Contending For The Faith---Part 17

 

In St. Jude 1:3, we read, "Dearly beloved, taking all care to write unto you concerning your common salvation, I was under a necessity to write unto you: to beseech you to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." [Emphasis mine]. Contending For The Faith is a series of posts dedicated to apologetics (i.e.,  the intellectual defense of the truth of the Traditional Catholic Faith) to be published the first Monday of each month.  This is the next installment.

Sadly, in this time of Great Apostasy, the faith is under attack like never before, and many Traditionalists don't know their faith well enough to defend it. Remember the words of our first pope, "But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." (1Peter 3:16). There are five (5) categories of attacks that will be dealt with in these posts. Attacks against:

• The existence and attributes of God
• The truth of the One True Church established by Christ for the salvation of all 
• The truth of a particular dogma or doctrine of the Church
• The truth of Catholic moral teaching
• The truth of the sedevacantist position as the only Catholic solution to what has happened since Vatican II 

In addition, controversial topics touching on the Faith will sometimes be featured, so that the problem and possible solutions may be better understood. If anyone has suggestions for topics that would fall into any of these categories, you may post them in the comments. I cannot guarantee a post on each one, but each will be carefully considered.

Visualize World Occultism

Maybe you've seen the bumper sticker "Visualize World Peace." You might question why it doesn't say "Think of World Peace," "Work for World Peace," or best of all, "Pray the Rosary for World Peace." The answer is simple. "Visualization" is an occult practice. Its proponents claim it works by using the mind to influence one’s perceptions and personal reality. They further state that everyone can properly control their alleged mental power, and thereby influence and change their ideas, consciousness, and even his or her physical and spiritual environment. Moreover, visualization is being pushed by some Protestants and members of the Vatican II sect as a way of "meditative prayer." 

In this post, the occult practice of visualization shall be exposed and the means to detect it will be explained. (For this post, I have used numerous sources both hard copy and online. Most notably, I acknowledge  A. R. G. Owen in I. M. Owen and M. Sparrow, Conjuring Up Philip  [1976],  Shakti Gawain, Creative Visualization  [1983], and G. Behrend, Your Invisible Power: The Original and Best Guide to Visualization [2017]. I take credit only for compiling the information I received into a concise post---Introibo). 

Visualization Described

By using your mind's eye to envision things, visualization claims you can actually make it happen. For example, visualization can supposedly be used to change one’s self-image from negative to positive by holding a positive image of oneself in the mind. Visualization may also serve to uncover a claimed “inner divinity” that can allegedly manipulate reality. By creating the proper mental image and environment and then holding it or projecting it outward, practitioners claim they can exercise mental power over every aspect of their lives. Related practices are also used in magick (i.e., occult) rituals to call on spirits in order to secure such goals.

Since the mind is potentially so powerful, proponents say, proper visualization methods can affect health, finances, educational abilities, relationships, career — and even one’s destiny. In the pagan Hindu and Buddhist religions, for example, the thought or image one holds at death is believed to powerfully influence one’s next life (the heretical doctrine of reincarnation). This is one reason given for adopting mental training exercises such as visualization. The influence of this practice cannot be overstated. 

Visualization is now employed in education at all ages, such as in counseling, creative writing, and problem-solving courses. It is also used to develop altered states of consciousness in students in order to acquire the capacity to reach “inner guides” or allegedly tap the “higher self” and its powers. It is used for enhanced learning potential, self-esteem, and stress reduction. 

Sports, exercise and health are using visualization and there is even a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to it, the Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity. The objective of the journal is stated as follows:

The Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity is the first peer-reviewed journal devoted to research on the role of imagery in sport, physical activity, exercise, and rehabilitation settings. Imagery, also referred to as cognitive enactment or visualization, is one of the most popular performance enhancement and rehabilitation techniques in sports and physical activity. Journal editor Sandra Moritz (University of North Dakota) is a recognized leader in the field, and the journal’s editorial board represents leading institutions in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. The single destination for all imagery-related research in sports and in physical activity, the Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity is an indispensable tool for scholars and practitioners of imagery, sports science, kinesiology, physical education, and psychology. (See degruyter.com/journal/key/jirspa/html?lang=en; Emphasis mine). 

Shamans, spiritists, magicians, and witches routinely use visualization, and it is commonly used in pagan/occult sects such as Rosicrucianism, Tantrism, Hinduism and Buddhism. With all this in mind, the next logical question will be explored below.

Why Do People Not Connected With The Occult/Pagan Get Involved With Visualization?

There are four (4) basic reasons people get involved with visualization when they are not a member of a pagan religion or already involved in occult activity:

1. The Quest for Personal Power. Visualization promises people the ability to transform reality to their benefit. It is "God-like" power. You can “think yourself rich” (or healthy, handsome/beautiful, happy, etc.). 

