DECEMBER 13, 2015

The New Age Christ, ‘Christic energy’, and the Christ Consciousness

The following article is from India’s leading New Age journal, Life Positive:

Meeting Christ

https://www.lifepositive.com/meeting-christ/

By Anuradha Ramesh, September 2015

When Anuradha Ramesh encountered Christ consciousness through a breathwork technique, she underwent a powerful transformation.

It was around 5 pm on January 6, 2006. I had finally got an appointment with my breathwork and past-life regression teacher. Having recently undergone training to be a past-life regression therapist, I requested him to facilitate a session of breathwork for me as a portal to a past life.

About eight minutes into the session, flashes of images began to appear on my mind’s screen. I had gone back to what appeared to be at least 200 years ago. The clothes and the surroundings, which seemed to be cold, damp and grey, implied it was some place in Europe. It appeared to be a life of great suffering. I saw myself in extreme situations of hunger and depravation.

My body processed these memories as they surfaced. There were sensations of intense churning in my stomach, and nausea. My throat was choking up and I was going through the motions of retching as though wanting to expel or release something from my gut. There was huge emotional release as well, as though finally giving release to the miseries that are part of human existence. It felt as though I was crying on behalf of all humanity. So intense were my cries and coming from such depths that I knew, even while it was happening, that it was not all about me, it was not all mine.

As the emotions and physical sensations began to subside, fatigue took over, sending my mind and body into a deep state of relaxation as the rest of the cathartic process continued in a more subdued manner. I continued with the steady rhythm typical of conscious connected breathing, expecting the session to come to a harmonious closure. However, what followed was completely unexpected, and has altered the course of my life profoundly.

My breath began to increase in pace and was out of my control. With every inhale I experienced a distinct gush of energy. Inhale after inhale after inhale…the gush of energy increased in intensity like I was plugged into some source of high-voltage power. Very soon it almost became a roar in my head.

I felt as though I was being electrocuted, energy rushing through my nerves and blood vessels and flowing out of me through the tips of my toes and fingers, the ends of my hair, right down to the ends of my eye-lashes! I cannot say it was an entirely pleasant experience to have this high-voltage current pass through my body. I had completely lost awareness of my surroundings including the presence of the facilitator.

Suddenly, I heard a question rising from the deepest layers of my mind, as though it was a voice coming from very far away and yet very distinct and clear…

“Is this enough or do you want more?”

My rational logical mind was, by this time, left way behind and purely by instinct, I responded, “I want more!”

I found myself in the presence of the Christ Consciousness!

There was not an iota of doubt in my mind, it was Him. No other.

There was no face or form that helped me recognise him from any picture or image I had ever seen of him. It was just pure light but with a distinct identity. There was a deep knowingness, a recognition that defied any logic or rationale.

Though born and raised a ‘Tam-Brahm’ (Tamil Brahmin), I had been educated entirely in Catholic missionary institutions – school and college. And the pleasant, cheerful joyful energy that was in that moment engaging with me, was the farthest from the pain, suffering and dying for the sins of others with which I had associated Christ.

What ensued was the most pleasant, cheerful and unlikely ‘conversation’ that I could have imagined!

“I like what you did,” he said, “I like the way you took on the challenge of going up in flames if need be but did not give up! You see what I did with my life?! I like to take on challenges too.” And all the time He had what seemed to be a boyish glee on his face. Like we had both run a race and reached the finish line together!

And I shot back, “Really? Is this what you have to say to me? You look so cheerful and seem to be such fun?!! But I have always thought of you to be sad and burdened?”

After some casual banter on similar lines he delivered a message to me that has since given a completely new meaning to my existence. These words are etched in my psyche going all the way back to my soul, I believe…

“You have come back to me and now you return

You return as my channel…a channel of my energy

Your every word, every touch will heal!

A look from your eyes, your breath will heal!

You are resurrected as a channel of healing.”

