Paranormal2

4. THE HIDDEN CHRIST

A new view of Jesus

Contemporary man is also seeking for a new understanding of the gospel. He keeps his interest in Jesus Christ. But for those seeking for alternatives a different view is taken of Jesus Christ to that of traditional Christianity. In this section we want to understand the difference.

In the first place the new way of thinking is highly relativistic. The hypno-therapist Van der Heide writes:

“No one knows precisely what God, Jesus, Mary, Allah or Krishna had in mind.”

Jesus is put on a par with Mohammed and Buddha. A reiki master wrote to me:

“Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed or whatever you want to call it, is the same radiating light we talk of.”

And Van der Heide adds to it:

“We are all on our way to the light. And what that is going to be like, nobody knows.”

A cause for the objection to the view of Jesus as the unique Son of God and Saviour is that it seems to discriminate. A very angry person said to me: “Do you really think that Jesus is more than Buddha or Mohammed?” He wanted to force me to respect all religions and their founders equally. Of course we must respect and love all people, even if they are of a different opinion. We need a foundation in our religious life, otherwise we build our life on quicksand – we are allowed to have a firm conviction – but fundamentalism is wrong if it shows hate and aggression. We can’t be a party to that. But that does not mean that all religions are the same and are of equal value. If we are not allowed to see any difference between religions – and also between Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha –, in fact an unrealistic argument is used. Normally, nobody in the world objects to the fact that people are different and also have different positions. Nobody protests in the Netherlands that we have only one queen. A nation can have only one king or queen. Mohammed is well-known as a prophet, Buddha as a teacher of wisdom, but Jesus, the Son of God, has come into the world as the Saviour. God has only one Son. Only one Saviour is necessary and possible. It is, therefore, not justified to protest against a unique Saviour, as if we were discriminating. It is indeed understandable that people wonder whether He is really the unique Saviour. Why should Jesus be unique?

New Agers do not believe that Jesus has come into the world as the unique Son of God. They believe that Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha, in essence, have spread the same message and therefore radiate the same light. In that case there is no difference between Jesus, Mohammed or Buddha. But is this true? In the Bible the angel Gabriel announces the birth of Jesus as the Son of God. In the Koran the angel Gabriel when he appears to Mohammed denies that Jesus is the Son of God. “God has no Son,” Islam says. If there is such a great contradiction, we can hardly say that we are talking about the same light. It may not bother me whether something is black or white, but it remains black or white from a purely objective point of view. We have seen that the Bible discerns between real and false light. Satan appears as an angel of light, so it is essential that we consider which light we experience.

In the alternative world one also discerns, in a sense, between genuine and false. The traditional dogmas are regarded as false. New Age thinking is, in fact, highly anti-dogmatic. This modern anti-dogmatic attitude is especially concerned with Christian dogmas. In the New Age periodical Prana

(Dec. 2001/Jan. 2002) we read:

“In the last years more and more people are sincerely interested in the man Jesus, apart from the dogmas that have been created around his person.”

New Agers are indeed interested in the man Jesus, but not in Jesus as the Son of God and Saviour. For many people those dogmas are out-of-date. They regard them as ‘projections’ of the man Jesus. And so a vicious attack is made on church dogmas.

Experiences of salvation in the Bible

What exactly is a dogma? Is it only a theoretical speculation by theologians who want to exercise power? How did the Christian dogmas come about? If we study their origins with an open mind, we get a completely different impression. Mary experienced the announcement by the angel of the birth of her Son; He would be called the Son of the Most High. The sick and possessed experienced that Jesus was their Healer and Deliverer. He forgave their sins and healed them. The apostles experienced that He was risen from the dead. The point here is not a subjective theoretical speculation, but an existential fact. They were not speculating, they experienced it. And what they experienced was not only fantasy, but an objective reality. The dogma expresses the objective reality of their experiences. Peter wrote:

“We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of his majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16)

But why is there so much resistance to these dogmas? Why does one not want to believe that Jesus actually has conquered death? If one still wants to believe in a resurrection, one regards it as a parapsychological phenomenon. Once I read a Dutch book entitled The Story of the Resurrection in the Light of Parapsychology. The resurrection of Christ was compared with apparitions of the deceased. Most likely we have all heard ghost stories at one time or another – that someone who had died appeared in a house. But was Jesus a ghost? Did He appear as a dead person? When He appeared to his disciples after his resurrection and they were frightened, He showed He was no longer dead, but really alive!

“While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, ‘Do you have anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it in their presence.” (Luke 24:36 – 43)

A ghost cannot eat. A greater miracle took place here. Jesus is really risen with a glorified body. The apostle Paul confirms that the apostles have seen the risen Lord. He himself saw the Lord, but he also heard from the apostles about their experiences. In the first letter to the Corinthians, which is regarded to be genuine even by the scholars critical of the Bible, he writes:

“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Corinthians 15:3–8)

In the New Age miracles are believed in again. But the greatest miracle of all time: the resurrection of Christ from the dead, they do not believe. Isn’t that strange!

Modern experiences

Experience has become the modern criterion. The authentic experience is what matters. A reiki master wrote: “It is a matter of inner experience.” Therefore, I want to pay attention to experiences contemporary people have had with Jesus Christ and I will start with my own story. How do contemporary people experience Jesus Christ?

The most important effect that the books written by the Indian guru Aurobindo had on me was that I got a different view of Jesus. He was no longer the unique Son of God, the Saviour of the world, for me but He became just one of the many enlightened gurus. I too could put Jesus on a par with Mohammed and Buddha. But in the deepest crisis I experienced in 1981, a sudden change came. I was lying on my bed, my head was paralysed and I was unable to do anything. Spiritually I also had the feeling that I had gone to hell and there was no escape. All hope was gone. In that condition I suddenly saw Jesus Christ. He appeared to me and then I knew that He really is the Son of God and Saviour. That Jesus is the Son of God and Saviour was no longer an intellectual dogma for me, but became a living experience. Now I know that He really is the risen Lord. After a few days I could get up and slowly He pulled me up out of the pit. I could start a new life.

Many have had a deep experience that Jesus is alive today. Read this story:

“Alex, an acquaintance of Eddy Leo in Indonesia, had terminal brain cancer. The doctors had already given him up. They told him, ‘Eat and do whatever you like, you are doomed to die.’ Alex was not a Christian, but when he heard this terrible news, he overcame his resistance and went to a ‘Father love meeting.’ During dinner Jesus appeared to him and had a silent talk with him. Finally, Alex asked Jesus: ‘Can you heal my cancer?’ Jesus nodded his head and Alex immediately felt that something happened in his head. ‘I think I am cured,’ he said to Leo who advised him to go back to the doctors who had examined him. Four professors, specializing in brain tumours, examined him and could only shake their heads in unbelief. Alex has been completely healed; his brain is functioning normally. ‘It is an unexplainable miracle,’ the doctors said.”[1]

Now read another story.

