The history and prehistory of the human being are able to demonstrate the existence of the most varied worldviews. The folklore, art, and religion of each people are the result of the interaction of various factors and influences that thus determine a synthesis of knowledge and of practices, which are passed down from generation to generation as a testimony to the human need to leave something of value for the benefit of future generations.
Unfortunately, not everything that has been handed down from of old is necessarily beneficial for the present generations, and not everything that is done in the present will prove useful or be valued by the future.
Since the dawn of humanity, man has tried to find answers that would give him security and peace about his existence. As a result, various schools of thought have gradually been created. This happened because none of them offered all the answers. In his eagerness to find the truth and the definitive path to walk, man went on discarding alternatives and creating others.
Again and again throughout history man has dreamed of the arrival of a ‘golden age’ for humanity, of a happy and perfect world in which there would be no disease, no poverty, no war, no hunger, no limitations, no divisions.
He would like to see the entire universe transform before his eyes as if by magic and become something radically new. He would like to free himself once and for all from the world’s problems, of which he himself is the cause.
This dream is still alive and makes itself felt more strongly than ever in our day as the end of the millennium approaches. Our world, technically advanced yet spiritually starving, experiences a deep disillusionment in the face of a well-being that does not erase its poverty, a freedom that does not remove its slavery, and a science that does not dispel its deep uncertainty.
For about thirty years now, a cultural/philosophical/religious wave has been forming that seeks to react against the present state of humanity and to push it toward a new consciousness, toward a new way of being spiritual. We call it the New Age, and today there is no aspect of our life that has not felt its effects in some way.
The ideas and goals of the New Age gather elements from Eastern religions, spiritism, alternative therapies, transpersonal psychology, deep ecology, astrology, gnosticism, and other currents. It mixes them and markets them in a thousand ways, proclaiming the beginning of a new era for humanity.
But, at bottom, it seems to be nothing more than another vain attempt by man to save himself, making promises he cannot keep and claiming powers he does not possess. And while the fantasy of the New Age will never be more than fantasy, it has managed to sow confusion in the hearts of many of the faithful.
Here I only hope to clear up the initial doubts that arise around the subject and to extend an invitation to everyone to delve into the phenomenon of the New Age and to understand the threat it represents to the integrity of our faith, and to show who is the Truth.
The New Age: faith or fantasy?
Does any of this sound familiar to you?
Marilú was worried. Lately she had been having fierce quarrels with her husband, she grew exasperated easily with her children, and she went through spells of depression. She saw the promotion of an organization that promised to give her back the reins of her own life. They interviewed her, detected in her a quantity of negative forces, and launched her into a program that assured her the clearing away of everything that troubled her… and then another program, and another and another… Marilú ended up half convinced that she was the absolute owner of her world and that the truth was only what she saw and thought. It is not that her problems have disappeared, but that she no longer notices them.
Yolanda loved that nice man on TV who talked about nothing but things of magic, of energy, and of the secret forces of the mind. She did not believe it all, but somehow it was very lovely to imagine it that way. One Sunday a woman appeared on the program who said that she could see people’s guardian angel and could tell them its name and what color it was. Right away Yolanda went to consult her and, for only 80 pesos (!), the woman told her that her angel was tall, handsome, and light green. Now Yola goes around chatting with him and even believes she sees him and feels his presence. Her family is worried and fears that a chip has blown in her.
Ulises is lost thanks to his history teacher. The teacher is a ‘metaphysician’ and comes out with some mind-blowing spiels. According to him, all those figures of history — Alexander the Great, Caesar Augustus, Napoleon, Benito Juárez, and Gorbachev — are nothing but the same ‘enlightened being’ who returns again and again to lead men. Ulises was surprised when he said that the great men of religion (Buddha, Quetzalcoatl, Jesus, Gandhi, etc.…) were the same one and taught the same doctrine. That shook Ulises up rather deeply. But since no one could clear up his doubt, he is still dragging it around. Now, whenever he sees himself in the mirror, a question occurs to him: am I recycled matter too?
What do Marilú, Yolanda, Ulises, and many other believers have in common? They ran into the New Age and they were off their guard.
Below we are going to review some of the most dangerous aspects of the New Age for believers.
A deception with a thousand masks
The New Age speaks of many things that touch our faith: God, creation, life, death, meditation, the meaning of our existence, etc.… but it is not a religion. It takes various aspects of many religions and also of the sciences and of literature and mixes them with a certain originality to give fanciful answers to the most important questions of human life. At times it even uses Christian language to express ideas quite contrary to Christianity.
