Metanoia is a favorite word of the Theosophists. New Age leader Barbara Marx Hubbard used the term, too -- in the same manner that Willis Harman and Leonard Sweet used it (see previous post), only with a twist. Her use of the word has to do with creating an alternative future for mankind. The Theosophists don't like the biblical scenario in the book of Revelation that speaks of endtime disasters and God's judgment. Instead, Hubbard wrote her own book The Revelation in which she proposed an Armageddon alternative called the "Planetary Pentecost." She said:
"In the twinkling of an eye, we are all changed by this experience. It is a mass metanoia, a shared spiritual experience for the human race, a peaceful second coming of the divine in us as us." ( p. 324)
"Armageddon is, dearly beloved, the dreadful script which you and I rewrite now." (p. 204)
"Here we are, now poised either on the brink of destruction greater than the world has ever seen -- a destruction which will cripple planet Earth forever and release only the few to go on -- or on the threshold of global co-creation wherein each person on Earth will be attracted to participate in his or her own evolution to godliness." (p. 174)
Why are these quotes from Barbara Marx Hubbard relevant to Willis Harman and his speech about the future to a group of evangelical leaders back in 1979? Because many of the leading New Age Theosophists have continued to find common ground with neoevangelicals over the past 25 years. And, particularly since 9/11, there has been a dramatic escalation in cooperation between New Age Theosophists and leading evangelicals. (For more information, visit www.reinventingjesuschrist.com.)
The Truth:
"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:5-8)
Hubbard & Harmon: the new Psychic "Science"
Dr. Dennis Cuddy wrote of the relationship between Barbara Marx Hubbard and Willis Harman in his book Now Is the Dawning of the New Age New World Order (Hearthstone, 1991). On pages 279-280 he explains Barbara Marx Hubbard's work with First Earth Battalion, a spiritual warfare project connected with military experiments with the use of psychic powers.
"The creed of the FEB 'guerilla gurus' or 'warriors of the spirit' includes: 'I take personal responsibility for generating evolutionary conspiracies as a part of my work. I will select and create conspiratorial mechanisms . . . that will create and perform evolutionary breakthrough actions on behalf of people and planet. One people, one planet.'
"How this might transpire is described by Willis Harman in a World Goodwill (Lucis [Lucifer] Trust) Occasional Paper, "For a New Society, a New Economics," published in the April, May and June 1987 issues of Development Forum, by the United Nations Division for Economic and Social Information and the United Nations University. In this paper, Harman borrows from Abraham Maslow's 'self-actualization' theories and his Eupsychean Network to say 'a respiritualization of society is taking place, but one more experiential and non-institutionalized, less fundamentalist and sacerdotal, than most of the historically familiar forms of religion. With this change comes a long-term shift in value emphasis. . . . There may indeed be a conflict between dogmatic esoteric religion and positivistic science. However, there is not an inevitable conflict between the esoteric "perennial wisdom" of the world's spiritual traditions and a science based on certain metaphysical assumptions.'"
Tomorrow: Harman's psychic science and the evangelical response