“A young missionary couple from South India was sent to the Malthos, an unreached tribe in India. There they worked for many years without any visible results. One day the husband and the child fell ill and died. After this happened the wife returned to her house in South India. After some time a group of people came to that region with the Jesus film, which in an accurate account of the gospel according to Luke; they also came to the village where the missionary couple had lived. The people said that clouds had appeared in the sky on the evening when the missionary died and that, in the clouds, they had seen a weary man walking across the bare hills and weeping. He had walked towards a tree and had removed a branch. The branch withered immediately. Finally, the picture of that man disappeared from the sky. The villages had thought God might be angry with them because they had rejected the missionary’s message. The team of people with the film got the projector, the screen and the generator ready for the performance. However, the projector wouldn’t work so they prayed and claimed Jesus’ power over the evil spirits in that region after which the equipment worked.

As the film reached the point where Jesus was baptised and his face became visible for the first time, suddenly the crowd started to cry. The team stopped the film to ask why they were crying, ‘It is him,’ they shouted. ‘He is the man we saw walking in the clouds.’ That evening most of the villagers came to Christ.”[2]

This shows that the gospels describe Jesus as He really is, no matter what the theologians say.

In the above-mentioned story the film team experienced resistance by evil spirits when they wanted to show the film. When I had seen Jesus and had regained my Christian faith, I also experienced an enormous resistance and a fierce battle. I was left in no doubt that powers were revealing themselves.

The next story also shows that evil forces reveal themselves when we turn to Christ. Luc relates:

“I was brought up as a Christian and went to church every week. However, from a very young age I was already interested in Asian mysticism. I went to various sects, studied eastern religions and adored many gods. In 1995 I went to Japan. At that time I was a fervent adherer to Tibetan Buddhism. My Japanese wife Mari encouraged me saying that I could be a reincarnation of a Japanese or a Chinese who lived long ago, and that I returned to my country. In May 1995 Mari was in the hospital in Gifu giving birth to our son David. At that time I taught English in three state schools in Gifu. One day I was given the telephone number of Don Frazer, an American. We were the only two foreigners in that region. I called him and then it started.

He told me that he was a missionary and I told him that I was a Buddhist. Immediately I attacked the Christian doctrine and made a case against it, based on my knowledge of Buddhism. He listened quite carefully and when I asked him whether he agreed with me, he said ‘no.’ He said that Jesus lives and that he met Him regularly when he prayed. I believed this because I also met spirits. When he said that I had to accept Jesus, I said ‘no’ since I had my own gods for everything, especially Indian gods, and they assisted me in everything.

Then he said that Jesus is much stronger than all these gods. Also, if I accepted Him in my life, I would need to break with the other gods. I found this quite appealing, but suddenly I felt that certain gods attacked me. I nervously told him about this and he prayed for my protection in Jesus’ name. Suddenly I felt that a circle had been drawn around me and the gods could no longer attack me. I experienced warmth, security and love. I said to Don, ‘If this is the power of Jesus, I want to have Him.’ I immediately broke with the gods and accepted Jesus into my life.

The next day Don came and gave me a Bible. That night I felt a hand around my wrist. I woke up and saw that I was alone. I fell asleep once more and again felt the same cold hand around my wrist. I called Don and he prayed for me. After I had fallen asleep I was thrown across the room by some unseen force. Don came to me the next morning and blessed the whole house.”

Such experiences are real. When Jesus reveals himself, evil powers manifest and can attack us. A struggle between good and evil powers takes place. We cannot say that experiences always come from the same light. There is a battle in the heavenly realms between good and evil powers, between genuine and false light.

When I (Martie) had seen Jesus as He really is: Son of God and Saviour, I could understand what had happened to me. On the one hand I saw THE TRUE LIGHT, Jesus Christ. Being God’s Son He brought truth and grace into the world. But, on the other hand, I experienced that there are also false lights and that my darkness was due to the fact that I had explored the paranormal. When we enter that world, we can come into contact with forces that are not of God, and we keep ourselves out of reach from the Holy Spirit of God. A veil comes over our eyes, which usually blocks our faith. This was the reason I could no longer believe in Jesus Christ as the unique Son of God. But when we come to believe in Jesus Christ, we will receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33). One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the discernment of spirits.

The Spirit of God is holy; thanks to Him we see everything in a pure light and we are able to discern between darkness and light. We see through the false lights. I actually experienced the darkness that came to me from the occult books in my room.

We can then understand why there is so much resistance towards the teachings that profess Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Saviour. When we get involved in the paranormal, we can – often without realising it – be influenced by a spirit that knows who Jesus is, but hates Him and his salvation work. Then we turn away from Jesus Christ or we take on another view of Christ which we adapt to our new way of thinking. Then we only want to see Jesus as a human being. Let us now consider a kind of New Age Christology.

New Age Christology

In the Dutch periodical Onkruid (No. 141) Lisette Thooft writes about “the Christ we were not allowed to know”:

“The churches become empty, but people throng to the courses that recognize a spiritual master in Jesus Christ. The Christ within yourselves: that makes a pope and a reverend redundant. It looks as if He is rising from the dead again.”

The new Christology makes a distinction between the man Jesus and the Christ. “Christ” is regarded as a cosmic consciousness each one of us can develop, and in the New Age it is a symbol of the divine in each human being. This Christ is the Christ we were not allowed to know in the church. The church is accused of having preached a false Jesus for centuries and kept silent about the real Jesus. New Agers make a completely new discovery nowadays: the Christ in us.

Also pastor Hans Stolp angrily writes in his book Johannes de Ingewijde (The Initiated John) about “the deadly grip of dogmas, church doctrines and the ineradicable tendency to deify Jesus.” For him, Jesus is only a human being and a spiritual master. At the time of his baptism the cosmic Christ spirit would have associated himself with the man Jesus. It is a matter of initiation. This can happen to every human being. According to him, Lazarus (the brother of Martha and Mary) who was raised from the dead by Jesus, had not really died. According to him Lazarus had undergone an initiation and received a new name and when he came out of the tomb he was John. The evangelist John would have been one of the initiated and would have received a higher consciousness.

Jocob Slavenburg realises quite well that there is a difference between the Gnostic “Christ in us” and the Lord that Orthodox Christians serve. He writes:

“The Christ in you is really different to the Lord Jesus in you.”

If the “Lord Jesus in you” is an authentic experience, then there must be space for it. But Slavenburg realises that there is a gap between both concepts. Indeed, the vision that there is a secret Christ-consciousness in us and that we ourselves can become a Christ differs radically from having a personal relationship with the risen Lord. The Christ-consciousness means the experience of an impersonal cosmic consciousness, in which you all alone; in the other case we experience a relationship with a person who loves every one of us. What is to be thought about this difference? Is the living risen Lord purely fiction? That cannot be the case since we have seen that many people have had an experience of the risen Lord. What is to be thought of this new discovery? Has the church indeed kept silent about this mystery?

