To my dismay, I have been hearing from several people that hospitals are incorporating New Age practices. It’s very harrowing how much the devil has infiltrated hospitals:
A circular advertising several yoga classes (including Vinyasa Yoga, in which one asana flows into another), two Tai Chi classes, and one Qi Gong class arrived in my mail. This pamphlet was sent out by a company that owns and runs a large hospital in my area. Eleven of the 17 classes offered in the category of “Fitness” fall into the Eastern/New Age category.
The description under Qi Gong invites the reader to “Learn simple movements to cultivate chi (life force energy) to help you relax your body and mind, heighten your sense of well being, reduce stress, support your immune system and attain your greatest potential for health and happiness.” (The explanation of “life force energy” is part of their description and was not inserted by this writer). Qi Gong is not medically based, but rather has a spiritual foundation.
Kissing the Qi: Qi Gong and Tai Chi
Qi (also spelled “ch’i” or “ki”) is from the ancient Chinese religion of Taoism. Taoism had its origins in early Chinese Shamanism. These early Shamans believed there was a force in the universe, in nature, and within them. By cultivating the force within (qi or ch’i) through various exercises, movements, special diets and herbs, breathing exercises, and meditation (altered states), they believed they could enhance their life force and be healthier and live longer. Some even taught that you could attain immortality. The exercises were also used for divination (http://www.chikung-unlimited.com/Shamanic.html)This is the origin of Qi Gong (also spelled Chi Kung).
“Chinese shamans used these exercises and meditations to commune with nature and natural forces and to increase their powers of healing and divination” (Kenneth S. Cohen, “What is Qigong?” http://www.qigonghealing.com/qigong/qigong.html). Qi Gong was absorbed into Taoism: “Qigong was the ideal way for Taoists to realize their goal of wuji, an empty, alert, boundless state of consciousness, and xing ming shuang xiu, ‘spirit and body cultivated in balance'” (Cohen). There was no centralized authority or doctrine, so the teachings of Qi Gong and Taoism spread over the centuries via many teachers and an abundance of textual writings, spawning numerous sects.No matter where you look, Qi Gong consistently has a spiritual element: “Some of the ways Qigong can be used is; to move the qi internally to remove stagnation, to connect with and draw upon universal qi, to balance the qi both internally and externally, to release negative or harmful qi and cultivate positive qi” and “the basic common philosophy is that qi is inherent in everything in the universe, including humans (we are not as special as we like to think). When this qi or energy stagnates or becomes out of balance we become sick. When it is in balance and flows freely we live healthy and happy lives,”(http://www.greenmountaintaichi.com/Qigong.cfm).
The belief in yin and yang (or yinyang), which had been part of the early Chinese animism, became associated with and absorbed by Taoism. The Tao is ultimate reality in Taoism (there is no personal God) and it is from the Tao that everything comes via yin and yang. Yin and yang are the two essential forces that manifest the material realm and are part of everything that exists. Ch’i is a result of the interplay of Yin and Yang. Tai Chi, often called a “moving meditation,” is based on the belief in qi (ch’i). The National Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine states that “Tai chi incorporates the Chinese concepts of yin and yang (opposing forces within the body) and qi (a vital energy or life force). Practicing tai chi is said to support a healthy balance of yin and yang, thereby aiding the flow of qi” (“Tai Chi: An Introduction,” http://nccam.nih.gov/health/taichi/).
Traditional Chinese medicine was based on the belief that the ch’i flows through invisible channels in the body called meridians. If the ch’i is disturbed, the yin and yang are imbalanced and illness results. Remedies for this included various herbs and practices such as acupuncture.
Qi Gong (or Chi Kung) is based on these beliefs, and is possibly one of the earliest byproducts of Chinese Shamanism. Some believe that Tai Chi is a form of Qi Gong. Qi Gong and Tai Chi, like Yoga, originally were esoteric teachings passed on from master to student/disciple. Qi Gong and Tai Chi are occult spiritual practices with no medical basis.
This is only a brief summary, as the teachings are very complex and beyond the scope of this essay.
Take a Dose of Mindfulness and Call Me in the Morning
In addition to Yoga and Qi Gong classes, hospitals around the country have taken on the teachings of Jon Kabat-Zinn (b. 1944), a Zen Buddhist (although he attended Quaker college Haverford). Kabat-Zinn started a mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979. The headquarters for this training, now called the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, promotes and markets the MBSR program. This program, based on Buddhist beliefs and meditation, has inculcated its philosophy in over 200 medical centers, hospitals, and clinics around the world (http://www.mindfullivingprograms.com/whatMBSR.php). The influence of Kabat-Zinn cannot be underestimated; any search for his name on the Internet will bring forth thousands of links. He is perhaps the person most responsible for the spread of the ubiquitous term “mindfulness” in the United States.
“Mindfulness,” one of the teachings of the Buddhist eight-fold path, is cultivated via Buddhist mediation, a technique that induces altered states (the same as a light hypnotic trance). Mindfulness is based on the Buddhist belief that desire causes suffering; therefore, in order to escape the suffering in the cycle of rebirths, one must cultivate non-attachment in order to disengage from desire, which is a grasping at the illusion of self and life in this world (this is a weak attempt at summarizing a complex philosophy, but it gives the basic idea).
