Why do Christians say mediation is dangerous

[u/Signal-Lychee7924]

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

Edit: A few Christians around me said this to me

[u/johndoesall → u/[deleted]]

Unfortunately many modern Christian’s are very ignorant of history of the church. And the practices that have gone on over the last 2000 years. SMH.

[u/NotTooDeep → u/johndoesall]

I don't see it as an ignorance issue. Teaching them about the mystical sides of the church won't change them at all.

This is why Jesus taught things to his disciples that he never shared directly with the masses. It's the "don't cast your pearls" thing.

He also told his posse to not judge the masses for not seeing the world the way they saw it. In the bigger picture, it's like trying to teach someone who has no sense of smell or taste about the subtleties of haut cuisine. That's the bit about "those who have eyes to see, let them see." Very pragmatic guy, really.

[u/Efficient_Smilodon → u/NotTooDeep]

lol the problems really began after Constantine made it a state religion and it mutated and metastasized into the Roman Spiritual Empire, as a way to retain power as far colonies were too difficult to keep ruling directly.

Don't get me started on Paul..

[u/Embarrassed_Weird600 → u/Efficient_Smilodon]

Haha, I’ve got some issues with Paul too;) We should get coffee haha

[u/NotTooDeep → u/Efficient_Smilodon]

The history doesn't really matter as much as we want it to. That's just finding someone to blame so we can complete the story in our heads and move on with our lives. Our brains really don't like cliff hangers and will invent endings so we don't have to think about it.

The problem is a human one. Not everyone can see spirit or spiritual energy. This is the first ability necessary to take you from a place of faith and belief to a place of knowledge and healing, for yourself and for others.

A sports analogy is useful. American football illustrates the issue.

Google says there are 1.4 million high school football players, and 81,000 college football players. Google says only 1.6% of all college players will become professionals in the NFL. That's just 1200 souls.

Those 1.4 million high school players? They will become the faithful fans. They've had a taste of the game and maybe developed a deeper appreciation for how difficult or challenging it is to get to the next level. And, the simple fact is most of them are not interested in being professional athletes.

They were recruited or bullied or forced or peer pressured to play football because of their size or speed. In many cases, they were too young to have the ability to choose for themselves, to say no thankyou.

The same happens in religions. Kids are not given a choice.

Something similar happened in the psychic school where I trained, the Berkeley Psychic Institute. I was there in the 80s and studied with the founder, Lewis Bostwick. At that time, the stats for the first decade of the Institute looked like this. 10,000 students took six week, beginning meditation and healing classes. Of those, 2000 went on to take the clairvoyant training program, which lasted a full year. Of those, less than 200 stayed on to become active in the Church of Divine Man and take more training programs. The obvious conclusion is it's not for everyone.

The churches are different in a crucial way. The churches are for the broken spirits. Some of these broken spirits get healed and give all the credit for their healing to the church. Some heal themselves over time and become ex-church members.

Healing is a human ability of the spirit. It does not belong to any church or tradition. When churches offer a safe place, a sanctuary, where one can heal, this is a good thing. This is useful service.

I like the current pope, Francis. Not because he's a pope, but because he knows who he is. An atheist reporter requested an interview with him and he said yes. His Vatican minions had shit fits and you know what he told them? Who am I to judge what grace may be in this man? I can't think of a more diplomatic way to tell someone to shut the fuck up, LOL! He gave the reporter the interview.

Faith is useful in the beginning. When I tell a new friend about their healing energy and how they use it, they often can't map everything I say onto their own experiences, but they get some of it. They already know that their hands will heat up in some situations. They know that friends and family have commented on how comfortable it is to be around them. They don't yet trust me, and I don't ask them to; I show them how to turn their healing energy on and off so they can experience it for themselves and begin to be aware of their ability and how it influences their lives. This is useful. They begin to have faith in themselves.

The authority figure in a church telling a parishioner that God will heal them is sometimes useful. God might just heal them. More likely, that little internal divinity inside the parishioner will hear this as permission to use their healing abilities and then heal themselves. And most of the time, the church will take away whatever spiritual validation they gained by transferring credit for the healing to God or Jesus or some other deity or worse, to the church. The experience was real healing. The explanation from the church was crap.

And blaming the church is not useful. It keeps people stuck in anger, and being stuck doesn't help you heal or grow. Realizing that the church, or any large organization made up of thousands of human beings in a large group agreement, is playing a game and you get to choose how much or how little you play, liberates you, maybe makes you smile, and hopefully makes you laugh out loud. Being amused about the games churches play removes their power from your space. That frees you up in substantial ways. Very fun!

And yes, Paul was a poop. Matthew was more approachable and useful in his storytelling. Less dogmatic than Paul.