Is Gnosticism the original gospel?

It is not a question of a discovery, but of a rediscovery since this “new Christology” is not really new at all. Gnostics in the initial period of Christianity invented this Christology. This Gnostic view of Christ comes in again with New Agers. According to Slavenburg and Stolp this Gnostic view of Jesus would represent the original gospel. In his book Opus Posthuum Jacob Slavenburg states that original Christianity was especially expressed by the Ebionites, a Jewish-Christian sect having Gnostic ideas. It would seem as if he has made this discovery himself, a revolutionary discovery which shakes the foundations of the church. However, in reality he repeats what others like Elain Pagels and Rosemary Ruether have already mentioned.[3] It is fashionable today to especially call the heretics in the initial period of the church the true disciples of Jesus. The truth is looked for in the heretical scriptures.

Like the old Gnostics, Slavenburg wants to draw Paul into his own camp. According to him Paul would have known “the Christ in us.” Paul wrote about Christ Jesus, and that would not refer to a person, but to a cosmic consciousness or force. But is this true?

Even when Paul writes about Christ Jesus he refers to the person Jesus Christ. “Christ” means the anointed one, the Messiah. The anointed Jesus or Jesus the anointed is one and the same person. We read that Paul writes to Titus:

“To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.” (Titus 1:4)

Christ Jesus is our Saviour. He is a person. Paul starts his letter to the Romans as follows:

“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God …” (Romans 1:1)

We are the servants of a person.

He had not only seen a heavenly light on the way to Damascus, he had met a person, Jesus Christ.

“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:3–6)

The old Gnostics read esoteric teachings in the New Testament that were simply not there. Neither in the letters of Paul, nor in the other writings of the New Testament do we find the concept of a cosmic Christ consciousness. This is how the Gnostics saw it. With this in mind it is understandable that people like Slavenburg and Stolp regard Gnosticism as the original Christian message. Their own ideological starting point requires it. If you do not believe that Jesus really is God’s Son who rose from the dead with a glorified body, you will regard it as the fantasy of later theologians. But this starting point is speculative and is in complete conflict with the historical data.

We find this new view of Christ in the early history of the church only with small groups of sectarian Gnostics who were not actually involved with the church. It is not true that early Christianity comprised a multiform community of all kinds of groups, including the Gnostics. Gnostics were not members of the church. Gnosticism was a reaction to church doctrines which came first. See for instance the story of Valentinus the Gnostic. Before he became a Gnostic, he had been a member of the Christian community in Rome. However, when he was not elected to be bishop he was so angry that he separated himself from the church. Vindictively he directed his attack on the church and invented his own Gnostic system. He also taught that Jesus had received a Christ consciousness at the time of his baptism.

The Ebionites were Jewish-Christians in the Holy Land, who originally belonged to the church, but they tried to retain the Jewish food laws and other aspects of Jewish ritual piety. Later on they started to view Jesus as a normal human being and, since the middle of the second century, they were no longer involved in the church. It is highly unlikely that this particular splinter group would have preserved the original gospel.

While there are these splinter groups of Gnostics that are also millions of Christians who throughout church history have come to know the Lord through dreams, visions, revelations or through a personal relationship by faith and also know him today. This is a fact that cannot be ignored. Of course, we can agree with Lisette Thooft that the Christian faith was often a tradition without inner realisation. But that does not change the fact that the faithful have known such experiences.

Is the New Age experience real?

Are the experiences of “Christ in us” within the New Age real too? What do New Agers experience when they come to know “Christ in us?” This is not clear from their literature. Cosmic consciousness is in fact rather vague. We are simply told that there is a higher Self in us. Apart from that there is no further reference. Moreover, New Agers say that the higher Self we could experience is identical to the consciousness Jesus had. How do we know that? In truth the New Age concept raises more questions than it answers. We can therefore wonder whether we are dealing here with a subjective theoretical concept.

During my time in the New Age I got the feeling, when I entered into a trance state, that I did indeed reach a higher consciousness. At that moment it seemed so beautiful, but that feeling was highly deceptive and it proved to be only a moment of bliss. Now I know that I was under a demonic influence. It is essential to wonder from which source does this concept of a cosmic consciousness arise.

The Bible and Gnosticism

The Bible is clear on this point. From the beginning a concept that makes a distinction between Jesus and the Christ has been rejected and the spirit behind it has been indicated. In the first letter of the apostle John, he writes:

“Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the anti-Christ – he denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22)

According to him Jesus has not received another consciousness, but He is the Son of God by nature. And He is the Saviour himself. The anti-Christ makes a distinction between the man Jesus and the Christ. If such a distinction is made between the man Jesus and the divine consciousness, then it implies that Jesus has a split personality and that he is a man who was overshadowed by another spirit. It is a characteristic of demonic influence that another spirit is working through that person so that he is no longer himself and thinks he is something special and even divine. Although Mary was overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, she remained herself and she did not feel divine. On the contrary, she realised her own smallness in relation to the greatness of God.

We can also learn from New Age literature which spirit is behind the concept of the Christ consciousness. A prominent New Age philosopher, David Spangler, writes in his book Reflections of the Christ:

“Christ is the same force as Lucifer … Lucifer prepares man for the experience of Christhood … Lucifer works within each of us to bring us to wholeness as we move into the New Age”.

Here Spangler reveals which spirit is behind the concept of Christ consciousness or Christhood. According to him, Lucifer, the devil, brings us to the experience of the Christ consciousness. But Lucifer is not the same force as Christ. On the contrary, he belongs to a completely different world of spirits. Therefore there is indeed a gap between the New Age experience of “the Christ in us” and the experience of the Lord Jesus in us that Christians have. The warning of Christ that we must beware of false Christs is highly relevant.

Whatever is false is an imitation of what is real. There is indeed an element of truth in New Age Christology. It is also true that the church has not always had an eye for “the Christ in us.” Paul tells us that Christ can dwell in us by faith. He writes:

“… so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” (Ephesians 3:17)

That does not mean, however, that we will get another divine consciousness, but that we will have a personal relationship with Jesus if we have faith in Him. Then He dwells in our heart. In Christ, that is, in unity with him we will become a new creation. We will receive the Holy Spirit, which is love. Then we will become a temple of the Holy Spirit. Peter writes:

“Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4)

We will partake of holiness, justice and love. Peter does not think of deification of man, of losing ourselves in the divine, but of a new fellowship of the faithful with the triune God, with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Whereas New Age Christology refers to an impersonal Christ consciousness in which the individuality actually does not matter and the personal relationship is missing, the Gospel knows the fellowship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in which the individuality is preserved and we have a personal relationship with God.

5. CHANNELLING

In this and the following chapters various areas of the paranormal will be highlighted starting with “channelling”, that is, contacting spirits, to which will be applied the discerning of spirits.