The New Age is a set of beliefs and ideas that is spreading throughout the world like that little wisp of incense smoke that made Damián dizzy. You do not see it, but there it goes, slowly filling the whole house until there is nothing that has not been impregnated with its smell.
The New Age has no leader and follows no rules of any kind. There are many people and organizations (sects, too) that think in the same way and hold the same beliefs about God, about man, about life and death, and about the world. These people and organizations work in a thousand ways to convince others of their ideas. They believe themselves to be ‘enlightened ones’ or ‘wise ones’ who possess new knowledge that is going to change the world. They promise a future without wars, without diseases, without poverty, without pollution, and without any personal dissatisfaction.
Who would not want a world like that? The problem is that they promise what they cannot deliver.
Do you realize how many bookstores sell only books on magic, on hypnosis, on how to interpret dreams, on how to be a medium and communicate with spirits? These bookstores promote the New Age.
Did you notice all those fairs that sell lucky charms, crystals or energy stones, powders and concoctions for healings, pyramids to harness the forces of the cosmos, little statues of Buddha and of the little Eastern gods, and thousands of magical trifles? Those too, in their own way, share in the New Age.
Were you never invited to a course on mind control, on yoga, on transcendental meditation, on dianetics, on self-hypnosis, on zen, or on tai chi? Many times the New Age achieves its ends through such activities.
Did you hear some lecture about UFOs, about the ‘secret’ meaning of the Bible, about paranormal powers, about the spiritual masters who supposedly guide us, about the Age of Aquarius, or about the importance of astrology for our lives? Such talks tend to express ideas very typical of the New Age.
The New Age teaches that it is the cosmos that gives us life and energy.
As you can see, we are talking about something quite complicated that has many ways of manifesting itself. Of course, not everything the New Age promotes is bad, and you can even draw some good thing from it. But many of its ideas are false, deceptive, and contradictory to your faith. That is why you have to understand it and be well on your guard.
Origins and history of the New Age
The ideas and practices that make up the New Age are very difficult to enumerate, for the New Age does not have a defined identity, but many façades; variable and confusing façades. It gives the impression of not constituting a united, organized, structured movement. It presents itself as a series of ideas, beliefs, and practices apparently isolated and disconnected, without any defined end or organization… simply as a fashion. Moreover, it has a truly astonishing capacity for mutation and a great variability: it has kept emerging at every step with new things, new ideas — or old ideas turned into new ones.
Hence the difficulty in deciphering it, dividing it, breaking it down, defining it. Nevertheless, we will define it in this way:
The New Age is a pseudo-spiritual movement of an esoteric and occultist, pagan cast, which includes erroneous theories and heresies condemned by the Church that contradict fundamental truths of the Christian faith, and which seeks to lead man to believe that he can come to be like God.
Its purpose, concealed under a pretended respect for all beliefs, is the destruction of the Christian faith, whereby it attempts to do away with the Catholic Church and with every Christian denomination.
The term “New Age” has been translated into Spanish as “Nueva Era” (“New Era”), but in reality the translation of “New Age” would be “Nueva Edad” (“New Age”). The followers of this current also call it the “Age of Aquarius” and the “Golden Age”. Because of the ends it pursues, others call it the “Aquarian Configuration” or the “Aquarian Conspiracy”.
Origin
The New Age has its roots in the “Theosophical Society” founded in 1875 in New York by a Russian woman, Helena Blavatsky, basically a spiritist, who claims to have received her teachings from certain “special spiritual beings” or “ascended masters”.
To know what the “Theosophical Society” is, we need to know what Theosophy is.
Theosophy is the belief or the claim to have direct mystical knowledge of the “divinity”, concerning it and the world, by means of secret, esoteric, occultist doctrines and practices.
Blavatsky founds the “Theosophical Society” in 1875, which is a mixture of occultism and Eastern mysticism (basically what the New Age is today). She is succeeded as president by Annie Besant, who tried in 1929 to present a new “messiah” to the world: a Hindu who rejected the status she assigned him and separated himself from the movement.
But it is Alice Bailey (1880-1949), the third president, an Englishwoman also settled in the U.S.A., who is considered the “high priestess” of the “Theosophical Society”. She founds the “Lucifer Trust” (today “Lucis Trust”) and, as a spiritist medium, claimed to receive messages from a certain dead “master of wisdom”, a Tibetan. (It is no mere coincidence that he is Eastern, as we shall see further on.)
