Christian or New Age? Part 4

This article is from the Catholic Herald

The Enneagram: What's Your Number?
Susan Brinkmann, Special to the HeraldAug 23, 2007 4:15 PM
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth part of a series that examines how Catholics are being challenged by followers of New Age philosophies.]

If you’re a "seven," you’re a compulsive optimist who likes everything warm and fuzzy.
"Sevens" don’t get along very well with "fours," because "fours" are too "artsy" and think suffering is a way to be special in a plain world.

If you’re not sure what number you are, perhaps you’ve never been exposed to the enneagram, a numerical system of nine personality types that is often popular with people involved in New Age philosophies. They use it for spiritual direction and self-knowledge.

Followers are taught how to identify their enneagram type, improve their personality, and "pray in sync" with whatever their "type" may be.

That might sound harmless, but it is not, according to the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Interreligious Dialogue

In their 2003 document, "Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the New Age," the councils describe enneagrams this way: "(T)he enneagram, [is a] nine-type tool for character analysis, which when used as a means of spiritual growth introduces an ambiguity in the doctrine and the life of the Christian faith."

The problem with the enneagram starts with its roots.

Derived from the Greek word "ennea," which means nine, and "gramma," which means line drawing, the enneagram is a circle around an inner triangle and hexagon.

At the nine points where the angles touch the circle are nine personality types: the perfectionist, the caregiver, the achiever, the artist, the observer, the team player, the optimist, the competitor and the peacemaker.

"The circle symbolizes creation and the unity of life," writes Father Mitch Pacwa, S.J., in his book, "Catholics and the New Age" (Servant, 1992) "The triangle represents the Trinity, the threeness in God, which is ‘inside creation."’

But the Christian symbolism is just a veneer.

According to Father Pacwa’s research, the enneagram entered Western culture through the teachings of two men: George Gurdjieff and Oscar Ichazo. Gurdjieff brought the actual symbol from the Orient, and Ichazo was responsible for applying the various personality "types" to the symbol.

Occult influences appear in the teachings of both men.

Gurdjieff was a Russian millionaire who established what he called the "Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man" in Moscow in 1922. He learned the enneagram symbol during his travels through central Asia. He claimed that Muslim mystics, known as Sufis, taught him the enneagram’s numerology and other mystical uses, including divination — which is forbidden in Deuteronomy 18:9-14 and other Bible passages.

Ichazo’s history is even more troubling. Born in 1931, Ichazo claimed he was having out-of-body experiences at the age of 6, which resulted in his leaving the church. He claimed that he could not accept Catholic teaching on heaven or hell because he had been there, and knew more about them than Christ and the church.

To gain control of his own consciousness, Ichazo studied Oriental martial arts, Zen, Andes Indian thought, shamanism, yoga, hypnotism and psychology. He joined esoteric groups in Bolivia and Argentina and traveled to Hong Kong, India and Tibet to study mysticism.

Ichazo claims to have received instructions from a higher entity, called "Metatron, the prince of the archangels." Members of his group contact lower spirits through meditation and mantras, and are guided by an internal master, known as the Green Qu’ Tub, who makes himself known when a student reaches a sufficiently high stage of development.

Many instructors of the enneagram, including Ichazo and Gurdjieff, have claimed its roots go back as far as 2500 B.C. in Mesopotamia, but the only historic evidence Father Pacwa could find for the enneagram goes back no further than the 1960s.

His own enthusiasm for the enneagram faded as he became increasingly aware of serious problems with the concept, from its purported antiquity and links to occultism to a variety of theological problems. He also found there is a danger in using a scientifically untested system for the purpose of helping people deal with personality disorders.

That concern is shared by Christopher Rees, whose article "The Enneagram and Catholic Personalism" appeared in the April 2001 issue of the journal Homiletics and Pastoral Review.
"Unlike some ‘personality type indices,’ the enneagram remains untested by any scientific study," Rees wrote.

"Like Sufism, the ‘dynamisms’ adopted in each of the nine ‘types’ depends on which guru or shaikh you prefer," Rees added. "There are as many ways of constructing groups and interpreting the enneagram as there are gurus. So the only apparent similarity the enneagram shares with behavioral sciences is its lack of a paradigm."

Because the enneagram has descriptions that read like those for esoteric systems such as tarot cards, astrology and biorhythms, according to Rees, "advocacy of the enneagram by some Catholics is more problematic.

"The Gnostic roots manifest in all enneagram systems guarantee that enneagram systems can never be reconciled with the sacred deposit of faith," he said.
Those gnostic roots are also particularly troublesome to Father Lawrence J. Gesy, the cult consultant for the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the lead author of "Today’s Destructive Cults and Movements."

"Gnosticism is a heresy that has existed since the time of the Greeks," Father Gesy said. "It is based on the belief that we are saved by our knowledge and not by our faith.

