In terms of percentage, Wicca is the fastest growing religion in the United States and Canada. Numbers of adherents went from 8,000 in 1990 to 134,000 in 2001. With adherents being inducted from among the old and young alike, it is estimated that the number of Wiccans in the U.S. and Canada is doubling every thirty months.10 According to polls taken by the Covenant of the Goddess, the total number of self-styled pagans in the United States, including witches, is now nearing a million and a half.11
Tragically, the phenomenal increase in the number of witches coincides with a decrease in the number of Christians in America. A poll conducted in 2001 found that, during the previous eleven years, the number of Christians in the U.S. had been decreasing by two million every year.12
Wicca is but one of the varied expressions of New Age spirituality. As Wiccan author Carol LeMasters explains: “The impact of New Age spirituality on the goddess community has also been incalculable. Emerging approximately at the same time, the two movements have now become so intertwined as to appear indistinguishable.”
4. The Leaven of New Age Spirituality
New Age/neo-pagan gatherings take place on a regular basis throughout the world. In America the most prominent of these are the Rainbow Gatherings held in various parts of the country, and the Burning Man Festivals held in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. Drawing New Agers, Wiccans, goddess-worshippers, earth-worshippers and outright satanists together with curiosity-seekers and party-goers, the Burning Man Festivals increase in size every year; in 2004 there were 35,000 participants. The Festivals conclude each year with the torching of a forty-foot-high sacrificial wooden man, reminiscent of the ancient “wicker man” sacrifice practiced by the Druids on the feast of Samhain.
While such gatherings are a significant indicator of the growing normalization of paganism in our society, more significant is the fact that New Age ideas and practices are entering more and more into all spheres of human thought and activity, shaping the lives of millions who may not consciously identify themselves as neo-pagans or New Agers.
Thus, the “New Age” has become less a movement than a cultural trend, a leaven insinuating itself everywhere: into psychology, sociology, history, the arts, religion, health care, education, and government.Mental hospitals throughout the country have instituted New Age programs: Eastern meditation, transpersonal psychology, biofeedback, and music meditation. Many senior citizen centers have adopted Yoga as a way to promote “mind-body” health. A large number of major corporations have sponsored New Age seminars for their employees, where visualization, hypnosis, “psychic healing,” “dream work,” contacting “spirit guides,” and other “consciousness-raising” practices have been taught. Even in public, government-funded schools, mediumism under the name of “channeling” has been taught as a means of “inner healing.” A consortium of concerned parents in Connecticut has described what has been happening in the classroom: “In the name of discovering 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.”13
Christian churches, sadly, follow the same dangerous trends, trailing in the dust of the world’s march of apostasy. In the mid-1970s Fr. Seraphim had written: “The profound 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.’” Years before “channeling” of disembodied entities had become a New Age fad, Fr. Seraphim had quoted “charismatics” speaking about how they “channeled” the “Holy Spirit.” But even if we omit the issue of the “charismatic revival,” the prognosis 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.”14
In the city of Detroit, for example, “Silva Mind-Control” courses have been taught by a Roman Catholic priest and nun. 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 Age. In Oakland, California, the “University of Creation Spirituality,” under the leadership of Episcopal priest Matthew Fox, advocates a redefined “Christianity” that rejects the traditional Christian theology and the ascetical Christian worldview while embracing Wiccan spirituality. Here, “rave masses” (also known as “techno-cosmic masses”) are held every month, having been originally launched at Grace Episcopal Cathedral in San Francisco. Described by one observer as “a syncretistic brew of paganism, witchcraft, nature-worship, drama, art and dance,” these multi-media “masses” are attended by well over a thousand people.15
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 Christianity, and that therefore there needs to be a fourth hypostasis added to the Holy Trinity — Lucifer! His theories are being extolled in Roman Catholic seminars and workshops, and his psychotherapy is being practiced in some Roman Catholic churches, and by monks and nuns in some monasteries.16 Episcopal and Protestant (especially Methodist) churches have also entered this movement; a number of Protestant ministers also work as Jungian analysts.17
Within many mainline Christian churches, there is a strong and determined movement to “re-imagine” the Christian faith along the lines of radical feminist theology, neo-pagan goddess worship, and a New Age worldview. In 1993 the first “Re-imagining” conference was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in conjunction with the World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women. The conference was attended by over two thousand participants from twenty-seven countries and fifteen mainline denominations, most prominently the Presbyterian, Methodist, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, United Church of Christ and American Baptist. One third of the participants were clergy. Speaking of the need to “destroy the patriarchal idolatry of Christianity,” the conference speakers rejected and at times ridiculed the Christian dogmas of the Holy Trinity, the Fall of man, the unique incarnation of God in Jesus Christ, and the redemption of man by Christ’s death on the Cross. In place of these articles of faith, the conference promoted pantheism, shamanism, and homosexual rights. The participants took part in a “liturgy” wherein milk and honey were used rather than bread and wine, and the goddess “Sophia” was worshipped rather than Jesus Christ. The chant was repeated: “Our Maker Sophia, we are women in your image ... with our warm body fluids we remind the world of its pleasure and sensations.”18 At a later Re-imagining conference held in 1998, Sophia-worshipping participants also shared biting into large red apples to express their solidarity with Eve, whom they regard as a heroine for having partaken of the forbidden fruit.
