What forces do we contact?
Written by: Martie
Dieperink
10.Transcendental Meditation
11.Yoga
12.Mesmerism
13.Reiki
14.He who seeks shall find
Ó
paranormal-ministry.com – Martie Dieperink
1.
Searching for the paranormal
Contemporary
man is seeking. He is in pursuit of a little happiness or relaxation and, if he
is religiously inclined, he is in search of God, or rather the divine as many
call it these days.
Many
people are in search of something, because they are no longer sure of
traditional values they might have been taught in church. They prefer to go on
a journey of discovery themselves and to explore new areas. There is a truth in
seeking. The Bible promises: “Seek and you shall find.” I have done this myself. I too was one of
the many seeking people for a number of years.
We are
living in a time in which all kinds of new perspectives open up to us. We may purchase all kinds of interesting
books on subjects we had formerly never heard of e.g.: reincarnation,
near-death experiences or the healing of people by the transmission of energy.
We hear of experiences with angels or guiding spirits. Is a church service not
extremely boring and dull compared to all this? Many people ask themselves
disappointedly: what in fact did we before find in church? What was it we
experienced there? It seems that nowadays we can start enjoying ourselves to
our hearts’ content. In order to satisfy our spiritual hunger, we can buy books
at a New Age centre or we can go to a paranormal fair. There is a tremendous
thirst for paranormal experiences, which transcend normal sense perceptions.
But the
question arises: what in fact is it that we hope to find in the paranormal? Do
we really find what we are looking for? In the world of the paranormal we often
hear that we must separate the wheat from the chaff. This implies that one
should be aware of lurking dangers. Indeed we should know full well what we are
doing when we enter an unknown world. Therefore the central question we pose in
this brochure is: what forces do we contact in the alternative paranormal
world? Do they benefit or harm us? To what kind of influences do we expose
ourselves?
2.
Uncertainty
The
therapists in the alternative world do not give us any certainty whatsoever
about our final destiny. The hypno-therapist Van der Heide writes in the ‘Paranormal
Journal’ (Aug. ’99): “Welcome to the Paranormal Fair of “View”. For many
years now “View” has organised well-attended fairs on the paranormal and on
healthcare. Everything is aimed at spiritual, paranormal and alternative
therapies and treatments. Visitors and workers in alternative health fields are
all searching for factor X in life. However, no one possesses absolute wisdom.
We talk about spirits, haunted houses, chakras, guardian angels, clairvoyance,
mesmerism, faith, the stars, the spheres… but nobody really knows how Life, the
SPIRIT, the Cosmos is put together exactly… No one knows precisely what God,
Jesus, Mary, Allah or Krishna had in mind”, says Van der Heide.
This frank
admission raises various questions. What then are we seeking at a paranormal
fair, if in fact we do not receive clear answers to our deepest and most vital
questions on life? Is it not dangerous to deal with forces which are unknown to
us? Suppose we end up in quicksand and sink? Whenever we start out on a journey
to an unknown destination, we take precautionary measures. We take a map with
us for instance in order to be able to find the way.
Is it not
necessary then to take precautions when starting out on an exploration of
unknown regions in the spiritual world?
According
to hypno-therapist Van der Heide, “it would be best to rely on our own
intuition.” He writes: “Nothing beats your own intuition when it concerns
your own existence. Life is the art of learning to listen to your own
feelings.” But if I travel to an unknown destination, only allowing myself
to be guided by my own feelings, I can quite easily get lost. I myself used to
be one of those people who would take decisions based merely on my own
feelings. For instance, I intuitively felt that I had to go to India in order
to seek my happiness there. In retrospect however, I now realise that this was
not the right decision. I now know from experience that intuitions can be
highly deceptive. Just as in our normal world, we need a reliable guide when we
go on a exploratory journey, so it is in the spiritual realm: you cannot do
without a trustworthy guide.
If the
alternative therapists claim that they cannot fathom the exact truth, does this
then imply that nobody can know the truth? If factor X, God, is love, - and
even the hypno-therapist Van der Heide speaks of LOVE -, would He then allow a
person to remain in doubt concerning his eternal well-being? Would He not show
us the way to Life and provide us with a reliable travel guide? Although indeed
we cannot know everything for certain during our life on earth, I am writing
this brochure, in the confidence that a satisfactory answer to our profoundest
questions on life is really to be found.