The spirits do exist!

In modern psychology a closed model is mostly used: the spirits a person can experience are, in fact, projections and the creation of our own subconscious. This, however, does not give a satisfactory explanation of the experiences a person can have while channelling. No attention is paid to the fact that forces from outside can also influence man. The spirits with which New Agers communicate are experienced as quite real. Klimo gives an account in his book Channeling of the psychologist C.G. Jung, who mostly applied the closed model, once told in confidence that the hypothesis of spirits in practice leads to better results than all other ones.

Many New Agers say that they communicate with spirits. They believe that these spirits are good, wise and all-knowing and that they help humanity. They are called light bearers, spirits of light, spirit guides, inner guides, or regarded to be their own Higher Self. New Agers often have a personal spirit guide who assists them in their work. David Spangler calls his spirit “Limitless Love and Truth.”

The spirits often identify themselves as deceased human beings. The spirit guide of Princess Irene is called Zoro, which refers to Zoroaster, the famous Persian philosopher. Also biblical persons such as Moses, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Paul and John are popular. A Dutch lady, Joke Hogeveen, claims she has contact with Paul. She once held a séance at the university of Utrecht for theologians.

There are even occurrences where demons claim to be Jesus. “Jesus-channelling” is a well-known phenomenon in the New Age world.

It is understandable that communication with these spirits is an attractive occupation for the adherents. It seems they are helping New Agers: for instance they diagnose illnesses and tell how the individual can heal himself or how he can pass an examination. Many New Agers dare not make any important decision without first asking their spirit guide.

These spirits can promise us the earth. The promise of the New Age is that a completely new time will come, full of light, love and peace. Janny Post, having had an executive function in the New Age movement in Holland, says she has received Ezekiel, the prophet in the Old Testament, as her personal spirit guide. This spirit promises an extraordinarily beautiful future. In Janny’s book Liever leven met de engelen (It is better to live with the angels) she relates that he spoke the following to her:

“You will conquer your fear and see that a golden age is waiting for you. You will be able to reassure people and convince them of the greatness of this plan. You will be allowed to bring them with you to an earthly paradise that has no equal.”[4]

These spirits and angels do exist. They are spirits we would normally have no contact with in our life. Just imagine we would always see spirits and hear voices. But man, because of his curious nature, is eager to communication with these spirits.

Trance and ecstasy

Communication with spirits requires a person to be in a state of trance, that is, a state of consciousness in which a person is quite sensitive and opens his or her mind to the presence of spirits. It is a state in which your own consciousness withdraws and your own spirit becomes empty so that other spirits can work through you. In general, two kinds of trance can be distinguished. In the first case the person does not lose consciousness and is aware of what happens around him. Jomanda is, for instance, such a half-trance medium. In the second case the person loses consciousness completely. In either case the human spirit is hypersensitive to the unseen world of spirits. At worst it can cause possession since a spirit completely possesses the person who is in the state of trance.

I have also experienced trance states. At the beginning you start to feel strange, but you also experience a deep peace. You even think you experience something divine. But it also gives a scary feeling, you are no longer yourself, something else comes to work through you. I lost consciousness completely and woke up with a terrible hangover. For the first time in my life I experienced a strong tension in my body and pressure on my head. This is a sign you have made contact with an evil spirit.

A story in the New Testament teaches us that we contact evil spirits by being in a state of trance. During their missionary journey Paul and Silas arrived in Philippi, where they met a female slave who had a spirit of divination.

“Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, ‘These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.’ She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!’ At that moment the spirit left her.” (Acts 16:16-18)

This woman had a python spirit. The well-known oracle of Delphi also had such a spirit; she entered into a trance state and then prophesied. Probably this woman in Philippi would go into a trance and then speak out prophecies. She was so possessed by this spirit that she could not stop talking. Paul recognised an unclean spirit and ordered that spirit to leave her. After that the woman lost her paranormal capacity.

As we have seen that there are several stages to a trance and a mild form of it, I think, we all know as an inspired state of consciousness. An inspired state is part of normal sensitivity, a gift we have received by nature, and we need not class this as being supernatural.

Coming into another state of consciousness, in which one communicates with spirits, is another thing. Then it is essential that we know which forces we contact. There is an essential difference between an occult trance, which makes us hypersensitive to the world of evil spirits, and the true ecstasy, which puts us in touch with God and by which we can be caught up to heaven.

In the Bible we find examples of this true ecstasy. In the Old Testament we read about Daniel:

“On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.

I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees.” (Daniel 10:4–10)

In the New Testament the apostle Peter gets a vision.

“About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’ ‘Surely not, Lord!’ Peter replied. ‘I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.’

The voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.” (Acts 10:9–16)

The most impressive example is the revelation given to John:

“I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: ‘Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches … ‘” (Revelation 1:9-11)

“When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: ‘Do not be afraid, I am the First and the Last.’” (Revelation 1: 7)

A question may arise at this point. We have read that a spirit, who called himself Ezekiel, spoke to Janny Post. How do we know whether this is an occult trance or true ecstasy? In this chapter we will give guidelines on how to differentiate. One criterion is: a state of unconsciousness is an indication that the trance is occult.

Techniques

To come into a state of trance requires a special method. In order to communicate with spirits, one needs a technique, a ritual or initiation. The process by which a person contacts spirits is called ‘channelling.’ Roman and Packer write in their book Opening to Channel that this skill can be learned. To be successful patience, perseverance and a strong desire are needed.

There are various methods to come into a state of trance. For instance, by intuition our minds would be tuned in to the universal impulse. John Price writes in his book:

“Through the silent, hidden work of the Masters, men and women throughout the world are beginning to intuitively understand the truth …”[5]

Lola Davids states we must:

“accept as truth for ourselves only that which is consistent with our intuition.”[6]

She does not reckon with the fact that intuitions can be deceptive.

In Marilyn Ferguson’s book The Aquarian Conspiracy we are told that it does not matter which way we widen our consciousness: we could make use of drugs, yoga exercises, meditation, music, rituals and magic spells. But we have seen that it does matter how we contact the unseen world. Before we go on to examining how a person enters the danger area, let us first discuss a method used to conjure up spirits, namely, “spinning the glass.”

Conjuring up spirits

A well-known method for conjuring up spirits is a game called “spinning the glass.” The Ouija-board is also used or simply a lemonade glass and some Scrabble letters in order to find out what the spirits are saying. This so-called game is often played by young children at school.

It is quite instructive to know what the young people themselves think about this. It is striking that they warn against it and not just because they may be Christians.

