THE SPIRITUALITY OF BECOMING

The spirituality of becoming

March 18, 2003

In The Spirituality of Systems Thinking and The Psychology of Becoming, the presence of New Age religious practices in the classroom was touched on. Parents who have inadvertently discovered their child has been laying on a classroom floor with other children in a circle, in a darkened room, around a lit candle, chanting; children being taken on guided fantasy/guided visualization trips in the classroom; children being involved in Native-American chants and "rituals" in the classroom; worship of "Mother Earth" ...

All of this, and more, are New Age religious practices, being used in the classroom, sometimes under false or misleading names, to prepare children for, and to participate in, the "created future" — the sustainable global environment.

What are these New Age practices and what do they do? A central principle of the New Age religion is self-divination — man as god with all wisdom, strength, power coming from within ... what Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers euphemistically called "self-actualization." The self-actualized person is one who knows how to "connect" with his inner wisdom, strength, power, to achieve his goals, his "human potential."

Whether chanting around a candle in a darkened room, participating in guided fantasy/guided visualization, or participating in Native-American chants and rituals, the child is being encouraged to participate in self-divination. All of these practices are equally heinous in their purpose and equally repugnant in the eyes of our Creator. Not only does this violate the right of parents to raise their child/ren according to their own world view, but pursuing this in the classroom violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The way around that, of course, as so well stated by Jack Canfield, New Age author and promoter of confluent education, is to not call it by what it is, call it by something that parents wouldn't necessarily associate with something bad or evil. Instead of guided fantasy or guided visualization, call it relaxation techniques. What parent doesn't want their child relaxed and able to learn in the classroom?

What is guided fantasy/guided visualization? While some teachers learn the technique in college or university teacher programs, others learn it through programs promoting personal growth, motivational training, and the realization of human potential. Yet others learn from teacher guides. While soft, peaceful, quieting music plays in the background, children are told to ...

1. "get comfortable" ... that may be by laying on the floor, laying their head on their arms at their desk, sitting on the floor "Indian style" with their arms in their lap;

2. close their eyes, take slow deep breaths and begin to consciously relax their body, one part at a time until their whole body is relaxed;

3. imagine themselves in a setting, real or imagined, that brings them peace and tranquility;

4. seek out their "spirit guide" or "wise person."

All the while the facilitator is leading the children through these steps he/she is speaking in a soft soothing cadence intended to lull the child into a mesmerized state.

This technique places children in what is termed an "altered state of consciousness." In this hypnotic state, children "connect" with their inner wisdom, strength, power through their spirit guide.

In this state, children are also highly susceptible to suggestion, behavioral modification can be accomplished. It is easy to see how this technique could be used to instill in children beliefs they would not otherwise have or entertain, to brainwash children.

Using these techniques in a classroom setting, by teachers who are not clinically trained to do so, is dangerous. Children, brought out of this altered state, have become highly agitated, aggressive, upset; children have had unpredictable and unforeseeable flashbacks in which they have no idea where they are (even in familiar surroundings) or what they are doing; and, as happened in Spokane, Washington a few years back, a teacher could not bring a child out of this altered state.

These techniques are not meant to be used by teachers in a classroom setting. These techniques should only be used by a licensed clinician, and then only under certain controlled conditions and circumstances. To use these techniques as they are being used in the classroom under education reform is medical malpractice.

One mother discovered a journal in her daughter's bedroom. The journal contained macabre, sordid, sadistic writings. When the mother questioned her daughter about the journal, the daughter told her that it was a classroom project. When the daughter described how the teacher led the children through relaxation exercises to meet their "wise person" and write their thoughts and feelings in a journal, the mother began asking questions. When the teacher tried to stonewall her, the mother became suspicious and started doing research which lead her to a multitude of people involved in the New Age religious movement; people like Helene Blatvasky, Beverly Galyean, Alice Bailey, Robert Muller, Jack Canfield, Shakti Gawain, Jean Houston, and Barbara Marx Hubbard. When the mother showed what she had found to the teacher and administrators, they tried to sideline her concerns as the rant of a right wing religious fanatic.

