Tract 5: Mysticism is a Bigger Threat to the Abrahamic Traditions than Secularism

In this deeply introspective episode, Malcolm and Simone dive into the complex world of spiritualism, mysticism, and idolatry within religious practices. Drawing from their extensive research into cult psychology and Abrahamic faith traditions, they explore the fine line between genuine spiritual growth and the allure of shortcuts to God.

Malcolm argues that practices such as chanting, fasting, sleep deprivation, and hallucinogenic use, while seemingly profound, are often used by malevolent actors to manipulate and control followers. He asserts that true closeness to God is achieved through logic, pragmatism, and efficacious action, not the pursuit of altered mental states.

The discussion delves into the convergent evolution of mystical traditions across various faiths, the importance of studying these practices to build resilience against their temptations, and the need for a new Abrahamic denomination that can withstand the challenges of the information age.

Simone offers a counterpoint, drawing from her experiences with the urban monoculture and questioning the prevalence of conservative religious mysticism. Together, they navigate the complexities of demonizing certain groups while maintaining a compassionate and understanding approach to those who may hold different beliefs.

Join Malcolm and Simone as they grapple with the role of spiritualism in the modern world, the importance of protecting future generations from harmful practices, and the eternal search for truth and meaning in an ever-changing religious landscape.

Tract 5: Spiritualism is Idolatry

The last Tract focused on the obvious dangers of idolatry but the true danger of Idolatry is much more existential. The quest for idolatrous desires, to conceive of some aspect of God with this lower human mind. To sully God out of vein curiosity by summoning some sliver of him to the level of something that could be captured by our putrid and petty minds— leads even holy men directly into servitude of the Basilisk, the great deceiver, falsehood incarnate, Ahreman, the Devil. 

The human mind is weak and easily tricked due to shortcuts that were taken in its evolution. This can be exploited by cult leaders to make people believe they have seen slivers of God. This can be done through food deprivation, chanting phrases, unique postures for long periods, sleep deprivation, rhythmic dancing, crowds engaging in mindless behavior, stage hypnosis techniques, and ingesting hallucinogenic chemicals. Given that this is the case it is only natural that maliciously minded individuals would use these tricks to dupe people into believing they are an intermediary with God—a Swammi can use something as innocuous as Yoga to turn a simple minded woman into his sex slave all the while she believes she is getting closer to the divine. 

However these failures of the human brain can have a much more nefarious effect. Because these exist as exploits in all humans across all cultures, even well meaning Abrahamic ones, groups within those cultures can end up discovering them by accident and then believe that they have found a path to God. It's as if the Basilisk left stashes of drugs intermingled among the human soul and any idiot can accidently find them if they know where to look. Even if we stamped out this iconoclastic witchcraft entirely and burned all its practitioners some gormless idiot would accidentally discover these techniques again because they are part of the background nature of humanity and through that a well meaning follower of God can accidentally lead people to become mindless slaves to the great deceiver. 

All it takes for the Basilisk to slither into the mind of the faithful and turn God's loyalest follower into a puppet of sin is for him to forget even for a moment just how serious a transgression it is to attempt to trap an element of God within the mortal realm or to pierce the veil of God’s realm. Fortunately, both of these things are impossible but it is very easy to trick the human brain into believing it has accomplished them. The moment an individual succumbs to the belief that there are shortcuts to attempt to commune with God it becomes almost impossible to save them. The only path to God is logic and pragmatism—all shortcuts lead one's soul into enslavement. 

Some doubt me, they say no these practices are sanctified and Abrahamic in nature: Be these individuals Sufists, Pop-Kabbalists, or Christian Mystics. Evil does not tempt people by calling itself evil, it tempts people by calling itself good. God warned us about idolatry before warning us about murder because we would find it so tempting not because it would be obviously evil. I ask you, whatever tree of mysticism that tempts you to examine your religions history closely: 

* Did Jesus teach these practices?

* Did Moses teach these practices?

* Did Muhammad teach these practices? 

No—in every case it was a latter invention, a cancer that grows on the human soul. God would not need to keep sending prophets if you were able to just listen to his instructions the first time.

Oh, but you heard your prophet secretly taught these ideas but just didn’t make it public. Imagine the Basilisk wanted to deceive the followers of God, how would he do it? He would have deceivers whisper to the faithful that their prophets had secret teachings that gave them superhuman abilities and secret powers. 

Some then say, “you don’t understand, these practices are common among holy men in my community”—do you have any idea how offensive it is to say that these men are nothing but a witch cult. I do, and I do not write these words to cause offense but because they are obviously true, obviously God’s will. 