3. The
paranormal exists
I don’t
belong to those people who consider all that is paranormal to be nonsense. I’m
not a member of “the Sceptic Society”. I believe in miracles. I believe that
paranormal forces and experiences do indeed exist. We have been far too
rationalistic, in churches too, for a long time, and we have paid too little
attention to extraordinary religious experiences. Many people seek their luck
nowadays in the alternative paranormal world, because special experiences do
get attention here; just think of near-death experiences. I went to India as a
student of theology because in church I missed the experience of a living God.
Instead, I hoped to be able to find this in India by going to a guru.
However,
not only New Age adherents rediscover miracles after a time of rationalism,
Christians too have become more aware of the miracles of God to which the Bible
so frequently refers. If we are interested in miracles we need not necessarily
seek them in the Far East or in the alternative circuit, because there is no
better place to find them than in the Bible. There too we come across extraordinary
extrasensory experiences. To mention but a few: we read about the visionary
dreams of Joseph and also about his ability to interpret dreams. The prophets
foretold future events and also foresaw the birth of the Messiah. People saw
angels appearing and Isaiah even saw God on His throne. There are many accounts
of miracles in the Old Testament and especially in the New Testament. Jesus
healed the sick, exorcised demons and even raised the dead. Miracles still
happen in the name of Jesus, even today! Nevertheless I also believe that a
clairvoyant is able to see something of the future and that a mesmerist can
cure a headache. Although the term ‘paranormal’ is a general indication of
extraordinary experiences, from hereon I will use it exclusively for experiences
in the alternative circuit of clairvoyants and mesmerists for instance.
My
interest for the paranormal came from my parents. I myself was sensitive to the
paranormal; I knew things ahead of time sometimes or I had foretelling dreams.
Once I dreamt that my grandmother told me that she was going on a journey. I
knew from reading a book on dreams that it meant that she was going to die. And
so she did. When I started my studies of theology at the university of Utrecht
in 1961 (I am a Dutch lady), I also attended the lectures of Professor
Tenhaeff, the renowned Dutch parapsychologist. With many examples he tried to
prove the existence of telepathy and clairvoyance. Clairvoyance means that one
can see into the future. Telepathy means that one has extrasensory contact with
others. Let me give an example. You decide to call a friend and as you go to
the phone, your friend calls you. I did not find it difficult to believe that
such things are possible, because I experienced them myself. Spontaneous telepathy
is quite common. Most people have experienced something of the sort. There are
peripheral areas of the paranormal, but, Professor Tenhaeff explained, there
are people who have remarkable gifts and can develop paranormal gifts as the
yogis do. By doing this you can become a ‘Reiki master’ and channel healing
energies. Van der Heide calls every mother a mesmerist, when she lays her hand
on the sore spot when her child has fallen. There is nothing unusual for the
pain to disappear whenever a mother comforts her child in this way. However,
you cannot, as Van der Heide does, just compare motherly love to the treatment
of a mesmerist. For more is involved when we are dealing with a mesmerist or a
Reiki master, as we shall see.
We can
identify various areas within the paranormal. In the first place one may have
remarkable paranormal gifts such as telepathy and clairvoyance. In order to
know the future all sorts of aids can be used like palmistry, tarot cards, the
book of I-Ching or the horoscope. In the second place it has become popular to
communicate with spirits and ‘angels’. These spirits can transmit all kinds of
information and give inspiration to compose music or to write a book.
Contacting spirits is called “channelling”. Thirdly paranormal powers can be developed
in order either to help people (white magic) or to harm them (black magic).
4. The key
question
Most
people will agree that black magic is wrong because it harms people. But is it
right to undergo treatment by a paranormal healer or to consult tarot cards? We
have not yet answered this question.
The
central issue is: are the miracles in the alternative paranormal realm the same
kind of miracles as those in the Bible? Do they come from the same source?
Formerly I learned from New Age books that there would be no difference, that
both Christ and Indian gurus performed the same miracles. The conjuring up of
an orange from the air by a guru was compared to the multiplication of food by
Christ. Likewise, the appearance of a guru after his death was compared to
Christ’s resurrection. Therefore I thought that all miracles come from God. The
Bible speaks a different language. It warns us against evil powers, called
demons. It explains that Satan, de devil, is their overlord. We are warned
against practices through which we may become involved with evil powers. Take
spiritualism for instance, i.e. the practice of conjuring up spirits (see
Deuteronomy 18:9-21). The Bible teaches that we must discern between the
spirits, to see whether they come from God or not, because false signs and
miracles are also possible. Jesus warned: “For false Christs and false
prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the
elect – if that were possible.” (Matt. 24:24) Are the New Age adherents
right in saying that all miracles are the same, or is the Bible justified in
warning us that genuine miracles from God exist side by side with counterfeit
miracles coming from Satan? What kind of miracles are we dealing with in the
paranormal world? You might think: experience will teach us whether they are
good or bad. Experience is indeed an important criterion: do these miracles
benefit us or do they harm us, we may ask ourselves. Well, personally I have
had a rich experience in this field which I would now like to share with you.