Although conservative Christians have spoken out against the conferences, the Re-imagining community remains influential within mainline churches, holding inter-denominational caucuses to discuss strategies for expansion. Worship of the goddess Sophia continues within these churches. As recently as June 2004, during the Presbyterian General Assembly in Richmond, Virginia, a “Voices of Sophia” meeting was held in which Sophia was invoked as a goddess.19
More significantly, feminist theology has become the most prominent trend on mainline seminary campuses today, and is a driving force within the ecumenical movement.20 The main coordinator of the 1993 Re-imagining conference, Mary Ann Lundy, is now the Deputy Director of the World Council of Churches. At the 1998 Re-imagining conference, she made clear the agenda of both feminist theolo
gy and modern-day ecumenism: “We are learning that to be ecumenical is to move beyond the boundaries of Christianity. You see, yesterday’s heresies are becoming tomorrow’s Book of Order.”21 As we have seen, this is also the agenda of the New Age movement.
5. The Toronto Blessing
Since Fr. Seraphim first wrote about the “charismatic movement” that was sweeping Christian churches, the movement has grown at a phenomenal rate. Worldwide, Pentecostalism is the fastest growing segment of Christianity: it is increasing at a rate of thirteen million people per year — primarily in Asia, Africa and South America — and now claims nearly a half billion adherents.22
Fr. Seraphim’s observations about charismatic experiences have been borne out most strikingly in the “holy laughter movement” that mushroomed in the 1990s. 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 decade.
The rise of the current laughter movement can be traced to another movement that arose within Pentecostalism: the so-called Faith (or Word-Faith) Movement in the 1980s. Also known as the “health, wealth and prosperity gospel” because of its teaching that Christ has delivered believers from the curse of poverty and sickness, the Faith Movement contains strange tenets which resemble those of the New Age movement, such as belief in the power of creative visualization (visualizing what you want, and then “claiming” it), the belief that a person can become as much an incarnation of God as Jesus Christ was, and the denial that Christ redeemed man through His death on the Cross.23
Through the ministries of leaders such as Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Rodney Howard-Browne, Kenneth Hagin, Morris Cerullo, Paul Yonggi Cho, and Marilyn Hickey, the Faith Movement has spread its heresies and attendant charismatic phenomena throughout the world. Since the spring of 1993, the movement has had a profound impact, not only on Pentecostal churches, but on mainline Christian churches as well. It was then that Faith Movement leader Rodney Howard-Browne drew widespread attention to his televised “laughing revival” at an Assemblies of God church in Lakeland, Florida. Thousands came from around the world to take part. Howard-Browne would walk through the crowds, placing his hands on people, and saying such things as “Fill! Fill! Fill!”, whereupon many would collapse on the floor, laughing uncontrollably, cackling and hooting. Others would writhe on floor screaming hysterically, act as if drunk, be stuck to the floor with what Howard-Browne called “Holy Ghost glue,” or be “slain in the Spirit,” that is, fall to the ground on their backs, often into unconsciousness.24 Each of these manifestations would often last for up to several hours, and sometimes (as in the case of uncontrollable laughter) for several days.