The following report appeared in the Dutch newspaper Zwolse Courant (9 January 1991):

Sabrina (14) has, uninvited, regular contact with spirits. She is what is called paranormally gifted. She does not consider these ‘visits’ funny at all. She is therefore totally baffled that young people want to conjure up spirits just to pass the time. At first it seems a strange game: evoking spirits. Even thrilling. But after some experiments a number of the youngsters have yet to get over the fright. What do you do if you evoke an evil spirit? At school Sabrina is asked to play this game with others. “I don’t want to do that. I don’t understand that my girl friends don’t realise that calling up spirits is not a game. Even at primary school level this game is often played. One time a boy had evoked a poltergeist. For days afterwards he heard knocking sounds and fell even though he was sitting on the floor.” According to Sabrina there is a girl at her school who, through a spirit, knows exactly when she will die. “It is really scary to know that you will die at 32.” Sabrina wonders how does a person cope with this? Even though she does not evoke spirits she spontaneously senses their presence and this causes her suffering. She can’t see or hear the spirits, but she knows they are there, especially at night. She doesn’t dare sleep in her own room any more and for the time being she stays with her mother. Sabrina has had some nasty experiences. “For instance, I had promised to turn off the electric blanket and while I was on my way upstairs I suddenly felt that something was in my room. I did not dare to enter the room and had to weep.”

Another girl who is tormented by her paranormal gift is Regina (Viva, October 1990). She warns against ‘spinning the glass’ too. When Regina was 14 years old she really got into difficulties. “I had read something about spinning the glass. Two other girls and myself started to experiment with it. All I want to do now is warn everyone against it. During this ‘game’ a glass slides across the cards on which there are letters. The letters form a word and this is how the spirits transfer their messages. There are different opinions about this. Some say that it is only a question of suggestion, others believe it and still others say these messages come from the subconscious. Whatever it may be, I was very upset. I heard and saw spirits everywhere. I could not sleep at night because spirits were knocking on my bed. You could call it a poltergeist phenomena. I only wanted to be normal and I wanted to get rid of that paranormal gift.”

Princess Irene also practised channelling and through it has acquired a spirit guide. She has also experienced that she has had contact with this spirit guide, called Zoro. Through this contact she learned to communicate with trees. However, she makes it clear that it is not actually the tree that answers – that would be impossible – but “the words of the answer come from my chest, my heart chakra.” In fact it is her spirit guide that speaks.

The consequences of her experiences 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 was stuffed with cotton wool. It felt like a sort of hood that made it extremely difficult to keep her attention focused. The pressure in the head was also the first complaint I also had and, therefore, I recognize it very clearly as being the result of demonic influence. Irene does not recognize this herself.

The Bible and spiritualism

Now we need to examine what the Bible says about channelling and the conjuring up of spirits. It is not without reason that the Bible warns against spiritualism. When we consider the negative experiences people have had with spirits, we can understand why the Bible forbids the calling up of spirits.

“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spirits or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD.” (Deuteronomy 18:10-12)

Parapsychologists often hold the view that the spiritualistic phenomena are not due to the activity of spirits, but they would be the projections of subconscious desires, thoughts and fears of the participants themselves. Therefore, one applies a closed model. But this cannot adequately explain why, for instance, a medium starts talking with a completely different voice, which is not her own. Because she is in a trance, she does not have it under her control. This is an indication that another spirit is speaking through her. The Bible makes it quite clear that a spirit of the dead can be conjured up. When we read the account of the witch at Endor – who evokes the spirit of the deceased prophet Samuel at King Saul’s request – well, we can conclude from it that Samuel did indeed appear. Here is the account:

“Saul then said to his attendants, ‘Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her.’ ‘There is one in Endor,’ they said. So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. ‘Consult a spirit for me,’ he said, ‘and bring up for me the one I name.’ But the woman said to him, ‘Surely you know what Saul has done. He has cut off the mediums and spiritists from the land. Why have you set a trap for my life to bring about my death?’ Saul swore to her by the LORD, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, you will not be punished for this.’ Then the woman asked, ‘Whom shall I bring up for you?’ ‘Bring up Samuel!’ he said. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out at the top of her voice and said to Saul, ‘Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!’ The king said to her, ‘Don’t be afraid. What do you see?’ The woman said, ‘I see a spirit coming up out of the ground.’ ‘What does he look like?’ he asked. ‘An old man wearing a robe is coming up,’ she said. Then Saul knew it was Samuel, and he bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.” (1 Samuel 28:7–14)

Saul experienced the disastrous consequences of his deed by the fact that he committed suicide. Consulting the spirits of the dead is not without its consequences, we have to pay dearly for it. The Bible makes the connection between calling up spirits and committing suicide clear:

“Saul died because he was unfaithful to the LORD; he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the LORD. So the LORD put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.” (1 Chronicles 10:13–14)

We have become acquainted with two explanations: things can arise from the subconscious and a spirit of death really can appear through a medium. But there is also a third possibility: we don’t have contact with the spirit of the dead person himself, but with a demon who imitates the deceased. I believe that this is what happens in most cases. When New Agers say they communicate with famous persons from the past, even biblical persons like Paul and Ezekiel, we must take into consideration that demons pose as these persons.

Witchcraft

In the account given above we were introduced to the witch of Endor who called up spirits. Because of the rise in popularity of witchcraft at the present time, we should pay more attention to this phenomenon. Are the witches of today also spending their time calling up spirits and involved in occult activities? When women call themselves witches, it does not always mean that they are practising occultism. Sometimes it is simply an honorary title feminists have introduced. This name, however, often points to a return to pagan religiosity together with the occult practises belonging to it. Witches themselves say that we must seek the original source of modern witchcraft in the old fertility cults, in the female form of religion. In modern witchcraft we especially see a longing for power, energy, and a female form of religion. This finds its expression in the new adoration of the Mother goddess or God as ‘She’, and in the performance of rituals in order to generate spiritual energy.

Close to my home there is an original fairy ring, called The Silver Circle. A long time ago I received information about this. I read:

“The Wicca (witchcraft movement) is only a very small movement at the moment in Holland. That is not surprising considering that it is a religion in which one practises a lot of witchcraft besides celebrating the religious festivals. In essence, however, it remains a highly personal relationship between men and the gods – and this intimate relationship is reflected in the organisation of modern witchcraft.”

These witches do not believe in Satan or in Jesus, but they seek contact with gods and goddesses.

“We adore the Moon Goddess in her threefold aspect of Virgin, Mother, Wise Woman… We adore the God, the Lord of life and death.”

The question is, however, whether this Lord of life and death is the same God as the God of the Bible, the Father of Jesus Christ, who really has “the keys of hell and death.” Or is he the great Liar, who does promise immortality, but actually causes eternal death.

Most witches are quite normal women who are occupied with their own spiritual development or help those around them. That help can be quite earthly, but can also include an amulet, a talk with tarot cards or magic. If you want to become a witch, it is essential that you feel attracted to the religious part of the craft, the annual celebrations, the connection with the forces of nature and so on. Also it is important that you have an open mind to the occult and magic, that you are interested in it and that you are willing to become familiar with two areas in the world of magic. It is worth remembering that we enter the occult world with all its consequences.