2. The Quest for Spiritual Enlightenment. Visualization claims to be able to evoke "the wisdom that lies deep within us." Suddenly, information you never knew will be revealed to you in your mind's eye, or you will meet your spirit guide who will give you "wisdom."

3. The Quest for Physical Health. Wild claims are made that visualization can make you super-athletic and cure every known malady. 

4. The Quest for "Contact with Jesus." Protestant and Vatican II sect clergy hold "guided meditation" retreats, seminars, and group meeting, which employ the basics of visualization under a different name, so participants can come "closer to Jesus." More will be written about this further below.

Unfortunately, people may get more than they bargained for when they use visualization techniques for personal power, spiritual/educational enlightenment, or physical/mental health. Visualization programs come with additional baggage — various accompaniments, world views, and physical and spiritual dangers.

Types of Visualization.

1. Programmed Visualization is an active process used individually; for example, the practitioner holds a positive image in the mind in order to “create” the desired object or situation. It can be performed on the psychiatric couch or in an occult ritual.

2. Receptive Visualization is a passive process; it “lets the movie roll” after an initial theme, setting, or the like is developed in the consciousness. The method is passive in that it receives whatever comes into the mind, which is usually interpreted as special guidance of some kind, such as instructions from one’s “higher self,” “inner guide,” or “divine consciousness.”

3. Guided Visualization, also termed guided imagery, employs a friend, therapist, or clergyman in either a therapeutic or religious context. This is the type used to dupe Protestants and Vatican II sect members who believe they will get "closer to Jesus." 

Distinction to be Drawn: Visualization vs. Imagination.

• Everyone uses their imagination (imagery) in everyday life. You can refrain from using it to imagine the worst. You can use it to, e.g., think of the mysteries of the Rosary as you're praying, which is both good and laudatory

• Imagery is a component of visualization but may be studied in and of itself, apart from visualization. In other words, imagery studies may be strictly scientific and neutral, or they may be placed into a larger metaphysical worldview

• Imagery is therefore not necessarily visualization. Visualization demands the exercise of will and faith within a context of relaxation, meditation, and often self-hypnosis

• The components of visualization often regulate its outcome. That is, they place it within a certain context, a certain worldview, and to that degree influence the method’s effectiveness, impact, and spiritual implications

The Dangers of Visualization

Since the practice of visualization can be adapted to almost any philosophy and uniquely colored by it, there is no well-defined worldview which could be presented that would be comprehensive. However,  restricting this analysis to popular and occult visualization, recognizing the potential for using it everywhere, it can be seen in a broad outline. Some principal components include the following:

• Pantheism : Everything is interconnected by divine energy, the One power, or ultimate cosmic reality

• Humans are divine in their true nature and each person controls his personal destiny; he is an integral part of this divine energy and can realize this experientially through proper technique and instruction

• The mind of each human has “infinite” potential; the “higher self” or unconscious mind provides the connecting link to the infinite and is believed to be the repository of vast wisdom and ability

• Visualization is an important technique that initiates contact with the ultimate cosmic reality.

These are the basic principles found in all things occult. Here are three specific spiritual evils emanating from visualization:

"Psychic Development"

Visualization is often used to develop alleged psychic powers. This fact is recognized by numerous experts in both the occult and visualization. For example one visualization pioneer stated, “The capacity to utilize visual imagination is a regular part of the training for psychics and healers in the Philippine spiritist churches.” (See Alfred Stelter, Psi-Healing [1976], pg. 41). Occultists Mike and Nancy Samuels write, “The receptive visualization state is a state in which a person can receive extrasensory perceptions of another person’s mind (telepathy), of objects or events (clairvoyance), of future events (precognition), and of psychic diagnosis.” (See Samuels and Samuels, Seeing With the Mind’s Eye [1983], pg. 270). 

Occult Ritual

Occult "magickian" (one who uses the occult to change reality, not a harmless "sleight of hand" entertainment "Magician") David Conway devotes an entire chapter, “Visualization and the Training of a Magician,” to the importance of visualization for magic ritual in his Magic: An Occult Primer:

… The technique of visualization is something you will gradually master, and indeed must master if you are to make any progress in magic…. It is our only means of affecting the etheric atmosphere. It enables us to build our own thought forms, contact those already in existence and channel elemental energy we need down onto the physical plane. (See David Conway, Magic: An Occult Primer, [1983], pg. 59). 