5.
Experiences with the paranormal
When I was
still at school, I once met a Greek who read my palm and predicted that
something quite horrible would happen before my death. For a long time I lived
with the feeling that something terrible was going to happen to me at the end
of my life. Predictions very often concern negative things and can cause great
anxiety. As a student I attended séances several times. The medium, a woman,
was hypnotised by her husband. She would lose consciousness and then the
so-called spirits of the dead would speak through her. A young man who was
visiting there and was troubled by a black magic spell, was treated by the
spirit of an Egyptian doctor. I never heard that the young man got cured. The
medium said that she was exhausted after such séances. These sessions did not
have a beneficial influence on her health. But in those days that did not
bother me at all. I was not aware of any dangers. Full of expectation I even
went to India on my own.
My stay in
the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in South India during 1966-1967 exercised a great
influence on my life. An Ashram is a community where one practises yoga under
the spiritual guidance of a teacher. Guru Aurobindo had already died, but his
co-guru, a western lady of almost 90, called ‘the Mother’, was still alive and
possessed great paranormal powers. She had trained in occultism for years. When
I met her, I sensed that her powers were superhuman. She proved that she could
read my mind. She was also able to go into trance, could leave her body and
appear somewhere else.
After that
year I returned to the Netherlands with the feeling that I had gained new
inspiration which could also be important for the church. I continued my
studies and had almost completed them when my life took an unexpected turn.
After initially having had the feeling that the trip to India had done me good,
I was suddenly confronted with a long period of ill health and suffering. It
all began when I went into a trance. In this condition one becomes hypersensitive
to influences from the paranormal world of spirits. For yogis the state of
trance is the ultimate goal of yoga. Indeed, I had a sensation of experiencing
something of the divine. It was a state of intense peace and of supreme bliss.
But this bliss did not last long. I even lost consciousness, just like the
medium does through hypnosis, and when I came out of my trance, I experienced a
tremendous tension and pressure on my head for the first time in my life and I
was unable to study. From that moment on I had continual problems. Several
times I went into trance again. I started also to get nightmares and the
physical complaints increased. One night I woke up with excruciating pains in
my chest. They were so severe that I could no longer even sit in a chair as
usual. This caused me to spend months lying down on my bed. In my distress I
wrote to my guru who sent me a “blessings-packet”, a card energised with
radiated power, which I had to put on my chest. This is the same method now
used by Jomanda, a well-known Dutch medium.
Then I had
a wonderful experience of being healed! I was so happy! In spite of everything
I had completed my studies and now I could start work!
I have
experienced therefore that people like Jomanda, mesmerists, reiki-masters and
gurus can indeed rid sufferers of their pains and complaints by the
transmission of energy. But my euphoria did not last long. A few months later
the misery began again, and from that time on I started to feel pain and
tension in my whole body. It felt as if I had to compete with a power much
stronger than myself. With ups and downs I suffered like this for many years. I
personally have experienced that evil powers do exist indeed. Satan really does
exist! Jesus’ warning that we ought to heed deceptive signs and miracles is
not outdated in the least; on the contrary, it is highly relevant in our time.
The deception lies in the fact that the healing seems to be genuine at first.
Next a
paranormal healer crossed my path who wanted to help me because he also could
transmit energy. And again I experienced the same thing. After the treatment
things improved at first, but afterwards my health started to deteriorate once
more so that I finally came to the conclusion: things are only going from bad
to worse.
How is
this possible? Why this double effect? I could not understand why all this was
happening to me. According to the guru one had to suffer in order to help the
world. I also heard of others who were practising integral yoga and likewise
underwent such extreme pains. I was certainly not the only one. But is it really God’s intention that we
should undergo pains of hell? New Age adherents also told me that I
was not doing it right, that I myself was the cause, and so I became even more
depressed. It is easy enough to smooth over negative things which can occur in
the paranormal world. Moreover, I was certainly no exception, as became evident
later. I have since heard many stories of people who got themselves into
serious trouble by their experiments with the paranormal, for instance by
practising transcendental meditation, yoga or by going into alternative
therapies. There is a general recognisable pattern.
