New Age – A Primer
What are the religious beliefs of the New Age Movement? John Ankerberg answers that question for us in his book, The Facts On The New Age Movement.
God – an impersonal, all-pervading energy.
The Holy Spirit – an energy that can be used creatively or psychically.
Jesus Christ – a New Age teacher and illustration of an enlightened individual who realized he was God. (New Agers like to say Jesus spent 18 years in India absorbing Hinduism and the teaching of Buddha)
Man – inwardly good and divine; thus he carries within himself all that he needs for time and eternity.
Salvation – development of psychic powers and higher consciousness. This is achieved by looking inside one’s self and practicing New Age techniques to finally attain awareness of personal divinity.
Sin – ignorance of personal divinity.
Death – the moment one hopes to experience a merging with God, the all-pervading energy of the universe. This only comes if personal transformation or enlightenment has been obtained.
Satan – normal consciousness—man existing in his state of unrealized potential.
Heaven – Hell – good or bad states of consciousness in this life.
“Death education.” “Magic circles.” “Sex education.” “Nuclear education.” “Health education.” “Values clarification.” “Drug prevention.” “Decision-making.” “Gifted and talented.”
Premise: I believe that many teachers are simply being used. They are value-less pawns being fed on faddish and devilish “educational” material. Ultimately, the children in their charge will suffer—perhaps physically, perhaps emotionally, and, worst of all, perhaps eternally.
Introduction
“The God of this age,” (2 Co 4:4) as St. Paul refers to Satan, can only deliver what is evil and eternally harmful to mankind because he is the “Father of lies.” (Jn 8:44)
America is very much in need of men like the children of Issachar. In 1 Chronicles 12:32 we are told of “men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do…”
Those who are discerning of the present times in America know that Satan has orchestrated a two-prong master plan whereby he is presently bringing much destruction to our country.
The first prong is “Humanism.” Humanism is the belief that man by reason, without reference to God or the supernatural, can satisfactorily explain and solve all of man’s questions and problems. Science is man’s savior and ultimately will meet all of man’s needs. This destructive heresy is being propagated among the masses through the schools and universities of our land. Dan Vander Lught and Kurt De Haan have summarized how humanism has paved the way for new age beliefs: “Humanism can be defined as the philosophy of life that assumes that God and the spirit world are myths, that the physical, material universe is all there is, and that mankind and the entire universe are the chance product of evolution. According to this view, mankind is merely a complicated machine, life is ultimately purposeless, and terms like right and wrong become relative. The insufficiency of this and other atheistic ideologies has been an important factor in the rise of New Age thinking. Although secular humanism and atheistic communism have been powerful forces in the 20th century, they have also helped to create a spiritual vacuum. By teaching that mankind is the product of chance evolution, they have convinced several generations to think of themselves as hopeless wanderers on a fearful voyage through an immense and indifferent universe.”
The second prong which may prove to be far more destructive is the “New Age” religion. The New Agers fill the void created by the religious humanists. The New Agers acknowledge that there is more to reality and truth than can be discovered by reason. They encourage their followers to contact the spirit world and through meditation to enter into the eternal oneness of the universe. Through religious mystical experiences all men can discover the divinity that lies within themselves. As each person comes to enlightenment there will be an increasing global unity of all religions and faiths that will bring peace to the world. The great potential of New Agers to have international influence can be attributed to the fact that its primary means of propagation is through the media and movie stars.
The high priestess who has popularized New Age beliefs in America is Shirley Maclaine. Her book Out on a Limb introduced millions to the world of mystical experiences. Entertainers like Helen Reddy, Marsha Mason, Lisa Bonet, Tina Turner and musician Paul Horn all promote New Age doctrines. Many others could be listed.
Marilyn Mcguire, Executive Director of the New Age Publishing and Retailing Alliance reports that there are some 2,500 occult bookstores in the U.S. and over 3,000 publishers of occult books and journals. New Age books are estimated to be $1 billion a year industry. Furthermore, new age teaching and beliefs are being taught through myriads of seminars that touch all areas of our lives – health, psychology, business, industry, government, science, etc. Even the yoga exercises that are taught to cope with stress are an entrance into the world of the New Age religion.
