Inside the New Age Nightmare Randall Baer’s conversion |
Randall
Baer tells us how he entered the New Age Movement, the many occult techniques
and practices he did because he thought to find the truth through them, and
how the Lord saved him. A fascinating testimony that every New Ager should
read carefully in order to understand how this Movement is a device of Satan
to keep people far from the truth that is in Jesus Christ. A testimony that
is very useful to Christians to expose the various works of the devil
existing in the New Age. |
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Chapter
one |
1. PORTRAIT OF A SEDUCTION
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Now I’d
like to tell you exactly how a young man or young woman in high school,
college, or post-college can become involved in the New Age Movement as they
start to branch out into the world around them and explore new directions of
adventure, self-development, and fulfillment. Perhaps in the reading of this
story parents might be apprised of some of the strategies that the adversary
uses through the glittery New Age temptations he dangles in front of young
adults, and so be better forearmed to provide preventative and intervening
counsel. |
As well, I
pray that more than a few young adults might read this story and realize the
very real dangers that lay behind the oftentimes harmless-looking exteriors
of so many New Age phenomena, so that they may never dabble or explore in
these Satanic webs of ensnarement, and may always hold fast to the safety and
victory of the Christian faith. |
My own
journey leading into the New Age and rising to heights of leadership is a
classic portrait of spiritual seduction. Seeking after truth, I found only
masterful counterfeits disguised as the truth. Yearning for inner fulfillment
and peace, I found only glittering fragments and pieces that eventually
would crumble to dust. So deep did the seduction lead that the bizarre became
accepted as the norm, fantastical lies saturated my mind, and Satan’s demons
masqueraded as my guiding angels of light. |
Most
people involved in the New Age Movement today are so deceived by Satan’s lies
that they have absolutely no idea of the underlying sinister dangers.
Personally, when I was a New Ager, such a notion would have appeared to me as
patently outrageous. I thank Jesus Christ that He delivered me from the New
Age brainwashing that blinds a person to the horrors that lurk beneath the
surface of the New Age. |
After the
Lord saved me from the counterfeits and lies that held me in glittery
bondage, I saw the pattern of Satan’s ever-so-cunning hand in pulling off an
incredibly elaborate deception for 15 years of my life. In unraveling the
thread of seduction woven into my life as a New Ager, I came to see Satan’s
wiles, strategies, and ‘tricks of the trade’. I was aghast at his expert
craftiness. |
While this
is so absolutely clear to me today in the Light of Jesus, as a New Ager who
sincerely believed that he had found the truth, I was totally oblivious to
the deception being perpetrated on me. When the eternal truth of the Lord
seems to a New Ager to be utterly false, and the falseness of the New Age
seems to be absolutely true, therein lies an
intricate portrait of seduction. By sharing the portrait of how Satan seduced
me, I sincerely hope that the tempting lies and clever shams of the New Age
are laid bare and that it is shown clearly for the horrific abomination that
it is. |
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An all-American Upbringing
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Like many
New Agers, I was brought up in a middle-to-upper middle-class home. Both
parents were trained professionals – my father was a medical doctor and my
mother a nurse. Family life was based on Christian morals, the Protestant
work ethic, and an emphasis on education. |
My father
was a Navy doctor and, as a result, my roots were turned up every three to
four years. This had advantages in exposing me to many types of people and
situations. But I was a shy and introverted child who had difficulty
adjusting to new schools, new sets of friends, and new neighborhoods. |
Basically
I was a good and obedient boy. Rarely did I venture into any serious
transgressions, as my cautious nature prevented me from delving too far into
‘bad boy’ territory. Cub Scout and Boy Scout involvements were a constant
thread of experience. And, being an industrious and goal-oriented boy, I
achieved much success in Scouting and top grades in school. |
I was
following a model all-American boyhood track. |
In early
teen years my inquisitive mind started to become interested in religion. I
started to feel an emptiness inside and a hunger for
truth. At home, we rarely discussed religious issues, mostly leaving such
topics to be covered at Sunday school and church. However, I never really
felt any powerful experiences or encounters with Jesus, and my questions only
multiplied as more and more doubts arose. |
In
pursuing a ‘God and Country’ Scouting award, I became friends with a Navy
chaplain, whom I felt could guide me toward truth. One day I approached my
chaplain friend with great expectations of real dialogue and asked: ‘Can we
talk about why some people are agnostics and atheists? I’d really like to
know God, but I have so many doubts’. His bewildered and somewhat irritated
look instantly revealed to me that he was not receptive to my questions of
doubt. ‘Perhaps some other time, but not now, Randall. You are too young’, he
replied. |
My frustrations
began to increase. I had to find ‘truth’. |
During the
same time, I attended an adult Bible study and was the only teenager there. I
was 14. One day I mustered up the courage and blurted out: ‘Why should I
believe in God? Why should I read the Bible? Why should I attend church?’ |
The group
sat in mute silence. I had asked forbidden questions and apparently no one
there wanted to broach the subject because my questions were completely
ignored. |
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Teenage Disillusionment and
Exotic Explorations
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Something
snapped in me. I no longer wanted to attend what I perceived as sterile and
lifeless church services and study groups. I suddenly knew that what I was
searching for wasn’t there. In the years ahead, I would hear many New Agers
telling a similar story. I started going to various libraries searching for
truth on my own. The realm of books; I felt, would open up the doors to new
horizons. |
The TV
show ‘Kung Fu’ caught my attention and, over a period of time, I became
gripped by the allures of mysticism and exotic superhuman powers. Here were
Eastern masters who had profound answers to the questions burning in my mind
– ‘What is God?’, ‘Who am I?’, ‘Where do you find truth?’ The hero image of
Quai Chang Caine vividly demonstrated how to attain inner peace, oneness with
the universe, and supernatural control over oneself and life’s circumstances. |
On regular
trips to a bookstore in a neighborhood shopping mall, I found many books in
the ‘Religion/Philosophy’ and ‘Occult’ sections on Eastern religious
philosophy and ‘how to’ books on Hatha Yoga
and meditation. In the following weeks and months, I devoured the exotic ‘All
is Oneness’ philosophies, and taught myself how to perform yoga and
meditation. This was the beginning of my New Age walk, and I had just turned
15. |
I always
had a close relationship with my mother and I could tell that she was alarmed.
She gave me a serious warning to be very careful in my non-Christian
pursuits. Though they voiced their serious concerns, neither of my parents
forced me to stop my search. It was probably just a teenage ‘phase’ that
would be outgrown in time. |
I kept up
a good outward appearance. Only my closest circle of four high school buddies
knew some of the details of my consuming search. At the time I was at the top
2 percent of my high school class, a member of National Honor Society, and
enjoying successes in varsity tennis. |
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A powerful ally helps me
find the ‘force’
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During
this time, I found another powerful ally on my truth-seeking path - marijuana
– and it opened up a whole new world. Marijuana affects different people in
different ways. For me, it would help ‘expand’ my mind into many mystical
types of ‘higher consciousness’. [1] |
One
evening I felt that I had an encounter with what I thought was ‘God’. While
slowly inhaling the marijuana, all of a sudden the surrounding room disappeared.
I found myself floating in the cosmos beyond all sense of time. The
boundaries of my body and sense of identity miraculously expanded as I became
the ‘light’ and the ‘light’ became me. Feeling like I was effortlessly
soaring through infinity, I believed that I had met ‘god’ and was one with
the universe. This was what the Eastern religious philosophies were talking
about – pure oneness and enlightenment. |
How I
dreaded it when the marijuana effects started to wear off, having to return
to tiny planet Earth. In the days afterwards, my inner anguish and pain
returned, but now I felt that I had found the true door to ultimate truth. I
had hope. |
My path
branched out even more as my French teacher, whom I felt was ‘cool and
progressive’, formed a small group that met before school to study the works
of Napoleon Hill, author of the best-selling books, Think and Grow Rich and Grow
Rich! With Peace of Mind. Each of us set goals and learned the techniques
for applying a ‘Positive Mental Attitude’ to create whatever we desired in
our lives. Little did I know then that Hill’s philosophy was revealed by a
‘Council of 33 Masters’ that spoke to him via mental telepathy to reveal the
secrets of universal success. [2] |
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Back-to-Nature through College
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Upon
graduation from high school I went to a highly respected liberal arts college
near |
My
searching mind became engrossed in seeing ‘Nature’ as the source of peace and
truth. Somehow by mystically penetrating to the essence of Nature and
becoming ‘one’ with it, I felt that my questions and yearnings would be
answered. It seemed to me that the Eastern mystics and primal cultures, like
some of the more mystically oriented American Indian tribes, were the ones
who had kept close to their roots in Nature. |
I started
to see Western culture as an artificial, ‘plastic’ society that was divorced
and separated from the rhythms of Nature, and was therefore increasingly
sterile and lifeless. |
The
Transcendentalist teachings of Thoreau and Wordsworth became a major
inspiration. Wordsworth wrote: ‘Come forth into the light of things, let
Nature be your teacher’. This became the driving theme of my search. |
At the same
time, I continued to smoke marijuana regularly, late at night after studies
were finished. Still quite shy and insecure, I had a few friends, but none to
whom I really revealed the depths of my inner search. The roof top of the
dorm became a sort of late-night sanctuary. Smoking a joint, I would commonly
have mystical and out-of-body experiences that would propel my awareness into
‘higher states of consciousness’ where I would
receive what I thought were profound cosmic insights that reinforced my developing
New Age philosophy. |
Little did
I know that the seducers of Satan were laying out a red carpet of progressive
ensnarement. As I took each step, a web of darkness
was progressively being woven around me, weaving a spell of delusion and
bondage. |
Toward the
end of my sophomore year, my intense yearning for a chance to ‘get back to
nature’ actually materialized. I had been applying Napoleon Hill’s ‘Positive
Mental Attitude’ techniques fervently toward finding such an opportunity.
This was a dream come true – an opportunity to be an assistant in a field
biology project carried out in isolated national forest areas of northern |
Ah, now I
could divorce myself from sterile, artificial Western culture and immerse
myself in the eternal peace and supreme serenity of Nature. |
During
this time, after a half-day of checking traps and other duties, I was often
free to read books on religion and explore marijuana-induced euphoria. |
Yet a
nagging problem kept re-surfacing day after day. I would mentally understand
the mystical religious philosophy and even experience some of it on drugs,
but waking up the next morning I would still have a strong sense of inner
pain, estrangement, and anguish. I felt certain that I was on the right track
to spiritual enlightenment and freedom from inner pain, but it seemed that I
always ended up exactly where I started. |
Perhaps I
should have seen that what was artificial here was the direction my life was
taking, but I didn’t. In fact, every new drug experience and new philosophy
book seemed to re-confirm that I was on the right track, and would find my
answers if only I would persevere. |
Because of
the extreme isolation of the situation and my retreat into my own little
mystical world, my work suffered and I experienced my first academic failure.
This uncharacteristic failure should have been a red flag signalling that
something was going wrong, but I ignored it and was determined to take a next
major step – LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. |
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Psychedelic journeys to the
beyond
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During the
next year as a college junior, I had a chance to fulfill this desire. I moved
into a college-sponsored ‘Asian studies special interest house’, a collection
of 16 people who had strong interests in Oriental culture and religions. Here
I found a strong support group of people very similar to myself in many ways,
all of whom were searching for truth and fulfillment by a wide variety of
Eastern and psychedelic avenues. We even had a designated meditation room
with a blue light to signify that everyone in the house should remain
perfectly silent when someone was meditating. To others on campus, our group
had a mystical mystique, which we enjoyed. |
Most all
of us were achievers from upper-middle-class backgrounds, and very
inquisitive and explorative in these strange vistas of exotic spirituality. |
Being
cautious by nature, I spent lots of time in the library reading scholarly
books on the effects of psychedelics, and how they helped sometimes in psychological
healing (which I desperately wanted) and how they paralleled the mystical
experiences of Eastern religions. I knew that this was the ‘big leagues’. |
The books
and teachings of former Harvard professors Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass), Timothy
Leary, Aldous Huxley, Dr. John Lilly, and others promoting variations on the
psychedelic gospel of ‘turn on, tune in, and drop out’ reverberated through
my fascinated mind. I even was able to write a few papers on this research
for a couple of religion classes I was taking. (I was by this time majoring
in Religious Studies). Talk about having your cake and eating it too. |
Now I was
ready to take the next step into the big league hallucinogens. From all that
I had read, I couldn’t wait. |
A succession
of experiences with LSD, mescaline, peyote buttons, psilocybin mushrooms, and
hashish with others in my Asian studies house ‘blew my mind’. Catapulted into
extraordinary dimensions beyond my wildest dreams, I rapturously explored
what I felt were the indescribable ‘heavens’ of the supernatural realms.
Incredible vistas of dazzling rainbow lights, beings of pure energy, and
mind-expanding transformations unfolded with each new experience. I felt that
the psychedelics afforded me access to the very essence of Nature and the
cosmos. Here, I thought, I was privileged to know the innermost secrets of
the universe known only to mystics, saints, and psychedelic voyagers. |
Due to the
overwhelming power of these drugs, it sometimes would take an entire day to ‘trip’
and then another day to fully come down and reorient to the ‘3-D
earth-plane’, as well as to try to come to grips with these radically new
experiences. When I would read some of the books in the college courses I was
taking on Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Yoga,
and Western mystics, time after time my psychedelic experiences matched
precisely with these traditions. Being a cautious sort, I had to consider the
possibility that these ‘trips’ were simply imaginary flights of fantasy or
merely wild, cosmic, comic-book adventures concocted in my own mind. However,
with the intellectual confirmation of Eastern scriptures and Western mystical
writings, I felt that I was most certainly on the right track. |
My experiences
with the ‘mind-blowing’ hallucinogens are really quite typical of a great
majority of New Agers. The psychedelic doorway flashing the seductive neon
sign – ‘Gateway to Nirvana: Instant Enlightenment’ – has been (and continues
to be) a major entry point into seeing reality the ‘New Age’ way for millions
of truth-seeking pilgrims. What I didn’t realize then was that these drugs
were blowing open ‘holes’ in my mind that allowed demonic enchanters to
further ensnare and brainwash my mind with glamorous psychedelic frauds. |
Yet, at
the same time, after coming down from psychedelic sessions I still felt
fragmented inside. The inner anguish and hollowness were blotted out for a
while but always returned after a time. I rationalized that I was a typical
product of neurotic Western society. I figured that it would take me many
years to work out of all the psychological knots and the sense of alienation
that I inherited from a ‘plastic’ and superficial Western culture. |
But true
enlightenment, according to Eastern religions, went far beyond just
psychological balance and well-being. It is a much longer journey of
spiritual realization built up over thousands and thousands of reincarnated
lifetimes. With psychedelics, I thought that I had seen the mountaintop of
spiritual enlightenment and communed with ‘god’ there. Now I felt that the
long task of hiking up the mountain was my lifelong direction and goal. |
A few
years later, though, I had an LSD experience that should have warned me of
the deceptions that I had embraced. Shortly after gliding up a crescendo into
the peak of the LSD ‘high’, an overwhelmingly powerful demon-spirit took
possession of me. I was no longer in control of myself and this demonic force
took over the reins. While part of me watched helplessly, the demon-sorcerer
cast a number of powerful spells and gave me visions of hideous darkness.
