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OR TH OD OX Y
and the Religion
of the Future —
FR. SERAPHIM RO SE ;
 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2022 with funding from
Kahle/Austin Foundation

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ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE
HIEROMONK SERAPHIM ROSE
1934-1982
 ORTHODOXY
and the Religion
of the Future

BY PRASERAPHIM ROSE

SAINT HERMAN OF ALASKA BROTHERHOOD

1996
 Copyright 1975 by the
St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood

First Printing: April, 1975

Second Printing: August, 1975
Third Printing: May, 1976
Fourth Printing (Second Edition): March, 1979
Fifth Printing (Second Edition): February, 1983
Sixth Printing (Third Edition): January, 1990
Seventh Printing (Fourth Edition): December, 1996

Address all correspondence to:

The St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood
P.O. Box 70
Platina, California 96076

Front cover: The triumph of the Archangel Michael over the

antichrist, who is shown falling into the abyss together with the
cities of this world at the end of time. Fresco by Pimen
Maximovich Sofronov in the Sepulchre of St. John
Maximovitch in San Francisco.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Rose, Fr. Seraphim (1934-1982).
Orthodoxy and the religion of the future.
Library of Congress Catalogue Number: 75-16940
ISBN 1-887904—-00-X
 ike
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HOW NARROWIS THE GATE, and strait is the way that

leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! Beware of false
prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly
they are ravening wolves. By their fruits ye shall know them....
Not everyone that saith to Me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the
Kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth the will ofMy Father Who
is in heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many
will say to Me in that day: Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in
Thy name, and cast out devils in Thy name, and done many
miracles in Thy name? And then will I profess unto them, I never
knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. Every one
therefore that heareth these My words, and doeth them, shall be
likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock.
—DMatthew 7:14—16, 21-24
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 Contents
Preface to the Fourth Edition
Preface
Introduction
1. The “Dialogue with Non-Christian Religions”
2. “Christian” and Non-Christian Ecumenism
3. “The New Age of the Holy Spirit”
4. The Present Book

. The “Monotheistic” Religions: Do We Have the

Same God that Non-Christians Have?

Il. The Power of the Pagan Gods: Hinduism’s Assault

Upon Christianity
1. The Attractions of Hinduism
2. A War of Dogma
3. Hindu Places and Practices
4, Evangelizing the West
5. The Goal of Hinduism: The Universal Religion

III. A Fakir’s “Miracle” and the Prayer ofJesus

IV. Eastern Meditation Invades Christianity

1. “Christian Yoga”
2. “Christian Zen”
3. Transcendental Meditation

V. The “New Religious Consciousness”: The Spirit of

the Eastern Cults in the 19705
vil
 CONTENTS

1. Hare Krishnas in San Francisco 54

2. Guru Maharaj-ji at the Houston Astrodome 56
3. Tantric Yoga in the Mountains of New Mexico 59
4, Zen Training in Northern California 62
5. The New “Spirituality” vs. Christianity 67

il, “Signs from Heaven”: An Orthodox Christian Under-

_

standing of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) 70

1. The Spirit of Science Fiction q2
2. UFO Sightings and the Scientific
Investigation of Them 7?
3. The Six Kinds of UFO Encounters 85
4. Explanation of the UFO Phenomena 98
5. The Meaning of UFOs 108

VAL The “Charismatic Revival” as a Sign of the Times 115

1. The 20th-century Pentecostal Movement 116
2. The “Ecumenical” Spirit of the “Charismatic
Revival” 13
3. “Speaking in Tongues” 124
4. “Christian” Mediumism 128
5. Spiritual Deception 143
A. Attitude toward “Spiritual” Experiences 146
B. Physical Accompaniments of “Charismatic”
Experiences iia
C. “Spiritual Gifts” Accompanying “Charismatic”
Experiences 158
D. The New “Outpouring of the Holy Spirit” 163

VIL. Conclusion: The Spirit of the Last Times 169

1. The “Charismatic Revival” as a Sign of the Times 169
A. A “Pentecost without Christ” 170
Vill
 CONTENTS

B. The “New Christianity” Wi)

C. “Jesus Is Coming Soon” We)
D. Must Orthodoxy Join the Apostasy? 179
E. “Little Children, It is the Last
Hour” (I John 2:18) 183
2. The Religion of the Future 187

Epilogue: Jonestown and the 1980s ys)

Epilogue to the Fourth Edition: Signs of the Religion of
the Future in the 1990's 201
1. The New Age 202
2. The Toronto Blessing 205
3. UFOs in the Contemporary Mind 206
4. The Plan for the New Age 208
5. Globalism 210
6. False Unity and Rootless Eclecticism 24]
7. Conclusion 2N3
Appendix to the Fourth Edition: The Conversion of
a Hindu Brahmin to Christianity 215
General Index 22)
Scripture Index 234
14,000-foot Mount Shasta in northern California.
 Preface to the Fourth Edition

()* May 10, 1976, Fr. Seraphim Rose was driving home to
the St. Herman Monastery in the mountans of northern
California. He was coming from Oregon, where he had just
picked up a shipment ofhis first published book, Orthodoxy and
the Religion of the Future—a book that would one day become
spiritual dynamite, especially in Russia. The book was an exam-
ination of contemporary religious phenomena, symptoms of
the “new religious consciousness” which prepared the way for
one world religion and marked the beginning of a “demonic
pentecost’ in the last times. Never before had such a penetrating
analysis of 20th-century spiritual currents been written, for
until now no one had studied them so closely according to the
timeless wisdom of the Holy Fathers.
In the early to mid-1970’s, when Fr. Seraphim was writing
his book, much of the phenomena he was describing was
considered part of an aberrant “fringe.” But he saw what was
coming: he saw that the “fringe” would become more and more
the “mainstream.” He saw the frightening unity of purpose
behind a wide range of outwardly disparate phenomena, and
saw the end result looming over the horizon. As he travelled
southward with this book which was to blow the mask off the
most subtle forms of demonic deception in our times, it was
appropriate that he should stop at a nucleus of neo-paganism in
America: Mount Shasta. Considered by some to have been a
holy mountain of the original Indian inhabitants, Mount
x]
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Shasta had long been a center of occult activities and settle-

ments, which were now on the increase there. Fr. Seraphim
drove part way up with his truckload of books. Standing in the
shadow of the immense mountain, on a spot where neo-pagan
festivals were commonly held, he sang Paschal chants, sang of
Christ’s Resurrection and His victory over satan and the law of
death. A thought arose in his mind which had come to him
before: “An Orthodox priest should come and bless this moun-
tain with holy water!” Later, after his ordination to the priest-
hood, he would return to bless the mountain. But his book
would do more: it would move mountains.

1. How This Book Was Born

The seeds of Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future had
been with Fr. Seraphim for quite some time. In the early 1960's
he had begun a monumental work, The Kingdom of Man and
the Kingdom of God, which would trace the philosophical,
spiritual and social currents of the last 900 years, and would
include a large section entitled “Orthodox Christian Spiritual-
ity and the “New Spirituality.” For years his monastic partner,
Fr. Herman, had been urging him to complete his magnum
opus, but Fr. Seraphim had balked on the grounds that it was
too big a job to undertake along with all the other tasks of their
St. Herman Brotherhood, and that, besides, it was too intellec-
tual and abstract. “We need something more practical,” he said.
By this time his understanding of Orthodox Christianity had
deepened considerably, both from study and from personal
struggle, and he was better able to contrast pseudo-spirituality
with a commanding view oftrue, sober and salvific spiritual life.
Ironically, as he had grown in both inward and outward knowl-
edge since the early 60's, his writings had grown not more
XH
 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

complex and abstruse, but more accessible, understandable,

basic and to-the-point.
In 1971, Fr. Seraphim began to write and compile chap-
ters for Orthodoxy and the Religion ofthe Future, serializing them
in the Brotherhood’s journal The Orthodox Word. Four years
later, on Bright Friday, May 9, 1975, the fathers finished
printing the first edition of the book. It sold out so quickly that
they had to do another printing in August. The book had struck
a responsive chord, and the demand for it increased. The
monastery received letters and visits from several people who
had been delivered from spiritual deception after reading it.*

2. The Clarity ofa Patristic Mind

In the last century, the Russian Orthodox philosopher

Ivan Kireyevsky explained how the acquisition of the Patristic
mind enables one to see what others cannot: “An Orthodox
mind stands at the point where all roads cross. He carefully
looks down each road and, from his unique vantage point,
observes the conditions, dangers, uses, and ultimate destination
of each road. He examines each road from a Patristic viewpoint
as his personal convictions come into actual, not hypothetical,
contact with the surrounding culture.” These words exactly
describe Fr. Seraphim and explain why his writings now seem
so prophetic. It was not that he was a divinely inspired prophet
to whom the mysteries of the future were revealed. Rather, it
was that he had acquired the Orthodox Patristic mind, the
mind of the ancient Holy Fathers; and with this he discerned
where the road of his surrounding culture, and its general
spiritual trend, was headed.
* Some ofthese encounters are described in Not of This World: The Life and
Teaching of Fr. Seraphim Rose, Forestville, California, 1993, pp. 652-655.

xill
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

When Fr. Seraphim was writing in the mid-1970's about

the dangers of the neo-pagan cults, there were other “cult-
watchers” around (although then they were not so widely
listened to as when the “cult-scare” hit America in 1979, in the
wake of the Jonestown massacre). Without the Patristic princi-
ples ofspiritual life, however, they were not able to perceive the
underlying unity behind the phenomena of UFOs, Eastern
religions, and the “charismatic revival”—all of which possess
mediumistic techniques for getting in contact with fallen spirits
under different guises.
Now that the New Age movement has become so visible
and powerful, a number of “warning” books by Christian
authors have become available. In 1983, a year after Fr.
Seraphim’s death, one of these books became a number one
bestseller among Protestant Christians: The Hidden Dangers of
the Rainbow: the New Age Movement and Our Coming Age of
Barbarism, by Attorney Constance E. Cumbey. Although this
book is also not informed by Patristic principles and may
include some exaggerations, it came as a much-needed eye-
opener to the Christian world, revealing little-known facts
about the roots of the New Age movement, and about the
cooperating religious, political, economic, health and environ-
mental organizations working toward the “New World Order.”
After the book came out, Constance Cumbey went on a speak-
ing tour, appearing many times on television and radio, giving
interviews and debating such prominent New Age leaders as
Benjamin Creme. Then, in 1989, she came across Orthodoxy
and the Religion ofthe Future. Vhis book by a predecessor in her
field was like a revelation to her. To the St. Herman Brother-
hood she wrote: “An unknown benefactor sent me a copy of Fr.
Rose’s book approximately one year ago, and I consider it the
most important book I have read on the subject to date.
XIV
 PREFACE TO THE FourTH EDITION

Reading Fr. Rose is like drinking pure water after wading in

muck! | have recommended it to many people in my public
talks and radio interviews.”

3. The Impact of This Book in Russia

Of the forty books which the St. Herman Brotherhood

published during Fr. Seraphim’s lifetime—twenty in English
and twenty in Russian—Orthodoxy and the Religion ofthe Future
was the most popular. At the time of this writing, it is in its
seventh English printing.
In Russia the impact of the book has been far greater than
it has in America—even with the book not having been pub-
lished in Russian! During his lifetime Fr. Seraphim learned that
the book had been translated into Russian behind the Iron
Curtain, but he was never to know the astounding results.
After his death it became known that the Russian translation
(or a number of translations) had been secretly distributed
among believers all over Russia in the form of countless type-
written manuscripts. The lives of untold thousands were
changed as this book awakened them to the spiritual dangers of
their times. The book is particularly relevant to Russia today,
where a society deprived by seventy years of enforced material-
ism is falling prey to the growing influence of fraudulent
spiritual trends.
With the “opening up” of Eastern European countries,
portions of the widely-known “underground” manuscript of
Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future were published in
newspapers inside Russia. The chapters on “The Fakir’s Miracle
and the Prayer of Jesus” and on the UFO phenomenon ap-
peared, introduced by biographical information on Fr. Sera-
phim. In both cases the articles were deliberately published to
XV
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

fulfill a specific need, since Eastern religions and UFO experi-

ences have attracted tremendous interest in Russia. As the
newspaper publishers stated, Fr. Seraphim’s explanation ofthese
phenomena has proven more plausible than any other theory.
One believer in Russia has said: “Fr. Seraphim’s books
demonstrate that these seemingly ‘inexplicable’ phenomena can
be explained according to the stable, secure, precise theory of
Orthodox Patristic doctrine.”
Finally in 1991, the entire book was published in mass
quantities inside Russia. Since then, several Russian editions
have been printed and millions of copies have been distributed.
Along with Fr. Seraphim’s The Soul After Death, this book is one
of the most widely read spiritual books in Russia today. It is sold
not only in bookstores and churches throughout the country,
but even in the subway (Metro) and on booktables in the streets.

4, Uncompromising Witness
Although Fr. Seraphim was generally understated in his
deliberate avoidance of sensationalism, some readers may find
the conclusions he draws in this book to be unnecessarily harsh
and severe. In this, as in all his published writings, he was not
one to soften his punches. Since betrayals of Christian truth—
from the blatant to the highly subtle—were going on every-
where, he felt he could not afford to put on kid gloves; he had
to be uncompromising tn print.
Despite his severity when it came to writing about de-
monic deceptions which could lead the well-meaning to eternal
perdition, Fr. Seraphim was loving and compassionate when it
came to his pastoral approach to individual people. This per-
sonal, one-on-one care for people can be seen in his letters,
journals and counsels which are cited in his biography, Nor of

XVI
 PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

This World. The present book, on the other hand, is an unequiv-

ocal statement, written for the world at large with a specific
purpose in mind. Because Fr. Seraphim adhered to this purpose
without sidestepping in the least, his book has over the years
succeeded in jarring countless people out of complacency, mak-
ing them take spiritual life more seriously, and giving them a
firm push on the right path. It has challenged them with the
reality that there is indeed a spiritual war going on, a battle for
souls, and that they must walk circumspectly (Eph. 5:15) so as
not to lose the grace of God which leads them heavenward.
May God continue to use this book to enlighten those
wandering in darkness, and to remind those walking in the light
how straight and narrow is the path they are to tread—the path
to eternal life.
Fr. Damascene
St. Herman of Alaska Monastery
Platina, California
December, 1996
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 Preface

R= HERESY has its own “spirituality,” its own characteris-

tic approach to the practical religious life. Thus, Roman
Catholicism, until recently, had a clearly distinguishable piety
of its own, bound up with the “sacred heart,” the papacy,
purgatory and indulgences, the revelations of various “mys-
tics,” and the like; and a careful Orthodox observer could
detect in such aspects of modern Latin spirituality the practical
results of the theological errors of Rome. Fundamentalist Prot-
estantism, too, has its own approach to prayer, its typical
hymns, its approach to spiritual “revival”; and in all of these
can be detected the application to religious life of its funda-
mental errors in Christian doctrine. The present book is about
the “spirituality” of Ecumenism, the chief heresy of the 20th
century.
Until recently it appeared that Ecumenism was some-
thing so artificial, so syncretic, that it had no spirituality of its
own; the “liturgical” agenda of Ecumenical gatherings both
great and small appeared to be no more than an elaborate
Protestant Sunday service.
But the very nature of the Ecumenist heresy—the belief
that there is no one visible Church of Christ, that it is only
now being formed—is such that it disposes the soul under its
influence to certain spiritual attitudes which, in time, should
produce a typical Ecumenist “piety” and “spirituality.” In our
day this seems to be happening at last, as the Ecumenical
XIX
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

attitude of religious “expectancy” and “searching” begins to be

rewarded by the activity of a certain “spirit” which gives reli-
gious satisfaction to the barren souls of the Ecumenist waste-
land and results in a characteristic “piety” which is no longer
merely Protestant in tone.
This book was begun in 1971 with an examination of the
latest “Ecumenical” fashion—the opening of a “dialogue with
non-Christian religions.” Four chapters on this subject were
printed in 7he Orthodox Word in 1971 and 1972, reporting
chiefly on the events of the late 1960's up to early 1972. The
last of these chapters was a detailed discussion of the “charis-
matic revival” which had just then been taken up by several
Orthodox priests in America, and this movement was de-
scribed as a form of “Ecumenical spirituality” inclusive of
religious experiences which are distinctly non-Christian.
Especially this last chapter aroused a great deal of interest
among Orthodox people, and it helped to persuade some not
to take part in the “charismatic” movement. Others, who had
already participated in “charismatic” meetings, left the move-
ment and confirmed many of the conclusions of this article
about it. Since then the “charismatic revival” in “Orthodox”
parishes in America, judging from Fr. Eusebius Stephanou’s
periodical The Logos, has entirely adopted the language and
techniques of Protestant revivalism, and its un-Orthodox char-
acter has become clear to any serious observer. Despite the
Protestant mentality of its promoters, however, the “charis-
matic revival” as a “spiritual” movement is definitely some-
thing more than Protestantism. The characterization of it in
this article as a kind of “Christian” mediumism, which has been
corroborated by a number ofobservers ofit, links it to the new
“Ecumenical spirituality” out of which is being born a new,
non-Christian religion.
 PREFACE

In the summer of 1974, one of the American monasteries

of the Russian Orthodox Church was visited by a young man
who had been directed to one of its monks by the “spirit” who
constantly attended him. During his brief visit the story of this
young man unfolded itself. He was from a conservative Protes-
tant background which he found spiritually barren, and he had
been opened up to “spiritual” experiences by his Pentecostalist
grandmother: the moment he touched a Bible she had given
him, he received “spiritual gifts’—most notably, he was at-
tended by an invisible “spirit”? who gave him precise instruc-
tions as to where to walk and drive; and he was able at will to
hypnotize others and cause them to levitate (a talent which he
playfully used to terrorize atheist acquaintances). Occasionally
he would doubt that his “gifts” were from God, but these
doubts were overcome when he reflected on the fact that his
spiritual “barrenness” had vanished, that his “spiritual rebirth”
had been brought about by contact with the Bible, and that he
seemed to be leading a very rich life of prayer and “spirituality.”
Upon becoming acquainted with Orthodoxy at this monastery,
and especially after reading the article on the “charismatic
revival,” he admitted that here he found the first thorough and
clear explanation of his “spiritual” experiences; most likely, he
confessed, his “spirit” was an evil one. This realization, how-
ever, did not seem to touch his heart, and he left without being
converted to Orthodoxy. On his next visit two years later this
man revealed that he had given up “charismatic” activities as
too frightening and was now spiritually content practicing Zen
meditation.
This close relationship between “Christian” and “Eastern”
spiritual experiences is typical of the “ecumenical” spirituality
of our days. For this second edition much has been added
concerning Eastern religious cults and their influence today, as
Xx1
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

well as concerning a major “secular” phenomenon which is

helping to form a “new religious consciousness” even among
non-religious people. None of these by itself, it may be, has a
crucial significance in the spiritual make-up of contemporary
man; but each one in its own way typifies the striving of men
today to find a new spiritual path, distinct from the Christianity
of yesterday, and the sum of them together reveals a frightening
unity of purpose whose final end seems just now to be looming
above the horizon.
Shortly after the publication of the article on the “charis-
matic revival,” The Orthodox Word received a letter from a
respected Russian Orthodox ecclesiastical writer who is well
versed in Orthodox theological and spiritual literature, saying:
“What you have described here is the religion of the future, the
religion of antichrist.” More and more, as this and similar
forms of counterfeit spirituality take hold even of nominal
Orthodox Christians, one shudders to behold the deception
into which spiritually unprepared Christians can fall. This
book is a warning to them and to all trying to live a conscious
Orthodox Christian life in a world possessed by unclean spir-
its. It is not an exhaustive treatment of this religion, which has
not yet attained its final form, but rather a preliminary explora-
tion of those spiritual tendencies which, it would indeed seem,
are preparing the way for a true religion ofanti-Christianity, a
religion outwardly “Christian,” but centered upon a pagan
coos ae
initiation” experience.
May this description of the increasingly evident and bra-
zen activity of satan, the prince of darkness, among “Chris-
tians,” inspire true Orthodox Christians with the fear of losing
God's grace and turn them back to the pure sources of Chris-
tian life: the Holy Scriptures and the spiritual doctrine of the
Holy Fathers of Orthodoxy!
 Introduction

1. The “Dialogue with Non-Christian Religions”

@) IS A SPIRITUALLY UNBALANCED AGE, when many Or-

thodox Christians find themselves tossed to and fro, and
carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men,
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive (Eph.
4:14). The time, indeed, seems to have come when men will
not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap
to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn
away their ears from the truth, and shall be inclined unto fables
(II Tim. 4:3-4).
One reads in bewilderment of the latest acts and pro-
nouncements of the ecumenical movement. On the most so-
phisticated level, Orthodox theologians representing the
American Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops and other
official Orthodox bodies conduct learned “dialogues” with
Roman Catholics and Protestants and issue “joint statements”
on such subjects as the Eucharist, spirituality, and the like—
without even informing the heterodox that the Orthodox
Church is the Church of Christ to which all are called, that only
her Mysteries are grace-giving, that Orthodox spirituality can
be understood only by those who know it in experience within
the Orthodox Church, that all these “dialogues” and “joint
statements” are an academic caricature of true Christian dis-
course—a discourse which has the salvation of souls as its aim.
Indeed, many of the Orthodox participants in these “dialogues”
XXI1l
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

know or suspect that this is no place for Orthodox witness, that

the very atmosphere of ecumenical “liberalism” cancels out
whatever truth might be spoken at them; but they are silent, for
the “spirit of the times” today is often stronger than the voice
of Orthodox conscience. (See Diakonia, 1970, no. 1, p. 72; St.
Vladimir’ Theological Quarterly, 1969, no. 4, p.225; etc.)
On a more popular level, ecumenical “conferences” and
“discussion” are organized, often with an “Orthodox speaker”
or even the celebration of an “Orthodox Liturgy.” The ap-
proach to these “conferences” is often so dilettantish, and the
general attitude at them is so lacking in seriousness, that rather
than advance the “unity” their promoters desire, they actually
serve to prove the existence of an impassible abyss between true
Orthodoxy and the “ecumenical” outlook. (See Sobornost,
Winter, 1978, pp.494-8, etc.)
On the level of action, ecumenical activists take advan-
tage of the fact that the intellectuals and theologians are irreso-
lute and unrooted in Orthodox tradition, and use their very
words concerning “fundamental agreement” on sacramental
and dogmatic points as an excuse for flamboyant ecumenical
acts, not excluding the giving of Holy Communion to heretics.
And this state of confusion in turn gives an opportunity for
ecumenical ideologists on the most popular level to issue
empty pronouncements that reduce basic theological issues to
the level of cheap comedy, as when Patriarch Athenagoras
allows himself to say: “Does your wife ever ask you how much
salt she should put in the food? Certainly not. She has the
infallibility. Let the Pope have it too, if he wishes” (Hellenic
Chronicle, April 9, 1970).
The informed and conscious Orthodox Christian may
well ask: where will it all end? Is there no limit to the betrayal,
the denaturement, the selfliquidation of Orthodoxy?
XXIV
 INTRODUCTION

It has not yet been too carefully observed where all this is
leading, but logically the path is clear. The ideology behind
ecumenism, which has inspired such ecumenistic acts and pro-
nouncements as the above, is an already well-defined heresy:
the Church of Christ does not exist, no one has the Truth, the
Church is only now being built. But it takes little reflection to
see that the self-liquidation of Orthodoxy, of the Church of
Christ, is simultaneously the self-liquidation of Christianity
itself; that if no one is the Church of Christ, then the combina-
tion of all sects will not be the Church either, not in the sense
in which Christ founded it. And if all “Christian” bodies are
relative to each other, then all of them together are relative to
other “religious” bodies, and “Christian” ecumenism can only
end in a syncretic world religion.
This is indeed the undisguised aim of the masonic ideology
which has inspired the Ecumenical Movement, and this ideol-
ogy has now taken such possession of those who participate in
the Ecumenical Movement that “dialogue” and eventual union
with the non-Christian religions have come to be the logical
next step for today’s denatured Christianity. The following are
a few of the many recent examples that could be given that point
the way to an “ecumenical” future outside of Christianity.
1. On June 27,1965, a “Convocation of Religion for
World Peace” was held in San Francisco in connection with the
20th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in that
city. Before 10,000 spectators there were addresses on the “reli-
gious” foundation of world peace by Hindu, Buddhist, Mos-
lem, Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox represent-
atives, and hymns of all faiths were sung by a 2,000-voice
“interfaith” choir.
2. The Greek Archdiocese of North and South America,
in the official statement of its 19th Clergy-Laity Congress
XXV
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

(Athens, July, 1968), declared: “We believe that the ecumenical

movement, even though it is of Christian origin, must become
a movement ofall religions reaching towards each other.”
3. The “Temple of Understanding, Inc.,” an American
foundation established in 1960 as a kind of “Association of
United Religions” with the aim of “building the symbolic
Temple in various parts of the world” (precisely in accord with
the doctrine of Freemasonry), has held several “Summit Con-
ferences.” At the first, in Calcutta in 1968, the Latin Trappist
Thomas Merton (who was accidentally electrocuted in Bang-
kok on the way back from this conference) declared: “We are
already a new unity. What we must regain is our original
unity.” At the second, at Geneva in April, 1970, eighty repre-
sentatives of ten world religions met to discuss such topics as
“The Project of the Creation of aWorld Community of Reli-
gions;’ the General Secretary of the World Council of
Churches, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, delivered an address call-
ing on the heads of all religions to unity; and on April 2 an
“unprecedented” supra-confessional prayer service took place
in St. Peter’s Cathedral, described by the Protestant Pastor
Babel as “a very great date in the history of religions,” at which
“everyone prayed in his own language and according to the
customs of religion which he represented” and at which “the
faithful of all religions were invited to coexist in the cult of the
same God,” the service ending with the “Our Father” (La
Suisse, April 3, 1970). Promotional material sent out by the
“Temple of Understanding” reveals that Orthodox delegates
were present at the second “Summit Conference” in the
United States in the autumn of 1971, and that Metropolitan
Emilianos ofthe Patriarchate of Constantinople is a member of
the Temple's “International Committee.” The “Summit Con-
ferences” offer Orthodox delegates the opportunity to enter
XXVI1
 INTRODUCTION

discussions aiming to “create a world community of religions,”

to “hasten the realization of mankind’s dream of peace and
understanding” according to the philosophy of “Vivekananda,
Ramakrishna, Ghandi, Schweitzer,” and the founders of vari-
ous religions; and the delegates likewise participate in “unprec-
edented” supra-confessional prayer services where “everyone
prays according to the customs of the religion he represents.”
One can only wonder what must be in the soul of an Ortho-
dox Christian who participates in such conferences and prays
together with Moslems, Jews, and pagans.
4. Early in 1970 the WCC sponsored a conference in
Ajaltoun, Lebanon, between Hindus, Buddhists, Christians,
and Moslems, and a follow-up conference of twenty-three
WCC “theologians” in Zurich in June declared the need for
“dialogue” with the non-Christian religions. At the meeting of
the Central Committee of the WCC at Addis Ababa in January
of this year, Metropolitan Georges Khodre of Beirut (Ortho-
dox Church of Antioch) shocked even many Protestant dele-
gates when he not merely called for “dialogue” with these
religions, but left the Church of Christ far behind and tram-
pled on nineteen centuries of Christian tradition when he
called on Christians to “investigate the authentically spiritual
life of the unbaptized” and enrich their own experiencewith
the “riches of a universal religious community” (Religious
News Service), for “it is Christ alone who is received as light
when grace visits a Brahmin, a Buddhist, or a Moslem reading
his own scriptures” (Christian Century, Feb. 10, 1971).
5. The Central Committee of the World Council of
Churches at its meeting in Addis Ababa in January, 1971, gave
its approval and encouragement to the holding of meetings as
regularly as possible between representatives of other religions,
specifying that “at the present stage priority may be given to
XXVII
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

bilateral dialogues ofaspecific nature.” In accordance with this

directive a major Christian-Moslem “dialogue” was set for
mid-1972 involving some forty representatives of both sides,
including a number of Orthodox delegates (A/ Montada, Janu-
ary-February, 1972, p.18).
6. In February, 1972, another “unprecedented” ecumeni-
cal event occurred in New York when, according to Arch-
bishop Iakovos of New York, for the first time in history, the
Greek Orthodox Church (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of
North and South America) held an official theological “dia-
logue” with the Jews. In two days ofdiscussions definite results
were achieved, which may be taken as symptomatic of the
future results of the “dialogue with non-Christian religions”:
the Greek “theologians” agreed “to review their liturgical texts
in terms of improving references to Jews and Judaism where
they are found to be negative or hostile” (Religious News
Service). Does not the intention of the “dialogue” become ever
more obvious?—to “reform” Orthodox Christianity in order
to make it conformable to the religions of this world.
These events were the beginnings of the “dialogue with
non-Christian religions” at the end of the decade of the 1960's
and the beginning of the 1970's. In the years since then such
events have multiplied, and “Christian” (and even “Ortho-
dox”) discussions and worship with representatives of non-
Christian religions have come to be accepted as a normal part
of contemporary life. The “dialogue with non-Christian reli-
gions” has become part of the intellectual fashion of the day; it
represents the present stage of ecumenism in its progress to-
wards a universal religious syncretism. Let us now look at the
“theology” and the goal of this accelerating “dialogue” and see
how it differs from the “Christian” ecumenism that has pre-
vailed up to now.
XXVIII
 INTRODUCTION

2. “Christian” and Non-Christian Ecumenism

“Christian” ecumenism at its best may be seen to repre-

sent a sincere and understandable error on the part of Protes-
tants and Roman Catholics—the error of failing to recognize
that the visible Church of Christ already exists, and that they
are outside it. The “dialogue with non-Christian religions,”
however, is something quite different, representing rather a
conscience departure from even that part of genuine Christian
belief and, awareness which some Catholics and Protestants
retain. It is the product, not of simple human “good inten-
tions, but rather of a diabolical “suggestion” that can capture
only those who have already departed so far from Christianity
as to be virtual pagans: worshippers of the god of this world,
satan (II Cor. 4:4), and followers of whatever intellectual fash-
ion this powerful god is capable ofinspiring.
“Christian” ecumenism relies for its support upon a vague
but nonetheless real feeling of “common Christianity” which is
shared by many who do not think or feel too deeply about the
Church, and it aims somehow to “build” a church comprising
all such indifferent “Christians.” But what common support
can the “dialogue with non-Christians” rely on? On what
possible ground can there be any kind of unity, however loose,
between Christians and those who not merely do not know
Christ, but—as is the case with all the present-day representa-
tives of non-Christian religions who are in contact with Chris-
tianity—decisively reject Christ? Those who, like Metropolitan
Georges Khodre of Lebanon, lead the avant-garde of Orthodox
apostates (a name that is fully justified when applied to those
who radically fall away from the whole Orthodox Christian
tradition), speak of the “spiritual riches” and “authentic spiri-
XXIX
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

tual life” of the non-Christian religions; but it is only by doing

great violence to the meaning of words and by reading his own
fantasies into other people’s experience that he can bring him-
self to say that it is “Christ” and “grace” that pagans find in
their scriptures, or that “every martyr for the truth, every man
persecuted for what he believes to be right, dies in communion
with Christ.”* Certainly these people themselves (whether it be
a Buddhist who sets fire to himself, a Communist who dies for
the “cause” in which he sincerely believes, or whoever) would
never say that it is “Christ” they receive or die for, and the idea
of an unconscious confession or reception of Christ is against
the very nature of Christianity. If a rare non-Christian does
claim to have experience of “Christ,” it can only be in the way
which Swami Vivekananda describes: “We Hindus do not
merely tolerate, we unite ourselves with every religion, praying
in the mosque of the Mohammedan, worshipping before the
fire of the Zoroastrian, and kneeling to the Cross of the Chris-
tian”—that is, as merely one of a number of equally valid
spiritual experiences.
No: “Christ,” no matter how redefined or reinterpreted,
cannot be the common denominator of the “dialogue with
non-Christian religions,” but at best can only be added as an
afterthought to a unity which is discovered somewhere else.
The only possible common denominator among all religions is
the totally vague concept ofthe “spiritual,” which indeed offers
religious “liberals” almost unbounded opportunity for nebu-
lous theologizing.
The address of Metropolitan Georges Khodre to the Cen-
tral Committee meeting of the WCC at Addis Ababa in Janu-
ary, 1971, may be taken as an early, experimental attempt to set

* Sobornost, Summer, 1971, p. 171.

XXX
 INTRODUCTION

forth such a “spiritual” theology of the “dialogue with non-

Christian religions.”* In raising the question as to “whether
Christianity is so inherently exclusive of other religions as has
generally been proclaimed up to now,” the Metropolitan, apart
from his few rather absurd “projections” of Christ into non-
Christian religions, has one main point: it is the “Holy Spirit,”
conceived as totally independent of Christ and His Church,
that is really the common denominator of all the world’s reli-
gions. Referring to the prophecy that J will pour out My Spirit
upon allflesh (Joel 2:28), the Metropolitan states, “This must
be taken to mean a Pentecost which is universal from the very
first.... The advent of the Spirit in the world is not subordi-
nated to the Son.... The Spirit operates and applies His ener-
gies in accordance with His own economy and we could, from
this angle, regard the non-Christian religions as points where
His inspiration is at work” (p. 172). We must, he believes,
“develop an ecclesiology and a missiology in which the Holy
Spirit occupies a supreme place” (p. 166).
All of this, of course, constitutes a heresy which denies the
very nature of the Holy Trinity and has no aim but to under-
mine and destroy the whole idea and reality of the Church of
Christ. Why, indeed, should Christ have established a Church
if the Holy Spirit acts quite independently, not only of the
Church, but of Christ Himself? Nonetheless, this heresy is here
still presented rather tentatively and cautiously, no doubt with
the aim of testing the response of other Orthodox “theolo-
gians” before proceeding more categorically.
In actual fact, however, the “ecclesiology of the Holy
Spirit” has already been written—and by an “Orthodox”
thinker at that, one of the acknowledged “prophets” of the

* Pull text in zbid., pp. 166-174.

XXX1
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

“spiritual” movement of our own day. Let us therefore examine

his ideas in order to see the picture he gives of the nature and
goal of the larger “spiritual” movement in which the “dialogue
with non-Christian religions” has its place.

3. “The New Age of the Holy Spirit”

Nicholas Berdyaev (1874-1949) in any normal time

would never have been regarded as an Orthodox Christian. He
might best be described as a gnostic-humanist philosopher who
drew his inspiration rather from Western sectarians and “mys-
tics” than from any Orthodox sources. That he is called in some
Orthodox circles even to this day an “Orthodox philosopher”
or even “theologian,” is a sad reflection of the religious igno-
rance of our times. Here we shall quote from his writings.*
Looking with disdain upon the Orthodox Fathers, upon
the “monastic ascetic spirit of historical Orthodoxy,” indeed
upon that whole “conservative Christianity which ... directs
the spiritual forces of man only towards contrition and
salvation,” Berdyaev sought rather the “inward Church,” the
“Church of the Holy Spirit,” the “spiritual view of life which,
in the 18th century, found shelter in the Masonic lodges.”
“The Church,” he believed, “is still in a merely potential state,”
is “incomplete”; and he looked to the coming of an “ecumeni-
cal faith,” a “fullness of faith” that would unite, not merely
different Christian bodies (for “Christianity should be capable
of existing in a variety of forms in the Universal Church”), but
also “the partial truths of all the heresies” and “all the human-

* As cited in J. Gregerson, “Nicholas Berdyaev, Prophet of a New Age,”

Orthodox Life, Jordanville, New York, 1962, no. 6, where full references are
given.

XXXII
 INTRODUCTION

istic creative activity of modern man ... as a religious experi-

ence consecrated in the Spirit.” A “New Christianity” is ap-
proaching, a “new mysticism, which will be deeper than
religions and ought to unite them.” For “there is a great spiri-
tual brotherhood ... to which not only the Churches of East
and West belong, but also all those whose wills are directed
towards God and the Divine, all in fact who aspire to some
form of spiritual elevation’—that is to say, people of every
religion, sect, and religious ideology. He predicted the advent
of “a new and final Revelation”: “the New Age of the Holy
Spirit,” resurrecting the prediction of Joachim of Floris, the
12th century Latin monk who saw the two ages of the Father
(Old Testament) and the Son (New Testament) giving way toa
final “Third Age of the Holy Spirit.” Berdyaev writes: “The
world is moving towards a new spirituality and a new mysti-
cism; in it there will be no more of the ascetic world view.”
“The success of the movement towards Christian unity presup-
poses a new era in Christianity itself, a new and deep spiritual-
ity, which means a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”
There is clearly nothing whatever in common between
these super-ecumenist fantasies and Orthodox Christianity,
which Berdyaev in fact despised. Yet anyone aware of the
religious climate of our times will see that these fantasies in fact
correspond to one of the leading currents of contemporary
religious thought. Berdyaev does indeed seem to be a
“prophet,” or rather, to have been sensitive to a current of
religious thought and feeling which was not so evident in his
day, but has become almost dominant today. Everywhere one
hears of a new “movement of the Spirit,” and now a Greek
Orthodox priest, Father Eusebius Stephanou, invites Orthodox
Christians to join this movement when he writes of “the
mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our day” (The Logos,
XXXII
 OrTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

January, 1972). Elsewhere in the same publication (March,

1972, p. 8), the Associate Editor Ashanin invokes not merely
the name, but also the very program, of Berdyaev: “We recom-
mend the writings of Nicholas Berdyaev, the great spiritual
prophet of our age. This spiritual genius ... [is] the greatest
theologian of spiritual creativeness.... Now the cocoon of Or-
thodoxy has been broken.... God’s Divine Logos is leading His
people to a new understanding of their history and their mis-
sion in Him. The Logos [is the] herald of this new age, of the
new posture of Orthodoxy.”

4. The Present Book

All of this constitutes the background of the present

book, which is a study of the “new” religious spirit of our times
that underlies and gives inspiration to the “dialogue with non-
Christian religions.” The first three chapters offer a general
approach to non-Christian religions and their radical differ-
ence from Christianity, both in theology and in spiritual life.
The first chapter is a theological study of the “God” of the
Near Eastern religions with which Christian ecumenists hope
to unite on the basis of “monotheism.” The second concerns
the most powerful of the Eastern religions, Hinduism, based
on a long personal experience which ended in the author's
conversion from Hinduism to Orthodox Christianity; it also
gives an interesting appraisal of the meaning for Hinduism of
the “dialogue” with Christianity. The third chapter is a per-
sonal account of the meeting of an Orthodox priest-monk
with an Eastern “miracle-worker’—a direct confrontation of
Christian and non-Christian “spirituality.”
The next four chapters are specific studies of some of the
significant spiritual movements of the 1970's. Chapters Four
XXXIV
 INTRODUCTION

and Five examine the “new religious consciousness” with par-

ticular reference to the “meditation” movements which now
claim many “Christian” followers (and more and more “ex-
Christians”). Chapter Six looks at the spiritual implications of
a seemingly non-religious phenomenon of our times which is
helping to form the “new religious consciousness” even among
people who think they are far from any religious interest. The
seventh chapter discusses at length the most controversial reli-
gious movement among “Christians” today—the “charismatic
revival” —and tries to define its nature in the light of Orthodox
spiritual doctrine.
In the Conclusion the significance and goal of the “new
religious consciousness” are discussed in the light of Christian
prophecy concerning the last times. The “religion of the fu-
ture” to which they point is set forth and contrasted with the
only religion which is irreconcilably in conflict with it: true
Orthodox Christianity. The “signs of the times,” as we ap-
proach the fearful decade of the 1980's, are all too clear; let
Orthodox Christians, and all who wish to save their souls in
eternity, take heed and act!

XXXV
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 I
The “Monotheistic” Religions
DO WE HAVE THE SAME GOD
THAT NON-CHRISTIANS HAVE?

by Fr. Basile Sakkas

“The Hebrew and Islamic peoples, and Christians ...

these three expressions of an identical monotheism, speak
with the most authentic and ancient, and even the boldest
and most confident voices. Why should it not be possible
that the name of the same God, instead of engendering
irreconcilable opposition, should lead rather to mutual
respect, understanding and peaceful coexistence? Should
the reference to the same God, the same Father, without
prejudice to theological discussion, not lead us rather one
day to discover what is so evident, yet so difficult—that we
are all sons of the same Father, and that, therefore, we are
all brothers?”
Pope Paul VI, La Croix, Aug. 11, 1970

()* TuHurspay, April 2, 1970, a great religious manifesta-

tion took place in Geneva. Within the framework of the
Second Conference of the “Association of United Religions,”
the representatives of ten great religions were invited to gather
in the Cathedral of St. Peter. This “common prayer” was based
I
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

on the following motivation: “The faithful ofall these religions

were invited to coexist in the cult of the same God!” Let us then
see if this assertion is valid in the light of the Holy Scriptures.
In order better to explain the matter, we shall limit our-
selves to the three religions that have historically followed each
other in this order: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. These three
religions lay claim, in fact, to a common origin: as worshipers
of the God of Abraham. Thus it is a very widespread opinion
that since we all lay claim to the posterity of Abraham (the Jews
and Moslems according to the flesh and the Christians spiritu-
ally), we all have as God the God of Abraham and all three of
us worship (each in his own way, naturally) the same God. And
this same God constitutes in some fashion our point of unity
and of “mutual understanding,” and this invites us to a “frater-
nal relation,” as the Grand Rabbi Dr. Safran emphasized, para-
phrasing the Psalm: “Oh, how good it is to see brethren seated
together:
In this perspective it is evident that Jesus Christ, God and
Man, the Son Co-eternal with the Father without beginning,
His Incarnation, His Cross, His Glorious Resurrection and His
Second and Terrible Coming—become secondary details
which cannot prevent us from “fraternizing” with those who
consider Him as “a simple prophet” (according to the Koran)
or as “the son of a prostitute” (according to certain Talmudic
traditions)! Thus we would place Jesus of Nazareth and Mo-
hammed on the same level. I do not know what Christian
worthy ofthe name could admit this in his conscience.
One might say that in these three religions, passing over
the past, one could agree that Jesus Christ is an extraordinary
and exceptional being and that He was sent by God. But for us
Christians, if Jesus Christ is not God, we cannot consider Him
either as a “prophet” or as one “sent by God,” but only as a
2
 THE “MoONOTHEISTIC” RELIGIONS

great imposter without compare, having proclaimed Himself

“Son of God,” making Himself thus equal to God (Mark
14:61-62). According to this ecumenical solution on the
supra-confessional level, the Trinitarian God of Christians
would be the same thing as the monotheism of Judaism, of
Islam, of the ancient heretic Sabellius, of the modern anti-
Trinitarians, and of certain Illuminist sects. There would not
be Three Persons in a Single Divinity, but a single Person,
unchanging for some, or successively changing “masks” (Fa-
ther-Son-Spirit) for others! And nonetheless one would pre-
tend that this was the “same God.”
Here some might naively propose: “Yet for the three reli-
gions there is a common point: all three confess God the Father!”
But according to the Holy Orthodox Faith, this is an absurdity.
We confess always: “Glory to the Holy, Consubstantial, Life-
giving and /ndivisible Trinity.” How could we separate the
Father from the Son when Jesus Christ affirms / and the Father
are One (John 10:30); and St. John the Apostle, Evangelist, and
Theologian, the Apostle of Love, clearly affirms: Whosoever
denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father (1 John 2:23).
But even if all three of us call God Father: of whom is He
really the Father? For the Jews and the Moslems He is the
Father of men in the plane of creation; while for us Christians
He is, first of all, before the foundation of the world (John
17:24) the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3), and
through Christ He is our Father by adoption (Eph. 1:4-5) in the
plane of redemption. What resemblance is there, then, between
the Divine Paternity in Christianity and in the other religions?
Others might say: “But all the same, Abraham wor-
shipped the true God; and the Jews through Isaac and the
Moslems through Hagar are the descendants of this true wor-
shipper of God.” Here one will have to make several things
3
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

clear: Abraham worshipped God not at all in the form of the

unipersonal monotheism of the others, but in the form of the
Holy Trinity. We read in the Holy Scripture: And the Lord
appeared unto him at the Oaks of Mamre ... and he bowed
himself toward the ground (Gen. 18:1-2). Under what form did
Abraham worship God? Under the unipersonal form, or under
the form of the Divine Tri-unity? We Orthodox Christians
venerate this Old Testament manifestation of the Holy Trinity
on the Day of Pentecost, when we adorn our churches with
boughs representing the ancient oaks, and when we venerate in
their midst the icon of the Three Angels, just as our father
Abraham venerated it! Carnal descent from Abraham can be of
no use to us if we are not regenerated by the waters of Baptism
in the Faith of Abraham. And the Faith of Abraham was the
Faith in Jesus Christ, as the Lord Himself has said: Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it and was glad (John
8:56). Such also was the Faith of the Prophet King David, who
heard the Heavenly Father speaking to His Consubstantial
Son: The Lord said unto my Lord (Ps. 109:1; Acts 2:34). Such
was the Faith of the Three Youths in the fiery furnace when
they were saved by the Son of God (Dan. 3:25); and of the holy
Prophet Daniel, who had the Vision of the two natures ofJesus
Christ in the Mystery of the Incarnation when the Son of Man
came to the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:13). This is why the
Lord, addressing the (biologically incontestable) posterity of
Abraham, said: /f ye were the children of Abraham, ye would do
the works of Abraham (John 8:39), and these “works” are to
believe on Him Whom God hath sent (John 6:29).
Who then are the posterity of Abraham? The sons ofIsaac
according to the flesh, or the sons of Hagar the Egyptian? Is
Isaac or Ishmael the posterity of Abraham? What does the Holy
Scripture teach by the mouth of the divine Apostle? Now to
4
 THE “MONOTHEISTIC” RELIGIONS

Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And
to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed: which is Christ
(Gal. 3:16). And if'ye be Christ’, then are ye Abraham’ seed, and
heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29). It is then in Jesus
Christ that Abraham became a father of many nations (Gen.
17:5; Rom. 4:17). After such promises and such certainties,
what meaning does carnal descent from Abraham have? Accord-
ing to the Holy Scripture, Isaac is considered as the seed or
posterity, but only as the image ofJesus Christ. As opposed to
Ishmael (the son of Hagar; Gen. 16:1ff), Isaac was born in the
miraculous “freedom” ofa sterile mother, in old age and against
the laws of nature, similar to our Saviour, Who was miracu-
lously born of aVirgin. He climbed the hill of Moriah just as
Jesus climbed Calvary, bearing on His shoulders the wood of
sacrifice. An angel delivered Isaac from death, just as an angel
rolled away the stone to show us that the tomb was empty, that
the Risen One was no longer there. At the hour of prayer, Isaac
met Rebecca in the plain and led her into the tent of his mother
Sarah, just as Jesus shall meet His Church on the clouds in order
to bring Her into the heavenly mansions, the New Jerusalem,
the much-desired homeland.
No! We do not have the same God that non-Christians
have! The sine qua non for knowing the Father, is the Son: He
that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; no man cometh unto the
Father, but by Me (John 14:6,9). Our God ts a God Incarnate,
Whom we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have touched (1
John 1:1). The immaterial became material for our salvation, as
St. John Damascene says, and He has revealed Himself in us.
But when did He reveal Himself among the present-day Jews
and Moslems, so that we might suppose that they know God?
If they have a full understanding of God outside ofJesus Christ,
then Christ was incarnate, died, and rose in vain!

5
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

According to Christ’s words, they have not yet fully come

to the Father. They have conceptions about the Father, but
those conceptions do not contain the ultimate revelation of
God given to mankind through Jesus Christ. For us Christians
God is inconceivable, incomprehensible, indescribable, and im-
material, as St. Basil the Great says. For our salvation He
became (to the extent that we are united to Him) conceived,
described and material, by revelation in the Mystery of the
Incarnation of His Son. 7a Him be the glory unto the ages of
ages. Amen. And this is why St. Cyprian of Carthage affirms
that he who does not have the Church for Mother, does not
have God for Father!
May God preserve us from the apostasy and from the
coming of antichrist, the preliminary signs of which are multi-
plying from day to day. May He preserve us from the great
affliction which even the elect would not be able to bear
without the Grace of Him Who will cut short these days. And
may He preserve us in the “small flock,” the “remainder accord-
ing to the election of Grace,” so that we like Abraham might
rejoice at the Light of His Face, by the prayers of the Most Holy
Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, of all the heavenly hosts,
the cloud of witnesses, prophets, martyrs, hierarchs, evangelists,
and confessors who have been faithful unto death, who have
shed their blood for Christ, who have begotten us by the Gospel
of Jesus Christ in the waters of Baptism. We are their sons—
weak, sinful, and unworthy, to be sure; but we will not stretch
forth our hands toward a strange god! Amen.
Pr. Basile Sakkas
La Foi Transmise, April 5, 1970*

* For this fourth edition, some theological clarifications have been made in
this chapter by the editors.
 II
The Power of the Pagan Gods
HINDUISM’S ASSAULT UPON CHRISTIANITY

By a Convert to Orthodoxy

All the gods of the pagans are demons.

