Archive for the ‘Spiritual Formation’ Category

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Special Note From Lighthouse Trails:We do not believe any person should be treated with hateful or cruel behavior. However, we also do not believe that hate crime legislation is necessary or legitimate because there are already laws prohibiting the abuse and/or violence against any person.

“Hate Crimes Bill Passes House – Christian Leaders Partly to Blame”

On Wednesday, HR 1913 (”Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009″) passed in the US House of Representatives with a vote of 249-175. According to one report, “The bill is now headed for the Senate, which Obama urged to work with his administration to ‘finalize this bill and to take swift action.’”1

If this legislation is passed by the Senate (and then signed by Obama into law, which he has promised to do quickly), this broadened hate-crime law could ultimately affect Christians who preach, teach, or report that the homosexual lifestyle is prohibited according to Scripture. One report states: “Similar laws have been used to prosecute religious speech in the U.S. and abroad.2 In a WorldNetDaily report, it says that even pedophiles could receive special protection if this bill becomes law.3 According to the text in HR1913, penalties for breaking this law would be severe–from 10 years up to life in prison. While wording in HR1913 is somewhat vague, amendments could be added to strengthen and further define how this law is implemented. Plus, because of its vagueness, Supreme Court judges may be able to further broaden the scope of the law through their own interpretations of it.

Keep in mind that this bill will not only give special rights to homosexuals, it has the potential to bring restrictions to Christians who reject the idea that other religions are valid ways to God.

Ironically, and in an indirect manner, many Christian organizations who are concerned about hate crime legislation have been partly responsible for this current legislation passing. How so? The legislation is passing because of the new administration and a supportive Congress. And as we have stated in previous articles, Lighthouse Trails believes it was the emerging church segment of voters who helped bring in this present White House administration. Now, Christian organizations and leaders who have helped to propel contemplative spirituality (i.e. spiritual formation) have, inadvertently helped to propel the emerging church. When people begin to incorporate mantra-type prayer and other contemplative spiritual disciplines, over time their spiritual affinities change and many become interspiritual, which is what the emerging church is all about. Thus, if someone is promoting contemplative spirituality, they are promoting the emerging model. The two terms are virtually synonymous. So while Christian organizations are alarmed about the hate crime law (which they should be because it is indeed disturbing), they have and continue to fuel the momentum merely by their promotion of contemplative spirituality.

When it comes to the emerging church, Christian leaders seem to lack understanding and discernment. Some books and many articles have now been written about the emerging church, and interestingly, the majority of them lack the most important element–the emerging church is a conduit for mysticism and is heading right into the arms of a universal interfaith church that is panentheistic (God in all) by its very nature.

Many feel that the real problems with the emerging church are centered around methodology (e.g., how much lighting to have, where to hold church services, and what to wear while attending them, etc.). Such distraction from the true concerns is like telling a neighbor that his dog is tearing up the garden when his house is burning down and his children are inside.

The emerging church is fundamentally mystical as can easily be seen by the leaders who feed the emerging movement a steady diet of contemplative spirituality. Leonard Sweet, one of the emerging church movement’s most prolific leaders (and a co-worker in ministry with Rick Warren) explains the role of mysticism in the emerging church:

Mysticism, once cast to the sidelines of the Christian tradition, is now situated in postmodernist culture near the center…. In the words of one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century, Jesuit philosopher of religion/dogmatist Karl Rahner, “The Christian of tomorrow will be a mystic, one who has experienced something, or he will be nothing.” [Mysticism] is metaphysics arrived at through mindbody experiences. Mysticism begins in experience; it ends in theology. (p. 160, A Time of Departing–*see reference below)

If indeed the present administration came into power by picking up the large emerging church sector of voters, then a lot of Christian leaders are responsible for what is taking place today. For instance, Rick Warren, perhaps the most influential Christian leader today, has been and continues to be one of the strongest proponents of the emerging church movement and the contemplative prayer movement as well (see our research site for documentation).

What is needed here is for Christian leaders of ministries, churches, organizations, and schools, to repent for misleading many toward a deceptive spirituality that will not lead them into a relationship with the God of the Bible through faith in Jesus Christ by grace but will instead fulfill Karl Rahner’s words that they will be mystics or they will be nothing at all.

