stephanie brail

If someone told you “The Devil made me do it?” would you believe them? After reading this book, I might. Ascent From Darkness is an extremely disturbing but still hopeful book that describes the descent of a young man into satanism and his redemption.  If you are a believer in the supernatural, you’ll be spooked by the dark and creepy happenings described, and if you aren’t a believer, you’ll find this a chilling tale of psychological madness.

I do happen to believe in ghosts and demons, and after having a bad time with a Ouija Board in high school, I wouldn’t fool around with one ever again. That someone would willingly give their soul to Satan and then purposefully call upon demons and evil spirits is absolutely mind-boggling to me! But that’s precisely what the author, Michael Leehan, did.

In doing so, he unleashed forces that would compel him to ritual animal abuse, attempted murder and thoughts of suicide. He regularly experienced demons oppressing him physically (as in, sitting on your chest while in bed horror movie style) to poltergeists. Now, for those who think those sorts of things are “all in your head,” I’m sure you’d write off the supernatural happenings he describes as hallucinations or his imagination. From my perspective, it sounds to me like Michael Leehan is a naturally gifted intuitive who perhaps all his life could see into the “other side.” Not being given any framework for his sensitivities, and emotionally abused as a child, he turned in anger and desperation to the dark side. He claims, in his book, that doing so gave him feelings of power and superiority. In a sense, his demonic rituals were an addiction.

What struck me was how his decision to turn to Satan was done on his own, on his own volition, without anyone or anything inspiring the action. He wasn’t into the occult or hanging out with “witches” or anything like that. He was simply a young man who was extremely angry with God, and chose to (in my view) “punish” God by turning to His nemesis. He made a decision one day to become a satanist, and that was that.

If I have one nitpick with the book it’s that he twice mentions going to the “New Age” section of the bookstore to pick up the Satanic Bible. Like many born-again Christians (as he is one now), he conflates the “New Age” with the occult, and the two aren’t really one and the same. Whether or not Barnes and Noble wants to file a satanic book in with books on crystal healing, I can assure you, New Agers are not satanists! But mostly, Leehan keeps fundamentalist theology out of the book and focuses on his own personal dark path.

The chilling part is how he managed to hide his dark side throughout some 20 years of satanic activity. He lied to his girlfriend and said he was a Christian. He purposefully went to churches to infiltrate and agitate. (He actually talks a lot about his “assignments” to go and place Satanic Bibles in churches, which seems a bit petty and childish, but he claims this was a very important part of his “mission” to turn away the faithful.)

He was also a sex addict – and he must have been a pretty good-looking guy when he was younger, because he managed to bed a lot of women, it seems. His intention in doing so was to turn chaste, Christian women to sin.

If there’s a theme running throughout the book it’s that the type of satanism Leehan practiced was forged in an area of the Bible belt where evangelical Christians are in your face at every turn. Perhaps the dark side flourishes in the face of extreme faith – certainly, in my more mainline, Midwest Christian upbringing, we never knew of any “spiritual warfare” or came across these issues.

Regardless, it’s clear that from the get-go, this was a man obsessed with God and who, through his severe psychological disturbance, tried to connect with God the only way he knew how – by attacking Him. For a satanist, he sure spent a lot of time in church groups!

At the end of the book, Leehan describes his “born-again” experience. In many respects, it was a beautiful description of a sudden peace that he found as he finally gave up his ego for spirit. I’m not an evangelical Christian, but I am fascinated by the extreme emotional experiences reported by evangelicals. Still, for those who aren’t “born-again,” Leehan’s transformation may seem sudden and perhaps a bit suspect – will his transformation last? Will Jesus be enough to sooth his troubled soul?

I certainly hope so – if anything, his experience to me suggests that spirituality can often heal where psychology simply fails.

I would highly recommend this book whether you are a believer or not. If anything, the book shows how darkness flourishes in the hearts of wounded men in America, and provides a psychological profile of how one broken man dealt with abuse, divorce, and depression. Perhaps if we could reach out better to these men in our communities, they might not have to hit bottom so dramatically before finding a path to healing.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”