In numerous writings of this “Theosophical Society” appear the messages of the demonic spirit that dictated to her in “automatic writing”, that is, in a state of mediumistic trance, during which the medium’s hand writes automatically, without the medium having any control over what is written.
These writings form a kind of “Plan” to which a secret character was given among the followers. This “plan”, which is the “Plan of the New Age”, includes a world government and a single world religion. The Plan of the New Age was to remain hidden until 1975, the year in which it would be brought out into the light of the public.
Where does the “Theosophical Society” that Blavatsky founds in 1875 come from?
“Theosophy began with the Freemasons and in their midst,” says a publication, “Sects in
Latin America”, in the chapter entitled “Pseudo-spiritual Movements”, written by the Franciscan Friar Buenaventura Kloppenburg.
What ends does Freemasonry pursue? What does the Masonic conspiracy consist of?
Freemasonry, which is a secret society of an esoteric and occultist cast condemned by the Church, though it pretends the contrary, pursues the destruction of Christian civilization, beginning first with the Catholic Church and continuing with other Christian beliefs; as well as of every norm, principle, or institution based on Christianity, in order to replace them with a pagan civilization and a pseudo-religion that is also pagan. It is important to know this in order to be able to continue analyzing the historical process of the formation of the New Age, starting from the “Theosophical Society”.
Helena Blavatsky becomes a spiritist medium a little before founding the “Theosophical Society”. It is during a stay in Paris (1867-1870) that she enters the group of Allan Kardec, a Freemason and the codifier of Spiritism.
On her return to the U.S.A. she founds the “Theosophical Society” in New York on November 20, 1875, together with other Freemasons: Charles Sotheran (one of the leaders of Freemasonry in the U.S.A.), Henry Steele Olcott (a Freemason), George Felt (of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, also Masonic), and William Judge.
In 1871, Albert Pike, grand master of one of the branches of Freemasonry, the Scottish Rite, writes a basic book of Masonic philosophy: “Morals and Dogma of Freemasonry”. Pike, although he does not formally belong to the board of the “Theosophical Society”, is in contact with it.
Another piece of evidence of the connection between Freemasonry and the New Age is this most curious fact: the bulletin that the Freemasons distribute throughout the world to the “Masonic brothers” is called — “New Age”!!! There is record that it is so called at least since 1921, but this name could have been used prior to this date.
Apart from the historical evidence of the origin and the relationship of the New Age with Freemasonry, there is another decisive one: the Plan of the New Age coincides with the ends of Freemasonry: a world religion and a world government. That is: the goals of the New Age and those of Freemasonry are the same.
Perhaps for this reason Pope Leo XIII in 1884, in his Encyclical “Humanum Genus” (#7), says the following: “For there are several organized bodies which, though differing in name, in ceremonial, in form and origin, are nevertheless so bound together by community of purpose and by the similarity of their main opinions, as to make in fact one thing with the sect of the Freemasons, which is a kind of center whence they all go forth, and whither they all return.”
What is the relationship of the “Theosophical Society” with Eastern Mysticism?
The diabolical spirit that dictates the New Age Plan to Alice Bailey is Tibetan. But the relationship of the “Theosophical Society” with the East is earlier: in 1879 Blavatsky and Olcott travel to India, settle in Adyar, near Madras, and 6 years later she writes her work “The Secret Doctrine”, in which the “Plan of the New Age” begins to take shape.
After this succinct historical analysis we can conclude the following: Freemasonry gives rise to the Theosophical Society by means of Spiritism and in contact with Eastern Paganism.
These are the four basic pillars of the New Age:
Freemasonry – Spiritism – Theosophy or Gnosticism – Eastern Paganism.
By taking into account this basis of support of the New Age we will be able to decipher and analyze it better.
The New Age originates, then, in Freemasonry, by means of instructions and dictations given by demonic spirits.
Paul says: “Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and to doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1).
The process of penetration of the New Age
As early as 1986 a report in the New York Times says that everything has been influenced by the New Age: education, health, art, economics, management, government, science, entertainment, and… religion.
In the religious area there are very committed, very Christian people who have innocently gone about “annexing” (that is how the participation begins: by adding) to their lifelong beliefs and practices, theories and practices of the New Age… and we already know where these “new” beliefs and practices come from. (!!!). For example, one that is very widespread and annexed by many is the belief in reincarnation, which we will analyze further on.