The truth, as taught by the Catholic Church, is different in that, he noted: "Our wisdom does not save us, but the humility to surrender to God’s grace as the source of salvation is essential for the Christian self-transformation. We are not saved by our own merits or our wisdom — but with God’s assistance. In other words, self-transformation is impossible, but transformation by God’s grace is possible."

The enneagram joins other New Age beliefs because of its reliance on self rather than on God, Father Gesy said: "It gives credit to the creature rather than the Creator for the source of our being and salvation."

Father Pacwa agrees. "The mixture of so many non-Christian elements in the enneagram system raises the need to be very careful about accepting it wholeheartedly," he warned in his book.

In fact, Father Pacwa wrote, Catholics should be wary of putting their faith in any system that remains so untested, and which lacks any established norms for its concepts or instructors.
"No tests, no standards, no board of examination exists," he says, "so most enneagram ‘experts’ have that title through self-declaration and workshop advertising.

"People do not go to doctors and psychologists unless that practitioner is tested and licensed," Father Pacwa said. "Should not some similar requirement be made of enneagram teachers, who not only explain what your personality is like, but make recommendations about what you should be like?"

NEXT ISSUE: Is accupuncture acceptable for Catholics?
(This article originally appeared in The Catholic Standard and Times, the Philadelphia archdiocesan newspaper.)

Christian or New Age? Part 3

This is from the Catholic Herald online

Reiki and healing touch


Susan Brinkmann, Special to the HeraldAug 9, 2007 12:15 PM

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third part of a series that examines how Catholics are being challenged by followers of New Age philosophies.]

Everyone wants to be healed. Anyone who has ever attended a healing Mass can attest to the crowds that flock to the altar of the Lord to receive his healing touch.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of imitations available in the so-called "New Age" movement. One of the most popular is Reiki, with a variety of close cousins such as "healing touch," "therapeutic touch" and "hands of light."

Those alternative therapies are among practices that Catholics are cautioned about in a Vatican document, "Jesus Christ The Bearer of the Water of Life — A Christian reflection on the ‘New Age,’" issued in 2003 by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

In their warning, the councils note that in such New Age therapies, "the source of healing is said to be within ourselves, something we reach when we are in touch with our inner energy or cosmic energy."

Reiki

According to Moira Noonan, a former Reiki Master and author of a memoir, "Ransomed from Darkness," that is, indeed, what Reiki teaches.

"Reiki is a method of healing through the transmission and activation of a person’s spiritual energy," she writes. "This therapy looks somewhat like the Christian laying-on of hands, but this is deceptive. The symbolism of Reiki is deeply influenced by Buddhist traditions and invisible spirit guides. These spirit guides are specifically invoked by name to confer their healing powers."

There is discrepancy in what is said to be the true history of Reiki. For instance, organizations that are involved in selling the concept to the largely Christian West either downplay or deny its association with Buddhism. See "What Catholics believe" later in this article.
However, disinterested parties, such as academic centers for religious studies, seem to agree on certain key facts about Reiki.

First, it was said to be rediscovered in the 19th century by a medical doctor named Mikao Usui.
Second, Usui rediscovered Reiki during a 21-day retreat devoted to studying Buddhist Tantric texts. Tantric Buddhism involves the use of spells, incantations, complicated rituals and magical powers to achieve enlightenment.

And, third, Reiki energy supposedly entered Usui during his retreat.
From that time on, Usui had healing power, and he initiated others into the secrets of that power through what he called "attunements."

In that procedure, "attunement energies" are channeled into students through Reiki masters, who are guided by the Rei or God-consciousness, and by other Reiki "guides" and other spiritual entities that help the process along.

Like other forms of New Age healing, Reiki is promoted as a technique that is obtainable through weekend workshops. Becoming a Reiki master can be expensive: Workshop fees range from $175 to $500.

Healing Touch

Healing practices that are based on using energy-channeling to heal have morphed into a variety of techniques known as "healing touch" or "therapeutic touch."

One of the most popular is promoted by Barbara Brennan, a former NASA research scientist turned New Age healer. The author of "Hands of Light," Brennan is regarded as one of the most widely recognized teachers of New Age healing that uses spirit guides.

The former New-Ager Noonan attended Brennan’s institute.

"As Brennan herself admits, her ideas are drawn from direct communication with a spirit guide named Heyoan," Noonan writes in her memoir. "(Brennan’s) channelings from this entity are regularly published word-for-word by her institute, and offered to the world as expressions of divine wisdom.

"This is what I mean when I talk about the role of demons in the practice of Reiki," Noonan writes.

Another former New Age practitioner, Clare McGrath Merkle, had similar experiences with energy healers, which caused her to return to the Catholic faith.

Merkle is an accomplished author and speaker who has appeared on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) and various national radio programs. She now devotes her life to warning people about the dangers of the New Age.