For those who are skeptical of the ramifications, consider the words of prolific contemplative author Marcus Borg. At a seminar in which Borg was speaking, he told the audience of a time when he and his wife attended what he thought was an emerging church and in the end of the service the pastor talked about Christ dying on the Cross for man’s sins. Borg told the audience that that statement showed him that church was not an emerging church after all.* This is the reason why Brian McLaren (who openly resonates with Borg) loves Alan Jones’ book, Reimagining Christianity so much because its not based on the Gospel but based on panentheism and contemplative prayer.

These are serious and spiritually perilous times in which we live. It would be wise for Christian leaders to reconsider the path on which many of them are now treading.

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Revelation 3:3

* Quote by Leonard Sweet from Quantum Spirituality, p. 76.
* Ray Yungen and a colleague were attending this seminar by Borg and relayed this story to Lighthouse Trails.

Related Information:

Track HR1913

Time Magazine on Rick Warren’s New Global Reformation and His PEACE Coalition

The End of the Word . . . As We Know It

In a Christianity Today article titled, “Shape-Shifting Leadership,” featuring Dan Kimball, Mark Driscoll, and Leith Anderson, Kimball states:

I’ve read Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership a dozen times. It convicts me to the core about motives and the heart of leadership. But Henri was shepherding and loving a relatively few people. Leading a church that is growing, launching new ministries, and building multi-level leadership teams needs Nouwen, but also [John] Maxwell.1(see also Maxwell/Blanchard book)

Kimball is proposing that in order to be a successful, effective leader in today’s church, we must combine the “heart” of Henri Nouwen with the leadership skills of John Maxwell. What is wrong with that?

We must first understand that Nouwen’s “heart of leadership” is mystical. He says so himself right in the book that Kimball recognizes. In In the Name of Jesus, Nouwen states:

Through the discipline of contemplative prayer, Christian leaders have to learn to listen to the voice of love … For Christian leadership to be truly fruitful in the future, a movement from the moral to the mystical is required.

Moving “from the moral to mystical” is another way of saying that mystical experience is more important in leadership than doctrine or theology. Interestingly, Leith Anderson who contributed to the Christianity Today article with Kimball and Driscoll has stated virtually the same thing. Roger Oakland explains:

In 1992, Leith Anderson (Doug Pagitt’s former pastor), currently the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, spoke of this new emerging 21st century church. His views eventually
became set in stone as the emerging church has chosen experience over doctrine. Anderson reveals:

The old paradigm taught that if you had the right
teaching, you will experience God. The new paradigm says that if you experience God, you will have the right teaching. This may be disturbing for many who
assume propositional truth must always precede and dictate religious experience. That mindset is the product of systematic theology and has much to contribute … However, biblical theology looks to the Bible for a pattern of experience followed by proposition. The experience of the Exodus from Egypt preceded the recording of Exodus in the Bible. The experience of the crucifixion, the resurrection and Pentecost all predate the propositional declaration of those events in the New Testament. It is not so much that one is right and the other is wrong: it is more of a matter of the perspective one takes on God’s touch and God’s truth.

Anderson is saying that the Word of God is still being written,
and today’s experiences can dictate what that Word is. (Faith Undone, p. 55,56)

Nouwen reveals what he means by “mystical” when he states: “The quiet repetition of a single word can help us to descend with the mind into the heart … This way of simple prayer … opens us to God is active presence” (Way of the Heart, p. 81).

Dan Kimball proposes that leadership must combine Nouwen’s spirituality with John Maxwell’s leadership skills. Someone who emulates such a combination is business guru and meditation promoter, Ken Blanchard. Blanchard sees great value in meditation and has endorsed and promoted avid meditators for over two decades. His current participation in the Hoffman Institute shows that he is still in support of such a philosophy.

This may come as a surprise to some, but Rick Warren (who has won the trust of hundreds of thousands of pastors and church goers around the world) shares Kimball’s views. On his pastors.com website, Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus is a recommended book. (Nouwen devotes an entire chapter of that book to contemplative prayer.) And in a Saddleback training book, Soul Construction: Solitude Tool (p. 12), Nouwen is quoted as saying we need to set aside a “time and space to give God our undivided attention.” Ray Yungen explains Nouwen’s “space”:

When we understand what Nouwen really means by “time and space” given to God we can also see the emptiness and deception of his spirituality. In his recent biography of Nouwen, God’s Beloved, Michael O’ Laughlin says:

Some new elements began to emerge in Nouwen’s thinking when he discovered Thomas Merton. Merton opened up for Henri an enticing vista of the world of contemplation and a way of seeing not only God but also the world through new eyes.… If ever there was a time when Henri Nouwen wished to enter the realm of the spiritual masters or dedicate himself to a higher spiritual path, it was when he fell under the spell of Cistercian monasticism and the writings of Thomas Merton.

