New Age Questions and Answers from Readers Question 1: Calling the "Archangel Michael" during "healing"
A co-worker stumbled upon your site and after reading some of it, it got me thinking about something that I've taken part in. It sounds a lot like what you are describing as "healing involving angels". I've been having severe headaches and a friend told me about a person that does NMT - neuro modulation technique. Have you ever heard of it? It has to do with a person's energy. I don't know anything about this "energy" stuff, except that I do believe people have or give off some positive/negative energy. And maybe "energy" is not the right word, but that's what everyone's always called it.
Anyway, the main reason I ask is because during our 3rd session, she called upon Archangel Michael to protect me while we were doing a certain part. I grew up Baptist, so calling on angels was something new to me. I've always been told to pray to God. So of course, this threw up a major red flag. Plus, she told me that I needed to call on my angels for help. BUT, that was the only thing that had seemed to be off the wall so I didn't say anything. Like I said, angels weren't something really discussed so I thought maybe I had just missed out on something. Does this lady sound like what you are describing as "healing involving angels"? Like I said, that was the only thing really odd. We didn't talk or call on any dead people and she never mentioned Archangels again. My headaches have eased and I shouldn't have to see her again, but I don't want to recommend her either especially if it is of a "demonic" nature. May I get your opinion please? I appreciate any help.
Thanks, M.
Answer on 08.16.2004
Dear M.,
peace of Christ be with you always.
I don't know a great deal about the specific therapy you mention, neuro modulation technique. The impression I get from reading about it is that it's a natural healing technique. However what you describe as having taken place is quite worrisome. The rest of what I write concerns the angel references, not the neuro modulation technique itself.
(btw it's true people "give off" energy. After all, our bodies are composed of electrical particles, and there's also the magnetic effect to consider. What the New Age therapists do to promote their business is to say that the existence of this energy (our electrical and chemical reactions) points to a "universal life force" or Qi, and it goes downhill from there.)
If the therapist said to call on your angels for help, that is indeed a red flag. It is perfectly in order from a Catholic pespective to call on God's Holy Angels for help. BUT they are not OUR angels. They are God's, and they do His work; they are not our servants, but obey God's will. We are only assigned one angel, our guardian angel, from birth, and he/she will never lead you away from Christ. I have no doubt this therapist never mentioned Jesus during her sessions. If she speaks of angels not in connection with Christ and sin and redemption, then watch out. I also do not believe the Michael she called on was the Archangel. Remember that New Agers have their own set of "archangels" they call on, but these are not the Holy Helpers of God.
So in summary I'd say stay well away from this group. If possible, print out this page and give it to others in the group if you can.
God bless
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Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church
2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future.48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.
(48 Cf. Deut 18:10; Jer 29:8.) (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition)
What Angels actually do
In actual fact, the primary purpose of angels is to serve God and to act as messengers in God's dealing with mankind.
From the Catholic Encyclopedia: Angels we read:
Attendants at God's throne"It is as messengers that they most often figure in the Bible, but, as St. Augustine, and after him St. Gregory, expresses it: angelus est nomen officii ("angel is the name of the office") and expresses neither their essential nature nor their essential function, viz.: that of attendants upon God's throne in that court of heaven of which Daniel has left us a vivid picture:
I behold till thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days sat: His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like clean wool: His throne like flames of fire: the wheels of it like a burning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth from before Him: thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him: the judgment sat and the books were opened. (Daniel 7:9-10; cf. also Psalm 96:7; Psalm 102:20; Isaiah 6, etc.)This function of the angelic host is expressed by the word "assistance" (Job, i, 6: ii, 1), and our Lord refers to it as their perpetual occupation (Matt., xviii, 10). More than once we are told of seven angels whose special function it is thus to "stand before God's throne" (Tob., xii, 15; Apoc., viii, 2-5).
The angels of the Bible generally appear in the role of God's messengers to mankind. They are His instruments by whom He communicates His will to men, and in Jacob's vision they are depicted as ascending and descending the ladder which stretches from earth to heaven while the Eternal Father gazes upon the wanderer below. It was an angel who found Agar in the wilderness (Gen., xvi); angels drew Lot out of Sodom; an angel announces to Gideon that he is to save his people; an angel foretells the birth of Samson (Judges, xiii), and the angel Gabriel instructs Daniel (Dan., viii, 16), though he is not called an angel in either of these passages, but "the man Gabriel" (9:21). The same heavenly spirit announced the birth of St. John the Baptist and the Incarnation of the Redeemer, while tradition ascribes to him both the message to the shepherds (Luke, ii, 9), and the most glorious mission of all, that of strengthening the King of Angels in His Agony (Luke 22:43).
��Personal guardians
Throughout the Bible we find it repeatedly implied that each individual soul has its tutelary angel. Thus Abraham, when sending his steward to seek a wife for Isaac, says: "He will send His angel before thee" (Genesis 24:7). The words of the ninetieth Psalm which the devil quoted to our Lord (Matt., iv, 6) are well known, and Judith accounts for her heroic deed by saying: "As the Lord liveth, His angel hath been my keeper" (xiii, 20). These passages and many like them (Gen., xvi, 6-32; Osee, xii, 4; III K., xix, 5; Acts, xii, 7; Ps., xxxiii, 8), though they will not of themselves demonstrate the doctrine that every individual has his appointed guardian angel, receive their complement in our Saviour's words: "See that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say to you that their angels in Heaven always see the face of My Father Who is in Heaven" (Matt, xviii, 10), words which illustrate the remark of St. Augustine: "What lies hidden in the Old Testament, is made manifest in the New". Indeed, the book of Tobias seems intended to teach this truth more than any other, and St. Jerome in his commentary on the above words of our Lord says: "The dignity of a soul is so great, that each has a guardian angel from its birth."
