The split personality of the New Age Movement

The Power to Manifest - Part 7

It's amazing how you don't see things until you see them. And then when you do see something you can't unsee it. And you wonder How the heck did I miss that??

Contemplating the power to manifest, writing about how humanity has been programmed to be submissive to higher authority—whether that authority be God, gods, aliens or plutocrats—it finally jumped out at me last week that the entire New Age Movement has been fundamentally split into two camps in direct response to that ancient programming.

As far back in history as I can remember, people have been galvanized to take back their power by learning how to 1) control natural forces and the material world through occult means, thus gaining supremacy at last. Or 2) they basically adopted Dante's Alighieri's advice from his 14th-century narrative poem The Divine Comedy: "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" ("Abandon all hope, ye who enter here") and decided to cut and run, leaving all worldly things behind.

The rest of humanity, choosing neither path, has just moved along, happy, unhappy, thinking, unthinking, creating, raising families, doing their best to live well in the midst of an uncaring world of usury, exploitation and control.

Door number one

Those choosing the first course of seeking power to control life have traditionally followed one of two paths. The first is blood magic, satanism and all sorts of ritual abuse, sex acts etc. used to harness the power of elemental intelligences. The second—which methods also fall under the category of "occult" (meaning hidden) but that don't rely on blood sacrifice, sex, etc.—were the various esoteric practices aligned with natural forces espoused and taught by early 19 century occultists such as Madame Blavatsky, Annie Besant and Rudolph Steiner.

God only knows which side of the fence the infamous magician Aleister Crowley, founder of the Thelema religion, operated on. Possibly both. I personally know several people who were tortured and sexually abused as children while being raised in purported "spiritual" organizations started during the Spiritualist movement of the early 1900s—spiritual organizations that were, and still are, fronts for satanic worship.

Some shocking statistics

Satanism is the fastest growing religion in the US, with a solid 56 percent of Americans believing in the devil. Current estimates are that one out of ten US citizens are practicing satanists.

Way back in 1994, the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (IJCEH), published a study titled “Satanism, ritual abuse, and multiple personality disorder: a sociohistorical perspective.”[1] The study stated that from the mid-1980s to 1994, mental health professionals were reporting that between 25 and 50 percent of their patients in treatment for what is now known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), had recovered early childhood memories of ritual torture, incestuous rape, sexual debauchery, sacrificial murder, infanticide, and cannibalism perpetrated by members of clandestine satanic cults. 

Based upon 2020 mental health statistics for DID, that means as many as four million people in the US have suffered ritual rape, torture and other abuses in the name of Satan. But that's just one source of information. From personal conversations with victims, health professionals and shamans involved in helping people heal from such abuse, I believe that figure is vastly conservative and misleading.

And satanism is only gaining in popularity.

Opening the Super Bowl LV halftime show, Canadian singer Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, portrayed Satan’s fall from heaven accompanied by a choir of red-eyed fallen angels dressed as church choir members rising out of a pit. Toward the end of the show Tesfaye was surrounded by zombie-men dressed in red with jockstraps over their faces instead of bandages.

We see occasional headlines about some weirdo being busted as part of a satanic cult. Hollywood psychic Sloane Bella talks about Lady Gaga's pact with the devil and Justin Bieber and Brittany Spears' nervous breakdowns and fall from superstar status being the result of refusing to participate in baby-slaying satanic rituals.[2]

Of course, most of us ignore such crazy talk. I mean, it is crazy talk. Right?

And yet satanic worship is on the rise. During these shaky times, vast numbers of people are feeling helpless. Following Lucifer, the original rebel angel, makes them feel more powerful and in control.[3]

The main reason people give for joining this most ancient of cults is personal empowerment.

Door number two

The second, alternative course followed by at least a hundred generations of men and women choosing to escape authoritarian rule and the madness and frustrations of the flesh has been by seeking spiritual haven in cloisters and monasteries, ashrams and mountain caves. Via physical austerities, poverty, prayer and meditation, they turn their backs on a depraved and hopeless material world, embracing God instead, seeking salvation, liberation, ascension, enlightenment, and eternal heavenly bliss over temporary Earthly rewards.

