Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jrossi@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Nobody) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Handbook To Higher Consciousness Vs. Misbelief Therapy Message-ID: Date: 4 Jan 90 08:22:09 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA Lines: 46 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Recently, a young christian girl friend of mine gave a copy of a book put out by a christian press for christians to help themselves be happy. The book is called "Telling Yourself the Truth" and is about what the authors dub "Misbelief Therapy." More or less, its a buddhist manual for christians, however it does have the right number of Biblical references to help support its teachings. Another book that many may be familiar is Handbook to Higher Consciousness, which I feel is the one of the most straighforward paths offered by the new age, and is very similar in many respects to "Telling Yourself the Truth." only, of course, it has much fewer Biblical quotes. Still both books do quite an adequate job of teaching people how to effectively change the way they act, think, and behave. From the back cover of "Telling Yourself the Truth." : It is based upon the Bible, not on psychological inventions or pyschiatric speculations. While they can support their book with the Bible, and embed it with with all sorts of cultural and religious images that christians are comfortable with, the fact that this book is employing methods and techniques more common to new age and eastern thought suggests a certain amount of blending is going on. And this is a good thing. Whats interesting is the book tactfully avoids giving any credit to Eastern thinkers, religion or philosophies. Of course these methods and ideas are in the Bible, just like they are the type of things one finds in all religions. The fact that people are finding peace, love and bliss in other religions demonstrates that these methods work. It seems what some christian psychologists have done, is noticed this and realized that they could direct their patients towards happiness using these methods. They had to then concentrate on the parts of the Bible that suppport their teachings, so their patients could accept the methods as "christian." All in all its quite good, I suppose because if you told them it was partly derivative of Eastern culture, they'd high tail it out of there screaming Satan! Satan! So they think its christian; they help themselves; by helping themselves they help everyone. amen. -- -jrossi@jato.jpl.nasa.gov ...the love shack is a little 'ol place -ames!elroy!jato!jrossi where we can G E T T O G E T H E R. **********************STANDARD DISCLAIMER******************************