Calling himself a “Holy Ghost bartender” who is “drunk all the time,” Howard-Browne showed disdain for any attempts to test the spirits to see whether they are of God (I John 4:1). “I’d rather be in a church where the devil and the flesh are manifesting,” he stated, “than in a church where nothing is happening because people are too afraid to manifest anything.... And if a devil manifests, don’t worry about that, either. Rejoice, because at least something is happening!”25
In August 1993, Randy Clarke, pastor of the “Vineyard” charismatic church in St. Louis, Missouri, attended a Faith Movement meeting led by Howard-Browne in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Four months later, Clarke brought the “laughing revival” to the Airport Vineyard Church of Toronto, Ontario. What began as a four-day series of meetings expanded into months of nightly services that sometimes lasted until 3 a.m. At this point the laughter movement skyrocketed, eliciting massive coverage by the worldwide media. Dubbed the “Toronto Blessing,” the “holy laughter” meetings were billed as the top tourist attraction of 1994. Hundreds of thousands of Christians came to the Toronto church from all over the world — not only Pentecostals, but also Mennonites, Nazarenes, Methodists, Anglicans, Baptists, Roman Catholics, etc.26
In Toronto, the manifestations of the Faith Movement-inspired “laughing revival” grew even more bizarre than those reported earlier. In addition to the phenomena already described, people were seen to crawl on the ground and roar like lions, bark like dogs, paw the ground and snort like bulls, oink, howl, moo, crow, growl and emit other animal noises.27 Other manifestations of the “revival” included jerking and shaking of the head and body, karate chopping motions, imitating warriors, dancing uncontrollably, abdominal spasms, intense chest pain, “vomiting in the spirit,” and “birthing” (going through a mock labor and delivery).28
Of the hundreds of thousands of people who have taken part in the “Toronto Blessing,” 15,000 have been Christian ministers and pastors. They have subsequently brought the movement to their congregations throughout the world, causing such phenomena as “holy laughter” and being “slain in the Spirit” to multiply at a rapid rate on five continents. In England alone, 7,000 churches, including those of the Church of England, have embraced the Toronto Blessing. The manifestations of the laughter movement have now swept what has long been regarded as mainstream Christianity. 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.29
The widespread acceptance of these manifestations reveals an utter ignorance of the traditional Christian standards of spiritual life. In the Orthodox Church, most of these manifestations have been historically regarded as clear signs of demonic possession. In Orthodox Christian countries even today, such behaviors are exhibited by possessed individuals during services of exorcism performed by Orthodox priests. An American Orthodox nun, who attended such exorcisms in Russia in 1995, records that “Once the services are underway, the demons begin to show themselves. One woman rages in a male voice, another person shakes violently, another shrieks, another is thrown to the floor, losing consciousness ... yet another looks as though he is in distress and pain, just before vomiting on the floor.... They scream their hatred for the priest, vowing to have their revenge, as he douses them with holy water. Some demons make jokes, others are just raw anger and hatred. But the loudest noise always seems to be that of animals: mooing, crowing, and especially barking and growling.”30
Although, as Fr. Seraphim Rose has noted in this book, charismatics would disclaim any association with occultism and paganism,31 it is noteworthy that the same manifestations of the “holy laughter” movement are found in the New Age movement. The Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, called by his disciples the “divine drunkard,” encouraged his devotees to come and “drink” from him. His spiritual “wine” was often passed on with a single touch to the head (known as the shakti-pat), at which his followers would collapse in ecstatic laughter. Another famous guru, Swami Muktananda, would hold meetings at which thousands of his followers from around the world came to receive his touch. They experienced uncontrollable laughing, roaring, barking, hissing, crying, shaking, as well as falling unconscious.32 Muktananda was only imparting to his disciples experiences that he himself had undergone: roaring like a lion and other involuntary animal behaviors, which he attributed to spirit-possession by the goddess Chiti.33
It is also noteworthy that prominent New Agers have spoken out in favor of the “holy laughter” movement that has entered Christian churches. One such spokesman, Benjamin Creme, well known for his predictions of the imminent coming of a New Age Messiah, has said the following about the “Toronto Blessing”: “People are reacting to new energies invading our planet. Energies emanating from the ‘christ’ give them a sense of peace.”34
Popular evangelist Oral Roberts, who hosted a revival led by Rodney Howard-Browne, has called the “holy laughter” movement the beginning of “another level of the Holy Spirit.”35 Howard-Browne himself has said the movement marks a “powerfu
l new wind of the Spirit,” bringing with it “the exciting sound of joy, joy, joy, joy!” that is “energetically stirring us to higher levels with God.”36 This is remarkably similar to claims made by today’s New Age “prophets.” At the same time “holy laughter” began to ripple through the churches, New Age leader Barbara Marx Hubbard wrote that the human race was soon to experience a leap in evolution which she called “The Planetary Pentecost” or “The Planetary Smile.”37 “From within,” she wrote, “all sensitive persons will feel the joy of the force flooding their systems with love and attraction. As this joy floods though the nervous systems of the most sensitive persons on earth, it will create a psycho-magnetic field of empathy.... This massive sudden emphatic alignment will cause a shift of consciousness of Earth.” As a result of this, she says, “The ‘christ’ will appear to you all at once.”38
With mainline Christians having the same experiences and harboring the same expectations as neo-pagans, we see the fulfillment of Fr. Seraphim’s words about how many Christians will be deceived into accepting a pagan initiation experience.
6. 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 Encounters and E.T. — of benevolent and even “cuddly” aliens, is now being replaced by an image closer to the truth. With the experiences described by Whitley Strieber in his book Communion: A True Story (1987), the public has been shown that these so-called “visitors” are in fact cruel, malicious beings who wreak psychic havoc on those who contact them. (This aspect of the phenomenon also corresponds very closely with the evidence amassed by the scientists Vallee and Hynek.) “I felt an indescribable sense of menace,” Strieber writes. “It was hell on earth to be there, and yet I couldn’t move, couldn’t cry out, and couldn’t get away. I lay as still as death, suffering inner agonies. Whatever was there seemed so monstrous and ugly, so filthy and dark and sinister....” Strieber 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.39
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