What seemed like aeons later, when I returned to my senses and opened my eyes, my teacher was looking at me with widened eyes and an enigmatic smile. Before I uttered a single word, he said to me, “I don’t know what has been happening with you as you had stopped responding to me. However, I had the most amazing experience myself. As I watched over you, I had a vision of your heart chakra opening and Infant Jesus emerging through your heart. Anuradha, to me, it felt like I have witnessed the resurrection of Christ Consciousness!”

This from a man who had no idea of what I had been through myself.

Needless to say, I have dedicated my life to the mission that has been assigned to me. It is not a responsibility. It is not a duty. It is not a job or a career. It is truly my response to a calling from the highest source.

I also deduced some fundamental truths about our present reality – truths that are both very personal and universal at the same time:

—Religious differences and religious identities have no relevance whatsoever when one is a seeker of truth.

—There is no prerequisite of ‘eligibility,’ no hierarchy in our relationship with the Absolute Source. Given how ‘non-religious’ I had been all my life, I was the least likely candidate in my own eyes to be chosen for an encounter such as this. I was only aware of a very strong deep yearning to find myself.

—All the guilt I was carrying about my ‘wrong’ thoughts and acts; the judgements I had passed on myself, were all proven to be null and void. There is absolutely no judgement up there, after all! I was striving to find my own truths and that was all that mattered. I learnt to be non-judgmental in a way that has now become the very ground of my being.

—My mind has become flexible and open to any possibility by virtue of the personal glimpse I had of my own potential that was hidden from me until then. All creative ideas are valid and worthy of exploration.

—Probably the biggest has been the sense of connectedness I feel towards all of humanity. Any corner of the world I travel to, any peoples, culture, religion, race, colour or creed I interact with, the feeling of oneness that I experience is undoubtedly the most fulfilling, valuable and meaningful gift that I possess today.

“Anuradha Ramesh a.k.a Usha is the founder of Pink Mist Retreat, Centre for Spiritual Healing and Wisdom, based in Hyderabad.

More background on Anuradha Ramesh (Usha)

http://thirdeyeonline.com/ae/profiles/pink-mist-retreat/
EXTRACT

Anuradha Ramesh (Usha) has spent more than a decade in the field of spiritual science both as a healer and as a teacher. She has been conducting many workshops and healing sessions dealing with a wide range of healing modalities involving energy-work and soul-work.

She is a Reiki Grand Master, a Past-life Regression Therapist, a Yoga Therapist, a Re-birther and currently very active in the field of Trans-generational Healing.

http://www.chittasangha.org/anuradha-ramesh.html
EXTRACT

This leg of Anuradha’s journey began with her interest in meditation and energy work. She established an almost immediate connection with very powerful Higher-beings who began to guide her through the process of unfolding her highest potential. An early experience of psychic surgery performed on her by a group of non-physical spiritual masters brought an awakening of her third-eye abilities and triggered a spate of out of body experiences, clairvoyant experiences, spontaneous past-life recall, and spontaneous healing abilities. 

Anuradha considers Seth, the non-physical energy personality channeled by Jane Roberts as the single largest influence in her personal journey. It has molded her into a highly motivated, dedicated light-being who operates in the field of consciousness with ease. 

Trans-generational Healing – Healing the Family Soul

http://www.meetup.com/The-Third-Eye-Dubai-Mind-Body-Energy-Center/events/225136684/
EXTRACT

Resolve the karmic baggage you are carrying from generations above you! 

Trans-generational healing is conducted by a unique method where you will be invited to set up your Family Constellation to identify and heal the root issue caused by energy entanglements between you and your family, including your ancestors. The family members do not need to be physically present during the session to liberate you from their pain and trauma. This work can free you from the invisible hold of the past, leading you to a more functional way of life, and enabling you to make healthier choices and create the best life possible in all areas. 

MY COMMENTS

Ms. Usha’s experiences are, from a Christian perspective, of an occult nature.

It is highly dangerous as well as a transgression of the First Commandment for Catholics to engage in them.

