Nuggets from Occult Invasion—Shaktipat and the Charismatics

Professor Michael Ray of the Stanford Graduate School of Business came to a new view of human potential and its application to the business world after being introduced by his psychotherapist to the Siddha Yoga of Swami Muktananda. At that time the Swami (since deceased) was the guru to many business leaders and Hollywood stars. Ray’s life was transformed when an assistant to the Muktananda ran a peacock feather across the “third eye” in the center of his forehead. Says Ray:

“I saw a bolt of lightning, like a pyramid of light. I began literally bouncing off the floor and trembling. I cried. I felt tremendous energy, love, and joy. What I had experienced, I later learned, had been shaktipat, or spiritual awakening of kundalini energy inside me [the serpent force coiled at the base of the spine and awaiting release in an altered state]….”

As we shall see, Ray’s experience was much like that of thousands of charismatics who are convinced they have received a “special touch from the Holy Spirit” at a John Wimber of Benny Hinn “miracle” service or at the former Toronto Airport Vineyard, or perhaps from the worldwide “revival” flowing out of the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Florida, or elsewhere. One cannot escape the similarity between shaktipat and what the charismatics, both Catholic and Protestant, call being “slain in the Spirit.”

At the touch of the evangelist, usually on the forehead, the subject falls backward into the arms of “catchers” standing by. In this trancelike state he has a variety of occult experiences, from flashes of light to a sense of well-being and love; from uncontrollable weeping or laughter and violent shaking to “speaking in tongues.” It was evangelist and healer Kathryn Kuhlman who made “slaying in the Spirit” a household term among charismatics in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Televangelist Benny Hinn claims to be Kuhlman’s successor, having picked up “the anointing,” which he says still lingers at her grave.

As a further example of the similarity between “slaying in the Spirit” and shaktipat, consider what happened to Gerland Jampolsky. He has become famous for his use of A Course in Miracles in his psychiatric practice and in his books and lectures around the world. Jampolsky believes he was prepared for the message of the Course through shaktipat, administered by Muktananda:

“It seemed as though I had stepped out of my body and was looking down upon it. I saw colors whose depth and brilliance were beyond anything I had ever imagined. I began to talk in tongues. A beautiful beam of light came into the room and…I was filled with an awareness of love unlike anything I had known before. And when I [later] started reading the Course, I heard a voice within say, ‘Physician, heal thyself; this is your way home,’ and there was a complete feeling of oneness with God and the Universe.”

As a result of such mystical experiences, Ray and Jampolsky and thousands like them have adopted the views of Eastern mysticism. We are in the midst of an occult invasion.