According to the book Ruimte en richting (Space and Direction) even women in the church are becoming more and more interested in witchcraft. In this book Eva Ouwerhand interviews three witches. She writes the following:

“From the very outset of my study I was actually hardly involved in the church any longer. I felt it was dead and I had the feeling that the meditation group of which I was a member, had more to offer me. With this group we went to a monastery every year and there I discovered that being a Christian and being interested in other religious traditions or following an eastern meditation method are not necessarily incompatible. Slowly I got the feeling that I had started on a journey without knowing where it would end, but in spite of that this way started to take shape more and more clearly. After a time of protest against everything that was wrong in the church, I got the idea that I might have something to offer to the church. I decided to receive training to become a pastor and that decision was even confirmed by my journey to India.”[7]

It is not surprising that she first practised eastern meditation and now shows interest in witchcraft. Both ways lead to the same occult world.

Marieke explains what goes on in a fairy ring.

“We are friends, so we first have a chat and drink tea. Before starting the ritual, the women draw a circle of energy by invoking the four elements… Within the circle the women call up energy. They also invoke protection, so that no strange forces can enter. Within this circle of energy the rituals and meditations are performed.”[8]

In this way spirits are conjured up. It is therefore not surprising that Amelie started to see goddesses everywhere at a certain stage in her meditations.

Amelie realises that witchcraft can have dangerous aspects. She sees certain ultra-right and fascist tendencies in our society, which frighten her. They know in some respects the same revaluation of the female and the earth as in the Goddess movement. She says,

“I have made it clear in my group that we must beware of that. Natural religion was also around at the time of Hitler’s rise to power. Also at that time Wicca already existed and quite scary individuals were part of it, and for that reason you must beware of that.”[9]

Indeed, the Nazi’s were very much into meditation and occultism and found the models for their new Nazi religion in eastern religions.[10]

Which spirits?

Amelie does not realise that the danger of witchcraft is not a side issue. We need to understand that we can contact the world of demons through the rituals of witchcraft. The most relevant question that needs to be asked is: which forces do we contact through such rituals? Now we have reached the point where we have to ask the question how does one discern the spirits. Who are the goddesses seen by the witches? And if we can contact evil spirits, why would Janny’s vision be deceptive and John’s vision on Patmos be real?

New Agers make a correct distinction between lower entities and high spirit guides. Just as there is an order of ranking in the world of the good angels – there are, for instance, Archangels and angels – there are high fallen angels and lower demons in the world of evil spirits. But the New Agers don’t realise that there are also high fallen angels. They simply believe that the higher spirit guides are good. Because they appear as good beings it is assumed they must be good. According to Roman and Packer a spirit guide of a high level will be inspiring and loving and will give a feeling of well-being. The guide himself tells them this information. However, the authors don’t question whether they really are good. Satan appears as an angel of light; he too seems to be loving, but really he is not.

In a similar way people can feign love in a deceptive way. I read the following story in a newspaper:

“Schools for secondary education in the Dutch town of Harderwijk want to appoint contact persons in order to inform girls how to contend with the unwelcome advances of boys. Altogether sixteen girls have received assistance after becoming the victims of the handsome boys who lead the girls astray with the final intention of bringing them into prostitution.

Most of the victims of these ‘lover’ boys are between thirteen and eighteen years of age. The mode of operation is simple. After having observed the girls for some time, these handsome boys approach them and give the impression they are besotted with them. The girls are showered with gifts, dinners and drives in beautiful cars. Vulnerable girls are often chosen who have problems at home or have already been the victims of abuse before. Slowly they ease the victims away from the parental home and convince them they should live with them. They also get the girls to take drugs and, after some months, they are forced into prostitution.”

New Agers, however, blindly rely on their spirit guides. In Janny Post’s book I have not found any critical question about whether the spirit guide, who calls himself Ezekiel, is indeed the prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament.

Janny Post thinks she is able to differentiate between the false and the real solely on the light an angel radiates. What she does not realise is that the devil can appear as an angel of light. The spirits are not recognizable only by their light.

Klimo asked the sociologist, Earl Babbie, about the difference between good and evil spirits when channelling. Earl Babbie interviewed the entities themselves. He says that evil spirits try to bind people to themselves. It is true, a good spirit will not bind a person and here Earl gives a good criterion. However, the freedom they promise can be deceptive. In the Ashram in India I was told, “Here, you are really free. Here, you have the inner light.” But, in the meantime, you are bound to the guru who even said she had bound you with an eternal cord, if you had stayed in the Ashram for one year.

For Ursula Roberts the purity of man’s spirit is of decisive importance. That is true in a way, if humility is also meant by purity. If a person becomes proud because of the visions, we know that it is a question of a wrong influence. Demons give you the feeling that you are very special and that you have to do an important work. Janny Post writes in her book:

“Slowly I really realised that I was very special.”

But even if you are sincere, the spirits can deceive you. I certainly sought for truth, but nevertheless I was misled.

Biblical guidelines

Since all the criteria are not adequate, let us examine how the Bible discerns the spirits. The Bible teaches us not to judge only by subjective criteria, which can be deceptive, but also gives us objective criteria to adhere to. Why are witchcraft and the evoking of spirits forbidden, as we have already seen? They bring us into the realm of darkness. The point is that we contact evil spirits if we apply techniques in order to contact the unseen world of our own volition, apart from God and Christ. Good angels cannot be called up by a technique. If we are eager to have experiences, things will go wrong. While Catherine of Siena, who received visions and revelations herself, wondered how she could discern deception, the Lord gave her the following instruction:

“After this they are often deluded in yet another way by the devil, when he takes on the appearance of light. The devil gives whatever he sees the mind disposed to desire and receive. So when he sees the mind gluttonous, with its desires set only on spiritual visions and consolations, then, I say, the devil presents himself to the mind under the appearance of light. He does this in different ways: now as an angel, now under the disguise of my Truth (Jesus), now as one or the other of my saints. And this he does to catch the soul with the hook of that very spiritual pleasure she has sought in visions and spiritual delight. And unless she rouses herself with true humility, scorning all pleasure, she will be caught on the hook in the devil’s hands. But let her humbly disdain pleasure and cling to love, not for the gift but for me, the giver. For the devil, for all his pride, cannot tolerate a humble spirit.”[11]

The channelling technique is indeed dangerous.

But suppose we spontaneously get a special experience. Even then we need to discern the spirits. In that case, what weapon do we have? How do we test what has appeared? Long ago a monk from the East had this experience. He had a beautiful vision of fiery horses and carts and he was told that they would bring him to Jesus and Mary in heaven, when he got in. Indeed he did want to get in, but, at that moment, he made the sign of the cross as usual. Suddenly the horses and carts disappeared. It had been a satanic manifestation. The monk’s weapon had been the sign of the cross. We have already learned that Satan hates the cross of Jesus Christ because it was there that Satan was defeated by Jesus Christ. A false spirit does not bow to the cross of Jesus Christ. Good angels, on the contrary, confess and serve Jesus Christ as the Crucified One, the unique Son of God and Saviour. Therefore, Catherine of Siena was able to give the correct answer when somebody asked her how she knew she was not misled.