I was
stuck with the question: why do I find myself in darkness, although I am
searching for God? I read a book written by a yogi, who had started to practise
meditation and had to fight against insanity for years. He went to all the
gurus in India, but no one could explain why this was happening to him. Neither
did I find the answer to this question in the books of Oriental gurus and New
Age adherents. The real cause of the problem became clear to me in a special
experience I had in the depth of a crisis in 1981. I was lying on my bed, my
head was paralysed, and was unable to do anything. The turn for the better came
totally unexpected.
6.
Enlightenment
The most
important influence that the paranormal world has on a person’s life, is not
physical or mental, but spiritual. When I became acquainted with this new
world, by reading a book written by the yogi Aurobindo, the most spiritual
effect on me was that I lost my faith in Jesus Christ with which I had grown
up. Jesus was no longer the unique Son of God and Saviour, but He became just
one of many enlightened human masters. Buddha, Mohammed and Jesus, they were
all sent on our way to help us.
I now
realise that we have to pay quite a price for our trip into the paranormal
world. The hypno-therapist Van der Heide does not seem to be so sure of
everything anymore: “We are all on our way to THE LIGHT. And what that is
going to be like, nobody knows.” Yet the Bible is very clear about the way
which leads to heaven and about the true Light Who is Jesus Christ. Why is not
the hypno-therapist able to see that anymore? Why did not I see it anymore
clearly? In actual fact a spiritual veil had covered my eyes. But in my deepest
agony God answered me in my search for Him. He rent the veil that was covering
my eyes. With my spiritual eyes I saw Jesus Christ and I knew that He is really
the Son of God and our Saviour. A few days later I got up from my bed and it
was Jesus Christ, THE REAL LIGHT of the world, Who gradually pulled me out of
the abyss. St. John, the apostle, writes: “The reason the Son of God – Jesus
Christ – appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3:8)
Through this I started to read the Bible in an entirely new light. Only then did I realise what the Bible is all about. I now had found a reliable travel guide which could show me the way to my eternal destination: Heaven! Jesus Christ is the true Guide we need on our spiritual journey.
7. The
discerning of spirits
This
enlightenment worked both ways. On the one hand I saw the REAL LIGHT, Who is
Jesus Christ, on the other I experienced that there are also false lights and
that my spiritual darkness was due to the fact that I had been engaged in the
paranormal. As a result of this I became involved with powers that do not come
from God. In this way we shut ourselves off from God’s Holy Spirit. There is a
veil over our eyes which blocks our faith. But when we come to believe in Jesus
Christ, we will receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). One of the gifts of the
Holy Spirit is the discerning of spirits (1 Cor. 12:10).
The reader
may think however: surely the alternative therapists only mean well? Do they
not love God and their neighbour? How can one say that they are involved in
works of darkness? Hypno-therapist Van der Heide writes: “One cannot point
out precisely where “it” is, but “it” does exist… THE LOVE FOR GOD, Jesus,
Buddha, Mohammed, the Light, the Sphere, the Spirit. It is a privilege to be
able to discuss these matters on the basis of full equality and freedom. To try
to comprehend the mystery of life and to understand it in our own way.”
What is wrong with this? Unfortunately we have to conclude that alternative
therapists tend to overlook the existence of dark powers. Van der Heide states
that we are all on our way to THE LIGHT. Unfortunately he forgets that there
can also be false lights. Not only is there, as the Bible tells us, the Kingdom
of God, but there is also a realm of darkness. In Satan’s empire evil spirits
abound. Therefore we must test the spirits we do meet on our spiritual journey
in order to see whether they come from God. But as yet I have not clarified how
we are to test the spirits. We shall see what guidelines the Bible provides
for us.
In the New
Testament, in Acts 16:16-18, we find the story of a slave girl in Philippi who
had a spirit by which she predicted the future and with this paranormal gift
she earned a great deal of money for her owners. People were grateful for the
help she provided. When she saw Paul and Silas, she began to proclaim loudly:
“These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be
saved.” Now you would not expect there to be anything wrong with it. She
helped people and testified to the existence of the Most High God. And yet,
Paul was upset. She was so much a slave to the spirit by which she predicted
the future that she continued talking like that for days on end. Paul
recognised that this was a matter of an evil spirit and he exorcised it. That
very moment the slave girl lost her paranormal gift. The slave girl meant well.
The alternative therapists mean well. I also meant well. I was searching for
God and wanted to help people. And yet one can be deceived with one’s own good
intentions. Surely it is not fair, to be misled while having good intentions,
you might think. Let’s say for instance that one starts out on a journey with
good intentions, but in spite of that can sink in a swamp, because one has not
taken a good road map with him. That is why God gave us warnings in the Bible.