The promoters of the New Age do not go directly against Christian beliefs; “apparently” they accept them. They show themselves very open, at first. They propose these heretical errors as something compatible with Christianity. All religions are accepted. Of course! Since Theosophy is based on the equality of religions in order then to try to establish the single religion.
Those who are promoting the New Age use terminology from the Bible, from Christianity, and even mention activities of the Church, in order to confuse, deceive, and attract believers.
What has the process of penetration of the New Age been like?
As humanity passed from a theocentric conception of the world, in which God was the center, to an anthropocentric conception, in which man becomes the center, changes were gradually introduced into the concepts of the faith, into moral norms, into attitudes and values, into the ways of life and customs of people. Although these changes have been taking place gradually since the Renaissance, there is no doubt that it is in this century that the conditions are being met which make possible the frank and more generalized penetration of the errors of the New Age.
Literary penetration
In 1976 the bestseller “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach comes out, a publication that is dictated by a spirit. This was the launch of literature “channeled” by spirits. This apparently innocuous and idealistic tale carried the seed of the New Age. 25 million copies were sold in a short time.
Later comes “The Teachings of Don Juan” by Carlos Castaneda, the greatest exponent of sorcery.
Nowadays New Age literature is excessive; by 1991, in the U.S.A. alone, there were 2,500 specialized bookstores, not counting the New Age sections in all the bookstores, with 25,000 titles in circulation and growing dizzyingly, this line becoming a source of “great profits”, according to a report by the newspaper “Jornal do Brasil” in January 1995.
Audiovisual penetration
The following influences are evident in films, videos, video games, music, and also in books and magazines: a taste for terror, for the imaginary and fanciful, for the cosmic-magical, the ugly and monstrous, extra-sensory experiences, parapsychological powers such as telepathy, communication with spirits through games like the Ouija; journeys to the beyond, talismans, witchcraft, sorcery, etc. … and even the expressly satanic. Satanic films abound and are frequently broadcast on television.
Penetration through symbols
Satanic symbolism can be seen abundantly in newspapers, magazines, the arts, advertising, TV, cinema, clothing, etc.
Penetration in music
The so-called “New Age Music”, with the repetition of sounds in alternating sequences, is made to create atmospheres that lead the listener into a state of relaxation that favors the alteration of the states of consciousness.
‘New age’ music is so called because it draws inspiration from certain themes of great interest to the New Age: nature, the religions of ancient peoples, Eastern cultures, etc.… It is usually instrumental music, mixed with natural sounds, sometimes very repetitive, at other times without any melody at all
‘New age’ music is like any other music: a combination of sounds more or less pleasant to the ear. What could make it ‘bad’ would be some harmful content (the lyrics) or some irresponsible use of the music (e.g. to help induce an altered state of consciousness; to provoke negative feelings, etc.).
Drugs
In the New Age, drugs are used, above all, as a means to attain, through the alteration of the states of consciousness and the manipulation of the nervous system, supposed divinizing experiences.
Progressive discrediting of morality and the law of God
This is a form of penetration evident in all sectors of society, through the media, both in fiction programs (novels, films) and in non-fiction ones (opinion programs, scientific programs, etc.).
The ideology of the New Age and the façades with which it presents itself
Apparent acceptance of all religions: it does not go against any, but neither does it accept any that is not among the pagan ones: Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen, Taoism. It goes about introducing pagan beliefs (for example, reincarnation). In this way, as Christians and especially Catholics go about “annexing” these false doctrines and beliefs to our faith, we end up losing the true Faith. Thus, once the Christian Faith is weakened and destroyed, one of the ends of the New Age is achieved: to integrate all religions into a single one.
Search for health: A typical case is that of healings by “universal energy”; also “Transcendental Meditation”, to achieve emotional and psychic balance.
Search for Environmentalism: True environmentalism seeks to conserve the planet and to respect all forms of life, especially human life, which has a value far superior to all the rest, since man was made ‘in the image and likeness of God’. The exaggerated environmentalism of the New Age says that man is worth the same as a whale, a mountain, or a tree. It goes so far as to regard man as the planet’s worst enemy instead of seeing him as its guardian and its master.
Use of Christian language and terms to deceive and confuse Christians. They may declare themselves Rosicrucians, promoters of metaphysics, and simultaneously use passages of the Bible, Christian terminology, and even mention activities of the Church.
Giving a scientific appearance to the occultist: For example, Parapsychology as a science to study occult phenomena. Another example: Hindu spiritualism turned into an apparent science as a relaxation technique in “Transcendental Meditation”.
