Alternative Therapies
Benign vs. Malignant Therapies

When you discuss alternative and complimentary therapies, its important to distinguish between those that are practiced without reference to the occult and are perfectly safe and those that are spiritually dangerous and suck people into their insidious grasp. From my work as a chaplain, I have had the opportunity to observe both of these types of alternative therapies at work from a first-hand perspective.

Amongst others, there are three alternative therapies that are completely safe and simply based on creativity, nature and God -given talent. The first of these is Art Therapy. Art is used in different ways to ease patient anxiety either by displaying art in the patient's room, or helping them to express their own creativity through art. A second therapy is Animal Therapy. Many times this involves visits by specially trained dogs and cats that will jump up on patient's beds and show them affection. One hospital I am familiar with had a miniature pony that would roam the halls visiting patients. The third therapy is music therapy. Music therapy usually involves playing an instrument or singing. I have seen therapist play piano, guitar and even the harp to help patients relax and feel more at peace.    

Three malignant therapies that are the focal point of my book are Reiki, Healing Touch and Therapeutic Touch. Each of these is closely connected to eastern religion. The first two draw heavily upon Buddhism while Therapeutic Touch is based on Hindu beliefs and practices. All of them are spiritually at odds with Christianity denying the essentials of faith in Christ. All of them are steeped in occult practices including contact the dead, spirit guides and the spirits of intimate objects such as trees and animals. It doesn't take long for the Christian to see why these therapies should be avoided at all costs.

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Alternative Medicine 

Alternative and Complimentary Therapies

Before I get too deep into Alternative Medicine, I need  to help people understand what it is. Alternative Medicine means, medical therapies that lie outside the domain of traditional surgical and drug treatments.

There are two types of alternative medicine: 1.) Alternative Therapies and 2.) Complimentary Therapies. Alternative Therapies are those used instead of traditional medical treatments. Complimentary therapies are those used in addition to medical treatments. NCCAM, the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine, is the government agency which regulates and does research in the area of alternative medicine. According to NCCAM, there are over 1800 therapies from which to choose.

The following are some examples of alternative medical practices: regression hypnosis, chiropractics, herb therapy, Reiki, music therapy, Healing Touch, yoga and guided imagery. Many forms of alternative medicine only use benign treatments, while others connect directly to eastern religion and occult practices.

Are you interested in learning more? Then subscribe to this blog and get ready to read my new book, The Occult Invasion of Health Care: the Changing Face of Spirituality In Medicine.

Medicine and Mysticism

I borrowed this blog so that others can see that the entire Body of Christ is being awaked to the dangers of Medicine and the Eastern Religion

 

Mysticism & Medicine: 

A Dangerous Prescription

By Jan Markell

www.olivetreeviews.org

 January 13, 2010

 

The East has convinced the West that the greatest thing they have to offer is Eastern-style meditation. Because some Christians lack discernment, what we have is the complete hijacking of biblical meditation in favor of the Eastern brand. This is risky because it involves blanking out your mind and, by default, allowing anything in.

 

I guess this shouldn't be shocking when a major news story of 2009 had this headline: "More U.S. Christians Mix Eastern and New Age Beliefs."  While you may think this is being done only by liberal Christianity, think again! It crosses all  denominations. This is not just some kind of fad or an isolated phenomenon. It is building momentum month by month, and more and more people are seeing this mystical spirituality as a valid and powerful way to experience the presence of God. Many influential and respected people within Christianity view this practice as being perfectly in accordance with orthodox Christianity. 

 

I have already presented the story of the Bethel symposium in early November that suggested there might be a common bond or "common ground" between Christianity and Buddhism in the realm of meditation. The symposium had information about "Christian Zen" but NO information about authentic, biblical meditation.  There was no solid gospel presented in 75 minutes. 

 

I have learned that hundreds of once-solid Bible colleges are flirting with the mystical so why should my school be exempt?

 

In 2009, we witnessed a huge growth in the new "mystical spirituality" so popular today.  Mysticism is often presented as a gimmicky way to get closer to God through practices that are ungodly.  Almost without exception, the practices are presented by professing Christians. One cannot help but recall all the Bible verses that warn of this. "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" (Col. 2:8).  

 

Newsweek magazine picked up on the explosion of the mystical last year by writing that we're all Hindus now. Newsweek says, "A recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, ourselves, each other, and eternity."

