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At my Christian high school in the 90s, one of my teachers told the class that the purpose of meditation was to empty the mind to let the devil in. I think this
by deepsquirrelnet 5y ago
At my Christian high school in the 90s, one of my teachers told the class that the purpose of meditation was to empty the mind to let the devil in. I think this is more typical of fundamentalist types.
- hnfong 5y agoThat is not without basis. Many cultures with meditation traditions caution against unsupervised meditation. Interestingly enough the Christian bible describes the devil trying to tempt Jesus during his 40 day meditation retreat (which is what people would call it these days). Coincidence? Maybe. Definitely not saying meditation is a way to connect with the devil. Just saying that it's not as much baloney as you might have thought.
- bckr 5y agoI'd go one further and point you to western esotericism, where you would likely perform various meditations before summoning goetic entities. Now, you're not supposed to let yourself get possessed by them, but any Christian should clutch their crucifix that anyone would even be trying to communicate with Solomon's demons (except maybe to tell them to go away).
- joshcsimmons 5y agoSome similarity there with the story of Mara tempting the Buddha. Taken symbolically it makes sense. Through that lens I probably experienced "demons". There will always be zealots that take things overly literally.