{"id":1552,"date":"2008-08-12T21:15:19","date_gmt":"2008-08-13T01:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=1552"},"modified":"2026-08-13T13:08:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T20:08:59","slug":"beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware of This Doctrine of Demons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>by <\/strong><strong><\/strong><strong>Olive Tree Ministries with Jan Markell <\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Heidi Swander<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s called &#8220;contemplative&#8221; or &#8220;centering&#8221; prayer and if you haven&#8217;t heard about it yet, chances are unfortunately good that you will soon. It&#8217;s invading churches like a virus in which submicroscopic pathogens contaminate the body many hours or days before the victim is aware of its presence.<\/p>\n<p>Contemplative prayer is one of a number of ancient mystical practices or spiritual disciplines, as their proponents refer to them, which are being encouraged at an alarming rate by evangelical churches. It is all part of something called Spiritual Formation and the Emergent Church.<\/p>\n<p>In its pure form, contemplative prayer is practiced by sitting still, quieting, and concentrating on your breathing and repeating a word of choice (maybe the name Jesus, for instance) over and over again. You&#8217;re to concentrate on that word and your breathing, and work to eliminate all thoughts from your mind. Over a period of maybe 20 minutes &#8212; and with practice &#8212; you can enter into &#8220;the silence.&#8221; Your mind is blank. You have, in fact, hypnotized yourself. And it is in &#8220;the silence&#8221; where &#8220;God&#8221; allegedly speaks to you. <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20081123121737\/http:\/\/archive.constantcontact.com\/fs019\/1101818841456\/archive\/1102202722915.html\">Click here to read this entire article. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Olive Tree Ministries with&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":31994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contemplative-denominations","wpcat-167-id"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Beware of This Doctrine of Demons - From the Lighthouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Beware of This Doctrine of Demons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Olive Tree Ministries with...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"From the Lighthouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LighthouseTrailsResearch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-08-13T01:15:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-13T20:08:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/fb-book-by-window-e1786651731963.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jan Markell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jan Markell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jan Markell\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4337902731d1deae4703544aba89da9d\"},\"headline\":\"Beware of This Doctrine of Demons\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-08-13T01:15:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-13T20:08:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":205,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/fb-book-by-window-e1786651731963.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Contemplative Denominations\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/beware-of-this-doctrine-of-demons\\\/\",\"name\":\"Beware of This Doctrine of Demons - 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