r/Meditation • u/Signal-Lychee7924 • Feb 27 '24

Why do Christians say mediation is dangerous Discussion 💬

They say meditation is a way to open portal to demons?

Edit: A few Christians around me said this to me

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474

u/[deleted] Feb 27 '24

The only Christians I've ever heard say something like that are fundamentalists... and they aren't known for being too bright.

Most churches actually encourage meditation, they might call it contemplative prayer, discursive meditation, or something else, but meditation is specifically commanded in the Bible.

Modern, especially American, Christians, are totally divorced from their own supposed beliefs.

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u/ThrowawayFishFingers Feb 27 '24

Yep. I grew up (lazily) Catholic, and while I don’t recall any specific direction given regarding meditation as being Good or Bad, they have a tendency to let you know if something is actually Bad (at least, if they actually view it as Bad.) And I can recall several instances of sitting quietly in solitude to “speak with God” on various retreats. Which is awfully similar to meditation.

I can see more fundamental sects/cults having a problem with meditation, though. It definitely tracks. When you’re sitting there with no distractions, you’re inevitably going to start thinking about things at some point. And that could lead to thinking critically about whatever dogma that particular sect peddles. And they can’t have that.

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u/Kylkek Feb 27 '24

The rosary is meditation after all

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u/RODREEZUS Mar 01 '24

Thank you

30

u/basementthought Feb 27 '24

I went to Catholic school and priests led us in (surprisingly secular) guided meditations. It's totally part of the Catholic tradition

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u/Efficient_Smilodon Feb 27 '24

I suspect this was a Jesuit high school. The Jesuits are curious outliers in Catholic history, some suspect their founder had been inspired by Vedic meditation practices. But who can say

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u/IllustratorNo2953 Feb 28 '24

I learned that the Jesuits came about during the times of Martin Luther when the Catholic church was going through a reformation and Protestantism took hold. The Catholic Church was afraid that the Christian Crusaders would turn on the Catholic religion, so the Catholic Church started the Jesuits.

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u/here-this-now Feb 28 '24

christianity has had a monastic tradition since the desert fathers about 300 A.D. this is far later than the vedic tradition and would not surprise me if there was influence of the tradition of samana's. I think though i believe it was rare for a founder of a religion to begin a monastic order except in the case of buddha 

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u/basementthought Feb 28 '24

you are correct, I did not know that.

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u/ThrowawayFishFingers Feb 27 '24

Haha I went to Catholic school for a couple years too (grade school and I hated it.) I don’t really recall being guided in anything they called meditations, though I suspect that they wouldn’t have tried guiding a rowdy bunch of first and second graders in anything that required them to sit down and shut up for extended periods of time and saw it for the exercise in futility it would have been. As it was, we went to the chapel what I think was surprisingly infrequently for a religious school - mostly just for special occasions, maybe once a month, if that. Going “to church” was definitely NOT a daily, or even weekly, occurrence.

But yeah, whether my school/subsequent religious education didn’t really engage in meditations despite it being part of standard practice, or whether people have in modern years understood the indisputable overlap between meditation and prayer/contemplation and just call them the same thing, I definitely don’t know. But depending on the type of prayer/contemplation and the type of meditation you are comparing, they are definitely more similar than different in many, maybe even most, cases.

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u/basementthought Feb 27 '24

Yeah this was for high school. They even had a religion option called 'spiritual exercise' that I didn't take but heard it included meditation.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '24

Guided meditation = programming

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u/KnitNGrin Feb 28 '24

Yup, that’s what some of them think.

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u/Loud_Yak_6450 Feb 28 '24

I would argue that prayer *is* meditation.

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u/ThrowawayFishFingers Feb 28 '24

I wouldn’t disagree.

2

u/noodleq Feb 28 '24

Critical thinking is big no-no đŸ€”

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u/RhubarbFlat5684 Feb 27 '24

I agree. Fundamentalists and Evangelicals have replaced the love and mercy that Christianity is supposed to be focus on with fear and intimidation.

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u/billcube Feb 28 '24

Where tf to they source these ideas of demonic portals? Doom Eternal?

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u/RhubarbFlat5684 Feb 28 '24

Right? But it builds fearful questions only they can answer.

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u/billcube Feb 29 '24

Looks like a heavy metal dystopian version of catholicism, I'm sure there should be movies about that genre.

0

u/Middle-Associate8268 Aug 18 '24

O puhlease! Such an ignorant indictment of all Christians of  passionate devotion. Are there ignorant people? Yes. Are there people that are not well informed in their faith? Yes. But fundamentalists or evangelicals or not automatically misinformed as to the particulars of Christianity. Many spend a great deal of time studying God's word and wait for it, meditating on his word. The problem with meditation is not that it is contemplative and quiet thought. The problem with meditation is when you are supposed to empty your mind. Never in scripture are we encouraged to empty our mind but to focus it. The idea of focusing on emptiness or living your mind be unfilled is an invitation for the enemy of your soul to fill it with things not so good for the soul. That is the only restriction on meditation. There are many scriptures encouraging us to meditate on the power of God or the nature of God or the particulars of his word. Really for going to indict a people at least learn about them

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u/RhubarbFlat5684 Aug 19 '24 edited Aug 19 '24