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” (1 Ti 4:1)
New Age Desired Effects
Marilyn Ferguson’s The Aquarian Conspiracy, sometimes referred to as the manifesto of the New Age, describes the movement as “a leaderless but powerful network working to bring about radical change in the United States.” The label “New Age” originated with the idea that as we enter the 21st century, we are leaving the “dark, violent” Piscean age and entering a new age – one Ferguson describes as a “millennium of love and light.” However, the proponents of this thought caution against viewing it as a future event. New Age prophet David Spangler writes, “I see the New Age as a metaphor for the expression of a transformative, creative spirit rather than as a future event.”
New Ager Jeremy Tarcher describes it as “a metaphor for a process of striving for personal growth through which millions of people are trying to become more fully awake to their inherent capacities.” In this context, the New Age is very much a part of our present.
Not only is it incorrect to describe it as a future age, but Erwin Lutzer and John DeVries, authors of Satan’s Evangelistic Strategy for this New Age, say the foundational premises of this movement are anything but “new.” The authors state, “Whatever we may say of the New Age Movement, it is certainly not new. Its basic beliefs were enunciated in Eden and have been a part of ancient paganism since the beginning of human existence.” The authors explain that the movement is based upon the four lies of the serpent: You will be like God; you surely shall not die; you will know good and evil: and your eyes will be opened.
Lutzer and DeVries further state that this new thought:
• is pantheistic in that it believes god is in everything and everything is god;
• promotes the process of continual evolution where there is no death, only change;
• adheres to the tenets of moral relativism where humans assert their divinity and mold their own truths;
• asserts that man can achieve higher levels of consciousness—the highest level allowing one to tap into the impersonal god force within him.
It is often described as mystical humanism because where secular humanism denies the existence of God, New Age thought says the impersonal god force is in everything, and therefore, man is god.
Marilyn Ferguson gives a whole spectrum of ways to rethink one’s fundamental understanding of reality:
1. Sensory isolation or overload
2. Biofeedback, a technique using devices that permit the individual to monitor and regulate his or her own brain waves.
3. Creative activities such as painting, sculpting.
4. Overwhelming aesthetic experience: music, theater, art.
5. Self-help groups such as AA or Overeaters Anonymous which stress “higher powers” that must be consulted.
6. Hypnosis and self-hypnosis.
7. All types of meditation: Zen, Tibetan Buddhist, chaotic, transcendental, esoteric Christian, cabalist, various types of yoga and others.
8. Consciousness-changing seminars such as Forum est, Lifespring and Silva Mind Control.
9. Consciousness-changing devices such as Zen koans (paradoxical sayings), Sufi stories, dervish dancing, shamanistic and magical rituals to change awareness, fantasy games such as Dungeons and Dragons.
10. Exploration into one’s dream life; interest in Jungian analysis.
11. Various therapies such as primal therapy, Gestalt, Arica and rebirthing.
12. Interest in martial arts: T’ai Chi Ch’uan, aikido, karate.
13. Body disciplines such as rolfing, bioenergetics, Feldendrais, applied kinesiology.
14. Feelings of self-transcendence and power experienced unexpectedly or in sports; Maslow’s peak experiences.
And what are the consequences sought by Satan?
Dehabilitation. Work production decreases; the ability to concentrate begins to wane. The long-term results of TM, for example, show a marked decrease in productivity by the fifth year.
Withdrawal. The person in contact with demonic powers begins to isolate himself from other persons. Rather than increasing the ability to love and reach out to others, he or she becomes more self-absorbed, seeking higher spiritual experiences. The end result is isolation, a preoccupation with the next spiritual high. Perhaps this is what hell is all about—the eternal isolation and absorption of self, which seems enjoyable for the moment.
Depression. Those who pursue spiritual experiences discover, just as alcoholics do, that the highs become fewer while the lows become deeper. More stimulation is constantly needed to keep the individual functional.
Destruction. The final state of all who surrender to demonic control, under the guise of self-sufficiency, is eternal hell prepared for the devil and his angels.