Ms. Usha is accomplished in several New Age practices most of which are examined at this ministry’s web site. The tile and link to one of the more uncommon practices is provided:

BERT HELLINGER AND FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS-FR CLEMENS PILAR 08

http://ephesians-511.net/docs/BERT_HELLINGER_AND_FAMILY_CONSTELLATIONS-FR_CLEMENS_PILAR_08.doc

Ms. Usha claims to channel the “non-physical energy” Seth. The entity Seth is, for Christians, a demon.

Two articles (reproduced below) of Ms. Susan Brinkmann enlighten us on who Seth is.

And, the Christ Consciousness experience of Ms. Usha is also of a demonic origin.

Three more articles (further below) of Ms. Susan Brinkmann and one of Bro. Ignatius Mary explain this.

The Occult: What it is, how it manifests, and who’s behind it

http://womenofgrace.com/newage/?p=1096

By Susan Brinkmann, June 21, 2011

“Occult practices are intended not only to lead the New Ager to esoteric wisdom, but also to convince him through successful application that he has gained the power for which he searches,” writes New Age expert, Johnnette Benkovic, http://womenofgrace.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1. “Through occult practices, the New Ager hopes to manipulate the powers of the universe to conform to his own wants, desires, and needs.”

All of these practices supposedly contain some kind of “secret” knowledge that will enable one to tap into new and hidden powers in the universe. That many of these practices do indeed bring hidden powers into play is testified to by the many strange phenomenon associated with these practices. For instance, psychics will frequently reveal information they couldn’t possibly know. Magic spells often bring about the desired results. This is proof that other powers exist, but what are they? And where do they come from?

Human imagination certainly plays a role in some cases and it is a common practice among seers to give ambiguous information that could apply to just about anyone. But there are also those cases where the practitioner, whether knowingly or unknowingly, is drawing their abilities from the power of darkness.

“The New Agers call these powers of darkness by various names such as spirit guides, ascended masters, and avatars,” Benkovic writes. “They do not recognize them as evil spirits, but consider them to be highly evolved beings who passed through several incarnations on their way to enlightenment. Now enlightened and no longer needing to be reincarnated, they seek to bring us the knowledge we need on our spiritual journey.”

There is supposedly an infinite number of these beings; Jesus Christ, Buddha, Seth, Ramtha, Lazaris, and the Blessed Mother. Lucifer is also on this list where he is usually referred to as the “Angel of Light”.

The occult arts include a variety of ways of contacting these spirits, most of which involve some form of mediumship or altered state of consciousness such as a trance.

Messages from Beyond: What’s Wrong with Automatic Writing?

http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=13311#more-13311
EXTRACT

By Susan Brinkmann, March 30, 2012

Another famous automatic writer was Jane Roberts, a psychic and spirit medium who claimed to be channeling a spirit named Seth who imparted all the wisdom of the universe to her which she shared with the rest of the world in a series of best-selling books. Roberts and her husband met Seth while playing with a Ouija board and eventually abandoned the board and took up pen and paper to continue their dialogue. Roberts’ husband even painted a picture of Seth, which the entity claimed was a very good rendition of himself. During these sessions with Seth, the entity would take control of Jane and she would speak aloud while her husband wrote down everything she said.

(Deepak) Chopra’s New Book promotes the “Cosmic Christ”

http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=2337
EXTRACT

By Susan Brinkmann, April 14, 2008

A new book by best-selling author Deepak Chopra says Jesus Christ was not the Savior of mankind, but an “enlightened teacher who intended to save the world by showing others the path to God consciousness.”

In his latest book, The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore, Deepak Chopra, an Indian physician turned New Age guru describes the three figures of Christ:

“First, there is the historical Jesus, the man who lived more than two thousand years ago and whose teachings are the foundation of Christian theology and thought. Next there is Jesus the Son of God, who has come to embody an institutional religion with specific dogma, a priesthood, and devout believers. And finally, there is the third Jesus, the cosmic Christ, the spiritual guide whose teaching embraces all humanity, not just the church built in his name. He speaks to the individual who wants to find God as a personal experience, to attain what some might call grace, or God-consciousness, or enlightenment.”