Pillars that sustain the New Age
The best way to decipher the New Age is by studying the ideology that sustains it. Thus we see that, faced with the difficulty of breaking it down, of defining it — since it gathers by sum or confusion old and new heresies and philosophies — by reviewing these heresies present throughout the history of the Church, we can realize how the New Age is formed. It is interesting to observe that they are all interconnected with one another and support one another.
Spiritism: We have already seen how the New Age comes principally from spiritism, that is, from communication with evil spirits and from the instructions received from them. It is not made up of mere discoveries made by men. WARNING!!! They are dictations and pronouncements coming from the devil.
The New Age comes from Spiritism but also includes and fosters it.
Spiritism, now called “channeling” and even “spiritualism”, is the practice of contacting evil spirits, that is, fallen angels and/or condemned souls.
It is believed — erroneously — that Spiritism is the practice of contacting good and harmless spirits. But… where do these spirits come from?
Spiritist activities are expressly forbidden in the Bible (Deuteronomy 18:9-12) “When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God shall give thee, beware lest thou have a mind to imitate the abominations of those nations. Neither let there be found among you any one that shall expiate his son or daughter, making them to pass through the fire: or that consulteth soothsayers, or observeth dreams and omens, neither let there be any wizard, nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead. For the Lord abhorreth all these things, and for these abominations he will destroy them at thy coming.”
It can be concluded, then, that Spiritism is the practice of contacting evil spirits: fallen angels (demons) and condemned souls.
What happens is that the dictations of the evil spirits appear to be enlightened teachings, because the fallen angels and their henchmen are deceivers just like the chief of the demons: the ancient serpent.
They use psychological principles and spiritual language in order to deceive better: “If you take of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall be as God” was the deception of the Serpent to Adam and Eve. And today Satan continues deceiving us with the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”: they shall know as god — they shall be as god — they shall have knowledge as god… they shall heal as god — they shall work miracles as god…
Pantheism: Everything is God. Man is part of God. God and the world are — in the last instance — identical. God is the energy of the universe. God is not a being with personality, He is not a personal God, He is not a God-Person:
If everything is god, I too am god.
The gurus maintain that they are gods.
God includes everything, both Good and Evil.
Monism: Everything is one, everything is one and the same thing. It is related to Pantheism in that there exists no final distinction between God and man, between the Creator and creation.
Syncretism: Equalization of all religions. It claims that all religions can be a single one:
· The Bible is one more among many “sacred” books.
· Jesus is one more “prophet”, put on the same level as Buddha, Mohammed, or Lao Tzu.
Gnosticism or Theosophy: A heresy of the first century, which has persisted and reappears strongly in our days, forming part of what today is the New Age.
It is a set of secret teachings and practices, by means of which the person claims to arrive at the knowledge of the very essence of the divinity, knowledge that is sought to be attained through “magical” and occult practices.
Moral relativism: Denial of the premises on which the moral law rests, going so far as to affirm that God includes both good and evil. There is no difference between good and evil, between vice and virtue. Everything depends on the opinion of each person. Whatever pleases each one is good.
· If the person accepts his own goodness, everything he does is good, even if it is bad.
Practical relativism and subjectivism: Relativism, which is the denial of reality (everything is appearance or an impression of reality), is broadened in the New Age by joining with Subjectivism. Thus it is proposed: do you believe your own reality? There is no one truth; each one has his own. Hence the great boom of the fanciful and the imaginary.
Example: In the book “Out on a Limb”, by Shirley MacLaine, a most important exponent of the New Age and one of its most prominent priestesses, she writes that while taking a hot bath she came to believe”. “Little by little I became water… I felt an inner connection of my breathing with the pulse of the energy around me. In fact, I was the air, the water, the darkness, the walls, the foam, the wet rocks submerged in the water, and even the sound of the river that ran outside”. (!!!)
MacLaine, who tried with her chant (“I am god, I am god, I am god”) to apply Pantheism (everything is god… I am god), in this one tries to apply Monism (everything is one, everything is the same thing), through subjectivism.
Moreover, this type of such unhealthy practices can lead to serious depressive situations. Such is the tactic of the Devil: to lift one up, to give one a series of powers or to make one believe that one has them, in order then to sink one irremediably into the abyss.
Esotericism and Occultism: A set of hidden or secret practices by means of which one seeks to attain the divinization of oneself.
Idolatry: Idolatry has been making its way into Venezuela and also into other countries, in various ways; among others, by way of healings by contact through the so-called “universal energy”.
