There is an ancient wisdom that is being put forth publicly as a broad spiritual path, one that Christians believe leads away from the narrow path of salvation. Once called New Age spirituality, this movement has grown past its early umbrella label and entered the cultural mainstream largely undetected. Most of us have been confronted with yoga (Hinduism disguised as exercise and sometimes marketed to children, even in some public schools), meditation techniques that attempt to empty oneself (Transcendental Meditation, centering prayer, silence), or Oprah Winfrey's attempts to popularize mysticism (The Secret, A Course in Miracles, Eckhart Tolle, etc.). Many people don't realize that these and other practices are rooted in the occult, mystery religions and, ultimately, belief systems specifically antithetical to and in direct opposition to Christianity.
Ray Yungen, for many years on the vanguard of research into the New Age boom of the 1980s, its roots in antiquity and its fruits in our own time, attempts to show the difference between the wheat and the tares, for Christians to be better discerning of the way the New Age appears today. By showing the biblical precedent for the issues New Age techniques try to address and by illuminating how the movement has fragmented while still retaining its cumulative effect, he provides clear directives to guide our steps in confronting and combating this continuing threat.
