The New Age Movement Enjoys an Astonishingly Broad Acceptance

The New Age Movement Enjoys An Astonishingly Broad Acceptance

Celebrities are the leading promoters of occult “spirituality.” Merv Griffin promoted Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Transcendental Meditation in the ’70s. Ten years ago Oprah Winfrey revealed that the “secret of her incredible vitality and energy [and] success… is her personal relationship with God.” The illegitimate daughter of a Mississippi Baptist minister, her mother couldn’t handle her and sent her to her father. “He drove the devil out of this hell-raiser,” says Oprah. Unfortunately, her idea of the devil and God is unbiblical. Winfrey “has embraced A Course in Miracles and on her show has agreed that ‘all religions lead to God.’”^[1] Says Oprah:

I center myself each morning by trying to touch the God light I believe is in all of us. Some people call it prayer, and some call it meditation. I call it centering up. I get boundless energy from that…. It is because of this God-centeredness that I am where I am.^[2]

Many other celebrities have joined Oprah in her pursuit of the occult.

Governments, too, pursue the occult! Ingo Swann, one of the founders of the remote-viewing program, explains that the United States became involved in psychic research because “the amount of money and personnel involved in the Soviet psychotronics clearly confirmed that they were serious about it and had already achieved breakthroughs which justified the increases in expenditures and tightest security.” He continues:

Several quite respectable sources have informed me that two major nations are making advances in psychoenergetics applications…. [and] a third smaller nation, with well-known hatred of the American way of life, is also making progress.

I know that liberated Russia sold for big bucks the Soviet psychic secrets three times over in order to acquire needed foreign exchange….

Remote viewers did help find SCUD missiles, did help find secret biological and chemical warfare projects [in Iraq], did locate tunnels and extensive underground facilities and identify their purposes.^[3]

There has also been apparent cooperation between the United States and the Russians in the field of psychic experimentation, much of it sponsored by Esalen,^[4] the New Age center south of San Francisco where the Human Potential movement was spawned in the 1960s. The Pentagon has had its own Meditation Club headed by Edward Winchester. He talked the Soviets into jointly “visualizing peace” during the height of the Cold War, and on a goodwill tour he meditated “inside the Kremlin… and distributed… meditation Kits … to peace committee officials in Moscow, Kiev, and Leningrad….” On a TV program “allegedly seen by 150 million Soviets, Winchester ran a public meditation in front of the Kazan Ca­thedral” in Leningrad.^[5]

Military and Government Involvement

It would take several books to report on the occult invasion of the U.S. military. Psychic Warrior by David Morehouse lifted the lid of secrecy on the military’s remote-viewing pro­gram. Morehouse reveals the intensive training involved for America’s psychic spies and warriors and some of their exploits. Contrary to the CIA’s claim that it has abandoned the program, Morehouse believes that “Star Gate is as active as ever but has gone further undercover… [and that] the government is taking this technique into the realm of weaponry….” Though officially retired, he can’t sleep at night “without the TV blaring, just to shut out all the internal data.”^[6]

The Monroe Institute in Faber, Virginia, founded by Robert Monroe, which teaches out­of-body trips (OBEs), has been a favorite with military and government officials and busi­ness leaders. After the death of his wife in 1992, Monroe claims to have taken an OBE to visit her, but couldn’t handle the emotion of it, so swore off OBEs for fear that if he took another one he might not come back. Now deceased, Monroe is truly out of his body and now knows what a lie this all was. Monroe received three patents for audio signals to in­duce an altered state of consciousness. Even Buddhist monks use the tapes “as a training tool.” As the Wall Street Journal reported:

Retired General Albert Stubblebine, former director of the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, confirms that the Army sent personnel to the institute in the 1980s… [while] investigating the potential military applications of psychic phenomenon….

The best-selling co-author of Beyond IBM, Katie McKeown, visited the institute… after the unexpected death of Louis Mobley, her friend and collaborator on the book…. Mobley communicated with her through James R. Hoover, a DuPont manager—and skeptic— attending the institute at company expense.

Mr. Hoover, who had never met Mr. Mobley… [was] skeptical until… Ms. McKeown… said that certain remarks could only have come from Mr. Mobley. That “scared the daylights out of me,” says Mr. Hoover. “I still get chills thinking about it.”^[7]

Ten years ago Representative Charles Rose claimed that “At any given time, about one fourth of congressmen are engaged in exploring psychic phenomena….”^[8] As a result of Orange County, California Treasurer Robert L. Citron’s reliance upon the investment advice of a psychic and an astrologer, the affluent county “lost $1.7 billion in risky investments… [and] declared bankruptcy December 6, 1994.”^[9] The New York Times News Service re­ported, “Washington [D.C.] rings with the opinions of futurists and spiritualists….”^[10] U.S. News & World Report, referring to the “spiritual dimension” in the nation’s capital, said that it is “unsettling that the speaker of the House drinks deep from the advice of spiritualists…. The Clintons have met with Marianne Williamson, the best-selling author who promotes the power of miracles….”^[11]

Lack of space prevents us from reciting the occult involvement at the highest levels of government and business around the world. We must at least mention its occurrence in the world of Islam. In Saudi Arabia, where the holiest Muslim shrines are located, the occult is rampant. King Fahd is so deeply in bondage to the occult that he avoids spending time in the royal capital city of Riyadh because of a psychic prophecy that he would die there:

The habit of consulting witches and wizards has spread like an epidemic… every prince has his own witch or wizard living with him….

It is widely believed in the kingdom that one of Fahd’s nephews has a room in his palace dedicated to the black arts…. Blind belief in supernatural powers extends beyond the royal family and is linked to a series of recent tragedies.^[12]

Notes

1. ↑ Paul McGuire, “Hooked on Hollywood Religion,” in Charisma, November 1996, p. 61.
2. ↑ Virginia Smith, “Oprah Winfrey reveals secret of her incredible success,” in Examiner, July 14, 1987, p. 29.
3. ↑ December 1995, 4/3/97.
4. ↑ Patrick Tierney, “The Soviets’ Peace Program,” in Omni, December, 1986, p. 89.
5. ↑ Alex Heard, “Rolfing with Yeltsin,” in The New Republic, October 9, 1989, pp. 11-13.
6. ↑ Psychology Today, September/October 1996, p. 52.
7. ↑ Bob Ortega, “Research Institute Shows People a Way Out of Their Bodies,” in the Wall Street Journal, September 20, 1994, pp. A1, A8.
8. ↑ The Arizona Republic, August 13, 1989, p. C5.
9. ↑ Bulletin (AP), December 28, 1995, front page.
10. ↑ Chicago Tribune, January 11, 1995, p. 4, Section 1.
11. ↑ Outlook, “The Bill-and-Newt Gurus,” in U.S. News & World Report, January 23, 1995.
12. ↑ Shyam Bhatia, “Belief in the occult rules Saudi rulers,” in The Toronto Star, March 31, 1995, p. A17.