Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Psychology's Demonic Origins

What are the origins of psychology?

They are humanistic and occultic. Here are a few samplings on Freud and Jung, the fathers of moder psychology.

The follow are exerpts from "The End of 'Christian Psychology" book available online:

Freud

Freud and Jung each turned his own experience into a new belief system called psychoanalysis. Freud denied the spirituality of man by identifying religion as an illusion and calling it a neurosis. Jung attempted to debase spirituality by presenting all religion as mythology and fantasy. Many contemporary psychotherapists have not moved very far from these two positions. They often present religion as an illness at worst and as a myth at best. " p. 104 -105

Freud believed that the unconscious portion of the mind, rather than the conscious, influences all of a person’s thoughts and actions. In fact, he believed that the unconscious not only influences, but determines everything an individual does. p. 126

Freud invented psychoanalysis as a method for treating mental-emotional disorders and particularly for investigating what he considered to be the unconscious.

The psychoanalytic method supposedly exposes the unconscious through the process of free association and dream analysis. In free association, the central activity in psychoanalysis, the patient reveals both his thought life and his dreams
. p. 127

Carl Jung (Jung's quotes are taken from Jung's "Memories, Dreams, Reflections")

"After Jung repudiated Christianity he became involved in idolatry and the occult. He renamed and replaced everything having to do with biblical Christianity with his own mythology of archetypes. As he developed his theories, his archetypes took shape and served him as familiar spirits. One such personal familiar spirit that helped Jung develop his theories was Philemon.18 Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, op. cit., pp. 170-199.

"Jung also participated in the occult practice of necromancy. Jung mythologized Scripture and reduced the basic doctrines of the Christian faith into esoteric gnosticism. Freud was also involved in idolatry and the occult. He collected a large number of ancient Greek, Roman, Oriental, and Egyptian artifacts, including rows of statuettes arranged on his desk and around his office. One person who knew the family said that for Freud, “The artifacts weren’t only decorative. He used some of them to help him to write.”19 One writer suggests: What Freud may have been practicing . . . was an ancient form of magic in which consecrated statues representing spirits or transpersonal powers would engage the magician in imaginal dialogues and supply him with invaluable knowledge. Such magical practices were well known in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and the very statuettes that Freud owned may have been used for such practices by their contemporaries.20

Many Christians have probably never heard of C. G. Jung, but his influence in the church is vast and affects sermons, books, and activities, such as the prolific use of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). A current, popular example of Jung’s legacy can be seen in Robert Hicks’s book The Masculine Journey, which was given to 50,000 men who attended a Promise Keepers conference. Christians need to learn enough about Jung and his teachings to be warned and wary. They may incorporate his notions regarding personality types, the personal unconscious, dream analysis, and various archetypes inp. 149

Other Christians have been influenced more indirectly as they have engaged in inner healing, followed 12-step programs, or taken the MBTI, which is based on Jung’s personality types and incorporates his theories of introversion and extroversion.


As a young child Jung had difficulty distinguishing between Jesus and a monstrous figure encountered in a nightmare, which he later identified as a huge phallus.2 Besides Jung’s father being a Lutheran minister, all eight of his uncles were pastors as well.4 p. 152-153

Because Jung turned psychoanalysis into a type of religion, he is also considered to be a transpersonal psychologist as well as an analytical theorist. He delved deeply into the occult, practiced necromancy, and had daily contact with disembodied spirits, which he called archetypes. Jung describes having his whole house “crammed full of spirits” crying out to him. He said that was the beginning of writing “The Seven Sermons to the Dead,” which he says flowed out of him.24 Just prior to that experience he wrote about a fantasy of his soul flying away. He said: This was a significant event: the soul, the anima, establishes the relationship to the unconscious. (footnote 24Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, op. cit., pp. 190-191)

Much of what Jung wrote was inspired by such entities. Jung had his own familiar spirit whom he called Philemon. At first he thought Philemon was part of his own psyche, but later on he found that Philemon was more than an expression of his own inner self. Jung says: "Philemon and other figures of my fantasies brought home to me the crucial insight that there are things in the psyche which I do not produce, but which produce themselves and have their own life. Philemon represented a force which was not myself. In my fantasies I held conversations with him, and he said things which I had not consciously thought. For I observed clearly that it was he who spoke, not I. . . .Psychologically, Philemon represented superior insight. He was a mysterious figure to me. At times he seemed to me quite real, as if he were a living personality. I went walking up and down the garden with him, and to me he was what the Indians call a guru."27