Block the Goals of New Age
The New Age god is an impersonal force or energy in the universe. God is all and all is god. The New Age teaching is nothing more than the pantheism of the Eastern religions adapted to American culture. Many “New Agers” dress the pantheistic belief in scriptural terms of the Bible to lead those who are already religious into New Age beliefs. For example: Psalm 46:10a says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” For a New Age guru this verse means that every person through inner meditation can discover the divine within himself and enter into the oneness of the universe. But the verse is talking about the creature (man) being still before his creator (God) to discover that God is far above his creation in majesty, power, and glory. Man doesn’t discover he is god through meditation, he discovers the transcendence of God. New Agers conveniently leave out the rest of the verse. God says, “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” This tactic of Scripture twisting is not a new approach. Satan used Scripture when trying to lead the Son of God into temptation. Satan transforms himself as an angel of light—“And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” (2 Co 11:14)
The New Ager will give lip affirmation that Jesus is the Christ. What they really mean is that Jesus was just a man who came to the point of enlightenment to discover the “christ consciousness”—the impersonal divine essence within himself. Jesus is the Christ to the extent that he realized his divine potential; but so can every individual! The New Ager rejects the notion that Jesus Christ is the unique Son of God.
The Bible instructs believers to test false teaching: “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 Jn 4:13) Jesus did not claim to be an enlightened individual who discovered the “christ consciousness” within; he claimed to be uniquely “the Christ” – the one and only Christ prophesied hundreds of times in the Old Testament.
Jesus Christ claimed to have power that no other man possessed. He claimed that he could forgive sins. Only God can forgive sins. Jesus Christ claimed to be God. He demonstrated his uniqueness as the Son of God by his miracle-working power. He was not a mere man like other men, he was God. He never made general claims about the divinity of all people, but singled himself out as the incarnation of God. Jesus Christ refuted the teaching of the New Ager that every man can discover God within himself. He claimed, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn 14:6) He is the only mediator between God and men. He is the only door to salvation. His name is the only name by which men can be saved.
Douglas Groothuis in his book Confronting the New Age has stated very well the issue of believing in Jesus Christ as the unique Son of God: “If Jesus thought he was uniquely God incarnate but he wasn’t, he was far less than ‘an enlightened master’ – he didn’t even know who he was! If he knew he was not uniquely God incarnate, but said he was, he was a flaming fraud, and in no sense was he an ‘enlightened master.’ Worse yet, he would have been a deceiver, leading a multitude astray. If he thought he was uniquely God incarnate and was as the record indicates—let us throw off this nonsense of placing him in the pantheistic pantheon. Let us worship and serve him instead.”
For the New Ager sin is the state of being ignorant of one’s perfection. Jesus Christ is not the Savior who through the cross made atonement for man’s sin. The New Ager believes that Jesus Christ revealed the way to higher consciousness. There is no need to be saved or forgiven, you only need to be instructed so that you come to realize your divinity within. According to the Bible, man is a sinner who has rebelled against his creator and he continually falls short of God’s holiness and righteousness. The wages of man’s sin is death—not just physical death, but also spiritual death. If a man dies without faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior, his soul will be eternally separated from God in hell. Furthermore, the Bible reveals that it is not the teachings of Christ that bring salvation, neither is it obtained by following Christ. Salvation is through the atoning blood of the crucified Christ. Man’s sins need to be forgiven! According to Hebrews 9:22 “…without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” of sins. Jesus Christ is the sacrificial lamb who through his death, burial and resurrection has made it possible for man to be reconciled who through his death, burial and resurrection has made it possible for man to be reconciled to God.
Evil and sin are just illusion to a New Ager and no personal God of judgment exists. He believes that men are purified through an endless series of reincarnations, attaining ever higher levels of consciousness. Life just goes on and on with no day of reckoning—no culmination of history.
The Bible records a totally different picture. All of history is moving toward a day of judgment. “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment…” (He 9:27).
Enrolling New Age at School
The commitment to abandon traditional subject matter for the more “admirable” task of shaping children’s values became readily apparent within our nation’s public schools more than two decades ago. It is no secret that this commitment resulted in many schools replacing instruction in the three Rs with subjects like “family life” and “death and dying.” These new courses provide the forum for assaulting traditional values and pushing children to seek their own, independent of any absolutes. Secular humanism claimed the public school classroom as the battleground for the war against absolutes, and in their diligent pursuit, classroom as the battleground for the war against absolutes, and in their diligent pursuit, they have won the hearts and minds of many American youth.
