It’s been about a month since my guitar came to me. I am playing it more than my son is playing his trumpet. Not surprised. He is 9, I am 43, and have slightly more discipline. So I am not bragging, it’s just something to reflect myself against. He sounds better every time he plays. I do too.

My friend, Bill, drew some chords for me and showed me some plucking to play with and how play to the pentatonic blues scale.  I am learning to hear the sounds and hear the good notes and the bad notes. I am learning to move my fingers and hold the strings down, to move from one chord to another. It is a dance on the strings. I love it.

Playing with Bill is confusing and exciting. He is so far ahead of me when he talks about music. He shows me things and I feel just like when I was learning French. Hearing words separately, not as a sentences and yet being able to get the gist of what was being said by the intonations. There are the words that have meaning to the logical mind and there are the sounds that have meaning to the dreamy mind. So a part of me knows what I am hearing, but I have no idea how to repeat it with my own fingers, my own hands.

Playing by myself is sometimes mesmerizing. I lose track of time.  The only things that stops me is the pain I feel on the tips of  my fingers on my left hand from holding down the strings. When I was down in Florida last week visiting my sister, Sylvia, I got to play  her Uruguayan guitar. I spoke told Bill right before I left that I was thinking of taking my guitar to Florida but changed my mind when I found out I could play Sylvia’s. He said, “That’s the way it goes, now whenever you go away, you’ll be wondering if you’ll find a guitar there. I bought so many guitars that I gave away when I got somewhere without one.” I can understand that. I can see doing that myself. I am already wondering what I will do when I go to Houston in July and Portland in October.

Sylvia bought her guitar in Piriapolis when she was in Uruguay about 10 years ago. It feels and sounds so right. My first love affair with guitars was with Los Olimarenos, a Uruguayan duo playing acoustic guitar  and singing of love, revolution and justice. They were the music of the Frente Amplio, the music of my parents and the visionaries they hung out with. Sylvia’s guitar makes sounds like theirs did.

My other sister, Gabriela, had that guitar for a while. Her energy is also on it  and I felt it as I played. Our blood blending through the memory on the strings. When Elijah Nisenboim was visiting (see him at www.karmadoctor.com), he was playing my guitar too.  And wow, he can make some nice sounds on it. He was playing some songs from his recent compilation, MADE FOR ME. When I picked up the guitar, my playing sounded better too.  Elijah tell me that happens, the energy of all those who play the guitar stays with it.

My first offical lesson is next Tuesday, Dec 15th. Chris McDermott, a local celebrity, teaches half hour sessions. He tells me that if we decide to work together I can bring a CD of the kids of songs I’d like to learn how to play. Can I put them on all on one CD, I wonder. There will be Everything But the Girl and Roddy Frame.  Jorge Dexler and Led Zeppelin. Elvis Costello and Ganga Girl. But I think ultimately, I do not want to learn just to play their songs, though I am happy and honored to learn through them.  I want to make my own music too. And share it with others. And be what I have always thought I could only find outside of me.

Last weekend  I got myself a guitar after 20 some-odd years of telling myself I am too old to start.  My son, Samuel, got his trumpet a month ago and every time I saw him take it out,  I felt something like jealousy. Or maybe envy. You know, those two sister emotions that one should never feel and certainly not about their son. Sam is 9. He can sing like an angel, a rowdy angel, and he has music in his blood. I can see it when he moves and when he talks. I keep telling him he was made to make music? Or am I talking about myself.  Could this have been me projecting my unlived self onto him? Parents do that, right?

A long time ago, in San Francisco, I went on a date with a sexy Cubano who played trumpet and spent a good hour of our evening insisting I make a sound come out of that horn. I spent about 50 minutes of that hour in deep belly laughter, with him saying we were not going anywhere until I played that thing. He played for me too that night. And it was the best part of the date. I left not wanting him as much as wanting his trumpet.

However, when I hear the soundtrack of my life, it is not a trumpet I hear. The sound I hear is a guitar.  Sometimes it sounds like a Spanish guitar, sometimes it’s Bossa Nova, but it is most certainly that strumming, plucking sound is what moves me through my world.

I played guitar for a short time in elementary school. Puff the Magic Dragon lives somewhere in my memory soup.  That guitar was a rental from PS206 in Queens, NY and I had to give it back. In my pre-teens, came piano lessons with Ms.Kost who had two inch long fingernails and really bad breath. Yikes! In both cases, I just did not practice enough. I was happier running around and dancing, moving my body.  As I let go of playing instruments and became the dancer, music became my partner rather than something I was making. I was making things happen with the music. And when that choice was made to partner rather than create, I began to get attracted to men who were the music makers.

