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Traditional Catholic Faith => Anσnymσus Posts Allowed => Topic started by: Änσnymσus on May 14, 2024, 09:36:29 PM
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Need help knowing what these things exactly are and why or if, the Church opposes any of them (or all of them) - just don't know enough about them and am being questioned about it. God bless you all for any help!
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Need help knowing what these things exactly are and why or if, the Church opposes any of them (or all of them) - just don't know enough about them and am being questioned about it. God bless you all for any help!
I'm not certain but from what I currently know.
Yoga - false religious practice of hinduism, yoga mens yolk as you are 'yolking' yourself to a hindu god (devil) in each pose you do. Has something to do with reaching the brahim or whatever it's called.
Reiki - never heard of it
Zen - I thought this is a state of mind or concept or idea? I.e buddhism vs zen buddhism, and garden vs zen gardn
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(https://youtu.be/rTZIQxXr1JU?si=r2f5FrtmL5LoTGxg&t=10)Can Yoga Get You Possessed by Satan? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NA7splkyPs)
Yoga is a SPIRITUAL RELIGIOUS PRACTICE (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ug_qLa_8HjU)
The Truth About Yoga That Most Christians Refuse to Acknowledge (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHBc13ubS7A)
Angela Ucci got into occult practices after the tragic death of her grandmother. She has since converted to Christianity and left all of those practices behind – including her career as a yoga instructor. She is now exposing the truth about the practice.
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Need help knowing what these things exactly are and why or if, the Church opposes any of them (or all of them) - just don't know enough about them and am being questioned about it. God bless you all for any help!
All three are bad. There might not be anything Pre-Vatican II that mentions those three by name, but you will find these things are mentioned based on what they are: spiritualism and superstition.
Reiki is calling on a power (yourself and indirectly the devil) to heal someone. You call upon a power (mentally) that you do not have (beyond your natural human faculties) to heal someone. Usually accompanied by a ritual, such as moving you hand over the body part. Thus, you become the instrument for this unknow power to channel through and effect the subject you are trying to heal.
Look up Church teaching against spiritualism and superstition.
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Do you go to gym?
All three yoga, reiki and zen stuff are dangerous to the soul.
Just stick with weight training and nautilus. Take walks while praying the rosary. Best relaxing hikes are in the woods.
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Do you go to gym?
All three yoga, reiki and zen stuff are dangerous to the soul.
Just stick with weight training and nautilus. Take walks while praying the rosary. Best relaxing hikes are in the woods.
The OP seems to be asking for good information / arguments because others challenge him or her on it. Presumably he is aware they're dangerous to the soul, but wants better ways to convince others who don't think so.
Hopefully the 3 videos posted above are helpful. Also Reply #3 had a good simple summary on Reiki.
More info here:
New Age: Yoga, Reiki, Ouija Boards, Horoscopes
(https://www.youtube.com/live/PZqFJoDlnQk?si=lPa5DlMgkd-sIyeH&t=2170)If You Exercise This Way, Beware... w/ Alex Frank (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkdc-pQI-SY)
What I Learned After 3 Months in a ZEN MONASTERY w/ Alex Frank
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXs5ZKfi9sI)[I did not listen to all of these, but they look like they might be helpful.]
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Need help knowing what these things exactly are and why or if, the Church opposes any of them (or all of them) - just don't know enough about them and am being questioned about it. God bless you all for any help!
According to a reiki practitioner that i used to know, reiki involves "drawing symbols" in one's "aura". So basically you're being marked. Not good.
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I don't mean to derail but in the past I watched some videos from a youtube channel made by a buddist
Pic related, the videos were just the guy drawing patterns in sand with wooden tools, I found it very relaxing, was it a sin to watch this? Notice the title "Zen" garden. I found the sounds of the sand and the symmetry of the line work to scratch an 'itch' if that makes sense?
(https://i.imgur.com/EE3qDuo.jpeg)
(https://i.imgur.com/bX8Zlwu.jpeg)
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2QLZDecOjA
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Catholics and Reiki (Is Reiki EVIL and what problems are there?) (youtube.com) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0quBQb6wI_k)
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I don't mean to derail but in the past I watched some videos from a youtube channel made by a buddist
Pic related, the videos were just the guy drawing patterns in sand with wooden tools, I found it very relaxing, was it a sin to watch this? Notice the title "Zen" garden. I found the sounds of the sand and the symmetry of the line work to scratch an 'itch' if that makes sense?
It makes perfect sense. The demons soothe you and then get you addicted to what they're selling. It's called foot in the door technique (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot-in-the-door_technique) and is used by lots of others besides buddhists who don't have your best interests as their goal. In baser worldly terms, it's like the drug pusher who gives the potential junkie just a little taste for free. Guard your soul and stay very far away.