Since this successful onslaught by the humanists, the public schools have been viewed as a crucial vehicle for any “reform” movement. Recognizing this truth, the New Age Movement wasted no time in assailing public school children. Although New Age tenets are similar to those of secular humanism and are often recognized as merely more of the same, it is actually a very different movement and must be accepted as such.
The Lord warns of the consequence of abandoning his way: “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. 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 spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.” (Dt 18:9-12)
Just as secular humanism assaulted every aspect of our society, New Age thought is infiltrating each facet as well. One can observe it in the media, in literature, in churches, and even in politics with Senator Claiborne Pell’s unsuccessful attempts to establish a National Commission on Human Resource Development (i.e., commission to promote New Age thought). But the most conspicuous influence, without a doubt, is the invasion of our educational system.
It is in the pursuit of consciousness raising that individuals are often “hooked” on New Age philosophy. Meditation and other practices can bring a person into contact with the spirit world in a way that wasn’t bargained for. There is a great misunderstanding in the area of psychic phenomena, mystical experiences and the occult. Our society rejects the idea that there are demonic powers who purposely deceive people by masquerading as good.
People in the New Age have no idea that their spiritual practices may be involving them with demons. When Satan tempted Adam and Eve, he suggested they make their own decision without consulting God. To do this they had to learn to trust their own intuitions rather than God’s clear command. If they obeyed him, Satan promised that they would be enlightened to the point of being like God, “knowing good and evil.”
Satan’s ultimate plan for each soul is to encounter him and produce the thought that they have joined with the one true God. Take for example the story related by Tal Brooke in his book, Riders of the Cosmic Circuit. Carl was a parapsychologist (scientific study of the occult) who went to Princeton and Cambridge. Over a thirty year period of mystical and occult experiences, beginning as a teenager, he was finally possessed by an entity that called itself The Tortoise.
Carl believed the mystic revelations and altered states of consciousness he was receiving from this entity were God-manifestations. He had various trances. As a professor of parapsychology, groups of students began to follow him as their spiritual guru. For two years he concentrated on astral travel and far-memories of supposedly former lives.
But then something started to happen. It became more difficult to retrieve Carl to normal consciousness after these “spirit-raising sessions.” At one of the sessions the spiritual possession left Carl twitching erratically, beet-red, in a rage and muttering cryptic words about the “Enemy,” the Latter (those in Christ.) Finally Carl started putting out signals for help to those who might be able to exorcise him. “Carl, like many who had become possessed, in some strange way had been ‘marked’ by his supernatural observers even as a child. They had watched him and tried to seduce him experientially.” Carl was finally exorcised. I want to share some of the conversation that the exorcist had with The Tortoise during the exorcism.
“The astral travels of Carl? Did you engineer that?”
“Yes.”
“How did you get him into such delusion?”
“Once spirit is confused with psyche, we can let anybody see, hear, taste, know, desire the impossible. He was ours. He is ours. He is of the kingdom.”
Carl is not moving, but his entire body lies once again in the crushed position.
“When did you start on Carl?”
“In his youth.”
“Why did you lead Carl in this way?”
“Because he would lead others.”
“Why lead others in this way?”
“Because then they belong to the kingdom.”
“Why belong to the kingdom?” the exorcist probed.
“Why…Why…you stand there with your scorched testicles, your smelly clothes, your yellowing teeth, your stinking guts, and you ask why? Why? Why?” It raves. “Why? Because we hate the Latter. We hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. We hate those stained with his blood. We hate and despise those that follow him. We want to divert all from him and we want all in the kingdom where he cannot reach them. Where they cannot go with him. And we want you…” (underline mine)
Carl was finally exorcised of the evil spirit in the name of Jesus Christ and made a full apology and repentance to his former students. He wrote: “Solemnly and of my own free will, I wish to acknowledge that knowingly and freely I entered into possession by an evil spirit. And, although that spirit came to me under the guise of saving me, perfecting me, helping me to help others, I knew all along it was evil…I never enjoyed astral-body-travel, only the illusion of it.”
Marilyn Ferguson states, “Of the Aquarian Conspirators surveyed, more were involved in education than in any other single category of work. They were teachers, administrators, policy-makers, educational psychologists.” Ferguson also states that “subtle forces are at work, factors you are not likely to see in banner headlines…tens of thousands of classroom teachers, educational consultants and psychologists, counselors, administrators, researchers, and faculty members in colleges of education have been among the millions engaged in personal transformation.”