Quietism: The search for an extreme spiritual passivity that tends toward the destruction of the human being through a supposed absorption into the divinity. It is the root of Buddhism, whose ideal is the state of “nirvana”, in which man no longer has desire, nor passion, nor the “illusion” of the outer world.
Reincarnation: is the belief in a chain of returns to this life under different bodily form. If it were true, my freedom would be useless and my decisions, struggles, efforts, sacrifices, and sufferings in life would have no value, since in the end I would have to do everything all over again and again. If reincarnation were true, the passion and death of Christ would have no meaning and his resurrection would not assure us of redemption. The resurrection is the definitive transformation of the human being and the entrance into eternity. One dies only once, and death is followed by resurrection and judgment. As Saint Paul says: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Cor 15:19)
Nevertheless, apart from the so-called “reincarnation” being something unfitting and negative, and apart from being expressly denied in the Bible (“…it is appointed unto men once to die” (Heb 9:27)), it contradicts basic truths of our Christian faith and one could say that it ends up denying that whole faith. Let us analyze only two of these truths:
Jesus Christ Savior and Redeemer: Only God can save (Is 43:3 and 12:2). Only the Son of God made Man saves and redeems us (Lk 19:12 – Jn 10:19 – Rom 5:12-19). In the theory of the New Age, the man who believes he is going to reincarnate claims to redeem himself, thus denying the only possible salvation: the one that Jesus Christ, Savior and Redeemer of all human beings and of each human being in particular, came to bring us (Lk 1:31 – Mt 1:21).
The Resurrection: Just as Jesus Christ has already risen, we too shall rise to live eternally (Jn 6:40), though not without first passing through the Judgment.
That is our hope; to know that we shall rise in glorious body and soul as Jesus Christ has already risen, to enjoy the Heaven that has been promised to us, that place inexplicable in human terms.
Apart from this hope of our future immortality in glorious body and soul, raised by Jesus Christ, being a truth of our Christian faith, is it not also a hope much more desirable than the vain illusion of dying in order to be “born” again inside a body that is not mine?
Yoga: Yoga is, in its essence, a spiritual and bodily exercise born of Hindu spirituality. The postures and exercises, although presented as a mere method, are inseparable from their proper meaning in the context of Hinduism. Yoga is an introduction to a religious tradition very foreign to Christianity. The word ‘yoga’ means ‘union’. We would have to ask ourselves: union with what?
Buddhism: It is a new form of Eastern pagan religiosity coming from Hinduism, for according to the legend, Buddha, before attaining enlightenment, was a wandering Hindu monk.
Characteristic of Buddhism is the reincarnationist theory that existence is a continuous cycle of death and reincarnation and that, as long as the person remains in that cycle, he cannot free himself from suffering, for which one must seek the state of total happiness and peace (nirvana).
Taoism/Zen: Zen is a form of Buddhism, whose goal is to reach a state of consciousness in which “everything is one” (Monism). A Zen practitioner says: “Everything is one, one is nothing, everything is nothing…”
Materialism and Hedonism: Although the goals and methods of the New Age appear to be very spiritualist, the underlying motive is eminently materialist (not of God) and hedonist (the search for pleasure), for it is held that man’s supreme goal is personal satisfaction and success.
Integrationism or Holism: “Holos”, from the Greek “whole”. Everything is interconnected. All things are interdependent and must be considered “integrally” or “holistically”.
Other manifestations and methods of the New Age
Mental Power – Metaphysics:
In this manifestation of the New Age there is a rather wide range that goes from Mind Control and Sophrology to the development of “mental powers”, passing through the “Metaphysics” of the Venezuelan Conny Méndez, which has nothing to do with that branch of Philosophy called Metaphysics, which studies the science or nature of things.
In Silva Mind Control and in some courses of “Sophrology”, for example, there are things taught that are innocuous and at the same time useful, such as mnemonic rules to increase memory capacity, exercises to increase intelligence or to facilitate learning. The problem is that these courses do not stop there, but claim to develop other faculties, such as, for example, telepathy.
In the pro-New Age book entitled “New Age” (Eileen Campbell and J.H. Brennan), which claims to be a guide manual for everything concerning the coming “Age of Aquarius”, this is said of Silva Mind Control: “its system… bears similarities to some esoteric techniques… but they are presented naturally, in a non-mystical manner, which earns them great consideration on the part of the public”.
