Harvard University has long been among the leaders in promoting the occult through psychic research. One of its projects involved experimentation with Buddhist monks’ psychic powers. The results have been convincing. For example, a Harvard film crew, dressed for the Arctic, set out in zero-degree-Fahrenheit weather from a 17,000-foot-elevation monastery, accompanying ten monks wearing only sandals and light cotton wraparound cloths. At 19,000 feet, on a rocky cliffside ledge, "the monks took off their sandals and squatted down on their haunches... leaned forward, put their heads on the ground, and draped the light cotton wrappings over their bodies." Harvard professor Herbert Benson reported:

Paramahansa Yogananda attempted to explain such amazing abilities of certain monks: "Lord Krishna pointed out the holy science by which the yogi may master his body and convert it, at will, into pure energy. The possibility of this yogic feat is not beyond the theoretical comprehension of modern scientists, pioneers in an atomic age. All matter has been proved to be reducible to energy."2

In fact, there is no evidence that any atomic conversion of any part of a yogi’s body takes place. If that were the case, yogis would not need to eat, drink, or sleep for days at a time and could duplicate the feats of Superman. Yogis have definite limitations far below the level of atomic energy. The possessing demon is obviously limited in what it can manifest through a human body.

The scientists at Harvard and elsewhere accumulate data which show that something paranormal is going on. But science cannot explain it because the source behind psychic power is not atomic but demonic, a source which science can neither identify nor evaluate. Eastern meditation, having been credited with miraculous power, has become increasingly popular in the West. It is another door into the occult.

It is essential to understand the vastly different meanings given to the word "meditation" in the West and in the East. Meditation in the West has always been synonymous with contemplation, or thinking deeply about some thing. Christian meditation involves seeking deeper insights into God’s Word (Psalm 1:2), pondering God Himself (Psalm 63:6), reflecting upon God’s works (Psalm 77:12), and considering what our responsibility is and what our response should be (1 Timothy 4:15).

In contrast, Eastern meditation involves ceasing to think, and emptying the mind. It is a prelude to possession. Through repeating over and over a word or phrase (a mantra) or focusing on a candle or upon one’s breathing, the mind goes blank and one enters an altered state of consciousness. An Eastern meditation instructor tries to explain this induced state as natural:

What he describes is, of course, the opposite of the contemplation which has always comprised meditation in the West. But the switch has been made and the West has taken the bait. Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson, who rejected Christianity, explains what he found in Eastern mysticism:

Buddhism offered Jackson an escape from the God of the Bible whom, as a young boy, he once feared and desired to please. Says John Daido Loori, abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York: "Buddhism is a… religion without a God or (depending on the school) an afterlife…. [It is] the search for the nature of the self, which ends in the realization that there is no self, that all the beings and objects… are manifestations of the same underlying reality."5

The feeling of being part of everything else in the universe is known as "unity" or "cosmic" consciousness. It is common on a drug high and very appealing to those who have rejected a personal Creator. In contrast to the delusion of a mystical union with an impersonal universe, God’s love is experienced by Christians in a personal relationship with him.

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, commander of Apollo 14, had the mystical experience of cosmic consciousness on his return trip from the moon. So profoundly was he affected that he abandoned the outer space program to explore inner space. He described that experience and the transformation it made in his life in his book THE WAY OF THE EXPLORER: An Apollo Astronaut’s Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds:

We needed something new in our lives, revised notions concerning reality and truth. Our beliefs were, and still are, in crisis.6

What do the material molecules of one’s body, a spacecraft, and stars have in common with one’s soul and spirit? To fail to distinguish between inanimate matter and consciousness and personality is a delusion of colossal proportions.

Like Phil Jackson, Edgar Mitchell was raised in a devout Christian home. Jackson’s was Pentecostal, Mitchell’s was Southern Baptist. Neither man understood true Christianity, and thus each rejected his own misconceptions rather than the truth.

(from Occult Invasion, Harvest House Publishers, 1998)

7 Ibid.