But, we
may think, surely the hypno-therapist and other alternative therapists also
believe in God and respect Jesus? Is that not an adequate criterion? But the
question is: which God are we talking about? Is it about the True, Living God,
or about a god we invented ourselves? The Bible differentiates between God and
idols. Next, it is important how you think about Jesus. According to the
apostle John the crucial touchstone to see whether the spirit comes from
God is whether the spirit testifies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our
Saviour (read I John 4). This is now precisely what the alternative circuit
fails to do. At the most Jesus is respected as one of the many enlightened
human masters. But they do not believe in Him as the Saviour and Redeemer.
Neither do they heal in the name of Jesus. That way we will never be able to
find the happiness of life we are searching for, and as the Bible teaches.
Saint John
writes: “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this
life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son
of God, does not have life” (1 John. 5:11).
According
to New Age adherents, such as Redfield, for instance, the author of the
bestseller The Celestine Prophecy, we must in fact find this happiness
within ourselves. We ourselves are our own god. We may determine and decide for
ourselves what we want to do. This seems to be the ultimate freedom. But I have
experienced – and others with me – that this is just the very way down into the
swamp. Without realising it all kind of powers and forces begin to dominate our
lives. We do not gain freedom, on the contrary, we become fettered by dark
powers.
But a
paranormal healer, you might think, helps somebody to get rid of his headache.
Surely this is a good sign? Jesus Himself said that one knows the tree by its
fruits. However, we should ask ourselves whether it concerns a genuine healing.
As I mentioned before, I too seemed to be healed by the guru at first, but the
complaints returned even more severely some time later. Even if they do not,
psychological complaints like fear or depression often emerge. The worst effect
is that a spiritual blockage is created, whereby one is no longer able to
believe in Jesus Christ. The guru boasted that when someone had spent a year in
the ashram, he would be bound to her by a cord. I also experienced this
bondage. This is an extreme case, but many have experienced this bondage to
dark forces after having tried paranormal therapies and experiences.
There
remains just one last question: how is it possible for the devil to heal?
Surely only benignant powers can really heal? Surely, the devil does evil and
does not do something good? We have already seen that healings performed by
dark occult spirits only seem to be real. St. Paul warns: “And no wonder,
for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” (2 Cor. 11:14) All
appears to be going well at first, and one thinks one is getting better, but
one day, sooner or later, a reversal begins and so it becomes evident that one
has been deceived.
But how
can Satan and his demons have ‘the gift of healing’? We should remember that
Satan was created by God as one of His highest angels and God gave him great
powers. Originally he was not wicked, but he rebelled against God and took a
third of the angels with him. They are the fallen angels or demons. The power
and energy Satan received from God he now uses for evil purposes to bind
people. Because these powers came from God originally, he is able to imitate
the miracles of God, even healings, to a certain extent.
In the Old
Testament we find a striking story about the battle between the real prophet of
God and the magicians who imitate the miracles of God. In Exodus 7:8-12 we
read: “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: “When Pharaoh says to you, ‘Perform
a miracle’, then say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down before
Pharaoh’, and it will become a snake.” So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and
did just as the Lord commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh
and his officials, and it became a snake. Pharaoh then summoned wise men and
sorcerers, and the Egyptian magicians also did the same things by their secret
arts: each one threw down his staff and it became a snake. But Aaron’s staff
swallowed up their staffs.”
The power
of God exceeds all other forces and powers!
If we have
special extrasensory experiences, we should take into account which forces and
powers we are dealing with, whether they come from God or from the adversary,
Satan. We have seen how we can distinguish the one from the other.
8.
Contacting spirits
In the
following chapters we will highlight various areas of the paranormal world,
beginning with “channelling”: contacting spirits.
The New
Age Movement uses all kinds of techniques for expanding one’s consciousness in
order to contact the spirits. There is meditation, yoga or hypnosis for
instance. Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy, writes in
her book that it does not matter how you do it, as long as you expand your
consciousness. However, we have seen that we must fully realize which spiritual
realm we are dealing with. We may contact the empire of Satan with his hosts of
evil spirits. The Bible clearly shows that when we contact the unseen world of
the spirits by our own means through a certain technique or occult training, we
become a vessel for all kinds of powers and forces that are not from God. When
we try to evoke spirits through “channelling”, we contact dark powers. We can
be deceived by these spirits in a variety of ways. There are even evil spirits
who present themselves as Jesus.
There is a
popular book entitled A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman, the text
of which is said to have been dictated by Jesus Himself. But she did not verify
whether he was the real Jesus. In this book, “Jesus” preaches a New Age
philosophy. He is not the real Jesus whom we know from the Bible. Therefore we
know that a demon pretends to be Jesus.
