| However, one important result can be observed: confusion and mutual suspicion was introduced into the midst of the cathedral clergy. This is just what the devil needed. M. Nostradamus’ antichristianity is not limited to his practice of “Chaldean science.” He is relying upon a dark, occult source for his divinations. He refers to it in a letter to his son, Cesar: “Human reason cannot see what is secret through man’s own intellect, if he is not touched by a certain voice coming from the abyss, and if a subtle flame does not arise, which illuminates what direction one or another event will take.” He also speaks about the origin of his “gifts” in his “Epistle to Henry II”: “It is true, at first even I did not believe in my ability to foretell the future, which comes from my natural abilities inherited from my forebears. I continually underestimated this instinct of mine; nevertheless, I then made my spirit and soul receptive, and adjusted and integrated it with long calculations. Making my soul to be at peace before the face of eternity, I freed my soul, mind and heart of all care, solicitude and vexation. I summoned the courage, strength, and patience, which are necessary conditions for prophecy. All structure and harmony of prophecies are achieved in part by a bronze tripod” (see above). M. Nostradamus is speaking of a ritual tripod which was used in pagan occult practice. A Pythia (priestess) of the Delphi would sit upon a tripod that stood over a chasm out of which arose intoxicating vapors. In a frenzied state, she would become part of the whole mysterious nocturnal ritual, and make prophecies. There were times when the priestess would fall from the tripod and continue prophesying in a state of delirium. Incidents were recorded when the Pythia lost consciousness and died. In the first two quatrains of his Centuries, M. Nostradamus leads the reader into his occult practice, the fruits of which were his “prophecies” (the following translations of the Centuries were taken from the website http://www.sacred-texts.com). |
| Well, now you have heard what happened, but I fear you are still none the wiser.” 32 Conclusions about the “Out-of-Body” Realm All that has been said here about “out-of-body” experiences is sufficient to place today’s “after-death” experiences in their proper perspective. Let us summarize what we have found: 1 . These are, purely and simply, “out-of-body” experiences, something well known especially in occult literature, which have been happening with increasing frequency in recent years to ordinary people who are not at all involved in occultism. These experiences, however, in actual fact tell us almost nothing of what happens to the soul after death, except that it does survive and is conscious. 2 . The realm into which the soul immediately enters when it leaves the body and begins to lose contact with what we know as “material reality” (whether after death or in a simple “out-of-body” experience) is neither heaven nor hell, but an invisible realm close to earth which is variously called the “After-death” or “Bardo plane” (Tibetan Book of the Dead), the “world of spirits” (Swedenborg and spiritism), the “astral plane” (Theosophy and most of occultism), “Locale II” (Monroe) – or, in Orthodox language, the aerial world of the under-heaven where fallen spirits dwell and are active in deceiving men for their damnation. This is not the “other world” that awaits man after death, but only the invisible part of this world that man must pass through to reach the truly “other” world of heaven or hell. For those who have truly died, and are being conducted by angels out of earthly life, this is the realm where the Particular Judgment begins at the aerial “toll-houses,” where the spirits of the air reveal their real nature and their hostility towards mankind; for all others, it is a realm of demonic deception at the hands of these same spirits. 3 . The beings contacted in this realm are always (or almost always) demons, whether they are invoked by mediumism or other occult practices, or encountered in “out-of-body” experiences. |
| One volume of Bishop Ignatius’ Collected Works (Volume III) was devoted specifically to the question of the Church’s teaching on life after death, which he defended against the Roman Catholic and other modern distortions of it. It is chiefly from this volume that we have borrowed our own discussion in the present book on subjects like toll-houses and the apparitions of spirits – teachings which, for some reason, the “modern” mind finds it impossible to accept in a simple way, but insists on “reinterpreting” them or rejecting them altogether. Bishop Theophan also, of course, taught the same teaching, and we have also made use of his words; and in our own century another great Russian Orthodox theologian, Archbishop John Maximovitch of blessed memory, repeated this teaching so clearly and simply that we have used his words to form most of the conclusion of the present book. That the Orthodox doctrine on life after death has been taught so explicitly and clearly by great Orthodox teachers in modern times, right down to our own day, is an immense help to us who are striving today to preserve the true Orthodoxy of the past, not merely in its correctly transmitted words, but even more in the authentically Orthodox interpretation of these words. In this book, in addition to the Orthodox sources and interpretations mentioned above, we have made considerable use of today’s non-Orthodox “after-death” literature, as well as of some occult texts on this subject. In this we have followed Bishop Ignatius’ example in presenting