Christian author and broadcaster Tom McMahon told OneNewsNow that Chopra’s version of Christ is so foreign to the Bible it’s upsetting.

“That’s the religion of the anti-Christ, whom the entire world will worship, according to Revelation 13,” he said. “You know, it just rejects Jesus saying ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.’ So this is just anti-Christ religion. It is prophetic; we’re seeing it happen. Jesus said in Matthew 24 that in the last days there would be religious deception, and this is what it’s all about.”

Chopra’s book not only creates a false Christ, it also invents a third coming which is supposedly needed because the Second Coming imposes too much of a delay on what should happen now.

“So now we have the undermining of the Word of God. And if people aren’t into the Word of God, they may buy some of this,” McMahon said. ” . . . He proposes a third coming – finding ‘God consciousness’ through your own efforts. I challenge anybody to find this in Scripture. It’s just not there.”

Unfortunately, Chopra’s ideas are getting plenty of air time on popular shows such as Oprah Winfrey and Larry King Live. He also distributes these ideas out of the Chopra Center for Well Being based in Carlsbad, California which attracts thousands of visitors and millions of dollars in business each year.

In addition to Larry King and Oprah Winfrey, Chopra’s list of friends includes actress Demi Moore and Tibet’s Dalai Lama. His more than 30 books have sold over 10 million copies in English alone and have been translated into more than 30 languages.

Can You Mix the New Age, Psychology and Modern Medicine?

http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=15932#more-15932

By Susan Brinkmann, August 22, 2012

GA asks: “I was hoping you could give me some more details on this following link on a priest who claims to be able to cure cancer but the technique he uses sounds very new-agey to me. Some of my Catholic relatives have been sending this link and I want to be able to warn them appropriately on the same.”

I have some serious misgivings about Father John Valdaris and his Cancer Care Centers and also found many New Age red flags on his website.

http://www.saint-mike.net/qa/sw/viewanswer.asp?QID=1730

November 25, 2012

Tonight I went to church and during the homily the priest said something that unsettled me. He said that when and if we go to heaven we likely won’t recognize our “loved ones” because our identity would be In Christ only. This must seem selfish of me to be depressed a bit about this. I know it might seem silly, but I am kind of, to say the least, looking forward to seeing my dad who was quite a character and very humorous during his life on earth. I might want to communicate somehow with my father, in whatever way that may be. I may sound ignorant, but it seems kind of nonsensical to make so many different beautiful, individual personalities only for them to “meld” into Christ as if we have no separate identity anymore. He said we would NOT recognize each other, and “not to blame him” (he laughed sheepishly) because “Christ said this”. Where in the gospels does He say this? –Lisa

Whoever this priest is who said that we will not recognize our loved ones in heaven, needs to be slapped upside the head. What nonsense. God says no such thing. Neither the Bible, nor the Church says such a thing. Ask him to prove his assertion.Consider the following:

God calls us by name (Isaiah 43:2). A name is a specific identity

Our bodies, which gives us unique identity, are resurrected and reunited with our souls (1 Thess 4:16; CCC 992-1004)

Our souls have a unique identity (CCC 366).

St John says that we do not know for sure what we will be like, but we will be like the resurrected Jesus (1 John 3:2). The resurrected Jesus was identifiable.

St. Paul writes of the resurrected body in Philippians 3:19 and also 1st Corinthians 15. 

I am sure this priest is unaware of the implications of his words, but what he as said, as you have reported it, smacks of a New Age idea. There is a New Age idea that we all dissolve into a Cosmic Consciousness, or a Christ Consciousness, thus we have no personal identity. Such an idea is completely foreign and heretical (if actually proposed) in Christianity. –Bro. Ignatius Mary OMSM

Is Oprah Still Christian?

http://www.womenofgrace.com/blog/?p=18150#more-18150
EXTRACT

By Susan Brinkmann, December 10, 2012

Oprah Winfrey
once described
how she reconciles her Baptist upbringing with popular New Age concepts of “spirituality”.