It is the same deception of “Transcendental Meditation” and of the Healing Courses by the so-called “Universal Energy”: to present an esoteric or pagan religious method disguised as scientific so that it will gain acceptance.
As for “Mental Power” properly speaking, it claims to be a faculty of the human mind to develop in man the possibility of achieving what he longs for merely by desiring it, resolving upon it, and decreeing it. Techniques developed expressly for this are used, with the danger that man returns to caress his most ancient desire (to have powers), falling into the same temptation of Adam and Eve (to be as gods).
When the idea is promoted that we are trying to develop those powers that we supposedly have within, a gift of God, which is the will endowed with freedom, is being confused with a certain “power” that we really do not have within, but which is a deception of the Devil.
Thus, Satan tempts man, seeking to make of him a self-sufficient and powerful being, among other things, through techniques for developing supposed “mental powers”, practices conducive to confusing man and to trying to lead him to “be as god”.
The man who yields to this temptation of acquiring “power” or “powers” through courses and techniques, thus achieving whatever he desires, may come to believe that he has no limits. Man in that attitude — may gradually forget that he is a creature dependent on God, his Father and Creator, and that his path on earth is to seek the Will of God for himself, to discover the desires of God for his existence, especially through prayer, so as to reach his final goal: the Heaven promised by our Father God.
This attitude of dependence on God and of the search for His Will, essential in the spiritual life of the Christian, is very different from what Satan proposes to him through those supposed “powers” of the mind: to seek his own desires, to seek what he believes he deserves, to resolve upon it and decree it.
Apart from all these considerations, another grave risk is run with the use of that supposed “mental power”: to succumb to the temptation of claiming to dominate the freedom of action of others. And this is actually attempted!
Healings by contact through the “Universal Energy”. This is a movement with Eastern pagan roots, spread in some countries of the world, which holds that persons trained in this “method” of healing can effect healings in the following way: certain techniques are given to absorb an “energy” (the one that, according to the ideology of the New Age, vibrates in the whole universe) and to stimulate certain centers of energy that exist in the human body.
What is KUNDALINI YOGA? It is important to understand this technique of Kundalini Yoga, for although it is not mentioned as such in the various courses that have emerged framed within the New Age, but rather is taught without naming it, it is the foundation of many of the theories and techniques that are invading us.
It is the Yoga of “salvation through the serpent”. Hinduism teaches that at the base of the spinal column there is a triangle where the “Kundalini Shakti” (Power of the Serpent) reposes, which is usually asleep, but which, when it is awakened, flows through the spine up to the head, passing through six centers of energy called “chakras”. While it passes through each “chakra”, one supposedly receives a psychic experience and one of powers. When one reaches the upper “chakra”, one supposedly has the “power to work miracles”.
It is well to add that in reality all the Yoga exercises are based on trying to awaken Kundalini, which is said to be the coiled or dormant serpent at the base of the spine, and it is the Serpent that goes about awakening the “chakras” and the power that is in each of those “centers of energy”, thus attaining the enlightenment of the subject at the last “chakra”. Kundalini, according to Hinduism, is the “Shakti”, the Universal Power.
Was this not what the “Serpent” sold to Adam and Eve? The practice of this pagan technique is also dangerous: “When that fire rises too quickly along the spinal column, the subject can go mad …”
“When this fire rises too easily one runs the risk of being possessed by another spirit!!”
Astrology: It is a pseudo-science that claims to decipher the determining influence that the stars supposedly have over human beings.
Astrology is forbidden in the Bible (Deut 18:10). Moreover, predictions based on astral influences deny the freedom of man and claim to limit the Providence of God, who is the only one who knows the future.
Divination: In this manifestation of the New Age there are now included Hindu forms such as the I Ching and the Tarot, as well as the Viking Runes.
Witchcraft – Sorcery – Fetishism – Santería, etc: Always present in Latin America and now revitalized and more widespread through the New Age.
Witchcraft and Sorcery include pagan rites to try to control the future and the lives of others, to take revenge on enemies or to protect oneself from spells, to intimidate people, to gain power over others, etc., and in this one can go so far as to inflict illnesses, physical danger, and, in general, very adverse circumstances for the victims. In those circles they speak of white magic, which is supposedly done to achieve a personal good, and of black magic, which is done to cause harm. Thus a spell is sometimes synonymous with harm. Nevertheless, this difference is merely formal, since although with so-called white magic a supposed good is pursued, the work or spell that is done can harm another. That is why it must be clear that all magic is evil and is equally condemned by God. “In the developed countries, Witchcraft is similar to that of the Latin American countries: an occultist practice in which magic is used to acquire knowledge and to have the power to control lives, destinies, and even the world. There is even a variant of the original Witchcraft that has flourished in the USA since the 70s, under the name of Wicca, which contemplates, besides the practices and beliefs of traditional Witchcraft, the promotion of mental powers (psychic powers) and the cult of a supposed “inner goddess”, whereby a kind of feminist pantheism is combined: the One and True God, distinct from the creature, is exchanged for a female deity with whom the human being would be fused.