Meditation
One program, published by American Guidance Service of St. Paul, Minnesota, is certainly an example of the conspirators’ work. According to Focus on the Family’s Citizen, this program, “Developing Understanding of Self & Others” (DUSO) has been used in some New Mexico public schools to teach meditation. Although some would argue the merits of meditation (e.g., relaxation, thoughtful introspection), it must be recognized that certain meditation disciplines can induce altered states of consciousness and allow the disassociation of the mind from reality. Furthermore, meditation that encourages the use of a mantra such as “I am, I am…” is nothing short of blasphemous.
One of the greatest ploys of Satan is to take a truth of Scripture and distort it, twist it, or pervert it so that a man is led away from the truth about God rather than led into the truth about God. This is especially true in the New Ager’s view of meditation. The Bible teaches that a person will be successful in all that he does if he meditates on God’s Word day and night.
Meditation on God’s Word then is the key to victory in the Christian life and discovering the abundant life through Christ.
What, then, is the danger of New Age meditation? The key difference is the object of the meditation. The Christian meditates on something—the Bible, God’s Word; the New Ager meditates on nothing. The goal of the New Ager is to discover his inner self. The goal of the Christian is to know God through his Word. Thoughts that meet certain requirements: “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Ph 4:8) We are further warned that in no way should we seek knowledge or information through mediums. This is perhaps the most dangerous of New Age meditation techniques that puts the New Ager in touch with the realm and power of demonic spirits. Groothuis explains the danger in this area. “In New Age spirituality, inward meditation replaces prayer. The goal is really monologue—discovery of the Deep Self of Higher Self—not dialogue, the interpersonal communication between conscious, interested beings. The New Age interest in channeling may stem from a spiritual dissatisfaction with the impersonal nature of their world view. New Agers may talk about God, but they can’t talk to God—or if they do, there’s no one there to listen, let alone answer. Meditation and other ‘psychotechnologies’ may offer powerful experiences—just as getting shocked is quite personal!—without an experience of a personal God. Yet channeling (mediumship) offers personal contact with some very personable beings.”
The DUSO program also contains 42 guided imagery lessons—a technique that sounds innocent enough, but one that can be very destructive. In fact, one fantasy journey recommended by transpersonal educator Jean Porter in the book Transpersonal Education: A curriculum for Feeling and Being is designed to allow students to discover a spirit guide. Porter writes, “This spirit guide, a nonphysical part of yourself but not a product of your imagination, is perceived by your receptive visualization as a form to which you can relate as you would to a friend. It is the expression of your higher consciousness, perceived as a form by the sub-conscious, psychic mind.” The articles within this book also recommend meditation and centering, altered states of consciousness, dreams, and self-hypnosis. One article states, “Self-hypnosis deserves attention as a tool for accelerating learning as well as a method of gaining voluntary control over physiological functions.”
Parents of elementary school children in Jenks, Oklahoma, were shocked when they discovered the use of a curriculum labeled Workshop Way that promotes New Age thought and techniques. At first glance, the program manuals read like a psychology manual gone awry.
Upon closer examination, the dangers contained within this “psycho-babble” become all too evident.
The curriculum’s author promotes the attainment of higher levels of consciousness and the “growing of new value systems while shedding the old values.” One manual states, “They [the students] have the right to be led to that degree of intensity on one’s level of consciousness which allows the ‘right conditions’ to happen to create the force to move growth points.”
An activity called the “Power Test” requires students to stare at the second hand of the clock for 60 seconds. While this exercise may seem harmless and is touted as a break for the students, one concerned parent’s research discovered that similar techniques are used in meditation and mind control. The Psychology of Meditation states that meditation is an exercise of attention. It involves the actions of “just staring”…and freedom from thoughts.
No Moms and Dads
The program’s blatant discouragement of parental participation sends up another red flare. One manual states, “Workshop Way does not want the schools to get the parents to help change the behavior of their children. Teachers have the way in following the strategies, policies, and principles of teaching by way of the philosophy and psychology of the system—to change any kind of defective human behavior in their students. Getting parents to help can place obstacles in our way of changing behavior.” This type of thinking, coupled with discouraging children to take their work home, provokes one to wonder about this program. What is the curriculum’s author trying to hide?