I look at my chart and I see this, Neptune square Mars, Mars trine  Jupiter. All the men who drew me where artistic musical spiritual beings, but in true projection form, they were also a little warped. Drugs and alcohol, the disillusioned brothers of escapist bliss, were often present along with the guys. And instead of being drawn into playing with them, I was drawn into the world of substance abuse with them.

I went out with guitar players and drummers and pianists. I listened to them practice, sometimes danced to their sounds, and always, wanted to PLAY with them. But in the end, I could neither enter the world of jamming  nor  the drug world they were in for very long. Just in case you ever want to try it, dancing and drugs just do not mix. And when the guys were  gone, what I missed the most was the music and being in that space of play.

When I reminisce, I can remember each boy or man by the music he turned me on to.  One man, who was quickly in and out of my life, took me to both my one and only Grateful Dead concert and to see Cachao, the dinosaur of the mambo. Barry played guitar, congas and keyboard. The music he made touched me so deeply. He would make me listen to something he was composing and show me how he had created the layers of sound. I was so embryonic then, and felt like he was giving me the key to some kind of heaven that I would never understand.

Mark was a electric guitar player who loved Pat Matheney and Brian Eno. He was one of those men I loved to BE with, wanted to melt into and be in music with, but when it came to the light of day, we really had nothing to talk about.  We had a strange on and off relationship, he lived in NYC and I lived in San Francisco. One day he called me from a rave and said, “Now I understand what you feel when you dance. I get it!” And during that call, I could feel the center of the earth connect with the center of the universe through him. That deep resonance, that deep connection to what united us inside and out is something I will never forget. Mark lives inside me in this way.

The sexual/spiritual connection I felt with Mark and have always had with music is something I prize above all else in my life.  There is a place I can get to that is so private and intimate and yet so connected to God there that when I experience it with others, I almost feel shy. Like I am too exposed.  I have felt this with men I have danced with as well, sometimes being overwhelmed by the waves of passion and grace. Drugs, sex and rock’n'roll, there is a reason why these go together. But rather than these being the end-all, they are simply the symbols for something much deeper and sober. They are the way in which we, in these modern times connect to that place where we are all ONE guided by rhythm and motion and love.  I know this now. After years of wondering why the “real” men always left me wanting, I know that the connection that I have looked for outside of me has always been inside of me. But as with many other artistic endeavors, it requires reflection and manifestation to truly satisfy. And sometimes, it requires companionship.

Carlos Rosas, one of the co-creators of the Nia Technique and one of my most influential teachers brought me another piece of this puzzle. After teaching and practicing Nia for 10 years, I had this realization that he had been teaching us to beomce the instrument. Body as instrument. Honing awareness and organic skill, the ability to guide my body where I want it to go and yet also being an open empty vessel, ready to move and be moved by the sounds and silences in music and in life.

Also,  from Nia came the value of practice. I have seen how staying with something that I love has truly brought me to this place of mastering the work.  I feel ease and relaxation when I am sharing and teaching Nia. And this comes from hour and hours given to solitude and repetition and study of the Nia Technique. When I am teaching now, I feel like I am crafting with some fine tools.  Somehow, this realization brought me back to why not get a guitar? It took me 13 years to get here, I have at least that many years to devote to playing an instrument…

This past Sunday morning, I woke up to a voice in my head ayaing “today, you get your guitar.” I was overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude. I found my acoustic guitar at Daddy’s Junky Music just a few hours later. It called to me when I walked in the door. I walked straight to it. And as I took it out of it’s case when I got home, I wanted to cry. Why did I wait so long to do something so simple?

I am playing with it every day. I know I will learn in an organic way how to have my relationship with it. But I feel in me already the need to hone my skills. To get to a place where I can use my fine tool in the same way I use my body to move through space.

When I first became an astrologer, I had a good friend who also was learning astrology and was also an amazing guitar player (incidentially), and I said to her one day with pleading eyes, ” I love astrology so much, I hope I always haveit in my life.” She looked at me gravely and said, ” If you love it, you will keep learning and you will always have it in your life. And one day you will be masterful.” It seemed like such a simple thing to say, but those words have stayed with me through so many things I fell in love with and came to hone my skill in.

I hear her words again with my guitar in hand. As Chad, ever the pragmatist,  said when he saw me pull it out of it’s case that first day, “We’ll see how you are with it  in 6 months”, and there really is no way to know for sure. But I am definitely on my way back into myself.