Mindfulness did not originate as a stress reduction technique, but was designed to foster and enhance Buddhist practice and a Buddhist worldview. To separate it from its religious context misleads those who are unaware of its Buddhist roots and purposes.
Psychic Nursing: Therapeutic Touch and Reiki
Therapeutic Touch is an energy healing practiced by a person holding hands over and scanning the body of another without touching. The roots of Therapeutic Touch (TT) are no mystery; they are straight out of the occult. Dora Kunz, one time president of the Theosophical Society, an occult organization founded by Madame Blavatsky in 1875, taught this then-esoteric healing technique to nurse Dolores Krieger, who subsequently took it to the nursing community at conferences and seminars. From there it spread via nurses into hospitals. Therapeutic Touch and psychic healing are identical; they are one and the same.
The next occult healing technique to invade the medical world was Reiki. Reiki, allegedly founded by Mikao Usui, a Tendai Buddhist in Japan, is another form of energy healing, although there is physical contact, unlike in TT. In order to be a healer of this esoteric practice, one must have the energy within one’s self “awakened” by a Reiki master. This inner awakening is ubiquitous in occult initiations.
There are three levels in traditional Reiki, and all are learned in secret fashion. Reiki has been somewhat deconstructed as it has flowed along the alternative healing paths, and many Reiki practitioners have wed it with New Age and occult practices such as having angelic or other spirit guides. Nurses can receive Continuing Education degrees for taking a Reiki course. Can you imagine a Continuing Education degree being offered to nurses for psychic or Tarot card readings on patients? Yet Reiki differs little from these; they all share an occult origin, nature, and worldview.
Some have observed that people’s blood pressure and heart rate goes down after a Reiki session, but this does not validate Reiki. The mere presence of someone who is expressing care and concern for the patient, coupled with the patient’s belief that this method may be helpful, is enough for such results to occur. This possibility has been noted as well. Therefore, there is still no evidence that Reiki has any actual effect in and of itself on making someone feel better. It has also been reported that some have felt nothing or even worse after a Reiki session.
Hospitals: Incubators of Shamanism?
Alternative/Complementary/Blended/Integrated healing has been rapidly infiltrating the medical world. These practices downgrade reason and science; instead, they offer a spiritual worldview whose basis is subjective and anecdotal rather than factual and objective. A huge impetus for this came when the alternative health-friendly National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was established by the National Institutes of Health in 1993. This opened the door to a surge of spiritually-based practices, most of which cannot be scientifically tested because they are not based on objective data.
The situation might be less alarming if physicians and hospitals informed patients and prospective patients about the spiritual nature of these systems, and that there is very little or no evidence for their claims or value. However, this is not the case. Instead, these spiritually based methods are promoted in hospital literature, brochures, and by some medical staff, as though they are valid and harmless treatments.
One might think, “Well, the hospitals view Yoga, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong as merely physical, so it’s okay.” Even if hospitals have this opinion, it is an opinion only, and people should be informed that these traditions are of spiritual origin. Furthermore, people should be told that evidence for any effectiveness of these “exercises,” is, for the most part, ongoing and sketchy. Then let people make their own choices.
In the case of Reiki, there is no excuse for offering Reiki without disclosing that this is nothing more than a psychic “healing” method. Healing is big in the world of the occult, but the healing is based on magical and spiritual outlooks. Furthermore, if there are negative spiritual, mental, or physical repercussions, as has been reported by some, these effects will not necessarily be immediately observed, yet they will ultimately be experienced by the recipient. If hospitals and medical staff are truly concerned about patients, or even about being sued, they should err on the side of caution.
Are we welcoming a new Dark Age that values esoteric spirituality over objective data, when shamans will be our healers? These practices, once unknown to mainstream culture and the medical profession, are worming their way into the very heart of the medical world, which has rendered itself a willing and complicit victim.
If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior you can receive Him into your heart and He can deliver you from darkness and sin and have your name written in His Book of Life.
If you are sincere you can say this simple prayer to the Father (it doesn’t have to be word for word):
“God, I recognize that I have not lived my life for You up until now. I have been living for myself and that is wrong. Please forgive me of all of my sins just as I forgive others. I need You in my life; I want You in my life. I acknowledge the completed work of Your only begotten Son Jesus Christ in giving His life for me on the cross, I believe in my heart Jesus is Lord and was raised from the dead and I long to receive the forgiveness you have made freely available to me through this sacrifice. Come into my life now, Lord. Take up residence in my heart and be my king, my Lord, and my Savior. From this day forward, I will no longer be controlled by sin, or the desire to please myself, but I will follow You all the days of my life. Those days are in Your hands. I ask this in the Lord and GOD Jesus’ precious and holy name. Amen.”
I used to work for hospice and our nurses were encouraged to learn Reiki and we now offer it to our patients who are dying it’s so terrible. I often wonder what happens to them when they die. But only God knows 😢
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That is horrible. It’s shocking that this is spreading.
