4 Responses to “Some well-written posts about occult/spiritualist/millenarian obsessions before and during the French Revolution”

1. Jason Says:
   May 17th, 2012 at 12:12 pm

   So, let me ask this question: Is the law of attraction, used as it is now by every “success guru” out there, really just a way of indoctrinating the masses into the occult? In the early 20th century, when this stuff was first being promulgated, most of the best writers on the law of attraction were Christians. I am thinking here of James Allen and Florence Scovel Shinn.

2. Terry Melanson Says:
   May 17th, 2012 at 2:00 pm

   New Thought and the Unity Church certainly use the word “christianity.” That’s about all I can say. As far as their teachings, it isn’t too over-the-top to classify it as heretical.

   Basic tenets (according to themselves):

   God: Divine Mind, absolute good, and therefore the concept of evil is merely ignorance.

   Man: “We are spiritual beings, ideas in the Mind of God.”

   Jesus: “a special person”; “a Teacher.”

   The Bible: “a body of history”; “a great literary work”; any deep significance to be found is only due to a “metaphysical interpretation.”

   The virgin birth: “spiritually interpreted as the birth of the Christ consciousness.”

   The Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit interpreted metaphysically as “mind, idea, and expression.”

   Salvation: “the death of Jesus … did not relieve us of the necessity of working out our own salvation.”

   Sin and the Devil: “Heaven and hell are states of consciousness”; “Sin is our separation from God in consciousness, caused by our [mistaken] belief in the ‘devil’.”

3. Jason Says:
   May 17th, 2012 at 8:10 pm

   So, the law of attraction is popularized gnosticism?

4. Terry Melanson Says:
   May 17th, 2012 at 8:45 pm

   It’s result of Hinduism meets Mesmerism.

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