Merkle says one popular, so-called energy healing technique is being promoted by a company called Healing Touch International (HTI).

HTI was founded in 1993 by two nurses who wanted to bring the influence of New Age "energy channeling" techniques to hospitals, schools and parishes.

Merkle writes in the article, "Is Healing Touch at your parish?" that "The HTI web site describes the techniques as ‘energy based healing therapies from a Judeo-Christian perspective.’ They (say they) teach ways to ‘integrate Healing Touch into church/parish healing ministry.’"

But, she says, beneath its Christian veneer, the principles underlying "Healing Touch" are not compatible with Catholicism.

"If you go to their Web site and look at their recommended resources and books, it’s a mile long of occult texts," Merkle said.

That is not how it appears to the public however: "They work in teams at hospitals, and come around to your bed and ask, ‘Would you like us to pray over you?’ Of course people who are sick are going to say yes. Then they start doing their ‘energy’ work."

Is this deliberate deception on the part of Healing Touch practitioners?

Probably not, Merkle says. The problem is that most practitioners have done little more than read a few books or take a few weekend workshops in their training. Very few can correctly identify the source of the "energy" they’re trying to manipulate.

According to Merkle, many experts say that although such "energy" techniques are known by different names, they have the same root: "The root is in Kundalini yoga and the raising of the ‘serpent power’ up the spine, opening the chakras and giving people magical occult powers. She says New Age "energy techniques" and "healing modalities," as they are called, are forms of this magic.

What Catholics Believe

The fact that these practices borrow from other religions is not the problem, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said in the 1989 document issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "Some Aspects of Christian Meditation." Speaking about various forms of Eastern meditation, he assures us that we can adopt what is good from other religions, "as long as the Christian conception of prayer, its logic and requirements are never obscured."
The problem with Reiki and healing touch is that it is based on beliefs peculiar to various forms of Hinduism and Buddhism which "posit the existence of a life energy (ki or kundalini) and interpret that energy as spiritual," which is not a Christian belief.

Christians believe that man is a union of body and soul, and that the soul is an essential form of the body — not an energy force.

"From a spiritual perspective, we believe the soul is the life-principle of the body, not something else," wrote the editors at Catholic Answers. "Consequently, there is no spiritual ‘life energy’ animating the body. Any energy used as part of the body’s operations — such as the electricity in our nervous system — is material in nature, not spiritual. . . . Since this (belief) is contrary to Christian theology, it is inappropriate for Christians to participate in activities based on this belief."

Jesuit Father Mitch Pacwa, an internationally known biblical scholar and popular television and radio host, raises another question about practitioners of those and other healing fads that are being practiced, in some cases, on a church’s property.
"Are these people practicing medicine without a license?" he asks. "And if so, who is going to be liable if there’s a malpractice suit?"

Although many practitioners sincerely believe they are helping people, there is no scientific study associated with any of these methods, Father Pacwa says.
Even more troubling is the fact that their practitioners disguise them as a form of the Christian laying-on of hands, according to Father Pacwa.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the laying on of hands as a "sign" (CCC, No. 699) not a means of channeling "energy."

"Reiki is an attempt to make a ‘technique’ out of praying for the sick," Father Pacwa said. "Praying for the sick has to be understood as an aspect of God’s grace operative in our lives. It’s not a ‘technique.’ That’s where it becomes ‘magical,’ and Christianity is not about using magic."NEXT TOPIC: We look at enneagrams.

(This article originally appeared in The Catholic Standard and Times, the Philadelphia archdiocesan newspaper.)

Christian Or New Age? Part 2

This is from the Catholic Herald online.

Ten questions to help you determine 'Christian or New Age?'
Susan Brinkmann/Special to the HeraldJul 30, 2007 11:00 AM

The following is an excerpt from "Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian Reflection on the ‘New Age,’" a document published by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

1. Is God a being with whom we have a relationship (Christian) or something to be used or a force to be harnessed (New Age)?

The Pontifical councils explain, "The New Age concept of God is rather diffused . . . The New Age god is an impersonal energy. ‘[G]god’ in this sense is the life-force or soul of the world. Divinity is to be found in every being," from a single crystal up to and beyond God himself.

"This is very different from the Christian understanding of God as the maker of heaven and earth and the source of all personal life," the councils say. "God is in himself, personal, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who created the universe in order to share the communion, of his life with creaturely persons."

2. Is there just one Jesus Christ (Christian) or are there thousands of Christs (New Age)?
Jesus is often represented in New Age writings as one among many wise men or great prophets.
Christians believe Jesus Christ is God, the Second Person of the Trinity, the same Jesus of Nazareth about which the Gospels speak, who is the only Son of God, true man and true God.
3. The human being: Is there one universal being (New Age) or are there many individuals (Christian)?