Psalm -95:5
9G! Ss”
The following article comes from the experience of a woman
who, after attending high school in a Roman Catholic convent,
practiced Hinduism for twenty years until finally, by Gods grace,
she was converted to the Orthodox Faith, finding the end of her
search for truth in the Russian Orthodox Church. She currently
resides on the West Coast. May her words serve to open the eyes of
those Orthodox Christians who might be tempted to follow the
blind “liberal” theologians who are now making their appearance
even in the Orthodox Church, and whose answer to the assault of
neo-paganism upon the Church of Christ is to conduct a “dia-
logue” with its wizards and join them in worshipping the very
gods of the pagans.
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

1. The Attractions of Hinduism

WAS JUST SIXTEEN when two events set the course of my life.
I came to Dominican Catholic Convent in San Rafael
(California) and encountered Christianity for the first time.
The same year I also encountered Hinduism in the person ofa
Hindu monk, a Swami, who was shortly to become my guru or
teacher. A battle had begun, but I wasn’t to understand this for
nearly twenty years.
At the convent I was taught the basic truths of Christian-
ity. Here lies the strength of the humble and a snare to the
proud. St. James wrote truly: God resisteth the proud, and giveth
grace to the humble (James 4:6). And how proud I was; I
wouldn't accept original sin and I wouldn't accept hell. And I
had many, many arguments against them. One Sister of great
charity gave me the key when she said: “Pray for the gift of
faith.” But already the Swami’s training had taken hold, and I
thought it debasing to beg anyone, even God, for anything.
But much later, I remembered what she had said. Years later
the seed of Christian faith that had been planted in me
emerged from an endless sea of despair.
In time the nature of the books that I brought back to
school with me, all in plain covered wrappers, was discovered.
Books like the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, the Vedantasara,
the Ashtavakra Sambhita.... In part my secret was out, but
nothing much was said. No doubt the Sisters thought it would
pass, as indeed most of the intellectual conceits of young girls
do. But one bold nun told me the truth. It’s a very unpopular

8
 THE POWER OF THE PAGAN Gops

truth and one that is rarely heard today. She said that I would
go to hell ifI died in Hinduism after knowing the truth of
Christianity. St. Peter put it this way: For by whom a man is
overcome, of the same also he is the slave. For if,flying from the
pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, they be again entangled in them and over-
come, their latter state is become unto them worse than the former.
For it had been better for them not to have known the way of
justice, than after they had known it, to turn back from that holy
commandment which was delivered to them (II Peter 2:19-21).
How I despised that Sister for her bigotry. But if she were alive
today I would thank her with all my heart. What she told me
nagged, as truth will, and it was to lead me finally to the
fullness of Holy Orthodoxy.
The important thing that I got at the convent was a
measuring stick, and one day I would use it to discover Hindu-
ism a fraud.
The situation has changed so much since I was in school.
What was an isolated case of Hinduism has developed into an
epidemic. Now one must have an intelligent understanding of
Hindu dogmatics if one is to prevent young Christians from
committing spiritual suicide when they encounter Eastern reli-
gions.
The appeal of Hinduism is full spectrum; there are blan-
dishments for every faculty and appeals to every weakness, but
particularly to pride. And being very proud, even at sixteen, it
was to these that I first fell prey. Original sin, hell, and the
problem of pain troubled me. I'd never taken them seriously
before I came to the convent. Then, the Swami presented an
“intellectually satisfying” alternative for every uncomfortable
Christian dogma. Hell was, after all, only a temporary state of
the soul brought on by our own bad karma (past actions) in this
2
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

or in a former life. And, of course, a finite cause couldn't have

an infinite effect. Original sin was marvelously transmuted into
Original Divinity. This was my birthright, and nothing I could
ever do would abrogate this glorious end. I was Divine. I was
God: “the Infinite Dreamer, dreaming finite dreams.”
As for the problem of pain, the Hindu philosophy
known as Vedanta has a really elegant philosophical system to
take care of it. In a nutshell, pain was maya or illusion. It had
no real existence—and what's more, the Advaitin could claim
to prove it!
In another area, Hinduism appeals to the very respectable
error of assuming that man is perfectible: through education
(in their terms, the guru system) and through “evolution” (the
constant progressive development of man spiritually). An argu-
ment is also made from the standpoint of cultural relativity;
this has now assumed such respectability that it’s a veritable sin
(with those who dont believe in sin) to challenge relativity of
any sort. What could be more reasonable, they say, than differ-
ent nations and peoples worshipping God differently? God,
after all, is God, and the variety in modes of worship make for
a general religious “enrichment.”
But perhaps the most generally compelling attraction is
pragmatism. The entire philosophical construct of Hinduism
is buttressed by the practical religious instructions given to the
disciple by his guru. With these practices the disciple is invited
to verify the philosophy by his own experience. Nothing has to
be accepted on faith. And contrary to popular notions, there
aren't any mysteries—just a tremendous amount of esoteric
material—so there simply is no need for faith. You are told:
“Try it, and see if it works.” This pragmatic approach is su-
premely tempting to the Western mind. It appears so very
“scientific.” But almost every student falls right into a kind of
IO
 THE Power OF THE PAGAN Gops

pragmatic fallacy: 1.e., if the practices work (and they do in fact

work), he believes that the system is true, and, implicitly, that
it is good. This, of course, doesn’t follow. All that can really be
said is: if they work, then they work. But missing this point,
you can understand how a little psychic experience gives the
poor student a great deal of conviction.
This brings me to the last blandishment that I’ll mention,
which is “spiritual experiences.” These are psychic and/or dia-
bolic in origin. But who among the practitioners has any way
of distinguishing delusion from true spiritual experience? They
have no measuring stick. But don’t think that what they see,
hear, smell and touch in these experiences are the result of
simple mental aberration. They aren't. They are what our Or-
thodox tradition calls pre/est. It’s an important word, because it
refers to the exact condition of a person having Hindu “spiri-
tual experiences.” There is no precise equivalent to the term
prelest in the English lexicon. It covers the whole range of false
spiritual experiences: from simple illusion and beguilement to
actual possession. In every case the counterfeit is taken as
genuine and the overall effect is an accelerated growth of pride.
A warm, comfortable sense of special importance settles over
the person in prelest, and this compensates for all his austerities
and pain.*
In his first Epistle, St. John warns the early Christians:
Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits ifthey be
of God.... (I John 4:1).
St. Gregory of Sinai was careful to instruct his monks on
the dangers of these experiences: “All around, near to begin-
ners and the self-willed, the demons are wont to spread the
nets of thoughts and pernicious fantasies and prepare moats for

* Further on prelest, see below, p. 176ff.

II
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

their downfall...” A monk asked him: “What is a man to do

when the demon takes the form of an angel of light?” The
Saint replied: “In this case a man needs great power of discern-
ment to discriminate rightly between good and evil. So in your
heedlessness, do not be carried away too quickly by what you
see, but be weighty (not easy to move) and, carefully testing
everything, accept the good and reject the evil. Always you
must test and examine, and only afterwards believe. Know that
the actions of grace are manifest, and the demon, in spite ofhis
transformations, cannot produce them: namely, meekness,
friendliness, humility, hatred of the world, cutting off passions
and lusts—which are the effects of grace. Works of the demons
are: arrogance, conceit, intimidation and all evil. By such ac-
tions you will be able to discern whether the light shining in
your heart is of God or of satan. Lettuce looks like mustard,
and vinegar in color like wine; but when you taste them the
palate discerns and defines the difference between each. In the
same way the soul, if it has discernment, can discriminate by
mental taste the gifts of the Holy Spirit from the fantasies and
illusions of satan.”
The misguided or proud spiritual aspirant is most vulner-
able to prelest. And the success and durability of Hinduism
depends very largely on this false mysticism. How very appeal-
ing it is to drug-using young people, who have already been
initiated into these kinds of experiences. The last few years
have seen the flowering and proliferating of Swamis. They saw
their opportunity for fame and wealth in this ready-made
market. And they took it.
 THE POWER OF THE PAGAN Gops

2. A War of Dogma

Today Christianity is taking the thrusts of a foe that is all

but invisible to the faithful. And if it can, it will pierce to the
heart before declaring its name. The enemy is Hinduism, and
the war being waged is a war of dogma.
When Vedanta Societies were founded in this country
around the turn of the century, first efforts were directed to
establishing that there was no real difference between Hinduism
and Christianity. Not only was there no conflict, but a good
Christian would be a better Christian by studying and practic-
ing the Vedanta; he would understand the real Christianity.
In early lectures, the Swamis attempted to show that those
ideas which seemed peculiar to Christianity—like the Logos
and the Cross—really had their origin in India. And those ideas
which seemed peculiar to Hinduism—like rebirth, transmigra-
tion of the soul and samadhi (or trance) were also to be found
in Christian scripture—when it was properly interpreted.
This kind of bait caught many sincere but misguided
Christians. The early push was against what might be called
“sectarian” dogmas, and for a so-called scientific religion based
on a comparative study of all religions. Primary stress was
always on this: there is no such thing as difference. All is One.
All differences are just on the surface; they are apparent or
relative, not real. All this is clear from published lectures that
were delivered in the early 1900's. Today we are in great danger
because this effort was so very successful.
Now common parlance has “dogma” as a derisive term.
But this scorn could not have originated with those who know
that it refers to the most precious heritage of the Church.
However, once the bad connotation became fixed, the timid,
13
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

who never like to be associated with the unpopular, began to

speak of“rigid dogma,” which is redundant but bespeaks dis-
approval. So the attitude was insidiously absorbed from
“broad-minded” critics who either didn’t know that dogma
states what Christianity is, or simply didn’t like what Christian-
ity is all about.
The resulting predisposition of many Christians to back
down when faced with the accusation of holding to dogma has
eiven the Hindus no small measure of help. An aid from
within had strategic advantages.
The incredible fact is that few see that the very power that
would overturn Christian dogma is itself nothing but an op-
posing system of dogmas. The two cannot blend or “enrich”
each other because they are wholly antithetical.
If Christians are persuaded to throw out or (what is
tactically more clever) to alter their dogmas to suit the demand
for a more up-to-date or “universal” Christianity, they have
lost everything, because what is valued by Christians and by
Hindus is immediately derived from their dogmas. And Hindu
dogmas are a direct repudiation of Christian dogmas. This leads
us to a staggering conclusion: What Christians believe to be evil,
Hindus believe to be good, and conversely: What Hindus believe
to be evil, Christians believe to be good.
The real struggle lies in this: that the ultimate sin for the
Christian, is the ultimate realization of good for the Hindu.
Christians have always acknowledged pride as the basic sin—
the fountainhead of all sin. And Lucifer is the archetype when
he says: / will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God... I will ascend above the the height of the clouds;I
will be like the Most High (1s 14:13-14). On a lower level, it is
pride that turns even man’s virtues into sins. But for the Hindu
in general, and the Advaitin or Vedantan in particular, the only

14
 THE POWER OF THE PAGAN Gops

“sin” is not to believe in yourself and in Humanity as God

Himself. In the words of Swami Vivekananda (who was the
foremost modern advocate of Vedanta): “You do not yet under-
stand India! We Indians are Man-worshipers after all. Our God
is Man!” The doctrine of mukti or salvation consists in this:
that “Man is to become Divine by realizing the Divine.”
From this one can see the dogmas of Hinduism and
Christianity standing face to face, each defying the other on
the nature of God, the nature of man and the purpose of
human existence.
But when Christians accept the Hindu propaganda that
there is no battle going on, that the differences between Chris-
tianity and Hinduism are only apparent and not real—then
Hindu ideas are free to take over the souls of Christians,
winning the battle without a struggle. And the end result of
this battle is truly shocking; the corrupting power of Hinduism
is immense. In my own case, with all of the basically sound
training that I received at the convent, twenty years in Hindu-
ism brought me to the very doors of the love of evil. You see, in
India “God” is also worshipped as Evil, in the form of the
goddess Kali. But about this I will speak in the next section, on
Hindu practices.
This is the end in store when there is no more Christian
dcgma. | say this from personal experience, because I have
worshipped Kali in India and in this country. And she who is
satan is no joke. [fyou give up on the Living God, the throne 1s
not going to remain empty.

3. Hindu Places and Practices

In 1956 I did field work with headhunters in the Philip-

pines. My interest was in primitive religion—particularly in
TS
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

what is termed an “unacculturated” area—where there had

been few missionaries. When I arrived in Ifugao (that’s the
name of the tribe), I didn’t believe in black magic; when I left,
I did. An Ifugao priest (a munbaki) named Talupa became my
best friend and informant. In time I learned that he was fa-
mous for his skill in the black art. He took me to the baki,
which is a ceremony of ritualistic magic that occurred almost
every night during the harvest season. A dozen or so priests
gathered in a hut and the night was spent invoking deities and
ancestors, drinking rice wine and making sacrifices to the two
small images known as bulol. They were washed in chicken
blood, which had been caught in a dish and used to divine the
future before it was used on the images. They studied the
blood for the size and number of bubbles in it, the time it
took to coagulate; also, the color and configuration of the
chicken’s organs gave them information. Each night I duti-
fully took notes. But this was just the beginning. I won't
elaborate on Ifugao magic; suffice it to say that by the time I
left, I had seen such a variety and quantity of supernatural
occurrences that any scientific explanation was virtually im-
possible. If Ihad been predisposed to believe anything when I
arrived, it was that magic had a wholly natural explanation.
Also, let me say that I don’t frighten very easily. But the fact is
that I left Ifugao because I saw that their rituals not only
worked, but they had worked on me—at least twice.
I say all this so that what I say about Hindu practices and
places of worship will not seem incredible, the product of a
“heated brain.”
Eleven years after the Ifugao episode, I made a pilgrimage
to the Cave of Amarnath, deep in the Himalayas. Hindu
tradition has it as the most sacred place of Siva worship, the
place where he manifests himself to his devotees and grants
16
 THE POWER OF THE PAGAN Gops

boons. It is a long and difficult journey over the Mahaguna, a

14,000 foot pass, and across a glacier; so there was plenty of
time to worship him mentally on the way, especially since the
boy who led the pack pony didn’t speak any English, and I
didn't speak any Hindi. This time I was predisposed to believe
that the god whom I had worshipped and meditated on for
years would graciously manifest himself to me.
The Siva image in the cave is itself a curiosity: an ice
image formed by dripping water. It waxes and wanes with the
moon. When it is full moon, the natural image reaches the
ceiling of the cave—about fifteen feet—and by the dark of the
moon almost nothing of it remains. And so it waxes and wanes
each month. To my knowledge, no one has explained this
phenomenon. | approached the cave at an auspicious time,
when the image had waxed full. I was soon to worship my god
with green coconut, incense, red and white pieces of cloth,
nuts, raisins and sugar—all the ritually prescribed items. |
entered the cave with tears of devotion. What happened then is
hard to describe. The place was vibrant—just like an Ifugao
hut with baki in full swing. Stunned to find it a place of
inexplicable wrongness, | left retching before the priest could
finish making my offering to the great ice image.
The facade of Hinduism had cracked when I entered the
Siva Cave, but it was still some time before I broke free.
During the interim, I searched for something to support the
collapsing edifice, but I found nothing. In retrospect, it seems
to me that we often know something is really bad, long before
we can really believe it. This applies to Hindu “spiritual prac-
tices” quite as much as it does to the so-called “holy places.”
When a student is initiated by the guru, he is given a
Sanskrit mantra (a personal magic formula), and specific reli-
gious practices. These are entirely esoteric and exist in the oral
17
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

tradition. You won't find them in print and you are very
unlikely to learn about them from an initiate, because of the
strong negative sanctions which are enforced to protect this
secrecy. In effect the guru invites his disciple to prove the
philosophy by his own experience. The point is, these practices
do in fact work. The student may get powers or “siddhis.”
These are things like reading minds, power to heal or destroy,
to produce objects, to tell the future and so on—the whole
gamut of deadly psychic parlor tricks. But far worse than this,
he invariably falls into a state of pre/est, where he takes delusion
for reality. He has “spiritual experiences” of unbounded sweet-
ness and peace. He has visions of deities and of light. (One
might recall that Lucifer himself can appear as an angel of
light.) By “delusion” I don’t mean that he doesn’t really experi-
ence these things; I mean rather that they are not from God.
There is, of course, the philosophical construct that supports
every experience, so the practices and the philosophy sustain
each other and the system becomes very tight.
Actually, Hinduism is not so much an intellectual pursuit
as a system of practices, and these are quite literally—black
magic. That is, if you do x, you get y: a simple contract. But
the terms are not spelled out and rarely does a student ask
where the experiences originate or who is extending him
credit—in the form of powers and “beautiful” experiences. It’s
the classical Faustian situation, but what the practitioner
doesn’t know ts that the price may well be his immortal soul.
There's a vast array of practices—practices to suit every
temperament. The chosen deity may be with form: a god or
goddess; or formless: the Absolute Brahman. The relationship
to the chosen Ideal also varies—it may be that of a child,
mother, father, friend, beloved, servant or, in the case of Ad-
vaita Vedanta, the “relationship” is identity. At the time of
18
 THE POWER OF THE PAGAN Gops

initiation the guru gives his disciple a mantra, and this deter-
mines the path he will follow and the practices he will take
up. The guru also dictates how the disciple will live his every-
day life. In the Vedanta (or monistic system) single disciples
are not to marry; all their powers are to be directed towards
success in the practices. Nor is a sincere disciple a meat eater,
because meat blunts the keen edge of perception. The guru is
literally regarded as God Himself—he is the disciple’s Re-
deemer.
At base, the many “spiritual” exercises derive from only a
few root practices. I'll just skim over them.
First, there’s idolatry. It may be the worship of an image
or a picture, with offerings of light, camphor, incense, water
and sweets. The image may be fanned with a yak tail, bathed,
dressed and put to bed. This sounds very childish, but it is
prudent not to underestimate the psychic experiences which
they can elicit. Vedantic idolatry takes the form of self-wor-
ship—either mentally or externally, with all the ritualistic
props. A common aphoristic saying in India epitomizes this
self-worship. It is So Ham, So Ham, or “1 am He, I am He.”
Then there’s Japa, or the repetition of the Sanskrit mantra
given to the disciple at his initiation. In effect, it’s the chanting
of a magic formula.
Pranayama consists in breathing exercises used in con-
junction with Japa. There are other practices which are peculiar
to the Tantra or worship of God as Mother, the female princi-
ple, power, energy, the principle of evolution and action.
They're referred to as the five Ms. They're overtly evil and
rather sick-making, so I won't describe them. But they, too,
have found their way to this country. Swami Vivekananda
prescribed this brand of Hinduism along with the Vedanta. He
said: “I worship the Terrible! It is a mistake to hold that with all
19
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

men pleasure is the motive. Quite as many are born to seek

after pain. Let us worship the Terror for Its own sake. How few
have dared to worship Death, or Kali! Let us worship Death!”
Again, the Swami’s words on the goddess Kali: “There are some
who scoff at the existence of Kali. Yet today She is out there
amongst the people. They are frantic with fear, and the soldiery
have been called to deal out death. Who can say that God does
not manifest Himself as evil as well as Good? But only the
Hindu dares worship Him as Evil.”*
The great pity is that this one-pointed practice of evil is
carried on in the firm conviction that it’s good. And the salva-
tion that is vainly sought through arduous self-effort in Hindu-
ism can only be wrought by God through Christian self-
effacement.

* Editor's note: Few, even of those most desirous ofentering into “dialogue”
with Eastern religions and ofexpressing their basic religious unity with them,
have any precise conception of the pagan religious practices and beliefs from
whose tyranny the blessed and light yoke of Christ has liberated mankind.
The goddess Kali, one of the most popular of Hindu deities, is most
commonly depicted in the midst ofa riot of blood and carnage, skulls and
severed heads hanging from her neck, her tongue grotesquely protruding
from her mouth thirsting for more blood; she is appeased in Hindu temples
by bloody offerings of goats. (Swami Vivekananda justifies this: “Why nota
little blood to complete the picture?”) Of her, Swami Vivekananda, as
recorded by his disciple ‘Sister Nivedita,’ said further: “I believe that she
guides me in every little thing that I do, and does with me what she will,”
and at every step he was conscious of her presence as if she were a person in
the room with him. He invoked her: “Come, O mother, come! For Terror
is thy name;” and it was his religious ideal “to become one with the Terrible
forevermore.” Is this, as Metropolitan Georges Khodre tries to persuade us,
to be accepted as an example of the “authentic spiritual life of the
unbaptized,” a part of the spiritual “riches” which we are to take from the
non-Christian religions? Or is it not rather a proof of the Psalmist’s words:
The gods ofthe pagans are demons?

20
 THE POWER OF THE PAGAN Gops

4. Evangelizing the West

In 1893 an unknown Hindu monk arrived at the Parlia-

ment of Religions in Chicago. He was Swami Vivekananda,
whom I have mentioned already. He made a stunning impres-
sion on those who heard him, both by his appearance—
beturbaned and robed in orange and crimson—and by what he
said. He was immediately lionized by high society in Boston
and New York. Philosophers at Harvard were mightily im-
pressed. And it wasn’t long until he had gathered a hard core of
disciples who supported him and his grandiose dream: the
evangelizing of the Western world by Hinduism, and more
particularly, by Vedantic (or monistic) Hinduism. Vedanta So-
cieties were established in the large cities of this country and in
Europe. But these centers were only a part of his work. More
important was introducing Vedantic ideas into the bloodstream of
academic thinking. Dissemination was the goal. It mattered
little to Vivekananda whether credit was given to Hinduism or
not, so long as the message of Vedanta reached everyone. On
many occasions he said: Knock on every door. Tell everyone he
is Divine.
Today parts of his message are carried in paperbacks that
you can find in any bookstore—books by Aldous Huxley,
Christopher Isherwood, Somerset Maugham, Teilhard de
Chardin, and even Thomas Merton.
Thomas Merton, of course, constitutes a special threat to
Christians, because he presents himself as a contemplative
Christian monk, and his work has already affected the vitals of
Roman Catholicism, its monasticism. Shortly before his death,
Father Merton wrote an appreciative introduction to a new
translation of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the spiritual manual
21
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

or “Bible” of all Hindus, and one of the foundation blocks of

monism or Advaita Vedanta. The Gita, it must be remem-
bered, opposes almost every important teaching of Christian-
ity. His book on the Zen Masters, published posthumously, is
also noteworthy, because the entire work is based on a treacher-
ous mistake: the assumption that all the so-called “mystical
experiences” in every religion are true. He should have known
better. The warnings against this are loud and clear, both in
Holy Scripture and in the Holy Fathers.
Today I know of one Catholic monastery in California
where cloistered monks are experimenting with Hindu reli-
gious practices. They were trained by an Indian who became a
Catholic priest. Unless the ground had been prepared, I think
this sort of thing couldn't be happening. But, after all, this was
the purpose of Vivekananda’s coming to the West: to prepare
the ground.
Vivekananda’s message of Vedanta is simple enough. It
looks like more than it is because of its trappings: some daz-
zling Sanskrit jargon, and a very intricate philosophical struc-
ture. The message is essentially this: All religions are true, but
Vedanta is the ultimate truth. Differences are only a matter of
“levels of truth.” In Vivekananda’s words: “Man is not travel-
ling from error to truth, but climbing up from truth to truth,
from truth that is lower to truth that is higher. The matter of
today is the spirit of the future. The worm of today—the God
of tomorrow.” The Vedanta rests on this: that man is God. So
it is for man to work out his own salvation. Vivekananda put it
this way: “Who can help the Infinite? Even the hand that
comes to you through the darkness will have to be your own.”
Vivekananda was canny enough to know that straight
Vedanta would be too much for Christians to follow, right off
the bat. But “levels of truth” provided a nice bridge to perfect
22:
 ‘THE POWER OF THE PaGAN Gops

ecumenism—where there is no conflict because everyone is

right. In the Swami’s words: “If one religion be true, then all
the others also must be true. Thus the Hindu faith is yours as
much as mine. We Hindus do not merely tolerate, we unite
ourselves with every religion, praying in the mosque of the
Mohammedan, worshipping before the fire of the Zoroastrian,
and kneeling to the Cross of the Christian. We know that all
religions alike, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolut-
ism, are but so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and
realize the Infinite. So we gather all these flowers and, binding
them together with the cords of love, make them into a won-
derful bouquet of worship.”
Stull, all religions were only steps to the ultimate religion,
which was Advaita Vedanta. He had a special contempt for
Christianity, which at best was a “low truth”—a dualistic
truth. In private conversation he said that only a coward would
turn the other cheek. But whatever he said about other reli-
gions, he always returned to the necessity of Advaita Vedanta.
“Art, science, and religion,” he said, “are but three different
ways of expressing a single truth. But in order to understand
this we must have the theory of Advaita.”
The appeal to today’s youth is unmistakable. Vedanta
declares the perfect freedom of every soul to be itself. It denies
all distinction between sacred and secular: they are only differ-
ent ways of expressing the single truth. And the sole purpose of
religion is to provide for the needs ofdifferent temperaments: a
god and a practice to suit everyone. In a word, religion is
“doing your own thing.”
All this may sound far-fetched, but Vivekananda did an
effective job. Now I'll show how successful he was in introduc-
ing these Hindu ideas into Roman Catholicism, where his
success has been the most striking.
23
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Swami Vivekananda first came to America to represent

Hinduism at the 1893 Parliament of Religions. 1968 was the
75th anniversary of this event, and at that time a Symposium
of Religions was held under the auspices of the Vivekananda
Vedanta Society of Chicago. Roman Catholicism was repre-
sented by a Dominican theologian from De Paul University,
Father Robert Campbell. Swami Bhashyananda opened the
meeting with the reading of good-will messages from three very
important people. The second was from an American Cardinal.
Father Campbell began the afternoon session with a talk
on the conflict of the traditionalist versus the modernist in
modern Catholicism. He said: “In my own university, surveys
taken of Catholic student attitudes show a great swing towards
the liberal views within the last five or six years. I know that the
great Swami Vivekananda would himself be in favor of most of
the trends in the direction ofliberal Christianity.” What Father
Campbell apparently didn’t know was that the modernistic
doctrines he described were not Christian at all; they were pure
and simple Vedanta.
So there will be no question of misinterpretation, I shall
quote the Father's words on the modernists’ interpretation of
five issues, just as they appeared in three international journals:
the Prabuddha Bharata published in Calcutta, the Vedanta
Kesheri published in Madras, and Vedanta and the West, pub-
lished in London.
On doctrines: “Truth is a relative thing, these doctrines
and dogmas (i.e., the nature of God, how man should live, and
the after-life) are not fixed things, they change, and we are
coming to the point where we deny some things that we
formerly affirmed as sacred truths.”
On God: “Jesus is divine, true, but any one of us can be
divine. As a matter of fact, on many points, I think you will
24
 THE POWER OF THE PAGAN Gops

find the liberal Christian outlook is moving in the direction of

the East in much of its philosophy—both in its concept of an
impersonal God and in the concept that we are all divine.”
On Original Sin: “This concept is very offensive to liberal
Christianity, which holds that man is perfectible by training
and proper education.”
On the world: “... The liberal affirms that it can be im-
proved and that we should devote ourselves to building a more
humane society instead of pining to go to heaven.”
On other religions: “The liberal group says: ‘Don’t worry
about the old-fashioned things such as seeking converts, etc.,
but let us ‘develop better relations with other religions.”
So says Father Campbell for the modernistic Catholics.
The modernist has been led like a child by the generous offer
of higher truth, deeper philosophy and greater sublimity—
which can be had by merely subordinating the living Christ to
modern man.
Here, then, we see the spectacular success of Hinduism,
or Swami Vivekananda, or the power behind Vivekananda. It’s
made a clean sweep of Roman Catholicism. Her watchdogs
have taken the thief as the friend of the master, and the house
is made desolate before their eyes. The thief said: “Let us have
interfaith understanding,” and he was through the gate. And
the expedient was so simple. The Christian Hindus (the Swa-
mis) had only to recite the Vedanta philosophy using Christian
terms. But the Hindu Christians (the modernist Catholics),
had to extrapolate their religion to include Hinduism. Then
necessarily, truth became error, and error, truth. Alas, some
would now drag the Orthodox Church into this desolate
house. But let the modernists remember the words of Isaiah:
Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness
for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet and sweet
25
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and
prudent in their own sight! (Is. 5:20-21)

5. The Goal ofHinduism: The Universal Religion

I was amazed to see the inroads that Hinduism had made

during my absence from Christianity. It may seem odd that I
discovered these changes all at once. This was because my
guru held dominion over my every action, and all this time I
was, quite literally, “cloistered,” even in the world. The
Swami’s severe injunctions kept me from reading any Chris-
tian books or speaking with Christians. For all their preten-
tious talk that all religions are true, the Swamis know that
Christ is their nemesis. So for twenty years I was totally im-
mersed in the study of oriental philosophy and in the practice
of its disciplines. I was ordered by my guru to get a degree in
philosophy and anthropology, but these were only avocations
that filled time between the important parts of my life: time
with Swami and time with the teachings and practices of
Vedanta.
Swami Vivekananda’s mission has been fulfilled in many
particulars, but one piece is yet to be accomplished. This is the
establishing of a Universal Religion. In this rests the ultimate
victory of the Devil. Because the Universal Religion may not
contain any “individualistic, sectarian” ideas, it will have noth-
ing in common with Christianity, except in its semantics. The
World and the Flesh may be fires in the stove and the chimney,
but the Universal Religion will be a total conflagration of
Christianity. The point of all this is that the Jesuit priest
Teilhard de Chardin has already laid the foundation for a “New
Christianity,” and it is precisely to Swami Vivekananda’ specifi-
cations for this Universal Religion.
26
 THe POWER OF THE PaGAN Gops

Teilhard de Chardin is an anomaly because, unlike tradi-

tional Roman theologians, he is highly appreciated by scholarly
clergy who, in charity, I believe don’t have any idea what he is
talking about, because Teilhard’s ideas are to a great extent
plagiarisms from Vedanta and Tantra gummed together with
Christian-sounding jargon and heavily painted with evolution-
ism.
Let me quote one example from him: “The world I live in
becomes divine. Yet these flames do not consume me, nor do
these waters dissolve me; for, unlike the false forms of monism
that impel us through passivity towards unconsciousness, the
pan-Christianism I am finding places union at the term of an
arduous process of differentiation. | shall attain the spirit only
by releasing completely and exhaustively all the powers of
matter.... I recognize that, following the example of the incar-
nate God revealed to me by the Catholic faith, I can be saved
only by becoming one with the universe.” This is outright
Hinduism. It has a little bit of everything in it—a recognizable
verse from an Upanaishad and pieces from several of the philo-
sophical systems along with their practices.
In a press conference given by Father Arrupe, General of
the Society ofJesus, in June of 1965, Teilhard de Chardin was
defended on the grounds that “he was not a professional theo-
logian and philosopher, so that it was possible for him to be
unaware of all the philosophical and theological implications
attached to some of his intuitions.” Then Father Arrupe
praised him: “Pere Teilhard is one of the great masters of
contemporary thought, and his success is not to be wondered
at. He carried through, in fact, a great attempt to reconcile the
world of science with the world of faith.” The upshot of this
reconciliation is a new religion. And in Teilhard’s words: “The
new religion will be exactly the same as our old Christianity
27
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

but with a new life drawn from the legitimate evolution of its
dogmas as they come in contact with new ideas.” With this bit
of background let us look at Vivekananda’s Universal Religion
and Teilhard’s “New Christianity.”
The Universal Religion as proposed by Vivekananda must
have five characteristics. First, it must be scientific. It will be
built on spiritual laws. Hence, it will be a true and scientific
religion. In effect, both Vivekananda and Teilhard use theoret-
ical scientism as an article of their faith.
Second, its foundation is evolution. In Teilhard’s words:
“A hitherto unknown form of religion—one that no one could
yet have imagined or described, for lack of a universe large
enough and organic enough to contain it—is burgeoning in
men’s hearts, from a seed sown by the idea of evolution.” And
again: “Original sin...binds us hand and foot and drains the
blood from us” because “as it is now expressed, it represents a
survival of static concepts that are an anachronism in our
evolutionist system of thought.” Such a pseudo-religious con-
cept of “evolution,” which was consciously rejected by Chris-
tian thought, has been basic to Hindu thought for millennia;
every Hindu religious practice assumes it.
Third, the Universal Religion will not be built around
any particular personality, but will be founded on “eternal
principles.” Teilhard is well on his way towards the impersonal
God when he writes: “Christ is becoming more and more
indispensable to me ... but at the same time the figure of the
historical Christ is becoming less and less substantial and dis-
tinct to me.” “... My view of him is continually carrying me
further and higher along the axis of (I hope!) orthodoxy.” Sad
to say, this non-historical “Christ” spirit is Hindu orthodoxy,
not Christian.

28
 THE POWER OF THE PAGAN Gops

Fourth, the main purpose of the Universal Religion will

be to satisfy the spiritual needs of men and women of diverse
types. Individualistic, sectarian religions cannot offer this.
Teilhard believed that Christianity did not fit everybody’s reli-
gious aspirations. He records his discontent in these words:
“Christianity is still to some extent a refuge, but it does not
embrace, or satisfy or even lead the ‘modern soul’ any longer.”
Fifth and final, within the Universal Religion (or New
Christianity) we are all wending our way to the same destina-
tion. For Teilhard de Chardin it is the Omega Point, which
belongs to something that is beyond representation. For
Vivekananda it is the Om, the sacred syllable of the Hindus:
“All humanity, converging at the foot of that sacred place
where is set the symbol that is no symbol, the name that is
beyond all sound.”
Where will ic end, this deformation of Christianity and
triumph of Hinduism? Will we have the Om, or will we have
the Omega?

29
 Ill
A Fakir’s “Miracle”
ANDETHE PRAYER OL EoUS

By Archimandrite Nicholas Drobyazgin

The author of this testimony, a new martyr of the Commu-

nist Yoke, enjoyed a brilliant worldly career as a naval com-
mander, being also deeply involved in occultism as editor of the
occult journal Rebus. Being saved from almost certain death at sea
by a miracle of St. Seraphim, he made a pilgrimage to Sarov and
then renounced his worldly career and occult ties to become a
monk. After being ordained priest, he served as a missionary in
China, India and Tibet, as the priest of various embassy churches,
and as abbot of several monasteries. After 1914 he lived at the
Kiev Caves Lavra, where he discoursed to the young people who
visited him concerning the influence of occultism on contemporary
events in Russia. In the autumn of 1924, one month afier he had
been visited by a certain Tuholx, the author of the book Black
Magic, he was murdered in his cell “by persons unknown,” with
obvious Bolshevik connivance, stabbed by a dagger with a special
handle apparently of occult significance.
The incident here described, revealing the nature of one of
the mediumistic “gifts” which are common in Eastern religions,

30
 THe Faxir’s “MIRACLE”

took place not long before 1900, and was recorded about 1922 by
Dr. A.P Timofievich, lately of Novo-Diveyevo Convent, New
York. (Russian text in Orthodox Life, 1956, no. 1.)

()* A WONDROUS early tropical morning our ship was

cleaving the waters of the Indian Ocean, nearing the
island of Ceylon. The lively faces of the passengers, for the
most part Englishmen with their families who were travelling
to their posts or on business in their Indian colony, looked
avidly in the distance, seeking out with their eyes the en-
chanted isle, which for practically all of them had been bound
up since childhood with so much that was interesting and
mysterious in the tales and descriptions of travellers.
The island was still scarcely visible when already a fine,
intoxicating fragrance from the trees growing on it more and
more enveloped the ship with each passing breeze. Finally a
kind of blue cloud lay on the horizon, ever increasing in size as
the ship speedily approached. Already one could notice the
buildings spread out along the shore, buried in the verdure of
majestic palms, and the many-colored crowd of the local in-
habitants who were awaiting the ship’s arrival. The passengers,
who had quickly become acquainted with each other on the
trip, were laughing and conversing animatedly with each other
on the deck, admiring the wondrous scene of the fairy-tale isle
as it unfolded before their eyes. The ship swung slowly around,
preparing to moor at the dock of the port city of Colombo.
Here the ship stopped to take on coal, and the passengers
had sufficient time to go ashore. The day was so hot that many
passengers decided not to leave the ship until evening, when a
pleasant coolness replaced the heat of the day. A small group of
eight people, to which I joined myself, was led by Colonel
31
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Elliott, who had been in Colombo before and knew the city
and its environs well. He made an alluring proposition. “Ladies
and gentlemen! Wouldn't you like to go a few miles out of
town and pay a visit to one of the local magician-fakirs? Per-
haps we shall see something interesting.” All accepted the
colonel’s proposition with enthusiasm.
It was already evening when we left behind the noisy
streets of the city and rolled along a marvelous jungle road
which was twinkling with the sparks of millions of fireflies.
Finally, the road suddenly widened and in front of us there was
a small clearing surrounded on all sides by jungle. At the edge
of the clearing under a big tree there was a kind ofhut, next to
which a small bonfire was smoldering and a thin, emaciated
old man with a turban on his head sat cross-legged and with
his unmoving gaze directed at the fire. Despite our noisy ar-
rival, the old man continued to sit completely immovable, not
paying us the slightest attention. Somewhere from out of the
darkness a youth appeared and, going up to the colonel, qu-
ietly asked him something. In a short while he brought out
several stools and our group arranged itselfin a semi-circle not
far from the bonfire. A light and fragrant smoke arose. The old
man sat in the same pose, apparently noticing no one and
nothing. The half-moon which arose dispelled to some extent
the darkness of the night, and in its ghostly light all objects
took on fantastic outlines. Involuntarily everyone became
quiet and waited to see what would happen.
“Look! Look there, on the tree!” Miss Mary cried in an
excited whisper. We all turned our heads in the direction
indicated. And indeed, the whole surface of the immense
crown of the tree under which the fakir was sitting was as it
were gently flowing in the soft illumination of the moon, and
the tree itself began gradually to melt and lose its contours;
52
 THE Faxkrr’s “MIRACLE”

literally, some unseen hand had thrown over it an airy covering

which became more and more concentrated with every mo-
ment. Soon the undulating surface of the sea presented itself
with complete clarity before our astonished gaze. With a light
rumble one wave followed another, making foaming white-
caps; light clouds were floating in a sky which had become
blue. Stunned, we could not tear ourselves away from this
striking picture.
And then in the distance there appeared a white ship.
Thick smoke poured out of its two large smokestacks. It
quickly approached us, cleaving the water. To our great amaze-
ment we recognized it as our own ship, the one on which we
had come to Colombo! A whisper passed through our ranks
when we read on the stern, traced out in gold letters, the name
of our ship, Luisa. But what astounded us most ofall was what
we saw on the ship—ourselves! Don’t forget that at the time
when all this happened cinematography hadn't even been
thought of and it was impossible even to conceive of some-
thing like this. Each of us saw ourselves on the ship’s deck
amongst people who were laughing and talking to each other.
But what was especially astonishing: I saw not only myself, but
at the same time the whole deck of the ship down to the
smallest details, as if in a bird’s-eye view—which of course
simply could not be in actuality. At one and the same time I
saw myself among the passengers, and the sailors working at
the other end of the ship, and the captain in his cabin, and
even our monkey “Nelly,” a favorite of all, eating bananas on
the main mast. All my companions at the same time, each in
his own way, were greatly excited at what they were seeing,
expressing their emotions with soft cries and excited whispers.
I had completely forgotten that I was a priest-monk and,
it would seem, had no business at all participating in such a
33
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

spectacle. The spell was so powerful that both the mind and
the heart were silent. My heart began to beat painfully in
alarm. Suddenly I was beside myself. A fear took hold of my
whole being.
My lips began to move and say: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Immediately I felt
relieved. It was just as if some mysterious chains which had
bound me began to fall away. The prayer became more concen-
trated, and with it my peace of soul returned. I continued to
look at the tree, and suddenly, as if pursued by the wind, the
picture became clouded and was dispersed. I saw nothing more
except the big tree, illuminated by the light of the moon, and
likewise the fakir sitting in silence by the bonfire, while my
companions continued to express what they were experiencing
while gazing at the picture, which for them had not been
broken off.
But then something apparently happened to the fakir
also. He reeled to the side. The youth ran up to him in alarm.
The seance was suddenly broken up.
Deeply moved by everything they had experienced, the
spectators stood up, animatedly sharing their impressions and
not understanding at all why the whole thing had been cut off
so sharply and unexpectedly. The youth explained it as owing
to the exhaustion of the fakir, who was sitting as before, his
head down, and paying not the slightest attention to those
present.
Having generously rewarded the fakir through the youth
for the opportunity to be participants of such an astonishing
spectacle, our group quickly got together for the trip back.
While starting out, | involuntarily turned back once more in
order to imprint in my memory the whole scene, and sud-
denly—I shuddered from an unpleasant feeling. My gaze met
34
 THE Faxkir’s “MIRACLE”

the gaze ofthe fakir, which was full of hatred. It was but for a
single instant, and then he again assumed his habitual position;
but this glance once and for all opened my eyes to the realiza-
tion of whose power it was that had produced this “miracle.”

Eastern “spirituality” is by no means limited to such medi-

umistic “tricks” as this fakir practiced; we shall see some of its more
sincere aspects in the next chapter. Still, all the power that is given
to the practitioners of Eastern religions comes from the same phe-
nomenon of mediumism, whose central characteristic is a passive-
ness before “spiritual” reality that enables one to enter into contact
with the “gods” of the non-Christian religions. This phenomenon
may be seen in Eastern “meditation” (even when it may be given
the name of “Christian”), and perhaps even in those strange “gifts”
which in our days of spiritual decline are mislabeled “charis-
matic’...

35
 IV
Eastern Meditation Invades
Christianity

A AN ANSWER to the question of the possibility of a “dia-

logue” of Orthodox Christianity with the various non-
Christian religions, the reader has been presented the testi-
mony of three Orthodox Christians who confirm, on the basis
of Orthodox doctrine and their own experience, what the
Orthodox Church has always taught: that Orthodox Chris-
tians do not at all have the “same God” as the so-called “mono-
theists” who deny the Holy Trinity; that the gods of the pagans
are in fact demons; and that the experiences and powers which
the pagan “gods” can and do provide are satanic in nature. All
this in no way contradicts the words of St. Peter, that God is no
respecter ofpersons: but in every nation he that feareth Him and
worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him (Acts 10:34-35); or
the words of St. Paul, that God in times past suffered all nations
to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless He left not Himself
without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from
heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and
gladness (Acts 14:17). Those who live in the bondage of satan,
the prince of this world (John 12:31), in darkness which is
unenlightened by the Christian Gospel—are judged in the
36
 EASTERN MEDITATION INVADES CHRISTIANITY

light of that natural testimony of God which every man may

have, despite this bondage.
For the Christian, however, who has been given God's
Revelation, no “dialogue” is possible with those outside the
Faith. Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what
fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what
communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath
Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an
infidel’... Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord (II Cor. 6:14-17). The Christian calling
is rather to bring the light of Orthodox Christianity to them,
even as St. Peter did to the God-fearing household of Corne-
lius the Centurion (Acts 10:34-48), in order to enlighten their
darkness and join them to the chosen flock of Christ's Church.
All of this is obvious enough to Orthodox Christians who
are aware of and faithful to the Truth of God’s Revelation in
the Church of Christ. But many who consider themselves
Christians have very little awareness of the radical difference
between Christianity and all other religions; and some who
may have this awareness have very little discernment in the area
of “spiritual experiences’—a discernment that has been prac-
ticed and handed down in Orthodox Patristic writings and
Lives of Saints for nearly 2,000 years.
In the absence of such awareness and discernment, the
increasing presence of Eastern religious movements in the
West, especially in the past decade or two, has caused great
confusion in the minds of many would-be Christians. The case
of Thomas Merton comes immediately to mind: a sincere
convert to Roman Catholicism and Catholic monasticism
some forty years ago (long before the radical reforms of Vatican
II), he ended his days proclaiming the equality of Christian
religious experiences and the experience of Zen Buddhism and
eds
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

other pagan religions. Something has “entered the air” in these

past two decades or so that has eroded whatever remained of a
sound Christian outlook in Protestantism and Roman Catho-
licism and now is attacking the Church itself, Holy Ortho-
doxy. The “dialogue with non-Christian religions” is a result
rather than a cause of this new “spirit.”
In this chapter we shall examine some of the Eastern
religious movements which have been influential in the 1970's,
with special emphasis on the attempts to develop a syncretism
of Christianity and Eastern religions, particularly in the realm
of “spiritual practices.” Such attempts more often than not cite
the Philokalia and the Eastern Orthodox tradition of contem-
plative prayer as being more akin to Eastern spiritual practices
than anything that exists in the West; it is ime enough, then,
to point out clearly the great abyss that exists between Chris-
tian and non-Christian “spiritual experience,” and why the
religious philosophy that underlies this new syncretism is false
and dangerous.

1. “Christian Yoga”

Hindu Yoga has been known in the West for many de-
cades, and especially in America it has given rise to innumera-
ble cults and also to a popular form ofphysical therapy which
is supposedly non-religious in its aims. Nearly twenty years ago
a French Benedictine monk wrote ofhis experiences in making
Yoga a “Christian” discipline; the description that follows is
taken from his book.*

* J.M. Dechanet, Christian Yoga, Harper & Row, New York, 1972; first
English translation, 1960.

38
 EASTERN MEDITATION INVADES CHRISTIANITY

Hindu Yoga is a discipline that presupposes a rather abste-

mious, disciplined life, and is composed of breath control and
certain physical postures which produce a state of relaxation in
which one meditates, usually with the help of amantra or sacred
utterance which aids concentration. The essence of Yoga is not
the discipline itself, but the meditation which is its end. The
author is correct when he writes: “The aims of Hindu Yoga are
spiritual. It is tantamount to treason to forget this and retain
only the purely physical side of this ancient discipline, to see in
it no more than a means towards bodily health or beauty” (p.
54). To this it should be added that the person who uses Yoga
only for physical well-being is already disposing himself towards
certain spiritual attitudes and even experiences of which he is
undoubtedly unaware; of this more will be said below.
The same author then continues: “The art of the yogi is
to establish himself in a complete silence, to empty himself of
all thoughts and illusions, to discard and forget everything but
this one idea: man’s true self is divine; it is God, and the rest is
silence” (p. 63).
This idea, of course, is not Christian but pagan, but the
aim of “Christian Yoga” is to use the technique of Yoga for a
different spiritual end, for a “Christian” meditation. The object
of the Yoga technique, in this view, is to make one relaxed,
content, unthinking, and passive or receptive to spiritual ideas
and experiences. “As soon as you have taken up the posture, you
will feel your body relaxing and a feeling of general well-being
will establish itself in you” (p. 158). The exercises produce an
“extraordinary sense of calm” (p. 6). “To begin with, one gets
the feeling of ageneral unwinding, ofawell-being taking hold,
of aeuphoria that will, and in fact does, last. If one’s nerves have
been tense and overstrung, the exercises calm them, and fatigue
disappears in a little time” (p. 49). “The goal of all his [the
39
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

yogi’s] efforts is to silence the thinking self in him by shutting

his eyes to every kind of enticement” (p. 55). The euphoria
which Yoga brings “could well be called a ‘state of health’ that
allows us to do more and do it better on the human plane to
begin with, and on the Christian religious, spiritual plane
afterwards. The most apt word to describe it is contentedness,
a contentedness that inhabits body and soul and predisposes us
... toward the spiritual life” (p. 31). One’s whole personality can
be changed by it: “Hatha Yoga influences character to the good.
One man, after some weeks of practice, admits he no longer
knows himself, and everyone notices a change in his bearing and
reaction. He is gentler and more understanding. He faces expe-
rience calmly. He is content.... His whole personality has been
altered and he himself feels it steadying and opening out; from
this there arises an almost permanent condition of euphoria, of
‘contentedness’” (p. 50).
But all of this is only a preparation for a “spiritual” aim,
which begins to make itself felt in a very short time: “By
becoming contemplative in a matter of weeks, my prayer had
been given a particular and novel cast” (p. 7). Becoming ex-
traordinarily calm, the author notices “the ease I felt in enter-
ing into prayer, in concentrating on a subject” (p. 6). One
becomes “more receptive to impulses and promptings from
heaven” (p. 13). “The practice of Yoga makes for increased
suppleness and receptivity, and thus for openness to those
personal exchanges between God and the soul that mark the
way ofthe mystical life” (p. 31). Even for the “apprentice yogi”
prayer becomes “sweet” and “embraces the whole of man” (p.
183). One is relaxed and “ready to tremble at the touch of the
Holy Ghost, to receive and welcome what God in his Good-
ness thinks fit to let us experience” (p. 71). “We shall be
making our being ready to be taken, to be seized—and this is
40
 EASTERN MEDITATION INVADES CHRISTIANITY

surely one of the forms, in fact the highest of Christian con-

templation” (p. 72). “Every day the exercises, and indeed the
whole ascetic discipline of my Yoga, make it easier for the grace
of Christ to flow in me. I feel my hunger for God growing, and
my thirst for righteousness, and my desire to be a Christian in
the full strength of the word” (p. 11).
Anyone who understands the nature of prelest or spiritual
deception (see below, pp. 143-44, 149, 162) will recognize in
this:deseription of “Christian Yoga” precisely the characteristics
of those who have gone spiritually astray, whether into pagan
religious experiences or sectarian “Christian” experiences. The
same striving
for “holy and divine feelings,” the same openness
and willingness to be “seized” by a spirit, the same seeking not
for God but for “spiritual consolations,” the same self-intoxica-
tion which is
mistaken for a “state of grace,” the-same incredi-
ble..case-with«which one becomes “contemplative” or
“mystical,” the same “mystical revelations” and pseudo-spiri-
tual states. These are the common characteristics of all who are
in this particular state of spiritual deception. But the author of
Christian Yoga, being a Benedictine monk, adds some particu-
lar “meditations” which reveal him as fully in the spirit of the
Roman Catholic “meditation” of recent centuries, with its free
play of fantasies on Christian themes. Thus, for example, hav-
ing meditated on a theme of the Christmas Eve mass, he begins
to see the Child in the arms of His Mother: “I gaze; nothing
more. Pictures, ideas (associations of ideas: Saviour-King-
Light-Halo-Shepherd-Child-Light again) come one after the
other, march past.... All these pieces of a sacred puzzle taken
together arouse one idea in me ... a silent vision of the whole
mystery of Christmas” (pp. 161-2). Anyone with the slightest
knowledge of Orthodox spiritual discipline will see that this
pitiable “Christian yogi” has fallen handily into a trap set by
41
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

one of the lesser demons that lie in wait for the seeker of
“spiritual experiences”: he has not even seen an “angel of
light,” but has only given way to his own “religious fancies,”
the product of a heart and mind totally unprepared for spiri-
tual warfare and the deceptions of the demons. Such “medita-
tion” is being practiced today in a number of Roman Catholic
convents and monasteries.
The fact that the book concludes with an article by the
French translator of the Philokalia, together with excerpts from
the Philokalia, only reveals the abyss that separates these dilet-
tantes from the true spirituality of Orthodoxy, which is totally
inaccessible to the modern “wise men” who no longer under-
stand its language. A sufficient indication of the author's in-
competence in understanding the Philokalia is the fact that he
gives the name “prayer of the heart” (which in Orthodox
tradition is the highest mental prayer, acquired by very few
only after many years of ascetic struggle and being humbled by
a true God-bearing Elder) to the easy trick of reciting syllables
in rhythm with the heartbeat (p. 196).
We shall comment more fully below on the dangers of
this “Christian Yoga” when noting what it possesses in com-
mon with other forms of “Eastern meditation” which are being
offered to Christians today.

2. “Christian Zen”

An eastern religious practice on a more popular level is

offered in the book of an Irish Catholic priest, William John-
ston: Christian Zen.* The author starts from basically the same
place as the author of Christian Yoga: a feeling of dissatisfac-

* Harper & Row, New York, 1971.

