Dear ThoMag,
Thanks for including some links to help explain more about Martinus. I had in fact already found the site you include a link to.
Perhaps I am not the most captive audience for this stuff as I don't, for example, think that the Bible is infallible - nor am I a categorised Christian or member of any montheistic religion for that matter. I am also fully aware of the amount of suffering, murder and bloodshed that has been caused over the years on account of arrogant monotheistic religions (not least of which has taken place in my home country of Northern Ireland in more recent years, if you want to really talk about "danger") so MY immediate suspicions are aroused more by those very religious institutions themselves and less by attempts in society to move beyond them.
This of course does not mean that I am not aware of the degree of new age quackery that exists - but it does mean that I don't always go seek refuge in a best-selling book which is fundamentally based on Sumerian folk tales when I feel my fundamental belief systems are being threatened (though which of the numerous versions of the Bible, plus all that wasn't included in it in the first place are we actually talking about here?).
Besides which, I think it's good to have "fundamental belief systems" threatened every so often - it certainly helps to free us from recurring patterns of rigidity and self-righteousness whenever they manage to get a foothold.
At the end of the day, occultism/paganism/polytheism has always been demonised by Christianity (so have women, whom, as you may recall, were branded as "witches" and slaughtered in their millions not so long ago for not conforming to patriarchal patterns of institutional and societal domination etc. You could try taking a look at the book The Gospel according to Women to find out more about Chistianity's fantastic treatment of the female throughout history). And all this coming from a religion that is evidently based on an early PR stunt to outlaw older religions/belief systems, including worship of Mithras, for example. Now why do we have so-called Christmas trees nowadays - couldn't have anything to with earlier pagan worship of nature/trees or anything, could it? What about the notion that Jesus was born in December (the lambing season?!) - that clearly could have nothing to do with earlier worshipping practices centred around the winter solstice or anything, now could it?
I suppose the fundamental irony too, is Jesus' message of forgiveness - where is the room for that when everyone is too busy feeling fearful, self-righteous and controlling towards others who just happen to be different? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Jesus himself hold the doors open to everyone? Wasn't that a fundamentally revolutionary message which has been repeatedly lost in the institutionalisation of a Christian Church ever since?
Scare-mongering has always been ranked highly in the top ten ways of subjugating the hearts and minds of society in order to keep people under the thumb of power hungry institutions. In my mind this betrays the very spiritual truths great historic individuals such as Jesus were trying to communicate.
As for everything happening for a reason - maybe it does, maybe it doesn't - it's all down to interpretation and choice of belief or philosophical theory at the end of the day. Fine - you weren't born in India, but for all those who were - why are their belief systems any worse or better than yours?
Just a thought.
best wishes
Ingrid
PS: The Kundalini site you link to states that yoga, reiki etc. are FALSE spiritual exercises, which they are not. They are valid spiritual practices developed over thousands of years in the East. They just weren't developed by (notably more recently established) Christian religious institutions (Buddhism is several hundred years older than Christianity, for example). Of course there are potential dangers with any physical practice - spiritual or otherwise (jogging, weight lifting and bungee jumping included!). I recall that self-flagellation was once a more widely used Christian spiritual practice and I'm sure there were dangers in administering that! (not to mention those belts with nails - now they would definitely have to have come with a health and safety guidance leaflet!)
PPS: You're right, Martinus clearly only "references" the Bible - as Christianity seems to have provided a framework for the significant mystical experiences he appears to have had - but the way he then goes on to articulate these experiences and the conclusions he draws from them sound very similar to a Buddhist way of thinking (particularly with his constant mentions of reincarnation and Karma - terms and concepts which absolutely derive from Buddhism) also he does consistently refer to pursuit of higher levels of energy, and the surpassing of conflicting obstacles (not dissimilar to yin/yang concepts in Chinese philosophy and Taoism).
PPPS: On looking through Martinus' words in greater detail, I do find a great deal of love and forgiveness in what he is saying and don't doubt that HE was a man who had a deep spiritual connection. I am dubious about the Kundalini site, however, which seems to represent a deliberate slighting of Eastern mystical traditions - the very traditions, Martinus' philosophies seem to support conceptually. Martinus's site does mention "false prophets" - but it doesn't state unequivocally that those false prophets are by extension automatically all Eastern mystical practices such as Reiki or Yoga. This seems to be a claim only represented on the so-called Kundalini site. Now why is that...