 

Minnesota has always been proud of our wonderful Mayo Clinic, just 90 minutes south of me in Rochester, MN. In 1989 it saved my own life. But in recent years they, too, have brought in the mystical and now they are peddling an "iPhone meditation app". It begins with a 50-second video explaining mystical meditation, reinforced by an iconic image of a sandy, palm tree-lined beach with cool blue water. It then instructs users on breathing and meditation techniques using a series of chimes, tones, and blue or white circles. Find the information here.  

 

This device also allows users to flip through 10 "healing thoughts" at the base of the main screen, which users can share via Twitter, e-mail, etc.

 

People who are at any major medical clinic are compromised in many ways: Physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. They may have been laboring for months or years with chronic illness or terminal illness. They are open to anything that could change their health circumstances. Offering them a "meditation routine" that comes out of Hinduism, Buddhism, and the "New Age" is hardly helpful. It is strikingly harmful.  I wrote about many related issues in my 1993 book Waiting for a Miracle. I understand this phenomenon better than most and that was affirmed by the hundreds of thank you notes I have received over the years.

 

It's doubtful that such outfits as the Mayo Clinic would promote the Bible and healing Bible verses. Instead, Mayo Clinic and related institutions import Eastern meditative practices that can seriously harm those who tap into them.  At a time when one is facing a health crisis, all the world has to offer them is a device called a "mobile app." I spent two weeks at this wonderful clinic in 1994, before this trend hit. Had it been around and had I tapped into this "mobile app" in the years when I was struggling for physical and emotional healing, I would have tapped into energy forces that were destructive and not restorative.

 

Watch for the "meditation" craze to only get worse as Satan's demonic forces try to seduce and take people away from the gospel and biblical meditation. When you hear national Christian leaders inch closer and closer to embracing false meditation and all things mystical, make a mental note to scrutinize their programs, books, etc. Send out warnings to loved ones. No one is beyond being deceived. Sadly, the paranormal is the new normal.  Be "watchmen on the wall" and sound a warning.

 

The good news is that God is only a prayer away. We don't need "iPhone mobile apps" to go deeper with God. Technology is overstepping its bounds! But the tragedy is that it is being used to allegedly "restore" sick people via risky meditative practices, and these folks tapping into it -- out of desperation -- may not have a clue! 

 

To better understand this, visit our Web category of "Spiritual Deception." 

  

Note: Due to volume, we cannot reply to each e-mail, but all are read. To unsubscribe, scroll to the very bottom and click "SafeUnsubscribe."

 

RADIO: Wondering what the real story is behind the global warming confab in Copenhagen? Trying to understand "Climategate"? How about the insidious "cap and trade" legislation on the horizon? And you won't believe what is being perpetrated on "Darwin doubters." Find it all posted to "Radio Archives" for January 9, 2009. For podcasting info through iTunes, visit this link. Live Saturday programming is posted to "Radio Archives" late Sunday. 

 

We headquarter out of AM980 KKMS, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Saturday, 9 to 11 AM CST simulcast with AM1280 The Patriot (WWTC) at the same time. There is a Sunday replay on KKMS from 12 Noon to 2 PM. There is a forthcoming replay on The Patriot January 24. You can always tap into those stations and "listen live." 

 

For our other radio outlets, visit this link. 

Awaiting His return,

 

Jan Markell 

 

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The Occult and Prayer

The Hijacking of Prayer

Alternative medicine has embraced prayer as a healing modality, and in doing so, it has repeatedly fooled even mature Christians. This has occurred in two ways. One is exemplified by a 1988 study reported in the above-noted Time article, "Faith and Healing." Nearly 400 patients in the coronary care unit at San Francisco General Hospital were randomly assigned to two groups. Patients in the "experimental" group were prayed for by born-again Christians, while those in the "control" group were not. Neither group of patients knew this was being done. Lo and behold, the prayed-for group had one-third the number of complications. Some Christians who become aware of such studies are thrilled: Finally science is validating what the Bible says about prayer.

But is God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, an appropriate subject for a controlled study? Is the potter going to be subject to a randomized protocol of the clay? Is prayer merely a form of spiritual technology? This type of experiment encompasses the worst of both worlds — misdirected science and presumptuous theology — and indirectly validates the misguided assumption (prevalent even among many Christians) that prayer is a cosmic call button, in response to which an omnipotent butler automatically fulfills human desires.