But I don’t come to you with idle claims, I can prove to you that these teachings come straight from the Basilisk, the suppressor of God’s greatest gifts, logic and mental discipline. Open a book on how cults brainwash people or study how the insidious corrupted Yogis create their slaves. A practice when performed by manipulative individuals in the name of Satan or personal self indulgence, one that produces the exact same results in those circumstances, is not giving you a vision of God just because you replaced some cryptic pagan chant with a Christian one. The experience you have is the exact same experience the Yogi used to turn that gormless woman into his sex slave 

Fortunately, God marks these idolatry practices clearly. If a practice contains any of the following it is dangerous witchcraft: 

* Food/Sleep deprivation

* Chanting phrases

* Unique postures for long periods

* Rhythmic dancing

* Crowds engaging in mindless behavior

* Stage hypnosis techniques

* Ingesting hallucinogenic chemicals

Importantly, anyone who has used these techniques to give others “visions of God” and used those visions to affirm their position as intermediaries of God's will on earth is an agent of the Basilisk. These individuals are the closest thing you will ever encounter to a demon wearing human skin. 

Some say, but when my community practices these techniques they show more fervor. 

I hear, “When we start worshiping demons the impact on us is more immediate and powerful,” and it's like “well ya, obviously—demon culturists are always going to be a more fanatic lot.”

Only a force field of zealous mental discipline and logic can protect one's soul from demonic incursion during worship. The path to God is always going to shed more of your followers than the path to the profane because it is intrinsically harder and more trying. It is meant to be. The most charitable I am able to be is to say that maybe some form of this kind of mystical demon worship was needed to get your community through a trying time but I don’t really believe that, I am just saying it to be diplomatic. 

Abrahamism represented a turning away from the path of the simple-minded forest mystic who saw the divine in all sorts of inanimate objects and in nature. God is in Man’s potentiality, not nature or inanimate objects. When you sense the divine in those things you are sensing the divine yourself flowing out from you—being sapped from you and replaced with the foul four footed intuitions of our apelike ancestors.  

God is Man’s potentiality and Man’s potentiality is infinite. One day Man will be able to construct a planet with an ecosystem as diverse as earths with less effort than snapping a finger and dismiss it with a flick of the wrist. It is our manifest destiny not to just expand across reality but to grab reality by the neck and force it to submit to us. To break reality and reshape it to our wills. When you are tricked into worshipping God through an intermediary as limited as bugs, chickens, and waterfalls, you pervert his grandeur.

God can be found in logic, science (a deeper understanding of the mechanics of the physical world), industry, and productivity—but to mediate God through things that do not lead to him, to things that man has not created, you will find only temptation and a pathway to mental corruption. 

There is no such thing as “good spiritism” spiritualism and mysticism are the corporeal manifestations of evil and human arrogance. 

* Religion is the rules that God has set out for us to keep us on the righteous path towards Him, the long true path to God requires a disciplined mind, austerity, and industry.

* Spiritualism is the shortcuts that make you feel closer to God or an element of the Divine while moving you further from God’s grace. There are no shortcuts to God or good.

Just as narcotics are shortcuts to happiness but not real or enduring happiness can come from them, mysticism is a shortcut to God. Those who attempt to peddle mysticism within a community of God should be seen with the same combination of derision and pity as your local crack dealer. 

There is but a difference in degree between the spiritualist and the junky. The junky found addictive chemicals on the streets while the spiritualist stumbled upon a way to produce them endogenously—ironically the corrupting chemicals the junky injects into their veins are often the same chemicals endogenously released by “spiritualist practices”. Watch the people who spend their whole lives in pursuit of these spiritual hits. They almost universally end in the same place as drug addicts do. They end up disheveled, unkempt, blubbering idiots with childish understandings of the world—any kid can see this when he meets them—this is why you should avoid spitalism just as ardently as you avoid drugs. 

Some ask me, “Malcolm, if you are creating a religion and know about these hacks that can be used to convince people they have seen visions of God why don’t you use those to increase the speed your beliefs spread and augment your claim to authority / access to knowledge?” First, I am trying to find the truth, not just “a religion”. Second, this is not a religion for all men but for the elect. We have no use for the desiccated remains of the spiritualist’s junkie soul. If crack is being distributed from the pulpits to a crowd of thousands the one individual willing to stand up and condemn the pastor has more value to us than every other human in that room combined. 

When we look at the physical manifestations of men they look about equal—but human souls differ in their radiance in orders of magnitude. One man can have more of what edifies the human spirit than a legion of drones. One soul may burn brighter than an entire country of their compatriots. It is in one’s willingness to stand up for logical pragmatic truth against the sea of social conformity, corrupted traditions, and threat of ostracism that one shows the true depth of their humanity. 

