Beloved Princess Diana -- who tragically died in a car crash in 1997 -- had been heavily involved in the occult, which the Bible condemns. Her main confidante in life, Sarah, Duchess of York, introduced her to it. And all that time Diana spent in occult activity, she kept it a secret from the public.

Vanity Fair has an online article about it written by Hadley Hall Meares published Tuesday entitled "How Princess Diana's Fascination with the Occult Guided Her Choices in Real Life." Meares says on "a typical day for Princess Diana," her "calendar was crowded with appointments with psychics, spiritualists, astrologers, energy healers, palmists, tarot readers, and dowsers." Meares further relates it was because Diana was "desperate to solve her problems," thus "seeking comfort and guidance." Her biggest problem may have been her marriage to Prince Charles, which eventually ended in divorce in 1996. One year later Diana was killed.

Meares relates that Sally Bedell Smith wrote a book about it entitled Diana in Search of Herself: Portrait of a Troubled Princess. Smith says a former palace guard said of Diana and her spiritualist advisors, "In the late eighties and early nineties she was with every different sort of person. They marched in and out." And bodyguard Ken Wharfe reveals, "Diana was in the thrall of all these mad psychics."

Simone Simmons, Diana's main spiritualist as an energy healer, says that like her husband Prince Charles, "Diana had long been a spiritual seeker. ... she had a profound belief in God and good and evil ... as powerful forces that directly affect us all. She also had a strong belief in the afterlife."

But according to the Bible, a belief in the existence of God alone does not bring a person divine forgiveness and salvation. For, Jesus's brother James writes in the Bible to such people, "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe -- and shudder" (James 2.19). Notice that James mentions "demons." The Bible's Old Testament is full of warnings not to engage in the occult because it is the work of demons.

Moses warned the Israelites regarding their imminent entrance into the Promised Land occupied by the Canaanites and surrounding nations, saying, "When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn to imitate the abhorrent practices of those nations. No one shall be found among you who makes a son or daughter pass through fire, or who practices divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead. For whoever does these things is abhorrent to the LORD; it is because such abhorrent practices that the LORD your God is driving them out before you" (Deuteronomy 18.9-12 NRSV).

Diana consulted mediums who claimed to contact the spirits of dead people and that these spirits would literally speak and be heard, called necromancy. Diana believed that through these mediums she made contact with deceased friends and relatives of hers, including a former boyfriend and even her grandmother.

Because of this occult activity, Diana also believed in reincarnation. Meares relates that she believed "in a past, she had been both a nun and an ancient Christian martyr." Meares quotes Diana's butler Paul Burrell recalling of Diana, "She was heavily involved in spirituality. Mediums, psychics, astrologers."

Meares further says Diana tried to keep all of this spiritualist activity secret from the public because she feared accusations of being crazy or "a nut." Yet the British press suspected as much, even mocking her for it in print.

Diana shunned conventional therapy for her psychological problems, thus rejecting psychological counseling or psychiatric treatment.

Diana even became somewhat of an occult practitioner herself. Her energy healer Simmons recalls in her book, Diana: The Last Word, "She had a collection of rune stones with symbols inscribed on them which she kept in a small cloth bag. She would sit on the floor, ask me to relax and to think of what was all around me. Then she would pick out the rune stones herself, spread them out on the carpet, ... tell me to close my eyes and concentrate, and then she would do a reading. She was very pleased when her predictions came true, which I have to confess, they always did."

The prophet Isaiah declares to Israel, "Now if people say to you, 'Consult the ghosts and the familiar spirits that chirp and mutter; should not a people consult their gods, the dead on behalf of the living, for teaching and for instruction?'" Isaiah then warns against it (Isaiah 8.19-20). Isaiah adds, "They will look to the earth, but will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be thrust into thick darkness" (v. 22).

Isaiah declares next, "But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. ... he [God] will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan; Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; whose who lived in a land of darkness -- on them light has shined" (Isaiah 9.1-2). This prophecy refers to Galilee, where Jesus lived, and the "great light" that Galileans would see would be Jesus.

Jesus referred to this prophecy when he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life" (John 8.12).

So, do not seek enlightenment in the occult, which demons control and result only darkness, distress, and despair. But seek the light that comes from the God of creation, the God who made us and therefore the "God" who "loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (John 3.16). That Son is Jesus, the Light of the world, who brings true enlightenment and peace from God, a calmness to the soul and the promise of eternal life with God and his Christ for all who will believe.