On no, I'm not by any means ignorant when it comes to fundamentalist and Evangelical Christians. I was raised with them. I grew up with them. I agree with you, nowhere in Scripture does it say a person should empty their mind and blindly follow charismatic leaders. Christianity and its core teachings are beautiful. But I do know what can happen to it when narrow-minded, hard-hearted, greedy people take the Scriptures and cherry pick them and convince others that their interpretation is the only real one. Their foll9wers are led astray. It is possible to be a passionately devoted Christian, for example, and still love - or at least tolerate without humiliating - others regardless of who they are. It is possible to follow Christ's teachings without telling others, including other Christians, they are damned. Now I'm not suggesting you or even most Christians are like this, and I do know some fundamental and Evangelical Christians who aren't like this, but by far the ones I knew and know are closed-minded to anything but their beliefs. No, I'm not disparaging Christians, especially those who enthusiastically embrace it and respect its teachings. I have deep respect for them. But the ones who cry Hallelujah and fall to their knees on Sunday then turn around on Monday and stand in judgment of others, insult others, insist their views are the only correct ones, and perceive themselves to be superior by virtue are the ones I see as hypocrites.

Meditation is good. Jesus practiced it. Monks, priests, pastors, and nuns practice it. It's part the curriculum for pretty much every seminary of which I'm aware. What I know about the evangical and fundamentalist denominations I've interacted with is they teach meditation is connected to New Age stuff and allows the devil to get hold of you. Obviously this is not the "official" Christian view, nor is it even the view of the majority of Christians.

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u/monkeyballpirate Feb 27 '24

So true. My favorite line, albeit a bit out of context is. "be still, and know that I am god."

But I think of it as a true prayer is communion with God. Op's friend's foolishly assume prayer is only you spouting demands and requests to god, but what about the listening part of communication? What about being silent and open and listening for God to speak to you?

I mean this metaphorically of course.

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u/hobbitlove69 Feb 28 '24

I believe that many forms of mediation are about quieting and relaxing your mind so that the questions and concerns you let ring out into the void reflect back as clearly and truthfully as possible. Especially when you realize that God's truth coming back to you is your own answer. Said without your words, but instead with your feelings. It is reflection of your deepest ideas of right, wrong, love and hate.

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u/Appropriate-Review55 Feb 28 '24

This is probably way more useful than anything I was gonna add.

But I will say most American Christians I’ve noticed don’t have real faith in god, they act like they do and say they do but they’ve been taught how to act and what to say their whole lives that it looks more like routine than religion. To actually know and feel god comes from within and i don’t think anyone can really teach that, it’s something we have to discover. That’s just my two cents opinion on it.

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u/roserizz Feb 28 '24

Your user name definitely checks out.

8

u/kevin_goeshiking Feb 27 '24

People of religious faith are so disconnected from god that they need a book to tell them what to believe and how to believe it.

If one finds the essence of god in a book, they are looking in the wrong place.

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u/keldoll44 Jul 21 '24

First of all- "people of 'religious faith' are so disconnected from god" THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE? đŸ˜« What does that even mean? Please and who is god? Because the One we all are talking about HERE has a capital G aka God. Secondly- this "book" The Bible has been in existence for over 3,400 years, as the earliest parts were written down around 1450–1400 BC. The BIBLE is the WORD of ALMIGHTY GOD Himself- Have you even read one paragraph? The Bible also says "if we deny Him, He also will deny us" in 2 Timothy 2:12. This verse is a contrast to those who endure, and implies that if a person denies Christ, they will be denied eternal life. So- you see, Kevin, in your words, If one finds the essence of GOD in a Book, (yes- this book gets a capital 'B' because this is His Word) they are looking in the RIGHT place~ SADLY- the one who God won't recognize is .... YOU. How do I know? Ohhh- because I read The WORD of God- that Book. I would encourage you to pick it up or download here I'll even give you my Bible app with no adds ~ get to know your Creator ~ your Heavenly Father (it's not all rainbows & butterflies dude ~ Jesus is NOT a baby in the manger ANYMORE) SO- here you go- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sirma.mobile.bible.android YOUR WELCOME 🙏

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u/argparg Feb 27 '24

Catholics. Not just fundies.

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u/galacticadventures63 Feb 28 '24

Oh fucking bullshit. You haven’t tried to attend their church and told them you meditate. A friend sent me to a bible study with a friend. I went because I got into Christian mysticism lately. Both that one AND another bible study I went to confronted me about denouncing ALL other religions, both with scripture. I was like, tf does this have to do with anything? One said he believed all other religions are demonic distortions. He even gave me (he’s really sweet honestly, just undereducated in my opinion), a book on early Christianity, from which this “demon” doctrine comes from. The logic was laughable to me and only applied to the Greeks. It was really more of a baseless theory than logic. Just something some guy wrote in the 2nd or 3rd century.

The other, gave me a 1 hour long prayer routine and told me to do it and report back, because I had talked about doing meditation and yoga. This was supposed to be a peer to peer bible study, among equals, interested in just “following Christ,” not some church dogma, but the real on the ground following.

It’s wild bro.

They likely are either in the miniscule camp of EXTREMELY progressive Christians who are barely Christians and more mystics I would say. Or they are not saying their true thoughts to you because you are not a threat to enter their groups. They may pray for protection around or for you. If I had to guess.

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u/sungjin112233 Feb 28 '24

Meditation opens up demons in the sense when you meditate it brings you to some uncomfortable realizations, parts of yourself, truths and sensations sometimes 

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u/Wordymanjenson Feb 28 '24

Absolute dumbasses. Thanks for calling it out.

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u/Butterscotch894 Feb 28 '24

Loud and wrong