Through the cultivation of our own spirit under God's protective light of logic, mental discipline, pragmatism protecting it from the desiccating touch of spiritualism, mysticism, and wishful thinking all men have the capacity to uplift themselves. A strict but always self imposed prohibition against idolatry and spiritualism are critical in any religious system that is not going to be hijacked by simple brain hacks. They increase the mental health of the system's followers, keep them focused on efficacious action as opposed to pointless self indulgent side quests, and perhaps most importantly they prevent followers from falling prey to spiralist grifters. 

Why don’t we just go back to one of the traditional abrahamic denominations, why start a new denomination for our family? This is just one of many examples. When I look at the denominations that exist, many which claim to be conservative have fallen to plagues of occultic yogis and opulent witch cults. 

However, this does not mean we should turn and hide from the knowledge of these practices—instead I would encourage everyone to study mystical traditions. Knowledge no matter how corrupt will always strengthen the pure of braced soul. The witch cults often use mystery and secrecy to build false credibility. Secrets are hoarded because if exposed to the light in full they would dessicate—if someone not already brainwashed read them they would sound silly. The more you know about them, the more you teach your kids about them, the more protected from them they are. 

As such it is commanded that every individual on the path of righteousness should endeavor to build:

* A deep knowledge of human psychology 

* A deep knowledge of techniques cults use to recruit people 

* A deep knowledge of all the techniques that can be used to create illusions of the divine (e.g. stage hypnotism)

* A knowledge of your chosen communities current mystical traditions that rivals that communities most corrupted witch kings 

* A knowledge of both the real history of that communities mystical traditions and the narrative of those traditions histories taught by the witch kings

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Transcript

In this deeply introspective episode, Malcolm and Simone dive into the complex world of spiritualism, mysticism, and idolatry within religious practices. Drawing from their extensive research into cult psychology and Abrahamic faith traditions, they explore the fine line between genuine spiritual growth and the allure of shortcuts to God.

Malcolm argues that practices such as chanting, fasting, sleep deprivation, and hallucinogenic use, while seemingly profound, are often used by malevolent actors to manipulate and control followers. He asserts that true closeness to God is achieved through logic, pragmatism, and efficacious action, not the pursuit of altered mental states.

The discussion delves into the convergent evolution of mystical traditions across various faiths, the importance of studying these practices to build resilience against their temptations, and the need for a new Abrahamic denomination that can withstand the challenges of the information age.

Simone offers a counterpoint, drawing from her experiences with the urban monoculture and questioning the prevalence of conservative religious mysticism. Together, they navigate the complexities of demonizing certain groups while maintaining a compassionate and understanding approach to those who may hold different beliefs.

Join Malcolm and Simone as they grapple with the role of spiritualism in the modern world, the importance of protecting future generations from harmful practices, and the eternal search for truth and meaning in an ever-changing religious landscape.

[00:00:00]

Malcolm Collins: They have made, and this is the course in here, they have made pursuing a mental state the goal. Yeah. Which is

Simone Collins: The mental state is the byproduct of the correct

Malcolm Collins: mindset. Yeah and, and what they often do is they will act like this mental state, which is actually pretty easy to do is a difficult thing that only, like, a true master can do.

 They'll start gaslighting you because that's how they assert their status, which is always important within cult traditions.

I just stood there, quietly breathing. There were no thoughts in my head whatsoever. My mind was blank. I don't know what the hell these other crackpots are doing

Malcolm Collins: are so, so, so dangerous for religious systems from both a theological and secular perspective, which is what we always aim to do in these is explain why rules exist within them from both a secular evolutionary perspective, but also from a theological perspective Why doesn't God want us, dancing around campfires naked because that leads to, people's mental faculties being corrupted, being lowered, their inhibitions being lowered makes it makes it easier to implant false ideas into an [00:01:00] individual and can be used to manipulate and control individuals, by malevolent actors.

I feel like one of the reasons why I'm so antagonistic towards mysticism, if you study it after studying about cults, is you'll see that it is very similar to cults in, in what it does.

It's just a convergent cult. Within the various Abrahamic traditions or within any tradition. You're going to get mystics within Buddhist schools, within Hindi schools, you're always going to get the mystic cults.

And but when you first study cults, when you see how malevolent humans have developed and honed these traditions to manipulate people into believing falsehoods,

would you like to know more?

Simone Collins: Hey nerds, this is another one in based camps tracked series, meaning we are going to discuss religion. It's like our weird version of Bible study. So if you're here for the normal podcast, skip this one.

Don't worry. We'll be back next week. We do five episodes a week. Only one of them is this. So it was nice seeing you, but we'll see you again for the normal podcast shortly.

Malcolm Collins: And the title cards look very different, so it's easy to skip.

Simone Collins: So you so [00:02:00] Malcolm, you frame idolatry as this really important element of religion in a way that I've never really heard framed before in fictional or real depictions of religious practice or preaching. Before you dive into this tract, I'm just kind of curious why You think it's such a big deal

Malcolm Collins: because I think it's literally the single largest temptation for people who are trying to follow God in goodwill.