Witchcraft is evil even though a supposed good is sought with it, and it harms the persons who make use of it and those against whom it is directed.”
Santería claims to feign a Catholic worship, but it is a hidden form of idolatry. Santería includes pagan rituals such as animal sacrifices, divinatory sessions, trances through possession by evil spirits, etc. “Santería, very widespread throughout Latin America, in the USA, and even in Europe, has equivalents with slight variants: Voodoo, Macumba, Shangó, all of which are derived from African tribal rites.
Santería arises when the black slaves coming from the “Yoruba” culture were transplanted to America, bringing with them their cults to the deities of African magic. Not wanting to submit to Christianity, they camouflaged their idols by looking among the Christian images and statues for some that could be adapted to their worship.
In reality the santeros continue doing the same as their Yoruba predecessors: feigning a Catholic worship, but in reality they are rendering cults to idols.
Communication with “angels”: The good angels, those who remained faithful to God, are purely spiritual creatures, immortal beings, who obey only the Divine Will, and their mission of being emissaries of God and carrying out only His orders we see in abundant examples in the Bible. (cf. Lk 1:26-37 – Mt 1:18-24 – Mt 2:13-15).
The Christian concept of what the Angels of God are and their functions is very different from what is sought to be fostered with the courses of communication with “angels”, which is the manifestation of a worldwide “angelological” movement clearly framed within the New Age.
According to this movement, the “angels” are “spheres of light”, “pure energy”, ready to make contact with us through special techniques, such as pagan meditations, repetition of “mantras” (given by said “angels”), opening of “chakras”, among others, in order to be able to enter into the “rate of angelic vibration”, etc., etc.
We Christians know that Satan and his demons continue to be “angels”: fallen angels, superior in intelligence and powers to us human beings, with a capacity for deception worthy of their cunning, with which they seek to deceive without rest (cf. Jn 8:44), disguising themselves as an “angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14).
Satanism: Worship of and consecrations to Satan himself. The purpose is usually to obtain power and riches, which Satan promises in order then to go about sinking the consecrated one.
Guruism and Eastern Spiritualism: In 1966 the Hindu Gurus agreed to export Eastern Paganism to the West and drew up the strategy to achieve it.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (Transcendental Meditation), for example, from that time on converted his movement called of “Spiritual Regeneration” into that of the “Science of Creative Intelligence”, and thus has sold “Transcendental Meditation” in the West as if it were not religious, but scientific. Nevertheless, the initiation ritual is openly pagan-idolatrous, for worship is rendered to a Hindu deity and the “mantra” that is given to the pupil is the name of one of those deities.
Illuminism and false mysticism: Use of occult techniques to arrive at self-divinization.
Psychological theories and techniques such as those of C.G. JUNG and others that promote the unlimited development of the potentialities of the human being.
Psychological techniques of occult origin: An important exponent of this manifestation of the New Age is the Enneagram, with which one claims to synthesize and analyze 9 types of personalities, through symbols coming from occultism.
Scientology-Dianetics: Adaptation of occultist techniques coming from Eastern Paganism to the West, especially promoted through courses in the business environment and in that of Catholic Pastoral work. They include “Erhard Seminar Training”, “Lifespring”, “Kino Learning Center”
Dianetics is arriving in many countries under that same name and claims to establish itself as a religion among businessmen. It uses ship cruises to promote its goals.
Extremist feminism: the New Age is “a fusion of three important tendencies: ecology, spirituality, and feminism”. This last aspect is preferred in the New Age in opposition to the masculine. Thus, for example, Ferguson says that: “Everywhere the Aquarian Conspiracy is under way, with its struggle in favor of holistic health, of creative science, and of transpersonal psychology, the female contingents are far superior to those found in the establishment”. “The power of women is a powder keg of our era. In the New Age one can find a series of feminist groups, from the most level-headed to the most extremist.
Author: Javier Farias
Source: Monografias.com
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