May Christians Practice 

Pranic Healing

Michael Prabhu, Chennai

Pranic Healing is very dangerous to Christian Faith. The source of the Power in this healing system is Satan. May this article become an eyeopener to those Christians who practice this Alternative system of treatment.

What is Pranic Healing?

It is a no-touch, no-drug therapy that uses "etheric" or "cosmic" "energy" (Prana in Sanskrit, KI in Japanese) for effecting healing.Pranic Healing books prepare one for "Holistc healing - an emotional & spiritual experience that is often accompanied by ecstatic phenomena when the "visible physical body" is healed. Healing of the physical body is done through the medium of the alleged "energy body" that envelops man, & through "health rays", the "aura", the phsychic "chakras" etc.

What or who is the origin of the power behind the Healing?

Medical books refute the claim that the therapy has any scientific basis. Like Reiki & other New Age alternative medicines it claims to be "spiritual", including rituals of "prayer" to "God". Christians know that Satan can offer counterfeit "religious" experiences (2 Cor.11:14). We are required by the Word of God to test everything... and not trust every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God (1 Thess.5:21, 1 Jn.4:1) & to examine all things like the Bereans did (Acts 17:11) to see if they stand the test of God's Word in the Scriptures & Church teaching.

1. The Bible teaches that man is tri-dimensional: Body, Soul & Spirit (Gen.2:7, 1 Thess.5:23). Alternative Medicines propose man as made of Body, Mind (Emotions or Soul) & the invisible "Etheric double" of the visible physical body or the "Energy body".

Reiki, Pranic healing etc deny that man is endowed with an individual eternal spirit. 

2. Their philosophies are monistic, teaching that "all is one" as in Hinduism. They are also pantheistic, "everything is god" & panentheistic, "god is in everything". Our God is personal & transcendent, distinct from His creation. They insist that man has emanated from a cosmic "Absolute" & can expect nothing more than ultimate union and oblivion with & in this energy source after a series of deaths and purgative rebirths.

Because all creation consists of the same "energy", one may use sources rich in this "prana" eg. pine trees, sun rays, water exposed to sun light etc. to correct imbalances in our "energy bodies" & thus heal our bodies which are physical images of these "etheric bodies." All this is in complete contradiction to Biblical revelation.

Re-incarnation & Christianity

3. Pranic healing (Reiki too) rests on a firm belief in the Hindu doctrines of the Law of Karma, & Reincarnation. Negative karma causes physiological & psychological diseases. One may be healed by using various techniques to cancel the negative & to acumulate positive karma. They quote "what you sow, so shall you reap" ( Gal.6:7) to justify karmic action. The Bible accepts karma, but independent of reincarnation ie man will live once, die once, be judged by God & be rewarded or punished for eternity according to how he had lived (Heb.9:27).

4. The "modern founder" of Pranic Healing is Choa Kok Sui, a Chinese Filipino who by his own admission was engaged in clairvoyancy, telepathy, ancient Eastern mysticism, Taoist Yoga, psychic phenomena, faith healing, Chinese Ki-kung, hypnosis, Freemasonry, Theosophy, assimilation of beliefs & ideas and meditational practices from Eastern religions etc. All these are occult practices. (The founder of Reiki, Dr.Usui was a Japanese 'Christian' who attempted to work the miracles that Jesus performed & allegedly found this power after a long quest in Hindu, Buddhist & Zen 'sacred' writings & meditative practices).

Denial of Sin & forgiveness

5. These therapies have no concept of sin. Hence there is no forgiveness of sin & no need for man to be saved from his condition. Jesus is often quoted in their books but (i) the Scripture verses are misinterpreted (ii) He is not the Redeemer, the Son of God but one of many "Lords" including Krishna, the Buddha etc.
6. God the Holy Spirit is explained as "Heaven Ki or Energy", the "prana" of pranic healing.
7. The existence of demons is denied. They explain that in the Bible, Jesus exorcised "Negative Elementals" or "Thought Entities" which are really 'very weak' & any pranic healer may imitate Jesus and exorcise them by an act of will or intent & then throwing "them" into water or salt solution. 

Mind Manipulation

8. They use occult techniques like thought-projection, hypnosis, "Twin Hearts" Meditation, visualization, affirmation etc. 
(i) Believing that thought can travel one may practice "distance healing" over the telephone.
(ii) 'Master' Choa agrees that Pranic Healing is a form of hypnotism. He recommends the use of subliminal audio-tapes that direct messages below the threshold of consciousness. Rhythmic chanting of mantras like OMs or Amens is encouraged. Christians may not use subliminal or hypnosis.