Chopra has openly denied traditional Christian teaching, even going so far as denying the existence of Satan.

New Age is often referred to by those who promote it as a “new spirituality”. It seems ironic to call it “new” when so many of its ideas have been taken from ancient religions and cultures. But what really is new is that New Age is a conscious search for an alternative to Western culture and its Judaeo-Christian religious roots. “Spirituality” in this way refers to the inner experience of harmony and unity with the whole of reality, which heals each human person’s feelings of imperfection and finiteness. People discover their profound connectedness with the sacred universal force or energy which is the nucleus of all life. When they have made this discovery, men and women can set out on a path to perfection, which will enable them to sort out their personal lives and their relationship to the world, and to take their place in the universal process of becoming and in the New Genesis of a world in constant evolution. The result is a cosmic mysticism ⁽51) based on people’s awareness of a universe burgeoning with dynamic energies. Thus cosmic energy, vibration, light, God, love – even the supreme Self – all refer to one and the same reality, the primal source present in every being.

This spirituality consists of two distinct elements, one metaphysical, the other psychological. The metaphysical component comes from New Age’s esoteric and theosophical roots, and is basically a new form of gnosis. Access to the divine is by knowledge of hidden mysteries, in each individual’s search for “the real behind what is only apparent, the origin beyond time, the transcendent beyond what is merely fleeting, the primordial tradition behind merely ephemeral tradition, the other behind the self, the cosmic divinity beyond the incarnate individual”. Esoteric spirituality “is an investigation of Being beyond the separateness of beings, a sort of nostalgia for lost unity”. ⁽⁵²⁾

“Here one can see the gnostic matrix of esoteric spirituality. It is evident when the children of Aquarius search for the Transcendent Unity of religions. They tend to pick out of the historical religions only the esoteric nucleus, whose guardians they claim to be. They somehow deny history and will not accept that spirituality can be rooted in time or in any institution. Jesus of Nazareth is not God, but one of the many historical manifestations of the cosmic and universal Christ”. ⁽⁵³⁾

3.3. The Cosmic Christ

In the early days of Christianity, believers in Jesus Christ were forced to face up to the gnostic religions. They did not ignore them, but took the challenge positively and applied the terms used of cosmic deities to Christ himself. The clearest example of this is in the famous hymn to Christ in Saint Paul’s letter to the Christians at Colossae:

“He is the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation,
for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth:
everything visible and everything invisible,
Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers–
all things were created through him and for him.
Before anything was created, he existed, and he holds all things in unity.
Now the Church is his body, he is its head.
As he is the Beginning, he was first to be born from the dead,
so that he should be first in every way;
because God wanted all perfection to be found in him
and all things to be reconciled through him and for him,
everything in heaven and everything on earth,
when he made peace by his death on the cross” (Colossians 1: 15-20).

For these early Christians, there was no new cosmic age to come; what they were celebrating with this hymn was the Fulfilment of all things which had begun in Christ. “Time is indeed fulfilled by the very fact that God, in the Incarnation, came down into human history. Eternity entered into time: what ‘fulfilment’ could be greater than this? What other ‘fulfilment’ would be possible?” ⁽⁵⁷⁾ Gnostic belief in cosmic powers and some obscure kind of destiny withdraws the possibility of a relationship to a personal God revealed in Christ. For Christians, the real cosmic Christ is the one who is present actively in the various members of his body, which is the Church. They do not look to impersonal cosmic powers, but to the loving care of a personal God; for them cosmic bio-centrism has to be transposed into a set of social relationships (in the Church); and they are not locked into a cyclical pattern of cosmic events, but focus on the historical Jesus, in particular on his crucifixion and resurrection. We find in the Letter to the Colossians and in the New Testament a doctrine of God different from that implicit in New Age thought: the Christian conception of God is one of a Trinity of Persons who has created the human race out of a desire to share the communion of Trinitarian life with creaturely persons. Properly understood, this means that authentic spirituality is not so much our search for God but God‘s search for us.

