Is it true that meditation is dangerous in that emptying one's mind welcomes dark, evil spirits to take over or otherwise posess making the meditator weak and powerless?

Absolute rubbish.

If anything, meditation gives you greater clarity, allowing you to see the evil coming long before most, and the calmness needed to come up with a solution to your problems.

There are far too many folks out there judging things without even knowing what it is they judge. All they need to know is that their religion doesn't teach it, and, therefore, it must be bad.

For what it's worth, I'm a Christian, and have heard this same garbage preached in church. This misunderstanding about meditation is that it is religious practice. Granted, it could be, for instance the Bible teaches us to meditate on the scriptures, but all it really is is a form of relaxing the mind as a method of obtaining clarity of thought, nothing more.

NO! I have known people who have meditated 20-30 years and they are fine, healthy, and much more "normal;" than most of the rest of the people I know.

People, in especially the Asian countries, have meditated for thousands of years. It has been studied for many years by doctors to help reduce blood pressure and stress and all kinds of other things. it has never been shown to have anything but helpful and useful benefits from anything I have ever read.

Whoever told you this either was grossly uninformed or was feeding you a line of BS, or both.

In my opinion, no.

No of course not I meditate all the time.

No. For most people, meditation refers to a state in which the body is consciously relaxed and the mind is allowed to become calm and focused.
Several major religions include ritual meditation; however, meditation itself need not be a religious or spiritual activity. Most of the more popular systems of meditation are of Eastern origin, though there exists also various forms of Christian, Jewish and Muslim meditation.

Um, I've not heard of meditating on nothing - there's always "something" in the mind - be it sound, an idea, a feeling, scripture, a math problem, etc. How is there emptiness in the mind?

Codswallop

Whoever came up with that idea must be crazy

Well, that explains all of the demented pointy toothed monks and clergy who go on murdering sprees every day.
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No. It isn't true.

No. It calms the mind and body, and lets worries and "monkey thoughts" evaporate away.

It's a shame that so many Christians are fed this complete and utter nonsense. And they are fed it by people who know absolutely nothing about meditation, nor it's place as a traditional practice in Christianity for over a thousand years. If anyone thinks seriously that they are possessed, they need to see a psychiatrist. It's simply delusion.

I don't believe so as I meditated for years in marital arts.
However, people into the occult will tell you that that is absolutely true, and you should surround yourself with white light to protect yourself.

That kind of reasoning makes it sound like that one becomes a sort of vaccuum when the mind is empty, and that there are dark and evil spirits hovering nearby that instantly fill that vaccuum (one could just as easily assert that there are "loving" spirits that one would be open to. But no, it's always "evil" spirits that will overtake you). That's total BS based on fear instilled religious teachings.

If anything, when mind is empty of thought one becomes alert to how fear arises based on thought processes that have been identified with. One can "see" how previously accepted ideas have become limitations on how life is experienced. Becoming empty of ideas, including ideas of "self" and other as well as "god" opens you up to the fullness of life as it actually is, rather than how life is imagined to be. There is a simultaneous sense of emptiness yet complete fulfillment.

Yes it's true! Don't believe anybody who tells you otherwise, the evil spirits are controlling them!

Er, in a word.. no

I'd highly recommend meditation to anybody and everybody, and I'm completely evil-spirit free.

You can trust me, mwehehe >;)

Yes, it can happen. It happened to me. Fortunately, it doesn't happen to everyone but yes, you can be vunerable if you have dabbled recklessly in the occult like I did or if you have not been discerning. The best discernment is really to avoid the occult completely because when you get a demon in you it is beyond your worst imaginings. I had been meditating for a few months starting last April '07. I came out of the meditation with the most negative feeling one could ever have. My 16 year-old felt the energy and left the house until I was clear almost three weeks later. The next day I was hearing voices and could 'feel' them - demons - inside me. Yes, they do exist. Being a wayward Catholic at the time but also remembering my continued faith in Jesus, I knew I had to speak to a priest because I KNEW I was not crazy. I knew there were other entities sharing my space. My experience ended in an exorcism two days later with approximately 50 - 75 demons which screamed out of me for three and a half hours and one horribly dark one that lingered on for two extra weeks. It left with my consciously thinking with tears how much I loved God. Although previously I had a tarot card reading, an aura cleansing (because of what I was told was in my aura - may have been baloney), a psychic reading and a psychic healing class because I had some psychic ability and wanted to help people. I could see auras, feel other spirits and could see from my third eye. It is these types of experiences which give the reason for Christians to not meditate. Things can creep in over time which they did for me and the meditation enabled the rest of the demons to 'sneak in'. You can be a sitting duck and not know it. I was never really sure when the first one entered but I know the worst one entered after my meditation. I was studying a yogi's work and now know his methods are designed to bring bad spirits. In review of his teachings, he was obviously one. During the psychic healing class I did feel my so called 'healing master' step into me. I never felt him leave. Could have been a bad spirit who called many more in. Christian meditation is only meditating on the scriptures, nothing more. I have renounced all occult practices and forced myself to not see auras anymore. Although I can still feel spirits. I can still see out of my third eye but am trying to close it permanently. Christian faith is enough for me. I'm waiting for the feast in Heaven and don't want to spoil my dinner by eating junk food (the occult) in this life. So, in summary I would not advise meditation - there is a point in all meditation where you are vunerable and you just can't see what's out there.