42
 EASTERN MEDITATION INVADES CHRISTIANITY

tion with Western Christianity, a desire to give it a dimension

of contemplation or meditation. “Many people, discontented
with old forms of prayer, discontented with the old devotions
that once served so well, are looking for something that will
satisfy the aspirations of the modern heart” (p. 9). “Contact
with Zen ... has opened up new vistas, teaching me that there
are possibilities in Christianity I never dreamed of.” One may
“practice Zen as a way of deepening and broadening his Chris-
tian faith” (p. 2).
The technique of Japanese Zen is very similar to that of
Indian Yoga—from which it is ultimately derived—although it
is rather simpler. There is the same basic posture (but not the
variety of postures of Yoga), breathing technique, the repetition
ofa sacred name if desired, as well as other techniques peculiar
to Zen. The aim of these techniques is the same as that of Yoga:
to abolish rational thinking and attain a state of calm, silent
meditation. The sitting position “impedes discursive reasoning
and thinking” and enables one to go “down to the center of
one’s being in imageless and silent contemplation” (p. 5) to “a
deep and beautiful realm of psychic life” (p. 17), to “deep
interior silence” (p. 16). The experience thus attained is some-
what similar to that achieved by taking drugs, for “people who
have used drugs understand a little about Zen, since they have
been awakened to the realization that there is a depth in the
mind worth exploring” (p. 35). And yet this experience opens
up “a new approach to Christ, an approach that is less dualistic
and more Oriental” (p. 48). Even absolute beginners in Zen can
attain “a sense of union and an atmosphere of supernatural
presence’ (p. 31), a savoring of “mystical silence” (p. 30);
through Zen, the state of contemplation hitherto restricted to a
few “mystics” can be “broadened out,” and “all may have vision,
all may reach samadhi” (enlightenment) (p. 46).

26)
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

The author of Christian Zen speaks of the renewal of

Christianity; but he admits that the experience he thinks can
bring it about may be had by anyone, Christian or non-Chris-
tian. “I believe that there is a basic enlightenment which is
neither Christian nor Buddhist nor anything else. It is just
human” (p. 97). Indeed, at a convention on meditation at a
Zen temple near Kyoto “the surprising thing about the meet-
ing was lack of any common faith. No one seemed the slightest
bit interested in what anyone else believed or disbelieved, and
no one, as far as I recall, even mentioned the name of God” (p.
69). This agnostic character of meditation has a great advan-
tage for “missionary” purposes, for “in this way meditation can
be taught to people who have little faith—to those who are
troubled in conscience or fear that God is dead. Such people
can always sit and breathe. For them meditation becomes a
search, and I have found ... that people who begin to search in
this way eventually find God. Not the anthropomorphic God
they have rejected, but the great being in whom we live, move,
and are” (p. 70).
The author's description of the Zen “enlightenment” ex-
perience reveals its basic identity with the “cosmic” experience
provided by shamanism and many pagan religions. “I myself
believe that within us are locked up torrents and torrents ofjoy
that can be released by meditation—sometimes they will burst
through with incredible force, flooding the personality with an
extraordinary happiness that comes from one knows not where”
(p. 88). Interestingly, the author, on returning to America after
twenty years in Japan, found this experience to be very close to
the Pentecostal experience, and he himself received the “Bap-
tism of the Spirit” at a “charismatic” meeting (p. 100). The
author concluded: “Returning to the Pentecostal meeting, it
seems to me that the imposition of hands, the prayers of the
44
 EASTERN MEDITATION INVADES CHRISTIANITY

people, the charity of the community—these can be forces that

release the psychic power that brings enlightenment to the
person who has been consistently practicing zazen” (pp. 92-93).
We shall examine in the seventh chapter of this book the nature
of the Pentecostal or “charismatic” experience.
Little need be said in criticism of these views; they are
basically the same as those of the author of Christian Yoga, only
less esoteric and more popular. Anyone who believes that the
agnostic, pagan experience of Zen can be used for a “contem-
plative renewal within Christianity” (p. 4) surely knows noth-
ing whatever of the great contemplative tradition of
Orthodoxy, which presupposes burning faith, true belief, and
intense ascetic struggle; and yet the same author does not
hesitate to drag the Philokalia and the “great Orthodox
schools” into his narrative, stating that they also lead to the
condition of “contemplative silence and peace” and are an
example of “Zen within the Christian tradition” (p. 39); and
he advocates the use of the Prayer of Jesus during Zen medita-
tion for those who wish this (p. 28). Such ignorance is posi-
tively dangerous, especially when the possessor of it invites the
students at his lectures, as an experiment in “mysticism,” to “sit
in zazen for forty minutes each evening” (p. 30). How many
sincere, misguided false prophets there are in the world today,
each thinking he is bringing benefit to his fellow men, instead
of an invitation to psychic and spiritual disaster! Of this we
shall speak more in the conclusion below.

3. Transcendental Meditation

The technique of Eastern meditation known as “Transcen-

dental Meditation” (or “TM” for short) has attained such
popularity in a few years, especially in America, and is advo-
abs
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

cated in such an outrageously flippant tone, that any serious

student of contemporary religious currents will be inclined at
first to dismiss it as merely an over-inflated product of American
advertising and showmanship. But this would be a mistake, for
in its serious claims it does not differ markedly from Yoga and
Zen, and a close look at its techniques reveals it as perhaps more
authentically “Eastern” than either of the somewhat artificial
syncretisms, “Christian Yoga” and “Christian Zen.”
According to one standard account of this movement,*
“Transcendental Meditation” was brought to America (where
it has had its most spectacular success) by a rather “unortho-
dox” Indian Yogi, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and began to grow
noticeably about 1961. In 1967 it received widespread public-
ity when the popular singers known as the “Beatles” were
converted to it and gave up drugs; but they soon abandoned
the movement (although they continued to meditate), and the
Maharishi hit his low point the next year when his American
tour, together with another convert singing group called the
“Beach Boys,” was abandoned as a financial failure. The move-
ment itself, however, continued to grow: By 1971 there were
some 100,000 meditators following it, with 2,000 specially-
trained instructors, making it already by far the largest move-
ment of “Eastern spirituality” in America. In 1975 the
movement reached its peak, with about 40,000 trainees a
month and upwards of 600,000 followers in all. During these
years it was widely used in the Army, public schools, prisons,
hospitals, and by church groups, including parishes of the
Greek Archdiocese in America, as a supposedly neutral form of

* All citations in this section are from Jhan Robbins and David Fisher,
Tranquility Without Pills (All about Transcendental Meditation), Peter H.
Wyden, Inc., New York, 1972.

46
 EasTERN MEDITATION INVADES CHRISTIANITY

“mental therapy” which is compatible with any kind of reli-

gious belief or practice. The “I'M” course is one especially
tailored to the American way of life and has been sympatheti-
cally called “a course in how to succeed spiritually without
really trying” (p. 17); the Maharishi himself calls it a technique
which is “just like brushing your teeth” (p. 104). The
Maharishi has been strongly criticized by other Hindu Yogis
for cheapening the long tradition of Yoga in India by making
this esoteric practice available to the masses for money. (The
charge in 1975 was $125 for the course, $65 for college stu-
dents, and progressively less for high school, junior high
school, and very young children.)
In its aims, presuppositions, and results, “TM” does not
differ markedly from “Christian Yoga” or “Christian Zen”; it
differs from them chiefly in the simplicity ofits techniques and
of its whole philosophy, and in the ease with which its results
are obtained. Like them, “ITM does not require any belief,
understanding, moral code, or even agreement with the ideas
and philosophy” (p. 104); it is a technique pure and simple,
which “is based on the natural tendency of the mind to move
toward greater happiness and pleasure.... During transcenden-
tal meditation your mind is expected to follow whatever is
most natural and most pleasant” (p. 13). “Transcendental med-
itation is a practice first and a theory afterwards. It is essential
at the beginning that an individual does not think intellectu-
ally at all” (p. 22).
The technique which the Maharishi has devised is invari-
ably the same at all “IM” centers throughout the world: After
two introductory lectures, one pays the fee and then comes for
“initiation,” bringing with him a seemingly strange collection
of articles, always the same: three pieces of sweet fruit, at least
six fresh flowers, and a clean handkerchief (p. 39). These are

47
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

placed in a basket and taken to the small “initiation room,”

where they are placed on a table before a portrait of the
Maharishi’s guru, from whom he received his initiation into
yoga; on the same table a candle and incense are burning. The
disciple is alone in the room with his teacher, who is himself
required to have received initiation and to have been instructed
by the Maharishi personally. The ceremony before the portrait
lasts for half an hour and is composed of soft singing in
Sanskrit (with meaning unknown to the initiate) and a chant-
ing of the names of past “masters” of Yoga; at the end of the
ceremony the initiate is given a “mantra,” a secret Sanskrit
word which he is to repeat ceaselessly during meditation, and
which no one is to know except his teacher (p. 42). The
English translation of this ceremony is never revealed to initi-
ates; it is available only to teachers and initiators themselves. It
is contained in an unpublished handbook called “The Holy
Tradition,” and its text has now been printed by the “Spiritual
Counterfeits Project” in Berkeley as a separate pamphlet. This
ceremony is nothing but a traditional Hindu ceremony of
worship of the gods (puja), including the deified guru of the
Maharishi (Shri Guru Dev) and the whole line of “Masters”
through which he himself received his initiation. The cere-
mony ends with a series of twenty-two “offerings” made to the
Maharishi’s guru, each ending with the words “To Shri Guru
Dev I bow down.” The initiator himself bows down before a
portrait of Guru Dev at the end of the ceremony and invites
the initiate to do likewise; only then is the latter initiated. (The
bowing is not absolutely required of the initiate, but the offer-
ings are.)
Thus the modern agnostic, usually quite unawares, has
been introduced to the realm of Hindu religious practices;
quite easily he has been made to do something to which his
48
 EASTERN MEDITATION INVADES CHRISTIANITY

own Christian ancestors, perhaps, had preferred torture and

cruel death: he has offered sacrifice to pagan gods. On the
spiritual plane it may be this sin, rather than the psychic
technique itself, that chiefly explains the spectacular success of
elMy
Once he has been initiated, the student of “TM” medi-
tates twice daily for twenty minutes each time (precisely the
same amount recommended by the author of Christian Yoga),
letting the mind wander freely, and repeating the mantra as
often as he thinks of it; frequently, one’s experiences are
checked by his teacher. Quite soon, even on the first attempt,
one begins to enter a new level of consciousness, which is
neither sleep nor wakefulness: the state of “transcendental
meditation.” “Transcendental meditation produces a state of
consciousness unlike anything we've known before, and closest
to that state of Zen developed after many years of intense
study” (p. 115). “In contrast to the years that must be spent to
master other religious disciples and Yoga, which offer the same
results that TM proponents claim, teachers say TM can be
taught in a matter of minutes” (pp. 110-111). Some who have
experienced it describe it as a “state of fulfillment” similar to
some drug experiences (p. 85), but the Maharishi himself
describes it in traditional Hindu terms: “This state lies beyond
all seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting—beyond all
thinking and feeling. This state of the unmanifested, absolute,
pure consciousness of Being is the ultimate state of life” (p.
23). “When an individual has developed the ability to bring
this deep state to the conscious level on a permanent basis, he
is said to have reached cosmic consciousness, the goal of all
meditators” (p. 25). In the advanced stages of “I'M” the basic
Yoga positions are taught, but they are not necessary to the
success of the basic technique; nor is any ascetic preparation
=e)
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

required. Once one has attained the “transcendental state of

being,” all that is required of one is twenty minutes of medita-
tion twice daily, since this form of meditation is not at all a
separate way oflife, as in India, but rather a discipline for those
who lead an active life. The Maharishi’s distinction lies in
having brought this state of consciousness to everyone, not just
a chosen few.
There are numerous success stories for “TM,” which
claims to be effective in almost all cases: drug habits are over-
come, families are reunited, one becomes healthy and happy;
the teachers of TM are constantly smiling, bubbling over with
happiness. Generally, TM does not replace other religions, but
strengthens belief in almost anything; “Christians,” whether
Protestant or Catholic, also find that it makes their belief and
practice more meaningful and deeper (p. 105).
The swift and easy success of “I'M,” while it is symptom-
atic of the waning influence of Christianity on contemporary
mankind, has also led to its early decline. Perhaps more than
any other movement of “Eastern spirituality,” it has had the
character of a “fad,” and the Maharishi’s announced aim to
“initiate” the whole of humanity is evidently doomed to fail-
ure. After the peak year of 1975, enrollment in “I'M” courses
has steadily declined, so much so that in 1977 the organization
announced the opening of a whole new series of “advanced”
courses, obviously devised in order to regain public interest
and enthusiasm. These courses are intended to lead initiates to
the “siddhis” or “supernatural powers” of Hinduism: walking
through walls, becoming invisible, levitating and flying
through the air, and the like. The courses have generally been
greeted with cynicism, even though a “I'M” brochure features
a photograph of a “levitating” meditator (see Time Magazine,
August 8, 1977, p. 75). Whether or not the courses (which

50
 EASTERN MEDITATION INVADES CHRISTIANITY

cost up to $3,000) will produce the claimed results—which are

in the province of the traditional “fakirs” of India (see above,
pp. 30-35)—*“TM” itself stands revealed as a passing phase of
the occult interest in the second half of the 20th century.
Already many examples have been publicized of “TM” teachers
and disciples alike who have been afflicted with the common
maladies of those who dabble in the occult: mental and emo-
tional illness, suicide, attempted murder, demonic possession.
In 1978 a United States Federal Court came to the deci-
sion that “IM” is indeed religious in nature and may not be
taught in public schools.* This decision will undoubtedly fur-
ther limit the influence of “I'M,” which, however, will proba-
bly continue to exist as one of the many forms of meditation
which many see as compatible with Christianity—another sad
sign of the times.

* See TM in Court: The complete text of the Federal Court’s opinion in the
case of Malnak v. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; Spiritual Counterfeits Project,
P. O. Box 4308, Berkeley, California, 94704.

51
 V
The “New Religious
Consciousness”
THE’ SPIRIT OF THE EASTERN CUETS
IN THE 1970°S

“ey THREE KINDS of “Christian meditation” described

above are only the beginning; in general, it may be said
that the influence of Eastern religious ideas and practices upon
the once-Christian West has reached astonishing proportions in
the decade of the 1970's. In particular America, which barely
two decades ago was still religiously “provincial” (save in a few
large cities), its spiritual horizon largely limited to Protestantism
and Roman Catholicism—has seen a dazzling proliferation of
Eastern (and pseudo-Eastern) religious cults and movements.
The history of this proliferation can be traced from the
restless disillusionment of the post-World War II generation,
which first manifested itself in the 1950’s in the empty protest
and moral libertinism of the “beat generation,” whose interest
in Eastern religions was at first rather academic and mainly a
sign of dissatisfaction with “Christianity.” There followed a
second generation, that of the “hippies” of the 1960's with its
“rock” music and psychedelic drugs and search for “increased
52.
 THE “New RELiGious CONSCIOUSNESS”

awareness” at any cost; now young Americans plunged whole-

heartedly into political protest movements (notably against the
war in Vietnam) on the one hand, and the fervent practice of
Eastern religions on the other. Indian gurus, Tibetan lamas,
Japanese Zen masters, and other Eastern “sages” came to the
West and found a host of ready disciples who made them
successful beyond the dreams of the westernized swamis of
preceding generations; and young people travelled to the ends
of the world, even to the heights of the Himalayas, to find the
wisdom or the teacher or the drug that would bring them the
“peace” and “freedom” they sought.
In the 1970’s a third generation has succeeded the “hip-
pies.” Outwardly quieter, with fewer “demonstrations” and
generally less flamboyant behavior, this generation has gone
more deeply into Eastern religions, whose influence now has
become much more pervasive than ever before. For many of
this newer generation the religious “search” has ended: they
have found an Eastern religion to their liking and are now
seriously occupied in practicing it. A number of Eastern reli-
gious movements have already become “native” to the West,
especially in America: there are now Buddhist monasteries
composed entirely of Western converts, and for the first time
there have appeared American and other Western gurus and
Zen masters.
Let us look at just a few pictures—descriptions of actual
events in the early and mid-1970’s—which illustrate the dom-
inance of Eastern ideas and practices among many young
Americans (who are only the “avant-guarde” of the youth of
the whole world). The first two pictures show a more superfi-
cial involvement with Eastern religions, and are perhaps only a
leftover from the generation of the 1960’s; the last two reveal
the deeper involvement characteristic of the 1970's.
53
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

1. Hare Krishnas in San Francisco

“On a street bordering Golden Gate Park in the Haight-

Ashbury section of San Francisco stood the Krishna Con-
sciousness temple.... Above the entrance to the temple were
the two-foot-high wooden letters “Hare Krishna.’ The large
storefront windows were covered with red and orange-pat-
terned blankets.
“The sounds of chanting and music filled the street. Inside
there were dozens of brightly-colored paintings on the wall,
thick red rugs on the floor, and a smoky haze in the air. This
smoke was incense, an element ofthe ceremony in progress. The
people in the room were softly chanting barely audible Sanskrit
words. The room was nearly full, with about fifty people who
all appeared to be young sitting on the floor. Assembled in front
were about twenty persons wearing long, loose-fitting orange
and saffron robes, with white paint on their noses. Many of the
men had shaved their heads except for a ponytail. The women
with them also had white paint on their noses and small red
marks on their foreheads. The other young persons in the room
appeared no different from other denizens of the Haight-As-
hbury, costumed in headbands, long hair, beards, and an assort-
ment of rings, bells, and beads, and they were also
enthusiastically participating in the ceremony. The ten or so
persons sitting in the rear appeared to be first-time visitors.
“The chanting ceremony (mantra) increased in tempo
and in volume. Two girls in long saffron robes were now
dancing to the chant. The leader of the chant began to cry the
words (of the chant in Sanskrit).... The entire group repeated
the words, and attempted to maintain the leader’s intonation
and rhythm. Many of the participants played musical instru-
54
 THE “New REticious CONSCIOUSNESS”

ments. The leader was beating a hand drum in time with his
chanting. The two swaying, dancing girls were playing finger
cymbals. One young man was blowing a sea shell; another was
beating on a tambourine.... On the walls of the temple were
over a dozen paintings of scenes from the Bhagavad-Gita.
“The music and the chanting grew very loud and fast.
The drum was ceaselessly pounding. Many of the devotees
started personal shouts, hands up-stretched, amidst the general
chant. The leader knelt in front of a picture of the group’s
‘spiritual master’ on a small shrine near the front of the room.
The chanting culminated in a loud crescendo and the room
became silent. The celebrants knelt with their heads to the
floor as the leader said a short prayer in Sanskrit. Then he
shouted five times, ‘All glories to the assembled devotees,’
which the others repeated before they sat up.”*
This is one of the typical worship services of the “Krishna
Consciousness” movement, which was founded in America in
1966 by an Indian ex-businessman, A.C. Bhaktivedanta, in
order to bring the Hindu discipline of bhakti yoga to the
disoriented and searching young people of the West. The ear-
lier phase of interest in Eastern religions (in the 1950's and
early 1960's) had emphasized intellectual investigation without
much personal involvement; this newer phase demands whole-
hearted participation. Bhakti yoga means uniting oneself to
one’s chosen “god” by love and worshipping him, and chang-
ing one’s whole life in order to make this one’s central occupa-
tion. Through the non-rational means of worship (chanting,
music, dance, devotion) the mind is “expanded” and “Krishna
consciousness” is attained, which—if enough people will do

* Charles Glock and Robert Bellah, The New Religious Consciousness,

University of California Press, Berkeley, 1976, pp. 31-32.

55
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

it—is supposed to end the troubles of our disordered age and

usher in a new age ofpeace, love, and unity.
The bright robes of the “Krishnas” became a familiar
sight in San Francisco, especially on the day every year when
the immense idol of their “god” was wheeled through Golden
Gate Park to the ocean, attended by all the signs of Hindu
devotion—a typical scene of pagan India, but something new
for “Christian” America. From San Francisco the movement
has spread to the rest of America and to Western Europe; by
1974 there were fifty-four Krishna temples throughout the
world, many of them near colleges and universities (members
of the movement are almost all very young.)
The recent death of the founder of the movement has
raised questions about its future; and indeed its membership,
although very visible, has been rather small in number. As a
“sign of the times,” however, the meaning of the movement is
clear, and should be very disturbing to Christians: many young
people today are looking for a “god” to worship, and the most
blatant form of paganism is not too much for them to accept.

2. Guru Maharay-ji at the Houston Astrodome

By the fall of 1973 a number of Eastern gurus of the

newer school, led by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with his “TM,”
had come to the West and gathered a following, only to fade
from the public eye after a brief reign in the glare of publicity.
Guru Maharaj-ji was the most spectacular and, one might say,
outrageous of these gurus. Fifteen years old, he had already
been proclaimed to be “God,” his family (mother and three
brothers) was the “Holy Family,” and his organization (the
“Divine Light Mission”) had communities (ashrams) all over
America. His 80,000 followers (“premies”), like the followers

56
 THE “New Reticious CONSCIOUSNESS”

of Krishna, were expected to give up worldly pleasures and

meditate in order to attain an “expanded” consciousness which
made them perfectly peaceful, happy, and “blissed out”?—a
state of mind in which everything seems beautiful and perfect
just the way it is. In a special initiation at which they “receive
the knowledge,” disciples are shown an intense light and three
other signs within themselves, which later they were able to
meditate on by themselves (The New Religious Consciousness, p.
54). In addition to this “knowledge,” disciples are united in
believing that Maharaj-ji is the “Lord of the Universe” who has
come to inaugurate a new age of peace for mankind.
For three days in November, 1973, the “Divine Light
Mission” rented the Houston Astrodome (an immense sports
arena entirely covered by a dome) in order to stage “the most
holy and significant event in the history of mankind.” “Pre-
mies” from all over the world were to gather to worship their
“god” and begin the conversion of America (through the mass
media, whose representatives were carefully invited) to the
same worship, thus beginning the new age of mankind. Appro-
priately, the event was called “Millennium ’73.”
Typical of Maharaj-ji’s convinced disciples was Rennie
Davis, leftist demonstrator of the 1960’s and one of the “Chi-
cago Seven” accused of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic
National Convention. He spent the summer of 1973 giving
press conferences and speeches to whoever would listen, telling
America: “He is the greatest event in history and we sleep
through it... I feel like shouting in the streets. If we knew who
he was, we would crawl across America on our hands and knees
to rest our heads at his feet.”*

* Robert Greenfield, The Spiritual Supermarket, Saturday Review Press, New

York, 1975, p. 43.

57
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Indeed, the worship of Maharaj-ji is expressed in a full

prostration before him with one’s head to the ground, together
with a Sanskrit phrase of adoration. A tremendous ovation
greeted his appearance at “Millennium ’73,” he sat atop a tall
throne, crowned by an immense golden “crown of Krishna,” as
the Astrodome scoreboard flashed the word “G-O-D.” Young
American “premies” wept for joy, others danced on the stage,
the band played “The Lord of the Universe”—adapted from an
old Protestant hymn (The Spiritual Supermarket, pp. 80, 94).
All this, let us say again—in “Christian” America. This is
already something beyond mere worship of pagan “gods.”
Until a very few years ago such worship of a living man would
have been inconceivable in any “Christian” country; now it has
become an ordinary thing for many thousands of religious
“seekers” in the West. Here we have already had a preview of
the worship of antichrist at the end of the age—the one who
will sit in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God (I
Thess. 2:4).
“Millennium ’73” seems to have been the peak of Maharaj-
ji's influence. As it was, only 15,000 followers attended it (much
less than expected), and there were no “miracles” or special signs
to indicate the “new age” had actually begun. A movement so
dependent on media publicity and so much bound up with the
popular taste of a particular generation (the music at “Millen-
nium ’73” was composed mostly of the popular songs of the
“counter-culture” of the 1960’s) can expect to go out offashion
rather quickly; and the recent marriage of Maharaj-ji to his
secretary has further weakened his popularity as a “god.”
Other of the “spiritual” movements of our times seem to
be less subject to the whims of popular fashion and more
indicative of the depth ofthe influence which Eastern religions
are now attaining in the West.
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 THE “New RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS”

3. Tantric Yoga in the Mountains ofNew Mexico

In a grassy meadow at the 7,500-foot elevation in the

Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico, a thousand young
Americans (most of them between the ages of 20 and 25)
gathered for ten days of spiritual exercises at the time of the
summer solstice in June, 1973. They arise at four a.m. every
day and assemble before sunrise (wrapped in blankets against
the morning frost) to sit on the ground in rows in front of an
outdoor stage. Together, they begin the day with a mantra in
Punjabi (a Sanskritic language) in order to “tune in” to the
spiritual practices that are to follow.
First there are several hours of kundalini yoga—a series of
strenuous physical exercises, chanting, and meditation aimed
at acquiring conscious control of body and mind processes and
preparing one for “God realization.” Then there is the cere-
mony of the raising of two flags: the American flag and the
“flag of the Aquarian nation”—this “nation” being the peace-
ful people of the “Aquarian Age” or millennium for which this
cult is preparing—accompanied by the singing of “God Bless
America” and a prayer for the American nation. After a vege-
tarian meal (typical of almost all the new cults) and lectures on
spiritual and practical subjects, all prepare for a long session of
tantric yoga.
Tantric yoga has been little heard of and almost never
practiced in the West up to now. All authorities agree that it is
an extremely dangerous exercise, practiced always by male and
female together, that evokes a very powerful psychic energy,
requiring close supervision and control. Supposedly, there is
only one master of tantric yoga living on the earth at any one

9
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

time; the exercises at “Solstice” in New Mexico were led by the

“Great Tantric” of our days, Yogi Bhajan.
All, dressed identically in white, sit down in long, straight
lines, men opposite women, packed shoulder-to-shoulder down
the lines and back-to-back with the next line. About ten double
lines stretch out from the stage, each seventy-five feet long;
assistants make sure the lines are perfectly straight to assure the
proper “flow” of the yogic “magnetic field.”
The chanting of mantras begins, with special chants in-
voking a departed guru who is Yogi Bhajan’s “special protector.”
The Yogi himself, an impressive man—six feet four inches tall
with a great black beard, dressed in white robe and turban—ap-
pears and begins to speak of his dream for “a new beautiful
creative nation” of America which can be built by the spiritual
preparation of people today; the tantric exercises, which are a
key in this preparation, transform people from their usual
“individual consciousness” to “group consciousness” and finally
to “universal consciousness.”
The exercises begin. They are extremely difficult, involving
strong physical effort and pain and evoking strong emotions of
fear, anger, love, etc. Everyone must do exactly the same thing
at the same time; difficult positions are held motionlessly for
long periods; complicated mantras and exercises must be exe-
cuted in precise coordination with one’s partner and with
everyone in one’s own row; each separate exercise may take from
thirty-one to sixty-one minutes. Individual awareness disap-
pears in the intense group activity, and strong after-effects are
felt—physical exhaustion and sometimes temporary paralysis,
emotional exhaustion or elation. Further, since no one at “Sol-
stice” is allowed to converse with anyone else, there is no
opportunity to make rational sense ofthe experience by sharing
it with others; the aim is to effect a radical change in oneself.
60
 THE “New RELIGiIous CONSCIOUSNESS”

Following afternoon classes in such subjects are Oriental

arts of self-defense, practical medicine and nutrition, and the
running of an ashram, there is an evening session (after another
meal) of “spiritual singing”: Sanskrit mantras are sung to cur-
rent folk and “rock” music, “rock festival” and “joyful wor-
ship” in a foreign tongue are joined together—part of Yogi
Bhajan’s effort to make his religion “native American” (The
New Religious Consciousness, pp. 8-18).
The religion described above is a modern adaption of the
Sikh religion of northern India, joined to several practices of
yoga. Called the “3HO” (Healthy-Happy-Holy Organization),
it was founded in 1969 in Los Angeles by Yogi Bhajan, who
originally came to America to take up a teaching position and
only incidentally became a religious leader when he discovered
that his courses in yoga appealed to the “hippies” of southern
California. Combining the “spiritual” search of the “hippies”
with his own knowledge of Indian religions, he formed an
“American” religion that differs from most Eastern religions by
its emphasis on a this-worldly practical life (like the Sikhs in
India, who are mostly a merchant class); marriage and a stable
home life, responsible employment, and social service are re-
quired of all members.
Since its foundation in 1969, “3HO” has expanded to
over 100 ashrams (communities which serve as gathering-
places for non-resident participants) in American cities, as well
as a few in Europe and Japan. Although externally it is quite
distinct from the other new Eastern cults (full members of the
cult formally become Sikhs and thereafter wear the characteris-
tic Sikh turban and white clothing), “3HO” is one with them
in appealing to ex-“hippies,” making an “expanded” (or “uni-
versal” or “transcendental”) consciousness its central aim, and
in seeing itselfasa spiritual “avant-garde” that will bring about
61
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

a new millennial age (which most groups see in astrological

terms as the “Aquarian Age”).
As a cult that advocates a relatively normal life in society,
“3HO” is still just as much a “sign of the times” as the Hindu
cults that promote an obvious “escapism”; it is preparing for a
“healthy, happy and holy” America totally without reference to
Christ. When convinced and “happy” Americans speak calmly
about God and their religious duties without mention of
Christ, one can no longer doubt that the “post-Christian” age
has come in earnest.

4, Zen Training in Northern California

In the forested mountains of northern California, in the

shadow of immense Mount Shasta—a “holy” mountain to the
original Indian inhabitants, and long a center of occult activi-
ties and settlements, which are now once again on the in-
crease—there has been since 1970 a Zen Buddhist monastery.
Long before 1970 there had been Zen temples in the larger
cities of the West Coast where Japanese had settled, and there
had been attempts to start Zen monasteries in California; but
“Shasta Abbey,” as it is called, is the first successful American
Zen monastery. (In Zen Buddhism a “monastery” is primarily
a training school for Zen “priests,” both male and female.)
In Shasta Abbey the atmosphere is very orderly and busi-
nesslike. Visitors (who are allowed to take guided tours at
restricted times, but may not fraternize with the residents)
find the monks or trainees in traditional black robes and with
shaved heads; everyone seems to know exactly what he is
doing, and a clear sense of seriousness and dedication is pres-
ent.

62
 THE “New RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS”

The training itself is a strict five-year (or more) program

which allows graduates to become “priests” and teachers of
Zen and to conduct Buddhist ceremonies. As at secular
schools, trainees pay a fee for room and board ($175 a month,
payable in advance for each month—already a means of weed-
ing Out unserious candidates!), but the life itself is that of
“monks” rather than students. Strict rules govern dress and
behavior, vegetarian meals are eaten in silence communally, no
visitors or idle conversations are allowed; life centers about the
meditation hall, where trainees eat and sleep in addition to
meditating,,and no non-Zen religious practices are allowed.
The life is a veryintense and concentrone, ated and every event
of daily life (even washing and toilet) has its Buddhist prayer,
which is recited silently.
Although the Abbey belongs to a “reformed” Soto Zen
sect—to emphasize its independence from Japan and its adap-
tation to American conditions of life—rites and ceremonies are
in the Japanese Zen tradition. There is the ceremony of be-
coming a Buddhist, equinox rites celebrating the “transforma-
tion of the individual,” the ceremonial “feeding of hungry
ghosts” (remembrance of the dead), the “Founder’s Day” cere-
mony of expressing gratitude to the transmitters of Zen down
to the present master, the festival of Buddha's enlightenment,
and others. Homage is paid by bowing down before images of
Buddha, but the primary emphasis of the teaching is on the
“Buddha-nature” within one.
The Zen Master at Shasta Abbey is a Westerner and a
woman (Buddhist practice permitting this): Jiyu Kennett, an
Englishwoman born of Buddhist parents in 1924, who re-
ceived Buddhist training in several traditions in the Far East
and “ordination” at a Soto Zen monastery in Japan. She came
to America in 1969 and founded the monastery the next year
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

with a few young followers; since then the community has

grown rapidly, attracting mostly young men (and women) in
their twenties.
The reason for the success of this monastery—apart from
the natural appeal of Zen to a generation sick of rationalism
and mere outward learning—seems to lie in the mystique of
“authentic transmission” of the Zen experience and tradition,
which the “Abbess” provides through her training and certifi-
cation in Japan; her personal qualities as a foreigner and a born
Buddhist who is still in close touch with the contemporary
mind (with a very “American” practicality), seem to seal her
influence with the young American convert generation of Bud-
dhists.
The aim of Zen training at Shasta Abbey is to fill all oflife
with “pure Zen.” Daily meditation (at times for as much as
eight or ten hours in one day) is the center of a concentrated,
intense religious life that leads, supposedly, to “lasting peace
and harmony of body and mind.” Emphasis is on “spiritual
growth,” and the publications of the Abbey—a bi-monthly
journal and several books by the Abbess—reveal a high degree
of awareness of spiritual posing and fakery. The Abbey is op-
posed to the adoption of Japanese national (as opposed to
Buddhist) customs; warns of the dangers of “guru-hopping”
and falsely worshipping the Zen Master; forbids astrology,
fortune-telling (even the / Ching), astral travelling and all other
psychic and occult activities; mocks the academic and intellec-
tual (as opposed to experiential) approach to Zen; and empha-
sizes hard work and rigorous training, with the banishing of all
illusions and fantasies about oneself and “spiritual life.” Dis-
cussions on “spiritual” matters by young Zen “priests” (as
recorded in the Abbey’s Journal) sound, in their sober and
knowledgeable tone, remarkably like discussions among seri-

64
 THE “New ReEticious ConscIOUSNESS”

ous young Orthodox converts and monks. In intellectual for-

mation and outlook, these young Buddhists seem quite close
to many of our Orthodox converts. The young Orthodox
Christian of today might well say: “There, but for the grace of
God, I myself might be,” so convincingly authentic is the
spiritual outlook of this Zen monastery, which offers almost
everything the young religious seeker of today might desire—
except, of course, Christ the true God and the eternal salvation
which He alone can give.
The monastery teaches a Buddhism that is not “a cold
and distant discipline,” but is filled with “love and compas-
sion.” Contrary to the usual expositions of Buddhism, the
Abbess emphasizes that the center of Buddhist faith is not
ultimate “nothingness,” but a living “god” (which she claims to
be the esoteric Buddhist teaching): “The secret of Zen ... is to
know for certain, for oneself, that the Cosmic Buddha exists. A
true master is he or she who does not waver in his certainty of,
and love for, the Cosmic Buddha.... I was overjoyed when I
finally knew for certain that He existed; the love and gratitude
in me knew no bounds. Nor have I ever felt such love as came
forth from Him; I so want everyone else to feel it too.”*
There are presently some seventy priest-trainees at Shasta
Abbey and its “branch priories,” chiefly in California. The
monastery is now ina state of rapid expansion, both on its own
grounds and in its “mission” to the American people; there is a
growing movement of lay Buddhists who make the Abbey
their religious center and often come there, together with
psychologists and other interested persons, on meditation re-
treats of varying lengths. With their publications, counselling
and instruction in California cities, a projected children’s

* The Journal of Shasta Abbey, Jan.-Feb., 1978, p. 6.

65
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

school and a home for the elderly—Shasta Abbey is indeed

progressing in its aim of “growing Zen Buddhism in the West.”
Towards Christianity the Abbess and her disciples have a
condescending attitude; they respect the Philokalia and other
Orthodox spiritual texts, recognizing Orthodoxy as the closest
to them among “Christian” bodies, but regard themselves as
being “beyond such things as theologies, doctrinal disputes
and “‘isms,” which they regard as not belonging to “True
Religion” (Journal, Jan.-Feb., 1978, p. 54).
Zen has, in fact, no theological foundation, relying e
irely on “experience” and thus falling into the “pragmatic
fallacy” that has already been noted earlier in this book, in the
chapter on Hinduism: “Ifitworks, it must be true and good.”
Zen, without any theology, is no more able than Hinduism to
distinguish between good and evil spiritual experiences; it can
only state what seems to be good because it brings “peace” and
“harmony, as judged by the natural powers of the mind and
not by any revelation—everything else it rejects as more or less
illusory. Zen appeals to the subtle pride—so widespread
today—of those who think they can save themselves, and thus
es no need of any Saviour outside themselves.
Of all-of today’s Eastern religious currents, Zen is proba-
bly the-most sophisticated intellectually and the most sober
‘With its teaching of compassion and a loving “Cos-
mic Buddha,” it
perhap
is s a religious ideal asthe
as high
1 ttain—without Christ. Its tragedy is pre-
cisely that it has no Christ in it, and thus no salvation, and its
very sophistication and sobriety effectively prevent its followers
from seeking salvation in Christ. In its quiet, compassionate
way it is perhaps the saddest of all the reminders of the “post-
Christian” times in which we live. Non-Christian “spirituality”
is no longer a foreign importation in the West; it has become a
66
 THe “New Reticious CoNscIOUSNESS”

native American religion putting down deep roots into the

consciousness of the West. Let us be warned from this: the
religion of the future will not be a mere cult or sect, but a
powerful and profound religious orientation which will be
absolutely convincing to the mind and heart of modern man.

5. The New “Spirituality” vs. Christianity

Other examples of the new Eastern cults in the West
could be multiplied; each year finds new ones, or new transfor-
mations of old ones. In addition to the overtly religious cults,
the last decade especially has seen an increase of secular “con-
sciousness cults,” as one popular newsmagazine calls them
(U.S. News and World Report, Feb. 16, 1976, p. 40). These
“mind-therapy” groups include the “Erhard Seminars Train-
ing” established in 1971, “Rolfing,” “Silva Mind Control,” and
various forms of “encounter” and “biofeedback,” all of which
offer a “release of tensions” and a “tapping of the hidden
capabilities” of man, expressed in a more or less plausible
20th-century “scientific” jargon. One is reminded also of other
“consciousness” movements that have become less fashionable
today, from “Christian Science” to “Science of Mind” to
“Scientology.”
All these movements are incompatible with Christianity. Or-
thodox Christians must be told absolutely to stay away from
them.
Why do we speak so categorically?
1. These movements have no foundations in Christian
tradition or practice, but are purely the product of Eastern
pagan religions or of modern spiritism, more or less diluted
and often presented as “non-religious.” They not only teach
wrongly, not in accordance with Christian doctrine, about
67
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

spiritual life; they also lead one, whether through pagan reli-
gious experiences or psychic experiments, into a wrong spiri-
tual path whose end is spiritual and psychic disaster, and
ultimately the loss of one’s soul eternally.
2. Specifically, the experience of “spiritual quietness”
which is given by various kinds of meditation, whether with-
out specific religious content (as is claimed by “IM,” some
forms of Yoga and Zen, and the secular cults) or with pagan
religious content (as in Hare Krishna, the “Divine Light
Mission,” “3HO,” etc.), is an entrance to the “cosmic” spiri-
tual realm where the deeper side of the human personality
enters into contact with actual spiritual beings. These beings,
in man’s fallen state, are first of all the demons or fallen spirits
who are closest to man.* Zen Buddhist meditators themselves,
despite all their cautions about spiritual “experiences,” describe
their encounters with these spirits (mixed with human fanta-
sies), all the while emphasizing that they are not “clinging” to
them.**
3. The “initiation” into experiences of the psychic realm
which the “consciousness cults” provide involves one in some-
thing beyond the conscious control of the human will; thus,
once having been “initiated,” it is often a very difficult thing to
untangle oneself from undesirable psychic experiences. In this
way, the “new religious consciousness” becomes an enemy of
Christianity that is much more powerful and dangerous than
any of the heresies of the past. experience
When is emphasized
above doctrine, the normal Christian safeguards which protect
" See Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov’s exposition of the Orthodox teaching
on the spiritual and sensuous perception of spirits and the opening of man’s
“doors of perception,” in The Orthodox Word, no. 82, 1978.
** See Jiyu Kennett, How to Grow a Lotus Blossom, Shasta Abbey, 1977—a
Zen Master's description of her near-death visions.

68
 THE “New Reticious CoNscIOUSNESS”

one against the attacks of fallen spirits are removed or neutral-

ized, and the passiveness and “openness” which characterize
the new cults literally open one up to be used by demons.
Studies of the experiences of many of the “consciousness cults”
show that there is a regular progression in them from experi-
ences which at first are “good” or “neutral” to experiences
which become strange and frightening and in the end clearly
demonic. Even the purely physical sides of psychic disciplines
like Yoga are dangerous, because they are derived from and
dispose one towards the psychic attitudes and experiences
which arethe original purpose of Yoga practice.
The seductive power of the “new religious consciousness”
is so great today that it can take possession of one even while he
believes that he is remaining a Christian. This is true not only
of those who indulge in the superficial syncretisms or combi-
nations of Christianity and Eastern religions which have been
mentioned above; it is true also of an increasing number of
people who regard themselves as fervent Christians. The pro-
found ignorance of true Christian spiritual experience in our
times is producing a false Christian “spirituality” whose nature
is closely kin to the “new religious consciousness.”
In Chapter VII we will take a long and careful look at the
most widespread current of “Christian spirituality” today. In it
we will see the frightening prospect of a “new religious con-
sciousness” taking possession of well-meaning Christians, even
Orthodox Christians—to such an extent that we cannot help
but think of the spirituality of the contemporary world in the
apocalyptic terms of the “strong delusion” that will deceive
almost all of mankind before the end of the age. To this subject
we shall return at the end of this book.

69
 VI
“Signs from Heaven”
AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN UNDERSTANDING
OF UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS (UFOs)

ee post-WorLD War II pecapes that have witnessed the

astonishing increase of Eastern religious cults and influ-
ence in the West have also seen the beginning and spread of a
parallel phenomenon which, although at first sight it seems
totally unrelated to religion, on closer examination turns out to
be just as much a sign of the “post-Christian” age and the “new
religious consciousness” as the Eastern cults. This phenome-
non is that of the “unidentified flying objects” which have
supposedly been seen in almost every part of the world since
the first “flying saucer” was spotted in 1947.
Human credulity and superstition—which are no less
present today than at any time in human history—have caused
this phenomenon to be connected to some degree with the
“crack-pot fringe” of the cult world; but there has also been a
sufficiently serious and responsible interest in it to produce
several government investigations and a number of books by
reputable scientists. These investigations have come to no pos-
itive result in identifying the objects as physical reality. How-
ever, the newest hypotheses made by several scientific inves-
70
 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

tigators in order to explain the phenomena actually seem to

come closer to a satisfactory explanation than other theories
that have been proposed in the past; but at the same time,
these newest hypotheses bring one to the “edge of reality” (as
one of the new scientific books on them is called), to the
boundaries of psychic and spiritual reality which these investi-
gators are not equipped to handle. The richness of Scriptural
and Patristic knowledge precisely of this latter reality places the
Orthodox Christian observer in a uniquely advantageous posi-
tion from which to evaluate these new hypotheses and the
“UFO” phenomena in general.
The Orthodox Christian observer, however, is less inter-
ested in the phenomena themselves than he is in the mentality
associated with them: how are people commonly interpreting
UFOs, and why? Among the first to approach the UFO ques-
tion in this manner, in a serious study, was the renowned Swiss
psychologist C. G. Jung. In his book of 1959, Flying Saucers: A
Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, he approached the
phenomena as primarily something psychological and religious
in meaning; and although he himself did not attempt to iden-
tify them as “objective reality,” he nonetheless did grasp the
realm of human knowledge to which they actually belong.
Today’s investigators, while starting from the “objective” and
not the psychological side of the question, have also found it
necessary to put forth “psychic” hypotheses to explain the
phenomena.
In approaching the religious and psychological side of
UFO phenomena, it is important for us, first of all, to under-
stand the background in terms of which “flying saucers” have
generally been interpreted (by those who believe in their exis-
tence) from the time of their first appearance in the 1940's.
What were men prepared to see in the sky? Vhe answer to this
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

question may be found in a brief look at the literature of

popular “science fiction.”

1. The Spirit ofScience Fiction

Historians of science fiction usually trace the origins of

this literary form back to the early 19th century. Some prefer
to see its beginning in the short stories of Edgar Allen Poe,
which combined a persuasive realism in style with a subject-
matter always tinged with the “mysterious” and occult. Others
see the first science fiction writer in Poe’s English contempo-
rary, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (wife of the famous poet);
her Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, combines fantasti-
cal science with occultism in a way characteristic of many
science-fiction stories since then.
The typical science-fiction story, however, was to come
with the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from Jules Verne
and H.G. Wells to our own days. From a largely second-rate
form of literature in the American periodical “pulps” of the
1930's and ’40’s, science fiction has come of age and become a
respectable international literary form in recent decades. In
addition, a number of extremely popular motion pictures have
shown how much the spirit of science fiction has captivated
the popular imagination. The cheaper and more sensational
science-fiction movies of the 1950’s have given way in the last
decade or so to fashionable “idea” movies like 2001: A Space
Odyssey, Star Wars, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, not
to mention one of the most popular and long-lived American
television series, “Star Trek.”
The spirit ofscience fiction is derived from an underlying
philosophy or ideology, more often implied than expressed in
so many words, which is shared by virtually all those who
Gig?
 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

create in science-fiction forms. This philosophy may be

summed up in the following main points:
1. Religion, in the traditional sense, is absent, or else
present in a very incidental or artificial way. The literary form
itself is obviously a product of the “post-Christian age” (evi-
dent already in the stories of Poe and Shelley). The science-fic-
tion universe is a totally secular one, although often with
“mystical” overtones of an occult or Eastern kind. “God,” if
mentioned at all, is a vague and impersonal power, not a
personal being (for example, the “Force” of Star Wars, a cosmic
energy that has its evil as well as good side). The increasing
fascination of contemporary man with science-fiction themes
is a direct reflection of the loss of traditional religious values.
2. The center of the science-fiction universe (in place of
the absent God) is man — not usually man as he is now, but
man as he will “become” in the future, in accordance with the
modern mythology of evolution. Although the heroes of sci-
ence-fiction stories are usually recognizable humans, the story
interest often centers about their encounters with various kinds
of “supermen” from “highly-evolved” races of the future (or
sometimes, the past), or from distant galaxies. The idea of the
possibility of “highly-evolved” intelligent life on other planets
has become so much a part of the contemporary mentality that
even respectable scientific (and semi-scientific) speculations
assume it as a matter of course. Thus, one popular series of
books (Erich von Daniken, Chariots of the Gods?, Gods from
Outer Space), finds supposed evidence of the presence of “ex-
traterrestrial” beings or “gods” in ancient history, who are
supposedly responsible for the sudden appearance of intelli-
gence in man, difficult to account for by the usual evolutionary
theory. Serious scientists in the Soviet Union speculate that the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was due to a nuclear
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

explosion, that “extraterrestrial” beings visited earth centuries

ago, that Jesus Christ may have been a “cosmonaut,” and that
today “we may be on the threshold of a ‘second coming’ of
intelligent beings from outer space.”* Equally serious scientists
in the West think the existence of “extraterrestrial intelli-
gences” likely enough that for at least eighteen years they have
been trying to establish contact with them by means of radio
telescopes, and currently there are at least six searches being
conducted by astronomers around the world for intelligent
radio signals from space. Contemporary Protestant and Roman
Catholic “theologians’—who have become accustomed to fol-
low wherever “science” seems to be leading—speculate in turn
in the new realm of “exotheology” (the “theology of outer
space”) concerning what nature the “extraterrestrial” races
might have.** It can hardly be denied that the myth behind
science fiction has a powerful fascination even among many
learned men of our day.
The future “evolved” beings in science fiction literature
are invariably seen as having “outgrown” the limitations of
present-day humanity, in particular the limitations of “person-
ality.” Like the “God” of science fiction, “man” also has be-
come strangely impersonal. In Arthur C. Clarke’s Childhood’
End, the new race of humans has the appearance of children
but faces devoid of personality; they are about to be guided
into yet higher “evolutionary” transformations, on the way to
becoming absorbed in the impersonal “Overmind.” In general
the literature of science fiction—in direct contrast to Christ-
* Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron
Curtain, Bantam Books, 1977, pp. 98-99. See articles in Russian of Dr.
Vyacheslav Zaitsev, “Visitors from Outer Space,” in Sputnik, January, 1967,
and “Temples and Spaceships,” Sputnik, January, 1968.
"* See Time magazine, April 24, 1978.

74
 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

ianity, but exactly in accordance with some schools of Eastern

thought—sees “evolutionary advancement” and “spirituality”
in terms of increased impersonality.
3. The future world and humanity are seen by science
fiction ostensibly in terms of “projections” from present-day
scientific discoveries; in actuality, however, these “projections”
correspond quite remarkably to the everyday reality of occult
and overtly demonic experience throughout the ages. Among
the characteristics of the “highly-evolved” creatures of the fu-
ture are: communication by mental telepathy, ability to fly,
materialize and dematerialize, transform the appearances of
things or create illusionary scenes and creatures by “pure
thought,” travel at speeds far beyond any modern technology,
to take possession of the bodies of earthmen; and the expound-
ing of a “spiritual” philosophy which is “beyond all religions”
and holds promise of a state where “advanced intelligences”
will no longer be dependent on matter. All these are the stan-
dard practices and claims of sorcerers and demons. A recent
history of science fiction notes that “a persistent aspect of the
vision of science fiction is the desire to transcend normal
experience ... through the presentation of characters and
events that transgress the conditions of space and time as we
know them.”* The scripts of “Star Trek” and other science-fic-
tion stories, with their futuristic “scientific” devices, read in
parts like excerpts from the lives of ancient Orthodox Saints,
where the actions of sorcerers are described at a time when
sorcery was still a strong part of pagan life. Science fiction in
general is usually not very scientific at all, and not really very
“futuristic” either; if anything, it is a retreat to the “mystical”

* Robert Scholes and Eric S. Rabkin, Science Fiction: History, Science, Vision,
Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 175.

ie)
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

origins of modern science—the science before the age of the

17th and 18th-century “Enlightenment” which was much
closer to occultism. The same history ofscience fiction remarks
that “the roots of science fiction, like the roots of science itself,
are in magic and mythology.”* Present-day research and exper-
iments in “parapsychology” point also to a future connection
of “science” with occultism—a development with which sci-
ence-fiction literature is in full harmony.
Science fiction in the Soviet Union (where it is just as
popular as in the West, although its development has been a
little different) has exactly the same themes as Western science
fiction. In general, “metaphysical” themes in Soviet science
fiction (which labors under the watchful eye of “materialist”
censors) come from the influence of Western writers or from
direct Hindu influence, as in the case of the writer Ivan
Efremov. The reader of Soviet science fiction, according to one
critic, “emerges with a vague ability to distinguish the critical
demarcations between Science and Magic, between scientist
and sorcerer, between future and fantasy.” Science fiction both
East and West, says the same writer, like other aspects of
contemporary culture, “all confirm the fact that the higher
stage of humanism is occultism.”**
4. Almost by its very nature as “futuristic,” science fiction
tends to be utopian; few novels or stories actually describe a
future perfect society, but most of them deal with the “evolu-
tion” oftoday’s society into something higher, or the encounter
with an advanced civilization on another planet, with the hope
or capability of overcoming today’s problems and mankind's

* Scholes and Rabkin, p. 183.

"* G.V. Grebens, /van Efremov'’s Theory of Soviet Science Fiction, Vantage
Press, New York, 1978, pp. 108, 110.