Existieron, durante la década de los años noventa, un gran auge de bandas de thrash metal que, fieles a la tradición de los Cuatro Grandes, trataron de mostrar sus esfuerzos y su buena música, aunque en muchas ocasiones esto no trascendió de forma masiva, este es el caso de Forced Entry, un grupo de thrash de Seattle (si, de ahí donde salió Nirvana) que tiene en su habr este disco, un material que tiene tintes progresivos bien definidos y mucha machaca.

Al mero estilo de la escuela thrashera, los Forced Entry atacaron sus instrumentos con maestría para realizar este material, un viaje de subidas y bajadas por métricas fuera de tiempo, dobles bombos, riffs ametrallantes y voces dignas de ese subgénero metalero que tantos adeptos tiene aún en estos días.

Existen muchos puristas extremos del thrash que mencionan a este disco como un material frustrante y poco sólido, en esta ocasión no puedo diferir muicho de ellos, ya que las primeras canciones como Bone Crackin´ Fever y Thunderhead se mueven con una cadencia excelente, tienen riffs poderosos y un manejo prolífico de los instrumentos, todo suena bien, en tiempo a pesar de sus elementos de progresión y escalas complejas y en general son canciones para hacer moshpit sin pensarlo, pero a partir de ahí la intensidad baja un poco y al final creo que carece de fuerza, ojo, no digo que sea un mal disco, sino que tal vez te quedes con la sensación que pudieron dar más.

Los mejores esfuerzos por incursionar en el thrash técnico creo que son Macrocosm, Microcosm y The Unextinguishable y lo logran, en general a mi me gustó el disco pero porque me considero fan del thrash ochentero y noventero y hay elementos aquí que pueden agradar mucho a aquellos que no los conozcan y que buscan guitarras afiladas, tambores poderosos y constantes en ataque metalero al cerebro, en fin, puro old school.

Este disco, bastante raro por cierto, se encuentra de este lado, acá agradezco al Javier Salaverry por el aporte.

Carpe diem!

I have these recurring dreams where I am with a man I really love. In these dreams there are no words and I can rarely see his eyes, but I can sense him with my body and my heart so deeply that when I wake up from these dreams I sometimes start to cry. It is not always the same man, though some do recur. Sometimes the man looks like one or a version of one I’ve known and loved, sometimes it’s a totally new looking person. But what is clear is that they are  the same man energetically. And I am so in love with him in the dream!

When I wake up, I walk around feeling very sad to have woken up, and also very grateful to have that experience of deep connected love, even if only in my dreams. Have I ever felt that kind of love energy in my awake life? Not with any man or even any woman. I have felt it dancing and listening to music and something close to it with my son, but that was sweet mother love.

In these dreams there is something sexual, but that is never the point. The point is the place where I merge with these men in a sweet space where my whole self vibrates with them. I wake up with the sensation in my body so strong that I can almost smell it. What I long for when I wake up is not the men per se, but the way I feel and what I sense when I am with them.

I am not sure if this is an experience I will ever have or could have being awake. I wonder, it is my inner male that I sense or some soul mate I have yet to meet or a stand-in for God and my longing for “Him”? (Catholicism dies hard, I may have left it behind, but in these dreams, I feel like St.Theresa of Avila.) Or is it my Neptune Square Mars Trine Jupiter Dreamer Warrior Shaman that calls the masculine to me?

I once had a psychic reader tell me that in this life time I was not going to be with my soul mate because I came here to focus on my creative work and being with my soul mate would be too distracting.  While I entertain the idea of nothing getting in the way of my creative life, I also feel like I am with a man whom I deeply love and does feel very Dreamer Warrior Shaman to me. But that sweet dream energy is just not with us very much. In our everyday lives we are busy, we are earthy and we have other things on our minds.

I wonder if what happens in my dreams belongs in the world of deep heart longing of unrequited love. The Troubadors made a career of living like this. Using the women they were courting to court the muse and the pure deep love that cannot be tainted. Tainted by what? Sex? Time? Paying the bills?

I have let go of feeling like I am lacking something when I wake up from these dreams. I have also learned that I can harness that sweet sensation of connection and bring it to my awake life in the same way that I can be inspired by life to create art. Life as art, dreams as inspiration. I am off to sleep. Sweet dreams!

My first article with Examiner.com! I’m pretty excited because it has taken a long time to get to this point. I can’t wait to cover music exclusively, and I will continue to write my blogs (thoughts & stuff I can’t put down for Examiner – here). It’s a busy next few months, seeing shows, networking, doing interviews, and staying ahead the tech/social media game so that I can be effective at what I’m trying to do. And that is to be a respected writer online or otherwise, writing great articles with cool pictures, and links!

Here my 1st article with Examiner.com

It’s about a Canadian Indie Music Festival called Bridgestock 09′. Check it out! http://lnk.ms/1bGdT

~ Jason Chu

Ristorante tar sig an nya utmaningar,
efter hårt bygge och starka koppar kaffe.