In his book, Thomas Merton: Contemplative Critic, Nouwen talks about these “new eyes” that Merton helped to formulate; he praises Merton who “had such an impact” on his life, being the man who “inspired” him greatly. But when we read Nouwen’s very revealing account, something disturbing is unveiled. Nouwen lays out the path of Merton’s spiritual pilgrimage into contemplative spirituality. Those who have studied Merton from a critical point of view, such as myself, have tried to understand what are the roots behind Merton’s spiritual affinities. Nouwen explains that Merton was influenced by LSD mystic Aldous Huxley who “brought him to a deeper level of knowledge” and “was one of Merton’s favorite novelists.” It was Huxley’s book, Ends and Means, that first brought Merton “into contact with mysticism.” … This is why, as Nouwen revealed, Merton’s mystical journey took him right into the arms of Buddhism. (ATOD, 2nd ed., pp. 197)

If Dan Kimball’s hope for the future of Christianity is realized, it will resemble the spirituality of Ken Blanchard (Nouwen’s mysticism and Maxwell’s leadership skills) who said that the Hoffman Quadrinity Process made his “spirituality come alive” (ATOD, p. 165). The Hoffman Institute is:

“… an organization that was founded by a psychic and is based on panentheism (i.e., God is in all) and meditation! In the book, The Hoffman Process, the institute’s mystical perspective is laid out clearly:

I am you and you are me. We are all parts of the whole…. You can use a short meditation to remind yourself of this connection to all others in this world of ours…. As you breathe, feel that breath coming from your core essence … When you are open to life, you start noticing the divine in everything. (ATOD, p. 165)

For more information:

They Like Jesus but Not the Church – A Closer Look at Dan Kimball’s Book

Ken Blanchard: Promoting Buddhism and the New Age

What Did Henri Nouwen Really Believe?

 
In February of 2006, Lighthouse Trails issued a report titled “Awana: Are They Heading Toward Contemplative/Emergent?” The concerns were over the organization’s connection with Willow Creek, with Awana’s interest in Spiritual Formation and with a recommended ministry list that included a number of contemplative/emergent organizations, including Youth Specialties.1

A year and a half later, Awana is showing signs that it is becoming a full-blown contemplative organization. First of all, through Awana’s prison project, the organization is incorporating New Age sympathizer Ken Blanchard’s Lead Like Jesus Encounter program. On July 13th, we spoke with Lyndon Azcuna, Awana Cross Cultural Ministries director, who told us he was a Lead Like Jesus facilitator. Azcuna works in the main headquarters office of Awana. He said that the project was using Ken Blanchard’s materials. When we explained to him that Blanchard promoted the New Age and mystical meditation, he said that the program did not have these elements.

However, the Lead Like Jesus Encounter is largely based on Blanchard’s book, Lead Like Jesus, and that book does include contemplative elements. For instance, in the chapter called “The Habits of a Servant Leader” a palms-up, palms-down exercise is described (something Richard Foster has encouraged)(p. 158). The book gives a typical instruction on contemplative:

Before we send people off for their period of solitude, we have them recite with us Psalm 46:10 in this way: Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know. Be still. Be…. When people return from their time of solitude, they have big smiles on their faces. While many of them found it difficult to quiet their mind, they say it was a powerful experience. The reality is most of us spend little if any time in solitude. Yet if we don’t, how can God have a chance to talk with us?

For Awana to include Ken Blanchard’s teachings into its organization, shows that the situation is quite serious. Blanchard has been promoting eastern-style meditators for over twenty years, and to this day is still doing so. In addition, he is a board member for the occultic Hoffman [Quadrinity] Institute. Blanchard participated in the Hoffman Process and said it made his spirituality come alive. We believe this experience he had through Hoffman is similar to what Blanchard refers to in his Lead Like Jesus book, when he says people who “quiet their mind[s]” during the Lead Like Jesus Encounter have “powerful experience[s].” This means that now children and families in Awana could possibly wind up with the same experience.

Blanchard, who has been a professing Christian since the 1980s, wrote the foreword for a 2001 book titled What Would Buddha Do at Work?. In the book, Blanchard said:

“Buddha points to the path and invites us to begin our journey to enlightenment. I … invite you to begin your journey to enlightened work.”