After several hours of tremendous inner torture on this ‘bad trip’, the demon
‘blew my circuits’ and left me lying like a rag doll. I could not speak for
two entire days, and the psychological damage took six months to heal. |
In
retrospect, I see that this gruesome experience should have been a sign to go
no further on the New Age path. However, I made a decision that was only partly
right – from that point forward, I vowed to myself
never again to take any form of hallucinogenic drug, including marijuana. My
goal now was to achieve personal healing and spiritual enlightenment by only
‘natural’ methods. Thus, my New Age pilgrimage continued as I abandoned the
psychedelic door while hundreds of other doors lay open for the
experimenting. |
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Buddhist chanting charms
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Within my
college Asian studies house there were people experimenting in all kinds of
spiritual paths. Being inquisitive, I tried several of them and had some
interesting experiences. |
A roommate
and close friend really caught on fire with the practices of a Buddhist sect,
named Nichiren Soshu Buddhism. He seemed really to grow past some personality
flaws and sometimes even seemed to have a glow about him. I also was taking a
religion course at the time called ‘Masters, Gurus, and New Religions’. For a final paper and verbal report we
were to investigate some type of unorthodox spiritual group. Figuring to kill
two birds with one stone, I started to attend group meetings with my roommate
every week in |
I was
instructed to chant this phrase for 30-60 minutes every day, and see if my
life changed in any way. I did so and, to my great wonderment, I experienced
a three-week time period of the most incredible luck and good fortune I can
ever recall. It was absolutely uncanny. It was as though I had the ‘Midas
touch’ and everything I touched turned to gold. Money, amazing coincidences,
and unworldly good fortune unfolded in my life like a royal red carpet. Here
was power and tangible prosperity. |
After a
few weeks, though, the ‘Midas touch’ that many other members of this sect
also had experienced wore off. A couple of months later, having had my fill
of this portion of the spiritual alternative menu, I completed a college
paper on this organization, discontinued the practices, and whetted my
appetite for more spiritual adventures. |
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Far-Out mind control
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A little later,
while on summer break between junior and senior college years, I saw a free
introductory lecture on ‘Silva Mind Control’ advertised in the local
newspaper. I had been fascinatingly absorbing the writings of ‘Seth’ at the
time. Seth is a famous spirit channeled through the trance-medium Jane
Roberts [3]. This spirit’s writings intellectually outlined many of the
psychedelic vistas that I previously had experienced, and showed how they
relate to developing all sorts of higher psychic powers. This is exactly what
Silva Mind Control promised to teach in a practical, step-by-step manner. |
In a
seminar taught over the span of two weekends, I learned an amazing array of
mind power techniques for doing things like: acquiring inner spirit guides,
intuitively diagnosing the health problems of any stranger, dream control,
‘mind-over-matter’ techniques, psychic powers, using thought-power to control
reality, trance-induction methods, and much more. |
I tried some
of these practices and they really seemed to work. Dreams could be
controlled; psychic insights into people sometimes proved accurate; even
clouds in the sky apparently could be influenced with mind-power. Again, like
the Buddhist chanting, events in my life took a decidedly ‘golden’ turn. I
did not realize until many years later that Satan often gives apparently
wonderful ‘gifts’ when a person becomes involved with the New Age. With every
gift received, the New Age practices seem to be validated as being true and
positive. However, also, with each gift received, the New Age ‘hook’ is set
deeper and deeper inside the person. |
So it was
with me. While every indication told me that I was on the path of truth and
fulfillment, an elaborate seduction really was beginning to overtake me. |
One of the
most intriguing practices taught by Silva Mind Control (today called the
Silva Method) is the creation of an ‘inner retreat’ or ‘inner sanctuary’.
After going through an extended step-by-step trance induction technique, we
were told by the instructor to imagine ourselves to be in a house or dwelling
of our own design. It could be anything we wanted, anywhere we wanted. |
While many
in the class imagined various types of idyllic wilderness retreats, I thought
it would be interesting to visualize a high-tech lounge-and-laboratory on the
ocean bottom, accessible via a luxury submarine. In my case, as the
trance-induction technique deepened the trance, I would imagine myself in the
submarine going deeper and deeper, deeper and deeper into the ocean depths.
We were instructed to create an easy chair with every comfort feature we
would imagine. On the right arm of the chair there was to be a control panel
with switches that regulated various functions. In front of the chair we
visualized a large screen, upon which to project various thoughts and desires
that we wanted to create in our lives. |
Extensive
instructions guided us in creating every detail and exploring every aspect of
our inner ‘home away from home’. After many hours of repeatedly going through
this process, the inner sanctuary actually started to take on a type of
reality of its own. |
The
businessmen, housewives, professionals, policemen, and college students in
the class started to have the distinct sensation of the ‘inner reality’
taking on an eerily ‘real’ status. We felt like astronauts of the ‘inner
realms of higher consciousness’. Any time we wanted
to apply mind-power to create reality in the outer, physical world all we
needed to do was to go to the inner sanctuary and vividly visualize our
desire on the wraparound screen in front of the control panel chair. |
This may
seem fanciful, but 7-million people have taken this course, a goodly portion
of them businessmen and professionals, and many have reported that they have
remarkable results. In fact, there’s a money back guarantee if a person is
not able to exhibit certain intuitive powers by the end of the course. |
Culminating
this entire sequence, we were guided to go once again into our respective
inner retreats and, after going through certain techniques, to invite or
visualize one or more ‘inner counsellors’. These counsellors could be in any
shape or form, from the mundane to the bizarre, whatever we could think of;
or in some cases, they simply materialized in front of one’s awareness. |
These
‘spirit guides’ were said to have access to tremendous amounts of wisdom and
knowledge which they would dispense to us upon request. They were to be
regarded as friends and confidants who benevolently would guide us through
life in a successful and prosperous way. |
The
instructor stated that he had a council of nine counsellors; some of them
being recognized celebrities like Einstein and Johnny Carson. |
In my own experience,
two guides suddenly materialized before my mind’s eye. One was a tall,
strong, wise-looking American Indian man and the other was a strikingly
beautiful American Indian woman. After becoming used to the idea, the group
was guided to acquaint themselves with their respective guides and to start
asking questions. Most people in the group later shared that the inner
counsellors seemed to take on a vivid reality and that their dialogue seemed
to have proven somewhat fruitful. |
What I
didn’t realize at the time was that everything in Silva Mind Control was
based on occult philosophy. The occult was simply repackaged in a
de-religion-ised, Westernized format that would be acceptable and even
appealing to middle-class |
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The development of an
all-American yogi [4]
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Shortly after
beginning my senior year in college, I made a decision to take a year and a
half leave-of-absence. While doing quite well academically, my usual
enthusiasm for college studies was wanting, as I was cutting corners and
doing minimal work. At the same time, for all the advanced New Age classes I
was attending and all the exalted spiritual experiences that were happening,
inwardly, there was an alarming psychological deterioration taking place. |
Greater
degrees of inner alienation and anguish were building up to an intolerable
degree. I always have been rather shy and quiet by nature, but now it became
almost impossible to hold a conversation even with close friends. Something
was fragmenting inside and I felt a desperate need for help. |
During this
time, I met a highly intelligent sophomore who was involved deeply in similar
pursuits, and it was clear even to me that he had become quite
psychologically unhinged. I went to a professor in the religion department
who taught a lot of the Eastern religion courses I had taken. He had a
mystique about him and was highly respected. He even had been college
president for a time. Rumors among some students and graffiti in the
inter-dorm tunnels speculated that he was a ‘bodhisattva’ (an enlightened one). Unfortunately, his schedule
was swamped. |
I decided
to take time off from college to go to some yoga retreats (also called ‘ashrams’). Here, I knew from extensive
reading, were places often removed from Western society out in the country
where I intensively could use advanced yoga practices to heal myself. In
effect, I regarded these ashrams as
‘spiritual hospitals’. |
After
spending a couple of months painting houses to raise money (my parents would
fund a college education but not this kind of thing), I drove from |
First,
though, the Swami was holding a
weekend seminar on ‘Superconscious Living’ in |
In the
midst of the weekend, I happened to be browsing through the Yoga
paraphernalia on sale, and came upon a completely compelling drawing of a
Yoga master named Babaji. I had read of this mysterious high master in the
classic book, Autobiography of a Yogi,
by the well-known Eastern guru, Paramahansa Yogananda. Babaji is said to have
resided in the remotest regions of the |
Mesmerized
by the power and the strange feeling of familiarity that seemed to emanate
from it, I immediately bought a copy and started to meditate on it at various
times during the weekend. I felt that I was receiving a spiritual ‘call’ from
this ‘high Yoga master’ to be his disciple. Even though my rational mind
wanted to be cautious and reserved about this, the impact of what I was
feeling in deep inner levels gave me a certainty that this was what I had
been yearning for. |
At the
very end of the weekend seminar, the Swami
stood at the exit while every one of the 300 attendees lined up to receive a
‘divine glance’ from him. As I drew nearer, I noticed that the people
receiving the divine glance became limp and relaxed all of a sudden, and then
a couple of moments later went away with a wide smile on their faces. When I
stood face-to-face with the Swami,
his eyes were completely absorbing. It was as if I was suspended in time,
totally embraced by serene eyes that connected to a universal power beyond
time and space. Then, in a flash, I was back within myself and needing to
focus on moving my physical body away from the line. I found that I, too, had
a wide, relaxed smile and felt warm and blissful inside. This, for me, was
the final confirmation that I had found what I was looking for and that at
the Yoga retreat I would find more answers and be healed of my psychological
afflictions. |
Little did
I know then that I had fallen for one of Satan’s oldest tricks – the use of
guru-figures as demonic puppets through which to transmit blissful forces
that seduce even as they veil the consuming face of darkness behind it all. I had walked right into a web of darkness that appeared
as a luminous rainbow of divine promise. |
With
excited anticipation, I drove for an hour and a half north-east of |
The people
there were clean, friendly, and helpful. They had their own version of the Ten
Commandments – ‘Yamas and Niyamas’ (the five do’s and the five
don’ts). Drugs, alcohol, extramarital sex, etc., were expressly forbidden.
Days were very structured and disciplined, from |
The rigor
and discipline of the daily routine helped my own personal healing and
stabilizing process to some degree, though not as much as I had wanted. The
yoga system prides itself on being a ‘science of higher consciousness’ – the
idea that by applying certain cause and effect Yoga practices through
thousands of lifetimes a person eventually would create his own wholeness and
ultimate salvation. In such a system, I realized that it might be a long,
long time before I attained inner healing and everlasting peace. It wasn’t
very good news. |
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Pocono bound
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After four
months my money ran out and so I went back home to |
Destination:
another well-known Yoga community situated in the Pocono Mountains of |
A huge
former monastery in rural backcountry, this serene setting was overseen by
the guru of the entire national organization. This Swami had achieved a certain amount of renown in some scientific
circles when he proved, at the highly respected Menninger Foundation, that he
has certain mind-over-matter abilities. I quickly found a mystique, involving
thousands of alleged miracles and mystical marvels, permeating the community.
All bowed to their glorious and adored guru, who acted as a god-on-Earth,
benevolently bestowing wisdom, gifts, miracles, and salvation to all his
supplicants. |
Again, as
at the previous Yoga community, the lifestyle was regimented, orderly, clean,
and in accordance with the five do’s and five don’ts. Though I now look back
on these people as being deluded by a messianic pretender, their dedication,
organization, sincerity, and kindness made for a pleasant stay. |
The better
part of every day was a routine of early morning group meditation and
devotions, followed by breakfast and morning studies. Afterwards, there were a
couple hours work, lunch, and then afternoon studies and group meditations.
Evenings sometimes had planned activities and classes. Otherwise we were on
our own and had fellowship or retired to our individual rooms for study and
more meditation. |
Emphasis
in this community was on ‘detached self-observation’ – a kind of self-induced
psychological splitting of the inner self into a totally detached observer
and the rest of the self who thought, felt, and acted. To the detached
observer part of oneself, it doesn’t matter what the ‘lower self’ is doing or
experiencing – the observer remains totally non-involved and unconcerned. |
The
observer simply watches and goes ‘Hmm, that’s interesting’ to everything, no
matter if the person is experiencing a third-degree burn or smelling a
flower. This kind of psychological split makes for a rather emotionless,
joyless placidity. It’s somewhat like having a community of people aspiring
to be like ‘Star Trek’s’ Mr. Spock. |
I also
experienced a Yoga initiation by one of the sub-gurus of the community. As a
visitor I did not merit initiation from the Swami himself. The sub-guru was in a stage of deep meditation
when I entered the room, seemingly oblivious to my presence. After a time, he
called me over to sit beside him in an eerily deep voice. He positioned
himself so that his mouth was several inches away from my right ear. Then he
enunciated a mantra [5] directly
into my ear several times. There was a peculiar penetrating quality to the
sounds. It was as though they were being seeded deep within my being. |
He had me
vocalize the sounds myself, and informed me that this was my personal mantra that linked me to the ancient
lineage of this community’s gurus. Strangely enough, I felt almost lighter-than-air
walking out of the room, and experienced a continuous, extremely pleasant,
blissed-out state of mind for two whole days. |
Again, a
demonic link was seeded within me, sugar-coated with short-term bliss and
peace. My seduction was growing deeper and more complex with each new
spiritual adventure. While my scrap-book was filling up, I was sinking into
Satan’s gilded mire. |
|
One last skirmish in college
|
|
Having
quenched my appetite for Yoga ashrams
for a while, I decided to go back to college and finish up my final two
trimesters. The domain of college academia seemed now to be an alien
environment, somehow irrelevant to real life and quite ‘ivory towerish’.
Still, the general pursuit of knowledge and the academic study of various
religions was an enjoyable interlude. |
In a final
senior thesis paper, reviewed by all Religion department professors, I
challenged what I perceived as antiquated, out-of-touch Western religious
orthodoxy and presented an eclectic alternative of psychedelically expanded
Eastern mysticism and American Indian shamanism. It was ill-received (though
passing), but I fully expected this. My voice of defiance in the face of what
I then perceived as entrenched orthodox authority was the beginning of my
future New Age activism. |
I walked
away from college with a B.A. in Religious Studies in one hand and Yoga
meditation beads in the other. In retrospect, I can’t know if it would have
made a difference but I wish one of my professors (most of whom were
Christians) had taken off their objective, academic hats and sat me down and
given me the simple witness of the faith in Christ that even a child can
understand. In all the complexities of religious intellectualism, I totally
had missed the ultimate truth. |
|
Exploring Career Options in
the New Age
|
|
My
dedication to becoming professionally involved in some aspect of the New Age
Movement was by now firmly established. Inwardly, I still felt incomplete and
in need of much healing. Combining both deep personal need and career
direction, I decided to pursue the profession of holistic medicine. Also
called holistic health, this is a major branch of the New Age, one that is
extremely widespread and well-developed throughout |
Looking
through ads in New Age periodicals, over a hundred choices of schools and
learning centers in the holistic healing arts were available. I felt that by
learning how to heal myself with holistic health practices, I then could
apply that knowledge to helping others heal themselves in the future. |
While in
the midst of sorting out choices, I received a letter from the director of the
Yoga Teachers’ Training Program that I had attended in |
The
assistant teaching position proved valuable as a beginning New Age leadership
experience. |
In
unraveling the thread of Satan’s seduction in my life, I see how he provided
certain ‘signs’ that I would respond to in pointing me further down the road
of well-intentioned delusion. Most every New Ager can recount a long series
of uncanny ‘coincidences’ occurring in their lives, leading them further and
further along the New Age path. What I see today is that the adversary plots
to lead people more and more deeply into the New Age by providing ‘signs’ and
‘coincidences’, like laying a trail of cheese in front of lab mice running a
maze. |
After
finishing the three-month program assistant stint, I saw a vision in
meditation pointing me to a holistic health retreat I had been reading about.
Situated on |
I chose a
seven-week program designed to give a person the ‘full treatment’. On a diet
heavy on sprouts, wheatgrass juice and morning ‘liver cleansers’ containing liberal
amounts of garlic, one’s gastro-intestinal condition certainly did get the
‘full treatment’. Soon I was introduced to a wide assortment of techniques
designed to ‘break you down and then build you back up’. |
One
practice was to get up in the morning and quickly drink an entire gallon of
heavily salted water. Why? So you immediately could regurgitate it all back
out. This ‘atomic cleansing’ technique was for clearing stomach mucus out of
the body. If you can imagine a bathroom full of people doing this at the same
time, it’s certainly a fine way to start the morning. Even then, as a New
Ager, this was a bit too much for me. |
During the
first afternoon’s class, our group of 16 paired off and the instructor led us
through a bodywork technique supposed to ‘realign our body’s energy field’.
