The so-called New Age movement should be of concern to our readers as any widespread spiritualism or superstition should be. Its principal error is that it is fundamentally at odds with what God has told us about Himself in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and therefore presents a radically different interpretation of the meaning of life.

Transcendence and immanence

The Christian faith teaches that Jesus Christ came into the world to fight evil. It teaches that God is transcendent (apart from His creation), all-powerful and all-loving, totally devoid of any evil.

But while the New Agers also speak of God transcendent, their idea is very different, their idea is very different from the Christian concept. In New Age terms, transcendence refers to God being His creation, dispersing Himself throughout the expanding universe, and becoming every living and non-living thing.

A similar difference is to be observed in the use of the term immanent. The Christian doctrine of God immanent refers to God dwelling within us – if we are reconciled to Him. On the other hand, New Agers believe by God immanent that man has all the attributes of the godhead within himself. This includes an unrealized power to create.

Satan

It is important to identify Satan’s two lies to Eve in the Garden of Eden, if we are to understand Lucifer’s aim in this movement. First Satan said, “You too can be as God” and then “You surely shall never die.”

“To be as God”

Christianity teaches that Jesus Christ was one person with two natures, divine and human. He was like us in everything but sin. He had two wills, divine and human, that co-operated perfectly with each other. (Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, A.D. 680-681).

The New Age movement maintains that Jesus and the Christ were two separate persons, and that Jesus earned his divinity as a kind of guru who reached higher and higher “Christ-consciousness” through the practice of Transcendental Meditation, Yoga and Holistic Health practices. This concept was adopted from the Hindu faith and outlined in The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus Christ.

According to the author, Jesus was an Avatar, or teacher, one of many like Buddha or Mohammed, but not as exalted. Ordinary mortals can become “Other Christs,” through reaching altered states of consciousness or by having mystical transforming initiation experiences.

To make these experiences possible, the New Age paraphernalia are vital: Ouija boards, Tarot cards, fortune telling, Transcendental Meditation, séances, visualization, imagery and hypnosis.

The courses and “therapies” which can or may be used to enter mystical experiences include Human Potential Seminars, Erhardt Sensitivity Training or EST, Silva Mind Control, Alphs Brain Wave Training, Focusing, Journey to the Self Seminars, Acupuncture, Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Reflexology, Herbology, Yoga, Superlearning and biofeedback.

“If it feels good to it,” is a New Age maxim. It certainly feels good to Hollywood actress Shirley MacLean. In “Out on a limb,” a five-hour NBC TV special broadcast two years ago, MacLean described her Luciferian gifts of white light mystical experiences, out of the body trips (astral projection), telepathic communication (ESP), visions and direction from her “spirit guide.” She told the audience how she had reached her full potential, her higher self or Christ-consciousness.

In 1966, participants in the International Hindu Conference in India developed a strategy to convert the world to Hinduism. In the years following, the West was visited by “gurus,” all claiming to be god-like. In scores of cults, they are still worshipped today by their devotees.

The New Age Movement professes belief in a spiritual hierarchy of advanced beings which are designated the Elder Brothers of the human race. These Elders have mastered all of life’s challenges. They allegedly oversee and guide mankind’s evolution into the spiritual kingdom of Lucifer. Christianity with its restrictive laws and commandments is blamed for holding people back from this spiritual evolutionary process.

Marilyn Ferguson

Marilyn Ferguson is the author of The Aquarian Conspiracy, a reference book for New Agers. She states, “We are in the middle of the great mass awakening of mankind, in the vast university without walls. Heretics are gaining ground, and doctrine is losing its authority. Knowing is superseding belief.”

Ferguson entered the movement through the use of biofeedback. Suffering from migraine headaches, she used biofeedback – known as the “yoga of the West.” Not only was she cured, but she began to have visions which convinced her that she had received a “Christ-Consciousness.” Supported by her minister, she joined the New Age Movement and went on speaking tours to promote it.

Alcoholics Anonymous

The founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, also came to believe the New Age teaching of spiritual evolution. They were deeply involved in séances and “channeling” of spirits. Both felt Christianity was responsible for emotional neurosis and excessive fears.

Manipulating the divine

Some New Agers believe that God is a kind of spiritual “Force,” which can be manipulated in a number of ways. Hypnotism is one way to achieve this. While a person is in hypnotic or altered state of consciousness, God is visualized as healing him. The person is then told that God is healing him physically, mentally or spiritually.