Another, completely different, view of the cosmic significance of Christ has become current in New Age circles. “The Cosmic Christ is the divine pattern that connects in the person of Jesus Christ (but by no means is limited to that person). The divine pattern of connectivity was made flesh and set up its tent among us (John 1:14)…. The Cosmic Christ… leads a new exodus from the bondage and pessimistic views of a Newtonian, mechanistic universe so ripe with competition, winners and losers, dualisms, anthropocentrism, and the boredom that comes when our exciting universe is pictured as a machine bereft of mystery and mysticism.

The Cosmic Christ is local and historical, indeed intimate to human history. The Cosmic Christ might be living next door or even inside one’s deepest and truest self”.⁽⁵⁸⁾ Although this statement may not satisfy everyone involved in New Age, it does catch the tone very well, and it shows with absolute clarity where the differences between these two views of Christ lie. For New Age the Cosmic Christ is seen as a pattern which can be repeated in many people, places and times; it is the bearer of an enormous paradigm shift; it is ultimately a potential within us.

According to Christian belief, Jesus Christ is not a pattern, but a divine person whose human-divine figure reveals the mystery of the Father’s love for every person throughout history (Jn 3:16); he lives in us because he shares his life with us, but it is neither imposed nor automatic. All men and women are invited to share his life, to live “in Christ”.

4. NEW AGE AND CHRISTIAN FAITH IN CONTRAST

Is God a being with whom we have a relationship or something to be used or a force to be harnessed?

The New Age concept of God is rather diffuse, whereas the Christian concept is a very clear one. The New Age god is an impersonal energy, really a particular extension or component of the cosmos; god in this sense is the life-force or soul of the world. Divinity is to be found in every being, in a gradation “from the lowest crystal of the mineral world up to and beyond the Galactic God himself, about Whom we can say nothing at all. This is not a man but a Great Consciousness”. ⁽⁶⁵⁾ In some “classic” New Age writings, it is clear that human beings are meant to think of themselves as gods: this is more fully developed in some people than in others. God is no longer to be sought beyond the world, but deep within myself. ⁽⁶⁶⁾ Even when “God” is something outside myself, it is there to be manipulated.

This is very different from the Christian understanding of God as the maker of heaven and earth and the source of all personal life. 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. “God, who ‘dwells in unapprochable light’, wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son. By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him, and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity”.⁽⁶⁷⁾God is not identified with the Life-principle understood as the “Spirit” or “basic energy” of the cosmos, but is that love which is absolutely different from the world, and yet creatively present in everything, and leading human beings to salvation.

Is there just one Jesus Christ, or are there thousands of Christs?

Jesus Christ is often presented in New Age literature as one among many wise men, or initiates, or avatars, whereas in Christian tradition He is the Son of God. Here are some common points in New Age approaches:

–the personal and individual historical Jesus is distinct from the eternal, impersonal universal Christ;

–Jesus is not considered to be the only Christ…

7.2 Glossary

Christ: in New Age the historical figure of Jesus is but one incarnation of an idea or an energy or set of vibrations. For (Theosophist) Alice Bailey, a great day of supplication is needed, when all believers will create such a concentration of spiritual energy that there will be a further incarnation, which will reveal how people can save themselves…. For many people, Jesus is nothing more than a spiritual master who, like Buddha, Moses and Mohammed, amongst others, has been penetrated by the cosmic Christ. The cosmic Christ is also known as christic energy at the basis of each being and the whole of being. Individuals need to be initiated gradually into awareness of this christic characteristic they are all said to have. Christ – in New Age terms – represents the highest state of perfection of the self. ⁽⁹⁶⁾ 

Reincarnation: in a New Age context, reincarnation is linked to the concept of ascendant evolution towards becoming divine. As opposed to Indian religions or those derived from them, New Age views reincarnation as progression of the individual soul towards a more perfect state. What is reincarnated is essentially something immaterial or spiritual; more precisely, it is consciousness, that spark of energy in the person that shares in cosmic or “Christic” energy. Death is nothing but the passage of the soul from one body to another. 

Categories: Eastern Meditation, new age