At the end of the technique each person giving the treatment was provided
with a tissue, and we were then instructed to put pressure at the very tip of
the tailbone of our partner. This was not sexual in nature, but it was one
heck of a way to get to know someone the first day. |
Then there
were the ‘jackhammer’ bodywork sessions (my term for them). Some schools of
New Age bodywork [6] feel that psychological traumas also are lodged in the
deep muscle tissues. Therefore, to release these traumas and restore body
harmony, it becomes necessary for the practitioner to grind fists, fingers,
elbows, and knees deeply into virtually every major muscle group in the body
of the hapless recipient. |
This is severely excruciating, to say the
least. The howls, shrieks, and murderous screams that would fill the air in
the community eventually became ‘normal’, though during the first few weeks
the place sounded at times like a torture chamber. |
Then it was
MY TURN. Sometimes a couple of assistants were required to hold me down while
the practitioner tried to make my calf muscles ‘one with the table’ via
extreme elbow pressure. This is a series of treatments profoundly etched in
my memory. |
There were
other less-severe practices, but these were the most memorable. Everyone in
the group followed the entire regimen. Looking back, so much of this appears
completely ludicrous. At the time though, everything was presented
professionally, with lots of rationale behind it, and it seemed to make
sense. When doubts arose in my mind, I thought: ‘Since you’ve already paid
your $1,700, you might as well give it a shot’. |
Several
small groups of 15-20 individuals were involved in different classes at any
given time at this center, and it is noteworthy to point out that many of the
participants were successful professionals in a wide variety of fields, New
Age and otherwise. |
I later
discovered that the members of this community were all disciples of yet
another Indian guru, supposed to be ‘God’ in the flesh. While they did not
advertise it, this was their spiritual link-up with Satan’s forces. Yet
again, the guru-connection had played a guiding role in my pilgrimage into
seduction. |
|
A survival school vision quest
|
|
My next
venture (after a time of recuperation from all the ‘healing’ I had
experienced) veered off onto a different tangent. I have had the innermost
feeling since an early age that the times in which we live today are the end
times. While I had a different perspective on the end times as a New Ager
than I do today as a Christian, at the time I read many prophecies
foretelling severe disasters and worldwide tumult in the relatively near
future. I thought it imperative to learn how to survive under adverse
circumstances and to live off of nature. I also was looking for an ultimate
test of my personal mettle plus a chance to undergo what American Indians
call a ‘vision quest’. A survival school, based in |
Being as
enamored with American Indian religions as I was then, I felt that my
spiritual journey would not be complete without my own version of their
vision quest. |
This quest
is a ‘rite of passage’ from boyhood to manhood, in which the young Indian boy
is left alone in a sacred place to fast, do rituals, pray for a ‘vision’ of
his life-purpose, and to acquire spiritual powers. In many ways it is a kind
of initiation into the supernatural realms. This is a fairly popular practice
in the New Age, and I felt that I would find some answers to my burning
desire for finding inner peace and my life’s greater purpose. |
I quickly
found that this outdoor survival school was indeed a kind of ‘ultimate
challenge’ that would test my personal mettle to the very limit. The first
three days of the program were called Impact,
and this phase certainly did make an intense impact on the 50 participants.
Getting out of the bus in the remotest badlands of southern |
Strenuous
forced hiking for 12-14 hours per day through some of the worst badlands I
have ever seen and up and down mountains quickly took its toll on some of the
less fit of the group. Dehydration, vomiting, exhaustion, and severe
blisters, among other side effects, afflicted some, but we still had to move
on. There was no food to be gathered from the badlands, and water was
extremely scarce. At times we would have to brush away the layers of scum
covering a small pocket of water in the sandstone. Most of us were so
desperately parched that we drank such water thankfully. |
On the
last day of the three-day Impact phase, a 28-day program, we hiked well into
the night and still had a long way to go to reach our destination. There was
a stream at our destination, so we had a lot of motivation to get there.
Having had no food and little water for three days under such extreme
conditions, most all of us were walking wrecks. |
I still
was using this situation as a vision quest, and had been meditating whenever
possible and calling out to the spirits of the Indians for a vision. Then,
something very unusual happened. Instead of feeling severely exhausted and
beleaguered like the others, I became filled with a power that completely
erased all fatigue and made my steps easy and light. |
When we
reached the destination around |
This was a
mystical experience of ‘cosmic consciousness’ like
none I’d ever had before. I saw in my expanded mind’s eye a hawk spirit, that seemed to span the entire galaxy, come to
alight over me. For what felt like hours I heard hawk cries that seemed to
reverberate through every atom of my expanded consciousness. I had received
my vision, and was ecstatic. |
Waking up
in the morning after two hours’ sleep, I felt normal again, and extremely
fatigued, like the others. The energy surge had come and gone. |
At the
time, I felt that ‘God’ had answered my spiritual cry, and that this
experience confirmed that my life was going in the right direction. I felt
that truth had been revealed to me in a very special way, and that I was one
major step closer to personal healing and spiritual enlightenment. |
In
unraveling the story behind my seduction, though, I see now that by calling
out to the spirits of American Indian pantheism and following the pattern of
the vision quest ritual, I again had unknowingly opened myself to the wiles
of Satan. I had asked for a ‘vision’ and ‘powers’ and got both. By crossing
into the Biblically forbidden territory of occult practices (Deuteronomy |
The enemy
and his demonic legions masquerade many times as angels of light and servants
of righteousness (2 Cor. |
In this experience,
I had gone through yet another mystical doorway into further reaches of
Satan’s New Age landscapes. I also acquired a ‘familiar spirit’ – a demon
masquerading as the spirit-hawk with which I felt such a close affinity. In a
way similar to the American Indians, I had acquired a ‘power animal’, my
‘spirit helper’. |
This demon
parasite attached itself to me in the masquerading appearance of a
spirit-hawk. By now, with all the yoga initiations, guru-connections, ‘inner
counsellors’ and a ‘power animal’, I was enmeshed firmly in Satan’s web of
luminous darkness. |
Within the
next week I re-injured a problem knee, had a terrible case of intestinal
problems (from the raunchy water), and had to hitch-hike back to |
A year
later, still very concerned about obtaining further survival skills for the
cataclysmic times I felt to be ahead for the world, I attended a two-week
Security and Survival Training seminar. In it I learned about martial arts,
military-style strategies for scouting, evasion, and defence, nuclear
fall-out measures, living off the land, water purification, and a host of
other bottom-line techniques for survival through world-shaking times. While
many of my New Age friends thought that they could meditate and fast through
such a crisis period, I figured to cover all possible angles, from the
spiritual to the bottom-line practical. |
|
Becoming a holistic health
professional
|
|
Now I was
ready seriously to pursue vocational training in holistic health. This was an
area in which I further could pursue my New Age beliefs. It promised to teach
me further how to heal myself, and also lead to a professional career. I
found a holistic health learning center with a two-year program leading to an
N.D. (naturopathic doctor) degree. The program was set up to have several
in-residence learning sessions at the school each year. For the rest of the
time we were given substantial assignments to do on our own. |
In keeping
with its ‘natural’ approach to health care, the school was located in the
beautiful backwoods of northern |
The school
was run in a very professional manner, with a serious and disciplined
approach. A significant portion of my fellow students were nurses and former
nurses who were disillusioned with orthodox medicine. All of us were aiming
toward a fairly well-paying job in the fast-expanding holistic health field.
This was and is one of the strongest and most well-developed branches of the
New Age Movement, and the job opportunities were plentiful. |
This
program had a very different focus than the sometimes loony approach I
encountered at the health retreat a while back (those wonderful ‘jackhammer’
bodywork sessions and other such practices). There were several world-renowed
figures who would fly in to instruct on occasion,
and several M.D.s were on the faculty. Holistic health is basically an
attempt to use natural substances (such as herbs, juices, etc.) and natural
treatment methods to heal the whole person – body, emotions, mind, and
spirit. This movement is radically opposed to much
of what orthodox medicine has to offer. |
Over the
two years I completed a course of study that included such subjects as:
Trauma-free exercise; Iridology; Fasting; European Weight Reduction Programs;
Diet and Nutrition; Stress Management; Body-Mind Integration Techniques;
Swedish Massage; Postural Integration Bodywork; Trigger Point Therapy;
European Health Rejuvenation Techniques; Martial Arts; Spiritual Awareness
Enhancement; and Herbology. |
Holistic
medicine is one of the trickiest areas to sort out the New Age from the
non-New Age. This is to say, a holistic professional might recommend that a
person do aerobic exercise and take a multivitamin, but doing the exercise
and taking the vitamin is not necessarily New Age. This important issue of
discerning and separating what is and is not New Age in the field of holistic
health is often a complex and subtle one requiring extensive examination [7]. |
The
primary point here is to note that the large majority of people involved in
the program, including the head instructor, had an underlying New Age philosophy.
Yet never in all the school’s literature and clinical hand-outs was the term
New Age used. There was a conscious and careful attempt to package and market
holistic health in a more scientific and mainstream-acceptable way so as to
appeal to the broadest possible number of people. This was done with good
intent, as it was believed that holistic health is totally beneficial to all
people. But the essential problem is that New Age philosophy lies at the core
of much of the holistic health field. |
My educational
experiences there led to an even more subtle seduction. By seeing how the New
Age could apply to so many different aspects of life – exercise, nutrition,
body therapies, emotional health, stress management, etc. with sometimes
remarkable effectiveness – I saw that the New Age had a host of practical,
down-to-Earth, positive effects (though, there are many dangers implicit in
some holistic health practices). In fact, I experienced significant
psychological healing and enhanced physical health by applying some of the
techniques over several years. |
I also saw
that a few aspects of holistic health – particularly some of the exercise and
nutritional information – have a scientifically verified basis. The M.D.
instructors at the school (a couple of whom occupied highly respected
positions in the medical community) lent a greater air of authority and
mainstream respectability. |
The area
of holistic health is one of the most subtle and sophisticated areas of the
murky merging of the esoteric and the mundane, the metaphysical with the
mainstream, the pseudo-scientific with the scientific, the non-New Age with
the New Age. |
I was
fascinated with my studies and felt that I really had found my life’s
calling. On a professional level I couldn’t even remotely think of anything
else that I would want to do with my life. |
Comfortable
and secure in this knowledge, I could not yet even IMAGINE the astounding turn my life shortly would take. |
|
Notes to chapter one
|
|
1. In New Age
terms, ‘higher consciousness’ basically means a supernaturally expanded frame
of mind that supposedly embraces a grander understanding of universal truth
that transcends rational thought. |
2. See Grow Rich! with
Peace of Mind, by Napoleon Hill (New York, NY: 1967). pp. 158-159. |
3. Trance
channeling is a phenomenon in which the medium allows a spirit to take over
the mind and body. During the channeling session, the spirit’s personality
(usually very different from that of the medium) is evidenced by their words,
body movements, style of speech, etc. The medium is usually totally
unconscious of whatever happens during the session. Afterwards, the medium
will then ‘return’. |
4. A
‘yogi’ is a person who is dedicated to the discipline of Yoga. |
5. A mantra is a word or short phrase that
is repetitiously sounded in meditation. Many mantras are names of various Hindu deities. |
6.
‘Bodywork’ is a general term referring to a wide variety of massage and massage-like
holistic health treatments. |
7. For an
in-depth analysis on this subject, see New
Age Medicine: A Christian Perspective on Holistic Health, by Paul
Reisser, M.D., Teri Reisser, & John Weldon. |
|
|
Chapter
two |
2. THE RISE TO NEW AGE LEADERSHIP
|
|
Somehow,
the startling sequence of events that was to overtake me shortly seemed as if
destiny already had charted out this bizarre but astonishing rise to New Age
fame. Miraculous ‘coincidences’ kept opening up doors for a totally unknown
young man – me – virtually to be catapulted into a meteoric New Age career. |
In the
midst of all the uncanny, overwhelming, bizarre, and wacky happenings
detailed in this chapter, powerful forces were at work to raise me up to a
position of leadership. In deep delusion at the time, I thought that the
‘Force’ was simply very strong with me, and that the cosmic gods were paving
the way for me to do important work in bringing about a revolutionary New Age
‘One World Order’. |
It never,
ever occurred to me that Satan could be in back of all of this. Such a
thought would have seemed absolutely outlandish at the time. The New Age, I
thought, was the veritable stepping stone into the kingdom of heaven. It is
hailed as the final solution to all the world’s woes, and the bearer of a
planetary super-Renaissance of human consciousness, government, and science.
To suggest otherwise, I thought, was pure ignorance, and to suggest that the
plans and forces of the Antichrist lurked beneath this ‘super-Renaissance’
was absolute folly. |
The
deluded of the New Age are not aware of their delusion. This is what is so
pitiful – and so potentially dangerous. |
So much of
the New Age felt so good, so true, so awe-inspiring.
Oh, the cleverness and finesse of the adversary, who devises schemes within
schemes and wraps them within other entrancing
schemes. |
To follow
this tale of deception, brainwashing, and bondage is to see the enemy at
work, as an angel of light, beautiful on the outside but rotten at the core.
May the reader be alerted to Satan’s strategies, and so be better buttressed
against them. Forewarned is forearmed. |
In the
unfolding ‘inside story’ of a former New Age leader, a panorama of alien,
farfetched, and even shocking New Age landscapes are exposed. By coming to
perceive this weird, brainwashed New Age mentality, the reader is better
forewarned of the motives and goals of New Agers, as well as some of the
deceiving strategies of the Antichrist forces. |
|
Meeting a New Age
‘soul-mate’
|
|
Freshly
graduated from holistic health school, holding high hopes and enthusiastic
visions of a successful career, I had no idea of the even more radical twist
my life was about to take. |
For a
while events unfolded as I had foreseen. I went about opening up a ‘ |
In a local
bookstore, I came across a flyer advertising the New Age Awareness Center. It
looked like something right up my alley. It would be nice to find some
metaphysically like-minded people to New Age around with. |
I called
the number and talked for a while with a sweet-sounding lady who was the
director. She informed me that this Center was composed of a loosely
affiliated group of people who would attend free-of-charge lectures and
programs on various New Age topics. There was no membership, no fees, and no
commitment necessary. During the conversation, I offered to give a free evening
lecture on holistic health sometime. She agreed and we set a date. |
Later,
after the presentation, Vicki, the director, and I chatted for a while after
every one else had gone. She told me in a light but honest way that she
virtually detested health foods and all that
holistic health craze. She much preferred a diet heavy on Twinkies, Ho-Ho’s
and Ding-Dongs. I tried to take all this in stride, but a real New Ager to my mind was a
fastidious vegetarian who never would stoop to eating
such outright ‘garbage’. I thought she was a pleasant person, but definitely
not my type. |
In
regularly attending the New Age Awareness Center Meetings, I got to know
‘Miss Twinkie’, as I secretly referred to her in my mind. Little did I know
that she saw me as ‘Mr. Natural Self-Righteous’. There was definitely some
static behind our friendly demeanor toward one another, but strangely enough
there was a growing spiritual attraction. Somehow, we would find ourselves
talking late into the night after a meeting was over, even as we carefully
positioned ourselves at very opposite ends of a long couch. |
Time after
time this would happen. There was no romance involved in this at all – the
‘chemistry’ was just not there. But there was a mutual spiritual attraction
that was growing so strong that it started to frighten us. |
Over
several weeks we searched in our meditations for direction regarding this
alarming situation. We came to have a powerful feeling that we were being
spiritually ‘called’ to join together and do New Age ‘light-work’ together.
We felt that a ‘mission’ had been divinely bestowed on us. Because of this,
we became a spiritual soul mate ‘couple’. |
|
The crystal connection
|
|
Vicki had
received a small but perfect quartz crystal from an American Indian medicine
man – one of his ‘power objects’ [1]. |
One day
when doing New Age meditation, she was instructed by her ‘spirit guides’ to
give me the crystal and to ask me to meditate with it. This was bizarre. The
idea of meditating with a hunk of rock sounded patently ridiculous. |
After
laughing about the idea for a couple of days, I decided to give it a shot. It
couldn’t hurt, could it? |
Only
minutes after focusing on the crystal in a state of trance-like meditation,
my consciousness was catapulted into electrifying domains of extra-natural
light the likes of which I had never before perceived. The upper part of my
head felt like it wasn’t there, like it had become invisible, as my awareness
raced upwards at the speed of light. From a high distance, I could see in my
mind’s eye that my body was trembling and shaking as the power of the
experience rattled through it. |
This was
my ‘crystal initiation’ into an entirely different supernatural realm. Wow!