In any case, this is very dangerous. When the group is in an altered state, prior to the healing proceedings, it is then that evil spirits can enter. All the controls and judging abilities of the mind are down. Documented experiences of Satan appearing or talking to persons as Jesus Christ exist. One such account may be found in The Beautiful Side of Evil, by Johanna Michaelson.

“You surely shall never die”

Jesus taught the resurrection of the body, at the end of time. He teaches that it is appointed “once” for man to die, after which comes first his personal judgment, followed, at the end of time, by a general judgment.

The New Agers have adopted the Hindu and Buddhist teaching of re-incarnation or transmigration of the soul. In this view, a person is born over and over again while working off karma or bad experiences. At the end of this process a soul annihilates himself and blends into “Nirvana” or “nothingness.”

Yoga is also a dangerous pastime, as its very purpose is to enable the initiate to realize his own personal “divinity.” Yoga means to “yoke” or join with the divine “Force” diffused throughout the universe. Yoga exercises aren’t necessarily harmless. They purportedly open the “chaktra” or spiritual centers in the human body to allow the “Force” to flow through. To practice yoga is to open oneself up to the possibility of evil forces, who enter into a person while he is in an altered state.

“Law of Avatars”

They believe that every 2,000 years the “Solar Logos” sends a “Christ” who overshadows a human being. In “creation-centered” spirituality the “Solar Logos” is the impersonal “godhead” or “energy” of the universe. The “Christ” supposedly imparts necessary teachings to the world to help it move forward into the New Age.

Benjamin Crème, a spokesman for the worldwide New Age movement, claims after every speaking engagement to receive a channeled transmission or message from the final perfect “Christ,” the lord Maitreya. He proceeds to relay this message to his mesmerized audience.

David Spangler, another New Age authority, also claims to receive transmissions from the lord Maitreya. One of his transmitted messages runs so: “I am the Logos, Christ of the Universe/Before time was – I am/Before space was – I am/I came from beyond time and beyond space to build a new heaven and new earth.” The terminology is Christian, but the reality is occult.

Channeling

Working through spirits is called channeling. Channeling ascended masters from the past, or acquiring “Spirit Guides,” is central to New Age activity.

“Spirit Guides” may enter the mind through hypnosis or a trance. An individual could even be hypnotized by a therapist for weight reduction or to stop smoking. Through the repetition of either a word or a phrase, or by the use of a rotating geometric symbol, the mind enters what is called the alpha or altered state.

Hypnosis – even so-called Christian hypnosis – is spiritually dangerous. Michael Acquino, head of the Temple of Set, a sect of the Church of Satan, says that among them hypnosis is used consistently along with visualization techniques and guided imagery in their services, to contact the demons from Hell. It is impossible to discern a good or bad spirit while in an hypnotic state as a person’s judgment is impaired.

“Channeling” is the New Age term for “Spirit-Possession.” These spirits are literally invited to enter and control people, and using them as mouthpieces, give spiritual teachings and other information. Charging hundreds of dollars a sitting, professional channelers lead thousands of people away from God.

Channeler Helen Schucman and her spirit guide “Jesus,” are the “authors” of the best-selling book, A Course in Miracles. This book is even sold in some Christian book stores.

Warning: hazardous to family health

Channeling, ascended Masters, luciferian initiation. A lot of pseudo-mysticism – bizarre and fascinating to read about maybe, but unreal and certainly no threat to me and my family.

Or is it? A process which began centuries ago is nearly completed. Christianity is shriveling away from our world. And because people cannot live long without divinity, another religion is quickly taking its place: the worship of man.

Large numbers of prosperous, comfortable people inhabit a world that seems to be the realization of the age-old dream – the earthly paradise. But there is trouble in paradise. In the midst of plenty, these same people are starved for meaning. The spiritually hungry will fill their plates with the smorgasbord of the new religion: a little witchcraft here, a little Buddhism there, liberally spiced with goddesses and personal empowerment.

What could be wrong with unhappy, desperate people seeking spiritual helps to self-worthy?

Moira Macdonald is one of these. In the depths of serious depression a few years ago, the Toronto mother of two found her new religion. Now she and her family still attend Sunday Mass most weeks, “but we do things at home that the children can’t talk about in the schoolyard,” she told Chatelaine magazine. “I used to pray to the fearful God without. Now, God is in my heart.” (March, 1990)

What could be wrong? Only that Moira Macdonald worships herself. She and thousands like her – mothers and fathers and children – are being caught up in a spirit of “divine Titanic pride” (Dostoyevsky). They are falling for the oldest lie in the book.