���..It is their privilege to announce to Zachary and Mary the dawn of Redemption, and to the shepherds its actual accomplishment. Our Lord in His discourses talks of them as one who actually saw them, and who, whilst "conversing amongst men", was yet receiving the silent unseen adoration of the hosts of heaven. He describes their life in heaven (Matt., xxii, 30; Luke, xx, 36); He tell us how they form a bodyguard round Him and at a word from Him would avenge Him on His enemies (Matt., xxvi, 53); it is the privilege of one of them to assist Him in His Agony and sweat of Blood. More than once He speaks of them as auxiliaries and witnesses at the final judgment (Matt., xvi, 27), which indeed they will prepare (ibid., xiii, 39-49); and lastly, they are the joyous witnesses of His triumphant Resurrection (ibid., xxviii, 2)."
A look at the relevant paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church gives the following summary of the angels� mission and purpose:
331
(the angels have Christ as the centre of their angelic world. - all
things were created through him and for him." They are also messengers
of his saving plan: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to
serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?")
332 (Service anouncement of salvation; protection of Lot, Hagar, announcement of births and callings)
333 (adoration and service to the Word made Flesh; announcement of the Incarnation and Resurrection)
335 (adoration of God, asking angels to lead deceased souls into paradise)
336 (protection and shepherding of angels).
The reader is encouraged to see the full text of this section, at the link above.
Some terms which will automatically tell you that you are dealing with new age demons.
Archangels A Christian term, but with a demonic meaning in New Age circles.
The New Age archangels are very different from the archangels of the Bible. The new age (demonic) archangels, who have feminine counterparts, called archeiai. These archangels supposedly heal a person�s "four lower bodies" � etheric, mental, emotional and physical. Quite what is meant by "etheric" is anyone�s guess. But one thing is for sure, God�s archangels do not go about healing people�s "etheric" bodies. The New Age archangels do not worship God at His throne, in fact they do not even acknowledge that Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh. How can anybody believe they are the same archangels as those in the Holy Bible?
Note also that the three archangels mentioned in the Bible (Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael) are NOT master builders of the universe, are NOT surgeons who perform healing on our bodies and souls, do NOT expand "spiritual light" or transmit light to us. And they do NOT transfer energy to us in any way, shape, or form. In addition, the true archangels do NOT use vibrations to transform matter with "divine consciousness". And archangels do NOT have female counterparts. Sacred Scriptue says that after the resurrection of the dead, we will neither marry nor given in marriage, but will be like the angels in heaven.
"At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." Matthew 22:30 (NIV)
Angels are not male or female, they are pure spirit. So much for the new age "archangels and archaeia".
The
New Age "archangels and archeia" have the following names: Michael and
Faith, Jophiel and Christine, Chamuel and Charity, Gabriel and Hope,
Raphael and Mary, Uriel and Aurora, Zadkiel and Holy Amethyst. In IET,
the names of the "healing angels are Ariel, Raphael, Gabriel,
Celestina, Faith, Cassiel, Daniel, Sarah, and Michael.
Whenever you see these names appear, beware, you are dealing with demons, not archangels who serve God.
Ascended masters
Ascended masters are supposedly multiply-reincarnated enlightened
spiritual beings, who once lived on earth, they now dwell in heaven,
or, as some New Agers prefer to call it, the "etheric octave". There is
of course, no mention of God in this "etheric octave". Note that Jesus,
Mary and Moses are often included as examples "ascended masters"; proof
yet again, if need be, that the "Jesus" of New Age practises is
not the Jesus of the Bible, Who is God Made Man, and not some
multiply-reincarnated spirit.
(See also Reincarnation Refuted )
The Great White Brotherhood This is the new age equivalent of the "communion of saints". However, they are demons, not saints. The Ascended Masters are part of the hierarchy of beings known as the Great White Brotherhood, a spiritual order of Western saints and Eastern masters. These "ascended masters" are alleged to have ascended like Jesus Christ at the end of His earthly ministry.
Of course, as Christians we know that Christ ascended into Heaven by His Divine power. What New Agers are basically saying is that these alleged "ascended masters" have a "divine power" by which they ascended to the "etheric octave" after their time on earth. This is little more than a parody of the Ascension of Christ.
New agers go on to describe the "great white brotherhood" as the saints of Revelation chapter 7. Even a casual reading of Revleation will show that the saints of Revelation 7 are saints who worship God continally in His Throne. The "great white brotherhood", in contrast, does not worship God and does not acknowledge Jesus Christ as God made Man. How on earth can New Agers claim the "great white brotherhood" has any relation whatsoever with the saints of God? The �great white brotherhood� is a demonic counterfeit, make no mistake about it.
Chohans Chohan is a term that is used to mean "lord" or "master" and a specific chohan presides over each of the seven rays. Eight of the ascended masters dealing most closely with mankind are called the "chohans of the rays". The seven chohans are El Morya , Lanto, Paul the Venetian Serapis Bey Hilarion Nada Saint Germain. The Maha Chohan is the head of the seven chohans. These seven chohans have, supposedly, been reincarnated many times on earth.
How can any Christian posssibly think there is nothing wrong with dealing with these demonic beings?
"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 2 Peter 5:8 (NIV)
"Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft" Deuteronomy 18:10 (NIV)
"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned."Galatians 1:8
