Still Running Off at the Keyboard

MORE ACTIVITIES OF WAYNE TEASDALE

The Lighthouse Trails Research Project: Exposing the Dangers of Contemplative Spirituality has another article at their website titled "Interspirituality: The Results of Contemplative Prayer A Denial of the Cross." The Opening paragraphs of this article read:

While the majority of the Christian church has become seduced and mesmerized by Purpose-Driven, mysticism, the emerging church and so on, interspirituality is on the move. Evangelical leaders as well as New Age gurus and other religious leaders across the world are joining in this effort.

The common ground between them all? Contemplative Spirituality.

"The rise of community among cultures and religious traditions...makes possible what we call 'interspirituality': the assimilation of insights, values, and spiritual practices from the various religions and their application to one's own inner life and development."

[It was] Monk Wayne Teasdale who coined the term "interspirituality," The Community of Religions....

"A 'highest common factor' links the world's religious traditions [through] 'the metaphysic that recognizes a divine reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds." - Ronald S. Miller and the Editors of the New Age Journal, As Above, So Below.

Those of you who are familiar with alchemy will recognize "As Above, So Below."

The Mystica, an "on-line encyclopedia of the occult, mysticism, magic, paranormal and more..." explains that phrase "As above, so below":

This phrase comes from the beginning of The Emerald Tablet and embraces the entire system of traditional and modern magic which was inscribed upon the tablet in cryptic wording by Hermes Trismegistus. The significance of this phrase is that it is believed to hold the key to all mysteries. All systems of magic are claimed to function by this formula. "'That which is above is the same as that which is below'...Macrocosmos is the same as microcosmos. The universe is the same as God, God is the same as man, man is the same as the cell, the cell is the same as the atom, the atom is the same as...and so on, ad infinitum."
This message theorizes that man is the counterpart of God on earth; as God is man's counterpart in heaven. Therefore, it is a statement of an ancient belief that man's actions on earth parallel the actions of God in heaven. This pivots on the belief that "all things have their birth from this One Thing by adaptation."

To the magician the magical act, that of causing a transformation in a thing or things without any physical contact, is accomplished by an imaginative act accompanied by the will that the wanted change will occur. The magical act and imaginative act becomes one and the same. The magician knows with certainty that for the change to occur he must will it to happen and firmly believe it will happen. Here it may be noted that magic and religion are akin: both require belief that a miracle will occur.

There is an important difference, however. The magician believes the "miracle" will occur at the insistence of his will. The Christian believes that the miracle will occur in conformity with the will of God, and at His bidding. The Christian does not attempt to control the world around him, but rather conforms his will to the will of the Almighty, unlike the magician who intends to bring about his own will. As Aleister Crowley put it, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."

As the Catechism puts it:

CCC 2115: God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.

CCC 2117: All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others--even if this were for the sake of restoring their health--are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.

The entry in the Mystica encyclopedia goes on to explain that a magician attempts to join God with the human consciousness, and when this sense of unison has occurred, the magician believes he has reached his Higher or True Self. Finally it states that Aleister Crowley believed that the extreme goal was direct union with God. It would appear that this "transformation" is the same thing as "awakening" which has become such a popular topic in mystical circles.

This explanation of "As above, so below" applies the word "mastery" to describe the state of the magician when he has reached his goal which is to attain "mastery of himself and the universe." Is this the meaning of the word in the "Mastery Foundation" of which Fr. Basil Pennington was Chairman? At the Mastery Foundation website it seems to be spelled out: "In Centering Prayer, a simple method passed on to us through an ancient, ever-living tradition, we learn to "let go and let God." We learn how to come into immediate contact with the Source of all energy, life, and love. Through the regular practice of Centering Prayer we come to be centered ourselves, to be an oasis of peace, to be a place where God's love shows up in this world of ours. We are transformed by frequent deep contact with transforming love. And our ministry is transformed."

The statement seems to pit two opposing views against each other. On the one hand "letting go and letting God" and on the other immediate contact with the Source as Crowley tells us the magician aims to accomplish.