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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

limitations in general. In Efremov’s and other Soviet science

fiction, Communism itself becomes “cosmic” and “begins to
acquire nonmaterialistic qualities,” and “the post-industrial
civilization will be Hindu-like.”* The “advanced beings” of
outer space are often endowed with “saviour”-like qualities,
and the landings of spacecraft on earth often herald “apocalyp-
tic” events—usually the arrival of benevolent beings to guide
men in their “evolutionary advancement.”
In a word, the science-fiction literature of the 20th cen-
tury is itselfaclear sign of the loss of Christian values and the
Christian interpretation of the world; it has become a powerful
vehicle for the dissemination of anon-Christian philosophy of
life and history, largely under open or concealed occult and
Eastern influence; and in a crucial time of crisis and transition
in human civilization it has been a prime force in creating the
hope for and actual expectation of “visitors from outer space”
who will solve mankind’s problems and conduct man to a new
“cosmic” age ofits history. While appearing to be scientific and
non-religious, science-fiction literature is in actuality a leading
propagator (in a secular form) of the “new religious conscious-
ness” which is sweeping mankind as Christianity retreats.
All of this is a necessary background for discussing the
actual manifestations of “Unidentified Flying Objects,” which
strangely correspond to the pseudo-religious expectations
which have been aroused in “post-Christian” man.

2. UFO Sightings and the Scientific Investigation of Them

Although fiction, one might say, has in a way prepared

men for the appearance of UFOs, our understanding of their

* Ibid., pp. 109-110.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

“objective” reality obviously cannot be derived from literature

or human expectations and fantasies. Before we can under-
stand what they might be, we must know something of the
nature and reliability of the observations which have been
made of them. Is there really something “out there” in the sky,
or is the phenomenon entirely a matter of misperception on
the one hand, and psychological and pseudo-religious wish
fulfillment on the other?
A reliable outline of UFO phenomena has been given by
Dr. Jacques Vallee, a French scientist now living in California
who has advanced degrees in astrophysics and computer sci-
ence and has been involved in the scientific analysis of UFO
reports for a number of years. His testimony is all the more
valuable to us in that he has studied closely UFO sightings
outside of the United States, especially in France, and is thus
able to give a fair international picture of their distribution.
Dr. Vallee finds* that although strange flying objects have
been observed at various times in past centuries, their “modern
history” as a mass phenomenon begins in the years during and
just after World War II. American interest began with the
sightings in 1947, but there were a number of sightings before
that in Europe. In World War II many pilots reported strange
lights which seemed to be under intelligent control** and in
1946, particularly in July, there were a whole series ofsightings
in Sweden and other northern European countries.*** Sight-
ings in this “Scandinavian wave” were interpreted first as “me-
teors,” then as “rockets” (or “ghost rockets”) or “bombs,” and

* UFOs in Space: Anatomy ofaPhenomenon, Ballantine Books, New York,

1977 (first published by Henry Regnery Company, 1965) page numbers as
indicated in parentheses in text above.
~~ Ibid, 47.
Pe“ Sebid. pp 4gnaos

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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

finally as some “new type of aircraft” capable of extraordinary

movements in the sky but leaving no trace on the ground even
when they seemed to land. The European press was full of
reports of this wave of sightings, and everyone in Sweden was
talking of them; some thousands of sightings were reported,
but not once was the hypothesis of “extraterrestrial” or “inter-
planetary” origin suggested. Dr. Vallee concludes that the
“wave” was caused by actually existing but unidentified objects
and not by any previously existing “UFO rumor” or expecta-
tion of “visitors from outer space.”* In this and succeeding
“saucer waves” he finds a total absence of any correlation
between widespread interest in science fiction and peaks of
UFO activity; earlier, also, there had been no “saucer wave” at
the time of the American panic over Orson Welles’ 1938 radio
adaptation of H. G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. He concludes
that “the birth, growth and expansion of a UFO wave is an
objective phenomenon independent of the conscious or un-
conscious influence of the witnesses, and their reactions to
icae
The first publicized sighting in the United States oc-
curred in June, 1947, when Kenneth Arnold, a salesman flying
his own plane, saw nine disc-like objects, looking something
like “saucers,” flying near Mt. Rainier in Washington state.
The newspapers picked up the story, and the “flying saucer”
era began. Interestingly, however, this was not actually the first
American sighting at all; other unpublicized sightings had been
made in the months before this. There was also a UFO wave
(with fifty reports) in Hungary early in June. Therefore, the
1947 sightings cannot all be set down to hysteria over the

* Ibid., p. 53.
** Ibid. p. 31.
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Arnold incident. There were a number of other sightings in the

American wave of 1947, chiefly in June, July, and August.
Although some newspapers speculated on “interplanetary visi-
tors,” these sightings were taken seriously by scientists, who
assumed they were the result of advanced human technology,
most likely American, or perhaps Russian (pp. 54-57).
A second wave occurred in July, 1948, with sightings in
America and France. In the United States there was a spectacu-
lar night sighting made by the pilots of an Eastern Airlines
DC-3 plane of a torpedo-shaped craft with two rows of “port-
holes,” surrounded by a blue glow and with a tail of orange
flames, which maneuvered to avoid collision and disappeared.
In August of the same year there were many sightings in Saigon
and other parts of Southeast Asia of a “long fish-like object”
(pp. 57-59).
1949 saw reports of strange discs and spheres in Sweden
and more UFOs in America, including two observations by
trained astronomical observers (pp. 60-62). Small UFO waves,
as well as isolated sightings, continued in 1950 and 1951,
especially in the United States, but also in Europe (pp. 62-65).
In 1952 the first real international UFO wave occurred,
with many sightings in the United States, France, and North
Africa. At the peak of the wave, two sensational sightings were
made above the Capitol and the White House in Washington,
D.C. (an area under constant control by radar). In September
there was a wave encompassing Denmark, Sweden, and north-
ern Germany and Poland. At the same time in France the first
UFO “landing” was reported, together with a description of
“little men” (pp. 65-69).
In 1953 there were no waves, but there were a number of
individual sightings. The most remarkable one occurred in
Bismarck, North Dakota, where four objects hovered and ma-
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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

neuvered over an air filter station for three hours at night; an

official report of this event consisted of several hundred pages,
with accounts from many witnesses, mainly pilots and military
personnel (pp. 69-70).
1954 saw the largest international wave yet. France was
literally inundated with sightings, with dozens of reports every
day in September, October, and November. In the French wave
the problems facing a serious scientific investigation of UFO
phenomena are well demonstrated: “The phenomenon was so
intense, the impact on public opinion so deep, the newspapers’
reaction so emotional that scientific reflexes were saturated
long before a serious investigation could be organized. As a
result, no scientist could risk his reputation by studying openly
a phenomenon so emotionally distorted; French scientists re-
mained silent until the wave passed and died” (p. 71).
During the French wave, the typical characteristics of
later UFO encounters were often present: UFO “landings”
(with at least some circumstantial evidence of them), beams of
light issuing from the UFO to the witness, stoppage of motors
in the vicinity of sightings, strange small beings in “diving
suits,” serious psychic and physical harm to witnesses.
Since 1954 many sightings have been made every year in
various countries, with major international waves in 1965,
1967, and 1972-3; sightings have been especially numerous
and profound in their effects in South American countries.
The best-known government investigation of UFOs was
that undertaken by the United States Air Force shortly after the
first American sightings in 1947; this investigation, known
from 1951 on as “Project Blue Book,” lasted until 1969, when
it was abandoned on the recommendation of the “Condon
Report” of 1968—the work of a scientific committee led by a
noted physicist of the University of Colorado. Close observers
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

both of “Blue Book” and the “Condon Committee,” however,

have noted that neither of them took UFO phenomena seri-
ously and that their main occupation was more the “public
relations” task of explaining away mystifying aerial phenomena
in order to calm public fears about them. Some “Flying Sau-
cer” groups claimed that the United States government was
using these investigations as a “cover-up” ofits own knowledge
of the “real nature” of UFOs; but all evidence points to the fact
that the investigations themselves were simply careless because
the phenomena were not taken seriously—especially after
some of the stranger UFO stories had begun to make the
subject distasteful to scientists. The first director of “Blue
Book,” Captain Edward Ruppelt, admitted that “had the Air
Force tried to throw up a screen of confusion, they couldn't
have done a better job.... The problem was tackled with or-
ganized confusion.... Everything was being evaluated on the
premise that UFOs couldn't exist.”* The Condon Report con-
tains some classic “explanations” of UFOs; one, for example,
states that “this unusual sighting should therefore be assigned
to the category of some almost certainly natural phenomenon
which is so rare that it apparently has never been reported
before or since.” The chief scientific consultant of “Blue Book”
for most of its twenty-two years, Northwestern University as-
tronomer J. Allen Hynek, openly calls the whole thing “a
pseudo-scientific project.”**
In its twenty-two years of investigations, such as they
were, “Project Blue Book” collected over 12,000 cases of puz-

* Ruppelt, Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, Ace Books, New York,

1956, pp. 80, 83.
** Hynek, The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry, Ballantine Books, New
York, 1977, pp. 215, 219.
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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

zling aerial phenomena, 25% of which remained “unidenti-

fied” even after its often strained “explanations.” Many thou-
sands of other cases have been and are being collected and
investigated by private organizations in the United States and
in other countries, although almost all government organiza-
tions refrain from comment on them. In the Soviet Union the
subject was first given public mention (which means govern-
ment approval) in 1967, when Dr. Felix U. Ziegel of the
Moscow Institute of Aviation, in an article in the Soviet maga-
zine Smena, stated that “Soviet radar has picked up unidenti-
fied flying, objects for twenty years.”* At the same time there
was a Soviet scientific conference “On Space Civilizations,”
led by the Armenian astronomer Victor Ambartsumyam,
which urged a preliminary study of the scientific and technical
problems of communicating with such “civilizations,” whose
existence is taken for granted.** The next year, however, the
subject of UFOs became once more forbidden in the Soviet
Union, and since then Soviet scientists have told of their re-
searches and hypotheses only unofficially to Western scien-
tists.
In the United States, the subject of UFOs remains some-
what “off-limits” for military and scientific men, but in recent
years an increasing number especially among younger scientists
have begun to take the subject seriously and come together to
discuss it and suggest means of researching it. Drs. Hynek and
Vallee speak of an “invisible college” of scientists who are now

* “UFOs, What Are They?” in Smena, Apr. 7, 1967. See also his article
“Unidentified Flying Objects” in Soviet Life, Feb., 1968; Ostrander and
Schroeder, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain, pp. 94-103.
** Felix Ziegel, “On Possible Exchange of Information with
Extra-Terrestrial Civilizations,” paper presented at the All-Union
Engineering Institute in Moscow, March 13, 1967; Psychic Discoveries, p. 96.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

actively interested in UFO phenomena, although most of them

do not wish their names publicly associated with the subject.
There are, of course, those who continue to deny the
phenomenon altogether, explaining it as misperceptions of nat-
ural objects, balloons, airplanes, etc., not to mention hoaxes and
psychological “projections.” One of these, Philip Klass, takes
delight in “debunking” UFOs, investigating some of the sight-
ings and finding them to be either natural phenomena or
frauds. His study has convinced him that “the idea of wondrous
spaceships from a distant civilization really is a fairy story that
is tailored to the adult mentality.”* Such hard-headed investiga-
tors, however, usually restrict themselves to cases where actual
physical proof of a UFO has been left (the so-called “Close
Encounters of the Second Kind,” as we shall see below); and
even staunch defenders of their reality are forced to admit that
there is very little of this even in the most convincing UFO
sightings. The one thing that has persuaded a number ofscien-
tists in recent years to take the phenomena seriously is not the
physical proof of them, but the fact that many serious and
reliable people have seen something which cannot be explained and
which often has a powerful effect upon them. Dr. Hynek writes of
his investigation: “Invariably I have had the feeling that I was
talking to someone who was describing a very real event. To him
or her it represented an outstanding experience, vivid and not
at all dreamlike, an event for which the observer was usually
totally unprepared—something soon recognized as being be-
yond comprehension” (The UFO Experience, p. 14).
This combination of the often intense reality of the expe-
rience of encountering a UFO (especially in the “Close En-
counters’), and the almost total lack of physical evidence of

* PhilipJ.Klass, UFOs Explained, Random House, New York, 1974, p. 360.

84
 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

it—makes the investigation of UFOs by nature not chiefly an

examination of physical phenomena but more an investigation
of the human reports of it, their credibility, consistency, etc.
Already this places the investigation somewhat in the realm of
psychology, and is enough to tell us that the approach solely in
search of “physical proof” is an inadequate one. However, Mr.
Klass’ opinion that the “wondrous spaceships” are a “fairy story
for adults” is perhaps also not far from the truth. One thing is
the observations made of UFOs, and quite another is the
interpretation which people give their (or others’) observa-
tions—the former could be real, and the latter a “fairy story” or
a myth of our times.
Dr. Hynek has done much to remove some of the com-
mon misconceptions about UFO sightings. Thus, he makes it
clear that most UFO sightings are not reported by cultists,
unstable or uneducated people. The few reports made by such
people are usually easily identified as unreliable and not further
investigated. But the most coherent and articulate reports
come from normal, responsible people (often with scientific
training), who are genuinely surprised or shocked by their
experience and simply don’t know how to explain it (7e UFO
Experience, pp. 10-11); the stronger the experience and the
closer the UFO is seen, the less willing the witnesses are to
report it at all. UFO records are a collection of “incredible tales
told by credible persons,” as one Air Force general has re-
marked. There can be no reasonable doubt that there is some-
thing behind the many thousands of serious UFO reports.

3. The Six Kinds of UFO Encounters

Dr. Hynek, who has studied the question more thor-

oughly than any other distinguished scientist, has conveniently
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

divided UFO phenomena into six general categories.* The

first, “Nocturnal Lights,” is the one most commonly reported
and the least strange of all. Most of such reports are easily
explained as heavenly bodies, meteors, etc., and are not consid-
ered UFOs. Truly puzzling Nocturnal Lights (those that re-
main “unidentified”), which seem to display intelligent action
but are not explainable as ordinary aircraft, are often seen by
multiple witnesses, including police officers, airplane pilots,
and airport tower operators.
The second category of UFOs is “Daylight Discs,” whose
behavior is close to that of Nocturnal Lights. These are the
original “flying saucers,” and in fact almost all of the unidenti-
fied sightings in this category are of discs which vary in shape
from circular to cigar-shaped. They are often metallic in ap-
pearance, and are reported as capable of extremely rapid starts
and stops and high speed, as well as maneuvers (such as sudden
reversals of direction and motionless hovering) that are beyond
the capacity of any present aircraft. There are many purported
photographs ofsuch discs, but none of them is very convincing
owing to the distance involved and the possibility of trick
photography. Like Nocturnal Lights, UFOs in this category are
almost always reported as being totally noiseless, and some-
times two or more of them are seen.
The third category is that of “Radar-Visual” reports—
that is, radar sightings that are confirmed by independent
visual observation (radar by itself being subject to various
kinds of misperceptions). Most of these cases occur at night,
and the best cases involved simultaneous sightings by air-
planes (sometimes purposely dispatched to follow the UFO)

* The Hynek UFO Report, Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1977, chs. 4-9;
The UFO Experience, chs. 5-10.

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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

at fairly close range; in these cases the UFO always outmaneu-

vers the airplane, sometimes following it, and finally disap-
pears in a burst of speed (up to 4000 miles and more per
hour). Sometimes, as in categories 1 and 2 also, the object
seems to divide and become two or more distinct objects; and
sometimes clear visual sightings of such objects by pilots in
the air are not picked up by radar at all. Sightings in this
category, just as in the first two, last from between a few
minutes to several hours.
A number of cases in the first three categories are well
documented, with numerous reliable, experienced, and inde-
pendent witnesses. Still, any ove case, as Dr. Hynek notes,
might be caused by some extremely unusual set of circum-
stances and not by some new and totally unknown phenome-
non. But when many well-documented cases, all similar to
each other, accumulate, the chances that they are all unusual
misperceptions of familiar objects becomes very small (The
UFO Experience, p. 92). This is why serious UFO investigators
are now concentrating on the collection of a number of well-
documented cases, and the comparison of numbers of reliable
testimonies already begins to show definite patterns of UFO
activity.
The emotional response of those who have witnessed
UFOs of the first three categories is one of simple perplexity
and puzzlement; they have seen something whose behavior
seems totally unexplainable, and they are left with a tantalizing
desire to see it “just a little closer.” Only in a few cases—gener-
ally involving pilots who have tried to pursue the unidentified
objects—has something like real fear been experienced at the
encounters with something that seems intelligently directed
and possessing a technology in advance of anything known
today. In cases involving “Close Encounters,” on the other
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

hand, the human response becomes much deeper and the

“psychic” side of the phenomena more pronounced.
“Close Encounters of the First Kind” (CE-1) are sight-
ings of a luminous object at close range (about 500 feet or
less), the light being sometimes very bright and casting lumi-
nescence on the ground below. When the shape of the object
is described, it is generally stated to be oval, sometimes with a
dome on top, and the lights are often described as rotating,
usually in a counterclockwise direction. The objects often
hover close to the ground, without sound or (occasionally)
with a humming sound, sometimes moving close to the
ground over considerable distances, and eventually taking off
extremely rapidly, soundlessly, and usually straight up. There
are numerous multiple-witness accounts of such “Close En-
counters”; these accounts are invariably quite similar to each
other, as though it is indeed one and the same object (or
similar objects) that is being observed in all well-documented
cases. Typically, these cases occur at night in sparsely settled
areas, and there are a small number of witnesses for each
sighting (an average of three to four in the cases examined by
Dr. Hynek).
“Close Encounters of the First Kind” are always awesome
and often frightening, but leave no visible marks; witnesses are
usually so overwhelmed by the experience that they neglect to
take photographs of the object even when a camera is nearby.
Typical of the effect on witnesses is this comment in a 1955
UFO report: “I can assure you, once anyone has seen an
object such as this so closely and for a period of even one
minute, it would be etched in their memory for all time” (The
Hynek UFO Report, p. 145). The experience is so unusual that
witnesses are often not believed when they report it—a fact
that causes many to report it only confidentially, after many
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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

years, or not at all. The experience is intensely real to those

who experience it—but largely unbelievable to others.
A typical “Close Encounter of the First Kind” involved
two Portage County, Ohio, deputy sheriffs in 1966. About
5:00 a.m. on the morning ofApril 16, after stopping to inves-
tigate a parked car on a country road, they saw an object “as
big as a house” ascending to tree-top level (about 100 feet). As
it approached the deputies it became increasingly bright,
illuminating the area all around, then stopped and hovered
over them with a humming sound. When it moved away they
pursued it,for some seventy miles into Pennsylvania, at speeds
of up to 105 miles per hour. Two other police officers saw the
object clearly at a higher elevation before it went straight up
and disappeared about dawn. Congressional pressure forced
“Project Blue Book” to investigate this case; it was “explained”
as an “observation of Venus,” and the officers who saw it were
subjected to considerable ridicule in the press, leading to the
breakup of one officer’s family and the ruin of his health and
career (The UFO Experience, pp. 114-124). Personal tragedies
of this kind among people who have “Close Encounters” with
UFOs are so common that they should definitely be included
in the “typical characteristics” of this phenomenon.
“Close Encounters of the Second Kind” (CE-II) are essen-
tially similar to CE-I experiences, with the one difference that
they leave some striking physical and/or psychological effect of
their presence. These effects include marks on the ground, the
scorching or blighting of plants and trees, interference with
electrical circuits causing radio static and the stoppage of auto-
mobile engines, discomfort to animals as evidenced by strange
behavior, and effects on humans which include temporary
paralysis or numbness, a feeling of heat, nausea, or other dis-
comfort, temporary weightlessness (sometimes causing levita-
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

tion), sudden healing ofsores and pains, and various psycholog-

ical and physical after-effects, including strange marks on the
body. This kind of UFO encounter gives the greatest possibility
for scientific investigation, since in addition to human testi-
mony there is physical evidence that can be examined; but little
investigation has actually been undertaken, both because most
scientists are afraid to get involved in the whole question of
UFOs, and because the evidence itselfisusually inconclusive or
partially subjective. One catalog has been compiled of over 800
cases of this type in twenty-four countries (The Hynek UFO
Report, p. 30). No actual “piece” of a UFO has ever been
authenticated, however, and the markings left on the ground are
often as baffling as the sightings themselves. The most frequent
marking left on the ground after a sighting (the UFO itself
having been seen either on the ground or just above it) is a
burned, dehydrated, or depressed area in the shape of a ring,
usually twenty to thirty feet in diameter and one to three feet
thick. These “rings” persist for weeks or months and the interior
of the ring (and sometimes the whole circle) is reported to be
barren for a season or two after the sighting. A few chemical
analyses of the soil in such rings have produced no definite
conclusions as to the possible origin of this condition.
“Close Encounters of the Second Kind” often happen to
persons during the night in isolated sections of road. In many
similar cases a glowing object lands in a field nearby or on the
road in front of an automobile or truck, the engine and head-
lights on the automobile fail, and the occupants become terri-
fied until the UFO leaves, often shooting suddenly straight up
without a sound; the engine of the vehicle then can operate
again, and often comes on by itself.
The strangest ofall UFO reports are those that deal with
“Close Encounters ofthe Third Kind” (CE-II])—that is, UFO

9O
 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

experiences involving “animated beings” (“occupants” or “hu-

manoids”). The first thought of many people when hearing of
such reports is to picture “little green men” and dismiss the
whole phenomenon as unbelievable—a hoax or hallucination.
However, the success of the recent American science-fiction
film, named precisely for this category of UFO phenomena,
Close Encounters ofthe Third Kind (for which Dr. Hynek served
as technical consultant), together with evidence of the Gallup
Poll in 1974 that 54% of those who are aware of UFOs believe
that they are real, and 46% of all those interviewed believe in
intelligent Jife on other planets* (the percentage today would
certainly be greater)—point to the rapidly increasing accep-
tance by contemporary men of the possibility of actual en-
counters with “non-human” intelligences. Science fiction has
given the images, “evolution” has produced the philosophy,
and the technology of the “space age” has supplied the plausi-
bility for such encounters.
Astonishingly, these encounters seem actually to be occur-
ring today, as attested by the evidence of many believable
witnesses. Of crucial importance, therefore, is the interpreta-
tion that must be made of these occurrences; is the reality
behind them an actual contact with “visitors from outer
space,” or is this only an explanation provided by the “spirit of
the times” for a contact of a different kind altogether? As we
shall see below, today’s scientific investigators of UFOs have
already asked these questions.
Dr. Hynek admits his own repugnance to face the possi-
bility of CE-IIi experiences: “To be frank, I would gladly omit

* J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee, The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report
on Unidentified Flying Objects, Henry Regnery Co., Chicago, 1975, pp.
289-290.

OI
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

this part if Icould without offense to scientific integrity” (The

UFO Experience, p. 158). However, since his aim 1s scientific
objectivity, he finds it impossible to ignore the well-docu-
mented cases, from believable witnesses, of this strange phe-
nomenon. Of nearly 1,250 “Close Encounters” reported in a
catalog by Dr. Jacques Vallee, 750 report the landing of a craft,
and more than 300 of these report “humanoids” in or about
the craft; one-third ofall these are multiple-witness cases (/bid.,
p. 161).
In one “humanoid” case, which occurred in November,
1961, in one of the northern plains’ states in the U.S.A., four
men were returning from a hunting trip late at night, when
one of the men noticed a flaming object coming down, as ifit
were an airplane crashing about a half mile up the road from
them. When they reached the site of the “crash,” all four men
saw a silo-shaped craft in a field, sticking in the ground at an
angle, with four seemingly human figures standing around it
(this was at a distance of about 150 yards). They flashed a light
on one of the figures who was about 4 1/2 feet high and
wearing what looked like white coveralls; he made a gesture to
the men to stay back. After some hesitation (still thinking it
was a plane crash), they went to a nearby town for a police
officer, and when they returned they saw only some small red
lights, something like automobile lights. They drove into the
field with the officer and followed the lights, only to discover
that they suddenly disappeared, leaving no tracks whatsoever,
despite the muddiness of the field. After the puzzled police
officer left, the men again saw the “silo” coming down out of
the sky with a reddish glow. Instantly after the object “landed,”
two figures were visible next to it; a shot was fired (although
none of the men admitted to firing it) and one of the figures
was “hit” in the shoulder with a thud, and spun around and
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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

down to his knees. In panic the men ran to their car and raced
off, agreeing among themselves not to mention the incident to
anyone. They returned home with a strange feeling that there
was some period of time “lost” during the night. The next day
one of the men was visited at his work by several well-groomed
“official-looking” men, who asked him questions about the
incident (but without mentioning the shooting) and then took
him in their car to his home, where they questioned him about
his clothes and boots and then left, telling him not to say
anything about the incident to anyone. The hunter assumed
these men were United States Air Force investigators trying to
conceal some new “secret device,” but the men never identified
themselves and never contacted him again. All four men were
extremely shaken up by the incident, and after six years one of
them felt compelled to tell the whole story to a U.S. Treasury
agent (Edge of Reality, pp. 129-141.)
The main incidents in this story are typical of many
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” A little different case of
this sort is the famous UFO “landing” at Kelly, a small town
near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which was investigated exten-
sively by the police, Air Force, and independent researchers. In
the evening and night of August 21, 1955, seven adults and
four children in one farm household had a prolonged encoun-
ter with “humanoids.” The incident began at seven o'clock,
when the teen-aged son of the family saw a flying object “land”
behind the farmhouse. No one believed him, but an hour later
a “little man” emitting a “strange glow” came walking toward
the house with its hands raised. Two of the men in the house,
out of fear, shot at the creature when it was twenty feet away; it
somersaulted and disappeared in the dark. Soon another sim-
ilar creature appeared at a window; they again fired at it, and
again it disappeared. Going outside, the men shot at another
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

creature with a claw-like hand which they saw on the roof; still
another on a tree nearby floated to the ground when it was
shot. Other creatures also were seen and hit (or perhaps the
same creatures reappearing), but the men saw the bullets seem
to ricochet off from them and have no real effect; the sound
was like shooting into a bucket. After firing four boxes of shells
with no effect, all eleven people, thoroughly terrified, drove to
the Hopkinsville police station. The police arrived at the farm-
house after midnight and made a thorough search of the prem-
ises, finding a few unusual markings and seeing several strange
“meteors” that came in the direction of the farmhouse, but
discovering no “creatures.” After the police left, the creatures
reappeared, causing more consternation in the household.
The “humanoids” in this case were described as being
about 342 to 4 feet tall, with huge hands and eyes (without
pupils or eyelids), large pointed ears, and arms that hung to the
ground. They seemed to have no clothing but to be “nickel-
plated.” They approached the house always from the darkest
side and did not approach when outside lights were turned
on.*
Dr. Hynek sharply distinguishes between “Close Encoun-
ters of the Third Kind” and “contactee” cases. “Contactees” have
repeated encounters with UFO beings, often bringing pseudo-
religious messages from them about “highly-evolved” beings on
other planets who are about to come to bring “peace on earth,”
and are often connected with UFO religious cults. Ordinary
CE-III experiences, on the other hand, are in general very similar
to other “Close Encounters”; they occur to people of similar
occupations and reliability, are just as unexpected, and produce

* Vallee, UFOs in Space, pp. 187-191; Hynek, The UFO Experience, pp.
172-177.

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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

the same kind of shock at the sight of something so unbelievable.

The “occupants” who are seen (usually from a little distance)
are often reported as picking up samples of earth and rocks,
showing a seeming interest in human installations and vehicles,
or “repairing” their own craft. The “humanoids” are described
as having large heads with largely non-human features (no eyes
or large eyes widely spaced, small or no nose, a bare slit for a
mouth), spindly legs, no neck; some are reported to be of human
size, others about 342 feet high, as in the Kelly-Hopkinsville
incident. Recently a new catalog of over 1,000 CE-III cases has
been compiled (Hynek, The UFO Experience, p. 31).
There have been a number of cases, seriously reported by
seemingly reliable people, of “abductions” by UFO occupants,
usually for purposes of “testing.” Almost all evidence of these
cases (if we exclude “contactees”) has been obtained by regres-
sive hypnosis; the experience is so traumatic to the witnesses
that the conscious mind does not remember it, and it is only
some time later that such people agree to be hypnotized in
order to explain some mysterious “time loss” in connection
with their “Close Encounter” experience—the first part of
which they do remember.
One of the best-known “abduction” cases occurred at
about midnight on September 19, 1961, near Whitfield, New
Hampshire. It was made the subject of a book by John Fuller
(The Interrupted Journey), which was printed in a condensed
form in Look magazine. On this night Barney and Betty Hill
were returning from a vacation trip when they saw a descend-
ing UFO which landed right in front of their car on a side
road. Some “humanoids” approached them, and the next thing
they remembered, it was two hours later and they were thirty-
five miles farther down the road. This amnesia bothered them,
leading to physical and mental disorders, and they finally went
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

to a psychiatrist. Under hypnosis they both independently

related what had happened during the missing time. Both
stated that they had been taken aboard the “craft” by the
“humanoids” and given physical examinations, with samples
taken of fingernails and skin. They were released after being
given the hypnotic suggestion that they would remember
nothing of the experience. Under hypnosis they related the
experience with great emotional disturbance (The UFO Experi-
ence, pp. 178-184).
In a similar case, at 2:30 a.m. on December 3, 1967, a
policeman in Ashland, Nebraska, saw an object with a row of
flickering lights in the road, which took off into the air when
he approached it. He reported a “flying saucer” to his superiors
and went home with a strong headache, a buzzing noise in his
ears, and a red welt below the left ear. Later, it was discovered
that there had been a period of twenty minutes that night of
which he remembered nothing; under hypnosis he revealed
that he had followed the UFO, which again landed. The occu-
pants flashed a bright light at him, and then took him aboard
their “craft,” where he saw control panels and computer-like
machines. (An engineer in France had seen something similar
when he was “abducted” for eighteen days.) The “humanoids,”
wearing coveralls with a winged-serpent emblem, told the po-
liceman that they came from a nearby galaxy, had bases in the
United States, and operated their craft by “reverse electromag-
netism”; they contact people by chance and “want to puzzle
them.” They released the man, telling him “not to speak wisely
about this night” (The Invisible College, pp. 57-59).
At first sight, such incidents seem simply unbelievable,
like some strange cases of hallucination or disordered imagina-
tion. But there have been too many of them now to dismiss
them quite so easily. As reports of encounters with actual
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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

physical aircraft, to be sure, they are not very convincing.

Further, psychiatrists themselves caution that the results of
“regressive hypnosis” are very uncertain; the person being hyp-
notized is often not capable of distinguishing between actual
experiences and “suggestions” planted in his mind, whether by
the hypnotist or by someone else at the time of the supposed
“Close Encounter.” But even if these experiences are not fully
“real” (as objective phenomena in space and time), the very
fact that so many of them have been “implanted” in human
minds in recent years is already significant enough. Without
doubt there is something behind the “abduction” experiences
also, and recently UFO investigators have begun to look in a
different direction for an explanation of them.
Such experiences, and especially the “Close Encounters”
of the 1970's, are noticeably bound up with “paranormal” or
occult phenomena. People sometimes have strange dreams just
before seeing UFOs, or hear knocks on the door when no one
is there, or have strange visitors afterwards; some witnesses
receive telepathic messages from UFO occupants. UFOs now
sometimes simply materialize and dematerialize instead of com-
ing and going at great speeds; sometimes “miraculous healings”
occur in their presence or when one is exposed to their light.*
But “Close Encounters” with UFOs have also resulted in leuke-
mia and radiation sickness; often there are tragic psychological
effects: personality deterioration, insanity, suicide.**
The increase of the “psychic component” in UFO sight-
ings has led researchers to seek similarities between UFO expe-

* Jacques Vallee, The Invisible College, E.P. Dutton, Inc., New York, 1975,
Pps. 21
** John A. Keel, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New
York, 1970, p. 303.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

riences and occult phenomena, and to seek the key to under-

standing UFOs in the psychic effects they produce (The Invist-
ble College, p. 29). Many researchers note the similarity
between UFO phenomena and 19th-century spiritism, which
also combined psychic phenomena with strange physical ef-
fects, but with a more primitive “technology.” In general, the
1970's have seen a narrowing of the gap between the “normal”
UFO phenomena of the past and the UFO cults, in accor-
dance with the increased receptivity of mankind in this decade
to occult practices.

4, Explanation of the UFO Phenomena

Dr. Jacques Vallee’s newest book on UFOs, The Invisible

College, reveals what reputable scientific researchers are now
thinking about them. He believes that we are now “very close”
to understanding what they are. He notes that the idea of
“extraterrestrial” intelligent life has in a few years become as-
tonishingly fashionable, among scientists as well as fortune
tellers, as a result of “a great thirst for contact with superior
minds that will provide guidance for our poor, harassed, hectic
planet” (p. 195). He significantly sees that the idea of visitors
from outer space has become the great myth or “wonderful
untruth” of our times: “/t has become very important for large
numbers of people to expect visitors from outer space” (p. 207,
emphasis in the original).
Yet he finds it naive to believe in this myth: “This expla-
nation is too simple-minded to account for the diversity of the
reported behavior ofthe occupants and their perceived interac-
tion with human beings” (p. 27). Dr. Hynek has noted that in
order to explain the various effects produced by UFOs, we
must assume that they are “a phenomenon that undoubtedly
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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

has physical effects but also has the attributes of the psychic
world” (The Edge of Reality, p. 259). Dr. Vallee believes that
“they are constructed both as physical crafi (a fact which has
long appeared to me undeniable) and as psychic devices, whose
exact properties remain to be defined” (The Invisible College,
p. 202, emphasis in the original). Actually, the theory that
UFOs are not physical craft at all, but some kind of
“paraphysical” or psychic phenomenon, was suggested by a
number of researchers in the early 1950's; but this opinion was
largely submerged later, on the one hand by the cultists, with
their insistence on the “extraterrestrial” origin of UFOs, and
on the other hand by the official government explanations,
which corresponded to the widespread popular view that the
whole phenomenon was imaginary (Keel, UFOs: Operation
Trojan Horse, pp. 38-41). Only lately have serious investigators
begun to agree that UFOs, while having certain “physical”
characteristics, cannot at all be explained as somebody's “space
ships,” but are clearly something of the paraphysical or occult
realm.
Why, indeed, are so many UFO “landings” precisely in
the middle of roads? Why do such fantastically “advanced”
craft so often need “repairs”? Why do the occupants so often
need to pick up rocks and sticks (over and over again for
twenty-five years!), and to “test” so many people—if they are
actually reconnaissance vehicles from another planet, as the
“humanoids” usually claim? Dr. Vallee well asks whether the
“visitors from outer space” idea might not “serve precisely a
diversionary role in masking the real, infinitely more complex
nature of the technology that gives rise to the sightings?” (The
Invisible College, p. 28). He believes “we are not dealing with
successive waves of visitations from space. We are dealing with
a control system” (p. 195). “What takes place through close
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

encounters with UFOs is control of human beliefs” (p. 3).

“With every new wave of UFOs, the social impact becomes
greater. More young people become fascinated with space,
with psychic phenomena, with new frontiers in consciousness.
More books and articles appear, changing our culture” (pp.
197-8). In another book he notes that “it is possible to make
large sections of any population believe in the existence of
supernatural races, in the possibility of flying machines, in the
plurality of inhabited worlds, by exposing them to a few care-
fully engineered scenes, the details of which are adapted to the
culture and superstitions of a particular time and place.”*
An important clue to the meaning of these “engineered
scenes” may be seen in an observation often made by careful
observers of UFO phenomena, especially CE-III and “con-
tactee” cases: that they are profoundly “absurd,” or contain at
least as much absurdity as rationality (Vallee, The Invisible
College, p. 196). Individual “Close Encounters” have absurd
details, like the four pancakes given by a UFO occupant to a
Wisconsin chicken farmer in 1961;** more significantly, the
encounters themselves are strangely pointless, without clear
purpose or meaning. A Pennsylvania psychiatrist has suggested
that the absurdity present in almost all UFO close encounters
is actually a hypnotic technique. “When the person is disturbed
by the absurd or contradictory, and their mind is searching for
meaning, they are extremely open to thought transference, to
receiving psychic healing, etc.” (The Invisible College, p. 115).
Dr. Vallee compares this technique to the irrational koans of
* Vallee, Passport to Magonia, Henry Regnery Co., Chicago, 1969, pp.
150-1.
** Tbid., pp. 23-25. One ofthe pancakes was actually analyzed by the Food
and Drug Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and
Welfare, and was found to be “of terrestrial origin.”

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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

Zen Masters (p. 27), and notices the similarity between UFO
encounters and occult initiation rituals which “open the mind”
to a “new set of symbols” (p. 117). All of this points to what he
calls “the next form of religion” (p. 202).
Thus, UFO encounters are but a contemporary form of an
occult phenomenon which has existed throughout the centu-
ries. Men have abandoned Christianity and look for “saviours”
from outer space, and therefore the phenomenon supplies im-
ages of spacecraft and space beings. But what is this phenome-
non? Who is doing the “engineering,” and to what purpose?
Today's investigators have already supplied the answers to
at least the first two questions, although, being without com-
petence in the realm of religious phenomena, they do not fully
understand the significance of what they have found. One
investigator, Brad Steiger, an Iowa college professor who has
written several books on the subject, after a recent detailed
study of the Air Force “Blue Book” files, concluded: “We are
dealing with a multi-dimensional paraphysical phenomenon,
which is largely indigenous to planet earth” (Canadian UFO
Report, Summer, 1977). Drs. Hynek and Vallee have advanced
the hypothesis of “earth-bound aliens” to account for UFO
phenomena, and speculate on “interlocking universes” right
here on earth from which they might come, much as “polter-
geists’ produce physical effects while remaining themselves
invisible. John Keel, who began his UFO investigation as a
skeptic and is himself an agnostic in religion, writes: “The real
UFO story...is one of ghosts and phantoms and strange men-
tal aberrations; of an invisible world which surrounds us and
occasionally engulfs us.... It is a world of illusion...where
reality itself is distorted by strange forces which can seemingly
manipulate space, time, and physical matter—forces which are
almost entirely beyond our powers of comprehension... The
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

UFO manifestations seem to be, by and large, merely minor

variations of the age-old demonological phenomenon” (UFOs:
Operation Trojan Horse, pp. 46, 299). In a recent bibliography
of UFO phenomena prepared by the Library of Congress for
the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the
introduction states that “Many of the UFO reports now being
published in the popular press recount alleged incidents that
are strikingly similar to demonic possession and psychic phe-
nomena which have long been known to theologians and
parapsychologists.”* Most UFO researchers are now turning to
the occult realm and to demonology for insight into the phe-
nomena they are studying.
Several recent studies of UFOs, by evangelical Protestants,
put all this evidence together and come to the conclusion that
UFO phenomena are simply and precisely demonic in origin.**
The Orthodox Christian investigator can hardly come to a
different conclusion. Some or many of the experiences, it may
be, are the result of hoaxes or hallucinations; but it is simply
impossible to dismiss a// of the many thousands of UFO reports
in this way. A great number of modern mediums and their
spiritistic phenomena are also fraudulent; but mediumistic spir-
itism itself, when it is genuine, undeniably produces real “para-
normal” phenomena under the action of demons. UFO
phenomena, having the same source, are no less real.
Case histories of people who have been drawn into con-
tact with UFOs reveal the standard characteristics which go

* Lynn G. Catoe, UFOs and Related Subjects: An Annotated Bibliography,

U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1969.
** Clifford Wilson and John Weldon, Close Encounters: A Better
Explanation, Master Books, San Diego, 1978; Spiritual Counterfeits Project
Journal, Berkeley, California, August, 1977: “UFOs: Is Science Fiction
Coming True?”

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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

with involvement with demons in the occult realm. A police

officer in southern California, for example, began to see UFOs
in June, 1966, and thereafter saw them frequently, almost
always at night. After one “landing” he and his wife saw dis-
tinct traces of the UFO on the ground. “During these weeks of
tantalizing sightings, I became totally obsessed with the UFOs,
convinced that something great was about to happen. I aban-
doned my daily Bible reading and turned my back on God as I
began reading every UFO book I could lay my hands on....
Many nights I watched in vain, trying to mentally communi-
cate with what I then thought were extraterrestrial beings,
almost praying to them to appear and establish some sort of
contact with me.” Finally he had a “Close Encounter” with a
“craft” some eighty feet in diameter, with rotating white, red,
and green lights. It sped off and left him still expecting some-
thing “great” to happen—but nothing ever did happen; the
UFOs ceased appearing, and in his frustration he turned to
alcohol, depression, thoughts ofsuicide, until his conversion to
Christ ended this period of his life. People who have actually
contacted the UFO beings have much worse experiences; the
beings sometimes literally “possess” them and try to kill them
when they resist (UFOs: A Better Explanation, pp. 298-305).
Such cases effectively remind us that, quite apart from the
meaning of UFO phenomena as a whole, each UFO “Close
Encounter” has the specific purpose of deceiving the individual
who is contacted and leading him, if not to further “contacts”
and spreading of the UFO “message,” then at least to personal
spiritual confusion and disorientation.
The most puzzling aspect of UFO phenomena to most
researchers—namely, the strange mingling of physical and psy-
chic characteristics in them—is no puzzle at all to readers of
Orthodox spiritual books, especially the Lives of Saints. De-
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mons also have “physical bodies,” although the “matter” in

them is of such subtlety that it cannot be perceived by men
unless their spiritual “doors of perception” are opened,
whether with God’s will (as in the case of holy men) or against
it (as in the case of sorcerers and mediums).*
Orthodox literature has many examples of demonic man-
ifestations which fit precisely the UFO pattern: apparitions of
“solid” beings and objects (whether demons themselves or their
illusionary creations) which suddenly “materialize” and “dema-
terialize,” always with the aim of awing and confusing people
and ultimately leading them to perdition. The Lives of the
4th-century St. Anthony the Great** and the 3rd-century St.
Cyprian the Former Sorcerer*** are filled with such incidents.
The Life of St. Martin of Tours (+397) by his disciple,
Sulpicius Severus, has an interesting example of demonic power
in connection with a strange “physical” manifestation which
closely parallels today’s UFO “Close Encounters.” A certain
youth named Anatolius became a monk near St. Martin’s mon-
astery, but out of false humility he became the victim of de-
monic deception. He fancied that he conversed with “angels,”
and in order to persuade others of his sanctity, these “angels”
agreed to give hima “shining robe from out of heaven” as a sign
of the “Power of God” that dwelt in the youth. One night about
midnight there was a tremendous thudding ofdancing feet and
a murmuring as of many voices in the hermitage, and Anatolius’
cell became ablaze with light. Then came silence, and the

* The Orthodox doctrine of demons and angels, their manifestations and

the human perception of them, as summarized by the great Orthodox Father
of the 19th century, Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninoy, is set forth in the book
The Soul After Death, St. Herman Brotherhood, Platina, California, 1979.
** Eastern Orthodox Books, 1976.
*** The Orthodox Word, 1976, no. 5.

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deceived one emerged from his cell with the “heavenly” gar-
ment. “A light was brought and all carefully inspected the
garment. It was exceedingly soft, with a surpassing luster, and
of a brilliant scarlet, but it was impossible to tell the nature of
the material. At the same time, under the most exact scrutiny
of eyes and fingers it seemed to be a garment and nothing else.”
The following morning, Anatolius’ spiritual father took him by
the hand in order to lead him to St. Martin to discover whether
this was actually a trick of the devil. In fear, the deceived one
refused to go, “and when he was being forced to go against his
will, between the hands of those who were dragging him the
garment disappeared.” The author of the account (who either
witnessed the incident himself or had it from eyewitnesses)
concludes that “the devil was unable to keep up his illusions or
conceal their nature when they were to be submitted to Martin’s
eyes.” “It was so fully within his power to see the devil that he
recognized him under any form, whether he kept to his own
character or changed himself into any of the various shapes of
‘spiritual wickedness’”—including the forms of pagan gods and
the appearance of Christ Himself, with royal robes and crown
and enveloped in a bright red light.*
It is clear that the manifestations of today’s “flying saucers”
are quite within the “technology” of demons; indeed, nothing
else can explain them as well. The multifarious demonic decep-
tions of Orthodox literature have been adapted to the mythol-
ogy of outer space, nothing more; the Anatolius mentioned
above would be known today simply as a “contactee.” And the
purpose of the “unidentified” object in such accounts is clear:
to awe the beholders with a sense of the “mysterious,” and to

* F. R. Hoare, translator, The Western Fathers, Harper Torchbacks, New

York, 1965, pp. 36-41.

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produce “proof” of the “higher intelligences” (“angels,” if the

victim believes in them, or “space visitors” for modern men),
and thereby to gain trust for the message they wish to commu-
nicate. We shall look at this message below.
A demonic “kidnapping” quite close to UFO “abduc-
tions” is described in the Life of St. Nilus of Sora, the 15th-
century founder of Skete life in Russia. Some time after the
Saint’s death there lived in his monastery a certain priest with
his son. Once, when the boy was sent on some errand, “sud-
denly there came to him a certain strange man who seized him
and carried him, as if on the wind, into an impenetrable forest,
bringing him into a large room in his dwelling and placing him
in the middle ofthis cabin, in front of the window.” When the
priest and the monks prayed for St. Nilus’ help in finding the
lost boy, the Saint “came to the boy’s aid and stood before the
room where the boy was standing, and when he struck the
window-frame with his staff the building was shaken and all
the unclean spirits fell to the earth.” The Saint told the demon
to return the boy to the place from which he had taken him,
and then became invisible. Then, after some howling among
the demons, “the same strange one seized the boy and brought
him to the Skete like the wind...and placing him on a hay-
stack, he became invisible.” After being seen by the monks,
“the boy told them everything that happened to him, what he
had seen and heard. And from that time this boy became very
humble, as if he had been stupefied. The priest out of terror
left the Skete with his son.”* In a similar demonic “kidnap-
ping” in 19th-century Russia, a young man, after his mother
cursed him, became the slave of a demon “grandfather” for

* The Northern Thebaid, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1975. pp.

91-92.

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twelve years and was capable of appearing invisibly among men

in order to help the demon sow confusion in their midst.*
Such true stories of demonic activity were commonplace
in earlier centuries. It is a sign of the spiritual crisis of today
that modern men, for all their proud “enlightenment” and
“wisdom,” are becoming once more aware of such experi-
ences—but no longer have the Christian framework with which
to explain them. Contemporary UFO researchers, seeking for
an explanation of phenomena which have become too notice-
able to overlook any longer, have joined today’s psychic re-
searchers in an attempt to formulate a “unified field theory”
that will encompass psychic as well as physical phenomena.
But such researchers only continue the approach of “enlight-
ened” modern men and trust their scientific observations to
give answers in a spiritual realm that cannot be approached
“objectively” at all, but only with faith. The physical world is
morally neutral and may be known relatively well by an objec-
tive observer; but the invisible spiritual realm comprises beings
both good and evil, and the “objective” observer has no means
of distinguishing one from the other unless he accepts the
revelation which the invisible God has made of them to man.
Thus, today’s UFO researchers place the Divine inspiration of
the Bible on the same level as the satanically inspired automatic
writing of spiritism, and they do not distinguish between the
actions of angels and those of demons. They know now (after a
long period when materialistic prejudices reigned among scien-
tists) that there is a non-physical realm that is real, and they see
its effects in UFO phenomena; but as long as they approach
this realm “scientifically,” they will be just as easily deceived by

* S. Nilus, The Power of God and Man’s Weakness (in Russian), St. Sergius’
Lavra, 1908; St. Herman Brotherhood, 1976, pp. 279-98.

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the unseen powers as the most naive “contactee.” When they

try to determine who or what is behind the UFO phenomena,
and what the purpose of the phenomena might be, they are
forced to indulge in the wildest speculations. Thus Dr. Vallee
confesses himself baffled whether the source of UFO manifes-
tations might be a morally neutral “unattended clockwork,” a
benevolent “solemn gathering of wise men” (as the “extrater-
restrial” myth would have us believe), or “a terrible superhu-
man monstrosity the very contemplation of which would make
a man insane,” that is, the activity of demons (The Invisible
College, p. 206).
A true evaluation of the UFO experience may be made
only on the basis of Christian revelation and experience, and is
accessible only to the humble Christian believer who trusts
these sources. To be sure, it is not given to man entirely to
“explain” the invisible world of angels and demons; but
enough Christian knowledge has been given us to know how
these beings act in our world and how we should respond to
their actions, particularly in escaping the nets of the demons.
UFO researchers have come to the conclusion that the phe-
nomena they have studied are essentially identical with phe-
nomena that used to be called “demonic”; but only the
Christian—the Orthodox Christian, who is enlightened by the
Patristic understanding of Scripture and the 2,000-year experi-
ence of Saints’ encounters with invisible beings—is able to
know the full meaning of this conclusion.

5. The Meaning of UFOs

What, then, is the meaning of the UFO phenomena of

our ume? Why have they appeared just at this time in history?
What is their message? To what future do they point?
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 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

First, UFO phenomena are but one part of an astonish-

ing outpouring of “paranormal” events—what just a few years
ago most people would have considered as “miracles.” Dr.
Vallee, in The Invisible College, expresses the secular apprecia-
tion of this fact: “Observations of unusual events suddenly
loom into our environment by the thousands” (p. 87), caus-
ing “a general shifting of man’s belief patterns, his entire rela-
tionship to the concept of the invisible” (p. 114). “Something
is happening to human consciousness” (p. 34); the same
“powerful force [that] has influenced the human race in the
past is again influencing it now” (p. 14). In Christian lan-
guage this means: a new demonic outpouring is being loosed
upon mankind. In the Christian apocalyptic view (see the end
of this book), we can see that the power which until now has
restrained the final and most terrible manifestation of de-
monic activity on earth has been taken away (II Thess. 2:7),
Orthodox Christian government and public order (whose
chief representative on earth was the Orthodox emperor) and
the Orthodox Christian world view no longer exist as a whole,
and satan has been “loosed out of his prison,” where he was
kept by the grace of the Church of Christ, in order to “deceive
the nations” (Apoc. 20:7-8) and prepare them to worship
antichrist at the end of the age. Perhaps never since the begin-
ning of the Christian era have demons appeared so openly and
extensively as today. The “visitors from outer space” theory is
but one of the many pretexts they are using to gain acceptance
for the idea that “higher beings” are now to take charge of the
destiny of mankind.*

* Many of the reports of “Bigfoot” and other “monsters” show the same
occult characteristics as UFO sightings, and often they occur in connection
with such sightings.
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Second, UFOs are but the newest of the mediumistic

techniques by which the devil gains initiates into his occult
realm. They are a terrible sign that man has become susceptible
to demonic influence as never before in the Christian era. In
the 19th century it was usually necessary to seek out dark
seance rooms in order to enter into contact with demons, but
now one need only look into the sky (usually at night, it is
true). Mankind has lost what remained of basic Christian
understanding up to now, and now passively places itself at the
disposal of whatever “powers” may descend from the sky. The
new film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is a shocking
revelation of how superstitious “post-Christian” man has be-
come—ready in an instant and unquestioningly to believe and
follow hardly-disguised demons wherever they might lead.*
Third, the “message” of the UFOs is: prepare for anti-

* Two other recently discovered “paranormal” phenomena reveal how

boldly the demons are now making use of physical means (in particular,
modern technical devices) in order to enter into contact with men. (1) One
Latvian researcher (now followed by others) has discovered the phenomenon
of mysterious voices which appear unexplainably on tape recorders, even
when the recording is done under clinical conditions in a totally soundless
atmosphere, with results very similar to those of seances. The presence of a
medium or “psychic” in the room seems to help the phenomenon
(Konstantin Raudive, Breakthrough: An Amazing Experiment in Electronic
Communication with the Dead, Taplinger Publishing Co., New York, 1971).
(2) Metallic-voiced “space people” for some time have supposedly been using
the telephone to communicate with both “contactees” and UFO researchers.
The possibility of ahoax in such a phenomenon, of course, is high. But in
recent years the voices ofthe dead, convincing to those who are contacted,
have been heard in telephone conversations with their loved ones. It can
hardly be denied, as the reporter of this phenomenon notes, that “the demons
of old are marching among us again’—to a degree unheard of in the past
(Keel, UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, p. 306).

