Sydney
1 June 2003
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Meditation ‘not Christian prayer’
By Marilyn Rodrigues
New Age ideas and practices are not an entrée into occultism, but some people do end up getting involved that way, says Sydney schoolteacher Diane Wood.
The Doonside parishioner told a seminar at the Catholic Adult Education Centre, Lidcombe, about her first exposure to esoteric reading and dabbling in ‘spells’ in junior high school and her gradual immersion - mainly through yoga - into what she described as the darker side of the New Age.
This had included participation in séances, hypnotism and so-called astral travel (out-of-body experiences).
The seminar centred on Jesus Christ, the Bearer of the Water of Life: A Christian reflection on the ‘New Age’, a provisional report published as a pastoral resource by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
Diane’s first reaction to the Vatican paper was “absolute, unbelievable joy”.
“It’s like now I have the Church’s blessing after 20 years of being told by some people that what happened to me couldn’t happen to ‘good’ Catholics,” she says.
Diane had continued Catholic practice until her mid-20s, when she broke away from the Church for several years. She returned to the Church and prayer through Catholic Charismatic Renewal.
“What made the difference was that, in my conversion, I met Jesus the person, and a Father who loves me,” she says.
The director of the Adult Education Centre, Fr John Flader, said that apart from the possible dangers of some practices associated with the New Age, the seminar also alerted the audience to how people are often drawn to its practices to find a sense of meaning and beauty in life that they do not find anywhere else.
Fr Flader said many people who attended the seminar to hear a summary of the Vatican document by Fr Peter Joseph, chancellor of the Maronite diocese of St Maroun of Sydney, were parents anxious to know more about the New Age that is such a part of contemporary culture.
The Vatican report compares ‘New Age’ practices and beliefs with Catholic beliefs and practices.
It says that some New Age techniques called ‘prayer’ seem similar but are very different to Christian prayer.
Many of the meditation techniques “are often a good preparation for prayer, but no more than that,” it says.
“If they forget God’s search for the human heart they are still not Christian prayer.”
The report advises Christians grounded in their faith to help “people in their spiritual search by offering them proven methods and experiences of real prayer”.