One evening in October, I went out with a friend and left my daughter in the care of a babysitter, a nice Hungarian woman in her early fifties. When I returned, the babysitter told me excitedly that the next day she was planning to attend the psychic fair. While she didn’t specifically invite me along with her, she obviously felt news about the event was worth spreading (I didn’t go, by the way).
Indeed, the Toronto annual psychic fair has been an attraction for some time now. This year’s features include demonstrations and seminars on astrology, palmistry, clairvoyance, numerology and healing crystals among other things. But one need not go to the psychic fair to witness Torontonians’ fascination with the paranormal. Almost every daily newspaper contains a horoscope section. Psychics set up shop in storefronts, promising to solve prospective clients’ life problems. Books like James Van Praagh’s Talking to Heaven, which describes how to get in contact with dead loved ones, and Shirley MacLaine’s Out on a Limb, in which the actress discusses her purported past lives, make the bestseller lists. It seems that all the city – and all the nation, for that matter – is in the thralls of the New Age movement.
My own reaction to such activities is one of scepticism and amusement. I mean who could not laugh at the image of Shirley MacLaine running around on a beach shouting out “I am God� I tend to see things like tea leaves and tarot cards as silly but harmless. In time, however, some new questions have emerged in my mind. How should I as a practising Christian (Lutheran, to be more specific) approach the New Age movement? Is it the path to enlightenment or the road to hell?
The Christian community’s reaction to the New Age movement has been mixed. On one hand are those who consider it the work of the devil. Calgary Sun columnist Licia Corbella once objected to covering a psychic fair on religious grounds – though she ended up going, on her boss’ orders, and exposing a palm reader there as a fraud. At the other end of the spectrum are Christians who embrace psychic phenomena, not seeing any contradiction between them and their religious faith. Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King was a devout Presbyterian but consulted with fortune tellers and claimed to communicate with the spirit of his dead dog. Sometimes entire denominations have incorporated New Age tenets into their theology. The Christian Spiritualist Church, for example, emphasizes contact with the deceased as one of its core beliefs.
Some Christian authorities have adopted a different outlook towards the New Age movement. Anglican priest and journalist Tom Harpur, for instance, wrote a column in the Toronto Star in which he expressed doubts about most of the movement’s doctrines but stated that for some people it fulfilled a spiritual need that was not being met by traditional religion. A similar view was taken by Lutheran theologian Ted Peters in his book The Cosmic Self.
I agree with Harpur that some individuals may turn to the New Age movement because they feel alienated by traditional faiths. Why then, one might ask, do they reject mainstream religion? Perhaps they are tired of the focus on sin and guilt by some organized religions. For example, a friend of mine remembers a teacher at her parochial (not Lutheran, by the way) high school informing the class that they were selfish and “thought the world revolved around themselves.†Nor does the hypocrisy of certain religious leaders, like televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, help the cause of Christianity as a whole.
The other side of the coin is the accusation that the New Age movement offers its followers the benefits of traditional religion – inner peace, enlightenment – without the demands, such as self-sacrifice and humility. This charge has been made not only by Christian critics of the movement but by secular ones as well, like Canadian journalist Donna Laframboise. I would add, however, that not all traditional religionists are humble or altruistic people and that many secular movements, such as the drug culture (which, like New Age, emerged in full force in the 1960s), also focus on the self to the exclusion of others.
Finally, how should a Christian approach the New Age movement? Obviously some New Age doctrines are incompatible with Christianity, such as Shirley MacLaine’s view that we ourselves are God. Similarly, the portrayal by some New Age proponents of Jesus as an “ascended Master†is surely at odds with his status as the Son of God. While things like astrology and clairvoyance don’t strike me as particularly nefarious, I might wonder why someone with a great faith in Jesus Christ would resort to them in an effort to, say, resolve personal problems. One means of countering any New Age influence is to ensure as a church that the true message of Christ and the gospel of hope reach all people.
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New age religions should be judged by their human output, not the spiritual input.
