The New Spiritualist Worldview with Dr. Jeff Myers, part 2
To purchase the entire Summit Lecture Series, Vol. 2 on DVD, visit summit.org.
Dr. Jeff Myers: Within our culture, there are many somewhat subtle yet clear examples of the worldview behind the Bhagavad Gita. Take, for instance, one that most everyone is familiar with: The Force.
In Star Wars, Obiwan Kenobi explains to Luke Skywalker that, “The Force is what gives the Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.”
So, the Force is everything that exists… it’s actually “one thing”. The idea that “Everything is one, accompanied by the idea that there is a light (good) side of the Force and the dark (bad) side of the Force… yet they are all “one”… this is all part of the New Spiritualist theology.
But, think about how this would apply to “real life”. After September 11, 2001, when over 3,000 innocent people were killed by terrorists in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Richard Gere was asked by the New York Times, “As someone who embraces Buddhism, what do you make of this?” Richard Gere replied:
“The terrorists… are creating such horrible future lives for themselves because of the negativity of this karma. If you see it from a much wider point of view, we’re all in this together. We’re all intimately interconnected in all of these actions.” (Richard Gere, after 9/11)
Think about this for a minute: If everything is one, then good and evil are the same thing. And, if good and evil are the same thing, there is no absolute way to discern the difference between them. Not between the Jedi and the Sith, nor between the terrorists who died while trying to kill people and the firefighters who died trying to save people. This distinction was not lost on the surviving firefighters of 9/11.
In fact, several weeks after September 11, I was in the New York area at a Firefighters Benefit at Madison Square Garden. 15,000 firefighters from all over the east coast came together to raise money for the families of their fallen comrades. And Gere had the nerve to come out on the stage and say something like this to the firefighters. They booed him off of the stage. According to a friend of mine, the reason they booed him was because, “… you don’t have to be a philosopher to know that some things are just plain wrong.” (By the way, they also booed Hillary Clinton off the stage.)
So, the first key to New Spiritualism is that everything is spiritual.
The second key teaching for the Cosmic Humanist or New Spiritualist worldview is that “God is within”. This is actually a natural extension of the first point. If everything is one and we call this one thing “God”, then we are part of it and it is part of us. So, where do you turn if you want to find God? You turn inside of yourself.
In the 1970’s, this became key in the New Age movement by Ruth Montgomery, a popular Washington, D.C. political columnist and author of “A World Beyond”. She said of her book that she was not writing it of her own accord, but she was channeling the disembodied spirit of Arthur Ford – a psychic who had passed away. So, through Montgomery, “Arthur Ford” said from beyond the grave:
“We are as much God as God is a part of us… each of us is God… together we are God… this all-for-one-and-one-for-all… makes us the whole of God.” (from “A World Beyond”)
And, people easily began to believe this because if Cosmic Humanism is true, then disembodied sports are more purely “real” than embodied spirits because they don’t have the earth to “drag them down” and more access to “truth”.
Now, the Bible is very clear that we need to “test the spirits” (1 John 4). Because just because something may be spiritual doesn’t mean that it is true nor good.
But, what really bothers me most about the idea that “God is within” is that I know my own heart. And, if I am God… we are all in big trouble!
There is a leading spiritual teacher named Eckhart Tolle. Tolle is commonly ranked along with the likes of Billy Graham, Rick Warren and Joyce Meyer (as well as Oprah Winfrey) among America’s “spiritual leaders”. And, in an interview between Oprah and Eckhart, he described his worldview in a much more nuanced and appealing way.
“Belief [in God] is fine. Going to a deeper level where belief actually becomes a realization or knowing. And that can start with a simple thing like taking your attention into the present moment, which implies a certain alertness – which is different from thinking. Thinking is almost like a dream-like state. It’s not present here. So, as alertness arises, you become more conscious of what surrounds you… but also, strangely… a sense of presence that is both within and without… we could call it a divine presence.”
In the interview Oprah goes on to explain that the presence that you feel when you are able to silence your mind and be aware of the silence that is in your mind, you are that awareness disguised as a person. Eckhart agreed and went on:
“And when you become conscious of the gap between two thoughts… you become aware that the only thing that you ever have is the present.”
Remember, these are genuinely very smart, thoughtful people trying to work through something that nearly every human being has attempted to work through: How are we to understand and explain God? You have Eckhart Tolle, this spiritual teacher, coming from a New Age tradition. And, then you have Oprah, who claims to be a Born Again Christian and is obviously a very smart person; but, she has somehow integrated some of these New Age teachings into what she considers to be her Christian belief.
That’s an interesting convergence of ideas.
And, everyone who watches this interview would recognize that it consists of some truth. If God is actually everywhere, we can actually sense God’s presence. But, then Tolle turns a corner and says that God’s presence is within and without us. Then, Oprah goes on to say that “you are that awareness, disguised as a person.” So, your personhood isn’t related to your physical existence, but to your being completely spiritual.
But, according to these two, in order to become aware of this presence, you have to turn off your mind in order to focus. All of a sudden, it’s easier to realize that this worldview believes that it transcends our mental capacity to even consider the claims of this worldview.
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(This podcast is by Summit Ministries. Discovered by Christian Podcast Central and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Christian Podcast Central.)