Christian Perspectives on Modern Spritual Practices

angel_n

angel_n

Other Christian
In recent times, I've seen a lot of content creators talk about astral projection, the practice of magic (either white or black magic) and other more 'new age' practices.

As a newly converted Christian, I can't help but be curious about exploring the spiritual plane and deepening my relationship with God. I've been fascinated with astral projection for quite a while and have accidentally done it once while dreaming. I'm interested in consciouly doing it but I'm not sure if I'll be risking my afterlife by doing so.

Magic is something I've also been reading about and I can't help but be fascinated by it. I've also read that the early Christian Gnostics practiced white magic with biblical scripture.

I understand that scripture doesn't allow communication with demonic entities through any means, however there can't be only dark entities residing in other dimensions. Are we as Christians allowed to engage in spiritual practices with the sincere intention of getting closer to God or is it strictly forbidden?
 
I will not speak from a place of any sort of authority - but I will mention using psychedelics and means such as meditation to get to these places of "spiritual practice":

There is tremendous danger in these practices for the reason that most cannot discern what is happening, that there is absolutely demonic influence, and that you don't control what is in the plane above that of the waking reality. Demonic influences do not just exist in altered states, they are common in every day living (just think of the seven deadly sins and how they beckon to us all). It is very easy to be lead astray, for there is "some truth" but not The Truth.

I was personally brought closer to Christ in using psilocybin, but cannot recommend it as a method to deepen faith - and I can see how it could lead to believing many false things. The love that you have for all in these altered states can very well be achieved in walking alongside Christ, and I would recommend living life in a way that is cohesive with this understanding, rather than search for it in new age practices.
 
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Magic is the practice of attempting to manipulate the spiritual realm via some kind of transaction in order to achieve a result that you personally desire & will to be the case. It is nearly synonymous with idolatry in that regard.

As Christians God has instructed us to make our requests through prayer to Him while also accepting His will to be done rather than our own. We cannot make 'deals' or try to 'trick' the spiritual realm in order to achieve outcomes we desire. At best nothing will happen from magical practices, at worst prelest, spiritual delusion or demon-worshipping can result.

angel_n said:
Magic is something I've also been reading about and I can't help but be fascinated by it. I've also read that the early Christian Gnostics practiced white magic with biblical scripture.
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Have you heard of Simon Magus? His attempt to purchase the Holy Spirit is reflective of the magical mentality & was roundly condemned. Or of the would-be exorcists in Acts who tried to exorcise demons through a magical invocation of Christ's name... i.e. they thought they could wield Christ's name like a sword while lacking faith & the Holy Spirit. It didn't go well for them.

angel_n said:
I understand that scripture doesn't allow communication with demonic entities through any means, however there can't be only dark entities residing in other dimensions. Are we as Christians allowed to engage in spiritual practices with the sincere intention of getting closer to God or is it strictly forbidden?
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God has given us extremely clear and numerous ways to get closer to Him, which are prayer, fasting, worship, the Holy Mysteries, communion, baptism, study of the Scripture, more that I'm leaving out I'm sure. Attempting to contact mysterious spiritual entities is not listed among those practices, and is in fact condemned, so all in all I don't see much grey area for a Christian.
 
My father comes from a spiritist background and does card readings sometimes. He is Christian and goes to the same church as me, but he still keeps the practice to this day. He talks about summoning "spirits" during the card readings and sometimes includes dead people or God. It's definitely heretical, but that's just South America in general. My mother is deeply Catholic yet believes in reincarnation and claims to practice Buddhism. Not sure if the Mexican day of the dead is a good example, but it's a thing. Carnival used to be Catholic but now it's literally the "blacks having sex in the street" holiday, along with carnival cars with Satan costumes.
 
All of this fascination with the occult is the temptation of the devil. It is idolatry and is so potent a temptation because it appeals to our idolatrous hearts, which will worship anything but the One True God.

The Bible forbids such practices as sorcery, pharmakeia from which we get our word pharmacy.
God is sufficient for all our needs. All of the promises of God are Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus.
 
Stay away from it, it is a door for Satan to get in. 'Spirituality' is just like religion without regulation and with you as the centre. That is not a good idea. The Bible is quite clear about this, do not dabble in magic as it all comes from Satan, regardless of how it's sold to you. Remember that Satan can appear as an angel of light and he is the father of lies. Funnily enough, there's a reason for that. Don't talk yourself into it, stick to the Biblical teachings and consult your priest ASAP before temptation gets you. This is more dangerous than you realise, stay away.
 