The other fake-out, involving some inventive verbal sleight of hand, is exemplified by the writings of Larry Dossey, M.D., author of the bestselling Healing Words and the more recent Prayer Is Good Medicine. Dossey is widely quoted even in reputable Christian publications because of his encouraging thoughts about the role of prayer in healing. But his notions of prayer extend well beyond the basic concept of communication between a human being and the omniscient, omnipotent, and loving Creator. He views prayer as a "nonlocal" extension of human consciousness: "Prayer actually enlarges the reach of human consciousness. It is a way for us to transcend our physical limitations — to be nonlocal, like gods.It doesn’t matter much whether one prays to Jehovah or to the entire universe, or merely extends positive thoughts in another person’s direction. To him it’s all prayer and it’s all good.


In the Bible, however, the importance of worshiping and honoring the one true God is of paramount concern. It does matter to whom we pray, and with what attitude. Furthermore, doing so requires that we have a clear understanding that God is God, and we aren’t — which brings us full circle to the last and most serious problem with alternative medicine.

Problems for Health Care 

Professionals

Embracing the Occult

Not only is health care being invaded by occult therapies and other practices, but health care workers are being subtly asked to embrace the occult and use it. For example, at a nearby hospice signs are constantly posted on bulletin boards, in breakrooms and in the work station announcing new classess being offered in Reiki. All disciplines including nurses, social workers, home health aids and chaplains are strongly encouraged to sign up for these classess and receive training. Promises are made that participants abilities to calm agitated patients and slow the disease process or even bring healing will be enhanced. Thses classess are offered so often that staff recognize that it is strongly encouraged to take them and that to omit participating in them would not be looked upon favorably.

Staff members are not just asked to study and learn about occult based therapies, but they are informed that the goal of training is that these therapies will be regularly used on a daily basis. Staff members are told that these practices are a form of alternative medicine and that they can even receive CEU credit for taking the courses. The frightening thing is that once trained, health care professionals are not only being asked to be aware of these alternative practices, but to embrace them and use them fully. None of them are told that Reiki or other touch therapies are based on spiriritual beliefs rather than  scientific and medical prinicipals. They are not aware that these particular alternative therapies are derivites of Buddhist teaching and mysticism. They are also not informed that their philosophical underpinnings contradict their own Christian faith and require them to violate it.

Also equally true is that evangelical staff members who have some awareness of the spiritual nature of touch therapies are not encouraged to take the training that is offered. Management that provides the training is well aware that if evangelical Christians are exposed to Reiki training that they will denounce it and expose it for what it is. One evangelical chaplain requested taking classes like any other staff member but was refused by his superior who evidently had something to hide. To be denied the training was discriminatory becaucse he was treated differently than the rest of the staff who were welcomed  to be part of the training. Management knew that it would be impossible for a person indwelt by the power of the Holy Spirit to be effectively trained as a Reiki healer. The Bible states, "What fellowship do believers have with Belial?" Even non-Christians understand this.

Embracing practices foreign to Christianity is nothing new to health care. For a long time Christians in health care have had to not only encourage patients to find solace in cult and occult beliefs and practices, but have even had to participate in those practcies as a job requirement or be fired. For instance, chaplains must design their prayers in accordance with a persons lack of faith, faith in false doctrine and practice and omit any mention of faith with those who are antithetical to faith whatsoever. Chaplains must pray the rosary in one patient room, provide Christian Science literature in the next patient room, and counsel the Jehovah witness in the next patient room that they have every hope to be counted among the 144,000 that are going to enter into the highest realm of God's celestial kingdom follwoing the battle of Armmageddon. Embracing this way of spiritual care misleads and misguides patients and their families and is in fact lying to them as well. Chaplains who do these things must sear their conscience against the voice of the Holy Spirit and deny their own faith. The same is true for nurses and other health care workers who though not primarily responsible for spiritual care, but often find themselves providing it in lieu of the absence of other professionals particulalry on evening shifts. Doctors are not required to facilitate the beliefs of Jehovah Witnesses who refuse blood transfusions or Christian Scientists who deny their child medical care, but chaplains, nurses and other health care professionals are constantly required to do just that. Where is the equity in this?

The Bible commands us to "come out from among them and be ye seperate". God wants a "royal priesthood and a holy nation" of believers to serve Him and stand for their faith in Christ daily in the marketplace. This may mean that Christians in health care must make some radical job related desicions in order to remain faithful to their calling in Christ. This is a thought to ponder. However, rest assured, that if you are working in health care today, you will find your faith being violated more and more often. You will find yourself needing to make choices, choices between serving Christ and serving the institution that you work in.