“I believe indeed that I can be deceived. But I turn to the tree of the most holy cross of Christ, the Crucified; I rely on it; I want to nail myself to it. I am sure that, when I am nailed with Him, in love and humility, devils don’t have any power over me, not because of my own power, but because of the power of Christ, the Crucified.”[12]

Indeed, for the faithful Jesus, the Crucified, is the only reliable guide who takes us with him to heaven.

The apostle John gives us the true criterion in order to discern good from evil spirits. He writes:

“Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.” (1 John 4:1-3)

Here, John was refuting what the Gnostics taught: that Jesus had a body only in appearance. This meant Jesus hadn’t actually died on the cross. In this way the crucifixion is denied. Generally speaking we could say that any spirit who does not adore Jesus as He really is: the Son of God and Saviour, is not of God.

In the following quotation Paul denotes the difference between the spirits.

“Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:3)

The Holy Spirit cannot be called up

We can contact demons using a technique, but the Holy Spirit and also the good angels, we cannot call up by a technique. We can receive the Holy Spirit when we believe in Jesus Christ. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not hidden in man by nature and we cannot develop the gifts ourselves. The Spirit of God gives his gifts to every man as He wills.

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)

But this does not mean that we have to be passive. We are allowed to pray for the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that we would receive the Holy Spirit if we prayed to God for this gift.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13)

The most important fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. We have to strive especially after the fruit of love, but we are allowed to ask also for other gifts.

“Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy.” (1 Corinthians 14:1)

But that does not mean that we apply a technique to secure those gifts.

Prayer said, in the name of Jesus, is a means to getting contact with the true God. Christians can therefore use a consciousness-expanding tool: prayer. The devil imitates everything. He substitutes a wrong technique for good prayer.

6. JESUS-CHANNELLING

In the last chapter we discussed various criteria in order to discern false spirits. There is a subjective criterion: humility and love, but there is also the objective test: the confession of Jesus as the Crucified. In this chapter we will go on with the discerning of spirits and we will pay special attention to Jesus-channelling.

A false Jesus

There are demons that present themselves as Jesus! We know this from the practice of exorcism and the deliverance ministry. When an exorcist expels evil spirits, sometimes those spirits make themselves known as “Jesus.” The German evangelist Kurt Koch told that demons that claim to be Jesus, as they were commanded to make themselves known in the name of Jesus, cried, “I am the unholy Jesus,” or “I am the Jesus of Satan.” People can have a false angel appear to them who calls himself Jesus and/or they hear a voice of a spirit who claims to be Jesus. A priest who was an exorcist regularly had to deal with a false Jesus in his ministry. He told:

“Recently I dealt with a young man who claimed to have seen Jesus. That ‘Jesus’ had told him that he had to pray more. This he did. A little later the same ‘Jesus’ appeared to him again and recommended him to increase his good works threefold. This too he did. However, a little later that ‘Jesus’ suddenly said, ‘But that sin I will not forgive. I am very angry with you!’ The boy suddenly collapsed and later he came to me. I told him that he was deceived by a false Jesus: a demon who poses as Jesus!”

A false spirit can also be recognized by his harshness. Because demons seem to be good and pious at the beginning, the person does not immediately detect that he or she is being deceived.

False doctrines

Janny Post also claims to have seen Jesus. She writes:

“His bright blue eyes went through me … There he stood in the cross of light … There I learned that the cross of light is the Christ energy. The overshadowing of Jesus by Christ. Sometimes I saw Jesus as a person, but then I saw him as a human being. But when something special happened, he was overshadowed by the Christ light. A very high energy of knowledge, a force of light, an energy. We can all have it shining through us, when we reach the perfection of our souls. When we are enlightened, we can all contact the Christ energy.”[13]

The question is whether she saw the real Jesus. We could think: why would Paul have seen the real Jesus and Janny Post not? How do you judge? Unfortunately, it appears that she proclaims the same false doctrines about the person of Christ as the Gnostics in the early church. The Gnostics invented the heresy that Jesus received a cosmic consciousness at the time of his baptism. Likewise Jesus is a man overshadowed by a Christ consciousness. We can all become a Christ according to them.

A false spirit will proclaim false doctrines and an unsound gospel, an unsound view of Christ. In order to unmask an unsound view of Jesus it is important to know the Bible well. Janny Post is not very interested in reading the Bible.

“The Bible is a reference book to me that I need sometimes in order to understand myself.”

So she can be easily misled.

According to the Bible, when a false doctrine is proclaimed there is more going on than just a wrong way of thinking. Behind a false doctrine is a false spirit. There are false doctrines because there are erring spirits. As God can inspire men by the Holy Spirit, so Satan can influence the thoughts of men too. Paul writes:

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1)

In post-modern thinking it is no longer usual to speak of false doctrines. Everyone can have his or her own truth. One no longer thinks in terms of one Truth. A Reiki master wrote to me, “Leave my truth pure, then I can also leave your truth pure.” Although our thoughts are fundamentally different, we should regard both truths as pure. In this way everything becomes truth and there is no place for error or lies. At first, this seems to be very nice and attractive, but it means that we no longer have a keen eye for deception and don’t see through the lies of Satan. And this is exactly what Satan is after. He is only too happy if we no longer believe that there can be error, lies or sin. Then he can easily draw us onto his path.

New Age thinking is attractive to a lot of people because it is less dogmatic and not so black and white. The Christian black-and-white way of thinking annoys them. But appearances are deceptive. When we analyse New Age thinking, we also find certain sayings which are definitely not Christian, or even strongly anti-Christian. We even find a new black-and-white way of thinking: the New Age mode of thought is really good, but the Christian way of thinking is false.

Since we will be taking a detailed look at the New Age doctrines when we get to the section on A Course in Miracles, let us now scrutinize the principles of New Age thought in general.