The New-Age movement seems kooky, cultish and rather to be a big scam … just as Christianity appeared to the Jews in the days of Jesus. Whether Jesus lived or not, his stated life story seems to be eerily similar to much Egyptian mythology , specifically the sun-god Horus:
-Designation as the king of heaven
-Birth to a supposed virgin (Neith)
-Walking on water
-… and much more
It’s not unreasonable to see why people in Jesus’ day considered him a con-man.
But what is religion, really? It’s an organization of human beings that lead their lives according to a specific supernatural doctrine. Christian philosophy can exist without an organized religion, just as this new age philosophy can exist without the cults. How the faithful decided apply Christian doctrine -be it feeding the poor or burning witches at the stake- has made Christianity what it is today. I think the new-age religions deserve the same chance.
Cynapse:
Thank you for your comment. With regard to Jesus walking on water, I read a good book (pardon the pun) called What the Bible Really Says by a German philosopher named Manfred Barthel. He says that while the Gospel of Matthew was written for Jewish Christians and attempted to prove to them that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah (hence the many quotes from the Old Testament), that of Mark was written for pagan converts and aimed to show them that Jesus was as great or even greater miracle worker than the pagan gods. Thus Jesus walking on water was believed to be an attempt to prove this.
We have a person that provide guidance to our company and I surely seen a lot of “New Age” ideas popping though.
It would seem that the notion of truth does not seem to that important.
What kind of “New Age” ideas does that person have?
I must sometimes I laugh because even though I’ve often made fun of “New Age” people like Shirley MacLean I sometimes “knock on wood” when I’m waiting for an email from an editor or potential client to open!
Emilia, this guy started with encouraging things like the automatic writing, meditation, crystal dreaming etc. I know that the Christians and some other religiouns regards these practices as dangerous, but also found documentation written by New Age authors that also recon these as dangerous.
I personally don’t consider these things dangerous – one could argue that organized religion and organized atheism (as in the Soveit Union) have both caused a great deal more human misery than any New Age practices. But in what way do New Age authors consider these things dangerous?
Sorry, I misspelled “Soviet” as “Soveit.”
Hi Emilia,
While we are keeping ourselves busy with what the other side (unbelievers and devil) is doing to bring down the Kingdom of Jesus, our relationship with Him will suffer. I think first and foremost ensure that you spend priority time with the King so that you may know a lie if you see it.
Here are my idea why the New Age movement is so dangerous.
Some drugs like nicotine is weak but continual exposure to it does cause tremendous damage to the body in the long run, while other stronger drugs will kill you within days or weeks.
Atheism is like the strong drugs, easy to see and you know you should keep away, but the The New Age religion is like the nicotine type of drugs that seems harmless and so beautifully packaged.
Please consider reading the article at the following link:
http://www.ankerberg.org/Articles/_PDFArchives/new-age/NA2W0404.pdf
“Almost all forms of meditation lead to the development of psychic abilities.”
“Because New Age meditation develops psychic
powers, it is proper to classify New Age meditation as a form of occult practice.”
I have to agree that many of the New Age ideas are silly, but I don’t really see them as harmful. But I do agree that much of it goes against traditional Christian belief. But I don’t think the greatest threat to Christianity comes from either the New Age movement or atheism but from some Christians who make the whole religion look bad (ex. Reverend Fred Phelps). And I don’t really see the New Age movement siphoning off Christians to join their (the New Age’s) ranks.
I would think that the best inoculation to any movement that promote any anti-Christian ideas would be to ensure that you read the Bible from cover to cover and work on your relationship with Jesus. At least you will have an idea where to start to look for the truth when faced with a lie.
I would disagree that their ideas are only silly, it is extremely dangerous, contacting evil spirits do not seem to be safe under any circumstances in my books.
Have you heard about a book called “Conversations with god”. The book is a prescribed book in many schools across the globe. In the book the author pretends that he accidently started with automatic writing, but from reading about him I found that he is well known for being a New Age guru. Automatic writing is one of the New Age practices, considered the equivalent of playing the Ouija board.
We cannot stop the book from being distributed and do not believe we should. We should strengthen our relationship with Jesus and teach the truth about him rather than fighting the lies.
