Christians, Beware
of the Occult Invasion

 

Table of Contents
Introduction 1. The Testimony of Jesus Christ  2. Who are these Demons?  3. Spiritism: An End-Time Menace  4. Occultism Invading the Evangelical Church  5. “Signs and Wonders”  6. “Christian” (?) Hinduism and “Shaktipat”	7. What Does the Bible Say?  8. “Christian” (?) Psychology 9. Becoming “Gods”  10. The Armor of God  A. The Occult Bombardment on Society  B. New Thought, New Age Movements  C, Visualization, Astral Projection, OBEs

6. "Christian" (?) Hinduism, 
"Shaktipat" and "QiGong"

“Christian” (?) Hinduism 

How can Hinduism be “Christian”? It can’t! But many modern religious sects have been influenced by Hinduism to varying degrees. Millions of Americans have taken up Hindu practices, such as yoga, meditation, developing altered states of consciousness and seeking Hindu “enlightenment.” The Encyclopedia of New Age Beliefs states that in many respects the philosophy of the New Age Movement parallels that of Hinduism.

Yoga (“Yoking”) 
Bringing the practitioner into cosmic consciousness 
and unity with the god, Shiva. 

What is Yoga? Yoga is a Sanskrit term that literally means “discipline,” a derivative of Yuj, meaning “to yoke” or “to concentrate the mind.” The purpose of yoga is to transform human awareness into pure consciousness—that is, liberation from discrimination while attaining undifferentiated union with the primal essence of consciousness. The first evidence of yoga appears in the Upanisads. (See Maitri Upanisad 6.18)

Yoga is highly visible in American society. Courses on yoga are offered in schools, colleges, business workshops, community centers, health clubs, YMCA’s, and New Age churches in almost every city. Yoga is featured on daily television programs. Books and periodicals on yoga line the shelves in major bookstores and public libraries. Celebrities, educators, and politicians credit yoga for enriching their lives and improving their health.

What is wrong with Yoga? The public perception of yoga is a regimen for physical conditioning whose religious roots can be ignored. Many practitioners merely presume that the exercises are harmless if they are not practiced with a spiritual intent. 

However, yoga is an intrinsic part of Hinduism. Swami Vishnudevananda, well-known authority of yoga, in his book The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga, explains the purpose of yoga. “It is the duty of each developed man to train his body to the highest degree of perfection so that it may be used to pursue spiritual purposes... the aim of all yoga practice is to achieve truth wherein the individual soul identifies itself with the supreme soul of God.” 

“Hatha Yoga”

The most common system of yoga employed for physical exercise is hatha yoga. Yet even hatha yoga is deeply rooted in Hindu philosophy. David Fetcho says, “The fact remains that even physical yoga is inextricably bound up in the whole of Eastern religious metaphysics. In fact, it is accurate to say that physical yoga and Indian metaphysics are mutually interdependent; you really can’t have one without the other.”(11)

“Yoga postures are themselves specifically designed to manipulate consciousness…and move the mind into raja yoga’s consummate experience of samadhi.”(12) Although Western practitioners of hatha yoga claim it is simply an aid to physical fitness, “the techniques of hatha are given to prepare a person’s consciousness for the subtler metaphysics of raja yoga.” (13)

French scholar Alain Danielou says, “The sole purpose of the physical practices of hatha yoga is to suppress physical obstacles on the spiritual and Royal path of raja yoga: and hatha yoga is therefore called ‘the ladder’ to raja yoga.” (14)

“Kundalini Yoga”

One of the more controversial styles of yoga is kundalini (“the serpent power.” Sanskrit kund, “to burn”; kunda, “to coil or to spiral.”) The Hindu belief is that within each person resides a sleeping “serpent” coiled up tightly at the base of the spine. When aroused, the serpent force at the base of the spine darts upward, bringing a concentrated field of intelligent, cosmic invisible energy that rises up the center channel of the spine to the brain, where it allegedly awakens spiritual illumination and inner perception.

Kundalini yoga is the “Power Yoga” of Hinduism. One can have their “kundalini awakened” through practicing kundalini yoga, with chanting, meditation, pranayama (breathing exercises), or an impartation from the guru. Kundalini is designed to release knots or blockages in the body which prevent the flow of kundalini energy and is considered to be the creative force expressed in procreation. 