IlO
 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

christ; the “saviour” of the apostate world is coming to rule it.

Perhaps he himself will come in the air, in order to complete
his impersonation of Christ (Matt. 24:30; Acts 1:11); perhaps
only the “visitors from outer space” will land publicly in order
to offer “cosmic” worship of their master; perhaps the “fire
from heaven” (Apoc. 13:13) will be only a part of the great
demonic spectacles of the last times. At any rate, the message
for contemporary mankind is: expect deliverance, not from the
Christian revelation and faith in an unseen God, but from
vehicles in the sky.
It is one of the signs of the last times that there shall be
terrors and great signs from heaven (Luke 21:11). Even a hun-
dred years ago Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, in his book On
Miracles and Signs (Yaroslavl, 1870, reprinted by Holy Trinity
Monastery, Jordanville, New York, 1960), remarked on “the
striving to be encountered in contemporary Christian society
to see miracles and even perform miracles.... Such a striving
reveals the self-deception, founded on self-esteem and vain-
glory, that dwells in the soul and possesses it” (p. 32). True
wonderworkers have decreased and grown extinct, but people
“thirst for miracles more than ever before.... We are gradually
coming near to the time when a vast arena is to be opened up
for numerous and striking false miracles, to draw to perdition
those unfortunate offspring of fleshly wisdom who will be
seduced and deceived by these miracles” (pp. 48-49).
Of special interest to UFO investigators, “the miracles of
antichrist will be chiefly manifested in the aerial realm, where
satan chiefly has his dominion. The signs will act most of all on
the sense of sight, charming and deceiving it. St. John the
Theologian, beholding in revelation the events that are to
precede the end of the world, says that antichrist will perform
great signs, and will even make fire to come down out of heaven
Ill
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

upon the earth in the sight ofmen (Apoc. 13:13). This is the sign
indicated by Scripture as the highest of the signs of antichrist,
and the place of this sign is the air; it will be a splendid and
terrible spectacle” (p. 13). St. Symeon the New Theologian for
this reason remarks that “the struggler of prayer should quite
rarely look into the sky out of fear of the evil spirits in the air
who cause many and various deceptions in the air” (Philokalia,
“The Three Forms of Heedfulness”). “Men will not under-
stand that the miracles of antichrist have no good, rational
purpose, no definite meaning, that they are foreign to truth,
filled with lies, that they are a monstrous, malicious, meaning-
less play-acting, which increases in order to astonish, to reduce
to perplexity and oblivion, to deceive, to seduce, to attract by
the fascination of a pompous, empty, stupid effect” (p. 11).
“All demonic manifestations have the characteristic that even
the slightest heed paid to them is dangerous; from such heed-
fulness alone, allowed even without any sympathy for the
manifestation, one may be sealed with a most harmful impres-
sion and subjected to a serious temptation” (p. 50). Thousands
of UFO “contactees” and even simple witnesses have experi-
enced the dreadful truth of these words; few have escaped once
they become deeply involved.
Even the secular investigators of UFO phenomena have
seen fit to warn people against their dangers. John Keel, for
example, writes: “Dabbling with UFOs can be as dangerous as
dabbling with black magic. The phenomenon preys upon the
neurotic, the gullible, and the immature. Paranoid-schizophre-
nia, demonomania, and even suicide can result—and has re-
sulted in a number of cases. A mild curiosity about UFOs can
turn into a destructive obsession. For this reason, I strongly
recommend that parents forbid their children from becoming
involved. School teachers and other adults should not encour-
U2,
 “SIGNS FROM HEAVEN”

age teen-agers to take an interest in this subject” (UFOs: Oper-

ation Trojan Horse, p. 220).
In a different place Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov re-
corded with awe and foreboding the vision of a simple Russian
blacksmith in a village near Petersburg at the dawn of our
present age of unbelief and revolution (1817). In the middle of
the day he suddenly saw a multitude of demons in human
form, sitting in the branches of the forest trees, in strange
garments and pointed caps, and singing, to the accompani-
ment of unbelievably weird musical instruments, an eerie and
frightful song: “Our years have come, our will be done!”*
We live near the end of this fearful age of demonic tri-
umph and rejoicing, when the eerie “humanoids” (another of
the masks of the demons) have become visible to thousands of
people and by their absurd encounters take possession of the
souls of those men from whom God’s grace has departed. The
UFO phenomenon is a sign to Orthodox Christians to walk all
the more cautiously and soberly on the path to salvation,
knowing that we can be tempted and seduced not merely by
false religions, but even by seemingly physical objects which
just catch the eye. In earlier centuries Christians were very
cautious about strange and new phenomena, knowing of the
devil’s wiles; but after the modern age of “enlightenment” most
people have become merely curious about such things and
even pursue them, relegating the devil to a half-imaginary
realm. Awareness of the nature of UFOs, then, can be a help in
awakening Orthodox Christians to a conscious spiritual life
and a conscious Orthodox world-view that does not easily
follow after the fashionable ideas of the times.
The conscious Orthodox Christian lives in a world that is

* S. Nilus, Svyatynya pod Spudom, Sergiev Posads 191 tepi22:

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

clearly fallen, both the earth below and the stars above, all
being equally far from the lost paradise for which he is striving.
He is part of a suffering mankind all descended from the one
Adam, the first man, and all alike in need of the redemption
offered freely by the Son of God by His saving Sacrifice on the
Cross. He knows that man is not to “evolve” into something
“higher,” nor has he any reason to believe that there are “highly
evolved” beings on other planets; but he knows well that there
are indeed “advanced intelligences” in the universe besides
himself; these are of two kinds, and he strives to live so as to
dwell with those who serve God (the angels) and avoid contact
with the others who have rejected God and strive in their envy
and malice to draw man into their misfortune (the demons).
He knows that man, out of self-love and weakness, is easily
inclined to follow error and believe in “fairy tales” that promise
contact with a “higher state” or “higher beings” without the
struggle of Christian life—in fact, precisely as an escape from
the struggle of Christian life. He distrusts his own ability to see
through the deceptions of the demons, and therefore clings all
the more firmly to the Scriptural and Patristic guidelines which
the Church of Christ provides for his life.
Such a one has the possibility to resist the religion of the
future, the religion of antichrist, in whatever form it may
present itself; the rest of mankind, save by a miracle of God, is
lost.

114
 Vil
The “Charismatic Revival”
Ase gol
G NOG)rey MET INES

“Costa Deir took the mike and told us how his heart was
burdened for the Greek Orthodox Church. He asked Episcopalian
Father Driscoll to pray that the Holy Spirit would sweep that
Church as He was sweeping the Catholic Church. While Father
Driscoll prayed, Costa Deir wept into the mike. Following the
prayer was a long message in tongues and an equally long interpre-
tation saying that the prayers had been heard and the Holy Spirit
would blow through and awaken the Greek Orthodox Church...
By this time there was so much weeping and calling out that I
backed away from it all emotionally.... Yet |heard myself sayinga
surprising thing, Some day when we read how the Spirit is moving
in the Greek Orthodox Church, let us remember that we were here
the moment that it began.’ ”*

S IX MONTHS AFTER THE EVENT here described occurred at an

interdenominational “charismatic” meeting in Seattle,
Orthodox Christians did indeed begin to hear that the “charis-

* Par King, in Logos Journal, Sept.-Oct., 1971, p. 50. This “international

charismatic journal” should not be confused with Fr. E. Stephanou’s Logos.

115
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

matic spirit” was moving in the Greek Orthodox Church.

Beginning in January, 1972, Fr. Eusebius Stephanou’s Logos
began to report on this movement, which had begun earlier in
several Greek and Syrian parishes in America and now has
spread to a number of others, being actively promoted by Fr.
Eusebius. After the reader has read the description of this
“spirit” from the words ofits leading representatives in the pages
that follow, he should not find it difficult to believe that in very
fact it was evoked and instilled into the Orthodox world by just
such urgent entreaties of “interdenominational Christians.” For
if one conclusion emerges from this description, it must cer-
tainly be that the spectacular present-day “charismatic revival”
is not merely a phenomenon of hyper-emotionalism and Prot-
estant revivalism—although these elements are also strongly
present—but is actually the work of a “spirit” who can be
invoked and who works “miracles.” The question we shall
attempt to answer in these pages is: what or who is this spirit? As
Orthodox Christians we know that it is not only God Who
works miracles; the devil has his own “miracles,” and in fact he
can and does imitate virtually every genuine miracle of God. We
shall therefore attempt in these pages to be careful to sry the
spirits, whether they are of God (I John 4:1).
We shall begin with a brief historical background, since no
one can deny that the “charismatic revival” has come to the
Orthodox world from the Protestant and Catholic denomina-
tions, which in turn received it from the Pentecostal sects.

1. The 20th-century Pentecostal Movement

The modern Pentecostal Movement, although it did have

19th-century antecedents, dates its origin precisely to 7:00
p.m. on New Year's Eve of the year 1900. For some time before
116
 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

that moment a Methodist minister in Topeka, Kansas, Charles

Parham, as an answer to the confessed feebleness of his Chris-
tian ministry, had been concentratedly studying the New Tes-
tament with a group of his students with the aim of
discovering the secret of the power of Apostolic Christianity.
The students finally deduced that this secret lay in the “speak-
ing in tongues” which, they thought, always accompanied the
reception of the Holy Spirit in the Acts of the Apostles. With
increasing excitement and tension, Parham and his students
resolved to pray until they themselves received the “Baptism of
the Holy Spirit” together with speaking in tongues. On De-
cember 31, 1900, they prayed from morning to night with no
success, until one young girl suggested that one ingredient was
missing in this experiment: “laying on of hands.” Parham put
his hands on the girl’s head, and immediately she began to
speak in an “unknown tongue.” Within three days there were
many such “Baptisms,” including that of Parham himself and
twelve other ministers of various denominations, and all of
them were accompanied by speaking in tongues. Soon the
revival spread to Texas, and then it had spectacular success at a
small Black church in Los Angeles. Since then it has spread
throughout the world and claims ten million members.
For half a century the Pentecostal Movement remained
sectarian and everywhere it was received with hostility by the
established denominations. Then, however, speaking in
tongues began gradually to appear in the denominations them-
selves, although at first it was kept rather quiet, until in 1960 an
Episcopalian priest near Los Angeles gave wide publicity to this
fact by publicly declaring that he had received the “Baptism of
the Holy Spirit” and spoke in tongues. After some initial
hostility, the “charismatic revival” gained the official or unoffi-
cial approval of all the major denominations and has spread
117
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

rapidly both in America and abroad. Even the once rigid and
exclusivist Roman Catholic Church, once it took up the “char-
ismatic renewal” in earnest in the late 1960's, has been enthusi-
astically swept up in this movement. In America, the Roman
Catholic bishops gave their approval to the movement in 1969,
and the few thousand Catholics involved in it then have since
increased to untold hundreds of thousands, who gather period-
ically in local and nationwide “charismatic” conferences whose
participants are sometimes numbered in the tens of thousands.
The Roman Catholic countries of Europe have also become
enthusiastically “charismatic,” as witnessed by the “charis-
matic” conference in the Summer, 1978, in Ireland, attended
by thousands of Irish priests. Not long before his death Pope
Paul VI met with a delegation of “charismatics” and pro-
claimed that he too is a pentecostal.
What can be the reason for such a spectacular success of a
“Christian” revival in a seemingly * ‘post-Christian” world?
Doubtless the answer lies in two factors: first, the receptive
ground which consists of those millions of “Christians” who
feel that their religion is dry, over-rational, merely external,
without fervency or power; and second, the evidently powerful
piric’ that lies behind the phenomena, which is capable,
underthepropercondions, ofproducing amulinude-and
variety of “charismatic” phenomena, including healing, speak-
ing in tongues, interpretation, prophecy—and, underlying all
of these, an overwhelming experience which is called the “Bap-
tism of(orin, orwith) theHoly Spirit.
But what precisely 7s this “spirit”? Significantly, this ques-
tion is seldom if ever even raised by followers of the “charis-
matic revival”; their own “baptismal” experience is so powerful
and has been preceded by such an effective psychological prep-
aration in the form of concentrated prayer and expectation,
118
 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

that there is never any doubt in their minds but that they have
received the Holy Spirit and that the phenomena they have
experienced and seen are exactly those described in the Acts of
the Apostles. Too, the psychological atmosphere of the move-
ment is often so one-sided and tense that it is regarded as the
very blasphemy against the Holy Spirit to entertain any doubts
in this regard. Of the hundreds of books that have already
appeared on the movement, only a very few express any even
slight doubts as to its spiritual validity.
In order to obtain a better idea of the distinctive charac-
teristics of the “charismatic revival,” let us examine some of the
testimonies and practices of its participants, always checking
them against the standard of Holy Orthodoxy. These testimo-
nies will be taken, with a few exceptions as noted, from the
apologetical books and magazines of the movement, written by
people who are favorable to it and who obviously publish only
that material which seems to support their position. Further, we
shall make only minimal use of narrowly Pentecostal sources,
confining ourselves chiefly to Protestant, Catholic, and Ortho-
dox participants in the contemporary “charismatic revival.”

2. The “Ecumenical” Spirit of the “Charismatic Revival”

Before quoting the “charismatic” testimonies, we should
take note of a chief characteristic of the original Pentecostal
Movement which is seldom mentioned by “charismatic” writ-
ers, and that is that the
the number
number and
and variety ¢of Pentecostal sects
is astonishing, each with
with its
its own
own doctri
doctrinal emphasis, and many
of them having no fellowship with the others. There are “As-
semblies of God, urches o “Pentecostal” and “Ho-
liness” bodies, “Full Gospel” mnie etc., many of them
divided into smaller sects. The first thing that one would have
9
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

to say about the “spirit” that inspires such anarchy is that it

certainly is not a spirit of unity, in sharp contrast to the
Apostolic church of the first century to which the movement
professes to be returning. Nevertheless, there is much talk,
especially in the “charismatic revival” within the denomina-
tions in the past decade, of the “unity” which it inspires. But
what kind of unity is thise—the true unity of the Church
which Orthodox Christians of the first and twentieth centuries
alike know, or the pseudo-unity of the Ecumenical Movement,
which denies that the Church of Christ exists?
The answer to this question is stated quite clearly by
perhaps the leading “prophet” of 20th-century Pentecostalism,
David Du Plessis, who for the last twenty years has been
actively spreading news of the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit”
among the denominations of the World Council of Churches,
in answer to a “voice” which commanded him to do so in
1951. “The Pentecostal revival within the churches is gathering
force and speed. The most remarkable thing is that this revival
is found in the so-called liberal societies and much less in the
evangelical and not at all in the fundamentalist segments of
Protestantism. The last-mentioned are now the most vehement
opponents of this glorious revival because it is in the Pentecos-
tal Movement and in the modernist World Council Move-
ments that we find the most powerful manifestations of the
Spirit” (Du Plessis, p. 28).*
In the Roman Catholic Church likewise, the “charismatic
renewal” is occurring precisely in “liberal” circles, and one of
its results is to inspire even more their ecumenism and liturgi-
cal experimentation (“guitar masses” and the like); whereas

* Most books will be cited in this chapter only by author and page number;
full bibliographical information is supplied at the end of the chapter.

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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

traditionalist Catholics are as opposed to the movement as are

fundamentalist Protestants. Without any doubt the orientation
of the “charismatic revival” is strongly ecumenist. A “charis-
matic’ Lutheran pastor, Clarence Finsaas, writes: “Many are
surprised that the Holy Spirit can move also in the various
traditions of the historic Church ... whether the church doc-
trine has a background of Calvinism or Arminianism, this
matters little, proving God is bigger than our creeds and that
no denomination has a monopoly on Him” (Christenson, p.
99). An Episcopalian pastor, speaking of the “charismatic re-
vival,” reports that “ecumenically it is leading to a remarkable
joining together of Christians of different traditions, mainly at
the local church level” (Harper, p. 17). The California “charis-
matic’ periodical /nter-Church Renewal is full of “unity” dem-
onstrations such as this one: “The darkness of the ages was
dispelled and a Roman Catholic nun and a Protestant could
love each other with a strange new kind of love,” which proves
that “old denominational barriers are crumbling. Superficial
doctrinal differences are being put aside for all believers to
come into the unity of the Holy Spirit.” The Orthodox priest
Fr. Eusebius Stephanou believes that “this outpouring of the
Holy Spirit is transcending denominational lines.... The Spirit
of God is moving ... both inside and outside the Orthodox
Church®s (Locos) Jans, 1972, °p.212).
Here the Orthodox Christian who is alert to “try the
spirits” finds himself on familiar ground, sown with the usual
ecumenist cliches. And above all let us note that this new
“outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” exactly like the Ecumenical
Movement itself, arises outside the Orthodox Church; those few
Orthodox parishes that are now taking it up are obviously
following a fashion of the times that matured completely out-
side the bounds of the Church of Christ.
I2I
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

But what is it that those outside the Church of Christ are

capable of teaching Orthodox Christians? It is certainly true (no
conscious Orthodox person will deny it) that Orthodox Chris-
tians are sometimes put to shame by the fervor and zeal of some
Roman Catholics and Protestants for church attendance, mis-
sionary activities, praying together, reading the Scripture, and
the like. Fervent non-Orthodox persons can shame the Ortho-
dox, even in the error of their beliefs, when they make more
effort to please God than many Orthodox people do while
possessing the whole fullness of apostolic Christianity. The
Orthodox would do well to learn from them and wake up to
the spiritual riches in their own Church which they fail to see
out of spiritual sloth or bad habits. All this relates to the human
side of faith, to the human efforts which can be expended in
religious activities whether one’s belief is right or wrong.
The “charismatic” movement, however, claims to be in
contact with God, to have found a means for receiving the Holy
Spirit, the outpouring of God's grace. And yet itis precisely the
Church, and nothing else, that our Lord Jesus Christ established
as the means of communicating grace to men. Are we to believe
that the Church isnow to be superseded by some “new revela-
tion” capable of transmitting grace outside the Church, among
any group of people who may happen to believe in Christ but
who have no knowledge or experience of the Mysteries (Sacra-
ments) which Christ instituted and no contact with the Apos-
tles and their successors whom He appointed to administer the
Mysteries? No: it is as certain today as it was in the first century
that the gifts ofthe Holy Spirit are not revealed in those outside the
Church. The great Orthodox Father of the 19th century, Bishop
Theophan the Recluse, writes that the gift of the Holy Spirit is
given “precisely through the Sacrament of Chrismation, which
was introduced by the Apostles in place of the laying on of
D2)
 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

hands” (which is the form the Sacrament takes in the Acts of

the Apostles). “We all—who have been baptized and
chrismated—have the gift of the Holy Spirit ... even though it
is not active in everyone.” The Orthodox Church provides the
means for making this gift active, and “there is no other path....
Without the Sacrament of Chrismation, just as earlier without
the laying on of hands ofthe Apostles, the Holy Spirit has never
descended and never will descend.*
In a word, the orientation of the “charismatic revival”
may be described as one of a new and deeper or “spiritual”
ecumenism: each Christian “renewed” in his own tradition,
but at the same time strangely united (for it is the same experi-
ence) with others equally “renewed” in their own traditions, all
of which contain various degrees of heresy and impiety! This
relativism leads also to openness to completely new religious
practices, as when an Orthodox priest allows laymen to “lay
hands” on him in front of the Royal Doors of an Orthodox
church (Logos, April, 1972, p. 4). The end of all this is the
super-ecumenist vision of the leading Pentecostal “prophet,”
who says that many Pentecostals “began to visualize the possi-
bility of the Movement becoming the Church of Christ in the

* Bishop Theophan the Recluse, What is the Spiritual Life, Jordanville, New
York, 1962, pp 247-8 (in Russian); English edition, St. Herman of Alaska
Brotherhood, Platina, Calif., 1995, p. 282. Fr. Eusebius Stephanou (Logos,
Jan., 1972, p. 13) attempts to justify the present-day “reception of the Holy
Spirit” outside the Church by citing the account of the household of
Cornelius the Centurion (Acts 10), which received the Holy Spirit before
Baptism. But the difference in the two cases is crucial: the reception of the
Holy Spirit by Cornelius and his household was the sign that they should be
joined to the Church by Baptism, whereas contemporary Pentecostals by
their experience are only confirmed in their delusion that there + no one
saving Church of Christ.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

closing days of time. However, this situation has completely

changed during the past ten years. Many of my brethren are
now convinced that the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the
Church, will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh and that the
historic churches will be revived or renewed and then in this
renewal be united by the Holy Spirit” (Du Plessis, p. 33).
Clearly, there is no room in the “charismatic revival” for those
who believe that the Orthodox Church is the Church of
Christ. It is no wonder that even some Orthodox Pentecostals
admit that in the beginning they were “suspicious of the Or-
thodoxy” of this movement (Logos, April, 1972, p. 9).
But now let us begin to look beyond the ecumenistic
theories and practices of Pentecostalism to that which really
inspires and gives strength to the “charismatic revival”: the
actual experience of the power of the “spirit.”

3. “Speaking in Tongues”
If we look carefully at the writings of the “charismatic
revival,” we shall find that this movement closely resembles
many sectarian movements of the past in basing itself primarily
or even entirely on one rather bizarre doctrinal emphasis or
religious practice. The only difference is that the emphasis now
is placed on a specific point which no sectarians in the past
regarded as so central: speaking in tongues.
According to the constitution of various Pentecostal sects,
“The Baptism ofbelievers in the Holy Ghost is witnessed by the
initial physical sign of speaking with other tongues” (Sherrill, p.
79). And not only is this the first sign of conversion to a
Pentecostal sect or orientation: according to the best Pentecostal
authorities, this practice must be continued or the “spirit” may
be lost. Writes David Du Plessis: “The practice of praying in
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tongues should continue and increase in the lives of those who

are baptized in the Spirit, otherwise they may find that the other
manifestations of the Spirit come seldom or stop altogether”
(Du Plessis, p. 89). Many testify, as does one Protestant, that
tongues “have now become an essential accompaniment of my
devotional life” (Lillie, p. 50). And a Roman Catholic book on
the subject, more cautiously, says that of the “gifts of the Holy
Spirit” tongues “is often but not always the first received. For
many it is thus a threshold through which one passes into the
realm of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit” (Ranaghan, p.
kQ).
Here already one may note an overemphasis that is cer-
tainly not present in the New Testament, where speaking in
tongues has a decidedly minor significance, serving as a sign of
the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2)
and on two other occasions (Acts 10 and 19). After the first or
perhaps the second century there is no record of it in any
Orthodox source, and it is not recorded as occurring even
among the great Fathers of the Egyptian desert, who were so
filled with the Spirit of God that they performed numerous
astonishing miracles, including raising the dead. The Orthodox
attitude to genuine speaking in tongues, then, may be summed
up in the words of Blessed Augustine (Homilies on John,
VI:10): “In the earliest times the Holy Spirit fell upon them that
believed, and they spake with tongues which they had not learned,
as the Spirit gave them utterance. These were signs adapted to the
time. For it was fitting that there be this sign of the Holy Spirit
in all tongues to show that the Gospel of God was to run
through all tongues over the whole earth. That was done for a
sign, and it passed away.” And as if to answer contemporary
Pentecostals with their strange emphasis on this point, Augus-
tine continues: “Is it now expected that they upon whom hands
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are laid, should speak with tongues? Or when we imposed our

hand upon these children, did each of you wait to see whether
they would speak with tongues? And when he saw that they did
not speak with tongues, was any of you so perverse of heart as
to say, ‘These have not received the Holy Spirit.’?”
Modern Pentecostals, to justify their use of tongues, refer
most of all to St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians (chs.
12-14). But St. Paul wrote this passage precisely because
“tongues” had become a source of disorder in the Church of
Corinth; and even while he does not forbid them, he decidedly
minimizes their significance. This passage, therefore, far from
encouraging any modern revival of “tongues,” should on the
contrary discourage it—especially when one discovers (as Pen-
tecostals themselves admit) that there are other sources of
speaking in tongues besides the Holy Spirit! As Orthodox
Christians we already know that speaking in tongues as a true
gift of the Holy Spirit cannot appear among those outside the
Church of Christ; but let us look more closely at this modern
phenomenon and see if it possesses characteristics that might
reveal from what source it does come.
If we are already made suspicious by the exaggerated
importance accorded to “tongues” by modern Pentecostals, we
should be completely awakened about them when we examine
the circumstances in which they occur.
Far from being given freely and spontaneously, without
man’s interference—as are the true gifts of the Holy Spirit—
speaking in tongues can be caused to occur quite predictably
by a regular technique of concentrated group “prayer” accom-
panied by psychologically suggestive Protestant hymns (“He
comes! He comes!”), culminating in a “laying on of hands,”
and sometimes involving such purely physical efforts as repeat-
ing a given phrase over and over again (Koch, p. 24), or just
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

making sounds with the mouth. One person admits that, like
many others, after speaking in tongues, “I often did mouth
nonsense syllables in an effort to start the flow of prayer-in-
tongues” (Sherrill, p. 127); and such efforts, far from being
discouraged, are actually advocated by Pentecostals. “Making
sounds with the mouth is not ‘speaking-in-tongues,’ but it may
signify an honest act of faith, which the Holy Spirit will honor
by giving that person the power to speak in another language”
(Harper, p. 11). Another Protestant pastor says: “The initial
hurdle to speaking in tongues, it seems, is simply the realiza-
tion that you must ‘speak forth’.... The first syllables and words
may sound strange to your ear. They may be halting and
inarticulate. You may have the thought that you are just mak-
ing it up. But as you continue to speak in faith ... the Spirit will
shape for you a language of prayer and praise” (Christenson, p.
130). A Jesuit “theologian” tells how he put such advice into
practice: “After breakfast I felt almost physically drawn to the
chapel where I sat down to pray. Following Jim's description of
his own reception of the gift of tongues, I began to say quietly
to myself “la, la, la, la." To my immense consternation there
ensued a rapid movement of tongue and lips accompanied by a
tremendous feeling of inner devotion" (Gelpi, p. 1).
Can any sober Orthodox Christian possibly confuse these
dangerous psychic games with the gifts ofthe Holy Spirite! There
is clearly nothing whatever Christian, nothing spiritual here in
the least. This is the realm, rather, of psychic mechanisms
which can be set in operation by means of definite psychologi-
cal or physical techniques, and “speaking in tongues” would
seem to occupy a key role as a kind of “trigger” in this realm. In
any case, it certainly bears no resemblance whatever to the
spiritual gift described in the New Testament, and if anything
is much closer to shaministic “speaking in tongues” as practiced
127.
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

in primitive religions, where the shaman or witch doctor has a

regular technique for going into a trance and then giving a
message to or from a “god” in a tongue he has not learned.* In
the pages that follow we shall encounter “charismatic” experi-
ences so weird that the comparison with shamanism will not
seem terribly far-fetched, especially if we understand that
primitive shamanism is but a particular expression of a “reli-
gious” phenomenon which, far from being foreign to the mod-
ern West, actually plays a significant role in the lives of some
contemporary “Christians”: mediumism.

4, “Christian” Mediumism

One careful and objective study of “speaking in tongues”

has been made by the German Lutheran pastor, Dr. Kurt
Koch (The Strife of Tongues). After examining hundreds of
examples of this “gift” as manifested in the past few years, he
came to the conclusion, on Scriptural grounds, that only four
of these cases might be the same as the gift described in the
Acts of the Apostles; but he was not sure of any of them. The
Orthodox Christian, having the full patristic tradition of the
Church of Christ behind him, would be more strict in his
judgment than Dr. Koch. As against these few possibly posi-
tive cases, however, Dr. Koch found a number of cases of
undoubted demonic possession—for “speaking in tongues” is
in fact a common “gift” of the possessed. But it is in Dr.
Koch's final conclusion that we find what is perhaps the clue
to the whole movement. He concludes that the “tongues”
movement is not atall a “revival,” for there is in it little
repentance or conviction of sin, but chiefly the search for

* See Burdick, pp. 66-67.

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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

the phenomenon of tongues is not the

gift Pe badein the Acts, nor is it (in most cases) actual
demonic possession; rather, “it becomes more and more clear
that perhaps over 95% of the whole tongues movement is
mediumistic in character” (Koch, p. 35).
What is a “medium”? A medium is a person with a certain
psychic sensitivity which enables him to be the vehicle or
means for the manifestation of unseen forces or beings (where
actual beings are involved, as Starets Ambrose of Optina has
clearly stated,* these are always the fallen spirits whose realm
this is, and not the “spirits of the dead” imagined by spiritists).
Almost all non-Christian religions make large use of medium-
istic gifts, such as clairvoyance, hypnosis, “miraculous” heal-
ing, the appearance and disappearance of objects as well as
their movement from place to place, etc.
It should be noted that several similar gifts have also been
possessed by Orthodox Saints—but there is an immense differ-
ence between the true Christian gift and its se tale imita-
tion. The true Christian gift of healing, for example, is
given
by God directly in
i answerto fervent prayer, and_ orn at
the prayerof a man who is particularly pleasing to God, a
righteous man or saint (James 5:16), and also through contact
in faith with objects that have been sanctified _by God (holy
water, relics of saints, etc.; se Aco 2y Tl Kings 13:21). But
mediumistic healing, like any other mediumistic gift, is accom-
plished by means of certain definite techniques and psychic
states which can be cultivated and brought into use by practice,
and which have no relation whatever either to sanctity or to the
action of God. The mediumistic ability may be acquired either
by inheritance or by transference through contact with some-

* V.P. Bykov, Tikhie Priyuty, Moscow, 1913, pp. 168-170.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

one who has the gift, or even through the reading of occult
books.*
Many mediums claim that their powers are not at all
supernatural, but come from a part of nature about which very
little is known. To some extent this is doubtless true; but it is
also true that the realm from which these gifts come is the
special realm of the fallen spirits, who do not hesitate to use the
opportunity afforded by the people who enter this realm to
draw them into their own nets, adding their own demonic
powers and manifestations in order to lead souls to destruc-
tion. And whatever the explanation of various mediumistic
phenomena may be, God in His Revelation to mankind has
strictly forbidden any contact with this occult realm: There
shall not be found among you any one that useth divination, one
that practiseth augury, or an enchanter, ora sorcerer, or acharmer,
or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a necromancer. For whoso-
ever doeth these things is an abomination unto the Lord (Deut.
18:10-12; see also Lev. 20:6).
In practice it is impossible to combine mediumism with
genuine Christianity, the desire for mediumistic phenomena
or powers being incompatible with the basic Christian orienta-
tion toward the salvation of the soul. This is not to say that
there are not “Christians” who are involved in mediumism,
often unconsciously (as we shall see); it is only to say that they
are not genuine Christians, that their Christianity is only a
“new Christianity” such as the one Nicholas Berdyaev
preached, which will be discussed again below. Dr. Koch, even
from his Protestant background, makes a valid observation
when he notes: “A person's religious life is not harmed by

* See Kurt Koch, Occult Bondage and Deliverance, Kregel Publications,

Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1970, pp. 168-170.

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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

occultism or spiritism. Indeed spiritism is to a large extent a

‘religious’ movement. The devil does not take away our
‘religiousness’.... [But] there is a great difference between
being religious and being born again by the Spirit of God. It is
sad to say that our Christian denominations have more
‘religious’ people in them than true Christians.”*
The best-known form of mediumism in the modern West
is the spiritistic seance, where contact is made with certain
forces that produce observable effects such as knockings,
voices, various kinds of communications such as automatic
writing and speaking in unknown tongues, the moving of
objects, and the apparition of hands and “human” figures that
can sometimes be photographed. These effects are produced
with the aid of definite attitudes and techniques on the part of
those present, concerning which we shall here quote one of the
standard textbooks on the subject.**
1. Passivity: “A spirit’s activity is measured by the degree
of passivity or submissiveness which he finds in the sensitive,
or medium.” “Mediumship ... by diligent cultivation may be
attained by anyone who deliberately yields up his body, with
his free will, and sensitive and intellectual faculties, to an
invading or controlling spirit.”
2. Solidarity in faith: All present must have a “sympathetic

* Kurt Koch, Between Christ and Satan, Kregel Publications, 1962, p. 124.
This book and Dr. Koch’s Occult Bondage offer a remarkable confirmation,
based on 20th-century experience, of virtually every manifestation of
mediumism, magic, sorcery, etc., that is found in the Holy Scriptures and
the Orthodox Lives of Saints—the source of all of which, of course, is the
devil. On only a few points will the Orthodox reader have to correct his
interpretations.
** Simon A. Blackmore, S. J., Spiritism Facts and Frauds, Benziger Bros.,
New York, 1924: Chapter IV, “Mediums,” pp. 89-105 passim.
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

attitude of mind in support of the medium”; the spiritistic

phenomena are “facilitated by a certain sympathy arising from
a harmony of ideas, views and sentiment existing between the
experimenters and the medium. When this sympathy and har-
mony, as well as the personal surrender of the will, are wanting
in the members of the ‘circle, the seance proves a failure.”
Also, “the number of experimenters is of great importance. If
larger, they impede the harmony so necessary for success.”
3. All present “join hands to form the so-called magnetic
circle. By this closed circuit, each member contributes the
energy of a certain force which is collectively communicated to
the medium.” However, the “magnetic circle” is required only
in less well-developed mediums. Mme. Blavatsky, the founder
of modern “theosophy,” herself amedium, later laughed at the
crude techniques of spiritism when she encountered much
more powerful mediums in the East, to which category also
belongs the fakir described in Chapter HI.
4, “The necessary spiritistic atmosphere is commonly in-
duced by artificial means, such as the singing of hymns, the
playing of soft music, and even the offering of prayer.”
The spiritistic seance, to be sure, is a rather crude form of
mediumism—although for that very reason its techniques are
all the more evident—and only rarely does it produce spectac-
ular results. There are other more subtle forms, some of them
going under the name of “Christian.” To realize this one need
only look at the techniques of a “faith-healer” such as Oral
Roberts (who until joining the Methodist church a few years
ago was a minister ofthe Pentecostal Holiness sect), who causes
“miraculous” healings by forming an actual “magnetic circle”
composed of people with the proper sympathy, passivity, and
harmony of “faith” who put their hands on the television set
while he is on the air; the healings can even be brought about
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

by drinking a glass of water that has been placed on the

television set and has thus absorbed the flow of mediumistic
forces that have been brought into action. But such healings,
like those produced by spiritism and witchcraft, can take a
heavy toll in later psychic, not to mention spiritual, disorders.*
In this realm one must be very careful, because the devil is
constantly aping the works of God, and many people with
mediumistic gifts continue to think they are Christians and
that their gifts come from the Holy Spirit. But is it possible to
say that this is true of the “charismatic revival’—that it is in
fact, as some say, primarily a form of mediumism?
In applying the most obvious tests for mediumism to the
“charismatic revival,” one is struck first of all by the fact that
the chief prerequisites for the spiritistic seance described above
are all present at “charismatic” prayer meetings, whereas not
one of these characteristics is present in the same form or
degree in the true Christian worship of the Orthodox Church.
1. The “passivity” of the spiritistic seance corresponds to
what “charismatic” writers call “a kind of Jetting go.... This
involves more than the dedication of one’s conscious existence
through an act of will; it also refers to a large, even hidden area
of one’s unconscious life.... All that can be done is to offer the
self—body, mind, and even the tongue—so that the Spirit of
God may have full possession.... Such persons are ready—the
barriers are down and God moves mightily upon and through
their whole being” (Williams, pp. 62-63; italics in the origi-
nal). Such a “spiritual” attitude is not that of Christianity: it is
rather the attitude of Zen Buddhism, Eastern “mysticism,”
hypnosis, and spiritism. Such an exaggerated passivity is en-
tirely foreign to Orthodox spirituality, and is only an open

* On Oral Roberts, see Kurt Koch, Occult Bondage, pp. 52-55.

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invitation to the activity of deceiving spirits. One sympathetic

observer notes that at Pentecostal meetings people speaking in
tongues or interpreting “seem almost to go into a trance”
(Sherrill, p. 87). This passivity is so pronounced in some “char-
ismatic” communities that they completely abolish the church
organization and any set order of services and do absolutely
everything as the “spirit” directs.
2. There is a definite “solidarity in faith’—and not merely
solidarity in Christian faith and hope for salvation, but a specific
unanimity in the desire for and expectation of “charismatic”
phenomena. This is true of all “charismatic” prayer meetings; but
an even more pronounced solidarity is required for the experi-
ence of the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” which is usually
performed in a small separate room in the presence of only a few
who have already had the experience. The presence of even one
person who has negative thoughts about the experience is often
sufficient to cause the “Baptism” not to occur—exactly in the
way that the misgivings and the prayer of the Orthodox priest
described above (pp. 68-69) was enough to break up the
impressive illusion produced by the Ceylonese fakir.
3. The spiritistic “magnetic circle” corresponds to the
Pentecostal “laying on of hands,” which is always done by
those who themselves have already experienced the “Baptism”
with speaking in tongues, and who serve, in the words of
Pentecostals themselves, as “channels of the Holy Spirit” (Wil-
liams, p. 64)—a word used by spiritists to refer to mediums.
4. The “charismatic,” like the spiritistic, “atmosphere” is
induced by means of suggestive hymns and prayers, and often
also by hand-clapping, all of which give “an effect of mounting
excitement, and almost intoxicating quality” (Sherrill, p. 23).
It may still be objected that all those similarities between
mediumism and Pentecostalism are only coincidental; and in-

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deed, in order to show whether or not the “charismatic revival”

is actually mediumistic, we shall have to determine what kind
of “spirit” it is that is communicated through the Pentecostal
“channels.” A number of testimonies by those who have expe-
rienced it—and who believe that it is the Holy Spirit—point
clearly to its nature. “he group moved closer around me. It
was as if they were forming with their bodies a funnel through
which was concentrated the flow of the Spirit that was pulsing
through the room. It flowed into me as I sat there” (Sherrill, p.
122). At a Catholic Pentecostal prayer meeting, “upon enter-
ing a room one was practically struck dead by the strong visible
presence of God” (Ranaghan, p. 79). (Compare the “vibrant”
atmosphere at some pagan and Hindu rites; see above, pg. 50.)
Another man describes his “Baptismal” experience: “I became
aware that the Lord was in the room and that He was ap-
proaching me. I couldn't see Him, but I felt myself being
pushed over on my back. I seemed to float to the floor....”
(Logos Journal, Nov.-Dec., 1971, p. 47). Other similar exam-
ples will be given below in the discussion of the physical
accompaniments of “charismatic” experience. This “pulsing,”
“visible,” “pushing” spirit that “approaches” and “flows”
would seem to confirm the mediumistic character of the “char-
ismatic” movement. Certainly the Holy Spirit could never be
described in these ways!
And let us recall a strange characteristic of “charismatic”
speaking in tongues that we have already mentioned: that it is
given not only at the initial experience of the “Baptism of the
Holy Spirit,” but is supposed to be continued (both in private
and public) and become an “essential accompaniment” of reli-
gious life, or else the “gifts of the Spirit” may cease. One
Presbyterian “charismatic” writer speaks of the specific function
of this practice in “preparing” for “charismatic” meetings:
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

“Often it is the case that ... a small group will spend time ahead
praying in the Spirit [i.e., in tongues]. In so doing there is
greatly multiplied the sense of God’s presence and power that
carries over into the gathering.” And again: “We find that quiet
praying in the Spirit during that meeting helps to maintain an
openness to God’s presence ... [for] after one has become
accustomed to praying in tongues aloud ... it soon becomes a
possibility for one’s breath, moving across vocal chords and
tongue, to manifest the Spirit's breathing, and thereby for
prayer to go on quietly, yet profoundly, within” (Williams, p.
31). Let us remember also that speaking in tongues can be
triggered by such artificial devices as “making sounds with the
mouth”—and we come to the inevitable conclusion that “char-
ismatic” speaking in tongues is not a “gift” at all but a technique,
itself acquired by other techniques and in turn triggering still
other “gifts of the Spirit,” fone continues to practice and cultivate
it. Do we not have here a clue to the chief actual accomplish-
ment of the modern Pentecostal Movement—that it has discov-
ered a new mediumistic technique for entering into and preserving
a psychic state wherein miraculous “gifts” become commonplace? If
this is true, then the “charismatic” definition of the “laying on
of hands”—"the simple ministry by one or more persons who
themselves are channels of the Holy Spirit to others not yet so
blessed," in which “the important thing [is] that those who
minister have themselves experienced the movement of the
Holy Spirit” (Williams, p. 64)—describes precisely the transfer-
ence of the mediumistic gift by those who have already acquired it
and have themselves become mediums. The “Baptism of the Holy
Spirit” thus becomes mediumistic initiation.
Indeed, if the “charismatic revival” is actually a medium-
istic movement, much that is unclear about it if it is viewed as
a Christian movement, becomes clear. The movement arises in
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

America, which fifty years before had given birth to spiritism in

a similar psychological climate: a dead, rationalized Protestant
faith is suddenly overwhelmed by actual experience of an invis-
ible “power” that cannot be rationally or scientifically ex-
plained. The movement is most successful in those countries
which have a substantial history of spiritism or mediumism:
America and England, first of all, then Brazil, Japan, the Phil-
ippines, black Africa. There is scarcely to be found an example
of “speaking in tongues” in any even nominally Christian
context for over 1,600 years after the time of St. Paul (and even
then it is an isolated and short-lived hysterical phenomenon),
precisely until the 20th-century Pentecostal Movement, as the
scholarly historian of religious “enthusiasm” has pointed out;*
and yet this “gift” is possessed by numerous shamans and witch
doctors of primitive religions, as well as by modern spiritistic
mediums and the demonically possessed. The “prophecies” and
“interpretations” at “charismatic” services, as we shall see, are
strangely vague and stereotyped in expression, without specific-
ally Christian or prophetic content. Doctrine is subordinated to
practice: the motto of both movements might be, as “charis-
matic” enthusiasts say over and over again, “Zt works’—the very
trap into which, as we have seen, Hinduism leads its victims.
There can scarcely be any doubt that the “charismatic revival,”
as far as its phenomena are concerned, bears a much closer
resemblance to spiritism and in general to non-Christian reli-
gion, than it does to Orthodox Christianity. But we shall have
yet to give many examples to demonstrate just how crue this is.
Up to this point we have been quoting, apart from Dr.
Koch’s statements, only from those favorable to the “charis-

* Ronald A. Knox, Enthusiasm, A Chapter in the History ofReligion, Oxford

(Galaxy Book), 1961, pp. 550-551.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

matic revival,” who only give their testimonies of what they

imagine to be the workings of the Holy Spirit. Now let us
quote the testimony of several people who have left the “char-
ismatic” movement, or refused to enter it, because they found
that the “spirit” that animates it is zot the Holy Spirit.
1. “In Leicester (England) a young man reported the
following. He and his friend had been believers for some years
when one day they were invited to the meeting of a tongues-
speaking group. The atmosphere of the meeting got a hold on
them and afterwards they prayed for the second blessing and
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. After intensive prayer it was as
if something hot came over them. They felt very excited inside.
For a few weeks they reveled in this new experience, but slowly
these waves of feeling abated. The man who told me this
noticed that he had lost all desire to read the Bible and to pray.
He examined his experience in the light of the Scriptures and
realized that it was not of God. He repented and denounced
it.... His friend on the other hand continued in these ‘tongues’
and it destroyed him. Today he will not even consider the idea
of going on further as a Christian” (Koch, p. 28).
2. Two Protestant ministers went to a “charismatic”
prayer meeting at a Presbyterian church in Hollywood. “Both
of us agreed beforehand that when the first person started to
speak in tongues, we would pray roughly the following, ‘Lord,
if this gift is from you, bless this brother, but if it is not of you,
then stop it and let there be no other praying in tongues in our
presence.’ ... A young man began the meeting with a short
devotion after which it was open for prayer. A woman started
to pray fluencly in a foreign language without any stammering
or hesitation. An interpretation was not given. The Rev. B. and
I started to pray quietly as we had agreed earlier. What hap-
pened? No one else spoke in tongues, although usually in these
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

meetings all of them, except for an architect, pray in unknown

tongues” (Koch, p. 15). Note here that in the absence of the
mediumistic solidarity of faith, the phenomena do not appear.
3. “In San Diego, California, a woman came for counsel-
ing. She told me of a bad experience that she had had during a
mission held by a member of the tongues movement. She had
gone to his meetings in which he had spoken about the neces-
sity of the gift of tongues, and in an after-meeting she had
allowed hands to be laid on herself in order to receive the
baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gift of speaking in tongues.
At that moment she fell down unconscious. On coming round
again she found herself lying on the floor with her mouth still
opening and shutting itself automatically without a word being
uttered. She was terribly frightened. Standing around her were
some of the people who were followers of this evangelist and
they exclaimed, “O sister, you have really spoken wonderfully
in tongues. Now you have the Holy Spirit.’ But the victim of
this so-called baptism of the Holy Spirit was cured. She never
again returned to this group of tongues-speakers. When she
came to me for advice she was still suffering from the bad
after-effects of this ‘spiritual baptism” (Koch, p. 26).
4, An Orthodox Christian in California relates a private
encounter with a “spirit-filled” minister who has shared the
same platform with the leading Catholic, Protestant, and Pen-
tecostal representatives of the “charismatic revival”: “For five
hours he spoke in tongues and used every artifice (psychologi-
cal, hypnotic, and ‘laying on ofhands’) to induce those present
to receive the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit.’ The scene was really
terrible. When he laid hands on our friend she made guttural
sounds, moaned, wept, and screamed. He was well pleased by
this. He said she was suffering for others—interceding for
them. When he ‘laid hands’ on my head there was a presenti-
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

ment of real evil. His ‘tongues’ were interspersed with English:

‘You have the gift of prophecy, I can feel it.’ ‘Just open your
mouth and it will flow out.’ “You are blocking the Holy Spirit.’
By the grace of God | kept my mouth shut, but I am quite
certain that if Ihad spoken, someone else would have ‘inter-
preted.” (Private communication.)
5. Readers of The Orthodox Word will recall the account of
the “prayer-vigil” held by the Syrian Antiochian Archdiocese of
New York at its convention in Chicago in August, 1970,
where, after a dramatic and emotional atmosphere had been
built up, young people began to “testify” how the “spirit” was
moving them. But several people who were present related later
that the atmosphere was “dark and ominous,” “stifling,” “dark
and evil,” and by a miraculous intercession of St. Herman of
Alaska, whose icon was present in the room, the whole meeting
was broken up and the evil atmosphere dispelled (7he Ortho-
dox Word, 1970, nos. 4-5, pp. 196-199).
There are numerous other cases in which people have lost
interest in prayer, reading the Scriptures, and Christianity in
general, and have even come to believe, as one student did,
that “he would not need to read the Bible any more. God the
Father would himself appear and speak to him” (Koch, p. 29).
We shall yet have occasion to quote the testimony of
many people who do not find anything negative or evil in their
“charismatic” experience, and we shall examine the meaning of
their testimony. However, without yet reaching a conclusion as
to the precise nature of the “spirit” that causes “charismatic”
phenomena, on the basis of the evidence here gathered we can
already agree this far with Dr. Koch: “The tongues movement
is the expression of a delirious condition through which a
breaking in of demonic powers manifests itself” (Koch, p. 47).
That is, the movement, which is certainly “delirious” in giving
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

itself over to the activity of a “spirit” that is not the Holy Spirit,
is not demonic in intention or in itself (as contemporary oc-
cultism and satanism certainly are), but by its nature it lays
itself particularly open to the manifestation of obvious de-
monic forces, which do in fact sometimes appear.
This book has been read by a number of people who have
participated in the “charismatic revival”; many of them have
then abandoned this movement, recognizing that the spirit they
had experienced in “charismatic” phenomena was not the Holy
Spirit. To such people, involved in the “charismatic” move-
ment, who are now reading this book, we wish to say: You may
well feel that your experience in the “charismatic” movement
has been largely something good (even though you may have
reservations about some things you have seen or experienced in
it); you may well be unable to believe that there is anything
demonic in it. In suggesting that the “charismatic” movement
is mediumistic in inspiration, we do not mean to deny the whole
of your experience while involved in it. If you have been
awakened to repentance for your sins, to the realization that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour of mankind, to sincere love for
God and your neighbor—all of this is indeed good and would
not be lost by abandoning the “charismatic” movement. But if
you think that your experience of “speaking in tongues,” or
“prophesying,” or whatever else of the “supernatural” that you
may have experienced, is from God—then this book is an
invitation for you to find out that the realm of true Christian
spiritual experience is much deeper than you have felt up to
now, that the wiles of the devil are much more subtle than you
may have imagined, that the willingness of our fallen human
nature to mistake illusion for truth, emotional comfort for
spiritual experience, is much greater than you think. The next
section of this chapter will discuss this in detail.
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

As to the precise nature of the “tongues” that are being

spoken today, probably no simple answer can be given. We
know quite certainly that in Pentecostalism, just as in spiritism,
the elements of both fraud and suggestion play no small role,
under the sometimes intense pressures applied in “charismatic”
circles to force the phenomena to appear. Thus, one member of
the largely Pentecostal “Jesus Movement” testifies that when he
spoke in tongues “it was just an emotional build-up thing where
I mumbled a bunch of words,” and another frankly admits,
“When I first became a Christian the people that I was with told
me that you had to do it. So I prayed that I could do it, and I
went as far as copying off them so they would think that I had
the gift” (Ortega, p. 49). Some of the supposed “tongues” are
thus doubtless not genuine, or at best the product ofsuggestion
under conditions of emotional near-hysteria. However, there
are actually documented cases of Pentecostal speaking in an
unlearned language (Sherrill, pp. 90-95); there is also the testi-
mony of many concerning the ease and assurance and calmness
(without any hysterical conditions at all) with which they can
enter into the state of “speaking in tongues”; and there is a
distinctly preternatural character in the related phenomenon of
“singing in tongues,” where the “spirit” also inspires the melody
and many join in to produce an effect that is variously described
as “eerie but extraordinarily beautiful” (Sherrill, p. 118) and
“unimaginable, humanly impossible” (Williams, p. 33). It
would therefore seem evident that no merely psychological or
emotional explanation can account for much ofthe phenomena
of contemporary “tongues.” If it is not due to the working of
the Holy Spirit—and by now it is abundantly evident that it
could not be so—then today’s “speaking in tongues” as an
authentic “supernatural” phenomenon can only be the manifes-
tation of a gift of some other spirit.
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

To identify this “spirit” more precisely, and to understand

the “charismatic” movement more fully, not only in its phe-
nomena but also in its “spirituality,” we shall have to draw
more deeply from the sources of Orthodox tradition. And first
of all we shall have to return to a teaching of the Orthodox
ascetic tradition that has already been discussed in this series of
articles, in explanation of the power which Hinduism holds
over its devotees: prelest, or spiritual deception.

