Over the last five years, 7 million people have joined the ranks of meditators.

by Ray Yungen and Lighthouse Trails Editors

In 2003, Time magazine reported (in a feature article on meditation) that 10 million Americans practiced meditation. Now, four years later, Dr. Rick Levy, in his book Miraculous Health, claims that number is now 17 million in the United States alone. This means that since A Time of Departing came out, 7 million people in this country have embraced the practice of meditation. Dr. Levy makes it clear that the type of mediation of which he speaks is the eastern-New Age kind as the essence of his book is that meditation is a door way to the "superconscious."

This is a very significant revelation to us at Lighthouse Trails because in the Time magazine article it revealed that meditation had grown by about 1/2 million people a year between 1993 and 2003. Now, it appears to be growing at three and a half times that rate at about 1.7 million people a year.

Keep in mind that we are not talking about people that have just embraced a particular belief system intellectually or rationally. We are talking about mystics, people who are in touch with the supernatural realm on a continuous basis. We believe this remarkable acceleration is due to two factors.

First is the tremendous explosion of the interest in Yoga. Yoga, for those that don't know, means union, as in the mystical sense, the union with the divine or the Hindu concept of the divine. Most people may think it is just stretching and a form of calisthenics but Yoga and meditation are supposed to go together. You can't really have one without the other and still call it Yoga.

Secondly, and more important from the perspective of Lighthouse Trails is the explosion of the interest in contemplative prayer, which is a westernized form of meditation. We believe this can be contributed to the rise of the Purpose Driven movement 1 and the emerging church movement. The emerging church movement seeks to jettison the traditional doctrinal expressions of Christianity and replace it with a more mystical experiential type of Christianity, one that fits in well with the philosophy of interspirituality.

This acceleration is startling and very sobering. To us, it means that everything we have been warning about over the past six years is moving at a rate much faster than we realized. Also bear in mind that these 17 million people each have at least five or more family members, friends, or co-workers that they can influence. Thus tens of millions of people in the US could potentially be exposed to the practice of mysticism just by having a close family member or friend who actually does it.

This also undoubtedly means that meditation is being practiced on a similar scale in other Western countries. As Dr. Levy says in his book, what was "fringe" 20 years ago is now mainstream--people have lowered or dropped their natural reluctance to engage in a practice that was once considered bizarre.

There is no turning back in the advancement of mysticism in the United States and the Western world. Now the green light is on for the average person. Meditation has lost its connotation as being silly nonsense for the secular person and suspicious for the Christian.

Alice Bailey, the occultist who coined the term New Age, expressed the goal for meditation to find its way in the mass education. This goal has finally been fulfilled. And if more dramatic elements of Bailey's prophecies are fulfilled next on the horizon such as the revelation of the Coming One, then this information is of vital importance to every Christian who cares about those around him or her. In her book From Intellect to Intuition, Bailey states:
The education and reorientation of the advanced human being [one who sees himself as divine] must find its place in our mass education." She doesn't mean the public school system but the media outlets of society in general. She adds: "Meditation. The question naturally arises: 'Is that all?' And the answer is: 'Yes.' ... If meditation is rightly followed, and if perseverance is the key note of the life, then increasingly, soul [the divine self] contact is established.... The results of that contact work-out in self-discipline, in purification, and in the life of aspiration and of service." (p. 61)
In other words once you hook up with your higher self through meditation, then your role becomes that of meditation evangelist to get others involved.

One thing is for certain, the public, both inside and outside Christianity, has lost its fear of meditation. Those who realize the true nature of meditation and its occultic manifestations will understand that this is spiritually catastrophic.

One meditation proponent confirms:
First and foremost, almost all mediums agree on the significance and the importance of regular daily meditation. This single practice, above all others, is no doubt the very shaft that drives the wheel of development.2
17 million people are engaging in a practice that is designed to put them in contact with spirit guides (i.e., familiar spirits) and thus are entering realms of which man has been duly warned to abstain from: "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:31)"

Notes:
2. Kathleen Vande Kieft, Innersource: Channeling Your Unlimited Self (New York, NY: Ballantine Books, third printing, 1989), p. 114.

http://www.lighthousetrails.com.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author. If you have a problem with the correctness of the information, please contact the author.

---

 (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)