheists or witches becoming Christian after a spiritual experience?** Yes, and this collection grades them for credibility. The strongest cases are people whose prior life is documented independently of their own testimony, such as Steven Bancarz (who ran one of the largest New Age websites) and Doreen Virtue (the best-selling "angel" author), both of whom credit an encounter with Jesus for their conversion. **Q: Aren't a lot of "ex-Satanist" conversion stories fake?** Some of the most famous ones are. Mike Warnke's *The Satan Seller*, Lauren Stratford's *Satan's Underground*, and John Todd's Illuminati claims were all exposed as fabrications by investigators. That is exactly why this collection grades every case and keeps a public rejection log rather than repeating dramatic stories uncritically. **Q: What makes a conversion testimony credible rather than just dramatic?** The key test is whether the person's former life can be verified apart from their own word: published occult or atheist works, media coverage, court or organizational records, or a documented public career. A checkable "before," a named and locatable person, a consistent account, and no credible exposé are what move a testimony up the tiers. **Q: What is the difference between this collection and the Miracles collection?** [Miracles](/codex/miracles/) grades documented supernatural events like medically inexplicable healings. This collection grades personal conversion testimonies driven by a spiritual encounter. Some cases relate (a near-death experience can be both), but the grading axis here is the strength of the convert's documented past, not medical records.