<
5. Spiritual Deception

The concept of prelest, a key one in Orthodox ascetical

teaching, is completely absent in the Protestant-Catholic world
which produced the “charismatic” movement; and this fact
explains why such an obvious deception can gain such a hold
over nominally “Christian” circles, and also why a “prophet”
like Nicholas Berdyaev who comes from an Orthodox back-
ground should regard it as absolutely essential that in the “new
age of the Holy Spirit” “there will be no more of the ascetic
world-view.” The reason is obvious: the Orthodox ascetic world
view gives the only means by which men, having received the
Holy Spirit at their Baptism and Chrismation, may truly con-
tinue to acquire the Holy Spirit in their lives; and it teaches
how to distinguish and guard oneself against spiritual decep-
tion. The “new spirituality” of which Berdyaev dreamed and
which the “charismatic revival” actually practices, has an en-
tirely different foundation and is seen to be a fraud in the light
of the Orthodox ascetical teaching. Therefore, there is not
room for both conceptions in the same spiritual universe: to
accept the “new spirituality” of the “charismatic revival,” one
must reject Orthodox Christianity; and conversely, to remain

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

an Orthodox Christian, one must reject the “charismatic re-

vival,” which is a counterfeit of Orthodoxy.
To make this quite clear, in what follows we shall give the
teaching of the Orthodox Church on spiritual deception chiefly
as found in the 19th-century summation of this teaching made
by Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov, himselfan Orthodox Father
of modern times, in volume one of his collected works.
es (- There are two basic forms of prelest or spiritual deception.
L The first and more spectacular form occurs when_a_person
) strives for a high spiritual state or spiritual visions without
== been purified of passions and relying on his own judg-
ment. To such a one the devil grants great “visions.” There are
y many such examples in the Lives of Saints, one of the primary
textbooks of Orthodox ascetical teaching. Thus St. Nicetas,
Bishop of Novgorod (Jan. 31), entered on the solitary life
unprepared and against the counsel of his abbot, and soon he
\7 heard a voice praying with him. Then “the Lord” spoke to him
and sent an “angel” to pray in his place and to instruct him to
\? | read books instead of praying, and to teach those who came to
him. This he did, always seeing the “angel” near him praying,
\\

and the people were astonished at his spiritual wisdom and the
“gifts of the Holy Spirit” which he seemed to possess, includ-
ing “prophecies” which were always fulfilled. The deceit was
uncovered only when the fathers of the monastery found out
about his aversion for the New Testament (although the Old
Testament, which he had never read, he could quote by heart),
and by their prayers he was brought to repentance, his “mira-
cles” ceased, and later he attained to genuine sanctity. Again,
St. Isaac of the Kiev Caves (Feb. 14) saw a great light and
“Christ” appeared to him with “angels”; when Isaac, without
making the sign of the Cross, bowed down before “Christ,” the
demons gained power over him and, after dancing wildly with
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

him, left him all but dead. He also later attained genuine
sanctity. There are many similar cases when “Christ” and “an-
gels” appeared to ascetics and granted astonishing powers and
“gifts of the Holy Spirit,” which often led the deluded ascetic
finally to insanity or suicide.
But there is another more common, less spectacular form
of spiritual deception, which offers to its victims not great
visions but just exalted “religious feelings.” This occurs, as
Bishop Ignatius has written, “when the heart desires and strives
for the enjoyment of holy and divine feelings while it is still
completely unfit for them. Everyone who does not have a
contrite spirit, who recognizes any kind of merit or worth in
himself, who does not hold unwaveringly the teaching of the
Orthodox Church but on some tradition or other has thought
out his own arbitrary judgment or has followed a non-Ortho-
dox teaching—is in this state of deception.” The Roman Cath-
olic Church has whole spiritual manuals written by people in
this state; such is Thomas a Kempis’ /mitation of Christ. Bishop
Ignatius says of it: “There reigns in this book and breathes
from its pages the unction of the evil spirit, flattering the
reader, intoxicating him.... The book conducts the reader di-
rectly to communion with God, without previous purification
by repentance.... From it carnal people enter into rapture from
a delight and intoxication attained without difficulty, without
self-renunciation, without repentance, without crucifixion of
the flesh with its passions and desires (Gal. 5:24), with flattery of
their fallen state.” And the result, as ILM. Kontzevitch, the
great transmitter of patristic teaching, has written,* is that “the
ascetic, striving to kindle in his heart love for God while
neglecting repentance, exerts himself to attain a feeling of

* See The Orthodox Word, 1965, no. 4, pp. 155-158.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

delight, of ecstasy, and as a result he attains precisely the

opposite: ‘he enters into communion with satan and becomes
infected with hatred for the Holy Spirit’ (Bishop Ignatius).”
And this is the actual state in which the followers of the
“charismatic revival,” even without suspecting it, find them-
selves. This may be seen most clearly by examining their expe-
riences and views, point by point, against the teaching of the
Orthodox Fathers as set forth by Bishop Ignatius.

A. Attitude toward “Spiritual” Experiences

Having little or no foundation in the genuine sources of

Christian spiritual experience—the Holy Mysteries of the
Church, and the spiritual teaching handed down by the Holy
Fathers from Christ and His Apostles—the followers of the
“charismatic” movement have no means of distinguishing the
grace of God from its counterfeit. All “charismatic” writers
show, to a lesser or greater degree, a lack of caution and
discrimination toward the experiences they have. Some Catho-
lic Pentecostals, to be sure, “exorcise satan” before asking for
“Baptism in the Spirit”; but the efficacy of this act, as will soon
be evident from their own testimony, is similar to that of the
Jews in the Acts (19:15), to whose “exorcism” the evil spirit
replied: Jesus Iknow, and PaulIknow; but who are you? St. John
Cassian, the great Sth-century Orthodox father of the West,
who wrote with great discernment on the working of the Holy
Spirit in his Conference on “Divine Gifts,” notes that “some-
times the demons [work miracles] in order to lift into pride the
man who believes himself to possess the miraculous gift, and so
prepare him for a more miraculous fall. They pretend that they
are being burnt up and driven out from the bodies where they
were dwelling through the holiness of people whom truly they
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

know to be unholy.... In the Gospel we read: There shall arise

false Christs and false prophets...” *
The 18th-century Swedish “visionary,” Emanuel Sweden-
borg—who was a strange forerunner of today’s occult and
“spiritual” revival—had extensive experience with spiritual be-
ings, whom he frequently saw and communicated with. He
distinguished two kinds ofspirits, the “good” and the “evil”; his
experience has been recently confirmed by the findings of a
clinical psychologist in his work with “hallucinating” patients
in a state mental hospital in Ukiah, California. This psycholo-
gist took seriously the voices heard by his patients and under-
took a series of “dialogues” with them (through the
intermediary of the patients themselves). He concluded, like
Swedenborg, that there are two very different kinds of “beings”
who have entered into contact with the patients: the “higher”
and the “lower.” In his own words: “Lower-order voices are
similar to drunken bums at a bar who like to tease and torment
just for the fun of it. They suggest lewd acts and then scold the
patient for considering them. They find a weak point of con-
science and work on it interminably.... The vocabulary and
range of ideas of the lower order is limited, but they have a
persistent will to destroy.... They work on every weakness and
belief; claim awesome powers, lie, make promises, and then
undermine the patient’ will.... All of the lower order are
irreligious or antireligious.... To one person they appeared as
conventional devils and referred to themselves as demons....
“In direct contrast stand the rarer higher-order hallucina-
tions.... This contrast may be illustrated by the experience of
one man. He had heard the lower order arguing for a long

* Conference XV:2, in Owen Chadwick, Western Asceticism, Philadelphia,

Westminster Press, 1958, p. 258.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

while about how they would murder him. (But) he also had a
light come to him at night, like the sun. He knew it was a
different order because the light respected his freedom and
would withdraw if it frightened him.... When the man was
encouraged to approach his friendly sun he entered a world of
powerful numinous experiences.... [Once] a very powerful
and impressive Christ-like figure appeared.... Some patients
experience both the higher and lower orders at various times
and feel caught between a private heaven and hell. Many only
know the attacks of the lower order. The higher order claims
power over the lower order and, indeed, shows it at times, but
not enough to give peace of mind to most patients.... The
higher order appeared strangely gifted, sensitive, wise, and
religious.’*
Any reader of the Orthodox Lives of Saints and other
spiritual literature knows that all of these spirits—both “good”
and “evil,” the “lower” with the “higher”—are equally demons,
and that the discernment between true good spirits (angels)
and these evil spirits cannot be made on the basis of one’s own
feelings or impressions. The widespread practice of “exorcism”
in “charismatic” circles offers no guarantee whatever that evil
spirits are actually being driven out; exorcisms are also very
common (and seemingly successful) among primitive sha-
mans,** who also recognize that there are different kinds of
spirits—which are all, however, equally demons, whether they
seem to flee when exorcised or come when invoked to give
shamanistic powers.
* Wilson Van Dusen, The Presence ofOther Worlds, Harper and Row, New
York, 1974, pp. 120-125.
™* See I. H. Lewis, Festatic Religion, An Anthropological Study of Spirit
Possession and Shamanism, Penguin Books, Baltimore, 1971, pp- 45, 88, 156,
etc., and illustration 9.

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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

No one will deny that the “charismatic” movement on

the whole is firmly oriented against contemporary occultism
and satanism. But the more subtle of the evil spirits appear as
“angels of light” (II Cor. 11:14), and a great gift of discern-
ment, together with a deep distrust of all one’s extraordinary
“spiritual” experiences, is required if a person is not to be
deceived. In the face of the subtle, invisible enemies who wage
unseen warfare against the human race, the naively trusting
attitude towards their experiences of most people involved in
the “charismatic” movement is an open invitation to spiritual
deception., One pastor, for example, counsels meditation on
Scriptural passages and then writing down any thought “trig-
gered” by the reading: “This is the Holy Spirit’s personal mes-
sage to you” (Christenson, p. 139). But any serious student of ( :
Christian spirituality knows that, for example, “at the begin-
ning of the monastic life some of the unclean demons instruct
[novices] in the interpretation of the Divine Scriptures ..
gradually deceiving them that they may lead them into heresy
and blasphemy” (The Ladder of St. John, Step 26:152).
Sadly, the attitude of the Orthodox followers of the “char-
ismatic revival” seems no more discerning than that of Catho-
lics and Protestants. They obviously do not know well the
Crthodox Fathers or Lives of Saints, and when they do quote a
rare Father, it is often out of context (see later concerning St.
Seraphim). The “charismatic” appeal is chiefly one to expert-
ence. One Orthodox priest writes: “Some have dared to label
this experience ‘prelest—spiritual pride. No one who has en-
countered the Lord in this way could fall into this delusion”
(Logos, April, 1972, p. 10). But it is a very rare Orthodox
Christian who is capable of distinguishing very subtle forms of
spiritual deception (where “pride,” for example, may take the
form of “humility”) solely on the basis of his feeling about
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

them without reference to the patristic tradition; only one who

has already fully assimilated the patristic tradition into his own
thought and practice and has attained great sanctity can pre-
sume to do this.
How is the Orthodox Christian prepared to withstand
deception? He has the whole body of God-inspired patristic
writings which, together with Holy Scripture, present the judg-
ment of Christ’s Church for 1900 years with regard to virtually
every conceivable spiritual and pseudo-spiritual experience.
Later we shall see that this tradition has a very definite judgment
precisely on the chief question the “charismatic” movement
raises: concerning the possibility of a new and widespread
“outpouring ofthe Holy Spirit” in the last days. But even before
consulting the Fathers on specific questions, the Orthodox
Christian is protected against deception by the very knowledge
that such deception not only exists, but is everywhere, including
within himself. Bishop Ignatius writes: “We are all in deception.
The knowledge of this is the greatest preventative against decep-
tion. It is the greatest deception to acknowledge oneself to be
free of deception.” He quotes St. Gregory the Sinaite, who
warns us: “It is nota little labor to attain the truth precisely and
to make oneself pure of everything that opposes grace; because
it is usual for the devil to show his deception, especially to
beginners, in the form oftruth, giving a spiritual appearance to
what is evil.” And “God is not angry at him who, fearing
deception, watches over himself with extreme caution, even if
he should not accept something which is sent from God.... On
the contrary, God praises such a one for his good sense.”
Thus, totally unprepared for spiritual warfare, unaware
that there is such a thing as spiritual deception of the most
subtle sort (as opposed to obvious forms of occultism), the
Catholic or Protestant or uninformed Orthodox Christian
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

goes to a prayer meeting to be “baptized (or filled) with the

Holy Spirit.” The atmosphere of the meeting is extremely
loose, being intentionally left “open” to the activity of some
“spirit.” Thus do Catholics (who profess to be more cautious
than Protestants) describe some of their Pentecostal gatherings:
“There seemed to be no barriers, no inhibitions.... They sat
cross-legged on the floor. Ladies in slacks. White-robed monk.
Cigarette smokers. Coffee drinkers. Praying in free-form.... It
occurred to me that these people were having a good time
praying! Is that what they meant by the Holy Spirit dwelling
amongst them?” And at another Catholic Pentecostal meeting,
“except for the fact that no one was drinking, it seemed like a
cocktail party” (Ranaghan, pp. 157, 209). At interdenomina-
tional “charismatic” meetings the atmosphere is likewise suffi-
ciently informal that no one is surprised when the “spirit”
inspires an elderly woman, in the midst of a fit of general
weeping, to stand up and “dance a little jig” (Sherrill, p. 118).
To the sober Orthodox Christian, the first thing noticeable
about such an atmosphere is its total lack of what he knows in
his own Divine services as genuine piety and awe, proceeding
from the fear of God. And this first impression is only strik-
ingly confirmed by observation of the truly strange effects
which the Pentecostal “spirit” produces when it descends into
this loose atmosphere. We shall now examine some of these
effects, placing them before the judgment of the Holy Fathers
of the Church of Christ.

B. Physical Accompaniments of “Charismatic” Experience

One of the commonest responses to the experience of the

“Baptism of the Holy Spirit” is daughter. One Catholic testifies:
“I was so joyful that all I could do was laugh as I lay on the
ISI
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

floor” (Ranaghan, p. 28). Another Catholic: “The sense of the

presence and love of God was so strong that I can remember
sitting in the chapel for a half hour just laughing out of joy
over the love of God” (Ranaghan, p. 64). A Protestant testifies
that at his “Baptism” “I started laughing.... I just wanted to
laugh and laugh the way you do when you feel so good you just
can’t talk about it. I held my sides and laughed until I doubled
over” (Sherrill, p. 113). Another Protestant: “The new tongue
I was given was intermingled with waves of mirth in which
every fear I had just seemed to roll away. It was a tongue of
laughter” (Sherrill, p. 115). An Orthodox priest, Fr. Eusebius
Stephanou, writes: “I could not conceal the broad smile on my
face that any minute could have broken out into laughter—a
laughter of the Holy Spirit stirring in me a refreshing release”
(Logos, April, 1972, p. 4).
Many, many examples could be collected of this truly
strange reaction to a “spiritual” experience, and some “charis-
matic” apologists have a whole philosophy of“spiritual joy” and
“God’s foolishness” to explain it. But this philosophy is not in
the least Christian; such a concept as the “laughter of the Holy
Spirit” is unheard of in the whole history of Christian thought
and experience. Here perhaps more clearly than anywhere else
the “charismatic revival” reveals itself as not at all Christian in
religious orientation; this experience is purely worldly and
pagan, and where it cannot be explained in terms of emotional
hysteria (for Fr. Eusebius, indeed, laughter provided “relief” and
“release” from “an intense feeling of self-consciousness and
embarrassment” and “emotional devastation”), it can only be
due to some degree of “possession” by one or more of the pagan
gods, which the Orthodox church calls demons. Here, for
example, is a comparable “initiation” experience of a pagan
Eskimo shaman: Not finding initiation, “I would sometimes
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

fall to weeping and feel unhappy without knowing why. Then

for no reason all would suddenly be changed, and I felt a great,
inexplicable joy, a joy so powerful that I could not restrain it,
but had to break into song, a mighty song, with room for only
one word: joy, joy! And I had to use the full strength of my
voice. And then in the midst of such a fit of mysterious and
overwhelming delight I became a shaman.... I could see and
hear in a totally different way. I had gained my enlightenment
... and it was not only I who could see through the darkness of
life, but the same bright light also shone out of me ... and all
the spirits of earth and sky and sea now came to me and became
my helping spirits” (Lewis, Ecstatic Religion, p. 37).
It is not surprising that unsuspecting “Christians,” having
deliberately laid themselves open to a similar pagan experience,
would still interpret it as a “Christian” experience; psychologi-
cally they are still Christians, although spiritually they have
entered the realm of distinctly non-Christian attitudes and
practices. What is the judgment of the Orthodox ascetic tradi-
tion concerning such a thing as a “laughter of the Holy Spirit?”
Sts. Barsanuphius and John, the 6th-century ascetics, give the
unequivocal Orthodox answer in reply to an Orthodox monk
who was plagued by this problem (Answer 451): “In the fear of
God there is no laughter. The Scripture says of the foolish, that
they raise their voice in laughter (Sirach 21:23); and the word of
the foolish is always disturbed and deprived of grace.” St.
Ephraim the Syrian just as clearly teaches: “Laughter and fa-
miliarity are the beginning of a soul’s corruption. If you see
these in yourself, know that you have come to the depths of
evils. Do not cease to pray God that He will deliver you from
this death.... Laughter removes from us that blessing which 1s
promised to those who mourn (Matt. 5:4) and destroys what
has been built up. Laughter offends the Holy Spirit, gives no
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

benefit to the soul, dishonors the body. Laughter drives out

virtues, has no remembrance of death or thought of tortures”
(Philokalia, Russian edition, Moscow, 1913: vol. 2, p. 448). Is
it not evident how far astray ignorance of basic Christianity
can lead one?
At least as common as laughter as a response to charis-
matic “Baptism” is its psychologically close relative, tears.
These occur to individuals and, quite often, to whole groups at
once (in this case quite apart from the experience of “Bap-
tism”), spreading infectiously for no apparent reason at all (see
Sherrill, pp. 109, 117). “Charismatic” writers do not find the
reason for this in the “conviction of sin” that produces such
results at Protestant revivals; they give no reason at all, and
there seems to be none, except that this experience simply
comes upon one who is exposed to the “charismatic” atmo-
sphere. The Orthodox Fathers, as Bishop Ignatius notes, teach
that tears often accompany the second form of spiritual decep-
tion. St. John of the Ladder, telling of the many different
causes of tears, some good and some bad, warns: “Do not trust
your fountains of tears before your soul has been perfectly
purified” (Step 7:35); and of one kind of tears he states defi-
nitely: “Tears without thought are proper only to an irrational
nature and not to a rational one” (7:17).
Besides laughter and tears, and often together with them,
there are a number of other physical reactions to the “Baptism
of the Holy Spirit,” including warmth, many kinds oftrembling
and contortions, and falling to the floor. All the examples given
here, it should be emphasized, are those ofordinary Protestants
and Catholics, and not at all those of any Pentecostal extremists,
whose experiences are much more spectacular and unrestrained.
“When hands were laid on me, immediately it felt as if my
whole chest were trying to rise into my head. My lips started
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

trembling, and my brain started turning flips. Then I started

grinning” (Ranaghan, p. 67). Another was “without emotion
following the event, but with great warmth of body and a great
ease’ (Ranaghan, p. 91). Another gives this testimony: “As soon
as I knelt down I began to tremble... All of asudden I became
filled with the Holy Spirit and realized that ‘God is real.’ I
started laughing and crying at the same time. The next thing I
knew I was prostrate before the altar and filled with the peace
of Christ” (Ranaghan, p. 34). Another says: “As I knelt quietly
thanking the Lord, D. lay prostrate and suddenly began to
heave by the power of someone unseen. By an insight that must
have been divinely inspired ... I knew D. was being moved
quite visibly by the Holy Spirit” (Ranaghan, p. 29). Another:
“My hands (usually cold because of poor circulation) grew
moist and warm. Warmth enveloped me” (Ranaghan, p. 30).
Another: “I knew God was working within me. I could feel a
distinct tingling in my hands, and immediately I became bathed
in a hard sweat” (Ranaghan, p. 102). A member of the “Jesus
Movement” says: “I feel something welling up inside me and all
of a sudden I’m speaking in tongues” (Ortega, p. 49). One
“charismatic” apologist emphasizes that such experiences are
typical in the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” which “has often
been marked by a subjective experience which has brought the
recipient into a wonderful new sense of nearness to the Lord.
This sometimes demands such an expression of worship and
adoration as cannot be contained within the usual restrictions
imposed by the etiquette of our Western society! At such times,
some have been known to shake violently, to lift up their hands
to the Lord, to raise the voice above the normal pitch, or even
to fall to the floor” (Lillie, p. 17).
One does not know at what to marvel the more: at the
total incongruence of such hysterical feelings and experiences
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with anything at all spiritual or at the incredible light-minded-

ness that leads such deceived people to ascribe their contor-
tions to the “Holy Spirit,” to “divine inspiration,” to the
“peace of Christ.” These are clearly people who, in the spiritual
and religious realm, are not only totally inexperienced and
without guidance, but are absolutely literate. The whole his-
tory of Orthodox Christianity does not know of any such
“ecstatic” experiences produced by the Holy Spirit. It is only
foolishness when some “charismatic” apologists presume to
compare these childish and hysterical experiences, which are
open to absolutely everyone, with the Divine revelations ac-
corded to the greatest Saints, such as to St. Paul on the road to
Damascus or to St. John the Evangelist on Patmos. Those
Saints fell down before the true God (without contortions, and
certainly without laughter), whereas these pseudo-Christians
are merely reacting to the presence of an invading spirit, and are
worshipping only themselves. The Macarius
Elder of Optina
wrote to a person in a similar state:
e: “Thinking to
to find
find the
the lo
love
of God in consoling feelings, you are seeking not God but
yourself, that is, your own consolation, while you avoid the
path of sorrows, considering yourself supposedly lost without
spiritual consolations.”* If these “charismatic” experiences are
religious experiences at all, then they are pagan religious experi-
ences; and in fact they seem to correspond exactly to the
mediumistic initiation experience of spirit-possession, which is
caused by “an inner force welling up inside attempting to take
control” (Koch, Occult Bondage, p. 44). Of course, not all
“Baptisms of the Holy Spirit” are as ecstatic as some of these

* Starets Macarius of Optina, Harbin, 1940, p. 100 (in Russian). (cf. Elder
Macarius ofOptina, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina, Calif., 1995,
p. 326)

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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

experiences (although some are even more ecstatic); but this too
is in accord with spiritistic practice: “When spirits find a me-
dium friendly or well-disposed in submissiveness or passivity of
mind, they enter quietly as into their own home; while, on the
contrary, when the psychic is less well-disposed from some
resistance, or want of passivity of mind, the spirit enters with
more or less force, and this is often reflected in the contortions
of the face and tremor of the medium’s members” (Blackmore,
Spiritism, p. 97).
This experience of “spirit-possession,” however, should
not be confused with actual demonic possession, which is the
condition when an unclean spirit takes up permanent habita-
tion in someone and produces physical and psychic disorders
which do not seem to be indicated in “charismatic” sources.
Mediumistic “possession” is temporary and partial, the me-
dium consenting to be used for a particular function by the
invading spirit. But the “charismatic” texts themselves make it
quite clear that what is involved in these experiences—when
they are genuine and not merely the product of suggestion—is
not merely the development of some mediumistic ability, but
actual possession by a spirit. These people would seem to be
correct in calling themselves “spirit-filled”—but it is certainly
not the Holy Spirit with which they are filled!
Bishop Ignatius gives several examples of such physical
accompaniments of spiritual deception: one, a monk who
trembled and made strange sounds, and identified these signs
as the “fruits of prayer”; another, a monk whom the bishop
met who as a result of his ecstatic method of prayer felt such
heat in his body that he needed no warm clothing in winter,
and this heat could even be felt by others. As a general princi-
ple, Bishop Ignatius writes, the second kind of spiritual decep-
tion is accompanied by “a material, passionate warmth of the
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

blood”; “the behavior of the ascetics of Latinism, embraced by

deception, has always been ecstatic, by reason of this extraordi-
nary material, passionate warmth”’—the state of such Latin
“saints” as Francis of Assisi and Ignatius Loyola. This material
warmth of the blood, a mark of the spiritually deceived, is to
be distinguished from the spiritual warmth felt by those such as
St. Seraphim of Sarov who genuinely acquired the Holy Spirit.
But the Holy Spirit is not acquired from ecstatic “charismatic”
experiences, but by the long and arduous path of asceticism,
the “path of sorrows” of which the Elder Macarius spoke,
within the Church of Christ.

C. “Spiritual Gifts” Accompanying “Charismatic” Experience

The chief claim of the followers of the “charismatic re-
vival” is that they have acquired “spiritual” gifts. One of the
first such “gifts” that becomes noticeable in those “baptized
with the Holy Spirit” is a new “spiritual” power and boldness.
What gives them boldness is the definite experience which no
one can doubt that they have had, although one can certainly
doubt their interpretation of it. Some typical examples: “I do
not have to believe in Pentecost, because I have seen it”
(Ranaghan, p. 40). “I began to feel that I knew exactly what to
say to others and what they needed to hear.... I found that the
Holy Spirit gave me a real boldness to say it and it had a
marked effect” (Ranaghan, p. 64). “I was so confident that the
Spirit would be true to His word that I prayed without any ifs.
I prayed in wills and shalls and in every other kind of declara-
tive statement’ (Ranaghan, p. 67). An Orthodox example:
“We pray for wisdom and suddenly we are wise in the Lord.
We pray for love and true love is felt for all men. We pray for

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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

healings, and health has been restored. We pray for miracles

and, believing, we have seen miracles happen. We pray for
signs, and receive them. We pray in tongues known and
tongues unknown” (Logos, April, 1972, p. 13).
Here, again, a genuine Orthodox characteristic, acquired
and tested by long years of ascetic labor and maturing in faith,
is supposedly obtained instantly by means of “charismatic”
experience. It is true, of course, that the Apostles and Martyrs
were given a magnificent boldness by the special grace of God;
but it is only ridiculous when every “charismatic Christian,”
without any notion of what Divine grace is, wishes to compare
himself to these great Saints. Being based on an experience of
deception, “charismatic” boldness is no more than a feverish,
“revivalistic” imitation of true Christian boldness, and it only
serves as another identifying mark of “charismatic” deception.
Bishop Ignatius writes that a certain “self-confidence and bold-
ness are usually noticeable in people who are in self-deception,
supposing that they are holy or are spiritually progressing.”
“An extraordinary pomposity appears in those afflicted with
this deception: they are as it were intoxicated with themselves,
by their state of self-deception, seeing in it a state of grace.
They are steeped in, overflowing with high-mindedness and
pride, while appearing humble to many who judge by appear-
ances without being able to judge by fruits.”
Beyond speaking in tongues itself, the most common
“supernatural” gift of those “baptized in the Spirit” is the direct
reception of “messages from God” in the form of “prophecies”
and “interpretations.” One Catholic girl says of her “charis-
matic” friends: “In some of them I witnessed the speaking in
tongues, some of which I have been able to interpret. The
messages have always been those of great solace and joy from
the Lord” (Ranaghan, p. 32). One “interpretation” is summa-

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

rized thus: “He was speaking words from God, a message of

consolation” (Ranaghan, p. 181). The messages are nothing if
not bold; at one meeting “still another young woman an-
nounced a ‘message from God,’ speaking in the first person”
(Ranaghan, p. 2). A “charismatic” Protestant writes that in
such messages “God’s Word is directly spoken!... The Word
may suddenly be spoken by anyone present, and so, variously a
‘Thus says the Lord’ breaks forth in the fellowship. It is usually
in the first person (though not always), such as ‘I am with you
to bless you” (Williams, p. 27).
A few specific texts of “prophecy” and “interpretation” are
given in the apologetical books of the “charismatic” movement:
1. “Be like a tree swaying with His will, rooted in His
strength, reaching up to His love and light” (Ford, p. 35).
2. “As the Holy Spirit came down upon Mary and Jesus
was formed within her, so the Holy Spirit comes upon you and
Jesus is in your midst”—given in tongues by a Roman Catholic
and “interpreted” by a Protestant (Ford, p. 35).
3. “The feet of Him who walked the streets of Jerusalem
are behind you. His gaze is healing to those who draw near but
death to those who flee”—this had special meaning for one
member of the prayer group (Ford, p. 35).
4. “T reach out my hand to you. You need only take it and
I will lead you”—this same message was given a few minutes
earlier to a Roman Catholic priest in another room; he wrote it
down and entered the prayer room just in time to hear it
uttered in exactly the words he had written down (Ranaghan,
p. 54).
5. “Do not worry, | am pleased with the stand you have
taken. This is difficult for you but will bring much blessing to
another” —this brought final reassurance to one person present
concerning a recent difficult decision (Sherrill, p. 88).

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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

6. “My wife walked in and began to play the organ.

Suddenly, the Spirit of God came upon her and she began to
speak in tongues and prophesy, ‘My son, I am with you. Because
you have been faithful in little things I am going to use you in
a greater way. I am leading you by the hand. I am guiding you,
be not afraid. You are in the center of My will. Do not look to
the right or to the left, but continue therein’ —this “prophecy”
was accompanied by a “vision” and was directly responsible for
the founding of a large and influential Pentecostal organization,
the “Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International”
(Logos Journal, Sept.-Oct., 1971, p. 14).
We may well believe, according to the testimony of
witnesses who find that such messages apply directly to them,
that there is something preternatural about a number of them,
that they are not just “made up.” But does the Holy Spirit use
such artificial methods to communicate with men? (The “spir-
its” at seances certainly do!) Why is the language so monoto-
nous and stereotyped, sometimes worthy of the penny
fortune-telling machines in American cafes? Why are the mes-
sages so vague and dreamlike, sounding indeed like trance-ut-
terances? Why is their content always one of “consolation,”
“solace and joy,” reassurance, precisely without prophetic or
dogmatic character—as if the “spirit,” even like the “spirits” at
seances, were especially pleased with his non-denominational
audience? Who, after all, is the strangely characterless “I” that
speaks? Are we wrong in applying the words of a true Prophet of
God to all this-—Let not your prophets that are in the midst of
you, and your diviners, deceive you.... For they prophesy falsely
unto you in My name: I have not sent them, saith the Lord
(Jeremiah 29:8-9).
Just as one “baptized in the Spirit” usually carries the
ability to speak in tongues over into his private devotions, and
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

in general is aware that “the Lord” is constantly with him, so

too, even outside the atmosphere of the prayer meeting he
often has private “revelations,” including audible voices and
tangible “presences.” Thus does the “prophet” of the “charis-
matic revival” describe one of his experiences: “I was awakened
from a deep restful sleep by a voice that seemed loud and clear
... distinctly saying: ‘God has no grandsons’.... Then it
seemed as if there was someone in my room and the presence
made me feel good. Suddenly it dawned on me. It must be the
Holy Spirit who spoke to me” (Du Pleiss, p. 61).
How can one account for such experiences? Bishop Igna-
tius writes: “One possessed by this kind of spiritual deception
fancies of himself [the second form of prelest is called ‘fancy,’
mnenie in Russian} that he abounds in the gifts of the Holy
Spirit. This fancy is composed of false concepts and false feel-
ings, and in this character which it has it belongs fully to the
realm of the father and representative of falsehood, the devil.
One who, in praying, strives to unveil in the heart the feeling
of the new man, yet does not have any possibility to do this,
substitutes for this feelings of his own invention, counterfeits,
to which the action of fallen spirits does not tarry to join itself.
Acknowledging his incorrect feelings, both his own and those
from the demons, to be true and grace-given, he receives con-
ceptions which correspond to the feelings.”
Precisely such a process has been observed by writers on
spiritism. For someone seriously involved in spiritism (and not
only mediums themselves), a moment comes when the whole
false spirituality that cultivates passivity of mind and openness
to the activity of “spirits,” manifested even in such seemingly
innocent pastimes as the use ofa ouija-board, passes over into
the actual possession of this person by an invading spirit, after
which undeniably “supernatural” phenomena begin to ap-
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

pear.* In the “charismatic revival” this moment oftransition is

identified as the experience of the “Baptism of the Holy
Spirit,” which, when it is genuine, is precisely the moment
when self-deception becomes demonic deception, and the
“charismatic” victim is virtually assured that from then on his
deceived “religious feelings” can expect a response from the
“Spirit” and he will enter a “life of miracles.”

D. The New “Outpouring of the Holy Spirit”

In general, followers of the “charismatic revival” have the

feeling of being (as they constantly repeat) “Spirit-filled.” “I
felt free, clean and a new person and completely filled with the
Holy Spirit” (Ranaghan, p. 98). “Because of what was begun in
the baptism of the Spirit, I have now begun to see more a
vision of what life in the Spirit is like. It is truly a life of
miracles ... of being filled over and over with the life-giving
love of the Spirit of God” (Ranaghan, p. 65). They invariably
characterize their “spiritual” state in similar words; a Catholic
priest writes, “Whatever other particular effects may have oc-
curred, peace and joy seem to have been received by all, almost
without exception, of those who have been touched by the
Spirit” (Ranaghan, p. 185). One inter-denominational “charis-
matic” group states that the aim of its members is “to show and
spread Jesus Christ’s Love, Joy and Peace wherever they are”
(Inter-Church Renewal). \n this “spiritual” state (in which,
characteristically, both repentance and salvation are seldom
mentioned), some rise to great heights. In one Catholic the gift

* See Blackmore, Spiritism, pp. 144-175, where an example is given of a

Catholic priest who was physically pursued by a ouija-board (propelled, of
course, by a demon) when he tried to give up using it!

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

of the “Spirit” “has risen within me to long periods (several

hours) of near ecstasy in which I'd swear I was experiencing a
foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven” (Ranaghan, p. 103).
Spectacular stories are told of deliverance from drug addiction
and the like. The Greek priest Fr. Eusebius Stephanou summa-
rizes this “spirituality” by quoting a Roman Catholic priest
who states that the “charismatic” movement involves “a new
sense of the presence of God, a new awareness of Christ, a
greater desire to pray, an ability to praise God, a new desire to
read the Scriptures, the Scriptures coming alive as the Word of
God, a new eagerness to have others know about Christ, a new
compassion for others and a sensitiveness to their needs, a new
sense of peace and joy....” And Fr. Eusebius presents the ulti-
mate argument of the whole movement: “The tree is known by
its fruits.... Do these fruits demonstrate the presence of the
devil or of the sanctifying Spirit of Christ? No Orthodox in his
right mind who has seen the fruits of the Spirit with his own
eyes can give a mistaken answer to this question” (Logos, Jan.,
O72. Dao):
There is no reason to doubt any of this testimony. True,
there is also much testimony—we have given a few examples—
that contradicts this and states definitely that the “spirit” of the
“charismatic revival” is something dark and ominous; but still
it cannot be doubted that many followers of the “charismatic
revival” actually feel that it is something “Christian” and “spir-
itual.” As long as these people remain outside the Orthodox
Church, we might well leave their opinions without comment.
But when an Orthodox priest tells us that sectarian phenom-
ena are produced by the Holy Spirit, and he even exhorts us:
“Dont be left out. Open your heart to the promptings of the
Holy Spirit and be part of the growing charismatic renewal”
(Joc. cit.)\—then we have the right and the duty to examine

164
 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

their opinions quite closely, judging them not by the standard

of the vague humanist “Christianity” which prevails in the
West and is prepared to call anything “Christian” that merely
“feels” so, but by the quite different standard of Orthodox
Christianity. And by this standard there is not one item in the
above list of “spiritual fruits” but that can be, and has been in
the sectarian and heretical movements of the past, produced by
the devil appearing as an “angel of light,” precisely with the
aim of leading people away from the Church of Christ into
some other kind of “Christianity.” \f the “spirit” of the “charis-
matic revival” is not the Holy Spirit, then these “spiritual
fruits” likewise are not from God.
According to Bishop Ignatius, the deception known as
fancy “is satisfied with the invention of counterfeit feelings and
states of grace, from which there is born a false, wrong concep-
tion of the whole spiritual undertaking.... It constantly invents
pseudo-spiritual states, an intimate companionship with Jesus,
an inward conversation with him, mystical revelations, voices,
enjoyments.... From this activity the blood receives a sinful,
deceiving movement, which presents itself as a grace-given
delight.... It clothes itself in the mask of humility, piety, wis-
dom.” Unlike the more spectacular form of spiritual deception,
fancy, while “bringing the mind into the most frightful error,
does not however lead it to delirium,” so that the state may
continue for many years or a whole lifetime and not be easily
detected. One who falls into this warm, comfortable, fevered
state of deception virtually commits spiritual suicide, blinding
himself to his own true spiritual state. Writes Bishop Ignatius:
“Fancying of himself ... that he is filled with grace, he will
never receive grace.... He who ascribes to himself gifts of grace
fences off from himself by this ‘fancy’ the entrance into himself
of Divine grace, and opens wide the door to the infection of
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

sin and to demons.” Thou sayest, | am rich, and increased with

goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked (Apoc.
3:17).
Those infected with the “charismatic” deception are not
only themselves “spirit-filled”; they also see around them the
beginning of a “new age” of the “out-pouring of the Holy
Spirit,” believing, as does Fr. Eusebius Stephanou, that “the
world is on the threshold of a great spiritual awakening” (Logos,
Feb., 1972, p. 18); and the words of the Prophet Joel are
constantly on their lips: 7 will pour out My Spirit upon allflesh
(Joel 2:28). The Orthodox Christian knows that this prophecy
refers in general to the last age that began with the coming of
our Lord, and more specifically to Pentecost (Acts 2), and to
every Orthodox Saint who truly possesses in abundance the
gifts of the Holy Spirit—such as St. John of Kronstadt and St.
Nectarios of Pentapolis, who have worked thousands of mira-
cles even in this corrupt 20th century. But to today’s “charis-
matics,” miraculous gifts are for everyone; almost everyone
who wants to can and does speak in tongues, and there are
manuals telling you how to do it.
But what do the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church
teach us? According to Bishop Ignatius, the gifts of the Holy
Spirit “exist only in Orthodox Christians who have attained
Christian perfection, purified and prepared beforehand by re-
pentance.” They “are given to Saints of God solely at God’s
good will and God’s action, and not by the will of men and not
by one’s own power. They are given unexpectedly, extremely
rarely, in cases of extreme need, by God’s wondrous provi-
dence, and not just at random” (St. Isaac the Syrian). “It
should be noted that at the present time spiritual gifts are
granted in great moderation, corresponding to the enfeeble-
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 THE “CHARISMATIC REVIVAL”

ment that has enveloped Christianity in general. These gifts

serve entirely the needs of salvation. On the contrary, ‘fancy’
lavishes its gifts in boundless abundance and with the greatest
speed.”
In a word, the “spirit” that suddenly lavishes its “gifts”
upon this adulterous generation which, corrupted and de-
ceived by centuries of false belief and pseudo-piety, seeks only a
“sign”—is not the Holy Spirit of God. These people have
never known the Holy Spirit and never worshipped Him. True
spirituality is so far beyond them that, to the sober observer,
they only mock it by their psychic and emotional—and some-
times demonic—phenomena and blasphemous utterances. Of
true spiritual feelings, writes Bishop Ignatius, “the fleshly man
cannot form any conception: because a conception of feeling is
always based on those feelings already known to the heart,
while spiritual feelings are entirely foreign to the heart that
knows only fleshly and emotional feelings. Such a heart does
not so much as know of the existence of spiritual feelings.”

SOURCES CITED IN THE TEXT

OF THis CHAPTER

Burdick, Donald W. Tongues—To Speak or not to Speak. Moody

Press; 1969:
Christenson, Larry. Speaking in Tongues. Dimension Books,
Minneapolis, 1968.
Du Plessis, David J. The Spirit Bade Me Go. Logos Interna-
tional, Plainfield, New Jersey, 1970.
Ford, J. Massingberd. The Pentecostal Experience. Paulist Press,
NG YEAST0.
Gelpi, Donald L., S. J. Pentecostalism, A Theological Viewpoint.
Palast Press, NY, 1971.
167
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Harper, Michael. Life in the Holy Spirit. Logos Books, Plain-

field, N. J., 1966.
Koch, Kurt. The Strife of Tongues. Kregel Publications, Grand
Rapids, 1969.
Lilli, D. G. Tongues under Fire. Fountain Trust, London, 1966.
Ortega, Ruben, compiler. The Jesus People Speak Out. David C.
Cook Publishing Co., Elgin, Ill., 1972
Ranaghan, Kevin; Ranaghan, Dorothy. Catholic Pentecostals.
Paulist Press, 1969.
Sherrill, John L. They Speak with Other Tongues. Spire Books,
Old Tappan, N. J., 1965
Williams, J. Rodman. The Eva ofthe Spirit. Logos International,
197A

168
 Vil
Conclusion:
The Spirit of the Last Times

EE CHARISIVIATICREVIVAE ASA
SIGN @ Fat HE MIIViES

To the very end of this age there shall not be lacking Prophets
of the Lord God, as also servants of satan. But in the last times
those who truly will serve God will succeed in hiding themselves
from men and will not perform in their midst signs and wonders
as at the present time, but they will travel by a path of activity
intermixed with humility, and in the Kingdom of Heaven they
will be greater than the Fathers who have been glorified by signs.
For at that time no one will perform before the eyes of men
miracles which would inflame men and inspire them to strive with
zeal for ascetic labors.... Many, being possessed by ignorance, will
fall into the abyss, going astray in the breadth of the broad and
spacious path.
—Prophecy of St. Niphon of Constantia, Cyprus*

* Published in Russian with the writings of Sts. Barsanuphius the Great and
John, Moscow, 1855, pp. 654-655.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

A. A “Pentecost without Christ”

For Orthodox Christians present-day “tongues,” like

those described in the New Testament, are also a “sign”; but
now they are a sign, not of the beginning of the Gospel of
salvation for all people, but of its end. The sober Orthodox
Christian will not find it difficult to agree with the apologists
of the “charismatic revival” that this new “outpouring of the
spirit” may mean indeed that “the consummation of the age 1s
at hand” (Fr. Eusebius Stephanou in Logos, April, 1972, p. 3).
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and
doctrines of devils (1 Tim. 4:1). In the last days we shall see the
spirits of devils, working miracles (Apoc. 16:14).
The Holy Scriptures and Orthodox Fathers clearly tell us
that the character of the last times will not at all be one of a
great spiritual “revival,” of an “outpouring of the Holy Spirit,”
but rather one of almost universal apostasy, of spiritual decep-
tion so subtle that the very elect, if that were possible, will be
deceived, of the virtual disappearance of Christianity from the
face of the earth. When the Son of man cometh, shall He find
faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8). It is precisely in the last times
that satan is to be loosed (Apoc. 20:3) in order to produce the
final and greatest outpouring ofevil upon the earth.
The “charismatic revival,” the product of aworld without
sacraments, without grace, a world thirsting for spiritual
“signs” without being able to discern the spirits that give the
signs, is itself a“sign” of these apostate times. The ecumenical
movement itself remains always a movement of “good inten-
tions” and feeble humanitarian “good deeds”; but when it is
joined by a movement with “power,” indeed with allpower and
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 THE SPIRIT OF THE Last TIMES

signs and lying wonders (11 Thess. 2:9), then who will be able to
stop it? The “charismatic revival” comes to the rescue of a floun-
dering ecumenism, and pushes it on to its goal. And this goal, as
we have seen, is not merely “Christian” in nature—the “re-
founding of the Church of Christ,” to use the blasphemous
utterance of Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople—that is
only the first step to a larger goal which lies entirely outside of
Christianity: the establishment of the “spiritual unity” of all
religions, of all mankind.
However, the followers of the “charismatic revival” be-
lieve their experience is “Christian”; they will have nothing to
do with occultism and Eastern religions; and they doubtless
reject outright the whole comparison in the preceding pages of
the “charismatic revival” with spiritism. Now it is quite true
that religiously the “charismatic revival” is on a higher level
than spiritism, which is a product of quite gross credulity and
superstition; that its techniques are more refined and its phe-
nomena more plentiful and more easily obtained; and that its
whole ideology gives the appearance of being “Christian”—not
Orthodox, but something that is not far from Protestant fun-
damentalism with an added “ecumenical” coloring.
And yet we have seen that “charismatic” experience, and
particularly the central experience of the “Baptism of the Holy
Spirit,” is largely if not entirely a pagan experience, much
closer to “spirit-possession” than to anything Christian. We
know also that Pentecostalism was born on the fringes of
sectarian “Christianity,” where very little remains of genuine
Christian attitudes and beliefs, and that it was actually “dis-
covered” as the result of a religious experiment, in which
Christians do not participate. But it was not until quite re-
cently that it was possible to find a clear testimony of the
non-Christian character of “charismatic” experience in the
7
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

words of a “charismatic” apologist. This apologist informs us

that the experience of the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” can
indeed be had without Christ.
This writer tells the story of a person who had received
the “Baptism” with speaking in tongues and was encouraging
everyone to seek it. Yet he admitted that repentance had not
been part of his experience and that not only had he not been
delivered from sinful habits, but even had no particular desire
to be delivered from them. The writer concludes: “A pentecost
without repentance—a pentecost without Christ—that is
what some are experiencing today.... They have heard of
tongues, they wish to identify with a status experience, so they
seek someone to lay on hands for a quick, cheap, easy im-
partation which bypasses Christ and His Cross.” Nonetheless,
this writer admits that speaking in tongues is undeniably “the
initial consequence or confirmation” of the “Baptism in the
Holy Spirit” (Harry Lunn, in Logos Journal, Nov.-Dec., 1971,
pp. 44, 47).
Those who bring Christian ideas to the experience as-
sume that the “Baptism in the Holy Spirit” is a Christian
experience. But if it can be given to those who merely seek a
cheap, easy status experience—then there is no necessary con-
nection whatever between this experience and Christ. The
very possibility of an experience of a “Pentecost without
Christ” means that the experience in itself is not Christian at
all; “Christians,” often sincere and well-meaning, are reading
into the experience a Christian content which in itself it does not
have.
Do we not have here the common denominator of “spiri-
tual experience” which is needed for a new world religion? Is
this not perhaps the key to the “spiritual unity” of mankind
which the ecumenical movement has sought in vain?
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 THE Spirit OF THE Last TIMES

B. The “New Christianity”

There may be those who will doubt that the “charismatic

revival” is a form of mediumism; that is only a secondary
question of the means or technique by which the “spirit” of the
“charismatic revival” is communicated. But that this “spirit”
has nothing to do with Orthodox Christianity is abundantly
clear. And in fact this “spirit” follows almost to the letter the
“prophecies” of Nicholas Berdyaev concerning a “New Christi-
anity.” It completely leaves behind the “monastic ascetic spirit
of historical Orthodoxy,” which most effectively exposes its
falsity. It is not satisfied with the “conservative Christianity
which directs the spiritual forces of man only towards contri-
tion and salvation,” but rather, apparently believing like
Berdyaev that such a Christianity is still “incomplete,” adds a
second level of “spiritual” phenomena, not one of which is
specifically Christian in character (although one is free to inter-
pret them as “Christian”), which are open to people of every
denomination with or without repentance, and which are
completely unrelated to salvation. It looks to “a new era in
Christianity, a new and deep spirituality, which means a new
outpouring of the Holy Spirit”—in complete contradiction of
Orthodox tradition and prophecy.
This is truly a “New Christianity’—but the specifically
“new” ingredient in this “Christianity” is nothing original or
“advanced,” but merely a modern form of the devil’s age-old
religion of shamanistic paganism. The Orthodox “charismatic”
periodical The Logos recommends Nicholas Berdyaev as a
“prophet” precisely because he was “the greatest theologian of
spiritual creativeness” (Logos, March, 1972, p. 8). And indeed,
it is precisely the shamans of every primitive tribe who know
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

how to get in contact with and utilize the primordial “cre-

ative” powers of the universe—those “spirits of earth and sky
and sea” which the Church of Christ recognizes as demons,
and in serving which it is indeed possible to attain to a “cre-
ative” ecstasy and joy (the “Nietzschean enthusiasm and ec-
stasy” to which Berdyaev felt so close) which are unknown to
the weary and half-hearted “Christians” who fall for the “char-
ismatic” deception. But there is no Christ here. God has for-
bidden contact with this “creative,” occult realm into which
“Christians” have stumbled through ignorance and self-decep-
tion. The “charismatic revival” will have no need to enter a
“dialogue with non-Christian religions,” because, under the
name of “Christianity,” it is already embracing non-Christian
religion and is itself becoming the new religion which
Berdyaev foresaw, strangely combining “Christianity” and pa-
ganism.
The strange “Christian” spirit of the “charismatic revival”
is clearly identified in the Holy Scriptures and the Orthodox
patristic tradition. According to these sources, world history
will culminate in an almost superhuman “Christian” figure,
the false messiah or antichrist. He will be “Christian” in the
sense that his whole function and his very being will center on
Christ, Whom he will imitate in every respect possible, and he
will be not merely the greatest enemy of Christ, but in order to
deceive Christians will appear to be Christ, come to earth for a
second time and ruling from the restored Temple in Jerusalem.
Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come
except there come a falling away (apostasy) first, and that man of
sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth
himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is
God...even him whose coming is after the working of satan with

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all lying wonders, and with all deceivableness in them that perish;
because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be
saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that
they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness (II
Thess. 2:3-4, 9-12).
The Orthodox teaching concerning antichrist is a large
subject in itself and cannot be presented here. But if, as the
followers of the “charismatic revival” believe, the last days are
indeed at hand, it is of crucial importance for the Orthodox
Christian to be informed of this teaching concerning one who,
as the Saviour Himself has told us, together with the “false
prophets” of that time, shall show great signs and wonders,
insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect
(Matt. 24:24). And the “elect” are certainly not those multi-
tudes of people who are coming to accept the gross and most
unscriptural delusion that “the world is on the threshold of a
great spiritual awakening,” but rather the “little flock” to
which alone our Saviour has promised: /t is your Father’ good
pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32). Even the true
“elect” will be sorely tempted by the “great signs and wonders”
of antichrist; but most “Christians” will accept him without
any question, for his “New Christianity” is precisely what they
seek.