It's spelled out a bit more clearly in another Mastery Foundation website. On this webpage the issue is empowerment--a kind of taking charge--not surrender to the will of He who is always Other. Also on this webpage you can clearly see the involvement of EST founder Werner Erhard, and you can read: "In 1983, Werner accepted the request of the newly formed Mastery Foundation to consult in the creation of a transformational program for those who minister and serve others. The Mastery Foundation is not about surrender to God. The Mastery Foundation is about empowerment. One of their logos at the top of this website is a link to "Community Empowerment."

Werner Erhard had a small problem with L. Ron Hubbard's Scientologists. It seems that the Scientologists believe Erhard stole their method and they were angry at not getting a cut of Erhard's success. You can read the story at this website where you will find a reprint from a Los Angeles Times article.

Hubbard, himself, has an interesting background as well. In a story titled "L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology's esteemed founder," Michael Crowley tells his history. This passage from the account is pertinent:

Hubbard was born in 1911 in Tilden, Neb. After flunking out of George Washington University, he became a pulp science-fiction and adventure writer. In the mid-1940s, he fell in with John Parsons, a wealthy and brilliant young rocket scientist in California, who also happened to be under the tutelage of the infamous satanist Aleister Crowley (no relation to yours truly, thankfully). According to Russell Miller's damning biography of Hubbard, Bare-Faced Messiah, Parsons was a science-fiction fan who briefly hosted Hubbard at his Pasadena, Calif., mansion, which featured a domed backyard temple and a rotating cast of occultists and eccentrics. Parsons described Hubbard as his "magical partner," and together the men engaged in a rite in which Parsons tried to impregnate with an antichrist child a woman he considered the whore of Babylon, a goal that Crowley had long promoted. With Rachmaninoff's "Isle of the Dead" playing in the background, Hubbard allegedly chanted spells over the copulating couple, according to Miller and others. (Ultimately Hubbard would steal Parsons' girlfriend and allegedly bilk him in a Miami yacht venture.) Years later, when Hubbard had grown famous and realized the antichrist episode didn't comport with his image as a man of culture and wisdom, he would reportedly claim to have been working on an undercover mission for U.S. Naval Intelligence to investigate black magic.

James Webb also recounts this story on pp 504-506 of THE OCCULT ESTABLISHMENT. It would seem that Basil Pennington's and Wayne Teasdale's sources of theology might raise some eyebrows.

Professional Astrologer Carol Willis offers a pertinent comment in her "Transformational Astrology Series: URANUS":

In spiritually oriented
therapy, it is never certain exactly when the life energy
will release and fountain or flow, but it always does, in
its own right timing. There will always be things in life
that we cannot control exactly, but if we create an
appropriate context for them in which to "show up," as
Werner Erhard used to say, then we will stand witness to our
desired manifestation as it emerges seemingly magically but
is in fact "an idea whose time has come."

Curiously, she also offers a long list of Biblical quotations in the article to illustrate her points.

Teasdale has an association with another unlikely book, THE RAINBOW BRIDGE: UNIVERSAL BOOK OF LIVING, DYING & DREAMING, by Brent N. Hunter. Teasdale has written an endorsement. Other New Agers endorsing the book include Jean Houston, Elisabet Sahtouris, and Neal Donald Walsh. Teasdale wrote:

"Diversity in religion, spirituality and culture is an unqualified good for humanity. Ghandi said in his time that 'The friendly study of other religions is the sacred duty of each one of us'. Now more than ever we need to become experts of the major traditions of spirituality and religion. To do so will allow our collective understanding to see the common ground we all stand on in our various faiths. Brent Hunter is a person with a mission to spread the acceptance of pluralism around the world. His book, The Rainbow Bridge, is a gem reflecting rays of wisdom from all the traditions of the religions, pointing to the common ground among us. We must learn to be comfortable on this bridge because it is our future."

Ghandi said it is our sacred duty to study other religions. Jesus said "I am the way, the truth, and the life." There is no mention of Jesus in this endorsement, however. Whom did Teasdale serve?

Today Teasdale's poison bequeathed to his followers has become the novel new prayer and retreat methodology for the Roman Catholic Church. The goal of the Paris Occult Revival has become the new spirituality. The fear of Pope Leo XIII that prompted him to write the Prayer to St. Michael has become a reality sold as world peace and brotherhood.

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us!