Most
people know that princess Irene of the Netherlands is also a New Age adherent.
From a friend she learned “channelling”. During a séance they held together,
they called up her guiding-spirit: Zoro. This is how Irene learned to speak
with trees. But she makes it clear that it is in fact not the tree that
answers: “The words of the answer came from my chest, my heart chakra.”
It is actually her guiding-spirit who speaks.
How do we
know whether we are dealing with a good or an evil spirit in this case? From
its fruits we know the tree. The consequences made themselves known. She became
unfit to perform her normal work. She felt a certain pressure on her head and
whenever she did some work it felt as if her whole head were stuffed with
cotton wool. It felt like a sort of hood, making it extremely difficult to keep
her attention focused, she writes in her book: Dialogue with nature.
This head-pressure was also the very first complaint I myself had and therefore
I recognise it very clearly as being the result of demonic influence. Irene
does not recognise this herself.
Once I
talked with Jomanda and asked her: “How do you know you have contacted good
spirits and not the evil ones?” She answered: “They are from a very high level.”
This is the way paranormal therapists often discern spirits: lower spirits
deceive, the higher ones are good. “But”, I replied, “Jomanda, that does not
mean a thing. The Bible teaches that the Devil is of a very high level.” Then
she became very angry. This is a sure sign that she is bound too much by her
spirits to be able to think critically anymore: what am I doing?
From the
Bible we learn that good angels can appear, but they cannot be summoned by a
technique of “channelling”. Christians have experienced that angels protected
them spontaneously, in difficult situations, as a proof of God’s goodness.
9.
Near-death experiences
Many
people have reported near-death experiences they had. The stories one finds in
this particular field closely resemble each other. One experiences that one
leaves one’s body and that one subsequently looks down upon it from above.
Usually one goes through a tunnel with a beautiful light at the other end.
Often one meets ‘angels’ or ‘guides’, who lead people around. What these people
see is often of such surpassing beauty that they are able to easily leave
behind all that is dear to them. After such an experience people are no longer
afraid of death. Is it therefore not exaggerating things a little to believe in
hell? Aren’t we all bound for this wonderful light? In my New Age days I did
not believe in the existence of hell either anymore. But it was in those very
days that I had such horrific experiences of hell, especially in my dreams,
that I cannot but admit: the hell does exist indeed.
Most
authors of near-death experiences, like Kübler Ross, write positively about
this kind of experience, however, there are accounts of people who had
frightful experiences. They found themselves in a place of utter darkness and
indescribable loneliness, in spite of other people being there, but there was
no presence of love. Christine Eastell, who underwent such a near-death
experience stated in a television programme that she was abducted and thrown
into a dark ‘pit’, she was completely unable to offer any resistance, and she
felt a malicious presence about her. She described it as being ‘extra dark’
there. She had no idea whatsoever why she had ‘deserved’ to be thrown into such
a place. She had lived a normal life, harmed no one and she believed in God.
Such experiences are real!
According
to witnesses one reaches a boundary one is not allowed to go beyond: one knows
that when one does cross it, one reaches a point of no return. Such
experiences, in fact, do not always tell us the truth about our ultimate
destination, but they do point to the existence of heaven and hell.
In the
Bible we find a beautiful and positive near-death experience. When Stephen is
being stoned to death, just before dying, he sees Heaven opening up. He saw the
majesty of God with Jesus standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:56). Many
Christians have received a sign from God just before their death that they were
going to Heaven.
10.
Transcendental Meditation
Maharishi,
the guru of the Transcendental Meditation (TM), makes us a beautiful promise:
we need only to practise TM twice a day for 20 minutes and then we will enter
paradise. If a certain number of people worldwide practised meditation, heaven
would come down to earth. In practice however, many people who began TM with
high expectation were disappointed by negative experiences.
From
people who have practised TM I have heard that many drop out with mental
problems, or even commit suicide. How is this possible? Maharishi gives
one-sided information. He withholds important background information. Everyone
can meditate, one is told, regardless of his religious background. It is,
supposedly, a neutral relaxation technique. In reality, during the initiation
ceremony, Maharishi’s deceased master and other teachers are invoked. Thus one
becomes part of the religious Hindu tradition oneself. Moreover one receives a
sacred formula (mantra) which one must repeat during meditation.
Supposedly this is a neutral formula, but in fact one recites words of power of
a Hindu god. Someone who started practising this, experienced that she was
beaten very hard on her head; this was very difficult to stop. She immediately
ceased to practise TM.
When we
start to meditate the Oriental way, that is to say, to empty our minds, we
become a vessel for all kinds of powers and forces that are not of God which
then begin to dominate our lives.
