Enlightenment …

… is the ultimate goal of many religions and cults. Different groups use different terms such as heightened awareness, nirvana, satori, transcendental bliss, G-d-realization, expanded consciousness, Christ consciousness, altered perception of reality, or cosmic consciousness.

How is enlightenment achieved,
and how does it differ from Biblical Christianity?

The first step toward enlightenment is the negation of one’s rational faculties. Man’s mind is an obstacle on the pathway to a higher consciousness. Truth is not perceived to be an absolute of objective revelation. Its reality must be experienced pragmatically by psychic or suprarational input. Logic plays no part in finally determining that enlightenment has been achieved.

When asked to explain the authority of their leader or their religious writings, the standard answer of many cultists is, “I just know.” For example, Latter Day Saints (Mormons) “testify” to the veracity of the Book of Mormon because they experience a “burning in the bosom” as they read it.

This is basically a perversion of the concept of authority. As Christians, we have but one source of authority — the inspired Word of G-d as recorded in the Bible. The one who seeks enlightenment places his or her objective experience in a position of absolute authority, even above one’s own rational judgment.

After the rational processes have been negated, the mystic next pursues enlightenment by seeking to release his or her spirit from the limitations of the body. One intention of enlightenment is “to be one with the universe.” Since the substantial or material body clouds the spiritual perception by its attachment to the world of senses, the spirit must somehow be released from its attachment to the physical. This release may be obtained by yoga exercises, by meditation, or by astral projection. It also may be chemically induced through the use of hallucinogens such as LSD, mushrooms, and peyote.

Once the shell of flesh is left behind, time and space have no boundaries, giving spiritual entities (guides, actually demons) the opportunity to “guide” the “true self” as it searches for the essence of life outside the body.

The enlightenment resulting from shedding the bondage of the physical body is generally a perception of self-deification. This exaltation of the ego leads many to conclude that they have obtained a “Christ-consciousness,” or even that they are G-d. In the monist view such a conclusion is perfectly logical because the Creator and the created are all one of the same essence.

When enlightenment has been experienced in this manner, man is elevated to G-dhood and G-d is reduced to an impersonal principle. One’s own enlightened self becomes the arbiter of all actions and the gauge of all truth, and therefore, the only one to whom one may be held accountable either now or in eternity.

All procedures leading to enlightenment and all cultic systems achieving their own illumination must operate on these three propositions:

1. The mind and the body inhibit the attainment of truth by their confining sensory capacity.

2. A universal unity of spirit pervades the universe, which essence includes the nature of G-d and the souls of men.

3. Time, space, and matter are all illusory and therefore ignorant of good, with sin being a figment of the mind and not a state of conduct.

Instead of offering enlightenment, Jesus offers Himself as the light. The apostle John tells us that Jesus is “the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9).

Why, then, do men insist on turning their backs on the true light in favor of an artificially- or demonically-induced altered level of consciousness they call enlightenment?

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible G-d for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore G-d gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of G-d for a lie (literally, the lie), and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:22-25, NAS)

And for this reason G-d will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false (literally, the lie), in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12, NAS)

Notice that in both of these verses the Holy Spirit, speaking to us through the pen of the Apostle Paul, refers to something called “the lie” that men chose to believe rather than the truth of G-d. What is falsehood that is so terrible, so hideous, that the Holy Spirit calls it not just “a lie” but “the lie”?

The answer to this question may be found by examining the very process by which Lucifer, the Light-Bringer, became Satan, the Devil.

“How you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations! But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of G-d, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ ” (Isaiah 14:12-14, NAS)

Lucifer sought enlightenment. He chose to elevate himself to godhood. But G-d takes a dim view of those who would want to be gods:

“I am the LORD, and there is no other; besides me there is no G-d. I will gird you, though you have not known me; that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:5-6, NAS)

“Declare and set forth your case; indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other G-d besides me, a righteous G-d and a Savior; there is none except me. Turn to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am G-d, and there is no other. I have sworn by myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.” (Isaiah 45:21-23, NAS)

“Remember the former things long past, for I am G-d, and there is no other; I am G-d, and there is no one like me.” (Isaiah 46:9, NAS)

“Thus you will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your G-d and there is no other; and My people will never be put to shame.” (Joel 2:27, NAS)

That horrible falsehood, then, that the Holy Spirit calls “the lie” is that thing which Satan whispered in Eve’s ear in the garden of Eden and which became the cause of the fall of man just as it had been the cause of the fall of Lucifer:

And the serpent said to the woman, “You surely shall not die! For G-d knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like G-d …” (Genesis 3:4-5, NAS)

Jesus said: “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come into the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in G-d^“ (John 3:19-21).

So the real reason, then, behind the mystic’s search for spiritual enlightenment is not so that he may find the true radiance of the purity and holiness of G-d, but that he may hide from the penetrating searchlight of the Holy Spirit. And the enlightenment upon which he stumbles is the false glow of the one whom the Bible describes as a deceiving “angel of light” — the devil (2 Cor. 11:14).