Was this ‘crystal power’ or what? [2] |
For the
rest of the week my crystal-aided meditations brought vivid visions of
strange high-tech machines and contraptions all using crystal in different
ways. It was like stepping into a science fiction novel about technologies on
an alien planet. I also saw visions of a high-crystal-tech holistic health
clinic with lasers, holography, color beams, glowing liquids, and more in
this mind-boggling sci-fi film. |
Several
close friends remarked on a distinct change in my demeanor. Somehow, they
said, I was more charged and outgoing. I felt blissful, as if I had found an
entirely new part of myself. Sadly, though, in reality I blindly had entered
an entirely different realm of Satan’s high-tech, dazzling deceptions. Sure,
all this was a blast and I was riding a high like I had never known, but
later there would be a very dear price to pay for all this occult
adventurism. A dear price indeed. |
With
seemingly providential timing, a man called the New Age Awareness Center to
see if the center would sponsor his 1-day crystal workshop. Vicki and I
marvelled at this uncanny coincidence. |
I couldn’t
wait to see what mysteries would be unveiled. |
For the
most part, the workshop consisted of guided meditations somewhat like those
in Silva Mind Control (remember the inner sanctuary), except this time we
were to project our minds into the
crystal held in front of the forehead (where the occult ‘third eye’ [3] is
located). I thought that this was a crazy idea, but went ahead and tried it
anyway. In the first guided meditation I wasn’t really getting the hang of
it, but starting with the second one I felt that my mind somehow was focused
inside the crystal. We were guided to explore various sensory perceptions of
the crystal structure – are there any sounds, how does it feel, what do you
see, etc. Almost everyone in the workshop experienced some perceptions,
though they were all different from each other. |
In a later
guided meditation, I saw a vision of a large library composed solely of
different sizes and shapes of crystals, each containing volumes of stored
information, like a sci-fi, futuristic concept. I also saw elaborate crystal
computers glowing and scintillating with multicolored electric charges. Alien
beings of short stature and enlarged heads attended to a large complex of
high-tech crystal instruments and machines that did ultra-advanced things I
couldn’t comprehend. Funny thing about the alien technicians, they worked
together wordlessly like a bunch of bees in a coordinated group synchrony.
This was getting a little crazy. |
After the
workshop, my mind was reeling with the new ideas, trying to comprehend this
new world that was opening up inside of me. I really was getting hooked on
crystals. |
Shortly
thereafter I went to a psychic fair in |
Here was
my next step along the ‘crystal connection’ seduction that started to take
the place of the ‘guru connection’ that Satan had used to lead me onwards in
previous years. |
‘Saint’
and I felt an immediate affinity – as though we were long-lost brothers. He
had been involved in crystals for a number of years already, and knew much
more than I did. At the time – the very early 80s – crystal power was still
very much a lesser-known, unpopular topic. For hours after the psychic fair
ended, he regaled me with tales of UFOs with which he was in constant
communication, inside knowledge on how the UFOs were preparing to make
themselves known to the world, and even a time when he was beamed aboard a
spaceship to receive an Emerald Ray initiation and a crystal implant in his
body (shades of Whitley Streiber’s best-selling book Communion). |
I really
had never thought much about UFOs before, but the stories were utterly
fascinating. Little did I know then how large a role the UFO-connection would
play in my own life and in the 1980s New Age as a whole. |
‘Saint’
loaned me his ‘master stone’ to help me ‘activate my consciousness onto a
higher Light-frequency’. It was a strange-looking, blackish, ovoid-shaped
stone with thousands of tiny spines sticking out all around it. Years later I
found out that this was a rock called tektite, the unusual characteristics of
which still cause debate among scientists as to whether it is a type of
meteor. I carried this stone ‘power object’ throughout the next few dramatic
months. |
|
Aligning into New Directions
|
|
The 1982
Grand Alignment was fast approaching. A precursor of the infamous 1987
Harmonic Convergence, this major New Age event, was based on a highly unusual
astrological alignment of planets that was supposed to usher in a new level
of ‘cosmic light’ to the Earth. Such times always seem to bring out the most
dramatic experiences in New Agers. |
We were no
different. As the moment of Grand Alignment came to pass, Vicki and I both
independently came to a decision to move from |
The
pendulum indicated one of the hottest New Age hot spots of the early 1980s –
the |
We also
decided that because of the deep bond we shared in doing our New Age
light-work that we should be married. That there was no romance between us
was secondary – we just felt that we should be together. It was an unusual
strain of New Age thinking, to be sure. |
We planned
a ‘spiritual marriage ceremony’. And, typical of New Agers, we wanted to do
it in a mystical location. Having recently heard of the ‘Marfa lights’ near the
tiny town of Marfa, West Texas, we planned to do the private ceremony on the
trip to New Mexico. The Marfa Lights are sightings of strange luminous
appearances that seem to center around Marfa, dating back to American Indian
times. Many myths and legends surround this unexplained phenomenon. (New
Agers love this kind of thing.) |
Over the
next couple of months we planned our move to the promising metaphysical
horizons of |
We did the
spiritual marriage ritual in this utterly desolate location. However, we
didn’t see the Marfa lights. |
We felt
like intrepid metaphysical voyagers seeking out new vistas, charting new
lands. Little did we know that our years in northern |
|
The spirit world reveals its
plans for me
|
|
In the early
80s |
|
We lucked into
an unusual opportunity to live in a low-rent/great-view house. The unique
South-western combination of high desert, mesas, and mountains, as well as
the smell of pinyon in the air, can be breathtaking at times. |
The first
thing we did was to take two weeks off for a type of ‘spiritual honeymoon’ –
lots of the spiritual, but no passion (by mutual choice). |
Exploring
the mystical landscapes of the Southwest was our quest. There was much to
explore and many surprises. |
The
spiritual honeymoon was a head-turning one, though a most New Age one. While
the daytime visits to marvelous tourist locations and vortex spots were fun,
it was the nighttimes that ‘blew my mind’. |
The spirit
world began to speak to us explicitly and directly. All of a sudden Vicki
would go into a trance. Then a spirit would come into her body and animatedly
speak. I couldn’t believe what was happening. |
These
electrically compelling spirits would come in and identify themselves, and
then proceed to convey some august universal message of great import. I found
that I even could converse with these ‘high and wise’ spirit-entities. They
would answer my questions with what sounded like great wisdom and supernatural
prescience. The variety of spirits coming and going was astounding – I talked
with spirits identifying themselves as ‘Moses’, ‘Mozart’, ‘White Eagle’,
‘White Cloud’, ‘Serapis Bey’, ‘Ascended Master Kuthumi’, ‘Mary’,
‘Golden-Helmeted Ones’, ‘Green Ray Master’ and a host of others. The power
emanating from these spirits was overwhelming and entrancingly intoxicating. |
For hours
at a time, spirit after spirit would come into Vicki’s body and speak through
her. She was totally oblivious to what was being said and done. It was like
she was tucked away somewhere while the spirits temporarily would ‘use her
vehicle’, as they said, to speak to me. |
I was
flabbergasted by what they told me. Distilling the volumes of information,
essentially this array of exalted ‘Universal Masters’ and ‘Servants of the
Light’ told me this: that Vicki and I, and a few select others like us around
the world, were receiving a ‘grand dispensation’ to be the vanguard ‘Bearers
of New Age Light’ to lead the world into the fast-approaching ‘Golden Age of
Oneness’. |
They told
us to start to call out in our meditations to the ‘Space Brothers’, who allegedly were highly advanced extraterrestrial
intelligences stationed in our solar system. These ‘Space Brothers’ had come
from a variety of galaxies, and were part of a collective ‘Intergalactic
Space Federation’ working together to assist planets like Earth to go through
a ‘purification process’ preceding a quantum leap into a new evolutionary
stage of human development – a New Age of ‘Heaven-on-earth’. |
The Space
Brothers were said to work in conjunction with the ‘Great White Brotherhood’
(also known as the ‘Spiritual Hierarchy of Light), a universal hierarchy of
Ascended Masters, archangels, angels, and other types of spirit-beings who administrate
and control all aspects of creation. |
I was told
that our task was to help bring the advanced teachings of the Great White
Brotherhood to those people who would be receptive to New Age consciousness
and also to share techniques (many of them using crystals) so that these
people could be ‘activated into a higher consciousness of Light’. I was
informed that my path already had been charted out and decreed into action by
the ‘Higher Councils of Universal Masters’, and that I should therefore expect
many dramatic doors to open in the coming years. |
Unbelievable!
The cosmic ‘gods’ were speaking directly to me, saying that Vicki and I were
‘chosen ones’ specially hand-picked to lead the
world into the New One-World Era. |
I was
stunned for days by these overpowering experiences and revelations. I thought
that I was pretty far out before all of this. But as the weeks and months
unfolded, several of these spirits’ pronouncements actually materialized in
uncanny ways, plus in Vicki’s and my meditations we started to receive
startlingly clear transmissions from spirit-sources identifying themselves as
Space Brothers. |
This was
getting to be like an episode from the ‘Twilight Zone’. But the power of
these experiences felt good, our lives were fun and
exciting, and the words of ‘peace, light, and brotherhood’ seemed totally
enlightened and benignly love-filled. |
The higher
plateaus of my seduction and bondage were set into motion here with full
force. I had been enticed with visions of high cosmic drama and promises of
world-shaking spiritual work to be done, while the powerful charms of
luminous demons masquerading as angels of light conspired to mesmerize and
brainwash me to deeper levels of bondage. |
Channeling
of this kind is really quite common in many New Age circles. Many who are
true-believers maintain successful professional careers even as they fully
indulge in the New Age. What to some would appear verging on the insane (or
inane), appears to these true-believers as high truth beyond the reckoning of
the less evolved. |
In
retrospect, I see that the sometimes overwhelming power accompanying these
experiences that I thought then was heavenly love and light was actually an
entrancing force put forth by demonic deceivers so that a type of open-eyed,
light-to-deep hypnotic trance occurs in the recipients. Being much more
vulnerable and suggestible in this state, even as the person feels wonderful
and ‘light-filled’, brainwashing influences can then be subliminally seeded. |
Recall how
easy it is for professional hypnotists to hypnotise a group of people all at
once. Once in this trance state, the people can be implanted with all kinds
of normal-to-bizarre hypnotic suggestions that they will perform at the
command of the hypnotist. |
With
regard to New Age channeling, a parallel dynamic takes place, though the mode
of hypnotising and the suggestions implanted are of a very different variety.
The fact that channeling is one of the hottest phenomena in the New Age today
is no happenstance – it is an integral part of the enemy’s power-play to
induce larger magnitudes of delusion in the millions of people composing this
fast-growing movement. |
|
‘Cutting my teeth’ on the
New Age
|
|
Up to this
point, I was a student, basking in the comfort of the pursuit of knowledge
while not yet being tied to the full gamut of adult responsibilities. Now I
had to go out and make an actual living in the real world of bills to pay and
duties to fulfill. More than anything else, the next years were a transition
into married manhood. It was indeed a learning experience. |
With a
fair amount of perseverance, fortitude, and resourcefulness a New Ager with
some type of professional New Age training can eek out a passable living.
Over the next two years I was involved in a fairly wide spectrum of
activities, including the following. This list is a partial study of New Age
inroads into some branches of mainstream society: |
|
·
Teaching hatha yoga classes at the
local YMCA. |
·
Teaching ‘Dynamic Relaxation’ classes through the Continuing Education branch
of the state university. |
·
Giving lectures at the public library on ‘Quartz Crystals and
Self-Transformation’. |
·
Giving ‘crystal healing sessions’ at a popular local metaphysical bookstore. |
·
Teaching aerobic classes at the YMCA. |
·
Being a staff member of a local holistic health school. |
·
Giving ‘natural health care’ lectures to the general public. |
·
Offering ‘Maximizing Wellness’ personalized holistic health consultations. |
·
Coordinating a city-wide ‘New Age Networking Guide to |
·
Organizing a New Age ‘Festival of Light’. |
·
Participating in various New Age conferences and expos in |
·
Selling crystals at flea markets. |
·
Selling crystals at psychic fairs. |
·
And having a few garage sales to make ends meet. |
|
On the side,
we organized a |
|
·
Peruvian whistling vessels (occult whistles for inducing trance-states). |
·
Group channeling sessions. |
·
Bach Flower Remedies (the ‘vibrational essences’ of flowers for healing
purposes). |
·
New Age art. |
·
Acupuncture. |
·
‘Meeting Your Soul-mate’ |
·
A ‘Come As You Were’ party (costumes of past life incarnations). |
·
Past Life Regressions. |
·
UFO contact sessions. |
·
Guided Imagery for Success and Prosperity. |
·
Stress Management. |
·
And many more creatively varied topics. |
|
We were
quite the New Age activists, dedicatedly propagating the wonderful news of the
New Age to as many as would listen. On several occasions we even participated
in world-peace demonstrations in the imposing city of |
While all
this was happening, powerful forces were continuing to guide and groom me for
future works of much greater magnitude. These first few years in the |
|
A warning not well-taken
|
|
Before
detailing these formative forces and events, it is interesting to note a certain
visitor who appeared one night at our doorstep unannounced. A clean-cut young
man, about 18 or so, asked if he might come in. Hesitatingly, I allowed him
in and offered him a seat. |
He came
right to the point: ‘God told me to come here and tell you that you’re
masquerading as the light. Your master is darkness’. |
Rather
taken aback by such an unexpected comment, I asked him to repeat this – maybe
I had not heard him correctly. He did so, and I heard it the same as before. |
Trying to be
reasonable, I asked him if he would care to elaborate on this statement –
could he prove this in any way? |
He simply
repeated his statement: ‘God told me to come here and tell you that you’re
masquerading as the light. Your master is darkness’. |
Understanding
this was all he was going to say, I politely thanked
him for relaying the message, and assured him I would ponder it. After he
left, I simply dismissed the event as being from a crank. After all, I only
recently had been having personal conversations with the higher ranks of
cosmic ‘gods’, and if I was masquerading as the light, they certainly hadn’t
brought it up. |
Now, in
retrospect, I wonder if Jesus Christ sent me a messenger that night to gently but firmly deliver His truth and a way out of my
glittery bondage before I became even more deeply imbedded in it. |
|
Hooked on ‘New Age science’
|
|
Within the
first month of arriving in |
A swirl of
dramas surrounded this man: calling down UFOs to land; plans for building
‘healing temples’; blueprints for super scientific breakthroughs; revelations
about government conspiracies and UFO cover-ups; and dates for divine
intervention and world deliverance. The man was like a human vortex of cosmic
happenings. |
He used a lot
of advanced-sounding scientific terms mixed up with an unusual metaphysical
jargon. When asked about the source of this, he brought out his ‘bible’, a
600-page volume called Keys of Enoch.
When I started leafing through its pages, a surge of energy gripped me. There
was a vague but profound feeling of déjà
vu, a feeling that this book was very familiar to me, and that it held
the keys to unlocking incredible cosmic doors. I was so enthralled that I cut
the meeting short and made a bee-line for the closest metaphysical bookstore.
If I would have had to drive 500 miles that day to get this book, I would
have done so. Fortunately a copy was available at a metaphysical bookstore 15
minutes away. |
Over the
next two months I was obsessed thoroughly with the Keys. The author is a man with many highly respected scholarly
and scientific credentials (including more than one Ph.D. degree) who claims to have been translated bodily into the highest
heavens and given a scripture for the New Age. In this ‘bible’ I found an
unparalleled level of sophistication and way of viewing the ‘big picture’ of
the cosmos, the magnitude of which I never had perceived before. |
I had read
thousands of religion and metaphysical books, but this one was in a class by
itself. The author claims that it is written in a coded language that helps to ‘unlock the mind-gates’ to the
‘Great White Brotherhood’ (also called the ‘Spiritual Hierarchy of Light’).