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I’m currently blogging about this in the church if you guys would like to read. http://www.themorethemessier.com
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Buddhism is a humane, beautiful and much respected philosophy practiced by countless millions.
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Buddhism is a false religion.The Lord Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, no man comes to the Father but by Him.
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Buddhism is not a religion. It is a philosophy, a way of life. You should perhaps read up on the life of Buddha before condemning a way of life practiced by millions.
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First, as a once nurse of 14 years, now as a Spiritual Counselor – American Hospitals are no longer a place of healing. Our emergency medicine is good, but when it comes to true healing and getting to the root of illness, hospitals are a corporate cash cow. Feeding unhealthy food, and give big pharma pills to cover up symptoms and make sicker.
We have the ability to heal ourselves when we listen within. Eat healthy, exercise take God given herbs from the earth, meditate, listen, pray, and spend time on nature not in front of television.
Secondly-
Did you know that records of Jesus (King Issa) visiting and staying at the very Buddhist Monastry where they were found under the floor, which were found to be written at the same time of his life? Jesus moves beyond any religion, he encompasses all. It is your mind and ego that creates the walls of judgements and fear.
For Jesus said, “Do not fear.” “Your law does not say it, but I tell you, You are gods!” And the most important verse that is ignored by Christians of faith and pastors “The kingdom of Heaven Is within” and this is exactly what Bhudda did, he went within and found the kingdom of Heaven. Once you understand this the entire Bible opens up to you in a beautiful symphony of deeper wisdom and meaning. Do not fear.
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Kari, you are deceived. Jesus Christ never stayed at a Buddhist Monastery. Buddhism is a lie from satan as it is idolatrous. And you are not a god. Jesus Christ is the Almighty God and Creator. You have twisted scriptures to fit your delusional, New Age-y worldview.
Please repent and turn to the real Biblical Jesus Christ for salvation. He loves you and doesn’t want you to die in your sins and end up in hell where there is weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. The Biblical Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and no man comes to the Father but by Him (John 14:6).
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Read your bible friend. And go within. You are consumed by the very things you fear.
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I have read the Bible. How about you study the Bible so you will know it condemns your false beliefs.
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Mine are no longer beliefs, but a knowing from experience. There are people of spirit and those of faith. Before you can become a being of spirit, you have to have faith of Jesus’s ability to resurrect. Which he said before he went upon the cross. “All I have done, you can do and more, for your law does not say it, but I tell you, You are gods”. Thus, once you have faith that this is true, which was Paul’s role to gather up those of faith to move them closer to Jesus and into the next step of knowing that we are all Spirit which takes a climbing of “Jacobs Ladder”. An ascension into Divine Love. The coming of Christ within the heart of man. This is all that’s happening now. A revolution of Spirit. For the longest journey man will ever travel is that from his head to his heart. Infinite Blessings on your path.
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Mine are no longer beliefs, but a knowing from experience. There are those of Spirit and those of faith. To know that you are Spirit, you have to have faith of Jesus’s ability to resurrect. Which he said before he went upon the cross. “All I have done, you can do and more, for your law does not say it, but I tell you, You are gods”.
Thus, once you have faith that this is true, which was Paul’s role to gather up those of faith to move them closer to Jesus and into the next step of knowing that we are all Spirit, takes a climbing of “Jacobs Ladder” above fear and suffering. An ascension and welcoming of Divine Love. It is The coming of Christ within the heart of man. This is all that’s happening now. A revolution of Spirit. For the longest journey man will ever travel is that from his head to his heart. Infinite Blessings on your path.
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In response to Kari’s comment, the lie that satan used in the beginning, that instigated the fall of man: he told Adam and Eve if they ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree, that they would become like Gods. No human being is or ever was a God, other than Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, but without sin.We humans are God’s creation. The Bible clearly states that we are not to worship the creation but the Creator. The Kingdom of Heaven is within us when we invite Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, repent of (turn from and ask forgiveness for) our sins, make a commitment to follow Him and allow His Spirit to dwell within and guide us. We were created in the image of God, but the transforming power of God is what brings about good fruit. We have no power without Him, but when we follow Him, He gives us the power to do all things that He calls us to do. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, BUT TEST THE SPIRITS, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” We are to avoid the teachings those who “have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof.” When Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead, He defeated death, hell and the grave. That was how satan was defeated, ultimately ensuring that everyone, past and present have access to God’s forgiveness, healing and delivering power, and a hope of eternal life. I’m not sure what point you were trying to make, but If by some means you are asserting that we are powerful in and of ourselves, you are not speaking in line with scripture. The only power we have is given by the only begotten son of God Himself and if we are to help people, its important to make sure the form of help we’re offering is in line and not in contrast to the WORD.
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“I am the All. Cleave a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up a stone, and You will find Me there.-For the Kingdom of Heaven is Within you. Be still and Know that I am God.- For I tell you, but your law does not say it. You are gods. Everything that I have done, you can do and more.”– Jesus
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Why are you quoting the Gospel of Thomas as scripture? Are you Gnostic?
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