Matsufubu said:
Stay away from it, it is a door for Satan to get in. 'Spirituality' is just like religion without regulation and with you as the centre. That is not a good idea. The Bible is quite clear about this, do not dabble in magic as it all comes from Satan, regardless of how it's sold to you. Remember that Satan can appear as an angel of light and he is the father of lies. Funnily enough, there's a reason for that. Don't talk yourself into it, stick to the Biblical teachings and consult your priest ASAP before temptation gets you. This is more dangerous than you realise, stay away.
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The largest danger of new age teachings is solipsism - slightly less dangerous (but no more saved) is where you find yourself a nihilist.

Like I said above - In these practices you are given little truths but not The Truth - and by definition if there is any lie within a truth, it is false.
 
God's lonely asperger said:
My father comes from a spiritist background and does card readings sometimes. He is Christian and goes to the same church as me, but he still keeps the practice to this day. He talks about summoning "spirits" during the card readings and sometimes includes dead people or God. It's definitely heretical, but that's just South America in general. My mother is deeply Catholic yet believes in reincarnation and claims to practice Buddhism. Not sure if the Mexican day of the dead is a good example, but it's a thing. Carnival used to be Catholic but now it's literally the "blacks having sex in the street" holiday, along with carnival cars with Satan costumes.
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This may get me banned but I have to say it. Your father is not a Christian. He is a “spiritualist” going to a church. A Christian does not dabble in dark arts of which card readings are one. Summon God? Such arrogance. Reincarnation and buddhism?
 
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Paisios said:
This may get me banned but I have to say it. Your father is not a Christian. He is a “spiritualist” going to a church. A Christian does not dabble in dark arts of which card readings are one. Summon God? Such arrogance. Reincarnation and buddhism?
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There are heretical cultures all around the globe. Some practice the faith more and/or better than others. The bar between Christian and not Christian boils down to genuine belief. It's up to God to decide who gets saved or not.
 
God's lonely asperger said:
There are heretical cultures all around the globe. Some practice the faith more and/or better than others. The bar between Christian and not Christian boils down to genuine belief. It's up to God to decide who gets saved or not.
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Heretical cultures do not practice the faith. That Joel Olsteen feel good marshmellow hooey is just that….hooey. I totally gave up on protestantism because of the deceptions pushed by the pulpit pimps. MacArthur, Meyers, Olsteen, TD Jakes and the like are the one’s saying soothing things to itching ears.
 
Paisios said:
Heretical cultures do not practice the faith. That Joel Olsteen feel good marshmellow hooey is just that….hooey. I totally gave up on protestantism because of the deceptions pushed by the pulpit pimps. MacArthur, Meyers, Olsteen, TD Jakes and the like are the one’s saying soothing things to itching ears.
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And you traded them in for other pulpit pimps. Good move.
 
Deleted member 378 said:
Heretical cultures do not practice the faith. That Joel Olsteen feel good marshmellow hooey is just that….hooey. I totally gave up on protestantism because of the deceptions pushed by the pulpit pimps. MacArthur, Meyers, Olsteen, TD Jakes and the like are the one’s saying soothing things to itching ears.
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None of those names are in the Bible.
 
angel_n said:
Are we as Christians allowed to engage in spiritual practices with the sincere intention of getting closer to God or is it strictly forbidden?
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The problem is that it is extremely difficult for someone to tell the difference between good and evil spiritual entities. It is entirely possible, and happens many times that demons will appear to people in the guise of an angel. Therefore it is advisable to not even attempt anything like this.

If you want to get closer to God, love your neighbour. There is nothing to be gained in pursuing profound experiences for their own sake.
 
I will put this in my understanding (and anyone is free to jump in here) because I hadn't "got it" until lately:

The Highest Capacity of a Human being is the ability to Love.

It is the grandest feeling to be a parent, to look at your child, and to love him unconditionally. It is one of the most beautiful sentiments to look into another person's eyes and see nothing but yourself looking back at you, "love your neighbor as yourself" is so obvious that when you see this, you do not understand how everyone else doesn't.

For some time, I had been seeking truth, but not The Truth. The world around me was dark, because the "truths" of this world are dark. When we talk about modern spiritual practices, they have an overwhelming likelihood to make you schizophrenic rather than "enlightened". I saw it in myself, I was seeing truth, and then there was something more, and more. There was no end to the perpetual rabbit hole. Lizard people? Aliens? Flat Earth? All of this is fair game in these practices, and that is where you will go.

While there may be 'some truth' in what you find, you will also find lies. And if something is true, yet there is even one lie in it, well then my friends, that thing would be FALSE.

With God, with Jesus Christ, there is nothing "more" - you are going right to the Truth. The contentment you find in Him is unequivocal - and it lasts. Unlike the drugs, or the meditating, or the whatever. You now have a framework in which your life can look like all of the time, 24/7.

The Truth is that Love is everything. That in conducting yourself as Jesus did, you see all the light in the world. And, you come to understand Who you Are. A child of God.