Time after time, upon reading certain passages I would have visions come
before my mind’s eye or spontaneously would go into a state of
trance-meditation filled with racing thoughts and higher inspirations. My
mind-gates were indeed being unlocked, and I was being re-circuited into a
whole new dimension of New Age higher consciousness. |
The Keys of Enoch claims to be a complete
cosmic synthesis of the spiritual and scientific realms. With a peculiar
blend of scientific concepts and esoteric principles, this book proposes to
have the 64 keys to the ‘Higher Science’ (or ‘Sacred Science’) of totally
reconstituting the Earth and its peoples into a New Age. |
Interestingly,
as I became more and more re-circuited, I came to be fascinated with
scientific principles and many areas of leading-edge high technology. This
was new to me, for I never really had cared for the dry world of science. In Keys of Enoch I read that startling
advances in such diverse scientific fields as genetic engineering,
telecommunications, supercomputers, nuclear fusion technology, artificial
intelligence, solid state physics, quantum physics, advanced holography,
laser optics, astrophysics, and others were to be combined with New Age
spiritual philosophy in creating a utopian New World Order. |
This
‘Sacred Science’ claims to be a revolutionary super-science capable of linking
with the infinite powers of the universe, all applied to completely re-create
the planet into a paradise and its populace into gods. Thus, a grand ‘Second
Genesis’ would generate a super-Renaissance global utopia. At least, this is
what Keys of Enoch and much of New
Age philosophy proposes. |
In
reality, under the guise of light, peace, and love, the New Age seeks to
re-make the world into a utopian society that is actually set up by the false
Messiah – the Antichrist – leading to attempted world domination. |
This New
Age spiritual-scientific worldview became the guiding force behind all my
future work. For some uncanny reason, I had a special affinity with all this
that seemed to just blossom forth from within. It was like I had a special
talent that, heretofore, was totally untapped. My own self-perception at the
time was that I simply was tapping into the New Age higher consciousness and
my own innate ‘god-powers’. In reality, I was undergoing a profound level of
brainwashing into some of Satan’s more sophisticated-looking delusionary
traps. |
If you
think that any person like this is so ‘cracked’ that his life would be a
wreck and an obvious candidate for a straitjacket, you would be only
partially right. Outwardly, my life was very demanding but the challenges of
being a New Age activist and a career man were being met quite well. I was
basically a happy and fulfilled person, though a significant feeling of inner
emptiness persisted. |
In the New
Age circles all around the country it is not unusual at all to find many people moving through all kinds
of such radical higher consciousness transformations. Most of them continue
to deal with life’s challenges adequately, some better and some worse. |
Shirley
MacLaine and John Denver, the two most well-known New Agers, are prime cases
in point. They both have made public some of their life-changing higher
consciousness transformations, and both still enjoy prolific and highly
successful careers. In my own case, within three years of moving to |
|
A crystal power book
materializes from ‘heavenly places’
|
|
Approximately
three months after moving to the northern |
The spirit
guides told me to take 12 quartz crystals and lay them out in a circle, to
tape another one to the occult ‘third eye’ and to suspend a large pyramid
overhead. I was to sit in the very center of the crystals with my head
underneath the pyramid. This was supposed to create a ‘crystal energy field’
having amplified ‘higher vibrations’ for receiving channeled thoughts from
the spirit guides. |
To my
amazement, as I would enter a kind of semi-conscious trance, discernible
thoughts, inspirations, and pictures would appear in my mind. All this was
not my own doing – the spirit guides were transmitting their thoughts and
influences to me. My job, effectively, was to take notes and then shape up
the material into book form. |
Over a period
of three months I would take my position in the crystal circle for 10-12
hours per day and receive and transcribe this information. With some library
research on the history of occult crystal use plus orthodox science’s uses of
man-made crystals in various technologies (like computers and lasers), the
manuscript was complete. |
Uncannily,
a major publishing house was actively searching for ‘crystal power’
manuscripts at the time. Out of hundreds of publishers, I chose 15 of them to
send manuscripts. Thirteen were returned with a flat rejection notice. One
small company was somewhat interested. And, after nine months of
deliberation, the major publisher chose my manuscript. I couldn’t believe my
good fortune, but what the spirit guides had promised actually had come to
pass against incredible odds. |
Honestly,
at times before this happened, especially when things got a little rough, I
was inclined to doubt the revelations and prophetic projections of the spirit
guides. In some ways I am a practical person and, if a philosophy is true, it
should also work in the ‘real world’ of mainstream society. But signing a
contract with a publisher of blue-chip stature and eventually seeing the book
in bookstores all around the country was pretty solid confirmation to me. |
I was
unaware, though, that the power of Satan can work quite effectively in
bottom-line reality, too. It was not yet clear to me then that if something
‘works’ that doesn’t necessarily mean it is ultimately true. The enemy can
perform ‘counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders’ (2 Thess. 2:9) that ‘work’
but are not truth in the least. |
The book,
entitled Windows of Light: Quartz
Crystals and Self-Transformation, launched me onto the national New Age
scene. Released in 1984, the subject of crystals really was beginning to
catch fire. Mine was one of the very first modern-day books on this topic to
be released. It sold very well, and generally was considered to be the best
book in the field for a number of years. As more and more crystal books
cascaded forth in the coming years, my book was considered by most to be
consistently among the top three books in the field. |
At this
time, I started to give weekend seminars in numerous major cities across |
Even as
this book first was reaching bookstores and my national New Age career
germinated, voluminous notes were being compiled for a second book. With each
passing month, the information was becoming more advanced and elaborate. It
was as if I was advancing through different grade levels in a cosmic
schoolhouse. |
For
instance the crystal power ritual techniques were becoming much more
complicated. Many of them involved attempts to stimulate and activate what
the New Age calls the various psychic power centers located in the brain so
as to awaken super-human higher mind-power abilities. |
I also
started to receive visions of hundreds of different crystal-based inventions.
These inventions were not confined just to crystals; they also included
pyramids, magnets, sonics, New Age music, color, lasers, electronic devices,
computers, high-tech trance-induction machines, and others. Many were quite
intricate; some even involved elaborate room-size set-ups involving hundreds
of crystals and pyramids, among all the other elements. I was tapping into
what seemed to be a mother lode of New Age sacred science. |
Though the
subject of sacred science is a most complex one, basically this aspect of the
New Age is an attempt at a type of modern-day, high-tech sorcery and white
magic. [4] This aspect of the New Age Movement was one of the ‘hottest’
fields arising in the late 1970s and 1980s. Thousands of Ph.D.s from diverse
scientific fields plus myriad independent thinkers and inventors have made this field a major up-and-coming force having a
powerful influence in the New Age Movement today. With a unique blend of a)
high-tech devices (like lasers, computers, etc.), b) modernized New Age
sorcery, and c) futuristic scientific vision, New Age ‘sacred science’ claims
to be the way for man to technologically control the powers of the universe.
By ‘awakening your own spiritual god-powers’, sacred science claims that the
entire universe can be manipulated by a human-based ‘Master Science’ of
extraordinary sophistication, a super-scientific revolution to manifest fully
when the New Age dawns. |
The fatal
flaw (among other defects) of sacred science is that it is a human-devised
technological pretender to the throne of Jesus Christ and His way, His Truth,
and His life. |
In a
similar way that the Antichrist will set himself up as a god proclaiming that
he has all corresponding sovereign powers to rule the universe, sacred
science is New Age man’s attempts to have godlike technological control over
himself, his destiny, and the entire cosmos. ‘Push-button miracles’ become a
tool of New Age man’s higher consciousness in order to extend his rulership
from Earth to the heavens. It is nothing less than an attempt at a modern-day
|
Essentially,
New Age science is the attempt to manipulate reality in increasingly more
powerful ways via an occult-based sorcery of sorts. To the orthodox scientist
sacred science is a fringe-element pseudo-science. To those in the New Age,
though, this topic is subject to much speculation and theorizing. Some of
these inventions and techniques are experienced subjectively as being
effective, sometimes extremely so, in pursuing New Age goals. |
Is New Age
science just another Alice in
Wonderland fantasy? Does it involve the placebo effect? Is it a mad
scientist’s dream? Why are Satan’s demons leading more and more New Agers
along these lines? Does it have any connection to the UFO issue? These and
many other tantalizing questions arise about this strange ‘Twilight Zone’
area of the New Age. |
No matter
whether sacred science works to some degree or not, I can testify today that
it is based on occult principles and practices that are all forbidden, either
explicitly or implicitly, in the Holy Bible (Deut. 18:9-12). |
This is
the ultimate flaw of New Age sacred science. It proved later to be one of my
most difficult lessons of all to learn. |
|
Project beam-down
|
|
To go back
a little in the storyline, while going through the lengthy process of waiting
for the publisher’s acceptance of the first book (nine months) and the
pre-release publication process (six months), there was a dynamic series of
events and experiences continuing to forge my New Age involvements. |
At an
upscale, nationally known resort outside of |
First,
there was ‘Saint’, then ‘Marco Atlantis’ and now ‘John’. |
I had heard
of him through the |
Arranging
a meeting at the resort where he resided, I was swept quickly up in the high
excitement of John’s dramatic plans. |
He claimed
that the resort area was the site of the region’s most active vortex – a
veritable bridge spanning the gap between the heavens and Earth. John said he
had been ‘divinely guided’ to move to the resort and commanded to coordinate
the planet’s first direct linkup with the Great White Brotherhood and the
Intergalactic Federation (UFOs). |
He had an
impressive array of highly elaborate, sophisticated looking sacred science
devices involving pyramids, crystals, lasers, electronic apparatuses,
computers, psychedelic-type New Age music, subliminal cassette tapes, and
exotic trance-inducing aromas. These devices were set up in a large
symmetrical grid arrangement in a very spacious conference hall. |
The idea,
according to John, was to use sacred science to create a type of ‘space-time
warp’ (kind of like going to warp-drive in Star Trek) so that spirit-beings
and extraterrestrials could materialize and interact directly with the people
who were within the conference hall. In addition, John said that all this was
leading up to further stages of extraterrestrial beings ‘beaming down’ to
Earth as well as ‘beamups’ of the New Age elect to spaceships waiting above.
The elect were to undergo cosmic initiations and ‘Light-body activations’
[5], so as to receive various advanced psychic powers, universal knowledge,
and revolutionary high-tech tools. They then were to beam back down to Earth
and help lead the world through a transition period into the One World Golden
Era – the New Age. |
Had I come
to the right place? What Saint, Marco Atlantis, my spirit guides, Keys of Enoch, and many channeled New
Age books were all talking about, seemed to be
happening before my very eyes. In fact, when the word got out, people came
flocking to the resort to ‘tune into’ the celestial happenings. Marco
Atlantis, who had been living in |
What added
to the excitement was that people started to report ‘angels’ materializing
and increased UFO sightings around the northern |
Many felt
a profound subjective experience of ‘consciousness warping’
in the sacred science set-up (like one’s mind going to warp speed). Was it
wishful thinking? The placebo effect? Or demon-controlled delusion and
brainwashing? |
John
relayed his ethereal experience of receiving the ‘Divine Plan’ [6] for all
this. He claimed that he physically was beamed up to a command spaceship and
was greeted by the fleet commander, a space-woman named Semjaza, originating
from the Pleiades star system. Semjaza put him through a series of high-tech
‘chambers’ to ‘activate his Light-body’. She then appointed him to coordinate
the Plan on the earthly end of things. |
Electric
anticipation filled the air for several months. Project Beam-Down (also
called ‘Project Second Genesis’) finally was about to happen after many
millennia of waiting through lifetime after reincarnated lifetime. We felt that we were on
the threshold of the climax of the ages. |
As so
often happens, personality friction started to build up. Especially when it
came to the issue of who was in command – John or Marco Atlantis. A rift of
tension eventually tore the situation apart, even as the appointed date of
the Beam-down came and went. |
Though
somewhat disappointed, I went away from this involvement feeling much more
knowledgeable about sacred science and the UFO-connection. As I cut off all
ties with John and Marco Atlantis, I felt that their egos had botched the
situation and that John had been accurate about some topics but was in error
with the setting of dates for the Beam-down. |
Looking at
this scenario today, I see that my early guru-connection by now had been replaced
by a |
|
·
The lies of demons masquerading as ‘Ascended Masters’ and ‘extraterrestrials’
had cast a brainwashing spell. |
·
Occult-based New Age practices revolving around crystal idols mesmerized the
mind. |
·
The allures of the modernized sorcery of sacred science worked its
delusionary demon-conspired magic. |
|
You might
think that surely all this totally bizarre New Age UFO drama is probably just
an isolated incident. But, in fact, it’s not really that uncommon a New Age scenario
at all. Would you believe that more than 75 percent of New Agers hold a
completely unshakable belief in the reality of UFOs? Actually, 75 percent is
probably an understatement. It’s most likely around 85-95 percent. Even
further, a solid percentage of New Agers – I’d estimate 50 percent or more –
truly believe that they are alien
or angelic beings that have reincarnated today into human form. |
For
instance, John Denver has made public the belief that he originated from a
place near the Lyra nebula. In Shirley MacLaine’s best-selling book and TV
miniseries, Out on a Limb, the
UFO-connection plays a major role in her cosmic vision quest. MacLaine’s
mentor, David, claims to have had a romantic and spiritual involvement with
an alien woman named Mayan. |
In
general, believing that you’re from the Orion, Sirius, or Pleiades star
systems, among others, are very popular New Age
self-concepts. Personally, I was convinced completely that my celestial home
was Orion. |
In fact, the
question of whether UFOs are real is rarely contested or questioned. This
belief is part and parcel of much, though not all, of the New Age mentality.
UFOs are involved quite heavily in their concepts of the world’s deliverance
from a time of suffering and tribulation into an enlightened ‘One World
United Government’ (that is, the New Age). |
Most New
Agers hold firmly to the view that hundreds, if not thousands, of UFOs
already are deeply involved in rendering aid to planet Earth in subtle but
highly significant ways. But, because of a kind of ‘prime non-interference
directive’ (like on Star Trek), the extraterrestrials cannot intervene
directly or render explicit assistance until humanity is ready for their help. These extraterrestrials are believed to
have a highly evolved spiritual philosophy (akin to New Age philosophy) and
extremely advanced technologies, both of which form the foundation for the
New Age One World Order. |
As wacky
as all this sounds, there are many millions of New Agers who absolutely are
convinced of this view. In fact, in most New Age circles, a person is
considered a bit weird or ‘out of it’ if he doesn’t believe in all this. |
What one
might call a ‘UFO virus’ has infected a huge sector of the New Age
subculture. From past personal experience, I can say that the influences felt
while I was in the grips of this ‘virus’ were utterly compelling and
convincing. Whether UFOs are ‘real’ has not been determined scientifically as
yet; whatever is happening here, there is a demonic power in back of the
entire phenomenon. |
In
commenting on this topic in his book, Angels:
God’s Secret Agents, Billy Graham states: ‘Some reputable scientists deny
and others assert that UFOs do appear to people from time to time. Some
scientists have reached the place where they think they can prove that these
are possibly visitors from outer space …. many
people are now seeking some type of supernatural explanation for these
phenomena. Nothing can hide the fact, however, that these unexplained events
are occurring with greater frequency around the entire world and in
unexpected places’ [7]. |
Also, in Confronting the New Age, Douglas
Groothuis reports: ‘Those supposedly contacted by the UFOs often display traits
common in other kinds of occult phenomena such as a trance state, automatic
writing, peering into crystals, the poltergeist effect, levitation, psychic
control, psychic healing and out-of-body experiences’ [8], |
Whatever is going
on when people receive ‘telepathic communications’ and ‘channeled
information’ form ‘higher entities’ claiming to be extraterrestrials, it is
powerfully demonic in nature. What I see clearly today in light of the Holy
Bible is that the UFO virus is yet another aspect of the end times ‘powerful
delusion’ spoken of in 2 Thess. 2:9-12: |
“The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance
with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs
and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing.