Mind-manipulation of this sort clears the way for intrusion by demons 

The believer is exhorted to be sober, alert, to renew his mind in Christ Jesus (1 Pet.1:13, 1 Cor.14:15, 2 Cor.10:5, Rom.12:2, 1 Cor.2:16, Mk.12:30 etc.)
(iii) About Twin Hearts Meditation we are told: If you experience pervasive darkness or "The great void", This is good. It is also described as "A feeling of temporary omniscience" (God alone is omniscient, all-knowing).
(iv) Practitioners are encouraged too, for example, "visualize oneself going inside the ajna chakra of the patient" or to imagine the patient as an inch tall so as to energize him with prana.

Deification of the self 

(v) In "Self-Healing" one must affirm or repeat endlessly "I am a divine being. I am that I am". The latter is Yahweh's revelation of Himself to Moses. (Ex. 3:14) Choa uses a capital 'T' in the affirmation & says: All these statements simply mean that you are the divine self within your body. In other words, you are a divine being. The practice of most Alternative Medicine leads to eventual deification of the self.

In conjunction with points 2 & 3 (elimination of God & belief in reincarnation) we can see pranic bealing (& reiki etc) as modern forms of the lie of the serpent: You will not die; and you will be like Gods who know (Gen.3:5).
9. Choa recommends : Eucharistic healing taking the sacred host 3 times a week or more for as long as necessary. The participant may see his body filled with divine light & may experience illumination. Scripture says that this abuse will bring, not healing, but divine condemnation, disease & death (1 Cor.11:28-30).

10. Many practitioners say that though they have attended only the training courses & workshops & have hardly read the books they can testify to experiencing power & healing. The books say that if we tithe to pranic healing or pay the healer generously & in advance, healing may occur even before one goes for the therapy. This in itself is sufficient evidence that there is at work here a power that permits healing to take place independent of the practitioners full acceptance, understanding or involvement in the philosophies or methodologies of the practices.

Dangerous Power

Master Choa admits that: It is a common occurrence (for the healers) to be contaminated with the patient's psychological ailments & they too soon become... psychologically imbalanced; and there are healers who have become very sick or have died at a young age due to practising pranic healing to excessiveness (5 or 6 days a week). What power is this that effects healing but claims the mental health & even the life of the healing practitioner?

We know that in the spiritual realm, apart from the power of God there is only the power of the kingdom of Satan. We have seen that the Pranic healing founder's background & associated activities, the philosophies on which pranic healing is based, the methodologies of the therapy etc. are all of the occult & completely incompatible with the Christianity of the Bible.

Therefore the power in pranic healing does not come from God. 

Evil Sources

Choa Kok Sui recommends that "Serious spiritual aspirants" of pranic healing should join the freemansons & several other "esoteric" organizations; reading their books is "A Must". One work is "Reverend" C.W.Leadbeater's (33rd dedgree, ie. highest ranked freemason) "The Science of the Sacraments" which is a blasphemy of the Catholic Eucharistic celebration. He authored many occult books like "Occult Chemistry", "The Hidden life in Freemasonry", "Clairvoyance", & also "The Chakras". A study of this book written 70 years ago will show Choa has borrowed extensively from it for his pranic ideas & terminology.

He suggests we read books written by Annie Besant (she was a Theosophist & occultiest & wrote "The Masters") & Alice Bailey whose publishers as given in his pranic books are the Lucis publishing Co. this firm was originally known as the Lucifer Publishing Co. (1922). In his first book "Master" Choa gives an 'innocent' quote from 'New Age spokesman' David Spangler's "Revelation: The Birth of a New Age." I quote here from Spangler's "Reflections on the Christ": Lucifer comes to give us the final gift of wholeness. That is the Luciferic initiation (an act of consecration to lucifer), The doorway through which the Lucifer's light & his wholeness. (pranic healing is one such doorway). 

The source of the power in pranic (& Reiki) healing is Lucifer. It is the counterfeit of the genuine wholistic healing that Jesus Christ brings. Lucifer himself is behind this latest assult on the Body of Christ. Christian practitioners of Pranic (& Reiki) healing commit spiritual adultery. They must repent, confess their sin, destroy their literature & tapes & witness the truth to others.  I believe that the seductive influence of thesae practices is being greatly under estimated & such persons may often need councelling & pastoral care. Some may even have to be ministered to for deliverance from evil.....