Ännu ett steg i att utvidga sig & sin m g ck.

Första toppen nådd. Nästa?

Just wanted to give feedback to all that were wondering about Fab fest in Vegas this past weekend. Deadmau5 tore up the stage with his new hit Ghosts and Stuff, then packed the heat with Reward is cheese, he then hit the crowd with Hi friend! Mr. Flash tore it up in the outdoor arena spinning tracks by the likes of Justice and MSTRKRFT. Armin Van Buren tore it up with Silence. Unfortunately, not every party goes without hiccups, the outdoor arena received too many noise complaints from neighboring hotels so MSTRKRFT’s set was cut short (from a 2 hour set to 1). Here is a song that I tagged while I was rockin’ to the beat (beat beat).

 Klaxons – As Above, So Below (Justice remix)

dddd

Is health, wealth, and prosperity always the will of our Father?

The Power of the Spoken Word – Biblical or Occult Law? PART 2

We Learned in Part One about The Power of The Spoken Word being made out as Witchcraft. The discussion continues in this post.

I can of Mine Own Self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and My judgment is Just; because I seek not Mine Own Will, but the Will of the Father Who has sent Me” (Jn. 5:30).

As we mentioned previously, “Word of Faith” proponents teach that the purpose for believing in the power of the spoken word is so that one may learn to activate creative forces within him that will affect the circumstances and course of his life. New Agers and others follow the “Law of Attraction” to acquire exactly the same kind of power. In other words, the occult world is literally trying to offer mankind the powers of creation and lordship, powers that we as Believers know belong to God alone! God is the One and Only Creator and the One and Only Lord! God never gave man the right to be his own master and live according to his own will. Yet, this is precisely what those promoting occult spiritual laws want. It is, in fact, the exact same offer the serpent brought to Adam and Eve in the Garden — powers that will make you “like God.”

“And the serpent said unto the woman, You shall not surely die: For God does know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5).

Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science, stated, “Science of Mind teaches that Man controls the course of his life . . . by mental processes which function according to a Universal Law. . . .1

Kenneth Hagin said that through the discovery of the “spiritual laws” established by God to run the universe, the Believer can begin to put the laws to “work” for his own use: “In the spiritual realm God has set into motion certain laws just as He set laws in the natural realm. Those laws in the natural realm work don’t they? Just as you get into contact with those natural laws or put them into practice, they work for you. Over in the spiritual realm, the same thing is true. I have come to the conclusion that the law of faith is a spiritual law, that God has put this law into motion, and that as surely as you come in contact with it, it will work for you.”2

In other words, the “law of faith” is to the spiritual realm what the law of gravity is to the physical realm. Whenever the law is set into motion, it works. Thus, anybody, Christian or non-Christian, can plug into this universal law of faith and get “results.” “It used to bother me,” explains Hagin, “when I’d see unsaved people getting results. Then it dawned on me what the sinners were doing: they were cooperating with the law of God — the law of faith.”3

Since the law of faith is impersonal, just like the law of gravity, it works regardless of who the person is or of where he or she stands with Christ.

FORMULAS?

Essentially, faith teachers are recommending “formulas” that a person should follow in order to get whatever he/she wants from God. And, of course, Scripture Verses are taken out of context and misused in order to try to justify these formulas. One Verse misused is Romans 10:10, which states, “For with the heart man believes unto Righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made
unto Salvation.”

Actually, word-faith theology’s view of spiritual laws and formulas can really only be understood in light of the doctrine of god in the metaphysical cults. The “god” that the metaphysical cults believe in is not a personal God who sovereignly governs the universe, but an impersonal force — “the Force,” “the Infinite Power,” “the Spirit of Infinite Life,” and “the Infinite Intelligence.” This infinite, but impersonal, force rules the universe indirectly through “immutable laws” rather than directly through his presence and wisdom. Through his book, “The Force Of Faith”, Kenneth Copeland has made popular the term “faith force.” What he has really done is no less than turning Christianity into a fictional game of Star Wars, where Believers think they fight evil through “the Force.” “Faith is a power force. It is a conductive force.

It will move things. Faith will change things. Faith will change the human body, it will change the human heart. Faith will change circumstances . . . the force of faith is released by words. Faith-filled words put the law of the Spirit of Life into operation.” 4

Copeland also teaches that since “God is a Faith being” and man is “a faith being,” man has the faith to operate in the same way that God operates. What could be more blasphemous than thinking we have the same power as the Lord? In chapter 1 of his book, The Fourth Dimension, Yonggi Cho says: “What becomes pregnant in your heart and mind is going to come out in your circumstances. Watch your heart and mind more than anything else. Do not try to find the answer of God through another person, for God’s answer comes to your spirit, and through your spirit the answer comes to your circumstances. Claim and speak the word of assurance, for your word actually goes out and creates. God spoke and the whole world come into being. Your word is the material which the Holy Spirit uses to create.”