a false teaching as fully and fairly as needed to expose its falsity so that Orthodox Christians will not be tempted by it; and we have also found, like him, that non-Orthodox texts, when it is a matter of actual experiences that are being described (and not mere opinions and interpretations), often provide striking confirmations of Orthodox truths. Our chief aim in this book has been to present as detailed a contrast as necessary to point out the full difference that exists between the Orthodox teaching and the experience of Orthodox saints on the one hand, and the occult teaching and modern experiences on the other. If we had merely presented the Orthodox teaching without this contrast, it would have been convincing to few save the already-convinced; but now, perhaps, some even of those who have been involved in the modern experiences will be awakened to the vast difference between their experience and genuine spiritual experience. |
| First, the author does not give a single entire “death” experience from start to finish, but gives only excerpts (usually very brief) from each of fifteen separate elements which form his “model” of the “complete” experience of death. But in actual fact the experiences of the dying as described in this and other recent books are often so different in details one from the other that it seems to be at best premature to try to include them all in one “model.” Dr. Moody’s “model” seems in places artificial and contrived, although this, of course, does not lessen the value of the actual testimonies which he gives. Second, the author has joined together two rather different experiences: actual experiences of “clinical death,” and “near-death” experiences. The author admits the difference between them, but claims that they form a “continuum” (p. 20) and should be studied together. In cases where experiences which begin before death end in the experience of death itself (whether or not the person is revived), there is indeed a “continuum” of experience; but several of the experiences which he describes (the recalling of the events of one’s life in rapid order when one is in danger of drowning; the experience of entering a “tunnel” when one is administered an anesthetic like ether) are fairly commonly experienced by people who have never experienced “clinical death,” and so they perhaps belong to the “model” of some more general experience and may be only incidental to the experience of dying. Some of the books now appearing are even less discriminating in their selection of experiences to record, including “out-of-body” experiences in general together with the actual experiences of death and dying. Third, the very fact that the author approaches these phenomena “scientifically,” with no clear conception in advance of what the soul actually undergoes at death, lays him open to numerous confusions and misconceptions about this experience, which can never be removed by a mere collection of descriptions of it; those who describe it themselves inevitably add their own interpretations to it. The author himself admits that it is actually impossible to study this question “scientifically,” and in fact he turns for an explanation of it to parallel experiences in such occult writings as those of Swedenborg and the Tibetan Book of the Dead, noting that he intends now to look more closely at “the vast literature on paranormal and occult phenomena” to increase his understanding of the events he has studied (p. 9). |
| 5. “Astral Travelling” Almost all of the recent “after-death” experiences have been extremely brief; if they had been longer, actual death would have resulted. But in the “out- of-body” state that is not bound up with near-death conditions, a longer experience is possible. If this experience is of sufficient duration, one can leave one’s immediate environment behind and enter an entirely new landscape – not merely for a brief glimpse of a “garden” or a “bright place” or a “heavenly city,” but for an extended “adventure” in the aerial realm. The “astral plane” is evidently quite close to every man, and certain critical experiences (or mediumistic techniques) can “project” one into contact with it. In one of his books, Dr. Carl Jung describes the experience of one of his patients, a woman who had an “out-of-body” experience while undergoing a difficult birth. She saw the doctors and nurses around her, but behind her she was aware of a glorious landscape which seemed to be the boundary of another dimension; she felt that if she turned toward it, she would leave this life – but she returned to her body instead. 26 Dr. Moody has recorded a number of such experiences, which he calls the “border” or “limit” experience (Life after Life, pp. 54–57). Those who deliberately induce the experience of “astral projection” are often able to enter into this “other dimension.” Just in recent years one man’s descriptions of his “journeys” in this dimension have achieved a certain fame, which has allowed him to establish an institute for experiments in the “out-of-body” state. One of the students of this institute has been Dr. Elizabeth Kubler- Ross, who agrees with Monroe’s conclusions regarding the similarity of “out-of-body” experiences and the “after-death” state. Here we shall summarize the findings of this experimenter. 27 Robert Monroe is a successful American business execumive (president of the board of directors of a multi-million dollar corporation) and an agnostic in religion. His “out-of-body” experiences began in 1958, before he had any interest in occult literature, when he was conducting his own experiments in data-learning techniques during sleep; this involved exercises in concentration and relaxation similar to some techniques of meditation. After starting these experiments, he had the unusual experience of seeming to be struck with a beam of light, which caused temporary paralysis. After this sensation had been repeated several times, he began “floating” out of the body, and then began to experiment with inducing and developing this experience. In this beginning of his occult “journeys,” he reveals the same basic characteristics – a passive meditation, an experience of “light,” a basic attitude of trust and openness to new and strange experiences, all in conjunction with a “practical” outlook on life and a lack of any profound awareness or experience of Christianity – that opened Swedenborg to his adventures in the world of spirits. |
