There is a word floating around a lot in in the town I live in (Colby, Kansas) these days. Chakra. You can find it painted on the windows of businesses. A month or so ago you could go to Fike Park and hear the Chakra bowls humming their supposedly healing sounds. You can go and receive Chakra healings at multiple businesses. And of course, this is not just growing trend in Colby. If you go online, sites many people trust such as WebMD and Healthline speak of these things as rather normal topics of health and wellness.
The idea behind the word is that the body is full of seven or so wheels of energies that run along one’s spine and that the Chakra are accessible as surface points on the body. A knowledgeable person is thought to be able to manipulate.
Now, some of you reading this article find this terminology quite familiar. You have sought of treatments outside of traditional medicine locally and have heard this language and largely just thought of it as new lingo for new ways of healing. Others of you find this language so foreign that you struggle to even know what the ones who use it mean.
But this language is not new. It is quite ancient actually. It is the language of Hinduism and Buddhism, false religions. This idea of internal energies which can be manipulated through Chakra points and their associated Mantras (word or sounds you say or hear) is a part of their religious practice. In fact, the names of the Chakras come from Hindu gods and goddesses traditionally. All of this false religious thought, is aimed at awakening in you an enlightened freedom from earthly things to see spiritual things clearly through what they call “the third eye.”
This talk can seem almost appealing to those of us who do understand that we do have a spiritual nature to our existence, especially when our bodies are giving us trouble. But we must be clear, Christians are not looking to be freed mentally from the illusion of earthly things to know merely spiritual ones as Eastern religions would teach. We believe God created earthly things good and perfect, which were then corrupted through sin. We believe Jesus took on human flesh to save us body and soul, flesh and spirit, and to restore all creation to its former glory. We believe in the resurrection of the body and look forward to a new heaven and earth in which we will live.
We understand that this earthly world is broken and therefore groan during our existence, but do not think the answer is to think our troubles out of existence, escaping the illusion of physical matter. We look for God to make all things, material and spiritual, perfect again. We trust that he has assured that it will be so on the Last Day due to Jesus’ work on the cross.
I want to be clear that not necessarily everyone using this language even understands the origins of it or consciencely buys into the full religious worldview that accompanies it. Some use techniques similar to those who do believe these things, believing solely that physical properties of the body than can be affected by other physical properties in various substances, stones, etc. And this may be possible in the same matter that foods, vitamins, or medicines can do the same.
But I do want you to be aware that increasingly, those using this terminology will tell you that they are doing something more than physical. To be trained in these healing arts almost always means learning the spiritual ideas that lie underneath these healing arts. Many come out of this training believing they are spiritual guides. Some in our town will lead you from such supposed healing practices into other practices such as seeking to contact the dead.
Our catechism warns us against the use of satanic arts because the Scriptures make clear that we have but One who we cry out to for healing. Now of course, that does not mean that we cannot use a wide variety of gifts that God has given to us like doctors, supplements, medicines, dietary advice and so forth and receive them as gifts from God. But what we cannot do is engage is anything that would suggest that we are looking to another force to heal us. We cannot embrace a way of thinking that is in direct contradiction to what God has revealed to us in his Word. To do so is to do what the catechism calls engaging in satanic arts.
If you hear this language, or other language that is foreign to you, ask the one speaking it a couple questions. Ask them where this language comes from. Ask them if they see themselves as spiritual healers. Talk to them about your faith and theirs. And if it is clear that they are trusting in some other force or feeling to heal you, flee. Help your brothers and sisters know where to avoid and where to receive good care that honors God.