Similarly, in chapter 1 of his book, Your Best Life Now, Joel Osteen says, “We have to conceive it on the inside before we are ever going to receive it on the outside.”

And similarly, Charles Capps has said:
“In August of 1973 the word of the Lord came unto me saying, ‘If men would believe me, long prayers are not necessary. Just speaking the Word will bring what you desire. My creative power is given to man in word form. I have ceased for a time from my creative work and have given man the book of my creative power. That power is still in my Word.’”5

So, through “creative faith” man becomes not only a god, but a creator. Charles Capps is actually expanding on E.W. Kenyon’s concept of “creative faith” to the point that man, not God, is the only creator left in the universe.

New Thought advocate, Ralph Waldo Triune, said:
“This Infinite Power is creating, working, ruling through the agency of great immutable laws and forces that run all through the universe, that surround us on every side. Every act of our everyday lives is governed by these same great laws and forces . . . In a sense, there is nothing in all the great universe but law.”6

H. Emile Cody, one of the early founders of the Unity School of Christianity, said:
“The mental and spiritual world or realms are governed by laws that are just as real and unfailing as the laws that govern the natural world. Certain conditions of mind that are so connected with certain results that the two are inseparable. If we have one, we must have the other as surely as night follows day.”7

In other words, as Cody explains, “every thought of the human mind causes an effect in the universe through the operation of spiritual laws.”

In such teachings, man does not have to deal with a personal God, but rather with impersonal laws that can be manipulated by anyone regardless of their standing with God. When E.W. Kenyon refers to “the great spiritual laws that govern the unseen forces of life,” he is espousing the metaphysical version of deism, a universe governed by spiritual laws instead of by God.

So, in practice, the Word of Faith “god” differs not at all from the god of the metaphysical cults. Both must do the bidding of universal governing laws that are activated by human faith.

THIS KIND OF GOD

But this kind of “god” is nothing more than the proverbial genie in a bottle, whose power is limited to the demands of human beings who think they are little masters! In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill quotes from a poem entitled Invictus (meaning “unconquerable” in Latin), by British poet William E. Henley. The latter portion of this poem, which Hill trumpets repeatedly says, “. . . It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” Hill says the reason we are the “master of our own fate” is because we have the ability to control our own thoughts.8 Jerry and Esther Hicks, whom Rhonda Byrne acknowledged for their contribution to her book, The Secret, teach on their website: “You are a creator; you create with your every thought. Anything that you can imagine is yours to be or do or have.” What a rude awakening these people will have on Judgment Day. The True God of the Bible does the bidding of no man or any of man’s imaginary laws!

“Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the Earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the Word is gone out of My Mouth in Righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” (Isa. 45:22-23).

THE OPPOSITE OF CHRISTIANITY

These occult teachings are the exact opposite of Christianity! The Devil’s teachings always bring man back to his own will rather than the Will of God. They encourage man to create his own destiny rather than submit to the Plan God has laid out for his life. Even Jesus forsook His Own Will for the Will of the Father.

“And He went a little farther, and fell on His Face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as You will” (Mat. 26:39).

Are we surprised, then, that Satan would directly contradict the Christian life as modeled by Christ? In fact, it was demon spirits which taught the men who claim to have learned the secrets for mastering their fates.

Many of these individuals have even given us firsthand testimony regarding their spirit guides. It is quite obvious that Satan has specifically instructed his minions to plant these teachings into the minds of all men who are willing to listen. God’s Word specifically warned us, however, that this would occur.

“Now the Spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the Faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (I Tim. 4:1).

If we listen to the teachings of familiar spirits, we stand without excuse before God, because the Lord has repeatedly told His Followers never to have any part of communication with spirits (or the dead.)
“Regard not them who have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God” (Lev. 19:31).