Kundalini is believed to be the pathway to godhood and psychic powers known as siddhis.  It is responsible for mystical enlightenment when sublimated by rising up the spine through the charkas, or psychic centers, to the highest center in the head. Kundalini yoga can also lead to mental collapse, psychosis, and demon possession or oppression. Among modern Hindus who claimed to have aroused kundalini is Swami Muktanada, who had the power to communicate this arousal by touch, a technique known as shaktipat. 

“Shaktipat”

“Shakti” means power or energy in Sanskrit, and “pat” means transfer. Spiritual awakening or “shaktipat” is the infusion of energy from the spiritual master to the seeker, bringing about the awakening of the seeker’s own inherent spiritual power, called “kundalini.” “Shaktipat” activates the dormant “kundalini” like lighting a candle with one that is already lit. Thus, “shaktipat” is the transfer of energy, an inner unfolding of awareness leading to progressively higher states of consciousness. 

One professor’s life was transformed when an assistant to Swami Muktanada ran a peacock feather across the “third eye” in the center of his forehead.

“I saw a bolt of lightning, like a pyramid of light. I began literally bouncing off the floor and trembling. I cried. I felt tremendous energy, love, and joy. What I had experienced, I later learned, had been ‘shaktipat,’ or spiritual awakening of a kundulini energy inside me...” (1) [Professor Michael Ray, Stanford Graduate School of Business]

Kundalini Yoga Manifestations 
Same as the Charismatics

Kundalini Yoga and the charismatic Toronto Blessing experience are identical in the following aspects. 

Transcendental Meditation (TM)

TM supposedly has no religious basis. However, TM is actually a Hindu meditation technique that attempts to unite the meditator with Brahman, the Hindu concept of God.

The founder of TM, Mahesh Prasad Warma, later known as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, was born in India around 1910. After graduating from Allahabad University in 1942 with a degree in physics, Mahesh became the disciple of the Indian religious leader Guru Dev. It was Guru Dev who instructed Maharishi to devise a meditation technique from the Vedas (part of the Hindu scripture). Dev is addressed as deity in the TM initiation ceremony. 

Quotes:

“The Maharishi intended from day one to gradually lead us through small, persistent deceptions to the religion he always knew was best for all of us—an extremely fundamentalist Hinduism.”

Beliefs:

God is an Impersonal being, consciousness, bliss, that is, the Hindu Brahman. Jesus is an enlightened teacher of TM. Salvation is by the states of higher consciousness achieved through the practice of TM. Man is inwardly one essence with Brahman. Death is reincarnation towards final dissolution into Brahman.

Qigong

Qigong (pronounced “chee-gong”) is a Chinese medical meditation, and Dr. Yan Xin is the leader of its most popular form. Of the estimated 160,000,000 people worldwide now doing Qigong, perhaps a third are following Dr. Yan. Qigong, consists of two Chinese characters: Qi: the vital energy that is found in all things. Gong: the practice and method to cultivate the Qi. In short, Qigong is a process of obtaining the vital energy from the universe through the cultivation of mind and body. 

Dr. Yan Xin, a Chinese Qigong master known to most of the over one billion people in China, gave a talk in San Francisco in 1991. Seventeen hundred devotees showed up to listen to Xin. The San Francisco Chronicle on May 16, 1991 reported that “minutes into his talk, several began experiencing what Yan Xin calls spontaneous movements.” The Chronicle reporter said that “before long, the scene resembled a Pentecostal prayer meeting with many people waving their arms and making unintelligible sounds.” 

In order to share the benefits of his Qigong practice with others, Dr. Yan Xin created the “Qi-emitting lecture.” At such lectures, while discussing Qigong principles and practical techniques, he has emitted Qi to audiences numbering as many as over two hundred thousand people in one lecture. The effects of these lectures were phenomenal. Thousands of people have been cured of diseases, including such “incurables” as cancer, heart disease, and traumatic paraplegia. As a result Dr. Yan Xin became a national celebrity. He has lectured throughout China as well as in Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and France. According to journalists’ estimation, the direct audience of his Qi-powered lectures could have been as many as sixty million people.