C. “Jesus is Coming Soon”

Just in the past few years, significantly, the figure of “Jesus”

has been thrust into strange prominence in America. On stage
and in films long-standing prohibitions against portraying the
person of Christ have been abrogated. Sensationally popular
musicals present blasphemous parodies of His life. The “Jesus
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Movement,” which is largely “charismatic” in orientation,

spreads spectacularly among teenagers and young people. The
crudest form of American popular music is “Christianized” at
mass “Jesus-Rock Festivals,” and “Christian” tunes for the first
time in the century become the most popular in the land. And
underlying this whole strange conglomeration of sacrilege and
absolutely unenlightened worldliness is the constantly reiter-
ated expression of seemingly everyone's expectation and hope:
“Jesus is coming soon.”
In the midst of this psychic and “religious” devastation of
the American land, a symptomatic “mystical” occurrence has
been repeating itselfin the lives of widely-separated Americans.
An editor of a “charismatic” magazine relates how he first
encountered this occurrence as told by someone at a gathering
of like-minded people:
“My friend and his wife were driving up to Boston on
Route 3, when they stopped to pick up a hitchhiker. He was
young and had a beard, but he wasn’t dressed like a hippie. He
got in the back seat without saying much, and they drove on.
After a while, he quietly said, “The Lord is coming soon.’ My
friend and his wife were so startled that they each turned
around to look at him. There was no one there. Badly shaken,
they pulled into the first gas station they came to. They had to
tell someone else, no matter what the reaction. As the atten-
dant listened, he didn’t laugh. Instead, all he said was, ‘You're
the fifth car to come in here with that story.’
“As I listened, in spite of the hazy sunlight, a chill began
to creep up my backbone. Yet that was only the beginning.
One by one, around the circle, others were led to recount
similar incidents, until there were six all told, across the length
and breadth of the country, and all had taken place within the
past two years’—in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Duluth (thir-
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 THE SPIRIT OF THE Last TIMES

teen reports to the police in one night), New Orleans; some-

times the hitchhiker is a man, sometimes a woman. Later an
Episcopalian priest told the editor of his own identical experi-
ence in upstate New York. To the editor, this all indicates that
in fact ‘Jesus is coming soon” (David Manuel, Jr., in Logos
Journal, Jan.-Feb., 1972, p. 3).
The careful observer of the contemporary religious
scene—especially in America, where the most popular religious
currents have originated for over a century—cannot fail to
notice a very decided air of chiliastic expectation. And this is
not only true of “charismatic” circles, but even of the tradition-
alist or fundamentalist circles that have rejected the “charis-
matic revival.” Thus, many traditionalist Roman Catholics
believe in the coming of a chiliastic “Age of Mary” before the
end of the world, and this is only one variant on the more
widespread Latin error of trying to “sanctify the world,” or, as
Archbishop Thomas Connolly of Seattle expressed it fifteen
years ago, “transforming the modern world into the Kingdom
of God in preparation for His return.” Protestant evangelists
such as Billy Graham, in their mistaken private interpretation
of the Apocalypse, await the “millennium” when “Christ” will
reign on earth. Other evangelists in Israel find that their mille-
narian interpretation of the “Messiah” is just what is needed to
“prepare” the Jews for his coming.* And the arch-
fundamentalist Carl McIntire prepares to build a life-size rep-
lica of the Temple of Jerusalem in Florida (near Disneyworld!),
believing that the time is at hand when the Jews will build the
very “Temple to which the Lord Himself will return as He
promised” (Christian Beacon, Nov. 11, 1971; Jan. 6, 1972).

* See for example Gordon Lindsay, Israel’s Destiny and the Coming Deliverer,
Christ for the Nations Pub. Co., Dallas, Texas, pp. 28-30.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Thus, even anti-ecumenists find it possible to prepare to join

the unrepentant Jews in welcoming the false messiah—anti-
christ—in contrast to the faithful remnant of Jews who will
accept Christ as the Orthodox Church preaches Him, when
the Prophet Elijah returns to earth.
It is therefore no great consolation for a sober Orthodox
Christian who knows the Scriptural prophecies concerning
the last days, when he is told by a “charismatic” Protestant
minister that, “It’s glorious what Jesus can do when we open
up to Him. No wonder people of all faiths are now able to
pray together” (Harold Bredesen, in Logos Journal, Jan.-Feb.,
1972, p. 24); or by a Catholic Pentecostal that the members
of all the denominations now “begin to peer over those walls
of separation only to recognize in each other the image of
Jesus Christ” (Kevin Ranaghan in Logos Journal, Nov.-Dec.,
1971, p. 21). Which “Christ” is this for whom an accelerated
program of psychological and even physical preparation is
now being made throughout the world?—Is this our true God
and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who founded the Church wherein
men may find salvation? Or is it the false Christ who will come
in his own name (John 5:43) and unite all who reject or
pervert the teaching of the one Church of Christ, the Ortho-
dox Church?
Our Saviour Himself has warned us: Then ifany man shall
say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or there; believe it not. For
there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show
signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, ifpossible, even the elect.
Behold I have told you beforehand. Iftherefore they shall say unto
you, Behold, he is in the wilderness, go not forth; Behold, he is in
the inner chambers, believe it not. For as the lightning cometh
forth from the east, and is seen even unto the west, so shall be the
coming ofthe Son of man (Matt. 24:23-27).
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The Second Coming of Christ will be unmistakable: it

will be sudden, from heaven (Acts 1:11), and it will mark the
end of this world. There can be no “preparation” for it—save
only the Orthodox Christian preparation of repentance, spiri-
tual life, and watchfulness. Those who are “preparing” for it in
any other way, who say that he is anywhere “here”—especially
“here” in the Temple of Jerusalem—or who preach that “Jesus
is coming soon” without warning of the great deception that
is to precede His Coming: are clearly the prophets of anti-
christ, the false Christ who must come first and deceive the
world, including all “Christians” who are not or do not be-
come truly Orthodox. There is to be no future “millennium.”
For those who can receive it, the “millennium” of the Apoca-
lypse (Apoc. 20:6) is now; the life of grace in the Orthodox
Church for the whole “thousand years” between the First
Coming of Christ and the time of antichrist.* That Protes-
tants should expect the “millennium” in the future is only
their confession that they do not live in it in the present—that
is, that they are outside the Church of Christ and have not
tasted of Divine grace.

D. Must Orthodoxy Join the Apostasy?

Today some Orthodox priests, led by Fr. Eusebius
Stephanou, would try to persuade us that the “charismatic
revival,” even though it began and mostly continues outside

* Such is the Orthodox teaching of Sts. Basil the Great, Gregory the
Theologian, Andrew of Caesarea, and many other Fathers. See Archbishop
Averky, Guide to the Study of the New Testament, Part I (in Russian),
Jordanville, New York, 1956, pp. 434-438. (cf. The Apocalypse: In the
Teachings ofAncient Christianity, St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, Platina,
Calif., 1995, pp. 253-4

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

the Orthodox Church, is nonetheless “Orthodox,” and we are

even warned, “Don't be left out.” But no one who has studied
this movement in the works of its leading representatives,
many of whom have been quoted above, can have any doubt
that this “revival,” in so far as it is “Christian” at all, is evtzrely
Protestant in its origin, inspiration, intent, practice, “theology,”
and end. It is a form of Protestant “revivalism,” which is a
phenomenon that preserves only a fragment of anything genu-
inely Christian, substituting for Christianity an emotional “re-
ligious” hysteria whose victim falls into the fatal delusion that
he is “saved.” If the “charismatic revival” differs from Protes-
tant revivalism, it is only in adding a new dimension of crypto-
spiritistic phenomena which are more spectacular and more
objective than mere subjective revivalism.
This evident fact is only strikingly confirmed by an exam-
ination of what Fr. Eusebius Stephanou tries to pass off for an
“Orthodox awakening” in his periodical The Logos.
This Orthodox priest informs his readers that “the Ortho-
dox Church is not sharing in the modern-day Christian awak-
ening” (Feb., 1972, p. 19). He himself now travels about
holding Protestant-like revival meetings, together with the
Protestant “altar call,” which is accompanied by the usual
revivalistic “sobs and tears” (April, 1972, p. 4). Fr. Eusebius
himself with typical revivalistic immodesty, informs us that “I
thank and praise God for shedding some of the light of His
Spirit into my soul in response to the unceasing prayers I have
been sending up night and day” (Feb., 1972, p. 19); and later
he openly declares himself to be a “prophet” (April, 1972, p.
3). He mentions nothing whatever of the Orthodox interpreta-
tion of apocalyptic events, and yet he repeats Billy Graham’s
fundamentalist Protestant interpretation of the “Rapture” that
is to precede the “millennium”: “The Great Tribulation day
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 THE SPIRIT OF THE Last TIMES

approaches. If we remain true to Christ we will surely be

caught up to be with Him at the sound of the glad rapture-
shout, and we will be spared the horrible destruction which is
to fall upon the world”* (April, 1972, p. 22). And yet not even
all fundamentalists are agreed on this error,** which has no
foundation in Holy Scripture*** and removes from those who
follow it all necessity for watchfulness against the deceit of
antichrist, from which they imagine they will be spared.
All of this is not even pseudo-Orthodoxy; it is just plain
Protestantism, and not even the best kind of Protestantism. One
looks in vain in the Logos of Fr. Eusebius Stephanou for an
indication that his “awakening” is inspired by the sources of the
Orthodox ascetic tradition: the Lives ofSaints, the Holy Fathers,
the Church's cycle of services, the Orthodox interpretation of
Holy Scripture. Some Orthodox “charismatics,” it is true, make
use of some of these sources—but alas! they mix them together
with “many other books written by devout Christians involved
with the Charismatic movement,” (Logos, March, 1972, p. 16)
and thus read them “charismatically”: like all sectarians, reading
into Orthodox writings what they have learned from their new
teaching, which comes from outside the Church.
It is true enough, to be sure, that an Orthodox awakening
would be much to be desired in our days, when many Ortho-
dox Christians have lost the salt of true Christianity, and the
true and fervent Orthodox Christian life is indeed rarely to be

* Compare Billy Graham, World Aflame, Doubleday (Pocket Cardinal Ed.),

New York, 1966, p. 178; C. H. Mackintosh, The Lord's Coming, Moody
Press, Chicago, pp. 30-31; and many other fundamentalists.
** See Kurt Koch, DayX, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, pp.
116-7.
*** | Thess. 4:16-17 refers to the Second Coming ofChrist, which according
to the Holy Fathers comes after the “tribulation” and the reign of antichrist.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

seen. Modern life has become too comfortable; worldly life has
become too attractive; for too many, Orthodoxy has become
simply a matter of membership in a church organization or the
“correct” fulfillment of external rites and practices. There
would be need enough for a true Orthodox spiritual awaken-
ing, but this is not what we see in the Orthodox “charismat-
ics.” Just like the “charismatic” activists among Protestants and
Roman Catholics, they are fully in harmony with the spirit of
the times; they are not in living contact with the sources of the
Orthodox spiritual tradition, preferring the currently fashion-
able Protestant techniques of revivalism. They are one with the
leading current of today’s apostate “Christianity”: the ecumen-
ical movement. Early in 1978 Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek
Archdiocese of North and South America finally gave his offi-
cial approval to the activities of Fr. Eusebius Stephanou, in-
cluding permission for him to preach everywhere specifically
on the “gifts of the Holy Spirit”; thus the church organization
in its most modernist and ecumenist figure joins hands with
the “charismatic revival,” reflecting the deep kinship that
unites them. But true Christianity is not there.
There have been true Orthodox “awakenings” in the past:
one thinks immediately of St. Cosmas of Aitolia, who walked
from village to village in 18th-century Greece and inspired the
people to return to the true Christianity of their ancestors; or
St. John of Kronstadt in our own century, who brought the
age-old message of Orthodox spiritual life to the urban masses
of Petersburg. Then there are the Orthodox monastic instruc-
tors who were truly “Spirit-filled” and left their teaching to the
monastics as well as the laymen of the latter times: one thinks
of the Greek St. Symeon the New Theologian in the 10th
century, and the Russian St. Seraphim of Sarov in the 19th. St.
Symeon is badly misused by the Orthodox “charismatics” (he
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 Tue Spirit OF THE Last TIMES

was speaking of a Spirit different from theirs!); and St. Sera-

phim is invariably quoted out of context in order to minimize
his emphasis on the necessity to belong to the Orthodox
Church to have a true spiritual life. In the “Conversation” of
St. Seraphim with the layman Motovilov on the “acquisition of
the Holy Spirit” (which the Orthodox “charismatics” quote
without the parts here italicized), this great Saint tells us: “The
grace of the Holy Spirit which was given to us all, the faithful
of Christ, in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, is sealed by the
Sacrament of Chrismation on the chief parts of the body, as
appointed: by the Holy Church, the eternal keeper of this grace.”
And again: “The Lord listens equally to the monk and the
simple Christian layman, provided that both are Orthodox.”
As opposed to the true Orthodox spiritual life, the “char-
ismatic revival” is only the experiential side of the prevailing
“ecumenical” fashion—a counterfeit Christianity that betrays
Christ and His Church. No Orthodox “charismatic” could
possibly object to the coming “Union” with those very Protes-
tants and Roman Catholics with whom, as the interdenomina-
tional “charismatic” song goes, they are already “one in the
Spirit, one in the Lord,” and who have led them and inspired
their “charismatic” experience. The “spirit” that has inspired
the “charismatic revival” is the spirit of antichrist, or more
precisely, those “spirits of devils” of the last times whose “mira-
cles” prepare the world for the false messiah.

E. “Little Children, It is the Last Hour”

(I John 2:18)
Unknown to the fevered Orthodox “revivalists,” the Lord
God has preserved in the world, even as in the days of Elijah

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the Prophet, seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to
Baal (Rom. 11:4)—an unknown number of true Orthodox
Christians who are neither spiritually dead, as the Orthodox
“charismatics” complain that their flocks have been, nor
pompously “spirit-filled,” as these same flocks become under
“charismatic” suggestion. They are not carried away by the
movement of apostasy nor by any false “awakening,” but con-
tinue rooted in the holy and saving Faith of Holy Orthodoxy
in the tradition the Holy Fathers have handed down to them,
watching the signs of the times and travelling the narrow path
to salvation. Many of them follow the bishops of the few
Orthodox churches that have taken strong stands against the
apostasy of our times. But there are some left in other Ortho-
dox churches also, grieving over the ever more evident apostasy
of their hierarchs and striving somehow to keep their own
Orthodoxy intact; and there are still others outside of the
Orthodox Church who by God's grace, their hearts being open
to His call, will undoubtedly yet be joined to genuine Holy
Orthodoxy. These “seven thousand” are the foundation of the
future and only Orthodoxy of the latter times.
And outside of genuine Orthodoxy the darkness only
grows. Judging from the latest “religious” news, the “charis-
matic revival” may well be only the faint beginning of awhole
“age of miracles.” Many Protestants who have discerned the
fraud of the “charismatic revival” now accept as “the real
thing” the spectacular “revival” in Indonesia where, we are
told, there are really occurring “the selfsame things that one
finds reported in the Acts of the Apostles.” In the space of
three years 200,000 pagans have been converted to Protestant-
ism under constantly miraculous conditions: No one does
anything except in absolute obedience to the “voices” and
“angels” who are constantly appearing, usually quoting Scrip-
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ture by number and verse; water is turned into wine every

time the Protestant communion service comes around; de-
tached hands appear from nowhere to distribute miraculous
food to the hungry; a whole band of demons is seen to aban-
don a pagan village because a “more powerful” one (“Jesus”)
has come to take their place; “Christians” have a “count-
down” for an unrepentant sinner, and when they come to
“zero” he dies; children are taught new Protestant hymns by
voices that come from nowhere (and repeat the song twenty
times so the children will remember); “God’s tape-recorder”
records the song of a children’s choir and plays it back in the
air for the astonished children; fire comes down from the sky
to consume Catholic religious images (“the Lord” in Indone-
sia is very anti-Catholic); 30,000 have been healed; “Christ”
appears in the sky and “falls” on people in order to heal them;
people are miraculously transported from place to place and
walk on water; lights accompany evangelists and guide them
at night, and clouds follow them and give them shelter during
the day; the dead are raised.*
Interestingly, in some parts of the Indonesian “revival”
the element of “speaking in tongues” is almost totally absent
and is even forbidden (although it is present in many places),
and the element of mediumism seems sometimes to be re-
placed by a direct intervention of fallen spirits. It may well be
that this new “revival,” more powerful than Pentecostalism, is a
more developed stage of the same “spiritual” phenomenon
(just as Pentecostalism itself is more advanced than spiritism)
and heralds the imminence of the dreadful day when, as the
“voices” and “angels” in Indonesia also proclaim, “the Lord” is

* See Kurt Koch, The Revival in Indonesia, Kregel Publications, 1970; and
Mel Tari, Likea Mighty Wind. Creation House, Carol Stream, Illinois, 1971.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

to come—for we know that antichrist will prove to the world

that he is “Christ” by just such “miracles.”
In an age of almost universal darkness and deception,
when for most “Christians” Christ has become precisely what
Orthodox teaching means by antichrist, the Orthodox Church
of Christ alone possesses and communicates the grace of God.
This is a priceless treasure the very existence of which is not so
much as suspected even by the “Christian” world. The “Chris-
tian” world, indeed, joins hands with the forces of darkness in
order to seduce the faithful of the Church of Christ, blindly
trusting that the “name ofJesus” will save them even in their
apostasy and blasphemy, mindless of the fearful warning of the
Lord: Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils?
and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work
iniquity (Matt. 7:22-23).
St. Paul continues his warning about the coming of anti-
christ with this command: Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and
hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or
our epistle (Il Thess. 2:15). There be some that trouble you, and
would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel
from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we
have preached unto you, let him be anathema. As we said before,
so say I now again: Ifany preach any other gospel unto you than
that ye have received, let him be anathema (Gal. 1:8-9).
The Orthodox answer to every new “revival,” and even to
the final terrible “revival” of antichrist, is this Gospel of Christ,
which the Orthodox Church alone has preserved unchanged in
an unbroken line from Christ and His Apostles, and the grace
of the Holy Spirit which the Orthodox Church alone commu-
nicates, and only to her faithful children, who have received in
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 THE Spirit OF THE Last TIMES

Chrismation, and kept, the true seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

7 ERE GION OFTHE FUG URE

It is deeply indicative of the spiritual state of contempo-

rary mankind that the “charismatic” and “meditation” experi-
ences are taking root among “Christians.” An Eastern religious
influence is undeniably at work in such “Christians,” but it is
only as a result of something much more fundamental: the loss
of the very feeling and savor of Christianity, due to which
something so alien to Christianity as Eastern “meditation” can
take hold of “Christian” souls.
The life of self-centeredness and self-satisfaction lived by
most of today’s “Christians” is so all-pervading that it effec-
tively seals them off from any understanding at all of spiritual
life; and when such people do undertake “spiritual life,” it is
only as another form of self-satisfaction. This can be seen
quite clearly in the totally false religious ideal both of the
“charismatic” movement and the various forms of “Christian
meditation”: all of them promise (and give very quickly) an
experience of “contentment” and “peace.” But this is not the
Christian ideal at all, which if anything may be summed up as
a fierce battle and struggle. The “contentment” and “peace”
described in these contemporary “spiritual” movements are
quite manifestly the product of spiritual deception, of spiritual
self-satisfaction—which is the absolute death of the God-ori-
ented spiritual life. All these forms of “Christian meditation”
operate solely on the psychic level and have nothing whatever
in common with Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality is
formed in the arduous struggle to acquire the eternal King-
dom of Heaven, which fully begins only with the dissolution
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

of this temporal world, and the true Christian struggler never

finds repose even in the foretastes of eternal blessedness which
might be vouchsafed to him in this life; but the Eastern reli-
gions, to which the Kingdom of Heaven has not been re-
vealed, strive only to acquire psychic states which begin and
end in this life.
In our age of apostasy preceding the manifestation of
antichrist, the devil has been loosed for a time (Apoc. 20:7) to
work the false miracles which he could not work during the
“thousand years” of Grace in the Church of Christ (Apoc.
20:3), and to gather in his hellish harvest of those souls who
“received not the love of the truth” (II Thess. 2:10). We can
tell that the time of antichrist is truly near by the very fact that
this satanic harvest is now being reaped not merely among the
pagan peoples, who have not heard of Christ, but even more
among “Christians” who have lost the savor of Christianity. It
is of the very nature of antichrist to present the kingdom of the
devil as if it were of Christ. The present-day “charismatic”
movement and “Christian meditation,” and the “new religious
consciousness” of which they are part, are forerunners of the
religion of the future, the religion of the last humanity, the religion
of antichrist, and their chief “spiritual” function is to make
available to Christians the demonic initiation hitherto restricted to
the pagan world. Let it be that these “religious experiments” are
still often of a tentative and groping nature, that there is in
them at least as much psychic self-deception as there is a
genuinely demonic initiation rite; doubtless not everyone who
has successfully “meditated” or thinks he has received the
“Baptism of the Spirit” has actually received initiation into the
kingdom of satan. But this is the aim of these “experiments,”
and doubtless the techniques of initiation will become ever
more efficient as mankind becomes prepared for them by the
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 THE Spirit OF THE Last TIMES

attitudes of passivity and openness to new “religious experi-

ences” which are inculcated by these movements.
What has brought humanity—and indeed “Christen-
dom”—to this desperate state? Certainly it is not any overt
worship of the devil, which is limited always to a few people;
rather, it is something much more subtle, and something fear-
ful for a conscious Orthodox Christian to reflect on: it is the
loss of the grace of God, which follows on the loss of the savor of
Christianity.
In the West, to be sure, the grace of God was lost many
centuries ago. Roman Catholics and Protestants today have not
fully tasted of God’s grace, and so it is not surprising that they
should be unable to discern its demonic counterfeit. But alas!
The success of counterfeit spirituality even among Orthodox
Christians today reveals how much they also have lost the savor
of Christianity and so can no longer distinguish between true
Christianity and pseudo-Christianity. For too long have Ortho-
dox Christians taken for granted the precious treasure of their
Faith and neglected to put into use the pure gold of its teach-
ings. How many Orthodox Christians even know of the exis-
tence of the basic texts of Orthodox spiritual life, which teach
precisely how to distinguish between genuine and counterfeit
spirituality, texts which give the life and teaching of holy men
and women who attained an abundant measure of God’s grace
in this life? How many have made their own the teaching of the
Lausiac History, the Ladder of St. John, the Homilies of St.
Macarius, the Lives of the God-bearing Fathers of the desert,
Unseen Warfare, St. John of Kronstadt’s My Life in Christ?
In the Life of the great Father of the Egyptian desert, St.
Paisius the Great (June 19), we may see a shocking example of
how easy it is to lose the grace of God. Once a disciple of his
was walking to a city in Egypt to sell his handiwork. On the
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

way he met a Jew who, seeing his simplicity, began to deceive

him, saying: “O beloved, why do you believe in a simple,
crucified Man, when He was not at all the awaited Messiah?
Another is to come, but not He.” The disciple, being weak in
mind and simple in heart, began to listen to these words and
allowed himself to say: “Perhaps what you say is correct.”
When he returned to the desert, St. Paisius turned away from
him and would not speak a single word to him. Finally, after
the disciple’s long entreaty, the Saint said to him: “Who are
you? I do not know you. This disciple of mine was a Christian
and had upon him the grace of Baptism, but you are not such
a one; if you are actually my disciple, then the grace of Baptism
has left you and the image of a Christian has been removed.”
The disciple with tears related his conversation with the Jew, to
which the Saint replied: “O wretched one! What could be
worse and more foul than such words, by which you re-
nounced Christ and His divine Baptism? Now go and weep
over yourself as you wish, for you have no place with me; your
name is written with those who have renounced Christ, and
together with them you will receive judgment and torments.”
On hearing this judgment the disciple was filled with repen-
tance, and at his entreaty the Saint shut himself up and prayed
to the Lord to forgive his disciple this sin. The Lord heard the
Saint's prayer and granted him to behold a sign of His forgive-
ness of the disciple. The Saint then warned the disciple: “O
child, give glory and thanksgiving to Christ God together with
me, for the unclean, blasphemous spirit has departed from
you, and in his place the Holy Spirit has descended upon you,
restoring to you the grace of Baptism. And so, guard yourself
now, lest out of sloth and carelessness the nets of the enemy
should fall upon you again and, having sinned, you should
inherit the fire of gehenna.”
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 THE SPIRIT OF THE Last TIMES

Significantly, it is among “ecumenical Christians” that

the “charismatic” and “meditation” movements have taken
root. The characteristic belief of the heresy of ecumenism is
this: that the Orthodox Church is not the one true Church of
Christ; that the grace of God is present also in other “Chris-
tian” denominations, and even in non-Christian religions; that
the narrow path of salvation according to the teaching of the
Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church is only “one path
among many” to salvation; and that the details of one’s belief
in Christ are of little importance, as is one’s membership in any
particular church. Not all the Orthodox participants in the
ecumenical movement believe this entirely (although Protes-
tants and Roman Catholics most certainly do); but by their
very participation in this movement, including invariably com-
mon prayer with those who believe wrongly about Christ and
His Church, they tell the heretics who behold them: “Perhaps
what you say is correct,” even as the wretched disciple of St.
Paisius did. No more than this is required for an Orthodox
Christian to lose the grace of God; and what labor it will cost for
him to gain it back!
How much, then, must Orthodox Christians walk in the
fear of God, trembling lest they lose His grace, which by no
means is given to everyone, but only to those who hold the
true Faith, lead a life of Christian struggle, and treasure the
grace of God which leads them heavenward. And how much
more cautiously must Orthodox Christians walk today above
all, when they are surrounded by a counterfeit Christianity that
gives its own experiences of “grace” and the “Holy Spirit” and
can abundantly quote the Scriptures and the Holy Fathers to
“prove” it! Surely the last times are near, when there will come
spiritual deception so persuasive as to deceive, ifit were possible,
even the very elect (Matt. 24:24).
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

The false prophets of the modern age, including many

who are officially “Orthodox,” ever more loudly announce the
approaching advent of the “new age of the Holy Spirit,” the
“New Pentecost,” the “Omega Point.” This is precisely what,
in genuine Orthodox prophecy, is called the reign ofantichrist.
It is in our own times, today, that this satanic prophecy is
beginning to be fulfilled, with demonic power. The whole con-
temporary spiritual atmosphere is becoming charged with the
power of a demonic initiation experience as the “Mystery of
Iniquity” enters its next-to-last stage and begins to take posses-
sion of the souls of men—indeed, to take possession of the
very Church of Christ, if that were possible.
Against this powerful “religious experience” true Ortho-
dox Christians must now arm themselves in earnest, becoming
fully conscious of what Orthodox Christianity is and how its goal is
different from that ofall other religions, “Christian” or non-Chris-
tan.
Orthodox Christians! Hold fast to the grace which you
have; never let it become a matter of habit; never measure it by
merely human standards or expect it to be logical or compre-
hensible to those who understand nothing higher than what is
human or who think to obtain the grace of the Holy Spirit in
some other way than that which the one Church of Christ has
handed down to us. True Orthodoxy by its very nature must
seem totally out of place in these demonic times, a dwindling
minority of the despised and “foolish,” in the midst of a
religious “revival” inspired by another kind of spirit. But let us
take comfort from the certain words of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’ good pleasure to give you
the Kingdom (Luke 12:32).
Let all true Orthodox Christians strengthen themselves
for the battle ahead, never forgetting that in Christ the victory
192
 THE SPIRIT OF THE Last TIMES

is already ours. He has promised that the gates of hell will not
prevail against His Church (Matt. 16:18), and that for the sake
of the elect He will cut short the days of the last great tribula-
tion (Matt. 24:22). And in truth, /fGod befor us, who can be
against us? (Rom. 8:31). Even in the midst of the cruelest
temptations, we are commanded to be of good cheer; I have
overcome the world (John 16:33). Let us live, even as true
Christians of all times have lived, in expectation of the end of
all things and the coming of our dear Saviour; for He that
giveth testimony of these things saith: Surely I come quickly. Amen.
Come, Lord:Jesus (Apoc. 22:20).

193
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 Epilogue
JONESTOWN AND THE 1980'S

as BOOK HAS BEEN deliberately “understated.” Our inten-

tion has been to present as calm and objective a view as
possible of the non-Christian religious attitudes which are pre-
paring the way for the “religion of the future”; we have hardly
touched on some of the “horror stories” that could be cited
from some of the cults mentioned in this book: true stories
that reveal what happens when one’s involvement with the
unseen demonic powers becomes complete, and a man be-
comes the willing tool of their evil purposes.
But then, on the eve of the publication of the new edition
of this book, the whole world was suddenly made aware of one
of these “horror stories”: the mass suicide of Jim Jones and over
900 of his followers in the Marxist-religious commune of
“Jonestown” in the jungles of Guyana, South America.
No more striking “sign of the times” could be imagined;
Jonestown is a clear warning—and prophecy—of the future of
mankind.
The secular press, understandably, did not know quite
what to make of this monstrous event. Some of the foreign
press took it as merely another example of American violence
and extremism; the American press portrayed Jim Jones as a
“madman,” and the event itself as a result of the evil influence

195
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

of “cults”; more honest and sensitive journalists admitted that

the magnitude and grotesqueness of the whole phenomenon
baffled them.
Few observers saw Jonestown as an authentic sign of our
times, a revelation of the state of contemporary humanity; but
there are many indications that it was indeed such.
Jim Jones himself was unquestionably in touch with the
mainstream of today’s religious-political world. His religious
background as a “prophet” and “healer” capable of fascinating
and dominating a certain kind of unsettled, “searching” mod-
ern man (chiefly lower-class urban blacks), gave him a re-
spected place in the American religious spectrum, rather more
acceptable in our more tolerant times than his hero of an
earlier generation, “Father Divine.” His innumerable “good
deeds” and unexpectedly generous gifts to the needy made him
a leading representative of “liberal” Christianity and drew the
attention of the liberal political establishment in California,
where his influence increased with every year. His personal
admirers included the Mayor of San Francisco, the Governor
of California, and the wife of the President of the United
States. His Marxist political philosophy and commune in Guy-
ana placed him in the respectable political avant-garde; the
lieutenant governor of California personally inspected Jones-
town and was favorably impressed by it, as were other outside
observers. Although there were complaints, especially in the
last year or two, against Jones’ sometimes violent way of domi-
nating his followers, even this aspect of Jonestown was within
the limits allowed by the liberal West for contemporary Com-
munist governments, which are not looked on with too great
disfavor even for liquidating some hundreds or thousands or
millions of dissenters.
Jonestown was a thoroughly “modern,” a thoroughly
196
 EPILOGUE

contemporary experiment; but what was the significance of its

spectacular end?
The contemporary phenomenon that is perhaps closest in
spirit to the Jonestown tragedy is one that at first sight might
not be associated with it: the swift and brutal liquidation by
the Cambodian Communist government, in the name of
humanity’s bright future, of perhaps two million innocent
people—one-fourth or more of the total population of Cam-
bodia. This “revolutionary genocide,” perhaps the most delib-
erate and ruthless case of it yet in the bloody 20th century, is
an exact parallel to the “revolutionary suicide”* in Jonestown:
in both cases the sheer horror of mass death is justified as
paving the way for the perfect future promised by Commu-
nism for a “purified” humanity. These two events mark a new
stage in the history of the “Gulag Archipelago”—the chain of
inhuman concentration camps which atheism has established
in order to transform mankind and abolish Christianity.
In Jonestown once again the incredible accuracy of
Dostoyevsky’s 19th-century diagnosis of the revolutionary
mind is proved: a key figure in his novel The Possessed (more
precisely, 74e Demons) is Kirillov, who believes that the ulti-
mate act proving that he has become God is precisely suicide.
“Normal” people, of course, cannot understand such a logic;
but history is seldom made by “normal” people, and the 20th
century has been par excellence the century of the triumph of a
“revolutionary logic” which is put into execution by men who
have become thoroughly “modern” and have consciously re-
nounced the values of the past, and especially the truth of
Christianity. To those who believe in this “logic,” the Jones-

* The name given to it by Jones himself and the zealots who helped perform
it; see Zime magazine, Dec. 4, 1978, p. 20.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

town suicides are a great revolutionary act that “proves” there is

no God and point to the nearness of the world totalitarian
government, whose “prophet” Jones himself wanted to be. The
only regret over this act in such minds was expressed by one of
the residents of Jonestown, whose last-minute note was found
on Jones’ body: “Dad: I see no way out—lI agree with your
decision—I fear only that without you the world may not
make it to communism.”* All the assets of the Jonestown
commune (some seven million dollars) were bequeathed to the
Communist Party of the USSR (The New York Times, Dec. 18,
LOZ8, pal).
Jonestown was not the isolated act of a “madman”; it is
something very close to all of us who live in these times. One
journalist sensed this when he wrote of Jones (with whom he
had some personal contact in San Francisco): “His almost
religious and definitely mystical power, its evil well concealed,
must somehow be construed as a clue to the mystery that is the
1970's” (Herb Caen, in The Suicide Cult, p. 192).
The source of this “mystical power” is not far to seek. The
religion of the “People’s Temple” was not even remotely Chris-
tian (even though Jim Jones, its founder, was an ordained
minister of the “Disciples of Christ”); it owed much more to
Jones’ spiritualist experience of the 1950's, when he was form-
ing his world-view. He claimed not merely to be the “reincar-
nation” ofJesus, Buddha, and Lenin; he openly stated that he
was an “oracle or medium for discarnate entities from another
galaxy.”** In other words, he gave himself over into the power

* Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers, The Suicide Cult, Bantam Books, 1978,
p. Xiv.
** Neil Duddy and Mark Albrecht, “Questioning Jonestown,” in the
periodical Radix, Berkeley, California, Jan.-Feb., 1979, p. 15.

198
 EPILOGUE

of evil spirits, who doubtless inspired his final act of “logical”

madness. Jonestown cannot be understood apart from the in-
spiration and activity of demons; this, indeed, is why secular
journalists cannot understand it.
It is all too likely that Jonestown is but the beginning of
far worse things to come in the 1980’s—things which only
those with the profoundest and clearest Christian faith can
even dare think about. It is not merely that politics is becom-
ing “religious” (for the massacres in Cambodia were acts per-
formed with “religious’—that is, demonic—fervor), or that
religion is becoming “political” (in the case of Jonestown);
such things have happened before. But it may well be that we
are now beginning to see, in concrete historical acts, the partic-
ular blending of religion and politics that seems to be required
for the zealots of antichrist, the religious-political leader of the
last humanity. This spirit, to be sure, has already been present
to some degree in the earlier totalitarian regimes of the 20th
century; but the intensity of fervor and devotion required for
mass suicide (as opposed to mass murder, which has been com-
mitted many times in our century) makes Jonestown a mile-
stone on the path to the approaching culmination of modern
times.
Satan, it would seem, is now entering naked into human
history. The years just ahead promise to be more terrible than
anyone can now easily conceive. This one outburst of satan-in-
spired energy led nearly 1,000 people to revolutionary suicide;
what of the many other enclaves of satanic energy, some much
more powerful than this small movement, that have not yet
manifested themselves?
A realistic view of the religious state of the contemporary
world is enough to inspire any serious Orthodox Christian
with fear and trembling over his own salvation. The tempta-
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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

tions and trials ahead are immense: Then shall be great tribula-
tion, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time,
no, nor ever shall be (Matt. 24:21). Some of these trials will
come from the side of pleasing deceptions, from the “signs and
lying wonders” which we begin to see even now; others will
come from the fierce and naked evil which is already visible in
Jonestown, Cambodia, and the Gulag Archipelago. Those who
wish to be true Christians in these frightful days had better
begin to become serious about their Faith, learning what true
Christianity is, learning to pray to God in spirit and in truth,
learning to know Who Christ is, in Whom alone we have
salvation.

200
Epilogue to the Fourth Edition
SIGNS OF THE RELIGION OF THE
PUTUREIN I HEAII0S

By Fr. Damascene Christensen

|Bra YEARS after this book first appeared, one reader told
us: “Some years ago, when I read this book, it seemed
very far-out to me. I thought: These are just fringe movements
Pr. Seraphim is describing—this kind of thing can’t really be
taking over the world. Now, however, it’s the year 1990, and I
see otherwise. All that Fr. Seraphim was saying is true.”
Any observer of the world today can see that the forma-
tion of a “new spirituality” has progressed precisely along the
lines which Fr. Seraphim described. When Fr. Seraphim wrote
his book, the form of neo-paganism in Western society was
only beginning to be delineated. Today it has taken on a much
more definite shape. While the Eastern religions which Fr.
Seraphim wrote about continue to gain followers, we see today
an equal if not greater interest in Western forms of paganism.
Druidical magic, witchcraft, Wicca, goddess worship, Gaia
(earth) worship, and Native American shamanism have gained
enormous popularity among Westerners who find them closer

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

to their own roots than Eastern religions. While many people

merely dabble intellectually in these modern revisions of an-
cient paganism, a growing number have entered into their
practice, thus partaking in the “pagan initiation experience”
which Fr. Seraphim said would characterize the religion of the
future.

1. The New Age

When Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future was first

published, the term “New Age,” though indeed familiar in
Masonic, esoteric, and countercultural groups, was not com-
mon parlance. Today it has become a banner word for a whole
worldwide movement—and a multi-billion dollar business.
The flashier outward manifestations of this movement,
however, can ultimately have only a limited appeal. Much more
significant is the fact that New Age ideas, the world view of the
“new religious consciousness,” are entering more and more into
all spheres of human thought and activity. Thus, the “New Age”
has become less an organized movement than a leaven insinu-
ating itself everywhere: into psychology, sociology, history, the
arts, religion, education, and government. Mental hospitals
throughout the country have instituted New Age programs:
Eastern meditation, transpersonal psychology, biofeedback, and
music meditation. Major corporations such as General Motors
and AT&T sponsor courses for their employees in “New Age
Thinking,” where visualization, hypnosis, “psychic healing,”
and other psychotechnologies are taught. Even in public, gov-
ernment-funded schools, mediumism under the name of
“channelling” is being taught as a means of “inner healing.” A
consortium ofconcerned parents in Connecticut has described
what is happening in the classroom: “In the name ofdiscovering
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 EPILOGUE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

their ‘life purpose,’ children are encouraged into trance-like

states of mind where they communicate with ‘guardian spirits.’
The use of Yoga exercises and mind control techniques are other
examples of the format of this program.”*
The Christian churches, sadly, follow the same dangerous
trends, trailing in the dust of the world’s march of apostasy. In
the mid-1970’s Fr. Seraphim had written: “The profound ig-
norance of true Christian spiritual experience in our times is
producing a false Christian ‘spirituality’ whose nature is closely
kin to the ‘new religious consciousness.” Years before “chan-
nelling” of disembodied entities had become popularized as a
New Age fad, Fr. Seraphim had quoted “charismatics” speak-
ing about how they “channelled” the “Holy Spirit.” But even if
we omit the whole issue of the “charismatic revival,” the prog-
nosis he made has been borne out in other areas. As New Ager
Marilyn Ferguson writes in her book The Aquarian Conspiracy:
“An increasing number of churches and synagogues have
begun to enlarge their context to include support committees
for personal growth, holistic health centers, healing services,
meditation workshops, consciousness-altering through music,
even biofeedback training.”** In the city of Detroit, for exam-
ple, “Silva Mind-Control” courses have been taught by a
Roman Catholic priest and nun. In Bloomfield Hills, Michi-
gan, an Episcopalian church has sponsored a holistic health
center. In New York City, the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John
the Divine has featured sermons by David Spangler—a leading
member of the Findhorn Foundation who has said that a
“Luciferian Initiation” would be required to enter the New

* Connecticut Citizens for Constitutional Education, January 22, 1980.

** Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy, J. P. Tarcher, Inc., Los
Angeles, 1980, p. 369.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Age. In Oakland, California, the “Institute for Creation-Cen-

tered Spirituality,” founded by a Roman Catholic priest, has
advocated a redefined “Christianity” that rejects the ascetical
Christian world view. In Seattle, Washington, a senior pastor
of the First Baptist Church (who is also a senior pastor of the
American Baptist Convention) has preached that Jesus Christ
was only a man who realized his divinity, and that anyone else
can do the same—through Kundalini Yoga among other meth-
ods. And in Christian bookstores throughout America, one
may find books which contain virtually every tenet of the New
Age movement—from positive-possibility thinking to support
for a “New World Order.” One book, co-published by Inter-
Varsity Christian Fellowship and Paulist Press, claims that it is
a sin for Christians not to support the goal of a “New Eco-
nomic Order” and the “New World Order.”*
Within mainline Protestant churches (especially Method-
ist and Presbyterian) there is a strong and determined move-
ment to incorporate worship of the goddess Sophia into
religious practice; and at conferences of pastors and leaders of
these churches, such worship has already taken place.
Concurrently, there is now a movement in contemporary
Roman Catholicism to assimilate the teachings of Carl Jung,
one of the founding fathers of the New Age movement. Jung,
who participated in séances and admitted to having “spirit
guides,” taught that the exclusion of the “dark side” is a fatal
flaw in our religion, and that therefore there needs to be a fourth
Aypostasis added to the Holy Trinity—Lucifer! His theories are
now being extolled by Roman “theologians” in such popular

* Constance E. Cumbey, The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow: The New Age
Movement and Our Coming Age of Barbarism, Huntington House,
Shreveport, Louisiana, 1983, p. 157.

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 EPILOGUE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

books as The Illness That We Are by Fr. John Dourley, and his
psychic therapy is being practiced in some Roman Catholic
churches, and by monks and nuns in some monasteries.* Epis-
copal and Protestant (especially Methodist) churches have also
entered this movement: a growing number of Protestant minis-
ters also work as Jungian analysts.**

2. The Toronto Blessing

In the realm of charismatic experiences, Fr. Seraphim’s
observations have been borne out most strikingly in the cur-
rent “laughter movement.” About “laughter in the Holy
Spirit,” Fr. Seraphim had written: “Here perhaps more clearly
than anywhere else the ‘charismatic revival’ reveals itself as not
at all Christian in religious orientation.” This is precisely the
charismatic phenomenon that has seen the greatest increase in
the last few years.
In 1994, at the Airport Vineyard Church of Toronto, an
event occurred which skyrocketed into the public limelight,
eliciting the attention of the worldwide media. Billed as the
top tourist attraction of 1994, this was the so-called Toronto
Blessing, at which the Holy Spirit was said to have filled
crowds with uncontrollable laughter. Men and women not
only collapsed on the floor in bouts of laughter, but were also
seen to crawl on the ground and bark like dogs, paw the
ground and snort like bulls, growl and emit other animal

* Deborah Corbett, “The Trouble with Truth: A Review of The [ness That
We Are: A Jungian Critique of Christianity by John P. Dourley,” Epiphany
Journal, Spring, 1986, pp. 82-90.
** Deborah Corbett, “The Jungian Challenge to Modern Christianity,”
Epiphany Journal, Summer, 1988, pp. 33-40.

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

noises—behavior which in Orthodox countries even today is

regarded as a sign of demonic possession.*
Since then, 300,000 Christians from all over the world
have come to “catch the fire” of the laughter movement. Of
these, 15,000 have been Christian ministers and pastors who
have subsequently brought the movement to their congrega-
tions throughout the world. In England alone, 7,000 churches,
including those of the Church of England, have embraced the
Toronto Blessing. The movement is now sweeping what has
long been regarded as mainstream Christianity, and is seen as
the newest, most exciting work of the Holy Spirit. In July of
1995, Pat Robertson’s 700 Club featured a Pentecostal and
several Protestant and Roman Catholic charismatic scholars
who defended the animal noises as either manifestations of the
Holy Spirit or human responses to the Holy Spirit’s working.**

3. UFOs in the Contemporary Mind

In the area of UFOs, Fr. Seraphim’s conclusions have also

been borne out by new developments. Now there is a growing
consciousness, not only on a scientific but on a popular level
as well, that the UFO phenomenon is not just a matter of
beings from other planets in spaceships, that it is somehow
involved in the psychic and occult realm, and that the “aliens”
are somehow inhabiting the earth with us. Also, the image—
promoted by director Steven Spielberg in his films Close En-
counters and E. T-—of benevolent and even “cuddly” aliens, is

* Deacon R. Thomas Zell, “Signs, Wonders, & Angelic Visitations,” Again,

September, 1995, p. 6.
** Timothy Brett Copeland, “Discerning the Spirit: Reflections of a
Charismatic Christian,” Again, September, 1995, p. 9.

206
 EPILOGUE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

now being replaced by an image closer to the truth. With the

experiences described by Whitley Streiber in his book Com-
munion, the public has been shown that these so-called “visi-
tors” are in fact cruel, malicious beings who wreak psychic
havoc on those who contact them (this aspect of the phenom-
enon also corresponds very closely with the evidence amassed
by the scientists Vallee and Hynek.) “I felt an indescribable
sense of menace,” Streiber writes. “It was hell on earth to be
there, and yet | couldn't move, couldn’t cry out, and couldn’t
get away. | lay as still as death, suffering inner agonies. What-
ever was there seemed so monstrous and ugly, so filthy and
dark and sinister...” Streiber also describes peculiar smells
associated with his “visitors’—among them, a “sulfur-like”
odor such as is mentioned when the ancient Lives of Saints
speak of demonic encounters. Perhaps the saddest “sign of the
times” in our post-Christian age is the fact that great numbers
of spiritually impoverished people now find it preferable to be
in contact with these monstrous and pitiless “visitors” than to
feel all alone in what seems to them an impersonal universe.
As a new journal called 74e Communion Letter states, “People
all across the world are encountering strange beings in their
homes and even in the streets ... along the roads of dream and
night.” The journal asks people to “learn to respond usefully
and effectively to the visitors if they appear in your life.—Dis-
cover the mystery, the wonder, and the beauty of the experi-
ence ... the things the ordinary media will not reveal ... the
strange and wonderful truths that are rushing up out of the
darkness.”
In the face of all this, the Christian believer can hardly
doubt Fr. Seraphim’s words that, indeed, “satan now walks
naked into human history.”

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 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

4. The Plan for the New Age

It is interesting to note that 1975, the year that Fr.

Seraphim’s book came out, was a banner year for the “new
religious consciousness.” This was when the deceased occultist
Alice Bailey—one of the major builders of the present-day
New Age movement and an avowed enemy of orthodox
Christianity—gave permission for disciples to publicly dis-
seminate hitherto secret “New Age” teachings to all available
media. During that year David Spangler and a host of other
“New Age” spokesmen and organizations began their public
work.
The goals of the “New Age” were mapped out well in
advance in the writings of Helen Blavatsky (founder of the
Theosophical Society, who called satan “the real creator and
benefactor ... of Mankind”), Alice Bailey, Nicholas Roerich
(author of the Agni Yoga writings), and H. G. Wells. Today,
some New Age circles speak of “The Plan” for a “New World
Order,” which would include a universal credit card system, a
universal tax, and an international authority that would con-
trol the world’s food supply and transportation systems. It is
taught among New Age esoteric societies that we must go
through mass “planetary initiations” for the realization of “The
Plan.” According to Benjamin Creme—a follower of occult
pioneers Blavatsky and Bailey—‘revitalized” Christian
churches and Masonic lodges will be used for the purpose of
giving these initiations. And as we have seen, David
Spangler—also a disciple of Bailey’s writings, as well as a mem-
ber of the Board of Directors of the influential “Planetary
Initiative for the World We Choose,” located in the United
Nations Plaza—has stated that these initiations will be “Lucife-
208
 EPILOGUE TO THE FourTH EDITION

ric” at their esoteric core: “Lucifer works within each of us to

bring us to wholeness as we move into the New Age ... each of
us is brought to that point which I term the Luciferic initia-
tion.... Lucifer comes to give us the final ... Luciferic initia-
tions ... that many people in the days ahead will be facing, for
it is an initiation into the New Age.”*
Here Spangler is only reiterating the teachings of Alice
Bailey, who “channelled” them from a being called “Djwhal
Khul.” Nor was Bailey the only pioneer of the movement to
teach this. In the late 1800's General Albert Pike, the top
leader of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in Charleston,
South Carolina, anticipated a global Luciferic initiation in a
documented letter.**
According to New Age mythology, man is ultimately per-
fectible through the process of “evolution,” and there are al-
ready people who have reached this state and can thus bring
about the chiliastic dream of a Kingdom of God on earth. Such
a mythology makes way for the final goal of the “new religious
consciousness,” which is to bring forth the New Age Messiah:
the “Maitreya—the Christ.”
According to the Alice Bailey writings, “angels” will ap-
pear with this false Christ in order to convince people that they
should follow him. Today we see, in preparation for this, a
widespread fascination with “angels” that is utterly lacking in
spiritual discernment.

* David Spangler, Reflections on the Christ, Findhorn Community Press,

Scotland, 1978, pp. 40, 44.
** See Tal Brooke, When the World Will Be As One, Harvest House
Publishers, Eugene, Oregon, 1989, p. 176.

209
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

5. Globalism

The New Age movement and its goals are only the eso-
teric aspect of a much broader movement which has mush-
roomed in the two decades since Fr. Seraphim wrote his book.
This is the multi-faceted movement towards globalism or
“global consciousness” which is being embraced by the greater
mass of mankind. Far from being considered strictly a New
Age phenomenon, globalism is very much in the interest of
those whose goals may not be spiritual at all. In recent years
international investment bankers and corporations have made
enormous strides towards their goal of a hegemony of world
finance. This can be seen in the following areas: 1) the advance
towards a “cashless society,” through bank cards and other
means; 2) the recent formation of the European Economic
Community, which has torn down economic barriers between
the countries of Western Europe; and 3) the takeover of Russia
and former Eastern-bloc countries by Western financial inter-
ests. Some of these developments are not necessarily evil in
themselves. Taken together, however, they help to set up a
one-world economic apparatus which will allow for a transi-
tion into a one-world government, with its “religion of the
future.” Moreover, with recent consolidations of world military
strength, as “peace keeping” forces under the United Nations,
it can now be seen how the rule and ideas of this government
can be enforced.
Another development which is rapidly increasing “global
consciousness” is the World Wide Web. Utilizing the internet,
one can easily, immediately, and for very little cost, access all
types of information from all over the world. Through it, the

210
 EPILOGUE TO THE FourtTH EDITION

various cultures of the world are fast forming a single mass-

mind: a mind that is easily hypnotized, for it seeks not Truth,
but words, data, and information.