1 (http://www.letusreason.org/WF48.htm)
2 (Hagin “The Law of Faith” Word of Faith. Nov. 1974, p. 2 CF “The Secret of Faith,” March 1968, p. 2)
3 (Hagin, “Having Faith in Your Faith,” p. 3-4)
4 (Ibid., p. 10, 16)
5 (Capps. “God’s creative power will work for you” p. 5-6; Capps. “The Tongue: A Creative Force” p. 8-14)
6 (Ralph Waldo Trine, In Tune With the Infinite. 1910, at sacred-texts.com)
7 (H.E. Cody, “Lessons in Truth,” p. 64-65)
8 (Napoleon Hill. Think and Grow Rich p.32)
September 2008 issue of The Evangelist

http://imablogger.net/2008/09/27/the-power-of-the-spoken-word-biblical-or-occult-law-part-2/

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The Power of the Spoken Word – Biblical or Occult Law? PART 1

Many today in both the secular world and professing church world claim that there are universal spiritual “laws” which exist and that any person may learn to utilize, causing the spirit realm to work on their behalf. Supposedly, these “laws” will work for anyone from any walk or persuasion of life, whether Christian or non-Christian. One of the most popular and all-encompassing of these laws is what New Agers refer to as the “law of attraction.” You will hear it mentioned, however, under a variety of different terms. In the business world, you may hear it termed “the power of positive thinking” or “unlimited human potential.” In the church world, you may hear teachings such as the “word of faith,” the “fourth dimension,” or the “confession principle.” In witchcraft, it is the formula, “as above, so below” (meaning, as it is in the spiritual, so it is in the natural). And, as you may have already realized, these teachings actually go much deeper than mind science religions and philosophy. It is clear that these so-called spiritual laws originated in the occult world and came directly from Satan himself. We will discuss exactly how in more detail later.

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION?

Essentially, the “law of attraction” works by a concentrated focus upon a desire that one longs to have manifest in his life. This focus, of course, must eventually tap into the spirit realm in order to bring the desire into the physical realm. Part of this process involves the person developing a “consciousness” of belief that the benevolent “universe,” which many consider to be “god,” is bringing that desire to him. And, to ensure that his newfound faith doesn’t waver, the individual must think about, speak about, dream about, and even visualize his desire until it materializes in the physical/natural realm. According to one self-proclaimed pagan witch and supporter of the earth-goddess movement, “To work magic is to weave the unseen forces into form, to soar beyond sight, to explore the uncharted dream realm of the hidden reality . . . to leap beyond imagination into that space between the worlds where fantasy becomes real; to be at once animal and god . . . Spells [and magic] . . . require the combined faculties of relaxation, visualization, concentration, and [mental] projection . . . To cast a spell is to project energy through a symbol.”1 Oprah Winfrey has recently promoted a book entitled The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne, which teaches this “law of attraction.” In it Byrne says, “Nothing can come into your experience unless you summon it through persistent thoughts.”2 Another important aspect of practicing this law is the belief that there is power in the words you speak. You see, the words we say are considered the tangible version of the thoughts we are thinking. Our words, therefore, have the power to create or destroy our destinies. So, in order to successfully practice this, one should confidently declare the “faith-thoughts” he has been meditating upon, even, at times, speaking about them as if they have already come to pass. Anything else is considered doubt in “god” or the “universe” (or doubt in “oneself,” since some believe that “god” and “self” are one in the same).

ALTERED CONSCIOUSNESS?

In fact, one must never speak a negative word or thought aloud because such can bring negative things into one’s life. In essence, they say, people will attract into their lives whatever things they consistently think and feel. “The law of attraction is the law of creation . . . You create your life through your thoughts.”3 And what becomes of the sin problem in this case? Well, a confession of sin would be considered a “negative confession,” so one would simply deny that there is even any sin in his life to worry about. People are led to believe that if they think about sin, they will bring more sin into their lives. Under this law, the confession and repentance of sin is eliminated! Therefore, Salvation is eliminated as well! “Science of Mind teaches that there is a favorable physical reaction, an effect, which follows a pattern of thought incorporating ideas of health, for the law of cause and effect governs everything. Similarly, it is held that right thinking will result in a greater experience of success and abundance. A successful person thinks success, and the law of mind that reacts has no other choice than to produce an effect corresponding to the causative idea.”4 It’s similar to the idea of karma, except that the action which brings the result is the person’s meditative (spiritual) thoughts. Actually, the dangerous reality of what can occur when a person repeatedly thinks and speaks the same thoughts is a state of altered consciousness. It is really a form of self-hypnosis brought about by mantra-like repetition and an obsession with one’s desired goal. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit is astounding as the Bible warns us of such a practice: “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do . . .” (Mat. 6:7). For example, many motivational/success tapes, lectures, and seminars start you off by helping you make your thoughts repetitive.

Altered consciousness is another subject in itself, which we may also discuss in more detail later. It may cause a person to perform certain tasks with much greater efficiency. It may also act as a defense mechanism for dealing with the uncertainties and hardships of life by giving someone an ability to simply deny a problem even exists and continue on in their state of blind confidence, hence the reason many have ended up with some serious consequences such as total bankruptcy or the loss of a marriage! Most importantly, in this case, altered consciousness is a door into the spirit realm.