11. Yoga
But what
are we to think of yoga? Is that not simply a neutral relaxation technique?
Consciously or unconsciously, important background information here too is
being withheld from us. In India, from where yoga originates, I learned what
yoga really is. The mere fact that teachers say that yoga gives you another way
of thinking and acting indicates that it is more than just an ordinary relaxation
technique.
Even if we
are unaware of these spiritual backgrounds, we are nonetheless subjected to
these spiritual influences. Yoga means ‘yoke’. It requires an arduous
discipline to become one with God, indeed, to become divine oneself. There are
various yoga systems, the best known of which is hatha-yoga, consisting of
physical-and breathing exercises. Hatha-yoga is part of raja-yoga. One does not
practise these exercises for the sake of better health, but to control one’s
bodily functions in such a way that one can meditate for hours undisturbed. The
yoga exercises are therefore static in nature. For instance, one must be able
to stand on one leg for a long period of time. The highest state of raja-yoga
is meditation.
In
classical raja-yoga the ultimate goal is not a relationship with God, but a
reaching of the highest form of consciousness and an acquiring of one’s own
state of rapture. The yoga exercises are not concerned with the improvement of
our natural lives, but rather with the dissolution thereof. We are to transcend
ordinary human existence. The overlord of yoga is the god Shiva, the great
ascetic and destroyer. When we practise yoga, we are actually dedicating
ourselves to the Hindu gods.
By
practising yoga one develops paranormal abilities. The cosmic energy one
generates is called kundalini, snake-force. From the Bible we know who
the snake really is: the adversary of God. This yoga-force works ambivalently;
it therefore has a double effect. On the one hand one may receive a great deal
of energy, but on the other hand one can be destroyed by this force, as the
yogis warn us. A force that does not come from God is recognised by its double
effect.
But we may
ask: the peace and relaxation we are experiencing, surely they cannot be wrong?
Indeed, normal relaxation exercises are useful. But yoga is not practised for
the sake of ordinary relaxation. In India I once had a remarkable experience of
what yoga-peace really is. I experienced such an intense peace that it seemed
as if a block of stone had descended on my head. In yoga you must be able to
switch off your emotions. You are not supposed to be sad or really happy. When
nothing touches you anymore, no matter what happens, you have become divine.
But is this the peace of God? The Holy Spirit does not make you insensitive,
but refines your emotions. True peace does not come by practising yoga, but is
a gift of God. Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28)
12.
Mesmerism
Many
alternative healers practise mesmerism. They draw energy from the cosmos and
transmit this to help others, so they say. Again, the important question here
is, from which source does this energy come? We have already seen that it makes
a great difference whether the energy comes from God or from some kind of dark
cosmic power. As I said before, mesmerism is more than just a natural gift
mothers possess to ease a child’s pain. When Mesmer (1734-1815) introduced the
practice of mesmerism into Europe, strange things were found to be happening.
The clients often went into trance during or after the treatment. We have
learned that through trance (or also hypnosis) one becomes hypersensitive to
the world of evil spirits. Through mesmerism we are subjected to a certain
spiritual influence. This can have great consequences. A pastor once told me of
two girls in his confirmation class. Suddenly, just before the confirmation
ceremony was to take place, they dropped out. The pastor went to talk with them
in order to find out what had happened. Both – so it appeared – had been to see
a mesmerist. Suddenly they had lost their faith.
That this
‘healing energy’ does not come from God, but from other spirits, became clear
from the experience of a woman who went to see a mesmerist. She did not know
whether what she was doing was right, so she decided to sit and pray while in
the waiting room. The mesmerist then burst into the room, red-hot with anger,
exclaiming: “Someone must be praying, for I can’t do my work any longer.”
There are
manifold stories of people who, despite at first being cured by the mesmerist,
later developed mental disorders, attacks of fear for instance or depression,
and who then realized that they were under a bondage. From the fruits one knows
the tree. Does it mean that there is no such thing as a good mesmerist? Suppose
a mesmerist believes in Jesus Christ? Then we must consider the following: the
Bible shows that the sick were really healed when the Apostles laid their hands
on them in the name of Jesus. Let me give an example. When Peter saw a crippled
man sitting near the gate of the Temple, he said: “In the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, walk! Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and
instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.” (Acts 3:6,7) When a
believer lays on hands in the name of Jesus Christ, he acts – and only then –
as an instrument for the working of God’s Holy Spirit.