The concept of "holism"— which is the theory that complete entities, including human beings, are components of a larger reality, that has an existence over and above the sum total of themselves — pervades New Age thought and practice, where union with the whole cosmos is sought.

"The real danger is the holistic paradigm. New Age thinking is based on totalitarian unity and that is why it is a danger," the councils write.
The Christian approach is that each man and woman is a unique creation, made in God’s image and likeness. Our human "wholeness" does not come about by achieving union with the cosmos.

"The human person is a mystery fully revealed only in Jesus Christ," the councils explain, "and in fact becomes authentically human in his relationship with Christ through the gift of the Spirit."

4. Do we save ourselves (New Age) or is salvation a free gift from God (Christian)?
The Pontifical councils put the question this way: "Do we save ourselves by our own actions, as is often the case in New Age explanations, or are we saved by God’s love?"

The response: "For Christians, salvation depends on participation in the passion, death and resurrection of Christ, and on a direct personal relationship with God, rather than on any technique. The human situation, affected as it is by original sin and by personal sin, can be rectified only by God’s action: Sin is an offense against God, and only God can reconcile us to himself."

5. Do we invent truth (New Age), or do we embrace it (Christian)?

"New Age truth is about good vibrations, cosmic correspondence, harmony and ecstacy, in general, pleasant experiences," the councils’ document states. "It is a matter of finding one’s own truth in accordance with the feel-good factor."

Christians believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

"His followers are asked to open their whole lives to him and to his values. In other words, to an objective set of values which are part of an objective reality ultimately knowable to all," the councils write.

6. Prayer and meditation: Are we talking to ourselves (New Age) or to God (Christian)?
"The tendency to confuse psychology and spirituality makes it hard not to insist that many of the meditation techniques now used are not prayer," state the councils. "They are often a good preparation for prayer, but no more, even if they lead to a more pleasant state of mind or bodily comfort."

Christian prayer, by contrast, is a double orientation which involves "introspection but is essentially also a meeting with God. Far from being a merely human effort, Christian mysticism is essentially a dialogue, which ‘implies an attitude of conversion, a flight from "self" to the "you" of God.’"

7. Are we tempted to deny sin (New Age) or do we accept that there is such a thing (Christian)?
"In New Age, there is no real concept of sin, but rather one of imperfect knowledge; what is needed is enlightenment, which can be reached through particular psycho-physical techniques," the councils say.

Those who ascribe to New Age philosophies "are never told what to believe, what to do or what not to do [but, rather] ‘There are a thousand ways of exploring inner reality. Go where your intelligence and intuition lead you. Trust yourself.’"

In the Christian perspective, "only in the knowledge of God’s plan for man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God gives to created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one another. Sin is an offence against reason, truth and right conscience; it is a failure in genuine love for God and neighbor," the Vatican councils say.

8. Are we encouraged to reject suffering and death (New Age) or accept it (Christian)?

"Some New Age writers view suffering as self-imposed or as bad karma, or at least as a failure to harness one’s own resources . . .," the councils explain.

"Reincarnation is often seen as a necessary element in spiritual growth, a state in progressive spiritual evolution which began before we were born and will continue after we die. . . .

"Reincarnation is irreconcilable with the Christian belief that a human person is a distinct being who lives one life for which he or she is fully responsible . … The Redeemer suffered in place of man and for man. Every man has his own share in the redemption. Each one is called to share in that suffering through which all human suffering has also been redeemed. In bringing about the redemption through suffering, Christ has also raised human suffering to the level of the redemption."

9. Is social commitment something to be ignored (New Age) or positively sought after (Christian)?

"Much in New Age is unashamedly self-promotion. . . . The fusion of individuals into the cosmic self, the relativisation or abolition of difference and opposition in a cosmic harmony, is unacceptable to Christianity," the councils state.

On the other hand, they write, Christians believe that "where there is true love, there has to be a different other (person). A genuine Christian searches for unity in the capacity and freedom of the other to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the gift of love. Union is seen in Christianity as communion; unity as community."

10. Is our future in the stars (New Age) or do we help construct it (Christian)?
A fundamental New Age belief is based on the idea of an imminent astrological Age of Aquarius, which will end the period of the last 2,000 years, known as the Age of Pisces — which is referred to as the Christian age.

According to the pontifical councils: "[New Agers believe that] the New Age which is dawning will be peopled by perfect, androgynous beings who are totally in command of the cosmic laws of nature. In this scenario, Christianity has to be eliminated and give way to a global religion and a new world order."

Aside from the fact that astrology is not a science, but rather, an ancient belief system, Christians do not believe in the passage of astrological ages.

Christians believe that the true new age began 2,000 years ago with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Because Christians believe he will come again, they are always vigilant, not knowing when will be the day or the hour of his triumphant return.