I do not practice these therapies. I do not believe that they are so commonly practiced as to affect the church should I be concerned?
Take no part in the fuitless works of darkness rather, expose them. (Ephesians 5:11)

One can hardly escape the fast-spreading influence of Alternative Medicine on our daily lives.

Books on reiki etc are available at St.Pauls A large number of nuns & priests are trained pranic & reiki healers. They influence the spread of these practices among the laity. 

One nun moves out of her educational institution to a cancer hospital offering treatment for a fee Another meets parents who comes to pick up their children at school & offers either to practise healing on their families or to train them to become healers, again for a consideration. A nun is the Trustee of the Pranic Healing Foundation of Kerala. I know a priest who received pranic treatment from a nun in his room & who took a fellow religious to a reputed hospital for more of the same. I also know a priest, once prominent in the Charismatic Renewal who was introduced to pranic healing by a layperson; he now solicits disciples, offering to demonstrate a power greater than which one experiences in 'charismatic' prayer.

. Another priest who is prominent in several Catholic apostolates is a 'Master' reiki as well as pranic healer & kept releasing 'cosmic power' into the room while we interviewed him. I have met a nun in charge of a St. Pauls bookstore who believes that these 'therapies' are harmless, even highly beneficial; & nuns who report that entire convents have been trained in these practices. At least two priests have called me a 'fundamentalist' after reading my articles. I met an eminent theologian who came to lecture at a Catholic Bible college, who said that reiki & pranic healing may be used 'after applying the Gospel to them' At a retreat centre, a counsellor claimed to be a highly trained pranic healer & conducted a demonstration of pranic power which was witnessed by several persons. 

Reiki & pranic seminars, meditation sessions, training courses & workshops are conducted in parish halls & Catholic school & college campuses; priests & nuns actively participate in them. When International Grand Master Choa Kok Sui visited India in Jan.2000 his meetings were held in convents, even in a Catholic medical college-Business organisations headed by Catholics are the Trustees of the Pranic Healing Foundations.

The Harmful Health Action

In the parlours & libraries of many Catholic institutions one may find a magazine named "Health Action" brought out by the "Catholic health Association of India" (Chai). Though there are priests & nuns heading the editorial board & among the contributors of articles, the monthly is neither Catholic nor good for one's health (either physical or spiritual). Its ads are aimed at pranic & reiki healers. It even offers a book written by a 33rd degree freemason & satanist C.W.Leadbeater. Chai offers programmes with innocent names: Pastoral Care, Ministry of Leadership, Counselling skills, Community Health etc... venues are Catholic institutions. The contact persons & often ... teaching faculty are nuns & priests. the target: Teachers, ...icos, paramedics.. those in the Church who are in a position to influence a large number of faithful. Here initiates are introduced to the concepts & techniques of holistic healing that exclude the need for Jesus Christ as Healer & saviour.

Their pamphlets say that the aim of the World Pranic Healing Foundation is to have one pranic healer in every family. Despite the apathy & the ignorance in the church hierarchy & the lust for power & money of some religious practitioners of these therapies, there are enough Catholics who by intense prayer & determined action can ensure that Satan's plan is defeated, for the battle is not yours, but God's (2 Chronicles 20:15). 
 