Spiritism and Demonic Possession

Conway also provides an example of a visualization practice used during magic ritual whose goal is to “produce, in reality, the spirit, god, or demon imagined through ritual.” No one knowledgeable in occult ritual has any doubt about the dangers here, least of all Conway. Visualization at this point becomes an integral component fostering spirit possession:

… The adept imagines that the god-form or the most congenial of the planetary or sefirothic forms is materializing behind his back. He visualizes this in as much detail as possible. Slowly, as the altar candles flicker, he will sense with a sureness which precludes all doubt that the visualized form is in fact towering inside the circle behind him. On no account must he turn his head to look at whatever is there; any temptation to do so must be sternly resisted: the form may be unbearably hideous or else possess a beauty that may literally be fatal.

In the meantime, the adept should endeavor to continue his mantra, although by now his heart will no doubt be beating furiously. Whatever else happens he must not move, even when he senses that the form is so close as to be almost touching him Above all he must not panic, but should comfort himself with the thought that he is safe enough provided he stays where he is.

At last—and he will certainly know when—the god-form will take control of him. To begin with, the adept will feel an exquisite giddiness somewhere at the base of his skull and quickly convulsing the whole of his body. As this happens, and while the power is surging into him, he forces himself to visualize the thing he wants his magick to accomplish, and wills its success. He must put all he has into this and, like our friends the Bacchantes, must whip himself into a veritable frenzy.

It is at this point that the force evoked will be expelled to realize the ritual intention. As he feels the force overflowing inside him the adept, while still visualizing the realized magical intention, bids it go forth to fulfill his wishes. (Ibid, pgs. 130-131; Emphasis mine). 

The Danger of "Christian Visualization"

Should any V2 sect "priest" tell you that there will be a prayer meeting (even the Rosary) with "guided imagery," please beware and tell anyone you know who attends such of the danger. If the "priest" is "conservative," and tells the parishioners to e.g., "imagine Jesus in the Garden, sweating drops of Blood for our redemption," at the start of the First Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary, there is nothing wrong with it. It is not really "guided imagery," as it is a fruitful and worthwhile use of the imagination for a Traditionalist Catholic.

If "Father" says something along the lines of, "Imagine Jesus is with you now in some familiar location. What does He look like? Wait for Him to say something, and take His advice." Now, you have an occult worldview using visualization.  There are no safeguards which can be provided to ensure that imagination will not lead to the appearance of a spiritistic "Jesus." Demons pretending to be Jesus appear all over the place in the occult, from dictating occult texts such as A Course in Miracles, to direct appearances in the temples of the Mormon Church, to various occultists. Is a “Jesus” who truly manifests inwardly to guide and comfort or to erase bad memories, a “Jesus” who must appear at the beck and call of the emotionally needy in general? Is this not similar to the spirit guide (demon) of the occultist?

Apart from the occult, how much power does visualization per se really have? If humans were a "god-in-embryo," with divine energy at his disposal, and if his thoughts actually did create reality, then visualization should produce literal miracles. However, this is not the case. Given Church teaching, visualization is mostly impotent and, even in its allegedly “neutral” or “Christian” aspects, would only seem marginally useful at best. In other words, isn’t it true that (a) God’s ordering of the world and how attentively we live in harmony with it, and (b) obeying His moral standards, are vastly more important to any kind of physical and spiritual health than our mental pictures or manipulation of them through visualization, even in a so-called Christian context? When visualization does work, it is not of God, but from Hell. 

The "Philip Experiment"

If anyone doubts the authenticity of encounters with demons, there is actually scientific evidence of such. Whether real or imaginary (in the mind of an individual), the spirit world may still respond when beckoned. The story of “Philip” has a similar theme and is reported in the book Conjuring Up Philip and elsewhere. (See I. M. Owen, M. Sparrow, Conjuring Up Philip, [1976]). The story of the Philip Experiment is terrifying, and the 2014 movie The Quiet Ones, is loosely based on it.

A group of psychic investigators and parapsychologists with the Toronto Society for Psychical Research came together to see if they could, through “collective mental power alone,” that is, imagination and visualization, create the physical phenomena found in a seance and produce a "spirit" that was really a manifestation of the power of the collective mind. They got something totally unexpected. They named him (their expected manifestation) “Philip” and gave him an imaginary past and personality.  The following account (online) is a faithful telling of the experiment derived from the primary written sources I have read:

In September 1972, the Owen Group [as it was called] began formal weekly sittings in the “Philip room” during which they sat together and discussed Philip and his life, meditated on his being, and attempted to create a “collective hallucination” of his spirit. During the early sessions, the group sought to create a common mental picture of Philip and his surroundings, focusing on his appearance, day-to-day activities, and his feelings towards his wife Dorothea and gypsy lover Margo. Although some members occasionally claimed to “feel a presence” at times, and others reported seeing vivid images of Philip in their mind, after several months, no communication, no manifestations, no phenomenon of any kind could be created through their attempts – that is, until they decided to turn off the lights.