With school children, the link that must be loosened or broken is the child’s link to his or her parents. In innumerable ways, some very subtle, these programs undermine, ridicule or otherwise sidetrack parents as irrelevant. Sometimes children are explicitly told not to tell anyone—including their parents—what is said in the “magic circle,” as these classroom brainwashing sessions are often called.
Sex-Ed
The sex-ed program in Pierre, SD, offered a skit to give examples of where a child could go in order to find safety and solace in case of improper sexual advances. In the skit, the mother of an early teenage girl was made to appear inept with her dumb answer, “Gee, honey, I wish I knew what to tell you.” The suggested refuge? Teachers and counselors (and police and ministers were mentioned somewhere in the shuffle).
Surely, you Ann Landers readers have read recently that because of the warning of “bad touching” injected into the minds of young children (with poor teaching techniques or no Christian environmental backdrop for understanding) some children misunderstand the warmth and love of a mom, dad, or a grandparent.
When the subject is sex, breaking down inhibitions is the first order of business. For example, a parent who visited a fifth grade class in Oregon reported: “I was present when a plastic model of female genitalia with a tampon inserted was passed around to the boys so they might understand how tampons fit.”
How important was such information to 11-year-old boys? Not very. But the real question is: How important is it to brain-washers to break down inhibitions? It is crucial.
That is why so-called “sex education” courses go on for years in some schools. It doesn’t take that long to convey the facts of life. But it does take that long to relentlessly undermine what the children have been taught at home.
In Idaho? (I forgot the exact state) the federal dollars invested in Planned Parenthood have been spent on “cutesy” Valentine cards aimed at 3rd through 5th graders. The outside of the card is the traditional “I love you” heart, while inside the children could pre-order by favorite color—a condom. You tell me what the real message is!
Breaking down inhibitions takes many forms. Movies showing close-ups of childbirth have been shown in elementary school (even though one child fainted in a North Carolina classroom). Movies showing sex—all kinds of sex—have been shown in high schools. Questionnaires about the students’ own sex lives have been passed out in high school.
One girl, who was reluctant to use the word “penis,” was forced to say it loudly—10 times—in class.
One of my daughters girlfriends, Tiffany, tells of her Sociology class instructor “almost every day” bringing the subject of oral sex into the instruction. My daughter, Kim, enrolled in a law class which the teacher uses as a forum to regurgitate all the details of criminal court cases, with much time devoted to rape cases.
Mind Molding
Another program, Tactics for Thinking, employs mind control techniques to negate the brain’s reasoning ability so that it is governed by emotions and feelings. The author refers to this technique as attention control or visualization, but references authors in the manuals that are more honest about the intentions of these exercises. The referenced authors explain the technique as laying bare the subconscious mind, to be fed without knowledge or consent of the conscious mind.
One book titled Imagery in Education sounds the alarm on the techniques of visualization and guided imagery. It states: “Teachers (who use VGI—Visualization and Guided Imagery) made comments such as ‘The VGI activities tap spiritual depths in the kids.’ ‘They are becoming more interested in future capabilities such as out-of-body, ESP, and psychic kinds of phenomena.’” And for many students who have had their curiosity aroused, a jaunt to their school library will reveal books about ESP and psychic phenomena. One parent in Maryland visited her child’s school library only to discover books of this nature with one even encouraging children to go home and try ESP with their Ouija board.
The Whole Mind Learning Project espouses the use of guided imagery and visualization in teaching course content. In the teacher’s manual of this program, Anne Rae Sanderson of Hancock Elementary School outlines the typical first grader’s day under the Whole Mind Learning system. Visualization and imagery—techniques thought to manipulate reality through the mind’s perceptual powers—are employed in the instruction of every subject. Imagine the devastating consequences for a child who spends his entire day tapping into his “inner self” or “higher consciousness” when confronting new challenges. Where would God fit into this child’s perception of power?
This is part of a whole nationwide movement. Your local high school may have it even if the parents don’t know about it. Emotional manipulation of children goes on in public schools across the country—behind the backs of parents.
The Infection Spreads
In the introduction to his last sermon preached at Eisleben on February 14, 1546, Luther makes these comments which tie in with man’s basic sinful bent to save himself by his own wisdom:
No poorer, more lowly and despised pupil on earth than God! He must be everybody’s Disciple. Everybody wants to be His schoolmaster and teacher.