Hold My Hands Lord

 Lead Me On

Reena Cherian

"I want my son to be an Engineer! I want my daughter to become a Doctor!"
Have you not heard these words from many fathers and mothers of this modern world?
About six or seven years ago, when I had just started teaching Engineering students, a mother brought her son to me. The mother was full of complaints about her son. He was a class topper during his school days. But now he was not even getting pass marks for many of his Engineering subjects. After she had left, I slowly tried to find out the reason behind his depressed look. He was a young man with no life in him. He told me about his school days- how he used to get the first rank in the classes, how he completed his S.S.L.C. with the highest mark in the whole school. After that started the problems. He wanted to join for pre-degree in a college nearby. But his mother insisted on sending him to a CBSE school, for making it easier for her son to get into some Engg. college, after two years. Against his wishes, finally he was sent to a CBSE school at Ernakulam. For the first time in his scholastic life he just managed to pass through his 'eleventh and twelfth' classes with a mere first class. This made him lose all confidence in himself. Still, he wrote the entrance examination and managed to get into the rank list. He wanted to become a Mechanical Engineer like his father. But his 'professor' mother forced him to join 'Electronics and Communication' branch. She had always wanted her son to become an Electronics Engineer. After years of hard work, to this day he has not been able to complete his B.Tech. He is still at home, studying for his 'back-papers'; struggling day and night to get through all the papers in electronics that he has not yet been able to pass.
Dear parents, where did that mother go wrong? Didn't she love her only son? Of course, she did! Otherwise, will she have taken so much trouble to send him to an Engg. college to study Electronics and Communication! Didn't she care for him? Yes, she did! That is why she brought him all the way here, so that I could help him get through, at least, some of his back-papers! Still some time, somewhere, she did go wrong! Did she not forget to find out from God, what was best for her son?
A few years back, an 'Engineer' father and a 'Teacher' mother, brought their only son to me. The boy's parents looked so worried. They didn't know what to do with their only son. They had spent three lakhs to get him a seat in an Engineering college in Mangalore. When the first year results were out they were shocked to hear that he had failed in all his first year subjects. After his parents left, he told me about his desire to have joined 'Hotel Management' course, after completing his twelfth standard. But his parents thought that their only son should be a Computer Engineer. So he was forcibly sent to do that course. After struggling for two more years with his back-papers, without informing his parents, he left the college and joined a private firm in Mangalore as a 'sales representative'.
In the past few years I have taught so many such boys and girls who never wanted to join an Engineering college, children who were compelled to join because their parents wanted them to become Engineers.

Dear parents, do you think these children would have been so unsuccessful in their lives, had they been taught to ask for the will of God in their lives? We parents should understand ourselves and let our children know that, "Our God is a God who never forgets his people, He has carved each one's name on the palm of His hand, He will never leave us alone, He is a God of love unconditional!" 

Let us teach our growing children to ask Him, "Lord, what should I learn after completing my tenth standard? What do you want me to become? What state of life should I choose to be useful to you, my loving God?"
As parents, let us try to find out, "Abba, Father, tell us what you want our child to be? Where do you want us to take him or her, to be able to serve you always?"
Wait in silence; listen to God's voice patiently. He, the Lord, wants to tell us what is best for our growing child! He is a loving God, who plans every thing beautifully, for each one of us and our children!

Twelve years ago, when I got through my Entrance examination, in the depth of my heart, I was sad that God didn't get me an admission to the 'Regional Engineering college, Calicut'. I was unhappy about not being able to get, the 'Electronics and Communication' branch. Deeply disappointed, I had to content myself with the choice of Engineering college, Kothamangalam. Half way through my B.Tech, when my parents got a proposal for me, only because I was doing 'Electrical Engineering', I realised how beautifully God had planned everything for me. God knew that the partner he had chosen for me needed an Electrical Engineer. The young man from Ernakulam, whom the Lord had brought up so carefully for me, had an 'Electrical Service Industry.' And as my college was not too far from Ernakulam, I was able to continue my studies and complete my course in the next two years. The Lord so beautifully guided me and helped me pass out at the right time. And today, God has called me in a way I could never have thought possible to train many future Engineers!
Dear parents, look back into your own lives. You too will be able to see many such incidents in your own life. Our God loves us a lot and loves our children too. This reminds me of a beautiful song I learnt while at school, "When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost; count your many blessings, name them one by one. And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done!

So amid the conflicts, whether great or small, do not be discouraged, God is over all; count your many blessings, angels will attend, help and comfort give you to your journey's end!''
The moment our child comes to us from God, He, the Lord of all, knows what he or she should become in the future. Our duty is to find that out and guide our children forward to reach that position in life- the position that God wants him or her to be in!

A family Prayer
Lord, we know that you love us with your unconditional, forgiving, unending love. We thank you for being the Master of our lives. We offer ourselves to you. Lord, help all parents to listen to your voice, and guide their children on the right path. Tell the growing children, what you want them to learn. Help them understand your plans for them. 
Holy Spirit of knowledge, inspire each growing child, so that he or she may hold the hands of our Lord, and walk forward in life, to be successful in life, as God wants them to be. 
Mother Mary, pray for all parents. Pray for every growing child, to be able to live a life, pure and holy, ever pleasing to the loving Father. Intercede for each one of us always.

Amen.