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For
our English visitors
People
who are preoccupied with paranormal matters are
often condemned as heretics. The Bible however,
is full of inexplicable events. All the texts
can be looked up in the Bible. These events are
plainly described in black and white.
"If
you enter this domain, you throw yourself in the
devil's cave", a woman of a christian persuasion
said to me a short time ago, while handing out
folders. Melodiously, half shouting, she
added: "May I pray for you?" I turned around and
said to her: " That's okay if I may read your
hand..." I was on my way to one of the
Paranormal Fairs to read hands for a day, to
comfort people, in my own way, to tell them
about the loving Cosmic Light, and to tell them
that mankind is in fact one big family, in
search of himself, in search of happiness and
fulfilment. Like the sea, every individual is a
wave; we flow into each other, we all relate to
each other and need each other. Especially
alternative healers, New Age thinkers are
convinced of this. But that appears to be
devilish...
Within
religious communities and sects, hand readers,
fortune tellers, magnetizers, clairvoyants, yes,
even homeopaths are depicted as devils in the
flesh. The worst possible isn't even bad enough
to typecast paranormal people and alternative
helpers. With all due respect to christians or
differently thinking believers amongst us, I
endorse 'Love your neighbour as yourself'. Would
this perhaps be a common and acceptable text to
keep in mind? And to practice?
On
several pages of the Bible we are warned against
clairvoyants and occults. E.g.: Deuteronomy
18: 9-15: 'When you reach the country which the
Eternal your God assigns you, you must never
learn to follow the abominable practices of the
natives. There must be none among you who burns
his son or his daughter alive, or who practices
divination or soothsaying, no augur, no
sorcerer, no one who weaves spells, no medium or
magician, no necromancer. Anyone given to these
practices is abominable to the Eternal; indeed,
it is on account of such practices that the
Eternal dispossesses these nations before you.
Before
the Eternal your God you must be blameless; for
while these nations, which you are
dispossessing, listen to mediums and magicians,
the Eternal your God has not allowed you to do
that.'
Isaiah
8: 19-20: 'When they tell you to consult mediums
and ghosts that cheep and gibber in low murmurs,
ask them if a nation should not rather consult
its God. Say, "Why consult the dead on behalf of
the living? Consult the Message and the Counsel
of God!" But that will only be their cry, when
there is no dawn of hope for them any more.'
Zechariah 10: 1-2: 'Ask the Eternal for rain in
spring, ask the Eternal, who makes lightning
flash, who gives men winter rain, with grass on
all their fields. What idols say is useless,
the sorcerer's vision is a lie, dreamers are but
deceivers, idle their promises; 'tis they who
make the people stray like sheep, wandering for
lack of any shepherd.'
Acts
19: 13-19: 'Some strolling Jewish exorcists also
undertook to pronounce the name of the Lord
Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying,
"I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches!"
The seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish high priest,
used to do this. But the evil spirit retorted,
"Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but you - who
are you?" And the man in whom the evil spirit
resided leapt at them, overpowered them all, and
belaboured them, till they rushed out of the
house stripped and wounded. This came to the
ears of all the inhabitants of Ephesus, Jews as
well as Greeks; awe fell on them all, and the
name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Many
believers would also come to confess and
disclose their magic spells; and numbers who had
practised magic arts collected their books and
burned them in presence of all.'
On
several other pages of the Bible we can find
warnings against occultism, fortune-telling,
sorcery/witchcraft and reincarnation. E.g.: S.
Matthew 17: 10-13: 'The disciples inquired of
him, "Then why do the scribes say that Elijah
has to come first?" He replied, "Elijah to come
and restore all things? Nay, I tell you Elijah
has already come, but they have not recognized
him - they have worked their will on him. And
the Son of man will will suffer at their hands
in the same way." '
Fortunately, reading the Bible is not only the
prerogative of the orthodox believers amongst
us. A clairvoyant, magnetizer or astrologer can
also bury himself in the book of books, can also
take the indicated texts literally and
understand them. Every human being reads the
Bible in his or her own way. This goes for the
christian fundamentalist, as well as for the
paranormal thinker and the New Age thinker.
If we
look around us in the present world, not much
has changed since the Old Testament. In this,
murder and manslaughter are rife, starting with
Cain who beat Abel to death. God's wrath which
extends over a people that is destroyed. The
story of the Creation, even the year in which
the earth was created is mentioned, namely the
year 3761 Before Christ. Isn't that in
contradiction with scientific studies? Already,
approximately 25,000 year old human skeletons
have been traced. In Spain, France and Germany
one hundred thousand year old cave drawings have
been found. Should we take the Old Testament
literally, or regard it more as a symbol? It is
not my intention to give a course on Theology
by means of these lines. Very learned people
are already working on this. An ordinary
clairvoyant can only use his common sense and
his religious feeling. This brings me to the
numerous miracles which are also mentioned in
the Bible.
The
Bible is absolutely full of paranormal
phenomena. Actually, it is quite strange that
the textual christians are not paying any more
attention to this. They condemn their fellow
beings who cure the sick with their paranormal
energy as heretics, whereas Jesus performed the
greatest miracles by means of invisible powers,
cured people, revived the dead and made the
paralysed rise to their feet. We shall go
further into this by giving literal quotations
from the Bible.
S.
Luke 13: 11-14: 'When he was teaching in one of
the synagogues on the sabbath, there was a
woman who for eighteen years had suffered
weakness from an evil spirit; indeed she was
bent double and could not raise herself at all.