These techniques are being used nationwide in schools by teachers, even teachers who would not hesitate to proclaim themselves Christian.

"You shall have no other gods before Me." Exodus 20:2 (KJV) Self-divination is man placing self, as god, before God.

As noted above, guided fantasy/guided visualization takes the child into the occult world of demonic spirits -- the wise person or spirit guide. Again, we are back to the synthesis of black and white, the compromise of good and evil, the new thesis emerging as the victory of evil over good but taking on the vestiges of good.

Children who have been exposed to guided fantasy/guided visualization in the classroom often times practice it on their own, as the "drug" of choice to help them relax when they are uptight, have had a disagreement with parents, siblings or friends. The result can be mild to extreme (devil worship), but no matter where the child falls on that scale, the scale, by it's construct, is not good.

New Age principles and practices were instrumental in the hippy movement of the sixties. The practices went the spectrum of communes where drugs, "free love," and self-divination were the fare, to people like Charles Manson who brainwashed his followers into believing he was god, who led his people into drugs, devil worship, murder and mayhem.

Down through history there have been cults, but not to the extent found since the "enlightened" hippy movement of the sixties. Most recently, the cultic behavior of Brian Mitchell, who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart in Salt Lake City, Utah has been brought to light. David Koresh who led the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas was another cult leader, as was Jim Jones who led over 900 people to their deaths in a suicide pact in Guyana, South America in 1978. The Jonestown Massacre showed just how powerful brainwashing can be in the hands of the occult.

Johanna Michaelsen has written two books that parents who know or believe their children have been exposed to guided fantasy/guided visualization in the classroom should read. The two are "The Beautiful Side of Evil" and "Like Lambs to the Slaughter; Your Child and the Occult," both published by Harvest House Publishers of Eugene, Oregon. Any parent who believes these practices are harmless are deluding themselves.

Parents who want to see where these practices can take children, should take a good look at The Light Shall Set You Free by Dr. Norma Milanovich and Dr. Shirley McCune (Athena Publishing, Albuquerque, New Mexico). For those who don't understand the correlation, Dr. Shirley McCune has been a proponent of systems education for as long as anyone has been able to document. She is currently employed by her good friend and fellow cosmic traveler, Dr. Terry Bergeson, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Washington State. When parents protested McCune being employed by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), McCune's religious beliefs were dismissed as being totally separate from her promotion of systems education. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Light Shall Set You Free is replete with the clichés we hear constantly in the world of education reform and systems education. The book is supposedly the teachings of the Ascended Masters (spirit guides) as channeled through McCune and Milanovich while in an altered state of consciousness.

When people scoffed at the outrageous ideas put forth by Marilyn Ferguson in her book, The Aquarian Conspiracy, those same people unwittingly admitted their lack of discernment for what was happening before their eyes and right under their noses.

While all of this may sound too bizarre to be for real, it is very real, it is happening; it is very much in the schools under systems education. Yes, it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution but nothing is going to be done about that unless the people of this nation force the issue.

Legislators are not going to deal with this. Too many of them have been to too many leadership and team building seminars, focus groups, and retreats where they are also exposed to New Age principles and practices. Because they also lack discernment, they see nothing wrong with it.

The first clue that something is wrong with all of this is the fact that, as Marilyn Ferguson stated in The Aquarian Conspiracy, quoting Mario Fantini, former Ford consultant on education, at State University of New York (SUNY) at the time of the writing of Ferguson's book, "the psychology of becoming must be smuggled into the schools."

Likewise, Senge, in his book The Fifth Discipline; the Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, tries to justify New Age principles and practices in the corporate and business atmosphere, and in one's personal life, contending that those who refuse to participate because of their traditional Christian world view refuse truth. The goal is to replace Christianity, as the true religion, with the New Age religion.

"I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." John 14:6 (KJV)

"Professing to be wise, they became fools." Romans 1:22 (KJV)