Blanchard has made numerous other similar statements about other books. After a 2005 report exposed his connection with Rick Warren (see below), Blanchard placed a statement on a page of his website for a short time that said some of his previous endorsements had been wrong. However, since that time, the endorsements have continued, including his connection with Hoffman Institute. One example of his continued endorsement of meditation practices is his back-cover statement on Jon Gordon’s 2006 book, 10-Minute Energy Solution, in which Gordon makes several favorable references to eastern-style meditators and the practice itself (see ATOD, pp. 164-165). Another example is Blanchard’s June 2006 endorsement of Thom Crum’s book, Three Deep Breaths.

Amazingly, in the book that inspired the Lead Like Jesus Encounter that Awana is using, Blanchard acknowledges Norman Vincent Peale’s role in his spiritual walk. According to Ray Yungen (For Many Shall Come in My Name – p. 47), Peale had strong New Thought connections. This could partly explain Blanchard’s leanings toward the New Age.

While Awana’s decision to include Ken Blanchard’s materials into their program is enough evidence to show that the organization is quickly changing, we must now report that there is something even more disquieting with regard to Awana and their slide into contemplative – a book that is recommended by Awana and also carried by the Awana store: Perspectives on Children’s Spiritual Formation. A description of the book is as follows:

In childrens ministry, models, methods, and materials abound. How do you decide what direction you want your ministry to children to take? Perspectives on Childrens Spiritual Formation allows you to examine the four prominent points-of-view in the church today. You will then be able to make a more informed decision on the way in which your ministry should take.

The book offers four different views on how to transform children. One author, Scottie May, a professor at Wheaton, writes the section titled, “Contemplative-Reflective Model.” May gives a hearty promotion of centering prayer, the Jesus prayer, Christ candles, the Catholic Eucharist and an strong endorsement for contemplative spirituality ala Thomas Merton, whom she favorably quotes in the book. Two Awana staff writers respond in the book to May’s contemplative approach and give it a thumbs up with only minor cautions. But overall they believe that contemplative is a valid approach for all Christians, including children. Perspectives on Children’s Spiritual Formation is giving a green light to Awana leaders around the world to practice contemplative prayer.

Some people may not understand why we write this report about Awana. After all, they have done some wonderful things for children. But that is the very reason we do issue this report – we do not want to see Awana sell out to the fast growing apostasy of contemplative spirituality and the New Age; and because we care about children, we speak up. With more and more public schools teaching kids to meditate and do yoga, and with more and more Christian schools bringing in emerging leaders like Rob Bell (through his Noomas and his book Velvet Elvis), millions of children are now placed in harm’s way by learning meditative techniques that will possibly take them into altered states and demonic realms. We hope Awana leadership will reconsider their position on contemplative/spiritual formation for the sake of children and their parents. And if you have children in the program, please use extreme caution in light of these new developments.

Let us leave you with this sobering thought: Sue Monk Kidd was at one time a conservative Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher. She was led down the road to apostasy (i.e., worshiping the goddess Sophia) through the practice of contemplative prayer after someone handed her a book by Thomas Merton, the same Thomas Merton who is endorsed and quoted in the Awana book, Perspectives on Children’s Spiritual Formation.

For more research information:

Ken Blanchard and the Hoffman Quadrinity Process

Our April 20th 2005 report, Rick Warren Teams Up with New Age Guru Ken Blanchard

AwanaClub Now Featuring Book

Extensive database on Lead Like Jesus (CRS)

Spiritual Formation: Another name for contemplative spirituality

“Christian or Christ-Follower?”

Last year’s film release, The Secret, makes no secret about it’s intentions: to let the world know that humanity is on the brink of a new era. This new era will open up to humanity unleashed power, riches, creativity and all that we ever dreamed of. A “secret” that has been locked away for centuries is now available to all.

The film, available only on DVD or online, is promoted by celebrities like Oprah and Larry King, and according to one celebrity on the film (Dr. Joe Vitale), in just a few days (Feb. 8th), Oprah will air a special about the film. Such promotion has helped to make the film an incredibly popular one, as can be seen by Amazon ranking, which puts the DVD in the #1 position for DVDs. According to a News & Observer article, “‘Secret’ Spreads Around the World,” 700,000 copies of the DVD have sold since its release last March.

News & Observer explains just how this “Secret” works:

In the film, viewers learn to ask for what they want. And, if they believe it, they will receive it.