This you see in all heretics from the beginning of the world. Arius, Pelagius and now, in our times, the Anabaptists, the Sacramentarians, and all enthusiasts and disturbers are not satisfied with what God has made and ordained. They cannot let remain as He has instituted it but imagine that they must produce something too in order to be better than other people and to be able to boast: This is what I have done; what God has done and established is too ordinary and trifling, nay, too childish and foolish; I must add something to it. Such is the nature of this shameful wisdom on earth, especially in the Christian Church, in which one Bishop and preacher hacks and bites the other, and one hinders and hampers the other. This has always been experienced in the realm of the church; and it has done much harm.
These are the genuine Sir Wiseacres, of whom Christ speaks here (Matt. 11:25). They want to bridle the tail of the horse and do not want to stay on the path God Himself has prepared for them. They must forever have and do something extraordinary so that people later say: Why, our pastor or preacher amounts to nothing: there is a real man; he will do things.
A pretty situation, when the egg wants to be wiser than the hen; a fine mastery when youngsters want to rule their father and mother, and fools and dolts the wise! See, this is the reason why Scripture everywhere condemns the prudent and the wise.
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Ti 4:3,4)
One mother who visited a classroom in a little town in Colorado found the students seated in a circle (very common in these programs) and one little girl crying. It was a discussion group and the question of the day was: “Who died last in your family?” The little girl’s grandfather had died.
“Death education” starts early in some schools. In one Florida county, first graders were given an assignment to make their own coffins out of shoe boxes. In a Massachusetts school, eighth graders had an assignment to write a suicide note.
A very common practice is to assign students to make choices such as who is to die in a situation where everyone cannot be saved—in an overloaded lifeboat, for example. Some schools require students to decide which member of their own family must die, when the whole family cannot be saved.
Some children have emotional reactions to school programs that constantly harp on death. Some cry in class, some have trouble getting to sleep at night, or have bad dreams. Others have committed suicide—and though their parents have blamed “death education” programs, there is no way to prove it in court.
“Death education” is only the tip of the iceberg. There is a whole spectrum of courses and programs designed to brainwash children into rejecting the values, beliefs, and ways of life taught them by the parents—and to accept the latest fad thinking on subjects ranging from death to sex to social philosophies in general.
Then there are the “peace studies” or “nuclear education” programs where the horrors of war are presented so graphically and so relentlessly that many children are reduced to tears. One teacher told her seventh-grade students that “no one in this class will be alive in the year 2000.” (Thank God that Schwartzkopf had his feet on the ground!)
Whatever the particular subject matter, these programs follow standard brainwashing techniques of putting the victims under emotional stress, breaking down their inhibitions and destroying their links to others on the outside.
Conclusion: Deception
The reason new age teaching appeals to so many is because you can hold to any morality you desire. “Create your own reality” is an often repeated slogan in new age circles. There is no absolute objective moral law for the new ager. Rather, we all have different ways to realize our divine potential. Since “all is one” (monism), we can’t divide up life into categories of right and wrong or good and evil. A supposed new age spirit guide named Ramtha teaches that God—of which we are all a part—is neither good or bad. He doesn’t judge, no man is declared to be a sinner, and therefore no man needs to be forgiven. He says, “Every vile and wretched thing you do broadens your understanding…If you want to do any one thing regardless of what it is, it would not be wise to go against that feeling; for there is an experience awaiting you and a grand adventure that will make your life sweeter.” In her best seller Dancing in the Light, Shirley Maclaine reports what her spirit guide “higher self” told her: “Until mankind realizes that there is in truth, no good and there is in truth, no evil, there will be no peace.” God warns of false religious teachers who will encourage loose and sinful living:
But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey—a beast without speech—who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in terror. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.” (2 Pe 2)
These programs are but a sampling of those being used in our nation’s educational institutions. Thousands of children spend their classroom time meditating, taking part in guided fantasies, participating in yoga classes, learning about psychic phenomena, analyzing their dreams, and experimenting with ESP. It may seem impossible that our nation’s classrooms have become forums for such dangerous experimentation, but it is the unfortunate truth.