Jesus noticed her and called to her, "Woman, you
are released from your weakness." He laid his
hands on her, and instantly she became erect
and glorified God.'
S.
Matthew 9: 27-34: 'As Jesus passed along from
there, he was followed by two blind men who
shrieked, "Son of David, have pity on us!" When
he went indoors, the blind men came up to him,
and Jesus asked them, "Do you believe I can do
this?" They said, "Yes, sir." Then he touched
their eyes, saying, "As you believe, so your
prayer is granted," and their eyes were opened.
Jesus sternly charged them, "See, nobody is to
know of this." But they went out and spread the
news of him all over that country. As they left,
a dumb man was brought to him, who was possessed
by a daemon; when the daemon had been cast out,
the dumb man spoke. Then the crowd marvelled;
"Such a thing," they said, "has never been seen
in Israel!" But the Pharisees said, "He casts
out daemons by the prince of daemons."
You
hear certain people say: "who do these
paranormal people think they are, do they think
they are Jesus?" No mortal being can stand in
the shadow of Christ. Even his shadow would
blind us... A person who thinks he is Jesus, is,
at the very least, in need of psychological
treatment. Jesus can only be the highest example
in our struggle on earth. But the Bible says
that every human being carries the image of God
in himself. Miracles can sometimes happen when
they are supported by an intense faith.
Paranormal healers believe in love, in higher
things. Countless numbers of them believe in
God and feel that they can convey a loving
energy to their fellow being who is ill. An
energy drawn from the Godly Well full of love.
Some people will always claim that such healing
powers come from the devil, just like the
Pharisees described in the gospel according to
S. Matthew.
Is it
wrong to help people? To give love, to help cure
people by drawing from the Godly well of love.
Is that the work of the devil? A homeopathic
potion in a bottle, which should be shaken
before use, is already forbidden, because
shaking it is a magic ritual which invocates the
devil. Means and help are - nearly all- allowed
in word and deed, if they are performed in the
Name of the Lord, Jesus, God the Father. If this
is expressed in advance, it is not wrong to
shake a bottle for instance, the devil will then
not be requested for help; the aforementioned at
least in the eyes of dogmatically believing
christians. Why do we worry about the shaking of
a bottle, whereas S. Luke 7: 11-17 says: 'It was
shortly afterwards that he made his way to a
town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples
and a large crowd. Just as he was near the gate
of the town, there was a dead man being carried
out; he was the only son of his mother, and she
was a widow. Numbers from the town were with
her. And when the Lord saw her, he felt pity for
her and said to her, "Do not weep." Then he went
forward and touched the bier; the bearers
stopped. "Young man," he said, "I bid you rise."
Then the corpse sat up and began to speak; and
Jesus gave him back to his mother. All were
seized with awe and glorified God. "A great
prophet has appeared among us," they said; "God
has visited his people."
For
many paranormal people Jesus is the miraculous
healer, their great example. Perhaps it is about
time to place more stress on the miracles in the
Bible and on other miracles which still happen
every day. Even the daily breaking of dawn in
itself is quite miraculous in the present,
strife-torn world. Humanity feels a need to
ponder over these miracles. This will fill the
cavity of faith with love and amazement about
life.
Depicting man solely as a sinner or attaching a
label to well-intentioned people which reads
"devil" will not improve the world.
It is
by no means my intention to trigger off
christians who are well-versed in the
Scriptures with the above text. One can only
have respect for people who think differently.
That freedom in thinking and certainly that
respect is something which the paranormal
people also wish to receive. Without perhaps
calling them orthodox christians, their faith
can be quite intense and strong indeed.
Especially their belief in Jesus, the greatest
healer, the shining example as has been said.
And in any case without the fanaticism of a
sectarian group. Sects and certain groupings try
to silence dissenters by means of Bible texts,
or they warn against well-meaning persons,
saying that they are merely devils in disguise.
These paranoid insights and views are saddening
and cause a miserable feeling. Can it be true
what the textualists amongst us claim, that
occultists, fortune tellers and astrologers are
possessed by the devil and that they go straight
to hell...
I know
a really sweet fortune teller, a real dear. She
is a clairvoyant and has been magnetizing
people for years. During her life, she has
helped and comforted hundreds of sick people,
given them love. Would this woman really be
dumped into hell? What kind of a heaven would
that be? In that case, it would even be highly
questionable whether a paranormal person would
want to go there!
I
would like to finish with S. Luke 7: 47-50: ' "Therefore
I tell you, many as her sins are, they are
forgiven, for her love is great; whereas he to
whom little is forgiven has but little love."
And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
His fellow guests began to say to themselves, "Who
is this, to forgive even sins?" But he said to
the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in
peace." '
In the
New Age epoch we should learn from one another,
in order to be able to survive together. Why
can't there be a sort of Church Square or
Village Green where the catholics raise a house
of God, the muslims a mosk, the Jews a
synagogue, the Jehovahs an assembly hall, and
where the paranormals and alternative believers
organise paranormal fairs and exhibitions and
where ufologists converse in their association's
building. All this on a Belief and Church
Grounds where everyone can speak to one
another, exchange thoughts, show respect to
everyone. New Age, only translatable by the
breaking of new times in which we can love each
other and learn from one another, borne by a
universal love.
(All
the Bible quotations above have been taken from
The Moffat Bible, Old and New Testament, 1935.) |