This is debatable. It would depend on a person's personal or religious beliefs solely. I suggest doing some research on this subject and finding out for yourself =]

Are you a Christian?

Nope, which bible bashing self appointed authority of God told you that?

It is a way of calming your thoughts and deep relaxation. You remain in control.

The only difference between meditating and prayer is that your mind is silent.

Not everything of a spiritual nature is good for us. Anytime we venture into spiritual explorations we desperately need discernment. During the height of Transcendental Meditation fad in the 70's, the TM instrutors also had the highest suicide rate of any trainers in a spiritual system. TM is just recycled hinduism which, at the heart of the system, inductees are given a mantra which is a past hindu god which is to be chanted unnumbered times each day leading into peaceful bliss. The opposite is true. The person chanting the name invites spiritual parasites to oppress them. I speak out of experience and not theory. Gary Gold PhD

I don't even think its a Christian aspect. But for what its worth I am a Christian. Never heard it preached that meditation is bad. In fact I thought Jesus meditated.
When I first started meditating, I always had this feeling that i was just sitting there open for anything to come in. When you are not used to opening your mind it can be scary.

Not at all.
Medication does nothing of the sort as far as welcoming dark, evil spirits is concerned.

Abusing medications could hold the possibility of doing this, but then it's not acting as medication, it's acting as a drug.

what muppet told you that?????

Lol.Do you actually believe things like that?

Haha, did your pastor tell you that one?

You would first have to assume that dark and evil spirits exist. Since these cannot be proven to exist and there is no evidence for them existing the answer is no.

Whoever told you this was either deeply misinformed or lying. It sounds like a scare tactic to me i.e. "don't try those other religions you will get something bad".

Technically I cannot prove this to be false but equally the same thing could be argued about prayer and would be just as impossible to disprove.

Rubbish!
Dark, evil spirits have never made me weak and powerless.
Quite the contrary.

Sounds like propaganda from someone who would like your mind to be clouded and obedient in contradiction to the clarity of mind and purpose than can be the result of disciplined meditation.

No ... it is NOT true.

While there are a few minor medical dangers that require proper caution & understanding so the meditating person does not harm them self, meditation will not increase any danger from evil spirits ... meditation will not make the mind weaker, it will help to strengthen it ... meditation will not lower power, it will raise it and the slight gradual increase in "Chi" & other energies can NOT be "fed on" by evil spirits ... a person who meditates properly will be better able to concentrate, understand, and realize which outer influences are beneficial & which are not, so they will be better able to resist any & all undesirable influences from any & all sources, their meditations will allow their wisdom to make their choices with a fuller clarity of thought, rather than succumb to bad suggestions from others.

http://www.healing-tao.com/tao-garden/universal/en/books/

http://www.tao-garden.com/

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Yes definitely, but you will have plenty warning. First you will notice hair growing on your palms. Next, horns appear - on your little sister. Then just before your complete demise, your pastor will admit to illicit sexual relations and blame it on you.

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Good question for lots of points, I guess. I couldn't resist, but then, I meditate....

;-)

no it is better on the mind than worrying

Oh for God's sake! Which of the mindless fundie preacher-persons have you been listening to? You sound like my ex-wife, for crying out loud! : ((

its a tricky subject. Meditation, like most of the practices recently adopted by the west (Yoga, tai chi etc) has an impossibly squeaky clean reputation. whenever this kind of shadowless body presents itself in life the cynic in me wakes up. I understand that certain meditation practices actually cultivate an artifical state of calm by atrophying parts of the brain which normally worry us. Im certain this can only be an issue for those people who are relentlessly ambitious and take that level of drive into every area of their lives - in short their over-meditate and stupify their brains. This is not a genuine state of self-awareness or spritual understanding but of a brain incapable reacting at all. So obviously that is a down-side. Thing is, what most people call meditation is actually just chilling out. They might do it whilst listening to a CD of tibetan monks droning on, burning incense and kneeled before a toy Buddha but that doesnt make it meditation. All they're really doing is thinking introspectively which occurs quite spontaenously when we give ourself time alone. Meditation is something quite different and i personally feel should not be undertaken with a desire to become something we're not (enlightened,spiritual or better in some way). In short - if you're not meditating naturally then dont.
Everything is relative to the individual and their level of activity and noise within the world. the high-flying exectuive doesnt need to go on a 10 day vipisana retreat he needs to go down the pub with his mates to achieve the level of recovery which is most valuable to him.
Meditation, true meditation, occurs naturally and spontaneously when the enrionment lends itself to such activity. This will never occur in a busy, city life nor for that matter in a relatively quiet rural life - it occurs in the wilderness and nowhere else. so unless you're a hermit (in which case you've no need of a meditative regime) i would advise against learning the skills of meditative practice - id go down the pub.