They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this
reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie
and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have
delighted in wickedness”. |
It’s so
easy to be deceived by all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders,
as I was. So deeply so that I was totally blinded to the Resurrection and the
Life of Christ Jesus. |
The ultimate
paradox for New Agers is that they believe the lie that they’re heading for
the New Age kingdom of heaven-on-earth. All the while, they’re really
following a Satan-conspired path to destruction. |
Looking
back on when I used to believe in the New Age lie, it is nothing less than
utterly terrifying. The demonic power behind the seduction is dazzling to the
point of blindness. |
Had Jesus
not delivered me from the powerful delusion of the New Age, I certainly would
have been shocked to the core at the time of judgement. For without salvation
through Jesus, I surely would have been cast into the lake of fire, and
experienced the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. |
|
Meeting the ‘Lord Maitreya’
|
|
Word got
around Santa Fe New Age circles that a man claiming to be the ‘World Teacher’
recently had located himself and his operation in |
Buzzing
with excitement about being in the presence of a Universal Master, we entered
a nondescript, medium-sized suburban adobe house. Finding two blissfully
smiling young women waiting to usher us to the ‘Great One’, we first were led
into a meditation room filled with pictures of ‘Maitreya’ and other Eastern
religious symbology, and instructed to ‘prepare our minds to receive the
Maitreya in our consciousness’. |
Hosted
into the room, the ‘Lord Maitreya’ sat in cross-legged position on top of a
double-mattress arrangement with dirty, wrinkled sheets. We were to sit on
pillows on the floor, directly in front of him. He was a smallish man,
Middle-Eastern-looking, and rather nondescript in appearance. Here he was, an
enlightened Master. What divine dewdrops would he bless us with? |
After
about 30 minutes, both Vicki and I had clued in to the fact that this guy
perhaps was well-intentioned but seriously deluded about himself and his
supposedly supreme universal stature. This ‘Lord Maitreya’ person had some
degree of polish to his New Age rap, but we felt that he definitely was not a
world-messiah. We started to ask him a few trick questions, and he seemed
oblivious to the fact that he was providing answers about concrete facts of
our personal life that were totally incorrect. |
There was
definitely, though, a buzz in the atmosphere of the place. For some, he might
serve as an attractive guru-figure, but to increasingly seasoned
New Age observers, he just didn’t measure up. |
Such a
totally enlightened ‘World Teacher’ would have read these thoughts in our
minds, but we were polite and he actually thought we had bought into his
exalted status. His followers repeatedly called us afterwards, trying to firm
up what they thought to be our converted discipleship. They kept asking us
for favors and money, which we politely fended off. |
Over the
next year, we received a couple of mail-outs containing the World Teacher’s
proclamations and directives for all of his followers. Later, we heard no
more from him, nor do we know what became of his female entourage. |
I don’t
know if the Lord Maitreya who I met is the same mysterious Lord Maitreya of
international intrigue who ran full-page ads in newspapers around the world
proclaiming: ‘In answer to our call for help, as World Teacher for all
humanity, the Christ is now here’. This highly touted 1982 occurrence claimed
that this ‘Christ’ would be heard telepathically by all peoples in their own
language. |
Apparently
the world was not ready to receive his royal New Ageness, and he did not
appear as promised. |
Benjamin
Crème of the |
On |
Did I meet
the real Lord Maitreya or merely a pale imitation? To this day, I do not
know. Maybe so, maybe not. There are thousands of false prophets and false
christs rampant in the New Age landscape. If I did in fact meet the one being
trumpeted so grandly, I can see why he would not come out of the closet. The
sham would be all too obvious. He would fare no better than one of his early
predecessors – a man by the name of J. Krishnamurti. |
In the
mid-1920s this young wunderkind dazzled audiences in |
There are
thousands and thousands of false prophets and false christs springing up in
the New Age Movement today. In fact, the New Age serves as a prime breeding
ground of sorts for Satan to groom and raise up a wide variety of these
agents of deception, from the more obvious ones to the more subtle, slick,
and sophisticated. |
I see
clearly now that the more obviously false prophets and christs like
Krishnamurti, ‘Saint’, ‘Marco Atlantis’, Ramtha, Maitreya, Lazaris (the most
influential spirit being channeled today), and a host of others are in some
ways a diversionary tactic of Satan’s. In his schemes within schemes wrapped
within other schemes, the enemy lays out a full array of false prophets and
false christs, the more obvious ones relatively clearly and easily are
identified as such. |
The
potential problem here, though, is relaxing one’s guard by stereotyping the
characteristics of Satan’s obvious forerunners as applying to all the rest of
them. The more obvious ones are actually set-ups so that as many people as
possible will think that’s what all
false prophets and false christs are like. Then it becomes all the easier for
slick, urbane, sophisticated wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing – the Antichrist and
his immediate forerunners – to fool great numbers of the world population. |
|
Meeting a false Christ of
national renown
|
|
About six
months later there was a buzz around town – one of the hottest channels in
the country was bringing her program to |
With the
session starting 45 minutes late, the crowd of 175 or so had an edge of high
anticipation and irritated edginess. The grand entrance of Ms. S, already in
trance and in character as Master D, was suitably regal. After all, here was
a spirit claiming to be a ‘god’, one who had attained full cosmic
enlightenment, and who could boast of tens of thousands of avid (or is it
rabid) followers. |
Suitably
enthroned on a kingly looking chair up on a high platform, Master D surveyed
the entire room silently for 5-8 minutes, ostensibly to see all and know all
about everyone in the room. Firstimers like myself
were seated in the front rows, and possibly we were to be granted the
opportunity to ask Master D any question we wanted. Here was my big chance,
if he (she?) would only call on me. |
To my
great surprise, Master D turned straightaway to me. |
As I
opened my mouth to ask the first question, I felt a force envelop me, putting
me somewhat off-guard and a little fuzzy-headed. |
Recovering
my balance a bit, the thought quickly passed my mind that this must be the
power of this spirit’s love embracing me. Though I was to find out later that
Master D customarily spends only 3-4 minutes with each person, he dialogued
with me for a good 20-25 minutes. |
Actually,
it was more a monologue. I had asked a couple of questions about my New Age
spiritual work and its future directions. What I received was an extended
discourse on the misdirectedness and futility of my current projects and
goals. I was stunned both rationally and by a force that made me quite
passive and virtually unable to challenge what was being said. I watched
myself turn into a yes-man, just nodding my head in a kind of open-eyed
trance while the entire group watched. |
After
Master D finally turned elsewhere, I felt like I was run over by a cosmic
locomotive. My mind still was extremely passive and unable to form focused
thoughts, and my body was numb and somewhat limp. The trance-inducing
abilities of many demon-spirits are quite potent indeed. |
What was
going on here? Master D had negated everything that the other Universal
Masters had been relaying to me for two years. I thought: ‘Didn’t these
Masters confer with each other up there in the heavens so that the right hand
knew what the left hand was doing? This doesn’t make sense at all. There has
to be something else going on here’. |
After the
program ended, while walking toward the exit one of Ms. S’s assistants ran up
to me. He informed me that Ms. S was quite impressed with me, and thought I
had a lot of potential for doing New Age light-work. And, if I were
interested in pursuing a position in the organization, to contact him. Well,
I thought, this is quite a turnabout. |
Driving
back home, it finally struck me. I really had not given much notice to the
four program assistants who regulated logistics around the front platform.
Now I remembered – they were each blonde-haired, blue-eyed males, all in
their mid 20s to early 30s. Well, I fit that description also. After being
discredited in front of my peer group, a miraculous job opportunity knocked
at my door. A year later, I confirmed my suspicions while talking with a
former aide – Ms. S has quite a fondness for young men of a certain type.
Here was another type of seduction indeed. |
What had
happened is a perfect example of the dynamics of the relationship between a
trance channel and the spirit(s) that use the trance channel’s body to work
their deeds of deception. In essence, the trance channel ‘sells their soul’
in return for lots of attractive benefits – money, power, fame, and even
satisfaction of other desires. In return for providing these things, the
spirit gets to take over the reins of the trance channel’s soul. The channel
must dance for his new master upon command like a puppet on a string, and for
the rest of the time the channel gets to enjoy all the fringe benefits. |
|
My cosmic vision quest:
‘Healing temple one’
|
|
It is not
at all uncommon for a New Ager to receive a ‘grand cosmic vision’.
Inevitably, these visions are quite glorious, exalted, and seemingly
world-shaking in importance. Believed to be ‘divine revelations’ received
directly from the heavens, they can take many and sundry forms: |
For some,
it’s a pursuit of high mystical adventure of self-discovery and/or cosmically
important planetary healing via New Age rituals done at ‘vortex areas’. |
For
others, it’s a self-image of cosmic power, mystery, and glory. |
For some,
it’s an evangelic job with the ‘Spiritual Hierarchy of Light’ – as agents,
messengers, teachers, or contactees of this Universal Council. |
For
others, as it was for me, it’s the manifesting of a New Age retreat or some
other type of New Age center of activities and services. |
I’d like
to insert an observation at this point concerning the material in the rest of
this chapter: Almost all of this material will seem so
bizarre as to be outlandish, insane, unbelievable, or a combination of all
three (in case the material up to this point hasn’t seemed so). The important
point to keep in mind is that the following material is quite typical of the inside story of heavily involved New Agers.
If you happened to see or hear about Shirley McLaine’s TV mini-series, ‘Out
On a Limb’, you will notice a few parallels between her ‘cosmic vision quest’
and my own, though there are certainly many differences as well. |
Though the
exact content of many New Agers’ beliefs along these lines varies, the depth
of the powerful delusion is so profound as to be virtually unimaginable to a
non-New Ager. In understanding some of the dangers of this movement, it can
be most helpful to see certain insights into the weird New Age mentality from
which their convictions and actions arise. |
My own
cosmic vision quest was certainly grandiose. Though I laugh at this grand
vision today, it appeared very real to me at the time, and I pursued it with
vigor and enthusiasm. |
My
vision’s name was ‘Healing Temple One’. This was the guiding force and
direction of my life’s work as a New Ager at this time. The Ascended Masters
and Commanders of the Intergalactic Space Federation, in overseeing my
efforts, kept feeding me detailed ideas and blueprints on a clear and regular
basis during my trance-meditations and out-of-body experiences. |
Essentially,
the vision was that of a veritable spaceship-come down to earth. Not any old
30-foot diameter spaceship, but one to be hundreds of yards in diameter – a
macro-ship, or what New Agers would call a ‘mothership’. The New Age concept
of a mothership likens it to the hub of a wheel that a host of smaller
spaceships rely upon for directives and other supportive assistance. |
Healing
Temple One (get ready for this) actually was supposed to come down from the
intergalactic heavens – a super-spaceship landing on Earth. Also called a
‘temple-ship’ in New Age terms, the Divine Plan was that Healing Temple One
would come down to earth accompanied by a substantial host of other space
vehicles and motherships all around the world. This
act of divine intervention was to bring salvation from a time of acute world
turmoil, followed by the establishment of ‘planetary healing’ and a New
One-World Order, all to occur sometime before the year 2000. |
It is
important to note here that not all New Agers would agree fully with the type
of scenario illustrated by Healing Temple One. There are many other prophetic
variations on the millennial New Age theme. The scenario represented by
Healing Temple One does, though, represent a large percentage of those who
believe in the existence of UFOs. A solid 70 percent plus of the New Age
subculture believe that spaceships will descend en masse from the skies at
some point in the relatively near future. |
The depth
of the New Age brainwashing that this Healing Temple One scenario reflects
demonstrates the power of Satan’s demons in back of this branch of New Age
thinking. You would be surprised at the millions
of New Agers in all walks of life who believe the Healing Temple One scenario
or some variation thereof. |
Let me quote
from select parts of the 8-page prospectus for Healing Temple One that I
wrote: |
‘The time
has now arrived to establish temples and academies of the sacred sciences ….. |
‘On many
levels, mankind is approaching a gateway of transformation leading to a New
One-World Order, an era of quantum advancements both in man’s own
consciousness and in high technology that are breathtaking to consider …. |
‘Both the
Spiritual Hierarchy of Light and the Intergalactic Federation are to use
Healing Temple One as a primary operational base through which to do the
high-level Light-work that is needed at this crucial time in Earth’s history… |
‘Healing
Temple One forms a gateway between the heavens and the Earth, thereby
catalyzing the revelation of scientific knowledge and technologies that will
revolutionize the entire world’. |
This is
representative of a fairly standard variety of New Age thinking occurring
with many believers in UFOs. |
A
futuristic view of New Age science was an integral part of this Healing
Temple One vision. In the ‘Golden Aquarian Age’ technological wonders and
miracles brought to Earth by Healing Temple One were supposed literally to
remake the world – a grand Second Genesis. The prospectus claimed: ‘The revolutionary
technologies to be used and further developed in this project lay the
foundation and form a gateway through which the heavens and the Earth are
united in one vision, one reality, one divine manifestation’. |
Let me
draw a couple of examples of the futuristic technologies from the Healing
Temple One prospectus: |
‘Light-body
activation therapy’ involves a sequence of treatments through a series of
high-tech activation chambers …. Envision, for example, an activation chamber
humming with harmonically elevating sounds, bathing the spirit, mind, and
body with tranquility. As the sounds gradually increase in intensity, a stream of multi-colored light-beams are projected into
each chakra-center [9] in rapid
pulses of computer-orchestrated colors. After this is completed, the body is
gradually freed from gravity through the action of gyroscopic crystal and
anti-gravity devices until it is floating inches off the therapy table.
Computer-generated holographic energy-fields are projected via laser-beams into
each chakra, transforming them into
crystalline spheres of Light’. |
Another
super-high-tech healing chamber was designed as a New Age ‘Fountain of
Youth’; |
‘A
Pyramidal Cellular Harmonizing Chamber …. This long-sought ‘Fountain of
Youth’ is based upon the integrated use of the sacred sciences of
pyramidology, crystallography, anti-gravity technologies, radionics, sonics,
laser science, intelligent supercomputers, and electro-medicine’. |
High
cosmic-tech comes to Earth – the primary theme of New Age science. A New Age
brings a New Science. |
In back of
all these enticements lay the lies and delusionary powers of demons –
seducing the mind into an ultra-futuristic ‘golden
calf’ idolatry. |
|
The ascension chamber
|
|
Over thousands
of hours of research and development, I even built my own one-room prototype
of a part of Healing Temple One called the ‘Ascension Chamber’. It was
certainly a very scaled-down version of the billion-dollar visions of Healing
Temple One. No supercomputers, no electro-medicine, no anti-gravity
technology. Though primitive compared to grand future-science prophecies, the
Ascension Chamber was still fairly elaborate. Its stated intent was to ‘use
sacred science to activate New Age higher consciousness’.
In essence, it claimed to: ‘Use New Age science to accelerate spiritual
growth so that in a matter of hours, many lifetimes of evolvement can occur,
like a time-lapse photography sequence. You no longer need to trudge slowly
along your spiritual path like an ox-cart along a dirt road. This was for the
old age – this is the New Age. Why not take the high-tech spiritual
fast-track to instant enlightenment?’ |
The
Ascension Chamber room was filled with hundreds of crystals in geometric configurations,
and close to a hundred pyramids hanging from the ceiling and walls. The
purpose for this supposedly was to ‘create a concentrated energy field of
ultra-high vibrations’. Lasers, magnets, specialized electronic devices,
computers, and aromatic agents were added in specific ways to help ‘amplify,
enhance, and control the energy field’. Further, an orchestrated multi-media
presentation of rotating multi-colored designs, films of occult symbols,
mystical New Age music, and swirling colors that filled the entire room
(somewhat similar to a laser show) all were combined to induce a trance-state
in the recipient. This type of trance-induction or hypnosis deeply affected
many of the recipients. Many occult-based New Age practices also were applied
to induce mystical and out-of-body experiences, as well as channeling
experiences. |
There were
also some sophisticated ‘brain-drive’ machines. Such high-tech devices all
are the rage in the New Age today. Having names such as MC2
, David I, Alpha-Stim, Neuro-Pep, Bio-Pacer, |
Advertisements
for these various mind-power machines are one of the hottest items in
national New Age magazines, especially since late 1987/early 1988. Most of
these devices use goggles (for flashing light input) and headphones (for
sound input), and have control consoles that coordinate the light and sound
in order to induce controlled trance-states and psychedelic-like experiences.
