"[Para.]1.6.2.6

"The ruling of the highest federal administrative tribunal, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht on May 24, 1989 in Case number 7 C 2.87 is: The Federal Government is allowed to say TM can cause psychic defects or destruction of personality.”

"THE DEATH OF A GURU

"In his little book Death of a Guru, Rabindranath Maharaj seems to confirm the findings of the German study. He firstly, recounts that in spite of his father’s lofty ‘spiritual state’ he had to be fed, washed and cleaned for eight years. That is because for eight long incredible years his father sat in a lotus position, legs crossed, feet overlapping the thighs, chanting ‘OM’.

"When Rabindranath’s father passed away unexpectedly and suddenly, the Hindu spiritual leaders and the ordinary people said he had reached the fullest attainment of the yogi and was therefore taken to the ‘other side’ - to join those blissful spirits that, through Yoga, had escaped the cycle of karmic bondage. Rabindranath’s father was only 54 year old.

"After his dad’s death Rabindranath was expected to take up the ‘mantle’ and carry on his father’s devout mystic practices. It was not long after, that he entered the Durga Hindu Temple in Port of Spain, Trinidad [where presently Hindu comprise 90 percent of the Indian population]. Rabindranath (nick-named Rabi) had been entrusted to the tutelage of a well-respected young Brahmin priest, “thoroughly learned in Hinduism”.

"Rabindranath describes how each day, very early in the morning, he and the other Brahmacharya students would have to chant the mantra Hari OM Tat Sat and say prayers to the Hindu god, Hanuman. This he says was seen as a necessity for those undergoing the daily “transcendental meditation”, which he describes as, “the heart of Yoga.”

"But Rabindranath explains, on page 56 of his book, that Yoga and transcendental meditation could also be very dangerous:
 

Frightening psychic experiences awaited the unwary meditator, similar to a bad trip on drugs. Demons described in the Vedas [or Hindu Holy Books] had been known to take possession of some Yogis. Kundalini power, said to be coiled like a serpent at the base of the spine, could produce ecstatic experiences when released in deep meditation – or, if not properly controlled, it could do great mental and even bodily harm.

The line between ecstasy and horror was very fine. For that reason we initiates were closely supervised by the Brahmacharya and his assistant.

           During the daily meditation I began to have visions of psychedelic colours, to      

          hear unearthly music, and to visit exotic planets where the gods conversed with   

          me, encouraging me to attain even higher states of consciousness. Sometimes in

          my trance I encountered the same horrible demonic creatures that are depicted

          by the images in Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, and other religious temples. It was a

          frightful experience.

"... Physician Sir James Watt states:

… transcendental meditation [TM]… frequently involves hallucinations and disassociated [loss of ones hold on reality, sometimes referred to as demon possession in some religious circles] episodes that are difficult to treat. Disruption of breathing patterns is also becoming of increasing interest to physicians….

          … for once dissociation has been achieved, depersonalisation follows,  

             relationships with the world and its creator are ruptured, and the subject

          becomes isolated and inaccessible… failure to achieve union with the supreme 

          Being may… result in… suicide…
                   - ‘The New Age Phenomena’, The Church, Medicine and the New Age,

                    page 11..

"Confirmation of the “numerous pitfalls” that await those who pursue Yoga also comes from none other than the Yoga bible, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, pages 45, 46 which lists nine such dangers:

             “Sickness, lethargy, lost of self-confidence, mental instability, indifference, 

              dissipation, false reasoning, false visions, disillusionment, distractions….”

"On page 58 of the same book we are told, the true aim: “Yoga is the progressive elimination of consciousness in order to secure pure Self-awareness”. On page 121, it goes on to explain: This consciousness must be reduced to ashes, its seeds sterilized so as to render all future consciousness impossible…. What remains is the Self….

"What is the ‘Self’?’ you may ask. The answer is hinted at on page 122, “the heights of Self-realisation… he encounters discarnate beings (gods, and angels)….”

"These quotes drive home the all-important point, too often overlooked by western Yoga enthusiasts, that Yoga, “is not just a physical exercise, but has a strong psychic component as well.” – page 91, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The ‘Self’ in Yoga is not ones personal identify or true being but rather, the spiritual being called the Super Soul – Sanat Kumara, or the Serpent King. And, according to The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, page 89, it is through the ‘Self’ that: “the yogin establishes contact with the chosen deity … the yogin makes contact with that god or goddess… in the meditational experience.”

".... Prof. Georg Feuerstein, himself a Yoga practitioner, states that, Yoga, despite its Westernisation, “is still rooted in the occult”:

                “As these followers of physical Yoga (or posture practice) continue to develop 

                 in body and mind, however, there will come a time when they start to ask

                 themselves the age-old existential questions ‘Who am I?’ and ‘Why am I here?’

                 I believe that... [in a] very shot time Yoga as one of several New Age occult

                 practices, will come to the fore."

EXCERPTS FROM PGS. 46-57 "Yoga is Powerful, But is it really Bad for you?"


Table of  Contents:
 

5. Psychological dangers in Meditation and Yoga

8.   Are mantras valid tools for reaching God