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It makes perfect sense. The demons soothe you and then get you addicted to what they're selling. It's called foot in the door technique (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foot-in-the-door_technique) and is used by lots of others besides buddhists who don't have your best interests as their goal. In baser worldly terms, it's like the drug pusher who gives the potential junkie just a little taste for free. Guard your soul and stay very far away.
But I have also watched a video on triangles where a dot on a computer is used to draw, it was very relaxing...
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But I have also watched a video on triangles where a dot on a computer is used to draw, it was very relaxing...
Why not just take up drawing or painting then, in order to relax?
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Why not just take up drawing or painting then, in order to relax?
This was quicker and easier. I find these symmetry or geometry type of videos relaxing. Though I don't watch them often, this was just some time ago.
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This was quicker and easier. I find these symmetry or geometry type of videos relaxing. Though I don't watch them often, this was just some time ago.
Get one of these:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9XbZJSH-T1I
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Get one of these:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9XbZJSH-T1I
This was me
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(https://i.imgur.com/9u2FihB.png)
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Yoga is dangerous. It used to be a unit in my P.E. classes in the early 1970’s. After a truly frightening episode my senior year, yoga was suddenly no longer on the curriculum. A girl in my class was attacked and possibly possessed by demons. She started suddenly screaming, spitting, growling, and running uncontrollably all over the gym. Nobody could calm her down. Anyone who came near was kicked, scratched, and spat upon. She cursed in a voice that was not hers. After a few minutes, the nurse came in and the teacher ordered everyone into the hall. The secretary from the office told all of us to use the hall exit into the locker room, get our clothes, and change in the restroom. Forget about showering. We were instructed to go to study hall for the remainder of the period. Two Pentecostal girls whispered that she was possessed by the devil. Most girls laughed at the idea, but I thought it was a possibility. She was taken away by ambulance and did not return to school. We were instructed to report to the Principal’s office 15 minutes before dismissal and he told us that she had taken LSD. Did we have any information to share? Did we know where she’d gotten it? If any of had it, please see him or any teacher anonymously. Do not take it!
Sorry, but I’d seen people on tripping on acid on the Navy base where we lived. Nobody acquired sudden supernatural strength and had their voice change to that of another person.
The Pentecostal girls later insisted it was demonic. I thought maybe it was both. They both said they were done with yoga. Neither had told their parents what they were doing in P.E. class because they were singled out so often because of their religion. They didn’t want to sit out once again and write an essay on something like good sportsmanship or copy out of a textbook for 50 minutes.
No worries, because the next day, we entered the gym to find the badminton nets set up.
I never did tell my mother about it because it was so totally weird and frightening.
Lesson? Stay far away from Yoga, Reiki, Zen, TM and such activities connected with occult practices. Instead, do stretching exercises for dance or gymnastics, practice Catholic meditation. Taking a brisk walk or even jogging while praying the Rosary are just as effective for physical conditioning and focus. Unlike the others, you get graces for Heaven.
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Even occult-friendly secular sources for the past decade or so have begun to admit the dangers of all this stuff, potentially including severe psychiatric breaks. Why, what's the subterfuge for them to put it in writing? Self-indemnification, undermining rivals, who knows. But they've noticed the not-insignificant risks.
The NPR article below is about a 10-day retreat program, yet the same harm can affect a person who takes up these practices casually as a seemingly less intense daily routine.
(https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/31/1241784635/meditation-vipassana-dangerous-mental-health)
A new podcast examines the perils of intense meditation (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/31/1241784635/meditation-vipassana-dangerous-mental-health)
March 31, 20246:00 AM ET
By Andrea Muraskin
Imagine it's a crisp clear winter day, and you're skiing down a mountain, feeling exhilarated. All of a sudden, you lose control of your skis. You're hurtling down towards the base of the slope, and all you can feel is abject terror.
That's how one young man explained his emotional state during an intensive meditation retreat. It was one of several troubling accounts reporter Madison Marriage heard while reporting Untold: The Retreat (https://www.ft.com/content/b3ec8e57-5cf9-4f96-9267-56c3bcd9c102), a new investigative podcast series from the Financial Times and Goat Rodeo.
The four-episode series focuses on retreats held by the Goenka network, teaching a popular meditation technique called Vipassana. Participants follow a strict schedule, waking before dawn and meditating silently for 10 days, 10 hours per day. They eat just two vegan meals each day.
