By Ray Yungen
Who would want you to believe that God does not exist outside of yourself—that you don’t need to have faith in anything external. New Age writer/philosopher David Spangler reveals who in his book Reflections on the Christ when he writes:
Some being has to take these energies into his consciousness and substance and channel them as it were to those other beings who must receive them, in this case humanity. The being who chose to embody these energies and to be in essence the angel of man’s inner evolution is the being we know as Lucifer.1
He lays out the entire program behind the New Age movement in the following explanation:
He [Lucifer] comes to make us aware of our power within, to draw to ourselves experience. He comes to make us aware of the power of creative manifestation which we wield.
When you are working with the laws of manifestation you are in essence manifesting a Luciferic principle.2
Even if Spangler had not written these words, the link between Lucifer and the New Age movement would still be evident to Christians from reading II Corinthians 11:13-15:
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works. (emphasis mine)
For this deception to be effective, he would have to come as an “angel of light.” To judge a belief system as being satanic, one should compare how close it comes to Satan’s own statements about himself. God is asking him, “How art thou fallen from heaven, 0 Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!” (Isaiah. 14:12). Then He reminds Satan of his own words when he challenged God:
For thou [Satan] hast said in thine heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14, emphasis added)
Then later, when Satan deceived Eve in the Garden, he said:
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:5, emphasis mine)
Without a doubt, the New Age movement fits that bill.
The “Wiles” of Satan
Ephesians 6:11 warns: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil”
The word wiles in this verse translates ingenious trap or snare. In order for a trap to be effective, proper bait is needed—something that is alluring, that looks and feels valid. For example, let’s take the case of Reiki. The average Reiki practitioner would think it outrageous and ridiculous that someone would even suggest that Reiki is linked to Satan. One Reiki practitioner offered this comment on the positive nature of Reiki:
During a Reiki treatment, you can expect to feel any number of sensations; warmth, coolness, tingling, deep relaxation, or at times you may not feel anything discernible. Sessions usually last one hour, and afterward you will feel calm and relaxed. You will sleep better and have a general sense of well-being.3
Does this sound like something that is satanic? Most people would not only say no but would feel that something of this nature probably would have to come from God.
In The Reiki Factor, Reiki master Barbara Ray says:
Reiki has reemerged as a transformative tool for energy balancing, for natural healing, for wholing, and for creating peace, joy, love, and, ultimately, for achieving higher consciousness and enlightenment.4
Enlightenment is the same as self-realization, especially in the context of a metaphysical practice. When a Christian hears someone claim to be God, he immediately should recognize the pronouncements of Satan, “Ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5) and “I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14). Hear this closely. He said, I will be like the most High (God) . . . I will be like God.
In view of this, the only logical conclusion is that the power behind Reiki is satanic. The key is not to think in terms of how the popular culture sees Satan, but rather how the inspired writers of the Bible portrayed Satan—a master deceiver and counterfeiter of the truth. He is one who comes as “an angel of light” (II Corinthians 11:14) to offer mankind godhood (you are divine and the master of your own destiny).
The sad thing about all this is that these experiences are so real and convincing. People experiencing the superconscious testify that deep meditative states are incomparably beautiful and rapturous. They experience intense light flooding them, and have a sense of omnipotent power and infinite wisdom. In this timeless state, they experience an ecstasy compared to nothing they have ever known before. They feel a sense of unity with all of life and are convinced of their own immortality. Such experiences keep them returning for more. One is not going to believe he or she is God if one doesn’t feel like God.
The late New Age leader Peter Caddy related an incident in which a group of Christians confronted him and tried, as he put it, to save my soul. He told them to come back and talk to him when they’ve had the same wonderful mystical experiences he has had. The point he was trying to make was that these naive Christians had no idea what the metaphysical life is all about and if they did, they would want what he had rather than trying to convert him to their way of thinking.
Feelings such as this are common in New Age circles and have hooked many over the past twenty years. They feel something this great has to be of God. A similar account is related in Acts 8:9-11:
But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. (emphasis mine)
In the Greek, the word bewitched means to amaze or astound. Sorcery means using the power of familiar spirits. What this man was doing had to have appeared good, otherwise the people would not have felt that “this man is the great power of God.” The truth of the matter is, he wasn’t of God, it just appeared that way.
In light of all this, it is easy to see why the coming of the Christian Gospel to Ephesus, that bastion of the Ancient Wisdom, had such a dramatic effect:
And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. (Acts 19:18-19)
The word curious is translated from a Greek word meaning magical. The magical or metaphysical arts went out the door when the Gospel of Christ came in. The two were not only incompatible, but totally opposite as the following account reveals:
And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister. And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus: Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, And said, 0 full of all subtilty and all mischief thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? (Acts 13:5-10, emphasis mine)
Endnotes:
1. David Spangler, Reflections on the Christ (Findhorn Foundation, second edition, 1978), p. 36.
2. Ibid., p. 41.
3. Jennifer Thebodeau, “What Happens During a Reiki Treatment?” (Mountain Sky Reiki, Osaka, Japan,http://www.mountainskyreiki.com/reikitreatments.htm, accessed 11/2011).
4. Barbara Ray, Ph.D., The Reiki Factor (Smithtown, NY: Exposition Press, Inc., 1983), p. 12.