Consider read the following:
http://www.ankerberg.org/Articles/_PDFArchives/new-age/NA2W0405.pdf
Except from the PDF document: “thoroughly confused, divided between faith and doubt, attempted to apply the mediumistic practices she had learned during the séance. She began to write automatically and suddenly heard voices demanding that she take her own life.”
I’m afraid I’ll have to agree to disagree on whether the New Age movement is dangerous or just silly. I suspect the woman who started hearing voices telling her to kill herself probably had a chemical imbalance. On the other hand, if you do think the New Age movement is dangerous, you have every right to warn people about what you think is harmful. Now I will say that New Age practitioners who charge their clients tons of money and basically dupe them are a social evil. But you can say the same for other industries that bilk people of their money, like the lotteries (remember the recent scandals when it was found that retailers won a disproportionate share of the jackpots?). So I don’t know whether the New Age movement is really better or worse than any other dubious outfit.
Hello Emilia,
In perspective the New Age is just one of many ways our attention can be diverged from having a wonderful relationship with our saviour Jesus Christ.
One thing that you should know about the New Agers is that they will never call what they do New Age. Their practices has been shown to be occult of nature and I cannot see how contacting spirits and the dead for advice can be safe in any manner.
http://www.ankerberg.org/Articles/_PDFArchives/new-age/NA2W0505.pdf
“But even dabbling on the “innocent fringes” of occultism may carry a heavy
price tag, at least for some people. Perhaps several hundred deaths have now
been connected to imaginative games that role-play occult realities, such as
Dungeons and Dragons.14 Dungeons and Dragons alone has sold some ten
million sets and has led many teenagers and adults into active occult practice.15
Further, “There is many a psychiatrist who will testify to having to work with
disturbed children whose trouble began with a fascination aroused by such
fantasy games.”16″
Hello, Daniel, sorry to be somewhat delayed in responding. I must reiterate again that I’m not convinced that dabbling in the occult is harmful per se. I looked over your PDF file, and I really can’t find any proof that satisfies me beyond a shadow of a doubt that many of the actions supposedly caused by evil spirits (like the woman who pushed the scientist in front of the train) were due to anything other than faulty neural wiring. Or regarding Jim Jones having been involved in the occult, well,so was former Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie-King, and King never founded a cult whose members committed mass suicide. So while I understand that the occult may go against some parts of the Bible, I can’t see it as a real powerful force in itself.
I too see it as dangerous. Just today listening to the radio, someone was promoting the “fun” in going to a psychic. I always go back to how God dealt with King Saul for basically going to a psychic, and you have to read why Saul went in the first place (1 Samuel 28). Do I believe that people can speak to the dead, or tell the future with “psychic” powers, absolutely…. but from where do these abilities come from is the question, and who or what is whispering in their ear. Some people will disagree, but Lucifer, now Satan is not wearing a pitch fork and saying “Boo”, he comes as an angel of light meaning he comes in what seems good. You have to read the word, and be humble before the true Lord, if not its very easy not to see the deception in front of us…. and to think there is truly nothing wrong with a dabble or two. Our God and Father is a gentleman and does not require us to serve him, he lets us get in our own messes in hope that we repent and accept his Son as the penalty for our sin. Its just that simple and easy. (we make things way to complicated). God bless.
The physiatrist dr. Paul Meier explains in one of his books that unforgiveness is one of the mayor causes of clinical depression. Now imagine what damage the devil and his associates can do to you if you participate in New Age or any other ocultic rituals.
To Shannon and Daniel,
Thank you for responding. I suppose we’ll have to agree to disagree on whether the New Age movement is dangerous (as you seem to believe) or just silly (as I do). However, as all of us three are practising Christians, perhaps a question we can all agree that needs to be asked is why are so many people turning from Christianity (and for that matter from other traditional religions, like Judaism) and embracing the New Age. Is it because, as Donna LaFramboise says, it offers all the rewards of organized religion without the duties? Or is it because many people for whatever reason feel alienated from traditional religion? The question is worth asking.