You no longer need "spiritual practices". You have THE practice.
 
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How often do angels appear in this realm? Just ponder that for real.

So many people, especially women, are misled on this false dichotomy of light magick vs dark magick. Their excuse for having altars and doing tarot cards is they desire to achieve a balance, they wish to be more connected to nature, they wish to become more of a being of spirit than of earth. I have read a lot of this, although I have often scratched out sentences in some of the paragraphs so that I am not reading an entire complete "spell" into my mind. Tread cautiously even when studying the arts of the enemy, the ways of the demons, for that is what it truly is.

Alchemy as well, as we understand it, is a blasphemy. So is divination, so are talismans, so is "energy" in most measures of its comprehension in modernity. However, I believe that many of these abilities are naturally divine, to those that are divine. Christ Himself did not need to read the stars, for He knew already what was, what is, and what will be. He did not have to perform incantations to turn water into wine, or cure the blind and heal the lepers, for this "energy" which was of God, the ability to make and unmake the world and all of creation, was in Him.

In place of pharmakeia, the practice of all people in ages past, especially in the Bible, was the use of herbs. Herbology is not practicing magick, it even would be considered the opposite as we are identifying the unique and incredibly wide-range of uses in each plant, root, bark, and flower that God has created and put on the earth for many reasons. When you understand His power and love, you see it in every flower, every plant, every blade of grass. This does not mean we must eat and consume everything, take certain mushrooms for example, like the ones containing psilocybin. It basically is a fungus that makes people trip to stop them from continuing to eat it. While some people have had revelations that bring them closer to God from this mushroom, many others are still stuck in that aetheric plane wandering around in circles looking for answers where there are none. They usually come to this reincarnation idea, which is an abject demonic lie. I hear the argument over and over, "why would an all-loving and all-merciful God only give us one chance? Certainly he would give us multiple lives to figure it out and get right?" they never seem to understand the origins of man and of sin, and more sinisterly, practitioners of magick at some point do understand this they simply have sold out for the devil's lie about ruling the world in the end where it doesn't matter about their origins or their sin.

Some people are so far-gone down the spiritual rabbit hole, and though having a good heart and care for their fellow man, they never reach the ultimate truth. They still recognize the satanic establishment that hates Christ's name, and they jump around like a flea on crack coming up with all kinds of alternative explanations for Christ "he was a messenger of light" "he was a crystal" "he was an alien" "he was from the future" paired with "and thats why they hate him!" all rubbish all trash all lies. The world hates Christ because He will destroy this fallen place at that appointed time, and everything in it, including all the demons that are stuck here and every soul that threw their lot in with them.
 
MusicForThePiano said:
How often do angels appear in this realm? Just ponder that for real.

So many people, especially women, are misled on this false dichotomy of light magick vs dark magick. Their excuse for having altars and doing tarot cards is they desire to achieve a balance, they wish to be more connected to nature, they wish to become more of a being of spirit than of earth. I have read a lot of this, although I have often scratched out sentences in some of the paragraphs so that I am not reading an entire complete "spell" into my mind. Tread cautiously even when studying the arts of the enemy, the ways of the demons, for that is what it truly is.

Alchemy as well, as we understand it, is a blasphemy. So is divination, so are talismans, so is "energy" in most measures of its comprehension in modernity.
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I got this Protestant friend who is well aware of this stuff. Her biggest turn off to orthodoxy is the icons and use of images and kissing them. And when I tried to explain the icons got a “That’s borderline necromancy - you’re asking for the dead to pray for you.” “Well they’re not really dead” is always response. Besides in necromancy you draw them to you and call them. In icon veneration you don’t seek power. You go to them so you know that no dark spirit is going to show up passing herself off as the theotokos.

Awareness of the whole witchy thing and darker aesthetic I think causes an allergy to the church’s more ancient traditions in more non-denominational types. I could see how someone uninformed could be uncomfortable with the more physical side of orthodoxy.
 
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I've never understood why the occult is considered bad. Is it because it's nonsense and therefore a waste of time? Or is it because it's real but risky?
 
GodfatherPartTwo said:
If it was frivolous, there would be nothing to warn against. It is bad because there is power to it and that power is demonic.
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Ok but is it bad in itself, or because it can be hijacked? For example, chakras. Are chakras real? I think they are. And if they are, then surely they must have a purpose, like the functions of the body.

And astrology. Do the positions of planets and stars in relation to each other have an effect on people? If so, why is it wrong to look into it and work with it? Wouldn't that be the similar to checking someone's health by looking at their eyes or tongue?

And what exactly defines what is occult? Occult just means hidden, it doesn't mean evil. Lots of things are hidden.
 
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