| Divination was also part of this ancient Celtic festival. After the fire had died out the Druids examined the remains of the main sacrifices, hoping to foretell the coming year’s events. The Halloween festival was the proper night for sorcery, fortune telling, divination, games of chance, and Satan worship and witchcraft in the later Middle Ages. The Church responds In the strictly Orthodox early Celtic Church, the holy Fathers tried to counteract this pagan new year festival that honored the Lord of Death, by establishing the Feast of All Saints on the same day. (It differs in the East, where the Feast of All Saints is celebrated on the Sunday following Pentecost). The custom of the Celtic Church was for the faithful Christians to attend a vigil service and a morning celebration of the Holy Eucharist. This custom created the term Halloween. The Old English of “All Hallow E’en”, i.e., the eve commemorating all those who were hallowed (sanctified) became Halloween. The remaining pagan and therefore anti-Christian people, whose paganism had become deeply intertwined with the Occult, Satanism and Magic, reacted to the Church’s attempt to supplant their festival by increased fervor on this evening. The early medieval Halloween became the supreme feast of the Occult, a night and day witchcraft, demonism, sorcery and Satanism of all kinds. Many practices involved desecration and mockery of Christian practices and beliefs. Costumes of skeletons developed as a mockery of the Church’s reverence for Holy Relics; Holy things were stolen, such as crosses and the Reserved Sacrament, and used perversely in sacrilegious ways. The practice of begging became a system of persecution to harass Christians who were, by their beliefs, unable to participate with offerings to those who served the Lord of Death. The Western Church ‘s attempt failed, to supplant this pagan festival with the Feast of All Saints.” Russian Counterpart The ancient Slavic counterpart to Halloween in ancient Russia was Navy Dien’ (Old Slavonic for the dead “nav” ), which was also called Radunitsa and celebrated in the spring. |
| Samhain, the Celtic god of death. Orthodox Christians cannot share in this Celtic activity, but must counter the secular customs by instead burning candles to the Savior, the Most Holy Mother of God, and to all the Holy Saints. Divination was also part of this ancient Celtic festival. After the fire had died out the Druids examined the remains of the main sacrifices, hoping to foretell the coming years events. The Halloween festival was the proper night for sorcery, fortune telling, divination, games of chance, and Satan worship and witchcraft in the later Middle Ages. In the strictly Orthodox early Celtic Church, the holy Fathers tried to counteract this pagan new year festival that honored the Lord of Death, by establishing the Feast of All Saints on the same day. (It differs in the East, where the Feast of All Saints is celebrated on the Sunday following Pentecost). The custom of the Celtic Church was for the faithful Christians to attend a vigil service and a morning celebration of the Holy Eucharist. This custom created the term Halloween. The Old English of All Hallow e”en, i.e., the eve commemorating all those who were hallowed (sanctified) became Halloween. The remaining pagan and therefore anti-Christian people, whose paganism had become deeply intertwined with the Occult, Satanism and Magic, reacted to the Church”s attempt to supplant their festival by increased fervor on this evening. The early medieval Halloween became the supreme feast of the Occult, a night and day witchcraft, demonism, sorcery and Satanism of all kinds. Many practices involved desecration and mockery of Christian practices and beliefs. Costumes of skeletons developed as a mockery of the Church”s reverence for Holy Relics; Holy things were stolen, such as crosses and the Reserved Sacrament, and used perversely in sacrilegious ways. The practice of begging became a system of persecution to harass Christians who were, by their beliefs, unable to participate with offerings to those who served the Lord of Death. The |