13. Reiki
In the
alternative circuit there are various methods of transferring energy. There are
all kinds of alternative therapies working with cosmic energy, for example,
”therapeutic touch” and Tibetan scale therapy. Jomanda speaks of “love
energy”. Reiki is also a method to
transmit cosmic energy. Through an initiation one is able to contact the cosmic
energy which one learns to channel and then to apply. The method is becoming
more and more popular. Reiki courses train people to become a Reiki master.
This
method was discovered by Dr. Usui in the 19th century. He was a
priest and rector of a Catholic University in Japan. A student asked him why
Christ could do such great miracles, and why they no longer happen today.
(Nowadays many more miracles are actually happening again than in the 19th
century). Could Usui show him how Jesus did this? This question inspired Usui to
try and find out which force Jesus used to heal people. When he was unable to
find the answer in theology, he searched for it in Buddhist monasteries. During
one of his meditations a light appeared which showed him holy rituals, symbols
and mantras along with their explanation. This was his initiation into Reiki.
But which light did Usui see? We notice that he did not subject it to a
critical examination in order to verify whether indeed it was the true Light he
had seen. As we said before, there are also false occult lights. He assumed all
too easily that the miracles of Buddha and of Jesus came from the same source.
Moreover: Jesus went around and cured all diseases. Buddha never did this. Usui
transformed Jesus into a Reiki master. But Jesus never was nor is a Reiki
master. He was not a man who possessed special paranormal powers. The apostle
John recorded the signs and miracles of Jesus in order to testify that He is
the Son of God (John 20:31). Because He is God’s Son, great power is to be
found in His name. In the name of Jesus the sick can be healed and demons cast
out by those who believe.
The
question is from which source does the Reiki energy come. Here again we can
apply the familiar test: when we act on our own authority and start invoking
powers by means of some technique or other, we come into contact with the realm
of dark forces. Reiki is a technique that leads us into the unseen realm of
spirits. There is even a method of invoking angels who assist with healings.
These ‘angels’ can project themselves over the therapist (overshadow him) and
even the “hands of angels” can be felt who “take over” the work of the
therapist. Unfortunately the fact is overlooked entirely that false angels can
be invoked by using this technique.
14. He who
seeks shall find
We have
seen that once we have contacted the occult world, which is full of demonic
powers, we become bound by it. The consequences can be grave. We may become
obstructed in our faith or we may start to suffer from mental or physical
complaints. We may suffer from depression for instance or we may feel
physically tired. When we have become infected with some kind of occultism, we
must be delivered from it.
The good
news of the Gospel is that Jesus Christ can set us free. He triumphed over all
forces and powers at the cross (Col. 2:15). He is the Living, resurrected Lord.
“For the Son of man came to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luc. 19:10)
When Jesus heals us and sets us free, as many have testified, the healing is
real and permanent and we do not have to pay a price for it. Jesus truly sets
us free!
What we seek in the paranormal world, such as peace
and happiness, we can truly find in the Gospel.
Now you
may think: it is all very well for you to have found it with Jesus as the WAY,
but this isn’t for me: I have my own way. And yet, you may be fascinated by the
story above and think: what then must I do?
First of
all we should read the Bible. When we read the Gospels with an open mind, we
will come to the same conclusion as the Roman Centurion: “Truly this was the
Son of God.” (Matt. 27:54) With many signs Jesus proved that He had risen
from the dead. Gurus may appear after death, but only Jesus arose from the dead
with a glorified body.
Many have
experienced that He is the living Lord, also in our times. Let me give an
example. Hesley Dijkgraaf, who practised TM and consulted the I Ching, came
into contact with Christians. When they asked him to allow Jesus into his life,
he set one condition: that Jesus would give him an experience that would
transcend all yoga experiences. And it happened. He recounts:
“That
first night I had all kinds of visions. The beings that were always with me,
also at your puja, that initiation ritual, and who always presented themselves
very agreeably to me, suddenly revealed their true face. They were really
demonic. They wanted to drag me into a pit, into hell. I also saw a raging
battle between God’s angels and the angels of evil… Then a beam of light came
down from heaven, which totally enveloped me. It began with my feet and legs. I
was completely filled with a sparkling light or silvery water. It totally
cleansed me.” (Visie, 11 April ’99) This was the
true Light.
Should you
be touched by this story, and want to allow Jesus to come into your life, you
may pray this prayer:
“O Lord
Jesus, forgive all the sins that I have committed in my life. I now believe
that You died for me and I thank You for forgiving my sins. I invite You to
come into my life and to become my personal Lord and Saviour. Please take
command over my life and help me to follow You and to be obedient to You. Turn
me into someone You can be proud of. Thank You Lord Jesus.”
The Lord
will bless you!