Thanks to the Vietnam War and the influence of people like The Beatles, whose spiritual journeys to the feet of gurus in India were legendary, the start of the New Age Movement in the 1970s was deeply influenced by Eastern religions and philosophies. The focus was very much on ascending beyond the mental and physical limitations of the body, receiving higher wisdom, and getting back to God.

When I signed on in the early 1980s, the New Age was in full swing and there were any number of available pathways to recognizing one's divinity and getting beyond the sorrows and mendacity of Earth. Regular meditation. Transcendental meditation. Yoga. Qi Gung. Breathwork. Zen Buddhism. Channels. Getting in touch with angels and guides assigned the task of helping people open the doors of their individual prisons to fly.

It was a spiritual smorgasbord based in surrender to God, with little apparent egoic influence and need for personal power. And then the two movies What the Bleep Do We Know?! and The Secret came out in 2004 and 2006 respectively.

Rapid seduction

I've spoken extensively of my participation helping the filmmakers of What the Bleep?! market the movies and books associated with the brand. (See The Power to Manifest Part 1.) I've also written about the ramifications the introduction of the concept of personal manifestation had on people.

It was at this point that the split in the New Age Movement occurred. Or, perhaps, it was simply the next chapter of the ongoing split that had been around forever. Namely, the split between people who seek personal power over the material world and those who seek spiritual union with the Divine, eschewing personal power altogether.

For myself, the introduction of the concept of mind over matter and the possibility of human consciousness affecting the quantum field shifted my spiritual focus away from enlightenment to personal manifestation. And I watched thousands of others, and then millions of others, apparently do the same thing.

It didn't help matters that the whole Harry Potter book series about magic came out around the same time. Suddenly the enticement of supernatural powers was like a computer virus sweeping the entire spiritual community—a program introducing thoughts like: "I deserve to feel secure, and if I'm divine, it's just natural that I should have all the things I desire. Personal manifestation is a display of my Godly powers. After I get what I want, then I'll put my focus back on enlightenment."

In some ways it was a truly healthy change. Personal manifestation utterly destroyed the ancient belief you had to be an impoverished beggar to find God. It introduced the idea that you could live a comfortable material existence and still be a spiritual person. And that was great.

Unfortunately, few saw the need for power and control lurking just below the surface of personal manifestation. How mind over matter was aligned with the same power over dynamics exhibited by the global Controllers—unhealthy dynamics most people were trying to escape in the first place.

The split

Today the difference between the two paths—the occult path of personal power and manifestation and the path of spiritual self-abnegation—are readily apparent. One is the path of empowering the self through displays of personal mental power. The other is the path of getting out of the body and dropping all sense of self in order to get to the Light where eternal bliss and love reign forever.

It's kinda like the two opposite paths of "I'll get mine," versus "I'm outta here."

Both paths are responses to the painful control mechanisms in force here on planet Earth and the highly unnatural way in which life is lived.

Both paths are subject to profound misunderstandings, propaganda, and twisted machinations. And both paths, although the intentions behind each one are diametrically opposed, can equally result in the loss of one's very soul.

The 3rd path

In part 3, Surfing the Zuvuya, I described the possibilities of life lived in harmony and conscious alignment with Source Intelligence and nature. Not having a lot of personal experience with such consciousness here on planet Earth, I riffed on what it might be like:

A healthy, wholesome, creative, liberated, individual yet community-supported existence where all life is respected and honored and people are free to pursue their passions and interests while making sure others are equally treated and have the same opportunities. A world where competition and the fight for survival are things of the past. A world of almost infinite potential where people work with each other and nature's intelligence, learn from nature, and are guided by it.

What a contrast to the kind of world we have today where existence is so disheartening and disempowering that people are driven to either try to conquer life or escape it.

Ungodly ramifications

Unfortunately, these two extreme approaches come with their own troubling issues.