Meditation and mindfulness have many known health benefits, including helping to process trauma (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/01/26/1227056527/to-help-these-school-kids-deal-with-trauma-mindfulness-lessons-over-the-loudspea) and manage anxiety (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/09/1135211525/anxiety-medication-meditation-lexapro), improve eating habits, (https://www.npr.org/2023/09/09/1196977570/5-ways-to-eat-more-mindfully) and ease chronic pain. (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/11/11/743065892/meditation-reduced-the-opioid-dose-she-needs-to-ease-chronic-pain-by-75) While many participants say Goenka retreats changed their lives for the better, The Retreat tells the stories of individuals whose mental health deteriorated during a 10 day retreat – or for some, after several 10-day retreats.
Some spent time in psychiatric units, and two participants whose families spoke to Marriage, took their own lives.
If you or someone you know may be considering ѕυιcιdє or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the ѕυιcιdє & Crisis Lifeline (https://988lifeline.org/).
Marriage interviewed nearly two dozen people who had attended Goenka retreats in different countries, including the U.K., the United States, France, India, and Australia. According to these former participants, retreat staff all over the world had a similar reaction when they were approached with mental health problems. "They're going to be telling you the same thing, which is keep meditating even if you're in severe emotional distress," she told NPR.
A global organization, the structure of the Goenka network is decentralized. The Financial Times reached out for comment to lead teachers at several Goenka centers, including the centers in Delaware and British Columbia where participants had died by ѕυιcιdє after exhibiting signs of psychological distress. But they declined to do an interview or answer specific questions on the record.
Bob Jeffs, director of one Goenka center near Merritt, British Columbia, told the producers of The Retreat in a written statement that his staff assess applicants before retreats and tries to dissuade people who are not ready: "Although the experience of hundreds of thousands of people who have successfully completed retreats since the early 1970's is overwhelmingly positive, these courses are not for everyone. We take the safety and well-being of every student in our care extremely seriously."
NPR contributor Andrea Muraskin spoke with Marriage about what her investigation uncovered about the mental health risks of meditation retreats.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Andrea Muraskin: What is Vipassana meditation and how is it taught at Goenka retreats?
Madison Marriage: Vipassana meditation is a type of meditation, which is ancient, its roots go back thousands of years... These retreats teach Vipassana meditation through the teachings of S. N. Goenka. And he's a kind of guru at the heart of this network, who founded the first meditation retreats back in the 1970s, and they've really proliferated.
Goenka's technique is that you spend a few days focusing on just one area of your body, and then it expands. And you have to shift your focus to different parts of your body. You wake up at 4 a.m., you start meditating at 4:30 a.m. You have a break at specific times, your day ends at 8, 9 p.m. And then in theory, you go to bed.
Muraskin: What did you discover about the Goenka retreats and mental health?
Mariage: I don't think many people associate the word meditation with anything negative. It sounds relaxing and something that you might do to help soothe yourself. And that's exactly the reason why a lot of people go off and do these retreats. They're looking for something that's going to help them to feel a bit more relaxed, a bit more calm, having a better headspace, that kind of thing.
I've now interviewed dozens of people who've done these retreats and have had the complete adverse reaction. It's almost like kind of jumping off a cliff in terms of their mental health. Some of these people have done two retreats or three retreats or ten retreats and really loved them. But there is a specific retreat where something in their mind clicks or breaks or snaps. Those are the kind of words that they've used.
Psychosis is really common. So [are] hallucinations, physical pain, like electrical zaps going up and down their bodies. In the first episode, [one young woman] describes it as being like stuck in a torture chamber for her mind.
The big one is terror, abject terror. I had one person email me this week saying, 'Thank you for making this podcast because I thought I was alone.' And he said that he would rather saw his own arm off than go back to that mental headspace.
One man in Britain ...was escorted out of a Goenka center in handcuffs by the police because he had to be sectioned at the local hospital and he wouldn't go voluntarily. There are people leaving these centers and heading to psychiatric units.
Muraskin: What did you learn about what's happening in the brains of people who have these adverse experiences with meditation?
Mariage: So we've interviewed several experts about what meditation does to the brain and one of the foremost experts we spoke to (https://www.brown.edu/public-health/mindfulness/people/willoughby-britton-phd) said it's a bit like a stimulant. So having lots of coffee or too much of any stimulants can end up having the opposite effect where instead of doing something good for you, it starts doing something bad, and it can begin to feel a little bit addictive. But there are limits to what the scientific community knows about the human brain and how and why it works in certain ways.
Muraskin: One of your interviewees told you she felt as if she had become addicted to meditation. There's no official diagnosis for meditation addiction in psychology. But did you speak to others who had experiences similar to addiction?
Mariage: Yes. Lots of people said that their first retreat or first several retreats really helped them and really brought them to quite an exciting spiritual plane. It almost sounds kind of mystical and godlike – you're on cloud nine mentally, and they come out and they feel calmer. They know how to process their thoughts better. Their life feels easier as a result. So they go to another. And they have kind of similar feelings, maybe not quite as intense.