I meditate and am a spiritist, you have nothing to fear from spirits they usualy just want to be heard, most are there to help you, some just need to pass on. who ever told you that is cooking stuff up off the top of their head and missing out on a mind opening experience.

Meditation and evil spirits? on the same sentence?.. my friend, good is attracted by good and bad is attracted by bad.

No.

Meditation is simply not thinking, just being.
One uses a repetitive thought, or mantra, to
still the intellect. This opens other areas of
the mind and relaxes you.

Dark evil spirits? Never heard of them!!
In 35 years of meditation I never saw one!

Yes but you will be able to tell if evil spirits have taken over the mediator almost the second it happens. Just keep your eyes open for the head of the mediator spining around in a circle and if you do notice it happening, call the Pope.

what a load of nonsense, i can't imagine where you heard that?

Meditation saved my life, got me out of major depression and a dependence on antidepressants, enabled me to beat a 25 year addiction to alcohol and has improved my life in ways I wouldn't have believed possible.

Meditation is the key to liberation and self discovery and I recommend that you try it. No scary demon will jump into your head :)

http://www.moonfish-design.co.uk

theirs alot of things out their that some people have no knowledge to or can begin to understand . meditation is more than just to clear the mind it can i believe in supernatural explain people with two diff colored eyes like myself. explain why people can hear the words of god and write it into a book. even in the bible it talks about demons and meditation. the ressurection of jesus christ . wasnt tat a supernatural. like i say it doesnt matter for meditation or not anything can enter into your body . many would call me crazy and i understand why they would think i am because it seems to be a disturbed thought but really i believe in meditation but the idea of something entering your body during meditation i wouldnt disbelieve in yet. theirs no true answer that can be given for a question like this .

yep... me and the devil are on a first name basis and thats how i know what not to do! just kidding i have no idea

I don't determine what god anyone follows who they pray to, I also don't determine anothers heart and how they pray. I also don't determine what is demonic and what isn't. I also don't say what is sin and what isn't. I also don't specify the way one should behave or believe.
God does all this in His Holy Word, The Bible.
Don't shoot me. I never wrote it, I just happen to believe it.

Only biblical meditation can be classed as a form of prayer to God, other than this who are you praying to? Demons and evil spirits do exist but they don't want anyone to think they exist. I can't believe that people struggle so much with the concept of the existence of satan and evil spirits, despite overwhelming evidence.

The only dark evil spirits are those in one's own mind, and they can be overcome.

That would only be true if you believed it's true.
Meditation is a form of prayer--relaxation.

You are never weak and powerless unless you believe you are.

I think it makes those thoughts less powerful. Instead of viewing them as the product of a deep terrible drive or desire, we who meditate dis them and call them "just thinking."

You know they hate that.

And Zen masters dismiss them and don't even follow to the second related evil thought. That's even worse. It's like the evil is yelling and nobody is listening.(:

No. That sounds a little archaic to me. I don't think dark evil spirits exist.

Meditation is not the emptying of one's mind.

Quite the contrary... http://www.yourdictionary.com/meditate

just the opposite. meditation flushes your mind of crud and clears it and strengthens it to make it strong and resilient.

No, evil spirits always enter through the feet, NOT the head. Doesn't everyone know this?

Oh, bruther! Don't worry, if that happens, I can refill it with beans and you'll be as good as new

I embrace meditation, but "biblical meditation", the type that Jesus done and the type taught in the scriptures. When Jesus meditated, although he was God, he willingly became a man dependant totally on the guidance of the Father. So the source of Jesus meditation would have been to focus on the Father as a man.

Straight is the gate and narrow is the way and few there be that find it. You must think Jesus was narrow minded then since he said no man can come to the Father but by Me. He also said, I am the way, the truth and the life, and this was to the exclusion of all other ways to God. So I'm a bigot for simply expressing a particular teaching that I adhere to. If you find Gods teaching unacceptable, why are you taking it out on me? Take it up with God, He wrote the Bible, through the Apostles. It is also written that the natural man cannot understand the things of God.

No Way
when the mind stuff leaves the light is
shining brighter,
and in that light is unconditional love and the strength of the universe.