They are very popular due to their deeply relaxing effects in addition to the
dazzling psychedelic experiences. Here we have high technology’s latest
contribution to the New Age Movement – machines that control and pleasurize
the mind with power, precision, and efficiency. It’s similar to Aldous
Huxley’s Brave New World. |
Also used
in the Ascension Chamber were subliminal cassette tapes and videos. In short,
subliminal technology inserts messages into the mind of the individual
without the person being aware of the mind-programming process. This highly
developed modern technology has been around for many years. In the process,
it also has become quite sophisticated, so much so that it has blossomed into
a real high-tech hazard. What I see today that I did not understand then is
that even though the stated purposes of most all subliminal cassette tapes
are apparently positive and benign (e.g., losing weight, gaining
self-confidence, overcoming fears and phobias, etc.), the method of ‘unzipping’ the mind without
the person being aware of the process as well as the many potential misuses
of such a technology (on individual and mass scales) hold many serious
dangers best avoided. |
In short,
the Ascension Chamber was a modernized form of white magic and sorcery
applied toward a trance-inducing, hypnotizing procedure for inducing mystical
experiences, out-of-body experiences, and ‘reprogramming the mind with
positive and evolutionarily advanced thoughts’. While today I do not know if
all the crystals and pyramids really made a difference, the trance-inducing
methods (New Age music, subliminals, brain drive machines, films of occult
symbols, and swirling light-shows) did indeed produce powerful experiences
and effects in a large percentage of the treatment recipients. |
Over the
years, my intense interest in this field of New Age sacred science led me to
set up a large teaching and research complex containing five different types
of Ascension Chambers, each separate chamber having an elaborate design for performing
different functions for ‘activating the Light-body’ or ‘communicating with
the Great White Brotherhood’. |
With deep
regret, I must report that over a thousand sessions were given over a period
of three years. In fact, the Ascension Chamber and its four other variations
proved exceptionally popular among certain New Age circles of Santa Fe, and
it was actually one of my ‘claims to fame’ on the national scene. |
What I
realize today that totally was veiled to me while enmeshed in webs of delusion
is that such chambers (this one, and others similar to it that are available in the New Age today) can be DEMON’S DENS of
temptation, ensnarement, delusion-weaving, and brainwashing. |
While in a
trance-state, a person is highly vulnerable to demonic intrusions that
perpetrate their dark web-weaving. Behind the modernized New Age gloss,
Biblically forbidden occult-based principles and practices are at the
foundation of New Age phenomenon like Healing Temple One and the Ascension
Chamber. |
I testify
in humility and repentance today. They are harmful. They are an abomination.
They are a fast-rising New Age phenomenon to be avoided like the plague in
the years ahead. |
|
A meteoric New Age career
rise
|
|
While in
the midst of pursuing my Healing Temple One vision and doing Ascension
Chamber sessions, an entirely new level of national exposure was opening up.
National seminar tours that followed on the heels of my first book, Windows of Light, met with good
response, but now I was on Satan’s fast-track for promotion into the big time
during this next sequence. |
In late
1985, my second book – The |
The book
was marketed as: ‘An essential reference, The
Crystal Connection is a landmark achievement in the field of
crystal-based sacred science’. |
With a
follow-up national seminar tour, speaking to enthusiastic audiences of many
hundreds in each city, I rode the crest of a wave of crystal popularity.
Though there were over a thousand crystal teachers by now in cities large and
small, I was widely held to be one of the top three international authorities
in the field. One of the others (who is still active
in the field) is named Marcel Vogel, Ph. D., who is a retired senior research
scientist at IBM, claiming over 60 patents in his distinguished career. At a
later date, I was on the television program, ‘20/20’ in a segment on the
‘crystal craze’. |
By now I
also was offering a variety of week-long advanced study programs at my |
You might
be surprised at some of the attendees – an astrophysicist, a noted solar
scientist, scientists in several other disciplines, many chiropractors,
dentists, some Fortune 500 businessmen, some M.D.s, many holistic health
practitioners, numerous nurses, and quite a few highly successful
professionals of other varieties, including a couple of media celebrities. |
Other
week-long courses offered included: ‘The Sacred Science Program’, ‘Advanced
Sacred Science Intensive’, ‘Vortex Visitations’, and ‘The Keys of Enoch
Seminar’. In effect, my teaching and research center became a type of college
of sorts, training people to begin or further develop professional careers in
the New Age. |
Invitations
to national-level New Age expos and retreats were coming in. |
I had a
third book – 500 pages in length – in the offing. |
At this
point so many opportunities were opening up that I could write my own success
ticket. I had hit the big time, and the horizons of my career looked
spectacular. |
Yes, I was
riding high, but there would be a price to pay for all this latter – a
painful price indeed. I was a rising New Age star. But the meteoric rise
eventually would come to a burning halt. Satan always exacts his pound of
flesh, sooner or later. This I learned well in the later stages of my season
of New Age success. |
|
A picture of a modern-day
New Ager
|
|
As
explained earlier, not all New Agers can be easily picked out of a crowd.
Some you can tell a mile away by the crystal pendants, rainbow clothes, and
‘Visualize World Peace’ bumper stickers on their VW busses. But just as many
others appear as normal as any other mainstream American. |
I’d like
to provide a quick thumbnail sketch of myself during my New Age years as I
outwardly appeared then. The main point is that there were few obvious
external indicators that I was involved in the movement. You can’t
necessarily tell that a person is a New Ager by his outer wrapping. |
Home was
classically middle-American – clean, tidy, regular-looking furniture, etc.
There were no metaphysical pictures on the walls, no bevy of crystals
everywhere you looked, no strange incense smell in the air, no New Age
paraphernalia lying about. Walking into the home, a person would have few
external indications of my New Age involvements. |
I gave
seminars dressed in high-quality suits and ties, and gave my week-long
advanced classes in professional apparel. |
I had
medium-length hair and no external indications of New Age-iness (though I
wore a crystal pendant inside the shirt and carried other crystals in a
pocket). |
To every
outward indication, I was a successful professional in some field (what a lot
of neighbors thought). All this was not done as a conscious deception at all.
Rather, it was the result of a lifestyle inherited from childhood plus a
strong commitment to bringing a highly professional approach to my career and
to reach as broad an audience as possible. |
Many
people would be surprised at the number of closet New Agers there are
throughout every level of American society, from the business office to the
hospitals to the laboratories. By all external indicators, an observer would
find it very difficult to discern that such a person is a New Ager. The point
here being: New Agers who blend into the mainstream cultural landscape are
everywhere in our society. |
I also
would like to point out here, in a parenthetical statement, that not all New
Age activities are cults. Some certainly are, but a solid percentage of New
Age organizations, seminars, etc. are definitely not cults. Most of these
operate along the lines of regular businesses in terms of how they offer
their products and services. |
My own
business was a case in point. I am an exceptionally private person, and
greatly love solitude. The more well-known I became, the more people would
want to attach themselves to me and my work in one way or another. Vicki and
I wanted no part of starry-eyed hangers-on or advantage-seeking opportunists.
Over the years of being involved in the |
Living
remotely outside of |
|
Tripping the ‘Light’
Fantastic
|
|
In the
midst of my New Age career rise, while so much outwardly was demanding my
attention, my inner journey took on new magnitudes of intensity. With each
passing month, I found myself going into states of extended solitude whenever
time allowed. |
If I had
an evening off, for example, it would be spent alone, having
trance-meditation and out-of-body experiences [10] and receiving knowledge
from my spirit guides in the Ascension Chamber well into the late evening and
early morning. The mind-blowing cosmic power, the glittering good feelings,
and the amazing revelations experienced during these times completely
captivated me. While holding down the responsibilities of my New Age career,
this overriding desire to travel deeply within the heavenly spirit-world
became a virtual obsession. |
Two events
resulted from this. One is detailed in the next chapter section, and the
other is that Vicki and I decided to divorce. While ours was an unusual
passionless marriage, at least I was around
as a best friend and companion as well as co-worker. Now, I was becoming more
and more absorbed into the spirit-world, leaving Vicki with little-to-no
companionship or emotional support. So, an amicable divorce was effected so that she was free to pursue her interests and
I was free to pursue what I perceived as an ‘inner voyage to the ultimate
supernatural realms of Infinite Intelligence’. |
In New Age
morality, there are no prohibitions against divorce. Whether a married couple
stays together is based mainly upon ‘soul growth compatibility’. That is, if
after a time two souls who are married start to grow in different directions,
then it is appropriate, if desired, to dissolve the marriage and find other
more spiritually compatible soul-mates. |
Though our
friendship was a bit strained for a couple months over this, Vicki and I
remained the best of friends and continued in our dedication to do light-work
together. Feeling the divorce was our own private business and being
reluctant to severely disappoint our parents, we kept it to ourselves until
Vicki met her new husband two years later. |
|
Out-of-body leads to almost
out-of-mind
|
|
In my New
Age days, I was quite adept at inducing and expanding the limits of mystical
and out-of-body experiences – this was one of the big reasons for much of my
success. I would mount myself up with all kinds of New Age inventions and
crystals, and then thrust myself into trance-induced higher states of
consciousness. It would feel like I was being transported by winged angels
and loving forces to an incredible variety of dazzling extra-natural domains.
The sensation of my spirit being released from Earthbound, bodily
restrictions and freed to roam the unlimited expanses of the cosmos was
breathtaking. Here it was, the freedom, the light,
and the truth that I had been searching for all my life. I had found the keys
that opened the heavens before my very eyes. |
But the
ultimate seduction had overtaken me: What I thought was ‘up’ was actually
‘down’. What I thought was ‘heaven’ was actually ‘hell’ wrapped in Satan’s
finest counterfeit garments. What I thought were Ascended Masters,
extraterrestrials, and angels were actually demons in cunning, glowing
disguises. |
The Bible
states: “Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm
against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces
of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places” (Eph. |
Yes, I
actually was getting a guided tour of some of the ‘spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly realms’ by demons masquerading as ‘servants of
righteousness’. Though some of my experiences may have been just imaginary
fantasy, I am full convinced that most of them were ventures into some of
Satan’s most beautifully deceiving spirit-domains of glittery bondage
masquerading as our Heavenly Father’s kingdom of heaven. |
The
popular Christian book, The Beautiful
Side of Evil, by Johanna Michaelsen, is very aptly named. Darkness can
have an outer covering, so to speak, of luminosity that can appear to be
inexpressibly beautiful. The power of darkness can feel wonderfully
beauteous, too. Satan and his demonic legions are masterful counterfeiters
who can make darkness appear to be light, untruth appear
to be truth and hate appear to be love. The luminosity of darkness can be so
bright that it bedazzles to the point of blindness and mesmerizes to the
point of brainwashing. This is exactly what happened to me, and what is
happening today to all those involved in the New Age Movement. |
One night,
while in the Ascension Chamber, my spirit was roaming some of the farthest
reaches of ‘heavenly light’ that I had ever perceived. That night I had an
experience that would change my life forever. |
During
this experience I was surrounded by a virtually overwhelming luminosity – it
was as if I was looking straight into the sun. Waves of bliss radiated
through my spirit. I was totally captivated by the power. |
Suddenly,
another force stepped in. It took me by complete surprise. In the twinkling
of an eye, it was like a supernatural hand had taken me behind the scenes of
the experience that I was having. I was taken behind the outer covering of
the dazzling luminosity and there saw something that left me literally
shaking for a full week. |
What I saw
was the face of devouring darkness! Behind the glittering outer facade of
beauty lay a massively powerful, wildly churning face of absolute hatred and
unspeakable abominations – the face of demons filled with the power of Satan. |
For a
moment that seemed like an eternity, I realized that I was in major league
trouble, for this devouring force was now closing in on me. |
In
absolute, stark terror I felt powerless to stop what appeared to be
inevitable doom. Horror filled me like a consuming flame. |
Then,
miraculously, the same supernatural hand as before delivered me from the jaws
of this consuming darkness, and hours later, I found myself waking up the
next morning in the Ascension Chamber. It felt like I had a peaceful nights
sleep but, upon waking, the horror of the past night’s experience had left me
terribly shaken. My mind was racing uncontrollably in all directions at what
felt like the speed of light. My body was shaking involuntarily, sometimes
rather violently. This nightmare continued without respite for a full week. I
thought that I was going stark raving mad. In a month’s time, though, my
grave situation gradually settled down to some semblance of sanity and
normalcy. |
What I
didn’t know at the time was that it was JESUS who had intervened by His
greater grace into my life. At this point, though, I only knew that some
force greater than that of the devouring darkness had done two things: 1) it
had shown me the real face of the New Age ‘heavens’ and ‘angels’ that I was
so deeply involved with, and 2) it had delivered me from certain doom. |
What I
knew at this time was that I had made some serious errors in my New Age
involvements. I also knew that if those errors weren’t corrected that I might
face the same horrific experience again. And quite possibly the next time I
wouldn’t get away. |
An
openness to reconsider my New Age involvements arose in me out of desperate
need. This openness would help me, over the following months, to find a Way,
a Truth, and a Life that I had never known before – Jesus Christ. |
But this
journey was not to be an easy one. For Satan does not relinquish those he has
in bondage without a struggle, as I was about to find out. |
|
Notes to chapter two
|
|
1. ‘Power
objects’ have a long history of occult uses. Ranging from talismans and
crystals to eagle feathers and ‘magic wands’, all types of witches, wizards,
alchemists, medicine men, shamans, and other occult figures have used ‘power
objects’. These objects, when ritually consecrated, are supposed to contain
or attract different types of occult power that can be applied in occult
pursuits. |
2. The
concept of ‘crystal power’ is discussed in more detail in chapter 7.
Essentially, though, on the one hand there is no conclusive scientific
evidence to confirm this strange notion. On the other hand, the use of
crystal as ‘power objects’ has a long history, and millions of New Agers have
had the subjective experience of some type of occult energy amplification and
focusing when involving crystals in New Age practices. Wishful thinking? Wild
fantasies? The placebo effect? Whatever is going on, the point here is simply
to note that New Agers do believe in ‘crystal power’ (however
unsubstantiated). |
3. The
‘third eye’ is an occult belief that a center of psychic powers is located at
the forehead between the two (physical) eyes. |
4. ‘White
magic’ is a branch of witchcraft that claims to be based on peaceful,
positive occult principles: but which is strictly forbidden in the Bible
(Deut. 18:9-12). |
5. The New
Age commonly refers to the ‘Light-body’. This term also is used when
referring to the ‘Higher Self’. Both these phrases basically mean ‘New Age
higher consciousness’, supposedly a more
‘enlightened’ state of being. |
6. Often,
New Agers refer to the ‘Divine Plan’, or simply as the ‘Plan’ in referring to
the sequence of events overseen by the ‘Great White Brotherhood’ leading into
the New Age. |
7. Billy
Graham, Angels: God’s Secret Agents
(Waco, TX: Word Books, 1986), p. 20. |
8. For
more discussion on the topic of UFOs, plus quotes from other Christian
authorities, see chapter 5, ‘New Age Sorceries and Idolatries’. |
9. ‘Chakras’ are an occult concept
asserting that there are seven major ‘energy centers’ in the etheric human
anatomy along the spine that control all aspects of human functioning. |
10. See
chapter 5, for an explanation of ‘out-of-body experiences’. |
|
|
Chapter
three |
3. THE BONDAGE BROKEN
|
|
The
testimony I offer in this chapter of my life bears yet another lost soul’s
great rejoicing in receiving the Good News. Yet upon conversion, my story did
not become an immediate ‘and he lived happily ever after…’.
