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NEW
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What Eastern Gurus Say About Occult
Practices Part 1
by Dr.
John Ankerberg, Dr. John Weldon |
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In earlier articles we examined some of the associations between
Eastern religion and Satanism/witchcraft. Now we bring our concerns
closer to home by examining the beliefs of some popular American
gurus. Among Eastern gurus as a whole, occult practices are widely
accepted. Typically, they include not only various forms of spiritism
but also astrology, magic, sorcery, necromancy, development of psychic
abilities, shamanistic practices, the transferal of occult power in
initiation (shaktipat diksha), etc.
As veteran researcher Brooks Alexander observes of Rajneesh,
Muktananda, and Sai Baba:
All of these gurus espouse a similar philosophy, and they all
turn it into practice in a similar way. It is a pattern that we find
not only in tantra (Indo-Tibetan occultism), but in European
satanism, antinomian gnosticism, and ancient pagan sorcery as well.1
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, for example, states that witchcraft
constitutes "one of the greatest possibilities of human growth."2
Part of the disciples’ required obedience to the guru is to follow
the guru’s sadhana, or spiritual path. By definition, this
places a person on the path of occultism. In fact, psychic powers and
spiritism are to be expected.3
For example, spirit contact frequently occurs with what are believed
to be various Hindu deities, "nature" spirits, or the guru himself
after death (or even while alive via his alleged "spiritual form."
Thus, Muktananda tells his students they will encounter various Hindu
gods and other spirits as well as the alleged dead.4
Paramahansa Yogananda’s spiritual autobiography, Autobiography
of a Yogi, is replete with occult experiences: astral projection,
psychometry, astrology, psychic healing, spiritistic materializations
and apportations, amulets, etc.5
For example, Yogananda teaches, "True spiritualism [mediumism] is a
wonderful science.... It is possible by meditation and spiritual
[occult] development to contact departed loved ones."6
The text Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on Occultism claims
that true occultism is "dynamic spirituality... an indispensable
instrument along the spiritual path."7
Aurobindo and the "Mother" emphasize that "to talk about occult things
is of little value; one must experience them."8
Our research into some two dozen of the major gurus revealed that
many of them were, in fact, possessed (defined as God possession or
spirit possession, but not demon possession) and that their spiritual
paths were often designed to lead to spirit possession, defined
as a form of higher spirituality or enlightenment.
Thus, because Eastern gurus constitute a class of occultists, they,
too, are familiar with the territory and warn of the hazards of occult
practices. For example, medium Sri Chinmoy, a spiritual "adviser" at
the United Nations, states:
Many, many black magicians and people who deal with spirits have
been strangled or killed. I know because I have been near quite a
few of these cases.9
He refers to deceptive spirits who will impersonate a person’s guru
in visions and urge disciples to commit suicide. He also mentions
several people who died from yogic breathing exercises.10
Meher Baba warned about the possibility of death or insanity from
the Eastern path and, in fact, like other shamans, believed insanity
was evidence of higher spirituality; he also accepted the possibility
of suicide as a form of liberation, if it was done with the "proper"
motive.11
Regardless, like psychic counselors in general, the gurus usually
teach that given proper instruction and technique, occultism is safe.
This is a bit ironic because most gurus have characteristically
experienced a terrible insanity/possession on their own road to
so-called "enlightenment." Meher Baba himself was seriously insane for
a time; so were popular gurus Ramakrishna, Muktananda, Prabhupada,
Rudrananda, Nityananda, Da Free John, and many others.12
Note for example the following description of events relating to
Muktananda’s own spiritual enlightenment, a path he endorses for his
disciples. During so-called kundalini arousal, such experiences may
last for months or even years, in which case a protracted insanity
and/or demonization must be endured. We quote at length so the reader
may have a better understanding of the frightening reality that is
frequently involved on the Eastern path. In Muktananda’s own words:
I was assailed by all sorts of perverse and defiling emotions. My
body started to move, and went on like this in a confused sort of
way.... After a time, my breathing changed, becoming disturbed.
Sometimes my abdomen would swell with air, after which I would
exhale it with great force. Often the breath that I took in would be
held inside me. I became more and more frightened... my mind was
sick with fear....
My thoughts became confused, meaningless. My limbs and body got
hotter and hotter. My head felt heavy, and every pore in me began to
ache. When I breathed out, my breath stopped outside. When I
breathed in, it stopped inside. This was terribly painful and I lost
my courage. Something told me that I would die at any moment.... I
could not understand what was happening, how it was happening, who
was making it happen....
By now it was after 9:00. Someone had seated himself in my eyes
and was making me see things.... It seemed that I was being
controlled by some power which made me do all these things. My
intellect was completely unstable.... I heard hordes of people
screaming frightfully... and saw strange creatures from six to fifty
feet tall, neither demons nor demigods, but human in form, dancing
naked, their mouths gaping open. Their screeching was horrible and
apocalyptic.... An army of ghosts and demons surrounded me. All the
while I was locked tight in the lotus posture, my eyes closed, my
chin pressed down against my throat so that no air could escape.
Then I felt a searing pain.... I wanted to run away, but my legs
were locked tight in the lotus posture. I felt as if my legs had
been nailed down permanently in this position. My arms were
completely immobilized....
Then, from over the water, a moonlike sphere about four feet in
diameter came floating in. It stopped in front of me. This radiant,
white ball struck against my eyes and then passed inside me. I am
writing this just as I saw it. It is not a dream or an allegory, but
a scene which actually happened—that sphere came down from the sky
and entered me.... My tongue curled up against my palate, and my
eyes closed. I saw a dazzling light in my forehead and I was
terrified. I was still locked in the lotus posture, and then my head
was forced down and glued to the ground....