New Age doctrines

The New Ager is of the opinion that we have to give up Christian thought in order to enter the new world. According to him we must reform or change our way of thinking. When the Bible forbids us to call up spirits, the New Ager tells us that he wants us to do exactly the opposite; it is considered to be a good activity since we would increase our consciousness. These ideas are radically different to the Christian doctrines and are as follows:

It is preferred not to believe in a personal God, but to speak of “the divine.” It is no longer acceptable to say that God is our Father. There are difficulties with a God who is transcendent and whom we have to obey, although Christians say that God is a loving Father. It is preferred to speak of the divine in us and of universal love.
If you don’t accept a God who is transcendent and whom you have to obey, then you become your own god. The New Ager seems to have quite a positive portrayal of man. We need not see ourselves any longer as small, sinful people, created by an almighty God who judges. In any case it is wonderful to be one’s own boss. Then we can do whatever we like. We need not be accountable to God; we ourselves are a part of the divine. A person once had a sticker on his car which claimed: “Formerly I was an atheist, but now I know that I am God.” In the old Hindu books the same claim is found: “I am the divine.” We need not regard ourselves as sinful, but essentially we are god, we are actually divine.
The reader may think: “But I don’t feel I am divine. I am just a normal man.” To this the New Ager’s reply is: “You cannot feel that immediately, you must become aware of it; first you must develop your consciousness.” New Age literature wants to help us to realise this.
The New Ager believes that we have unknown possibilities that can be developed. The thing that matters is the expanding of our consciousness or spiritual enlightenment. Through a technique or initiation we could develop special paranormal gifts. I too stayed in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in India as a student, a community in which one practised yoga. It was regarded as a laboratory to develop the new man, the man who had become divine.
Because the New Ager believes that we ourselves are divine and that we can find the divine in ourselves, he thinks he has no need of a Person who could save him. Jesus is not confessed as the unique Son of God. He is called “Master Jesus.” He is a person who has a developed consciousness of himself; He is like an Eastern Yogi. He shows the way to our own enlightenment. He is one of the many gurus: both Buddha and Jesus had enlightened consciousness.
In the New Age there is a tendency to regard everything we experience as real: death, illness, sin, guilt, pain and suffering, even the human individuality as unreal. The world is maya, illusion, according to the Hindus of long ago. A new awareness of evil arises, a new black-and-white way of thinking: it is sinful to think that we could really be sinful and able to live apart from God. The fall of man, the broken fellowship with God, and the necessity of salvation are denied.

For the New Ager the Christian thought is dark, but for the Christian this “new” mode of thought turns the reality upside down. It depends on how you look at it. Only if we have an idea about the unseen world of spirits, do we understand what is the matter.

A Course in Miracles

Another example of “Jesus-channelling” is A Course in Miracles, which is a bestseller. The Course is considered to be a salutary correction of the biblical message. But is this true?

The author of the Course, Helen Schucman, was professor of Medical Psychology at the Columbia University in New York city. Because the atmosphere was strained in her department she decided, together with her colleague William (Bill) Thetford, that there must be another way. From that time one Helen got mystical visions and, later on, she started to hear a soundless voice which introduced itself as Jesus to Helen. Let us read Helen’s first-hand account:

“Three startling months preceded the actual writing, during which time Bill suggested that I write down the highly symbolic dreams and descriptions of the strange images that were coming to me. Although I had grown more accustomed to the unexpected by that time, I was still very surprised when I wrote, ‘This is a course in miracles.’ That was my introduction to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of rapid, inner dictation which I took down in a shorthand notebook. The writing was never automatic. It could be interrupted at any time and later picked up again. It made me very uncomfortable, but it never seriously occurred to me to stop. It seemed to be a special assignment I had somehow, somewhere agreed to complete. It represented a truly collaborative venture between Bill and myself, and much of its significance, I am sure, lies in the next day and he typed it from my dictation. I expect he had his special assignment, too. Without his encouragement and support I would never have been able to fulfil mine. The whole process took about seven years.”

The way in which the Course came about makes clear that Helen heard the voice of a false Jesus: she was being used like a robot. The voice, which she calls “boss,” used her for his own purpose: to deliver a message. It does not interest him whether she believes in the message or not, she has simply to write down his words. But when the real Jesus reveals himself, there is talk of a personal relationship. Jesus shows interest in us. He asks for faith and confidence from us.

Numerous New Age doctrines can be recognized in the Course. First of all we are forced to learn a new way of thinking. A critical view is not allowed. We must doubt all the values we already have. So we have to go through a huge form of brainwashing. Not only is the traditional Christian thought criticized, but also the normal human way of thinking is turned upside down. We must be ready to see everything that is earthly and temporary, even our own individuality, the ego, as an illusion. Pain and suffering, sin and any evil including death seem only to exist. When something happens to us, suppose we are let down by a friend, and we suffer because of it, we haven’t seen through the illusion of the pain, so the Course would have us believe. It is our own way of thinking that is the great problem. We are wrong in thinking that our friend is the guilty person. We must learn to forgive the other. This means that we acknowledge that the other person had not done anything wrong to us. He cannot do so since there is no sin. Only our own thoughts anger us. Nothing else in the world is able to make us ill, weak or fragile.

According to the Course we actually create our own world. The world is really a projection of ourselves, as if we are the Creator. In New Age thinking we are our own god. We read in the Course that we can even cure the sick and raise people from the dead since we are the ones who created illness and death and we can abolish them. In this way we are guilty of all the evil we experience. Also the blame for each illness is ours. Isn’t that philosophy as hard as rocks? We have already seen that harshness is the characteristic of a false spirit.

If it doesn’t matter what happens to us, we become moreover detached and indifferent. What is called “love” in the Course is, in essence, a deep indifference. The solution that is offered to us is to behave as if we are divine and invulnerable. We have to tell ourselves, “I am the holy Son of God. I cannot suffer. I cannot feel pain, I cannot suffer loss.” Suppose a friend suffers from cancer and has unbearable pain and we ought to say to that friend, “Just imagine you have no pain. Your pain is not real.”

The human body is also regarded as unreal. We are encouraged to have the passivity of a psychiatric patient. We have to keep in mind that earthly life is worthless. We read in the Course that life has nothing to offer you. None of this really makes us cheerful. If you are so normal that you consider the world to be real, you are classed as a madman.

In this Course of Miracles we cannot but conclude that we are dealing with a perverse spirit. If this spirit can turn the normal way of thinking upside down, then there is no reason to be amazed that he can also turn normal Christian thought upside down. That which is essential for traditional Christian thought, we must regard as worthless and mad according to the Course. It would be useless to praise God (the very thing that is normal in Christian meetings) since God is not considered to be a person. In fact a lot of Christian terms are used in the Course, for example: God, Son of God, Christ, Holy Spirit, forgiveness, reconciliation, grace, prayer, love and so on, but they are given a completely new meaning. Jesus is, for instance, not the unique Son of God since we are all the Son of God. To adore Jesus as God is called idolatry. We don’t need Jesus’ help to go to heaven for the simple reason – we never left heaven. This Course is not a salutary correction of the biblical message, it embodies a biting attack on the Christian faith. We get a taste of Satan’s fury over the cross of Christ. He hates the crucifixion and, therefore, the “Jesus” in the Course discredits his death on the cross as meaningless and crazy.

So now we have three indications that we are dealing with a false Jesus. The “Jesus” of the Course used Helen like a robot and did not have a personal relationship with her. In addition, his philosophy is as hard as a rock and he hates the cross of Jesus Christ. Had Helen really tested this spirit, he would have presented himself probably as the “Jesus of Satan.”