It sounds simple enough, but here’s the catch: If you’re cynical, sad, depressed and resigned that nothing will change, nothing will. Thoughts are so powerful, the teachers insist, that you attract what you think about, even if you don’t want it. Get it?1

It’s these “teachers,” both ones from the past and present day ones, that The Secret uses to reveal this hidden knowledge. Present day teachers include Jack Canfield (Chicken Soup for the Soul), John Gray (Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus), and an assortment of philosophers, writers, and visionaries who share their insights on the “Secret”:

“We have a magnificent inner calling, vision, mission, power inside us that we are not honoring and harnessing,” says philosopher and “Secret” teacher John Demartini in a recent telephone interview. “This movie brings it to the forefront that we can [harness that power].”2

Larry King calls the DVD the “most profound information he has run across in 40 years.”

The film focuses on the “law of attraction” and was produced by Australian-born screenwriter and producer Rhonda Byrne, who after a series of setbacks in her own life, discovered that past personalities like Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln and others had this secret knowledge, and Byrne came to believe that it “was part of every religion, including Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism.”

In the trailer of the movie, it begins by showing a genie from a lamp, who tells the beholder “your wish is my command.” Research analyst Ray Yungen explains this concept:

[T]the genie represent[s] the Higher Self, who was reached through meditation by staring at the flame of an oil lamp. It was believed that a person could have whatever he or she wanted, once in touch with it. Our word genius comes from this Latin word for spirit guide and now means a person with great creative power.3

The premise of this is that we all have a divine essence within us, and we just need to get in touch with it. In other words, as panentheists teach, God is in all of creation, including all human beings, and once a person becomes aware of this, there are no limits to what he can achieve. Yungen elaborates:

Once a person merges with the Higher Self, he is on his way to empowerment, meaning he is capable of creating his own reality. Basically, all power is within the Higher Self, so when one is in tune with it, he can run his own show….

Metaphysicians believe that we all create our own circumstances anyway, so when we are guided and empowered by our Higher Self, we can consciously co-create with it.4

What is so alarming about The Secret is that it shares the same mystical view as the contemplative prayer movement, which is that all is one. The Secret film constantly makes reference to “the universal mind.” This is the same mindset that Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, and Tilden Edwards had. Listen:

“The human family is one in God’s spirit”–Edwards5

Thomas Merton said he believed that all religions share “the experience of divine light”6

Nouwen believed that “it is in the heart of God that we can come to the full realization of the unity of all that is”7

The “universal mind” in The Secret is the same as the unity of all that exists and this is exactly what is found among the “Christian” contemplative masters.

With the church’s fascination and embracing of meditation through the contemplative prayer movement (i.e., spiritual formation), the film further gives the green light to millions of Christians to be ushered deeper into mysticism. While less than a million people have thus far bought the DVD, everyone knows that when a product has Oprah’s signature of approval on it, sales automatically soar to astronomical levels, and Christian women are a huge segment of Oprah’s audience.

Without exaggeration, meditation is becoming an integral part of our society, in every facet: education, business, government, entertainment, health and religion. And with most Christian leaders promoting contemplative spirituality to at least some degree, Christendom is being affected dramatically. When Alice Bailey, who coined the term New Age and was instructed by her spirit guide, said that the age of enlightenment was going to come, not around the Christian church but rather through it, her “prophecy” may be coming to pass. Just last year, Fox Home Entertainment released a film called Be Still, an infomercial for contemplative prayer, in which numerous well known and highly respected Christian leaders took part. And nearly every major online Christian bookstore is selling books that promote New Age style meditation, which has a premise that all paths lead to God and divinity is within every human being thus removing the need for a Savior. If this promotion and embracing of meditation keeps up, then there really will be “a new era for humankind.” But it will be an era that the Bible warns about when it says: Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.”

This coming week, when Oprah shows her special about the The Secret, please be praying that women (and men) watching this show will see this as further seduction into a mystical realm that is void of the gospel of the true God and Light, Jesus Christ.

Notes:
1. http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/538825.html
2. Ibid.
3. For Many Shall Come in My Name, 1st Ed.,p. 14.
4. Ibid., pp. 11-12.
5. A Time of Departing, 2nd ed., p. 43.
6. Ibid., p. 60.
7. Ibid., p. 63.

by Ray Yungen

It was Alice Bailey (the famous occult prophetess who coined the term New Age), who made this startling assertion:

It is, of course, easy to find many passages which link the way of the Christian Knower with that of his brother in the East. They bear witness to the same efficacy of method.

