A former ghost hunter says her search for spirits ultimately led her to abandon the occult and cling to the Holy Spirit.
Like many who find themselves enthralled by ghosts, ghouls, and the macabre, Kristina Costanza’s interest in these subjects began fairly innocently and quickly grew into something diabolical.
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“I didn’t professionally start ghost hunting until I was about 21 years old, but when I was a teenager growing up right outside of Boston … I spent summers going up to Salem, Massachusetts,” she told the “Into the Supernatural” podcast. “For those who aren’t familiar, that’s what we call the witch city nowadays, famous for the witch trials back in the late 1600s, and now it’s just overrun with witch stores and psychics.”
Costanza recalled going to Salem as a teenager out of curiosity and, at age 14, hearing her first “disembodied voice” whisper in her ear.
“It scared the living daylights out of me, but it did spark this curiosity,” she said, noting that this ignited in her a quest to move deeper into the occult. “I really wanted to discover more.”
Before long, Costanza was diving fully into witchcraft in an attempt to contact the spirits she believed she was hearing.
“I didn’t know who they were, or what they were, or what they wanted with me, but I did feel a little bit special that these voices, these beings were contacting me,” she said. “I had these little Tarot cards … and trying to make contact, but nothing really was happening until I was 21 years old.”
That’s when Costanza met people who would eventually join her paranormal team of professional so-called “ghost hunters.” She ended up forming the first large group of an all-female paranormal team, with she and her peers quickly gaining attention.
“I was just diving headfirst into this stuff,” she said. “I was going to these conventions and events and hosting events as well, and not only getting into the more scientific equipment, then starting to add in the witchcraft.”
Costanza began saying spells, lighting sage and “going all in on the witchcraft.” Over time, the proximity to evil began to take its toll on her, with mental, physical, and spiritual issues unfolding.
“During this whole time, I was just getting deeper, and deeper, and deeper into it,” she said. “I was getting activity following me home. I would see things in my house. I was getting just more and more depressed. I started to feel more anxious.”
Costanza, who ended up hosting a Travel Channel show focused on demonic activity, said she believed at the time that she was communicating with ghosts, whom she assumed were the spirits of the deceased. She also thought it was possible to communicate with other entities.
But once she walked away from it all, she came to a very different conclusion.
“I definitely, now coming out of it, I know 100% these were all demons,” Costanza said. “One of the many Scriptures that woke me up … a decade later was finding out that even Satan himself masquerades as a being of light, an angel of light.”
Costanza’s journey into faith was complicated. After answering an altar call, she assumed she could continue on her occultic path while also following Christ. Over time, she found herself partying and living a wild life. Tragically, the darkness just continued to fester.
“I thought I would have these dreams of demons and the enemy tried to give me this idea of like opening a demon museum to like honor these beings,” she said. “Sometimes I forget about this dream. I was obsessed with demons. I wanted to showcase them and teach people about demons, but … not in the way to battle them, but to like honor them.”
But then the pandemic hit – and everything changed. Costanza found herself struggling to contain the discontent, depression, and anxiety, with nothing helping her curb these emotions and feelings.
“I was just like, ‘Nothing is working’ … and, at the time, I was just like, for some reason … I started shifting the content I was watching, and the people I started listening to — everyone was talking about Jesus,” Costanza said, noting she soon started wondering if there was more to Jesus than she realized. “Looking back, the Holy Spirit prompted me to watch an Easter service.”
While that wasn’t necessarily the moment of transformation, Costanza was immediately intrigued. She started talking to family about Christ and began asking why she couldn’t be in the occult and have Jesus simultaneously. When she started reading the Bible, answers became clearer.
“[I] started in John and discovering who Jesus was on earth, who He is, who He says He is, and it’s like my sin hit me like the conviction of the Holy Spirit,” Costanza said, noting that she was slapped with realizations when she read Deuteronomy 18, which condemns occult practices. “At that time, at that moment, I was just like, ‘God, you can have it all. Jesus save me. Like, I repent, Lord. I’m so sorry for everything I’ve done.’ And I took all of that, all of my witchcraft, the crystals, the wands, everything. I threw it out — thousands of dollars worth of things. I canceled all my memberships to those spiritual gurus.”
Now, Costanza is sharing her journey out of the occult and into Christ’s arms. She’s hoping to inspire others to take the very same journey.
“I just want someone to know you’re never too far gone,” she said.
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