| It’s like putting away your winter coat when spring comes ... and that’s what death is about” (Kemf, p. 50). We shall state below how this contrasts with the true Christian teaching. (4) The purpose of life on earth, and of life after death, is not the eternal salvation of one’s soul, but an unlimited process of “growth” in “love” and “understanding” and “self-realization.” Dr. Moody finds that “many seemed to have returned with a new model and a new understanding of the world beyond – a vision which features not unilateral judgement, but rather cooperative development towards the ultimate end of self-realization. According to these new views, development of the soul, especially in the spiritual faculties of love and knowledge, does not stop upon death. Rather it continues on the other side, perhaps eternally....” (Life after Life, p. 70). Such an occult view of life and death does not come from the fragmentary experiences being publicized today; rather, it comes from the occult philosophy that is in the air today. (5) “After-death” and “out-of-body” experiences are themselves a preparation for life after death. The traditional Christian preparation for eternal life (faith, repentance, participating in the Sacraments, spiritual struggle) is of little importance compared with the increased “love” and “understanding” which are inspired by “after-death” experiences; and specifically (as in the recent program worked out by Kubler-Ross and Robert Monroe) one can train terminally-ill persons in “out-of-body” experiences “so that the persons will quickly gain a perception of what awaits them on the Other Side when they die” (Wheeler, Journey to the Other Side, p. 92). One of Dr. Moody’s interviewees states categorically: “The reason why I’m not afraid to die is that I know where I’m going when I leave here, because I’ve been there before” (Life after Life, p. 69). What a tragic and ill-founded optimism! Every one of these five points is part of the teaching of 19th-century Spiritualism as revealed at that time by the “spirits” themselves through mediums. |
| 40 Pat King, in Logos Journal, Sept.-Oct., 1971, p. 50. This “international charismatic journal” should not be confused with Fr.E. Stephanou’s Logos. 41 Most books will be cited in this article only by author and page number; full bibliographical information is supplied at the end of the article. 42 Bishop Theophan the Recluse, What Is the Spiritual Life, Jordanville, Ν.Υ., 1962, ππ 247–8 (in Russian). Fr. Eusebius Stephanou ( Logos, Jan., 1972, p.13) attempts to justify the present-day ‘reception of the Holy Spirit’ outside the Church by citing the account of the household of Cornelius the Centurion (Acts 10), which received the Holy Spirit before baptism. But the difference in the two cases is crucial: the reception of the Holy Spirit by Cornelius and his household was the sign that they should be joined to the Church by Baptism, whereas contemporary Pentecostals by their experience are only confirmed in their delusion that there is no one saving Church of Christ. 45 See Kurt Koch, Occult Bondage and Deliverance, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1970, pp. 168–170. 46 Kurt Koch, Between Christ and Satan, Kregel Publications, 1962, p. 124. This book and Dr. Koch’s Occult Bondage offer a remarkable confirmation, based on 20th-century experience, of virtually every manifestation of mediumism, magic, sorcery, etc., that is found in the Holy Scriptures and the Orthodox Lives of Saints – the source of all of which, of course, is the devil. On only a few points will the Orthodox reader have to correct his interpretations. 47 Simon A. Blackmore, S.J., Spiritism Facts and Frauds, Benziger Bros., New York, 1924: chapter IV, “Mediums,” pp. 89–105 passim. 49 Ronald A. Knox, Enthusiasm, A Chapter in the History of Religion, Oxford (Galaxy Book), 1961, pp. 550–551. 51 Conference XV:2, in Owen Chadwick, Western Asceticism, Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1958, p. 258. 53 See I.H. Lewis, Ecstatic Religion, An Anthropological Study of Spirit Possession and Shamanism, Penguin Books, Baltimore, 1971, pp. 45,88, 156, etc., and illustration 9. |
| Perhaps more than any other movement of “Eastern spirituality,” it has had the character of a “fad,” and the Maharishi’s announced aim to “initiate” the whole of humanity is evidently doomed to failure. After the peak year of 1975, enrollment in “TM” courses has steadily declined, so much so that in 1977 the organization announced the opening of a whole new series of “advanced” courses, obviously devised in order to regain public interest and enthusiasm. These courses are intended to lead initiates to the “siddhis” or “supernatural powers” of Hinduism: walking through walls, becoming invisible, levitating and flying through the air, and the like. The courses have generally been greeted with cynicism, even though a “TM” brochure features a photograph of a “levitating” meditator (see Time Magazine, August 8, 1977, p. 75). Whether or not the courses (which cost up to will produce the claimed results – which are in the province of the traditional “fakirs” of India (see above, pp. 56–61) – “TM” itself stands revealed as a passing phase of the occult interest in the second half of the 20th century. Already many examples have been publicized of “TM” teachers and disciples alike who have been afflicted with the common maladies of those who dabble in the occult: mental and emotional illness, suicide, attempted murder, demonic possession. In 1978 a United States Federal court came to the decision that “TM” is indeed religious in nature and may not be taught in public schools. 9 This decision will undoubtedly further limit the influence of “TM,” which, however, will probably continue to exist as one of the many forms of meditation which many see as compatible with Christianity – another sad sign of the times. V. The “New religious consciousness.” The spirit of the eastern cults in the 1970’s THE THREE KINDS of “Christian meditation” described above are only the beginning; in general, it may be said that the influence of Eastern religious ideas and practices upon the once-Christian West has reached astonishing proportions in the decade of the 1970’s. |
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