6. False Unity and Rootless Eclecticism

In the popular mind, globalism is also seen in the ever-in-

creasing push towards “unity in diversity.” With this comes the
public sentiment that all religions are one, all are equal, and all
are saying the same thing, only in different ways. On the
surface this idea appears attractive because it seems to give
everyone a fair shake. On a deeper level, however, it can be
seen how the very concept of unity in diversity, as it is applied
nowadays, actually destroys diversity. If an adherent to a reli-
gion, for example, believes that all other religions are equal to
his own, he can no longer truly hold to that religion; he can no
longer be who he is. Instead, while perhaps holding to some
outward cultural artifacts, he becomes essentially a blank—a
blank waiting to be filled by some new revelation. He has
become as blank as everyone else who has been infected with
the same modern mentality. Thus there is no true unity or
diversity, only sameness based on blankness. This false “unity
in blankness” is precisely what satan will use in order to hypno-
tize the mass mind in the last days.
In recent years, the most influential idealogue of this new
approach to religion has been the late Joseph Campbell. A
religious syncretist and student of comparative mythology,
Campbell reduces religious forms to myths arising from Jung's
collective unconscious. Such “rootless eclecticism” (to use Fr.
Seraphim’s phrase) is very appealing to those who themselves
are without roots. Campbell’s motto “follow your bliss,” his
disdain for the ascetical world view of traditional Christianity,
ya!
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

and his praise for Dionysian revelry at Grateful Dead gather-

ings also appeal to pleasure-loving Western society, which is
now looking for a spiritual justification of its hedonism.
Joseph Campbell’s ideas have had a tremendous impact
on today’s generation of youth, both inside and outside of
universities. His popularity, however, is not so much a cause as
it is a symptom—a symptom of what has already been pre-
pared by the new religious consciousness.
The religious mentality of modern man has become
amorphous and hazy. The person of today can browse through
bookstores or surf the World Wide Web to find any religious
idea or practice that strikes his fancy, from Western to Eastern,
from Sufism to satanism. The more data he stores in his head,
however, the more vague his world-view becomes. In most
cases he will not identify himself as a New Ager nor as a
follower of a particular religion. He has religious interests in
several areas, but he basically believes that all is relative: ice.,
“My ideas work for me, your ideas work for you.” He believes
in everything at once, but in nothing very deeply, and in
nothing that will demand a sacrifice from him. He has nothing
worth dying for. But his antennae are out, feeling for some-
thing else that will strike his fancy, that will satisfy his vague
unrest without asking that he honestly look at himself and
change, without disturbing his constant endeavor to satisfy his
ego. His religious interest is only another form of ego gratifica-
tion, and thus he stands poised to receive anything from any-
where that will provide this gratification. He is as clay in the
hands of the spirit of antichrist, which, as the Apostle teaches,
is already in the world (1 John 4:3). He is a candidate—or
rather a target—for the “religion of the future” about which Fr.
Seraphim wrote.

212
 EPILOGUE TO THE FourTH EDITION

7. Conclusion

From all that has been said above, it can be seen how, in
the years following the publication of Fr. Seraphim’s book and
especially following his death, the formation ofan actual “reli-
gion of the future” has become increasingly real and believable.
Now we can see even more clearly how humanity is being
made open to the “demonic pentecost” that Fr. Seraphim
predicted, in which the multitudes of the world—including
well-meaning Christians—can actually be initiated into the
realm of demons.
Only Orthodox Christianity—with its patristic standard
of spiritual life and its thoroughly refined teachings on spiritual
discernment—can cut through all the deceptions of our times
at once. For this reason, satan sees it as his greatest enemy, and
is doing all in his power to undermine it from within. But for
the same reason we must do all that we can to cling to it, as Fr.
Seraphim exhorts us.
“He who does not experience the Kingdom of God
within him,” writes St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, “will not be
able to recognize the antichrist when he comes.” In Orthodoxy
we behold Christ undistorted. We can know Who He is, and
we can know His Kingdom within us, without fantasies, hyste-
ria, heated emotional states, and without any mental images.
Knowing this, we will not be a blank waiting to be filled, for
we will already be filled with Christ, Who is all, and in all (Col.
3:11). Having Christ’s Kingdom within us, we will inherit it
for eternity.

213
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 Appendix
to the Fourth Edition
THE CONVERSION OF A HINDU BRAHMIN
JO GrIRISRIANT
IY,

Epitor’s Note:

Orthodox Christianity, since it is the fullness of Truth, is

simple in its essence. Anyone with a sincere and unwavering desire
for Truth will arrive at it.
The “new religious consciousness,” on the other hand, ts
complicated. Being caught up in the fallenness of this world, it
cannot enter into the simplicity of Christs Truth. As it develops
into the religion of the future, it will become a sophisticated
compilation of all the oddities offallen thinking, which will rise
up against the simplicity of Orthodoxy.
Thus it is wonderful to see a simple-hearted person who,
coming from an authentic, traditional expression of an Eastern,
non-Christian religion, bypasses all the complexities of the modern
apostate mentality, and arrives at the feet of Christ Himself.
Having come in a simple fashion to Christ, he stands at the
threshold of the fullness of Christ’ revelation in Holy Orthodoxy.
It is with this in mind that we present the compelling ac-
count that follows:

215
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

Y NAME is Ravi Maharaj. Ravi is short for the Indian

M name Ravindinaz. Maharaj is my last name, but it
really used to be a title. Today I use it as a last name; it means
“oreat king.” I have such a name because of the caste I was
born into, the caste called Brahmin, into which I was born.
The caste system is very central. My father was a Hindu priest:
a guru, a yogi. Some years ago we would hardly have heard
these terms—guru and yogi, etc.; today virtually everyone
knows them. Guru means “divine master” or “teacher,” and
eurus in Hinduism are worshipped as God. The Hindu be-
lieves that his guru is divine, and so my father was also believed
to have been divine. He had his own followers, people who
worshipped him as a god.
Interviewer: Do you see such beliefs becoming more accepted
today?
In the Western world today I notice that a lot of people
say, “Well, all religions are more or less the same. God is the
same in every religion. All religions lead to the same goal in the
end.” But, you know, that is not true! I don’t agree with that. I
happen to know both sides of the fence. My father’s goal, for
example, was called moksha, which meant deliverence from
time, space and the elements, which meant also self-realization
or God-realization. This meant that my father would look into
himselfto find the true “self,” and to find that the true “self” is
God. Now this is the highest goal of Hinduism, to find that
you are God, to realize, in other words, that you are God. This
is why he made a number of very religious vows. For example,
my father renounced his marriage, more or less, just about a
216
 APPENDIX

day or so after he had married my mother—a marriage which

was arranged by their parents. He vowed not to have marital
contact or relationship. He vowed not to speak to anyone, not
to look at anyone, not to cut his hair or his beard —which grew
very long, right down to his seat. He also vowed not to eat any
cooked food; my father ate a banana and drank a glass of milk
per day, and he did that for eight long years. He also vowed not
to go anywhere, not to work anymore. He stayed in the same
room, in the same place, all day long, seated in a lotus position
with his legs crossed, with his hands clasped, with his eyes
turned up into his forehead deep in meditation. He lived this
way for eight years, uncompromisingly, unflinchingly and sin-
cerely. I was conceived just in the day or so that my mother and
father were together. I used to go and stand before him quite
often and look into his face and long for him to look at me,
even once, just to look at me, to say “Son,”—just to say one
word, to call my name ‘Ravi.’ But you know I have never heard
his voice, not even once in all my life. We had no contact,
really, although I respected him; | revered him, I was proud of
him.
When he died his mantle fell on me, and I very willingly
began to follow in his footsteps. I was already a very religious
child, even at the age of seven, which was roughly how old I
was when he died. In fact, I had always been a vegetarian like
my father was, not eating meat or fish or eggs; and I started
practicing yoga and meditation even before the age of five.
Through my yoga and meditation practices, very often I expe-
cienced trance, journeys into other worlds where I would see
mystical things: “the gods” and bright lights and bright colors,
psychedelic colors, psychedelic movements, and it was fantas-
tic, or so it seemed. I was very proud of these many experiences
I was having, because for the Hindu the more you experience
217
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

spiritually the more divine you think you are. For the Hindu
the experiential is of wtmost importance.
Now Hindus also bowed at my feet, like they did to my
father, and worshipped me and gave me their gifts and their
offerings. But, you know, in spite of all of that, in spite of all
the religiosity and so-called spiritual experiences, in spite of the
fact that my world eventually became a world of mysticism,
deep in my own heart I was empty, I was unhappy, I was
dissatisfied. I lived in a home with thirteen or fourteen other
people, but I was lonely in my own house. | came to realize
that something was missing, something was wrong. Just some-
thing was not right, and I began to search for the truth—for
the real truth, earnestly and sincerely with my whole heart. I
searched within Hinduism, I searched into Hindu scriptures. I
searched in my own Hindu mystical experiences, but still I was
empty. In spite of the fact that I had to believe as a religious
Brahmin Hindu that I was divine, that I was perfect, yet I
knew that I was just a sinner like everybody else. | knew my
own imperfection, I knew my own limitation. I knew that I
was not God, and I wanted to find forgiveness for my sins.
Also, having believed very sincerely in reincarnation—that
when I died I would come back again—yet that did not hold
out any real hope for me: just to die and come back, and to die
and come back, again and again, doesn’t hold any hope.
I wanted to find a real hope, a hope beyond the grave.
And I wanted to find a real hope in the sense that having
found it I would somehow know where I’m really going.
We're going and going and going ... but where are we really
going? I had important questions in my own heart: Who am
I? Why am I alive? What am I really doing here on this planet,
but, also, where am I going zo? Iwanted to know. And in my
most desperate hour—having locked myself away in a room
218
 APPENDIX

for about four days and nights without eating, drinking, any-
thing, without talking to anyone—an Indian lady came to our
home and shared with me the message of the Gospel ofJesus
Christ. She said, “Ravi, God loves you, and Jesus Christ died
on the Cross to forgive all your sins. And God wants to come
into your life, but He will only come through Christ, Who
said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man comes
unto the Father, but by Me.’”
Well, I argued a lot with her; I told her I would never,
ever become a Christian, not even on my deathbed. But she a

was very kind and very cool and very loving, and friendly and ‘
understanding. And she tolerated me. But the words she
shared with me really spoke to my heart; they convicted me.
And God showed me that Christ is the way, that the way to
God is through God, namely Jesus Christ Himself.
After many inner battles, turmoils and conflicts, after
about three weeks or so, I finally went on my knees and
prayed a very simple prayer—because | really wanted to know
the true and living God, I really wanted to find the truth, I
really wanted the answer. I prayed a simple prayer asking
Christ to come into my life, to forgive all my sins, to help me
to find the true and living God. I prayed that prayer sincerely,
and the tears began to flow down my cheeks, because when I
prayed that prayer something really happened in my life. It was
only then that I realized that all the many, many “mystical”
experiences I was having—psychedelic experiences without
drugs, all the visions I had of seeing the gods, etc.—were all
part and parcel of the darkness that was in me. God set me
free from all of that, and Christ Who said, “I am the Light of
the world” entered my life and made me a brand-new person.
God gave me a much moie fantastic hope—a hope to be with
Him in His Kingdom, forever and ever. And I found the an-
219
 ORTHODOXY AND THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE

swer through Jesus Christ. Today I know who I am, I know

why I am alive, I know where I came from, and I know where
I’m going.

From the documentary The New Age: A Pathway to Paradise?

Distributed by the Christian Information Bureau,
Dallas, Texas, 1983.

220
 General Index
2001: A Space Odyssey, 72 religion of, xxii, 114
700 Club, 206 forerunners of the, 188
abductions, 95—97, 106 spirit of, 183
by UFO occupants, 95 Apocalypse, private interpretation, 177
Abraham (Righteous Forefather), 3—6 apostasy, 6, 170, 184, 186, 188, 203
absolutism, 23 “Aquarian Age,” 98n
Advaitin, 10, 14, 23 “Aquarian nation,” 59, 62
“advanced intelligences,” 114 Arminianism, 121
aerial realm, 111 Arnold, Kenneth, 79
Again, 206 Arrupe, Father, S. J., (General of the So-
“Age of Mary,” chiliastic, 177 ciety of Jesus), 27
Al Montada, xxviii Ashtavakra Samhita, 8
Albrecht, Mark “Assemblies of God,” 119
—*“Questioning Jonestown,” 198n “Association of United Religions,”
Ambartsumyam, Victor, 83 xxvi, |
Ambrose, Starets of Optina, 129 astral travelling, 64
American Baptist Convention, 204n atheism, 197
American Standing Conference of Or- Athenagoras, Patriarch of Constantino-
thodox Bishops (SCOBA), xxiii ple, xxiv, 171
Anatolius, monk, 104 Augustine, Blessed, 125
Ancient of Days, 4 —Homiltes on John, 125n
Andrew of Caesarea, St., 179n Averky, Archbishop
“angel oflight,” 12, 18, 42, 144 —The Apocalypse In the Teachings of
devil appearing as, 165 Ancient Christianity, 179n
“angels,” 104, 106-8, 114, 144—45, —Guide to the Study of the New Testa-
148n, 184, 209 ment, Part IT, 179n
evil spirits appear as, 149 Babel, Pastor, xxvi
in Indonesia, 185 Bailey, Alice, 208-9
widespread fascination with, 209 baki, 16-17
Anthony the Great, St., 104 “Baptism of the Holy Spirit,” 117-18,
anti- Irinitarians, 3 120, 134—36, 139, 143, 146, 159,
antichrist, 6, 109-10, 179, 181, 186, 162, 188, 190
188, 213 Barsanuphius and John, Sts., 153, 169
false messiah, 174, 178 writings of, 169
“great signs and wonders” of, 175 Basil the Great, St., 6
Orthodox teaching on, 175, 186 Berdyaev, Nicholas, xxxii—xxxiv, 130,
reign of, 181n, 192 143, 173-74, 174n

221
 GENERAL INDEX

Bhagavad Gita, 8, 21-22, 55 “charismatic revival,” xiv, XX—xxli, XXXv,

Bhajan, Yogi, 60-61 35, 44, 116-24, 128, 133-40, 144,
“3HO” founded by, 61 146, 149, 152, 154, 158-59, 162-
Bhaktivedanta, A. C., “Krishna Con- 66, 170-71, 173-74, 176-77,
sciousness” movement founder, 55 179-84, 187, 203, 205
“Bigfoot,” 109n apologists of, 152, 155-56, 170, 172
“biofeedback,” 67, 202-3 attitude of Orthodox followers of, 149
black magic, 16, 18 conference in Ireland, Summer of
Blackmore, Simon A., S. J., 131n, 157, 1978, 118
163n distinctive characteristics of, 119
—Spiritism Facts and Frauds, 131, interdenominational, 115, 151, 163
157, 163n movement, xx, 141, 143, 188, 191
Blake, Eugene Carson, Dr., xxvi “new spirituality” of the, 143
blasphemy, 149, 186 Orthodox, 181-82
Blavatsky, Helen, 132, 208 “prophecies and interpretations,” 137
breath control, 19, 39, 43 See also Pentecostal revival
Bredesen, Harold, 178n Chrismation, 122—23, 143, 183, 187
Brooke, Tal Christenson, Larry, 127n, 149n, 169
—When the World Will Be As One, —Speaking in Tongues, 169
209n Christian Beacon, 177n
Buddha, 65 Christian Century, xxvii(n)
“nature” within one, 63 “Christian” America, 56, 58, 67
See also Zen Buddhism “Christian Science,” 67
Burdick, Donald W., 128n, 169 Christianity, xxv, xxix, xxxiv, 2-3, 8-9,
—Tongues: To Speak or Not to Speak, 3 =e 2-23,2 One 08a 444
169 50-52; 67=68, 75,101,117, 133;
Byashyananda, Swami, 24 140, 154, 165, 169;.170-7 1,174,
Bykoy, V. P. 181—82, 187—89,. 196—985 206;
—Tikhie Priyuty, 129n 208, 211
Caen, Herb, 198n conversion from Hinduism to Ortho-
Calvinism, 121 dox, xxxiv
Cambodia, 197, 198n, 199 counterfeit, 183, 191
Campbell, Father Robert, 24-25 deformation of, 29
Campbell, Joseph, 211-12 dogmas of, 15
Canadian UFO Report, 101n Eastern religion, combined with, 69
Catacomb Church of Russia, 184 genuine, 130
Catholicism. See Roman Catholicism liberal, 24-25
Catoe, Lynn G, “New,” xxxili, 130, 173, 175
—UFOs and Related Subjects: An An- Orthodox, xii, xxviii, xxxill, xxxv, 36—
notated Bibliography, 102n 37, 137; 14331655213
Chadwick, Owen “universal,” 14
—Western Asceticism, 147n Western, 43
“channels,” 135, 202-3, 209 “Churches of God,” 119
“charismatic” movement, 135, 141, 143, clairvoyance, 129
146, 150, 160, 181 Clarke, Arthur C.

222:
 GENERAL INDEX
—Childhood’s End, 74 “the new religion” of, 27
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 72, New Christianity of, 26, 28-29
91, 110n, 206 “Omega Point,” 29
close encounters, 84, 87-90, 92-94, 97 deception, xxii, 150, 179, 186
The Communion Letter, 207 “charismatic,” 159, 166
Communism, 77, 198 demonic, xi, 104—5, 114, 159
“Condon Report,” 81-82 self-, 111, 159, 163, 174, 188
Conference on “Divine Gifts,” 146 spiritual, 41, 149, 157, 162, 170, 187,
Connolly, Archbishop Thomas of Seat- ISI
tle, 177 delivered from, xiii
consciousness, 60, 67, 69-70 known asfancy, 165
cosmic, 49 physical accompaniments of, 157
human, 109 Dechanet, J. M.
“transcendental,” 61 —Christian Yoga, 38n, 41-42, 45
of the West, 67 Deir, Costa, 115
Convocation of Religion for World delusion, 18, 69, 175
Peace,” xxv aamome, ©), 7/5, Ow, MODS, IGS).
Copeland, Timothy Brett, 206 89S T9295
Corbett, Deborah activity, true stories of, 107
—*The Trouble with Truth: A Review deception, xi, 104-5
of The Illness That We Are...,” 205 encounters, 207
Cornelius the Centurion, 37, 123n forces, 141
Cosmas ofAitolia, St., 182 initation, 188, 192
Creme, Benjamin, xiv, 208 “kidnapping,” 106
cults, 61-62, 70, 195-96 manifestations, 104, 112
“consciousness,” 68—69 “pentecost,” xi, 213
Eastern religious, xxi, 61, 67, 70 power, 104, 130, 140, 192
Hindu, 62 possession, 51, 102, 128-29, 157,
new, 69 192, 206
overtly religious, 67 demons, 11-12, 36, 42, 68-69, 75, 102,
secular, 68 104-9, 113-14, 144, 146, 149,
the dangers of neo-pagan, xiv 152, 162, 166, 174, 185
UFO, 94, 98 activity of, 108
Cumbey, Constance E. and angels, Orthodox doctrine of,
—The Hidden Dangers ofthe Rainbow: 104n
The New Age Movement and Our contact with, 110
Coming Age of Barbarism, xiv, 204 escaping the nets of, 108
Cyprian of Carthage, St., 6, 104 in human form, 113
Damascene [Christensen], Fr., xvii, 201 initiated into the realm of, 213
—Not of This World: The Life and inspiration and activity of, 199
Teaching of Fr.Seraphim Rose, xiti(n) Devil, 105, 131n, 162. 173, 183
Daniel, Prophet, 4 appearing as an “angel oflight,” 165
David, Prophet-King, 4 gains initiates, 110
Davis, Rennie, 57 grants great “visions,” 144
de Chardin, Teilhard, 21, 26-29 loosed for a time, 188

223
 GENERAL INDEX

wiles of the, 113, 141 “Enlightenment,” 76, 107

See also satan; Lucifer the modern age of, 113
Diakonia, xxiv(n) Ephraim the Syrian, St., 153
“Discerning the Spirit: Reflections of a Epiphany Journal, 205
Charismatic Christian,” 206n equinox rites, 63
discernment, 12, 149, 213 “Erhard Seminars Training,” 67
“Disciples of Christ,” 198 “evolution,” 28, 74-75, 77, 91, 209
“Divine Light Mission,” 56-57, 68 development of man spiritually, 10
“Djwhal Khul,” 209 modern mythology of, 73
dogma, 14-15 pseudo-religious concept of, 28
as a derisive term, 13 theory of, 73
“doors of perception,” 68 evolutionism, 27—28
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor M. “exorcism, 146, 148
—The Possessed (The Demons), 197 “exotheology” (theology of outer space),
Dourley, Fr. John 74
—The Illness That We Are, 205 extraterrestrial beings, 73, 74, 103
Drobyazgin, Archimandrite Nicholas, hypothesis of origin, 79, 99
30 idea ofintelligent life, 98
Du Pleiss, DavidJ., 120, 124-25, 162n, myth, 108
169 races of, 74
—The Spirit Bade Me Go, 169 fakin2: 34-35,87, 132
Duddy, Neil fancy, 165-67
—“Questioning Jonestown,” 198n deception known as, 165
E. T, 206 second form ofprelest, 162
Eastern religions, 9 “Father Divine,” 196
practioners of, 35 Ferguson, Marilyn
See also religions, Eastern —The Aquarian Conspiracy, 203,
ecumenical 203n
activists, XXIV fetishism, 23
“Christians,” 191 Findhorn Foundation, 203
fashion, xx, 183 Finsaas, Clarence, 121
movement, xxili—xxvi, 120-21, 170, Fisher, David
182 —Tranquility Without Pills (All About
Orthodox participants in, 191 Transcendental Meditation), 46n
spirituality, xx—xxi “flying saucer.” See UFO
ecumenism, xxviii, 23, 120, 123 Ford, J. Massingberd, 160n
“charismatic revival” comes to, 171 —The Pentecostal Experience, 169
“Christian,” xxv, XXxvill-xxix fortune tellers, 98
heresy of, 191 Francis of Assisi, 158
as chief of the 20th century, xix Freemasonry, xxvi
ideology behind, xxv ideology, undisguised aim of, xxv
Efremov, Ivan, 76-77 lodges, xxxii
Elijah the Prophet, 178, 184 initiations, 208
Emilianos, Metropolitan of the Patri- Scottish Rite of, 209
archate of Constantinople, xxvi “Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship
224
 GENERAL INDEX
International,” 161 hedonism, spiritual justification of, 212
“Full Gospel” groups, 119 Hellenic Chronicle, xxiv(n)
Fuller, John Herman ofAlaska, St., miraculous inter-
—The Interrupted Journey, 95 cession of, 140
fundamentalism, 171 Himalayas, 16, 53
See also Protestantism Hinduism, xxxiv, 7-10, 12=13, 15, 19-
Gaia (earth) worship, 201 215 25=27 29, 663 76; 1375 216
Gelpi, Donald L., S. J. conversion from, to Orthodox Chris-
—Pentecostalism, A Theological View- tianity, XXxIv
point, 169 corrupting power of, 15
genocide, “revolutionary, ” 197 highest goal of, 216
Georges [Khodre], Metropolitan of gurus worshipped as God, 216
Lebannon, xxvii, xxix—xxx, 20 philosophical construct of, 10
Ghandi, philosophy of, xxvii power it holds over devotees, 143
globalism, 210-11 success of, 25
God-realization, 216 system of practices, 18
Graham, Billy, 177, 181n Vedantic, 21
interpretation of the “Rapture,” 180 hippies, 53, 61
—World Aflame, 181n hitchhiker, vanishing, 176-77
Grebens, G. V. Hoare, F R., 105
—lvan Efremov’ Theory of Soviet Sci- —The Western Fathers, 105n
ence Fiction, 76n “Holiness” bodies, 119
Greek Archdiocese of North and South Pentecostal sect, 132
America, xxv, xxviii, 182 Holy Baptism, Sacrament of, 183
Greek Orthodox Church, 115-16 Holy Spirit, 3-4, 17, 124, 143, 157-58,
Greenfield, Robert 160, 163, 191
—The Spiritual Supermarket, 57-58 “acquisition of the,” 183
Gregerson, J. “Baptism of the,”
—“Nicholas Berdyaev, Prophet of a can be had without Christ, 172
New Age,” xxxui(n) commonest responses to, 139, 151,
Gregory of Sinai, St., 11, 150, 179 156, 163, 171-72
Gregory the Theologian, St., 179n “ecstatic” experiences of, 156, 158
“guitar masses,” 120n other physical reactions to, 154
Gulag Archipelago, 197, 200 “channels of the,” 134, 136, 203
guru, 19, 56, 216 “Church ofthe,” xxxii
“Rastern,” of the newer school, 56 descent of the, 125
Indian, 53 “ecclesiology of the,” xxxi
Western, 53 gift of the, 12, 122-23, 125-27, 144—
Guru Maharaj-ji. See Maharaj-ji, Guru 45, 158, 162, 166, 182, 187
Hagar the Egyptian, 3—4 grace of the, 186
Haight-Ashbury, 54 “laughter of the,” 152-53, 205
Hare Krishna sect, 54, 68 manifestations of, 206
See also “Krishna consciousness” “New Age of the,” xxxiii, 143, 173,
Harper, Michael 192
—Life in the Holy Spirit, 168 Old Testament manifestation of the, 4

225
 GENERAL INDEX

“outpouring of the,” xxxiti, 121, 150, Ishmael, the son of Hagar, 5

166, 170 Islam, 2—3
“Third Age of the,” xxxiii See also Moslem
“humanoid,” 91—96, 113 James the Apostle, St. 8
Huxley, Aldous, 21 Javers, Ron
Hynek, Dr. J. Allen, 82n, 83-85, 87, 91, —The Suicide Cult, 198n
91n, 94—95n, 98, 101, 207 Jesus Christ, xii, 2-6, 24, 175-76
cases examined by, 88 “Jesus Movement,” 155, 175-76
chief consultant of Project “Blue Joachim of Floris, xxxiii
Book,” 82 Joel, Prophet, 166
techical consultant, 91 John Cassian, St., 146
—The Edge ofReality: A Progress Report John Climacus, St.
on Unidentified Flying Objects, 9\n, —The Ladder of Divine Ascent, 149,
Es yuy S)3) 149n, 189
—The Hynek UFO Report, 86n, 90n, John of Kronstadt, St., 166
a 124n —My Life in Christ, 189
—The-UFO Experience: A Scientific John the Apostle and Theologian, St., 3,
Inquiry, 82n, 84—87n, 89n, 92n, 5 IAG 5 4 tS OMiGG;
94-96n PS2AT892035 212
hypnosis, 95-97, 100, 129, 133, 202 Johnston, William
hysteria, 152, 155 —Christian Zen, 42, 44
I Ching, 64 Jones, Jim, 195—96, 198
Iakovos, Archbishop of New York, xxviii, Jonestown, mass-suicide, xiv, 195-200
182 The Journal of Shasta Abbey, 64, 65n
Ifugao magic, 16 Judaism, xxviti, 2-3
Ignatius [Brianchaninoy], St., 68, 104, Jung, Carl G., 71, 204
111, 113, 144—46, 146n, 150, 154, —‘The Jungian Challenge to Modern
1597/1597 162s 1G5—o/7e2 lio Christianity,” 205n
—On Miracles and Signs, 111 —Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of
Ignatius Loyola, 158 Things Seen in the Skies, 71
Illuminist sects, 3 Kali, goddess, 15, 20, 20n
Incarnation, Mystery of the, 4, 6 Keel, John A., 97, 99, 101, 110n, 112
Indonesia, “revival” in, 184—85 —UFOs: Operation Trojan Horse, 97n,
initiation, 47—48, 156, 188, 192 99n, 102n, 110n, 113n
into the New Age, 209 Kempis, Thomas 4
into the psychic realm, 68 —Imitation ofChrist, 145
into the realm of demons, 213 Kennett, Jiyu
“Luciferian,” 203, 208-9 —-How to Grow a Lotus Blossom, 68n
pagan experience, xxii, 202 Kilduff, Marshall
“Institution for Creation-Centered Spir- —The Suicide Cult, 198
ituality,” 204 King, Pat, 115n
Inter-Church Renewal, 121, 163n Kireyevsky, Ivan, xiii
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship, 204 Klass, PhilipJ.,84n, 84-85
Isaac of the Kiev Caves, St., 144 —UFOs Explained, 84n
Isherwood, Christopher, 21 Knox, Ronald A.

226
 GENERAL INDEX
—Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History Lucifer, 14, 18, 204, 209
of Religion, 137n See also Devil; satan
Koch, Dr. Kurt, 126n, 128, 130-31, “Luciferian Initiation,” 203, 208-9
Siam, Si, siti, 139-40, 156n, Lunn, Harry, 172n
168, 181n, 185n Macarius, St., Elder of Optina, 156, 158
—Between Christ and Satan, \31n Macarius the Great, St.
—DayX, 181n —Homulies, 189
—Occult Bondage and Deliverance, Mackintosh, C. H.
130=3 nels 3e156 —The Lords Coming, 18\n
—The Revival in Indonesia, 185n magic
—The Strife of Tongues, 128n, 168 demarcations between Science and,
Kontzevitch, I. M., 145 76 -
Koran, 2 Druidical, 201
“Krishna consciousness,” 54—58 manifestation of, 131n
See also Hare Krishna sect magnetic field, 132
La Croix, | proper “flow” of the yogic, 60 wa
La Fot Transmise, 6 spiritistic, 134 —_—
La Suisse, xxvi(n) Maharaj, Ravindinaz (Ravi), 216
laughter, “holy,” 151-54, 205-6 Maharaj-ji, Guru, 56, 57-58
See also Toronto Blessing Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi, 46-51, 56
Lausiac History, [Palladius’}, 189 “Maitreya,” 209
laying on of hands, 117, 123, 126, 134, mantra, 19, 39, 48-49, 54, 60
139 Pujabi, 59
“charismatic” definition of, 136 Sanskrit, 17, 19, 61
levitation, xxi, 50, 90 Manuel, David, Jr., 177n
Lewis, I. H. Martin of Tours, St. 104—5
—Ecstatic Religion, An Anthropological Masonry. See Freemasonry
Study of Spirit Possession and Sha- Maugham, Somerset, 21
manism, 148n, 153n McIntire, Carl, 177
Lilli, D. G. meditation, xxxv, 39, 42-44, 50-51, 59,
— Tongues under Fire, 168 187, 191
Lindsay, Gordon agnostic character of, 44
—Israel’s Destiny and the Coming De- “Christian,” 39, 52, 187-88
liverer, 177 convention on, 44
liturgical experimentation, 120 Eastern, 35, 42, 45, 202
Lives of Saints, 37, 131n, 144, 148-49, experiences, 187
181, 207 music, 202
Logos Journal, 115n, 135n, 161n, 172n, on Scriptural passages, 149
177-78n practices, 216-217
The Logos, xx, xxxiii(n), 13, 115n, 116, Roman Catholic, 41
1Dim, Weve, WA, WS). silent, 43
159n, 164n, 166n, 170, 173, 173n, various kinds of, 68
181, 181n workshops, 203
“herald of this new age,” xxxiv Zen, xxi, 45
Look, 95 mediumism, 102, 104, 128-30, 131n,

227
 GENERAL INDEX

132, 154-368 157%, 1625, 202 neo-paganism, xi, xil, xiv, 7, 201
applying tests for, 133 New Age, 202-3, 208-9
central characteristic of, 35 “Luciferian Initation” required to
*Christian, »xx, 130 enter the, 204
discarnate entities, 198 Messiah, 209
modern spiritistic, 137 movement, xiv, 204, 208, 210
passivity or submissiveness of, 131 mythology, 209
seance as a crude form of, 132 “of the Holy Spirit,” xxxili
mediumistic The New Age: A Pathway to Paradise’,
possession, 157 220
techniques, xiv, 110, 136 “new religious consciousness,” Xiv, Xxil,
Merton, Thomas, xxvi, 21, 37 58, 68, 70, 77, 166, 188, 192, 202—
“millenitim,” 179-80 4, 208-9, 212
Orthodox interpretation of the, 178- of the “charismatic revival,” 143
79 of Berdyaev, 143
“Millenium ’73,” 57-58, 177, 179 secret teachings of, 208
miracles, 35, 58, 109, 111, 116, 144, seductive power of, 69
169, 184 significance and goal of the, xxxv
of antichrist, 111 symptoms of, xi
of God, 114 world view of, 202
prepare the world for the false mes- The New Religious Consciousness, 61n
siah, 183 The New York Times, 198n
“miraculous healings,” 97, 129 Nicetas, Bishop of Novgorod, St., 144
Mohammedan, “praying in the mosque Nilus of Sora, St., Life of, 106
of the,” xxx, 23 Nilus, Sergei, 107, 113n
Mohammed, 2 —The Power of God and Mans Weak-
moksha, 216 ness (in Russian), 107n
monastic life, 149 —Svyatynya pod Spudom, 113n
monasticism, 63, 65 Niphon of Constantia, St., 169n
ascetic spirit, Xxx occult, xii, 51, 64-75, 109n, 147
Orthodox instructors in, 182 concealed influence, 77
Roman Catholic, 21, 73 initiation rituals, 101
monism, 19, 22, 27 interest in, 51
“monotheism,” 1, 3—4 “mystical” overtones of, 73
ecumenists unite on the basis of, xxxiv phenomena, 97—98
Moslem, xxv—xxvili realm, 99, 102—3, 110, 130, 206
See also Islam occultism, 72, 131, 150n
Motovilov, “Conversation” of St. Sera- connection of“science” with, 76
phim with, 183 contemporary, 141, 149
Mount Shasta, xi—x1i, 62 “higher stage of humanism is,” 76
munbaki, 16 influence on events in Russia, 30
mutki (salvation), the doctrine of, 15 Omega Point, 29, 192
“Mystery ofIniquity,” 192 “On Space Civilizations,” Soviet scien-
near-death visions, 68n tific conference, 83
Nectarios of Pentapolis, St., 166 original sin (as concept), 9, 28

228
 GENERAL INDEX
Ortega, Ruben, 142n, 155n, 168 161
—The Jesus People Speak Out, 168 “channels,” 135
@rxthodox ‘Church; 255; 36, 121, 124; experience, 44
145, 178, 184, 186 “laying on ofhands,” 134
true Christian worship of the, 133 Movement, 116-17, 120, 136-37
Orthodox Life, xxxii(n), 31 revival, 120
The Orthodox Word, xxii—xxili, xx, 7, 68, See also “charismatic revival”
104n, 140, 145n see iy NG, WiS)S WS ey
Orthodoxy, xxiv, 7, 38, 182-84 Pentecostalism, 120, 134, 142, 171
ascetical teaching of, 143-44 ecumenistic theories and practices of,
contemplative tradition of, 45 124
Fathers of, 146, 149, 154, 170 “People’s Temple,” 198
historical, xxxii St. Peter’s Cathedral, xxvi, 2, 9,36-37
“new posture of,” xxxiv Philokalia, 38, 42, 45, 66, 112n, 154n
self-liquidation of, xxiv—xxv Pike, Me 208-9
tradition of, xxiv, 153, 174, 181-82 planetary initiations, mass, 208
true spirituality of, 42 Planetary Initiative for the World We
Ostrander, Sheila Choose, 208
—Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Poe, Edgar Allan, 72
Curtain, 83n, 74n possession. See demonic possession
ouija-board, 162-63 “post-Christian” age, 62, 66, 70, 73, 77,
paganism, xxix, 56 110, 118
experience of, 152, 171 Prabuddha Bharata, 24
gods of, 7, 105, 152 pranayama, \9
initiation experience of, xxii, 202 prelest, 11, 41, 143-44, 149, 162
interest in Western forms of, 201 jnavakes, SILL, G6, Se)
religious experiences of, 156 basic sin of, 14
shamanistic, 173 may take the form of “humility,” 149
Paisius the Great, St., 189-91 spiritual, 149
pan-Christianism, 27 “Project Blue Book,” 81-82, 89, 101
papacy, xix prophecy, xxxv, 144, 159-60, 166, 192
parapsychologists, 102 “accompanied by a vision,” 161
“parapsychology,” experiments in, 76 concerning the last days, 178
Parham, Charles, 117 of the future of mankind, 195
Parliament of Religions, 21, 24 of Nicholas Berdyaev, 173
passivity, 131-32, 189 of St. Niphon of Constantia, 169
foreign to Orthodox spirituality, 133 satanic, 192
of mind, 157, 162 “prophesying,” 141
of the spiritistic seance, 133 “prophets,” false, 175, 192
so pronounced in “charismatic” com- Protestantism, xx, 38, 52, 181
munities, 134 Fundamentalist, xix
Paul VI, Pope, 1, 36, 118, 126, 137, 156, pagans converted to, 184
186 Protestant
See also Roman Catholicism evangelicals, several recent UFO stud-
Pentecostal, 44, 119, 125-27, 134-35, ies by, 102
229
 GENERAL INDEX

revivalism, 116 “reincarnation, 218

psychedelic ofJesus, Buddha and Lenin, 198
colors, 217 religion, 13, 23,67, 101, 114, 195, 199,
drugs, 52 202A ZI
experiences without drugs, 219 “American,” 61
movements, 217 comparative study of all, 13
psychic, 43, 68-69, 81, 103, 187-88, “create a world community of,” xxvii
207 Eastern, xiv, xvi, xxxiv, 20n, 38, 52-
“component” in UFO sightings, 97 53,1055 8s GIN 6747 69s ea 83
devices, UFOs as, 99 201—2
disciplines, 69 false, 113
disorders, 133, 157 “of the future,” xxxv, 210
energy, 59 new world, 172
experiments, 68 non-Christian, 20n
experience, 11, 68 of antichrist, 114, 188
games, dangerous, 127 primitive, 15, 128, 137
healing, 100 Sikh, 61
hypotheses, 71, 202 religious
and occult activities, 64 cults, Eastern, 52
parlor tricks, 18 “experiments,” 188
phenomena, 98-100, 102, 169 “feelings,” 163
power, 45 foundation of world peace, xxv
reality, the boundaries of, 71 ignorance of our times, xxxii
realm, 68, 206 instructions, 10
researchers, 107 “liberals,” xxx
sensitivity, 129 mentality of modern man, 212
states, 129, 136, 188 “new experiences,” 189
technique, 49 phenomena, contemporary, xi
therapy, 205 “revival,” 192
psychology, transpersonal, 202 spectrum, American, 196
psychotechnologies, 202 syncretism, xxviii
puja (Hindu ceremony ofworship), 84 thought, contemporary, xxxiii
purgatory, xix Religious News Service, xxvii—xxviii(n)
Radix, 198n “revival,” 126, 186
Ramakrishna, xxvii approach to spiritual, xix
Ranaghan, Kevin & Dorothy, 125n, great spiritual, 170
135n, 151—52n, 155n, 158—60n, revivalism, Protestant, xx, 116, 180, 182
163—64n, 168, 178n Robbins, Jhan
—Catholic Pentecostals, 168 — Tranquility Without Pills (All About
“Rapture,” the, 180 Transcendental Meditation), 46n
Raudive, Konstantin Roberts, Oral, 132, 133n
—Breakthrough: An Amazing Experi- Robertson, Pat, 206
ment in Electronic Communication Roerich, Nicholas, 208
with the Dead, 1\0n “Rolfing,” 67
Rebus, 30 Roman Catholicism, xix, 21, 23-25, 27,

230
 GENERAL INDEX
37-38, 52, 204 Seraphim of Sarov, St., 158, 182-83
See also Paul VI, Pope; Vatican II “Conversation” with Motoviloy, 183
Ruppelt, Captain Edward, 82n miracle of, 30
the first director of “Blue Book,” 82 shamanism, 44, 137, 148, 153, 173
—Report on Unidentified Flying Ob- as a “religious” expression, 128
jects, 82n “initiation” experience of apagan Es-
Sabellius, 3 kimo, 152
“sacred heart,” xix Native American, 201
Safran, Grand Rabbi Dr., 2 powers, 148
Sakkas, Fr. Basile, 1, 6 “speaking in tongues,” 127
samadhi, \3, 43 Shasta Abbey, 62-63, 65-66, 68n
Sanskrit, 48, 54—5, 58 Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Sarov Monastery, 30 —Frankenstein, or the Modern Pro-
Saigin, vox, I, 5, 3G, We, WS), Wl. metheus, 72
213 P Sherill, John L., 124n, 127n, 134—35n,
aerial realm as chief dominion of, 111 142n, 151—52n, 154n, 161n, 168
evident and brazen activity of, xxii —They Speak with Other Tongues, 168
fantasies and illusions of, 12 Shri Guru Dey, 48
“the real creator and benefactor,” 208 siddhis, 18, 50
servants of, 169 Sikh religion, 61
See also Devil; Lucifer “Silva Mind Control,” 67, 203
satanic, 188, 199 Siva Cave, 16-17
in nature, 36 Smena, 83, 83n
prophecy, 192 Sobornost, xxiv(n), xxx(n)
satanism, 141, 149, 212 Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction
Schroeder, Lynn of, 73
—Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron sorcery, 75-76, 104, 131n
Curtain, 83n, 74n Soviet Life, 83n
Schweitzer, Albert, philosophy of, xxvii Spangler, David, 203, 208-9, 209n
science fiction, 72, 74-75, 77, 91 —Reflections on the Christ, 209n
future “evolved” beings of, 74 speaking in tongues, 117, 124, 126-29,
history of, 75-76 1342375 1392141ee Sola 9 1GG:
myth behind, 74 170
roots are in magic and mythology, 76 common “gift” of the possessed, 128
totally secular universe of, 73 not a gift but a technique, 136
“Science of Mind,” 67 shamanistic, 128
“Scientology,” 67 “supernatural” phenomenon, 142
seance, 131—33, 161n, 204 Spielberg, Stephen, 206
Second Coming of Christ, 179, 181n spiritism, 102, 129, 131-34, 137, 142,
self-realization, 216 161
Seraphim [Rose], Fr. 19th-century, 98
—The Kingdom ofMan and the King- automatic writing of, 107
dom of God, xii comparison of “charismatic revival”
—The Northern Thebaid, 106n with, 171
—The Soul After Death, xvi, 104n crude techniques of, 132
231
 GENERAL INDEX

mediumistic, 102 Time, 86, 197n

“magnetic circles” in, 134 Timofievitch, A. P., 31
spirits, 129, 147, 153, 174 TM in Court, 5\n
“of devils,” 183 “TM.” See transcendental meditation
evil, 112, 148, 199 tongues, speaking in. See speaking in
fallen, xiv, 129, 162, 185 tongues
“guardian,” 203 Toronto Blessing, 205—6
openness to the activity of, 133, 162 Airport Vineyard Church, 205
at seances, 16] See also laughter, “holy”
“Spiritual Counterfeits Project,” 48, 51 transcendental meditation, 45—47, 49—
Spiritual Counterfeits Project Journal, 51, 56, 68
102 centers, 47
Sputnik, 74n U. S. News & World Report, 67
Star Wars, 72-73 UFO, 70-71, 77; 79, 81—83, 86—87, 90;
“Star Trek,” 72,75 97, 101, 112-13
Steiger, Brad, 101 “abductions,” 106
Stephanou, Fr. Eusebius, xx, xxxiti, 1 15— contemporary researchers, 107
LG 20s, W23newt Dee Oe “Daylight Discs,” 86
166, 1170; 179=82 debunking, 84
Streiber, Whitley, 207 emotional response ofwitnesses, 87
Sufism, 212 encounter, 81, 90, 100—2
suicide, 97, 112, 145 government investigation of, 81
“revolutionary,” 197, 199 groups, 82
Sulpicius Severus, 104 “landings,” 80-81, 93, 99
Swedenborg, Emanuel, 147 manifestations, 102, 108
Symeon the New Theologian, St., 112, “Nocturnal Lights,” 86
182 observations made of, 85
Symposium of Religions, 24 occupant, 100
syncretism, xxv, xxvill, 38, 46, 69 phenomena, xiv—xv, 78, 81, 98, 100—
Syrian Antiochian Archdiocese of New 3, 107, 112=13, 206
York, 140 psychological side of, 71
Talmudic traditions, 2 typical characteristics, 89
dantra, 19527560 “Radar-Visual” reports, 86
Tari, Mel reports, scientific analysis of, 78
—Like a Mighty Wind, 185n sightings, 78, 84-85
tears, 154 wave, 79-80
telepathy, 75, 97 See also abductions; close encounters;
“Temple of Understanding, Inc.,” xxvi “Condon Report’; cults, UFO;
Temple of Jerusalem, 174, 177, 179 “Project Blue Book”; psychic
Theophan the Recluse, St., 122-23 unidentified flying objects. See UFO
—The Spiritual Life: and How to Be “Unidentified Flying Objects,” 83n
Attuned to It, 123n Upanishads, 8, 27
—Unseen Warfare, 189 Vallee, Dr. Jacques, 78, 83, 91n, 92, 94n,
Theosophical Society, 208 97-101, 108—9, 207
“theosophy,” 132 —The Edge ofReality: A Progress Report
252
 GENERAL INDEX
on Unidentified Flying Objects, 91n, Williams, J. Rodman, 133—34n, 136n,
93m, 99) 142n, 160n, 168
—The Invisible College, 96-100n, —The Era ofthe Spirit, 168
108—-9n Wilson, Clifford
—FPassport to Magonia, 100n —Close Encounters: A Better Explana-
—UFOs in Space: Anatomy of a Phe- tion, 102n
nomenon, 78n, 94n — “UFOs: Is Science Fiction Coming
Van Dusen, Wilson True?,” 102
—The Presence of Other Worlds, 148n witch doctors, 137
Vatican II, 37 witchcraft, 133, 201
See also Roman Catholicism wizards, 7
Vedanta, 10, 13, 14-15, 19, 22—24 World Wide Web, 210, 212
Advaita, 18, 22-23 World Council of Churches, xxvi, xxx,
idolatry, 19 120
message of, 21-22 Central Committee of, xxvii
philosophy, 25 World Council Movement, 120
plagiarisms from, 27 Yoga, 38-40, 43, 46-49, 68-69, 203
Societies, 13, 21 agni writings, 208
teachings and practices of, 26 bhakti, 55
Vedanta and the West, 24 “Christian,” 39, 41-42, 46—47
Vedanta Kesheri, 24 hatha, 40
Vedantasara, 8 kundalini, 59, 204
Verne, Jules, 72 practice of, 40, 61, 216
visualization, 202 tantric, 59
Vivekananda, Swami, xxx, 15, 19-25, original purpose of practice, 33
28-29 Yogi Bhajan. See Bhajan, Yogi
mission, 26 Zaitsev, Dr. Vyacheslav
power behind, 25 —‘Visitors from Outer Space,” 74n
philosophy of, xxvii zazen, 45
purpose for coming to the West, 22 Zell, R. Thomas, Deacon, 206n
Universal Religion of, 26, 28-29 Zen Buddhism, 37, 43-46, 62, 64-66,
St. Vladimir’ Theological Quarterly, xxiv 68, 133
von Daniken, Erich, 73 agnostic, pagan experience of, 45
—Chariots of the Gods? 73 “Christian Zen,” 46-47
—Gods from Outer Space, 73 Japanese, 43, 53, 63
WCC. See World Council of Churches master, 22
Weldon, John near-death visions of, 68n
—Close Encounters: A Better Explana- Western, 53
tion, 102n monastery, 62
— “UFOs: Is Science Fiction Coming Ziegel, Dr. Felix U., 83
True?,” 102 —‘On Possible Exchange ofInforma-
Welles, Orson, 79 tion with Extra- Terrestrial Civiliza-
Wells FL Gs 72: 793208 tions,” 83n
—War of the Worlds, 79 —“UFOs, What Are They?,” 83n
Wicca, 201 Zoroastrianism, xxx, 23

233
 Scripture Index

Old Testament LO. cada eee ee 193

Genesis 2A Pe ee 200
Chie Ge Tf Sh ke eee 5 24: 22 Ie,
[SS omee cpnem ee Slims 5 SOE Oe ewe Ego 178
1s a a Nee eee See
ee 4 DA: Amey rateae Ss WS:
Leviticus 24730 4) Ae ee WA
Ch: 20: Gate Vase 130 Mark
Deuteronomy Chilas6126 2 oe So
(Choy Se WORN ge SE 130 Luke
II Kings GH nl(Peas Wee. e MASE NOY
(Shal3 2) 2 ae eG eS) 18:3 8 ,.0e sikAa 170
Psalms ZIM er eeeee 1 bl
Ch. 95252 eee ee ee i John
LOO Svea er eon ee eae 4 el eg Ee:S Rata Pens Leonie 178
Sirach 632.9 ste i ee 4
Ch? 12°23 ae ee Bee Se 8:39 motives SPR. oe 4
Isaiah 8:56 Rs as ee ee 4
Choy 2022 lems tera fe te 26 [050% ete ee ae ee 5
eI pow Bee ge 14 |2 Lovet ee ae ee ee 36
Jeremiah 12 Op) lca iesUR wer 5
Chad os 8-986. ec teesae 161 16A33ual eae weenie 18
Daniel L724 Sa 3
Cheat255 =o eee eee 4 Acts of the Apostles
so Wh tee) ce ee 4 (Gl ealcalle oo Yates
Be i ee
Joel 7S Ae peeSe 125, 166
Ghia? Saeave
. oe xxxi, 202 Di BA Pre #05 Ree eae 4
| Oxegen
eae et 1125)
New Testament 10: 38—35' oe eee 36
Matthew 10:3448........ 37
Chis Ae acs, «seen ae 189 Coven eo 36
T2223 ee 2 ee 186 LOR aa 125
 SCRIPTURE INDEX

aa Sei 129 II Thessalonians

Ie WS. oo RNs Papa 1465) Chi 23-49-12
Die]
eee SPOS. 5 Pe)
SN, ORO ante 193} 2: 10
a ee 184 2S
I Timothy
EM ciBS. 2G yee Gn, 4-1
II Timothy
ance Seae xxix Ch. 4: 3-4
As ae ae 37 James
Ea St ee 149 Ch.4:6
DeellG
Che 128-9" yas Nec aa 186 I John
aes GS eae es Deg Gira
Ne ages 5 Apocalypse (Revelations)
ee a on,<i, 1455) he Say.
13313
Ghee4= 5a BY or ae a 3 16: 14
ee ey eae XXiil 2029
SR iS} che eee rdXVil 20: 6
Colossians 207,
Gig Seb. Se eee 215 20: 7-8
I Thessalonians 22720
Ch. 4: 16-17 rs c4 Dame € 181n

235
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What is the ancient Christian understanding of today’s UFO sightings?
What is behind the Charismatic Movement?
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Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future examines in eight chapters
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lo HE FA|
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