What did she mean by the term “Christian Knower”? The answer is unmistakable! … [O]ccultism is awakening the mystical faculties to see God in everything. In Hinduism, this is called reaching samadhi or enlightenment. It is the final objective of yoga meditation: God in everything – a force or power flowing through all that exists. William Johnston believes such an experience exists within the context of Christianity. He explains:

What I can safely say, however, is that there is a Christian samadhi that has always occupied an honored place in the spirituality of the West. This, I believe, is the thing that is nearest to Zen. It is this that I have called Christian Zen.

The famous psychologist Carl Jung predicted this system would be the yoga of the west. Christian Zen? Christian yoga? These seem to be oxymorons, like military pacifism or alcoholic sobriety. Christians, conservative ones at least, have always viewed these concepts as heretical and anti-biblical. The word most commonly used for it is pantheism – all is God. But when one looks at the Christian Zen movement one discovers a similar term, which for all practical purposes, means the same thing. This term is called panentheism?God is in all things….

[Does] panentheism have a legitimate place in orthodox Christianity? This is a vital question because panentheism is the foundational worldview among those who engage in mystical prayer. Ken Kaisch, a Episcopal priest and a teacher of mystical prayer, made this very clear in his book, Finding God, where he noted:

Meditation is a process through which we quiet the mind and the emotions and enter directly into the experience of the Divine…. there is a deep connection between us … God is in each of us.

Here lies the core of panentheism: God is in everything and everything is in God. The only difference between pantheism and panentheism is how God is in everything. This position of the panentheist is challenging to understand: Your outer personality is not God, but God is still in you as your true identity. This explains why mystics say, all is one. At the mystical level, they experience this God-force that seems to flow through everything and everybody. All creation has God in it as a living, vital presence. It is just hidden.

The theological implications of this worldview put it at direct odds with biblical Christianity for obvious reasons. Only one true God exists, and His identity is not in everyone. The fullness of God?s identity, in bodily form, rests in Jesus Christ and Him only!

Click here to read this entire excerpt from A Time of Departing.

by Let Us Reason Ministries (Mike Oppenheimer)

Walking the labyrinth has become a popular spiritual exercise across the country and around the world. I first read of it in Leadership Magazine, a Christian publication and became a bit concerned, since looking into it further I’m definitely concerned.

Labyrinths are said to been used for over 3000-3500 years (depending who you ask), accurate dating has been difficult. We are told by those who promote their use that Labyrinths are ancient and have been a part of the sacred landscape through human history. Those who use the labyrinth describe them as a pattern with power and a purpose. They are called “divine imprints,†that symbolize an archetype of wholeness. The Labyrinth is said to encourage healing, clarity, and peacefulness. There are claims of profound experiences as they affect the people who use them by connecting them with the deepest part of themselves. Labyrinths can often have a particular “specialty” in healing, improving ones health or alleviating symptoms of certain diseases.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia–Labyrinth is a complicated arrangement of paths and passages; or a place, usually subterraneous, full of windings, corridors, rooms, etc., so intricately arranged as to render the getting out of it a very difficult matter.

The Romans adopted the symbols as a floor pattern. In modern times the labyrinth can be traced to Catholic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. In the European cathedrals they were used traditionally as a site of pilgrimage. A promoter and authority on the modern Labyrinth, Rev. Artress, states in her research there were actually 22 Labyrinths in the 80 Gothic cathedrals that went up during the Middle Ages throughout Europe. Some of them were pilgrimage cathedrals. Chartres was one of the major pilgrimage cathedrals. Early Christians took a vow to visit the Holy City of Jerusalem at some point in their lives. During the middle ages the Crusades made travel to Palestine unsafe, so they used other means to honor their commitment. Labyrinths were used as a substitute pilgrimage experience for the holy land. Adopted by the Roman Catholic Church Labyrinths were offered to the congregation as a way of fulfilling their vow to visit the holy land and nicknamed the it, “New Jerusalem.†Christians using it as a symbol instead made their pilgrimages to the cathedral cities of Chartres, Rheims or Amiens. Geometrical designs were composed from various pieces of coloured marbles set in the floors of the European Cathedrals. In Chartres Cathedral in France there is an intricate 40 foot diameter labyrinth of tile imbedded in the floor of the central area of the church. “With an emphasis on rationalism in the 16th and 17th centuries, however, labyrinths fell out of favor and were looked upon as child’s play or distractions. As a result, many were torn out of the cathedrals. Chartres’ survived, but for a time was covered with chairs so that it could not be walked on. Indeed, until recently, the cathedral was better known for its stained-glass windows than for the labyrinth on its floor.”
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