I started to make a sound like a camel, which alternated with the
roaring of a tiger. I must have roared very loudly, for the people
around actually thought that a tiger had gotten into the sugarcane
field....
I am in a terrible state. I have gone completely insane. You may
not be able to see it from the outside, but, inside, I am crazy....
My body began to twist.... Now, it was not I who meditated;
meditation forced itself on me. It came spontaneously; it was in all
the joints of my body. Then, suddenly, a red light came before me
with such force that it seemed to have been living inside me. It was
two feet tall and shone brightly....
Every part of my body was emitting loud crackling and popping
sounds....
At this time, I understood nothing about the various
experiences....
Only afterward did I learn that they were all part of the process
pertaining to [spiritual enlightenment].... People who have
experienced it call it the awakening of the Kundalini. The
experiences I had had under the mango trees were due to the grace of
my Gurudev Nityananda; they were all his prasad
[blessing]....
Sometimes I would jump and hop like a frog, and sometimes my
limbs would shake violently as though shaken by a deity. And this
was what was actually happening; a great deity in the form of my
guru had spread all through me as Chiti [consciousness], and was
shaking me with his inner Shakti [power]....
The power of the guru’s grace enters the disciple’s body in a
subtle form and does many great things.... Every day I had
meditation like that. Sometimes my body would writhe and twist like
a snake’s, and a hissing sound would come from inside me....
Sometimes my neck moved so violently that it made loud cracking
sounds, and I became frightened.... I had many astonishing movements
like this. Sometimes my neck would roll my head around so vigorously
that it would bend right below my shoulders so that I could see my
back. When the intensity lessened, I became peaceful again. But
because I did not understand these kriyas [spontaneous yoga
movements], I was always worried and afraid. Later, however, I
learned that this was a Hatha Yoga process effected by the Goddess
Kundalini in order for Her to move up through the spinal column into
the sahasrara [upper psychic center].13
Thus, as is true in some forms of Western mysticism, the Hindu path
endorsed by the Eastern gurus offers the possibility of temporary
insanity and outright spirit possession, together defined as
expressions of one’s emerging spiritual "enlightenment."
Unfortunately, Western gurus who imitate the East are not more
encouraging. Ram Dass once said that psychosis is "far out" and that
mental hospitals are "groovy ashrams."14
The deceptions, follies, and other consequences of his own spiritual
path are detailed in books such as Grist for the Mill.15
Further, the "ascended masters" (spirits) who speak through "Guru Ma"
(Elizabeth Claire Prophet) of the Church Universal and Triumphant
admit that their spiritual instructions have caused the premature
death of some students.16
Notes:
1 Brooks Alexander, "Book
Review: Riders of the Cosmic Circuit," in SCP Journal,
Vol. 7, No. 1, 1987, p. 39.
2 Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in
Swami Ananda Yarti, The Sound of Running Water: A Photobiography
of Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh and His Work 1974-1978 (Poona, India:
Poona Rajneesh Foundation, 1980), p. 364.
3 Daniel Goleman, "The Buddha
on Meditation and States of Consciousness" in Charles Tart, ed.,
Transpersonal Psychologies (New York: Harper Colophon Books,
1977), p. 218.
4 Swami Muktananda, Play of
Consciousness (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), pp. xxiii,
155-161.
5 Paramahansa Yogananda,
Autobiography of a Yogi (Los Angeles: Self-Realization
Fellowship, 1972), pp. 16, 55-57, 132, 137, 190, 475-79.
6 Paramahansa Yogananda,
"Where Are Our Departed Loved Ones?" in Self-Realization
Magazine, Spring 1978, pp. 6-7.
7 Sri Aumbindo and the
Mother on Occultism, compiled by Vijay (Pondicherry, India: Sri
Aurobindo Society, 1972), p. 17.
8 Sri Aurobindo, A
Practical Guide to Integral Yoga, compiled by Manishai (Pondicherry,
India: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1973), p. 273.
9 Sri Chinmoy, Astrology,
the Supernatural and the Beyond (Jamaica, NY: Agni Press, 1973),
p. 62.
10 Ibid., p. 94, and Chinmoy,
Great Masters and Cosmic Gods (Jamaica, NY: Agni Press,
1977), p. 8.
11 Meher Baba, The Path of
Love (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1976), pp. 44,64,138; C. D.
Deshmukh, Sparks of the Truth From the Dissertations of Meher
Baba (Crescent Beach, SC: Sheriar, 1973), p. 45; Meher Baba,
Listen Humanity, D. E. Stevens, ed. (New York: Harper & Row,
1967), p. 100.
12 John Weldon, Eastern
Gurus in a Western Milieu: A Critique From the Perspective of
Biblical Revelation, Ph.D. dissertation. Pacific College of
Graduate Studies, Melbourne Victoria, Australia, 1988.
13 Swami Muktananda, Play of
Consciousness (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), pp. 75-81, 84-85,
88-89.
14 Ram Dass, The Only Dance
There Is (Garden City, NY: Anchor, 1974), pp. 74-75.
15 Ram Dass, Grist for the
Mill (New York: Bantam, 1979).
16 Serapis Bey, Dossier on
the Ascension, recorded by Mark L. Prophet (Los Angeles: Summit
University Press, 1979), p. 167.
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Copyright 2006, Ankerberg Theological Research Institute
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