CONFESSION?

The “Word of Faith” teachers are probably the most recognized in the church world for believing in and practicing this heretical, and formally esoteric, doctrine. You see, until the recent past, formulas such as this were kept hidden from the general public because they would have been identified as sorcery and witchcraft, and the laws of the land would have punished the practice. So, members of such cults and societies were sworn to secrecy. Times are certainly different now; if anything, our society celebrates witchcraft, often believing that there are “good” or redeeming aspects to the practice. But, remember the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” in the Garden? Man wanted to be like God. Man wanted the “knowledge” that would enable him to operate in the spiritual realm. God, however, told Adam and Eve not to eat from any of the tree, whether the so-called “good side” or the “bad side.” God knew the entire tree was evil, and partaking of it eventually brought about the entire fall of man! Today, the church has fallen so far into darkness that she cannot recognize divination when it is practiced right within her own walls. Those who practice “Word of Faith” are functioning by the same occult “law of attraction,” while thinking they have discovered the key to victorious Christian living. They use the “confession” principle, by their definition, meaning that when one confesses a verse of Scripture or a promise from the Lord, the forces of good (God or angels) are released on his behalf. They believe that confessing the words of Scripture activate the Lord’s supernatural Power. “Christ and the Cross are completely ignored, with the avenue of success being ensconced in the proper Scriptures being chosen and properly confessed.”5

WITCHCRAFT

You see, teachers inside the professing church will incorporate Scriptures whereas secular society simply uses whatever else they may hold sacred and/or believe to possess great wisdom. However, the practical application and overall philosophy is exactly the same! It is nothing less than practical magic. Popular preacher, Joel Osteen, says “Your circumstances will line up with your words.” “Words are like seeds, they have creative power . . . The more you talk about it the more you call it in . . . You can use your words to bless your life or curse your life.”6 Joel Osteen was influenced by the “Word of Faith” teachings of Kenneth Hagin and Kenneth Copeland. Osteen also stated in his best-selling book, Your Best Life Now, “We have to conceive it on the inside before we’re ever going to receive it on the outside. If you don’t think you can have something good, then you never will. The barrier is in your mind. It’s not God’s lack of resources or your lack of talent that prevents you from prospering. Your own wrong thinking can keep you from God’s best.”7 A non-charismatic version of “Word of Faith” teaching may be more along the lines of Robert Schuller’s “positive thinking” gospel. Christians must realize that it is not automatically a noble deed in the eyes of God to believe the positive.

Righteousness strives to know what is true, whether positive or negative. Not one of these so called “spiritual laws” or teachings is found in Scripture! God has already given us the law through which His Power (which is the Power of the Holy Spirit) works: “For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of Sin and Death” (Rom. 8:2). The Holy Spirit works only through the shed Blood of Christ! Instead, what these men have done is ignore the true Source of Power, which is the Cross, and literally transformed the Bible into a witch’s book of spells. The Wikipedia on-line dictionary defines a spell as “A word or formula believed to have magic power.” “Word of Faith” even goes so far as to admit that the unredeemed can tap into these laws if they follow the right rules. But, make no mistake, the Lord does not function through magic! It completely ignores His Sovereign Will for a person’s life as the individual attempts to operate within particular “laws” to bring about what he desires for his own life.

Attempting to operate outside the Will of God and/or rebelling against His Will is witchcraft, pure and simple! “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft . . .” (I Sam. 15:23).

