5hi. Altered
States of Consciousness
In most Eastern religions and in westernized Hinduism, the development of altered states of consciousness is encouraged as a means of producing a condition of “spiritual enlightenment”. People are attracted to this practice often for altruistic reasons, but they blindly follow the essential pattern describe in previous sections as occult. Altered states can involve a variety of different experiences including hypnosis, yogi kundalini arousal, shamanism, lucid dreaming, drug states, meditation-induced consciousness, biofeedback-induced consciousness, witchcraft, sorcery, magick, necromancy (contacting the “Dead”), and the development of psychic abilities. These experiences use practices designed to quiet down the background noise in the brain and allow external thoughts to control the mind’s perception of reality. Why would anyone want to do this?
The manipulation of consciousness for occult purposes such as spirit possession was always and still is commonplace in all pagan cults. Clearly these practices are using a physics that really works, ie enables humans to contact the spirit/angelic world via their thoughts. Yet even in America lately, the influence of Gurus and their occult practices are making trance and possession states socially acceptable. Altruistic rationale such as focusing on the space between your thoughts to get in touch with your inner self, will often get results. However, the voices you hear will not be your fictitious inner self. These voices are the thoughts of fallen angelic beings hypnotically received and perceived in your mind as reality. Others are searching for psychic powers. What they get is an illusion that they are somehow in control, while the real power behind the supernatural event is from the angelic world. Even Christ confirmed that humans do not work any miracles, but the Father in heaven does the miracles through His People. Likewise, angelic beings can force their will on their victims.
While in an altered state the victim is vulnerable to losing touch with reality and their ability to distinguish truth from error. This is a key goal of the fallen angels in the Sin Drama unfolding on our planet. We are reminded of the warning of 2Thes 2:9-10. The deception can be internal to the victim’s mind where his perception of reality has been distorted, as in the case of “demonic possession”. However, there are cases where things go “bump in the night” as well. Under the right conditions, angelic beings can affect physical objects in our world through their thoughts.
So in summary, altered states of consciousness are merely a means to an end. You don’t get any benefits as expected. You get deception and a distorted view of reality instead. Avenues leading to these altered states are presented in many attractive ways, appealing to our curiosity (eg astrology), our need to be powerful (psychic powers), our searching for answers (consulting the spirits/gods). Once we slip into those states, we have signed off on the deed to our minds and have allowed something else an opportunity to tell us what to think. We literally give up control of our minds, so we can never again be sure that what we perceive is really real. There will always be doubt about truth and error. This is why the God of the Bible warns against occult practices (Deut 18:10-12). This is why the Bible tells us that My word is truth and why so often in the New testament Christ emphasized that He came to testify to the truth (eg John 18:37). There may come a time when we really need to know what is truth. Perhaps we have already entered this time.
8 March 2002
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