Would that it were so easy, some type of classic
storybook ending. To jump the gun a bit, yes, I received Jesus as my Lord and
personal Savior. And as all reborn Christians know,
this is a glorious new beginning that words can only begin to describe. I had
been freed from Satan’s bondage. |
But as I
was to find out shortly in my walk with Jesus, struggles, persecutions, and mistakes
were still to come. |
Billy
Graham’s observation really rang true in my own experience: ‘In our attempts
to share the faith we have given the impression that, once you have accepted
Christ as Savior and Lord, your problems are over. That is not true. Becoming
‘new’ in Christ is a wonderful beginning, but it isn’t the end of pain or
problems in our lives. It is the beginning of our facing up to them. Being a
Christian involves a lifetime of hard work, dedicated study, and difficult
decisions’ [1]. |
What I
found as a struggling Christian was that the Good Shepherd takes care of His
sheep, even through the ‘valley of the shadow of death’, even if they stray
for a time, and even as they err and repent. My path as a newborn Christian
was a most humbling and stumbling one – a very far cry from the glory days of
New Age leadership. Time after time, the Holy Spirit would convict my heart
and show me my errors, and I would come to the Lord on bended knee, asking
His forgiveness. Sometimes, I honestly feared that He would not forgive me,
sinner that I am, but each time coming before Him in repentance, I found a
loving Shepherd and my best Friend. He would rebuke and then raise me up in
His arms, salve the wounds, give comfort and guidance, provide restoration,
and send me on my way like a loving parent. I had never had such a personal
relationship before. No matter what hardships and struggles I went through
then (and now), this unbreakable, eternal relationship is the source of my
strength, hope, and life everlasting. This is my testimony. |
Through
all the events that were about to transpire, these words of the apostle Paul
came to have great personal meaning: ‘Neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:38,39). |
|
A lost soul goes searching:
the journey continues
|
|
Badly shaken
by my brush with ‘spiritual wickedness in heavenly places’ [2], I set about a
sweeping re-evaluation of my New Age philosophy and activities. There were
obviously some major flaws here. |
The first thing
I did was to declare a personal moratorium on all mystical excursions into
the spirit realms. I was not going to jeopardize myself like that again. |
I also had
to sort out the shocking realization that the light that appeared so heavenly
was really a counterfeit front for a devouring darkness. How could this be?
Could all my cherished spirit guides’ guidance, all the wonderful mystical
experiences, all the sophisticated books that I had read, all the enlightened
ones of Eastern mysticism, and all my respected New Age friends’ experiences
be based on a grand delusion? |
Was it
just me? Was it the entire New Age movement? Or was it just select parts of the movement? This was all so
mind-boggling. |
Everything
that I was as a New Ager: everything that I knew I had found, I had
accomplished, was now totally up in the air. All things New Age were subject
to intense scrutiny in an entirely different way than I had ever scrutinized
them before. |
In
retrospect, I see that this was the key to opening up a new possibility of
accepting Jesus Christ into my life – the willingness to question the
fundamental assumptions of the New Age, and to be willing to really see
untruth if it were there to be found. |
Most all
New Agers are really not willing to
admit the possibility of falseness in their fundamental beliefs. That was
certainly true of me. But because of my harrowing experience, and what I
learned from it, I was ready to admit the possibility of deception. |
The
demands of a busy New Age career continued to occupy a large portion of my
daily life. There were commitments to be met, responsibilities to fulfil, and
bills to be paid. Still feeling rather weak and shaken after being bedridden
for a week, I managed to gather enough strength to get on with the work at
hand, even as all my questions and doubts echoed within. Feeling like the
walking wounded, I made it through the next weeks while recovering strength
and basic stability. |
After
regaining strength, I continued giving lectures, seminars, and programs, but
began to have a different perception of the material and the people. While
speaking, part of me would be questioning everything coming out of my mouth.
Some areas started to ring hollow, though it was just a vague feeling at the
time. |
As for the
people, their rampant flakiness and self-centeredness that I had already
noticed for years started to become more and more irritating. With each
passing week, a sense slowly grew that things in the New Age and myself were definitely not right. |
During
this time, at home a quirky change was coming over Vicki. (Though divorced by
now, for financial and family reasons we lived under the same roof – an
acceptable arrangement by New Age standards). On Sunday mornings, I would be
making brunch for myself, and there she would be watching Christian
televangelists for an hour or so. The funny thing was that it seemed like she
was listening to them seriously. |
You must
understand, a real
New Ager wouldn’t be caught dead watching televangelists, much less taking
them seriously. To the New Age, Christians generally are regarded as ‘old
age’, people who have yet to awaken to the ‘higher realities of New Age
consciousness’ [3]. In fact, I must confess that I teased her to no end when
she would repeat this scene week after week. All she would say was: ‘Why
don’t you just listen to them for a while with an open mind? They’re making
some sense to me’. I scoffed at her and thought she was being quite weird. |
About four
or five weeks into this scenario, the thought came to me: ‘If you’re really
open-minded, as you claim to be, then you should at least give this a fair
chance – it couldn’t hurt’. |
So one
Sunday I sat down with Vicki and watched two Christian televangelists for an
hour, switching the TV channels back and forth. I noticed myself becoming
somewhat interested and my appetite was whetted for more. |
With each
passing week, I became a little less resistant and a little more interested.
Scanning through the available channels, I found a definite preference for
some religious programs over others. |
At the
same time, I started to study the Bible with fresh eyes. In New Age
philosophy, the Holy Bible is accepted, but only conditionally, it being
taken only as one scripture among many others. Also, I began to see that New
Age philosophy picks and chooses what it likes and doesn’t like from the
pages of the Bible. It also re-interprets these select passages with a
metaphysical New Age slant. Now I tried to put as many of my preconceptions
as possible aside, and started to study the Holy Bible to see what it
revealed on its own terms. |
The more
of the Bible I read, especially the Gospels, the more I saw that the
teachings of Jesus plainly were at variance with New Age philosophy on many
key points. A few of these issues included: |
|
·
The sinful nature of man (the New Age says that man is inherently perfect and
a ‘god’). |
·
Man’s need for redemption through Jesus Christ (the New Age says that there is
no need for redemption). |
·
The final judgment (the New Age holds that each person is ultimately his own
judge, and that the ‘lake of fire’ is a myth). |
·
The personal and visible Second Coming of Jesus Christ (the New Age maintains
that another ‘Christ’ [not Jesus Christ] and/or ‘Christ consciousness’ will
lead the world into the New Age). |
|
The more I
read the Bible and recalled some of my Christian theology classes from
college, the more I saw that the philosophies of Christianity and the New Age
had gaping, irreconcilable differences between them. New Age thought claims
to embrace the essential truths of all religions and all scriptures into a
greater whole. |
What I saw
now was that the Bible was most definitely not compatible with this ‘greater
whole’, and that New Age philosophy has to do a lot of very selective
hand-picking of pieces and snippets of the Bible in order to assimilate
Biblical Christianity under the New Age umbrella. |
The New
Age claimed to embrace the Bible, but I saw that the Bible just doesn’t fit
into the New Age. Logically, both sides could not be right. One side was
right, and the other side was wrong. |
Now I had
to decide which side was right. |
On a
strictly intellectual level, this is an incredibly difficult question to
answer. Without an assumed absolute standard of values, philosophical
argumentation is relativistic and equivocal. In fact, the more I thought
about all the issues involved, the more confused I became. I didn’t know how
this was going to come to a conclusion. |
As several
months of watching selected Christian televangelists passed, an increasingly
alarming situation arose. By this time I had regained my strength, but for no
apparent reason, I felt a growing deterioration within myself.
Psychologically, there was an erosion of positive emotions, self-confidence,
self-image, and other vital areas. |
Spiritually,
I sensed an inner hollowness growing to unprecedented degrees. Overall, it
felt like life was being drained out of me, and that I had no control over
the forces in motion. In some ways it was like a spiritual ‘cancer’
progressively filling my being and causing deep corrosion from the inside
out. |
Frantically
I tried to apply any and every ‘advanced’ New Age technique to try to stem
the tide of these forces. Try as I might to use crystal power, healing
through visualization and affirmation techniques, ‘create your own reality’
methods, chakra-system balancing,
polarity therapy, and a host of other techniques, nothing was working to stem
the wave of inner deterioration. Things were getting very scary. To not be in
control of the situation, and to have exhausted almost every possibility I
knew of, was becoming acutely alarming. |
In fear, I
had turned to that in which I felt most knowledgeable and secure – New Age
practices. |
One day
Vicki, who was very concerned about my situation, suggested that I pray as
the Christians do. Well, this was a possibility that had not yet crossed my
mind. So, with a sincerity born of deep need, I prayed as best I knew how.
These SOS prayers were along the lines of ‘If you’re there, Jesus, I really need your help’. I felt no
discernible response, but continued these prayers several times a day for a
couple of weeks. |
Much to my
dismay, the condition only worsened. It now became quite clear that some type
of negative spirit-force was in back of all this, and that it definitely had the
upper hand. I only could watch helplessly as it felt like this spirit-force
was taking more and more control of me, draining my energy as I became
entrapped in its tightening tentacles. |
Had my
spirit guides and the Ascended Masters and the Space Brothers abandoned me?
Or, a virtually unthinkable thought, were all these apparently loving,
enlightened spirit-beings actually counterfeit fronts for the consuming
darkness that I saw before? |
Over the
next week gruesome thoughts and visions started to infiltrate my mind and
dreams. Resistance to the pressures exerted by this spirit-force was waning.
Even my vision and other sense perceptions were being distorted. I had heard
of demonic possession, and even had seen a few cases, but had never
considered the possibility that it might happen to me. At this point, I knew
that this was exactly what was occurring. |
My SOS
prayers took on an increasingly acute urgency. I was fighting a losing
battle, and knew it. It was only a matter of time before all will-power and
strength was drained. For days I was in an unspeakable living nightmare.
Vicki prayed, too, but nothing seemed to come of it. |
All
through these desperate times I continued to watch a few select Sunday televangelists,
and found more and more of their essential Gospel message to hit home in my
heart. Toward the end of this period I had to spend increasing amounts of
time in bed, just trying to fend off the waves of darkness invading my being.
Often passing the hours by watching TV to take my mind off the anguish, I
also came upon a couple of weekday Christian tele-ministries. |
Up until
this point when the Christians would ask the viewers to pray with them, I
felt self-conscious and somewhat silly, and would focus my attention
elsewhere until they were through. |
One day,
while watching the 700 Club, I was
in awful shape. Pat Robertson called on unsaved viewers who were in need of
deliverance from bondage to pray a prayer with him. I was in such a state now
that I was way past feeling self-conscious or silly. |
There was
something about the way Robertson was speaking and looking into the camera
that felt like he was talking directly to me. Such a sensation never had
happened before, and there was a clarity and conviction that came upon me as
I got up from the bed and knelt on the floor with my hands on top of the TV.
Somehow I knew with absolute certainty that this was very real, and it was my
chance to get out of this maddening bondage. |
I don’t
remember the exact words repeated along with Robertson, but I do have a vivid
recollection of what transpired. |
As the
prayer progressed I felt the hand of Jesus reach deep into my innermost being
with an almighty power that was both piercing to the core yet completely
gentle at the same time. By the end of the prayer I was so filled to
overflowing with the power of His presence that a powerful but gentle quaking
in the Spirit happened in every fiber of my being. Weeping uncontrollably, I
gently dropped to the floor. As this happened I felt the conviction of the
Holy Spirit pierce my heart and wept in acute repentance as the quaking in
the Spirit continued for almost an hour. Continuously, prayer poured forth
from my lips in repentance and in praise of His majesty and saving grace. I
had never prayed like this before – it was like an effortless stream of sweet
water pouring through me in rejoicing and honoring Christ Jesus as my Lord
and personal Savior. |
The Lord
had cut through my horrific Satanic bondage and set me free as He received me
into His Body as He washed my scarlet sins as white as snow. I was captive,
but now I was free. |
With an
absolute certainty, I knew that this was what I had been looking for all my
life and never had found till now. This made even the most powerful mystical
New Age experience completely pale in comparison of our Heavenly Father’s
infinitely greater power and glory. Satan’s glowing counterfeit fineries are
as cheap, filthy rags compared to the Truth. |
|
A time of restoration and
great rejoicing
|
|
For the
next week or so I cancelled all work and enjoyed a ‘honeymoon’ with Jesus.
Words beg description of the inexpressible joys, loving restoration, and
sweet communion of this time. |
Much
happened during this week of rejoicing. A prodigal son had returned home,
destitute and unworthy, but was met with loving arms and a wonderful feast.
It was hard to fathom the greater love of Jesus that can forgive so much sin. |
Continually,
this Bible passage kept coming to mind, reminding me: “I am the way, and the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6). |
One
morning I opened the Bible and prayed to be led to an appropriate passage.
Turning to Revelation 22:12-15, I read: |
“Behold, I
am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according
to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last,
the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life,
and may enter by the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs and the
sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and
everyone who loves and practices lying”. |
Impressed
in my heart, I knew that had I remained in the New Age I would have been one
of those condemned to be outside the gates along with all manner of other
sinners, to be cast into the “lake of fire” and experience the “weeping and
gnashing of teeth” [4]. This passage also moved me with tremendous compassion
for those still in the New Age who are bound by chains they are completely
unaware of. So many of these people were my friends, my own brethren. |
I also
felt profoundly, as so many other Christians have, that today’s times are the
end times, and that the personal and visible return of Jesus is near, though
we know not the day or hour. |
I could
not bear the thought of the multitudes of well-intentioned New Age people who
I knew were walking a path leading to destruction – they were as blissfully
deluded as I had been before my conversion to the Christian faith. |
Who would
warn them? In my 15 years as a New Ager I had come across only one person
witnessing to me of Jesus Christ. Having been in most major cities giving
lectures and having kept my finger on the pulse of the national-level New Age
Movement for the previous five years, I was not aware of a single Christian
outreach program formulated to take the Christian witness directly into the
New Age subculture. To make matters worse, a New Ager converting to the
Christian faith is an extreme rarity – I never personally had met one in 15
years. Satan’s deluding power in the movement is powerful indeed. The more I
thought about this, the more the feeling arose that I could not turn my back
on people involved. My heart became heavily burdened with the task of doing
the best I knew how to bring the Good News to the New Age. |
While
getting a handle on all that had happened and fervently studying the Bible,
another wonderful event happened. Vicki also came to accept Jesus into her
life. Perhaps this was catching. Praise the Lord! |
|
………………… |
|
Retrospective
|
|
Looking back
on my 15 long, intensive years in the New Age, it is clear how Satan tempted
a naïve, searching teenager, seduced a well-meaning, but blinded
truth-seeker, and bound a man in chains with each step of a meteoric New Age
career. The tragic poignancy of this entire scenario is that I truly believed
through all this that the New Age did indeed hold ultimate truth and
spiritual supremacy. |
Not until
I had a dramatic encounter with the devouring face of darkness behind all of
the beautiful counterfeits did I begin
to suspect that Satan is the author of the New Age. The saddest part of all
is that millions and millions of New Agers today haven’t a clue to the fact
that they are caught up in a masterful, powerful delusion [10] that leads
only to the lake of fire [11]. Today, my heart still breaks when I think of
all the people, young and old, who are flocking toward the false light of the
New Age like moths to a flame. |
I marvel
today at the amazing grace that saved a sinner such as me. Certainly I did
not merit salvation in the least. But the Lord gave His victory to me anyway
through His greater grace. People still involved in the New Age desperately
need to hear the Christian witness. Souls hang in the balance. There is a
huge New Age ‘wilderness area’ within our own society with people in grave
trouble who are not even aware of it. |
|
|
Notes to chapter three
|
|
1. Billy
Graham, Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), p. 93. |
2.
Ephesians 6:12. |
3. See
chapter 9, ‘How Do New Agers View Christians?’ for more on this subject. |
4. Matthew
13:42. |
5. Jude
1:3. |
6. See
chapter 9 ‘How do New Agers View Christians?’ for more information on this
subject. |
……. |
8. See
bibliography for a list of Christian books critiquing the New Age. |
9. See
chapter 10, ‘Perspectives on Helping Others to Get Out of New Age
Involvements’, for more information on this topic. |
10. 2
Thessalonians 2:11. |
11.
Revelation 20:15. |
|
|
Randall Baer,
Inside the New Age Nightmare,
Published by Huntington House, 1989, pages 1-65,75,77 |
|
NOTE: The
very day that Randall Baer's book hit the bookstores, he was killed in a very
questionable car crash. |