And then the feeling starts to fade. So they do another retreat. And then a lot of people said that they ended up struggling to sleep. So they would meditate more because they had initially felt that meditation would help them to sleep because it had made them feel calmer at first. But effectively, they end up meditating through the night, all day, every day for weeks or months on end.
And then, I think maybe this comes back to your earlier question about impact on the brain – I would argue it's perhaps not meditation per se that is harming people's brains. A lot of the people I spoke to ended up having severe sleep deprivation. And it is clinically proven to be extremely bad for your brain not to sleep.
Muraskin: We've heard from several of our readers over time that they benefit from mindfulness and meditation. If somebody reading this interview becomes concerned, and thinks, I like my meditation practice, but should I be worried now, what would you say to someone like that?
Mariage: So the consensus from the psychologists and psychiatrists and academics I spoke to is that amounts of meditation up to half an hour a day on the whole is usually completely fine.
[The problem is] the extremity of this particular practice. Ten hours a day of meditating without any physical movement. You're sitting on the floor cross-legged with your eyes closed, meditating for 10 hours a day. You're put on a vegan diet. So for a lot of people that's far fewer calories, often at half of what they're usually used to. And there's no dinner. There's an element of sleep deprivation. And your sensory world is being massively diminished. And it's that which I think is driving people to quite extreme outcomes.
Muraskin: Do you think the psychological problems that came up during retreats could be explained by underlying mental health issues that the meditators had before they began meditating?
Mariage: I think that's a really difficult question because how can anyone know whether they have a mental health problem? You're meant to fill out a form before you go to one of these retreats and state whether or not you've ever had any kind of mental health issue or history of drug abuse. And if you've never had a mental health problem, you will of course say no and no, and in you go.
And I've spoken to people who say that they were completely stable prior to doing one of these retreats, had never had a mental or physical problem in their lives, and had never tried drugs, and they have gone in and they have emerged completely broken.
I actually think it's irrelevant whether or not somebody had a mental health issue beforehand, because the evidence that I've seen is that the particular format of these retreats can push people past their limits.
Muraskin: Based on your interviews with participants, is it difficult to leave a Goenka retreat early?
Mariage: Yes, it is difficult to leave a retreat early. [If you express the desire to], you're effectively gaslighted into staying.
You're told, oh, you might just be on the cusp of a breakthrough. The founder of this network died a decade ago, but it's still his voice and his teachings that are imparted at all of the retreat centers ...warning people that doing [this] practice is like undergoing surgery of the mind, and to leave halfway through is like walking out of an operation before you've been stitched up by the surgeon.
There was one man who said that every time he closed his eyes he could see streams of bubbles everywhere. And he didn't want to leave because he kind of wanted to fix that. and he thought, I might be stuck seeing streams of bubbles forevermore if I leave before the end of this.
At a lot of these centers you also hand in your keys and phone at the beginning, and that's quite an overt cue that you're here for the full period. You can of course go and ask someone and insist that you want them back, but several sources told me that when they expressed a desire to leave, they were pressured not to.
Muraskin: What did your sources –the meditators that experienced harm or their families – think needs to change to make these retreats safer?
Mariage: So first and foremost, warn people before they go in that mental health problems or kind of psychological distress is possible. It's a bit like putting warnings on bottles of medication that, you know, a tiny percentage of people with this prescription might have an adverse effect.
Secondly, they would like to see mental health practitioners on site. So rather than telling everybody to keep meditating, they need to be able to figure out better when somebody needs a bit more support and what that support should be.
Thirdly, they need proper emergency protocols. So for the two women who lost their lives after attending retreats, the horse had already bolted by the time their parents were contacted. I think it needs to be a lot more proactive in terms of reaching out to emergency contacts.
Muraskin: I can imagine you've received some pushback on the podcast from people who've really benefited from Vipassana retreats. What's your response to people who say you've painted the Goenka network too negatively?
Mariage: We've had a couple of emails from people who say this is really one-sided, you're not looking at the positive experiences at all, this has changed my life for the better.
But the podcast isn't about the people for whom this works.... The purpose is to scrutinize harm that is being done to people and to question why isn't the organization itself doing more to prevent that harm.
Andrea Muraskin is a contributor to NPR's Shots blog and writes the weekly NPR Health newsletter. She lives in Boston.
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This was me
I remember those advertised on TV during the '60s and '70s kiddy cartoon shows! Then again, the images produced are of mandalas drawn since ancient times for esoteric contemplation. Since the person using these thingamajigs is actively involved, it can be a form of conjuring even if unintentional.
Coincidence? Innocent diversion that they'd market these to kids and unsuspecting parents? Note that ouijas were also sold in toy stores as children's board games around that same time.
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OP here. Thanks to all of you who took the time to answer and share. It was most helpful to several people.