Parents must look into what is being forced upon their vulnerable children. Check curriculum, talk to guidance counselors, discuss the day’s activities with your child, and make unexpected visits to the classroom. Become an informed obstacle to those who desire to change your child’s values and behavior. Ignorance and apathy are inexcusable. The time has come to put a stop to classroom experimentation that relegates our children to the pathetic and injurious role of New Age guinea pigs.
Many will embrace new age teaching because it demands no change of their life, but many will reject the teachings of Christianity because it demands repentance of sin and a change of life. People don’t reject the teachings of the Bible because of an intellectual problem, they reject it because of moral problems. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
What all these programs have in common is that zealots are out to promote their own fads or causes to a captive audience of vulnerable children. The emotional well-being of these children is not their problem.
How do they get away with it? Deception is crucial. These programs are called by such nice-sounding names as “health education;” “values clarification,” “drug prevention,” “decision-making” or even “gifted and talented” programs.
What parents would refuse permission for their children to get the benefits of things with such nice names as these?
Back in 1984, the U. S. Department of Education held hearings in various parts of the country on such brain-washing practices. Although the government never published these hearings, Phyllis Schlafly collected much of the testimony in a book called Child Abuse in the Classroom. Thomas Sowell says that it should be required reading for every parent.
Bibliography
Adler. “Drawing Down The Moon.”
Ankerberg, John. “The Facts On The New Age Movement.” Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishing, 1988.
Brook, Tal. “Riders Of The Cosmic Circuit.” Batavia, Illinois: Lion Publishing Corp., 1986.
Cook, Randy L., Jr. “New Age.” The Cornerstone. Greenwich, New Jersey: Greenwich Baptist Church.
Ferguson, Marilyn. “The Aquarian Conspiracy.” Los Angeles, California: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1980.
Groothuis, Douglas R. “Unmasking The New Age.” Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1986.
Lutzer, Erwin W. and DeVries, John F. “Satan’s ‘Evangelistic’ Strategy For This New Age.” Wheaton, Illinois: Victor Books, 1989.
Mortim, Malachi. “Hostage To The Devil.” Bantam Books, 1976.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. “Luther’s Works.” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Fortress Press, 1969.
Persons, Kimberly. School Experiences.
Sowell, Thomas. “Schools Brainwashing Our Children.”
Tiffany. School Experience.
__________.“New Age” Invades Children’s Minds in Public Schools. Concerned Women. October 1989.
John Ankerberg, The Facts On The New Age Movement, (Harvest House Publishers, Eugene Oregon, 1988) p. 20.
Randy L. Cook, Jr., “New Age,” Cornerstone, p. 2.
Ibid.
Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy, (Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1980) p. 23.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 32.
Ibid., p. 33.
Erwin W. Lutzer and John F. DeVries, Satan’s “Evangelistic” Strategy For This New Age, (Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1989) p. 62.
Ibid., p. 111.
Adler, Drawing the Moon, p. 149.
Lutzer and DeVries, op. cit., p. 111.
Mt 16:16-17. Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”
1 Ti 2:5. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Jn 10:9. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture.
Ac 4:12. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
Douglas R. Groothuis, Unmasking the New Age, (Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of the United States, 1986) p. 42.
Ro 3:23. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
He 9:27. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.
Mt 7:21-23. Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?” Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”
2 Th 1:8,9. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.
1 Pe 1:18, 19. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
Jn 1:29. The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
1 Co 15:1-3. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
2 Co 5:15-21. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Tal Brook, Riders of the Cosmic Circuit, (Lion Publishing Corporation, Batavia, Illinois, 1986) p. 181.
Ibid., pp. 183-184.
Malachi Mortin, Hostage to the Devil, (Bantam, 1976) p. 485.
Ferguson, op. cit., p. ?.
Ibid., p. ?.
Joshua 1:8. Do not let this Book of Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Groothuis, op. cit., p. ?.
As quoted in “New Age’ Invades Children’s Minds in Public Schools,” Concerned Women, p. 5.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Tiffany, 11th Grade, Leesburg High School.
Kim Persons, 12th Grade, Leesburg High School. “New Age” Invades Children’s Minds in Public Schools, op. cit., p. 5.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Jaroslav Pelikan, Luther’s Works, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969) p. 1254.
Thomas Sowell, “Schools Brainwashing Our Children”
Ibid.
Kim Persons, 9th Grade, Pierre Junior High School.
Cook, op. cit., p. 4.
Ibid.