THE NEW THOUGHT MOVEMENT

In The Secret, Byrne “introduces Prentice Mulford (1834-1891) as ‘one of the earliest writers and founders of the New Thought movement’ . . . This quote from Thoughts are Things summarizes his ‘mental and spiritual laws’: ‘. . . In the future some people will draw so much of the higher quality of thought to them, that by it they will accomplish what some would call miracles. In this capacity . . . lies the secret of what has been called ‘magic.’ During the 20th century, such thinking inspired ‘positive thinking’ gurus like Norman Vincent Peale who, in turn, converted Robert Schuller and countless other leaders who are now pastoring churches or marketing the deception through church-related programs around the world. John Maxwell and other global change agents demonstrate the subtle influence of this feel-good, self-empowering ideology.”8 This is exactly the same teaching that motivational trainers like Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, have been saying for years. Hill teaches that “whatever can be conceived in one’s mind can be obtained. He teaches that the desired thing should be visualized in one’s mind, and done so repeatedly.”9 Hill also states: “Christianity is the single greatest force which influences the minds of men . . . it is because of faith.” “Faith is the head chemist of the mind. When faith is blended with the vibration of thought, the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibration, translates it into the spiritual equivalent, and transmits it to Infinite Intelligence, as in the case of prayer.”10 Another promoter of this law is Yonggi Cho, “pastor” of probably the largest church in South Korea. His term for the power source reached through this universal law is the fourth dimension. “The fourth dimension is the Holy Spirit . . . Men, by exploring their spiritual sphere of the fourth dimension through the development of concentrated visions and dreams in their imaginations, can brood over and incubate the third dimension, influencing and changing it.”11 Norman Vincent Peale was another major proponent. “Peale pioneered the merger of theology and psychology which became known as Christian Psychology . . . Peale said, ‘through prayer you . . . make use of the great factor within yourself, the deep subconscious mind . . . [which Jesus called] the kingdom of God within you . . . Positive thinking is just another term for faith.” He also wrote, “Your unconscious mind . . . [has a] power that turns wishes into realities when the wishes are strong enough.”12 Peale even said this concerning occultic automatic writing: “It little matters if these writings come from Jesus of Nazareth or Jesus of Jane [co-author Jane Palzere], they are all the same consciousness and that consciousness is God. I am a part of God, and Jane [is] part of that same God.”13

BIBLICAL FAITH IS NOT MAGIC

So, now not only do we have the words of Scripture being used as magical spells, we have Faith itself being defined as a magic power. Faith is not magic! Yes, God does send His Power as a result of proper Faith, but Faith is not the Power of God in and of itself. Neither does “speaking words of faith” exercise the Power of God. God exercises His own Power. No human can direct or command the Power of God. Humans only receive what the Lord sovereignly supplies. Also, Faith is not the power of the mind, nor an attitude of mind over matter. Faith is trust and rest, specifically in the Work Jesus did at Calvary! Jesus addressed all our problems there. That is what the Lord wants us to believe in, trust in, and rest in. True Faith is not an exercise of speaking certain words or thinking certain thoughts. It is an assurance of Christ in one’s heart, knowing that because He has paid the price, He will work out everything for our good in His perfect Way and Time. This is the perfect Peace of Christ! “Great peace have they which love Your law: and nothing shall offend them” (Ps. 119:165). When Jesus said to the woman with an issue of blood that her Faith had made her whole, He meant that because she now had the correct Object of Faith (Christ and Him Crucified) that she had all she needed to be whole (Mk. 5:25-34). Jesus did not commend the woman for her positive confession or positive thinking. He commended her for her complete and utter trust that her Source of healing was in Him! It was proper Faith that made the woman whole, not proper confession!

1 (Starhawk, The Spiral Dance. New York: Harper & Row, 1979. p. 62)
2 (Rhonda Byrne, The Secret p.43)
3 (Ibid p.15)
4 (from Visions Center of Religious Science website: http://www.visions-center.com/)
5 (Jimmy Swaggart. False Doctrine Study Guide p.137)
6 (Joel Osteen. “Speaking Faith Filled Words,” Tape # 223 May 2, 2004)
7 (Joel Osteen. Your Best Life Now, ch.1 ‘Enlarging Your Vision’) (http://www.letusreason.org/Popteac29.htm)
8 (Berit Kjos. A New Mask for An Ancient Secret.) (http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/007/secret.htm#1)
9 (Jimmy Swaggart. False Doctrine Study Guide p.133)
10(Ibid p.49)
11(Ibid p.45)
12(http://normanvincentpeale.wwwhubs.com/)
13(http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/guidepo/mag.htm)

August’s issue of The Evangelist.

http://imablogger.net/2008/07/22/the-power-of-the-spoken-word-biblical-or-occult-law/

PART 2 is here –>>http://how2becomeachristian.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/the-power-of-the-spoken-word-biblical-or-occult-law-part-2/

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J’ai peut être beaucoup d’Arctic Monkeys en ce moment mais après ce live démentiel de “From The Ritz To The Rubble” d’il y a déjà quelques jours. Je ne peux pas passer outre le fait de partager cette version très spéciale de “Diamonds Are Forever” ! Sinon les coqueluches du moment The Klaxons, égérie de Justice (toutes ses premières parties). Le rock band de Ed Bangers… enfin voilà ils chantent ici en français – believe it or not ! – pour le bonheur de nos oreilles ! Et pour continuer dans ce qu’il y a de très bon. Qu’est-ce que vous dites d’une reprise plutôt reggae de Karma Police ? Dites merci à Citizen Cope.

• Arctic Monkeys > Diamonds Are Forever (Shirley Bassey cover)
• The Klaxons > As Above, So Below (french version)
• Citizen Cope > Karma Police (Radiohead cover)
• U2 > Even Better Than The Real Thing [live]