Jung’s exploration into what he thought was his unconscious opened him up to demonic influence, which he at first thought emanated from his own unconscious but which existed quite independently from him. He even described himself as having demonic strength and as having a demon in him. He wrote: "But there was a demonic strength in me, and from the beginning there was no doubt in my mind that I must find the meaning of what I was experiencing in these fantasies. When I endured these assaults of the unconscious I had an unswerving conviction that I was obeying a higher will, and that feeling continued to uphold me until I had mastered the task.28 There was a daimon in me, and in the end its presence proved decisive. It overpowered me, and if I was at times ruthless it was because I was in the grip of the daimon.29" p. 156-158

Inner healing

"Inner healing beliefs and techniques continue to deceive many Christians. A central belief is that we are the way we are because of past hurts that need to be healed through reliving the past and bringing Jesus into past events. This is a deceptive combination of Freudian psychology and occult visualization. The inner healer is convinced that present problems are expressions of past wounds that must be healed before the person can overcome problems of living and get on with life." (PAL V8N2 * March-April 2000 from Psycho-Heresy Awareness)

Unholy Alliance : The dangers of mixing pop psychology with Christian Truth (by Dr. Lois Chan) book review:

"Chan describes channeling as "the act of receiving communication from the spirit worlds" and says, "As virtually all Christians understand, the Bible forbids us to communicate with the spirit world (Deut. 18:10-2; 2 Chr. 33:2-6; 2 Cor. 6:14-16)" (p. 19). She therefore warns:

'When we bring psychology into the church, we risk bringing in the New Age elements of psychology. If we bring in New Age psychology, we risk bringing in demonic (channeled) teachings. In that case, the integration of Bible and psychology will turn out to be the integration of biblical teachings and demonic teachings—an unholy alliance '(p. 19)."


Regarding early childhood influences, Chan quotes Dr. Paul Meier, James Dobson, Dr. Henry Cloud and other Christian psychologists, as well as channeled spirit guides. She also shows similarities between psychological and occult teachings regarding the unconscious, dream analysis, projection, human potential, and the self-concept. (PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter, July-August 2006, Vol. 14 No. 1)

2Co 6:14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

2Co 6:15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?

2Co 6:16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, "I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

2Co 6:17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,

Jas 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

1Jn 2:21 I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.

It is an impossibility to think that we can name Christ Jesus as our Master and mix Him with demons, Truth with Error, Scripture with the occult, and be pleasing to Him in anyway. HE demands purity in doctrine and practice and He is a jealous God.

2 comments:

Paula said...

Thank you for this article! I am just beginning a journey of wanting the truth about psychology...do you have any other resources you recommend?

paula

Denise said...

Hi Paula,

I have lots of resources! =)

Just in general,"Grace To You" at www.gty.org has a great number of solid resources for biblical answers. You can browse by topic or even purchase books there too.

The first thing would be of course, is to get solid in knowing that Scripture really is living and active, powerful, and sufficient for all things pertaining to life and godliness. So here are some messages that might help you:

The Nature and Sufficiency of Scripture by John MacArthur: http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermons/GTY111_The-Nature-and-Sufficiency-of-Scripture


The Transforming Power of Scripture --a series: http://www.gty.org/Resources/Sermon+Series/186_The-Transforming-Power-of-Scripture

Here is more on the problem with Psychology and the attempt at trying to mix the Truth of Scripture with the lies of humanism (aka psychology):

"The Failing Attempt At Integration" by John Street http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20080127062944/http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/SC03-1045CDNotes.htm

More on the problem of Psychology:

http://www.biblebb.com/files/PSYCHOLOGY.HTM "Psychology: The Trojan Horse" by Gil Rugh

Another example of the failing attempt at integration: http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/gregory_koukl.html

This book helped me get a view on the problem and the history of psychology. Its out of print but still available and is small, but well worth getting:

The book "The Danger of Self Love" by Paul Brownback is very good. http://www.amazon.com/Danger-Self-Love-Paul-Brownback/dp/0802420680/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1302632289&sr=8-1

May the Lord bless you as you trust in Him and test everything. I'm so glad you are realizing the dangers of psychology---and pray that you will see the absolute sufficiency of Scripture through the Holy Spirit enlightens us as we study His Word.