With no satisfactory result from their efforts, it was suggested (by British psychologist Kenneth J. Barcheldor) that the group change tactic, surmising that some group members harbored skepticism and hence, they should conduct their sessions in an atmosphere that was less academic and more conducive to the summoning of ghostly spirits. They began mimicking the procedures used in a traditional séance session – the lights were dimmed, and the group gathered around a table, surrounded with objects from Philip’s fictional time period. As popularized in traditional Spiritualism séances, group members sat around the table, placing their fingers lightly on the surface, and called for Philip to appear.

Shortly after the “traditional” séance settings began, suddenly, out of the blue, a loud rap echoed through the room. Members of the team noted later that the rap was distinctive, clear, and so violent that the table itself vibrated (members said that the sound was “felt” more than heard). This was followed by a number of distinctive knocks.

After these first communications from “Philip”, the group began querying the entity, agreeing on a “one rap for yes, two for no” means of expressing themselves. Through this new means of communiqué, the group learned finer details of Philip’s life. However, they noted that the only details Philip initially provided were historical details that any member of the group could have known beforehand. Hence, the Owen Group theorized that the information coming from “Philip” was information being fed into the conversation through their own collective unconsciousness.

From this point forward, however, the phenomena expanded, producing a wide range of paranormal activity that the group was never able to fully explain. Auditory study of the loud raps showed a unique sound envelope, one that could not be reproduced by the researchers.

Soon, the group recognized that the entity they had conjured had a distinct personality. He had likes, dislikes, and strong views on various subjects made clear to the group members by enthusiasm, or hesitancy, in his responses. Loud knocks were received in response to mundane questions but if the group asked Philip about his wife Dorothea, loud scratching noises would emanate from table or chairs instead.

Soon after the “verbal” communications began, Philip began producing extraordinary visible physical manifestations. In response to questions, group members began to hear whispers in their ears. In one of the early sessions, the group was stunned when the table suddenly, and violently, jumped and slid across the floor – despite the fact that the table rested on thick carpeting. At one point, it was documented that the table began to “dance”, tilting onto a single leg and spinning about.

Researchers now had serious questions about the results they were witnessing. To rule out hoaxers in the group, paper doilies were placed on the table, under the fingertips of participants, to foil any conscious attempts by members to make the table move. Cameras were brought in to film the proceedings, some placed strategically to capture any purposeful attempt to move the table using the participant’s knees. Still, the table would jump about, rock, and shake of its own accord.

The Owen Group members were both astounded, and terrified of what they were experiencing. According to participants, room lights would dim, and when the group politely asked Philip to return them to their normal brightness, they would instantly turn back on.

After feeling a distinct cool breeze blow across the table, the group asked if he could start and stop the wind at will. On command, Philip would send a whirlwind of air across the table and into the participants’ faces. On one occasion, it was reported that a fine cloud of mist formed and hovered over the center of the table.  Soon, the table began to move around the room, rushing across the room to greet latecomers and on several occasions, pushing, and trapping, a team member into a corner of the room.

Word of the experiment’s extraordinary results spread and quickly captured the attention of the public. A 16mm movie was produced by the group in 1974 (titled Philip: The Imaginary Ghost) which documented the experiment’s conception, what actually happened, and showed the table’s movements and loud, booming, raps. Media outlets responded and CBS Television even sent a crew to film the events for a TV documentary, Man Alive. During the filming, before a live audience of more than fifty people, Philip produced booming raps on the table, turned lights throughout the room on and off, and in front of all witnesses present, levitated the table off the floor.

The film crew, of course, was astounded but nevertheless, the Owen Group could not produce a scientific explanation for what they were witnessing. As far as anyone could tell, a physical entity had been summoned, and nobody knew how or why the manifestations took place.

Several books were penned about the events witnessed during The Philip Experiment. Iris Owen and Margaret Sparrows documented the events in their 1976 work, Conjuring up Philip, and several other paranormal-related books of the day included the incident in their works.  The 2014 movie The Quiet Ones was based upon the Philip Experiment case.

(See geekslop.com/life/strange/things-that-go-bump-in-the-night/2014/the-philip-experiment-1972-toronto-scientific-experiment-conjure-spirit-ghost-poltergeist). 

Conclusion

Traditionalists are to find their strength in prayer, the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the sacraments. They are not to be helped by an occult technique using Eastern pagan metaphysics. 

In this time of the Great Apostasy, visualization practices are here to stay. This underscores the necessity for Traditionalists to bring a thoroughgoing, truly Catholic critique to this occult method.