We all know where the path of power over leads. It's the conquering mindset that eventually destroys everything it comes in contact with—including the soul of the person seeking power. We know the kind of terrible consequences that befall those who try to use dark intelligences to take power and wield it. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings trilogy is just one example. Another, perhaps even more frightening tale is told by Maria Szepes in the book, The Red Lion: The Elixir of Eternal Life. 

Those seeking power who align with dark intelligences are destined to be consumed by them.

Those bent on self-eradication and sublimation of all personal desires (except the burning desire to move on into the all-encompassing blissful embrace of the One Mind) often fall prey to an equally terrible, if different fate. Ending up grounded on Earth, unable to take spiritual wing the way they imagine they should, they suffer terrible life-long depressions, hopelessness, and a crippling ennui that makes it impossible for them to recoup any interests and real care for life.

The path of personal power often ends up in possession and torment. The path of selflessness often results in a burned-out husk of a "self" that remains Earth-bound and tortured.

Yikes!

To be clear, I'm not saying that everybody who takes a personal manifestation class is going to end up possessed. I'm saying it's an iffy decision to set sail upon a path that's often driven by the wrong motivations. Equally I'm not saying that people can't "attain" oneness with the divine mind.

But how about learning what a human being really is first? What about the divine human? What about spirit and flesh as one? What about the awesomeness and potentials available experiencing that?

I remember sitting in a channeled teaching back in 1986 with Ramtha the Enlightened One—a 35,00-year-old warrior spirit from Lemuria channeled by JZ Knight. There were about 400 people, mostly women, seated in chairs in the Seattle hotel meeting room. At one point Ramtha walked up and down the aisles to get a read on the audience. And a woman sitting on a chair at the end of a row leaped up and hurled herself at him, weeping, her arms clinging around the channel’s neck.

“Oh Ramtha, Ramtha, I want to ascend! I want to ascend!” the woman moaned.

Everybody was shocked. And frankly, I think the woman was speaking for just about everyone in the audience. Certainly, she was speaking for me. I just didn’t have the guts to actually say the words out loud, let alone throw myself on the channel like that.

Ramtha let the woman cry a little bit more. Then he put his hands on her shoulders and held her away from him, staring into her eyes, saying: “Beautiful woman. Don’t you know that ascension is divine suicide? Why would you want to ascend when you haven’t even lived yet?”

Global sentiment

I think just about the whole world wants exactly that. TO REALLY LIVE.

To discover what the word freedom really feels like. To experience what LOVE really is and embody it. To speak it. Act it. Receive it.

I think this global desire in so many people’s hearts is aligned with the intention and desire of life itself. And that this steadfast alignment between humanity and nature is what is bringing about the rapid changes we’re seeing on this planet.

I think the power to manifest is universal, not singular.

And that when we come together, dreaming of a better world for all—ourselves included—that that’s when the magic that isn’t really magic happens.

Much love and aloha ~

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[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7960286/

[2]

[3] https://newspunch.com/satanism-fastest-growing-religion/

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Check out the book:

Cracking the Matrix: 14 Keys to Individual & Global Freedom

For thousands of years, every culture on Earth has described a hostile, invisible Intelligence bedeviling humanity, dragging us down. The Archons, AshShaytān, wetiko, windingo, e'epa, antimimos, Satan ... the names are legion.

Cracking the Matrix explores the astounding history and nature of what humanity has erroneously labeled "evil" on this planet, helping people finally see the very real, negative, interdimensional influence that exists behind historic and current global events and our social decline.

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About Cate Montana

I’m a professional journalist specializing in alternative medicine and health, and the author of several books, including Unearthing Venus: My Search for the Woman Within [Watkins 2013], and The E Word, Ego Enlightenment & Other Essentials [Atria 2017], and a spiritual novel titled Apollo & Me. I have a master’s degree in psychology. A lot of TV, radio and podcast show hosts as well as listeners around the world have told me I’m an interesting and informative—even compelling—speaker. To which I say “Thank you.” Talking is something I enjoy doing even more than writing! (It’s more immediate and connected.)

I am extremely blessed to have been called to Maui and grateful every day to awaken here.

For more information you can reach me at www.catemontana.com and info@catemontana.com