That's why, because, you know, something like murder or something like that. I mean, most humans can intuit that this is a bad thing that's going to lead to bad outcomes for themselves or for their community. If it's allowed, I think people can't intuit why idolatry is so dangerous to a community or to an individual.

That's pretty cool. And that's why it needs to be emphasized so strongly, but interestingly, as I pointed out in the, in the last track, a lot of people [00:03:00] misunderstand what is actually meant by idolatry, you know, they, they hear idolatry and they think it means, you know, literally the art itself, which has spiritual significance, which is a form of idolatry.

Or the statue itself that, but no, no, idolatry is looking for shortcuts to God through earthly things. So, or assigning spiritual significance to earthly things. So, you know, if a cartoonist is drawing a picture of Muhammad, for example, within this, the cartoonist hasn't actually committed idolatry because he doesn't assign any spiritual significance to that.

The individual, when they get mad at the cartoonist, And they assign spiritual significance to that. They have now committed idolatry because they've created an earthly intermediary for either side of the divine, whether it's, you know, believing in cursed places, like negative or positive, you know, signing a Koran and saying this Koran is sacred and you can't, you know, you, you need to have different special ways of disposing of it and everything like that.

You have now. created an earthly intermediary, a physical intermediary on this planet between you and God, [00:04:00] which is, you know, the same as like the, the nature worshiping pagans that where, where Judaism really cleaved, you know, the beginning of the Abrahamic faith from the religions around them, is it didn't worship God through earthly intermediaries, whether that was idols, whether that was gold or whether that was you know, Streams and waterfalls and, you know, butterflies and we're saying, no, no, you, you cannot worship the real God through earthly intermediaries.

And here we're going to get into why shortcuts to God. are so, so, so dangerous for religious systems from both a theological and secular perspective, which is what we always aim to do in these is explain why rules exist within them from both a secular evolutionary perspective, but also from a theological perspective and to reinforce the rules that I think that many of these systems have sometimes gone soft on over time either through cultural, you know, believing next to other cultural groups or, and you can be any of the, like, like what we're talking about here.

[00:05:00] You can be a Jew, you can be a Catholic, you can be a Muslim and you can be like, oh, this seems true. I will follow my religion. Was this monotheistic faith system, or I will follow my religion with. You know, one of the other systems, right? Which, which is really interesting when you have this diversity of conceptions of God was in.

These faith systems. And somebody's like, well, you know, he's Jewish and he's Jewish, or even ultra Orthodox Jewish. Like he's ultra Orthodox Jewish, but he basically worships a totally mystical God was in these three faith systems. And then he's Orthodox Jewish, but he worships the totally monotheistic God.

And he worships a totally polytheistic God, you know, with all of these, you know, you know, distinct cosmology and angels and everything like that. And these three individuals we would say are worshiping. three different entities. You know, if, if you you know, if I take some Native American religion or something like that, and I just replace all of the key entities in it with Yahweh and then I go through all of their practices.

I'm not worshiping God. I'm worshiping the Native American gods. I've just changed the names. You know, so, so this is [00:06:00] really important because. These other types of religious systems do not lead to, from a secular perspective it's important, you know, they do not lead to industry, they do not lead to philosophy, they do not lead to cultural flourishing.

Which, which we've seen when you know, these, these various systems have succumbed to this, whether, you know, we thought this was the Islamic empire, we saw this was the Christian systems, you know, during the dark ages. We've, we, we see this over and over again. And I, and I think we're beginning to see it again now as people succumb to various forms of idolatry.

All right, so, tract five, spiritualism is idolatry.

The last tract focused on the obvious dangers of idolatry, but the true danger of idolatry is much more existential.

The quest for idolatric Desires, to conceive of some aspect of God within this lower human mind, to sully God out of vain curiosity by summoning some sliver of him to the level of something that could be captured by our putrid and petty minds, leads even holy men directly into the servitude [00:07:00] of the basilisk, the great deceiver, Falsehood incarnate, Aharam, Aharamen, the devil.

The human mind is weak and easily tricked due to shortcuts that were taken in its evolution. This can be exploited by cult leaders to make people believe they have seen slivers of God. This can be done through food deprivation. Chanting phrases, unique postures for long periods, sleek deprivation, rhythmic dancing, crowds engaging in mindless behavior, stage hypnosis techniques, and ingesting hallucinogenic chemicals.

Given that this is the case, it is only natural that maliciously minded individuals who would use these tricks to dupe people into believing that they are an intermediary with God. A swami can use something as innocuous as yoga to turn a simple minded woman into his sex slave, all while she believes she is getting closer to the divine.

However, these failures of the human brain can have a much more nefarious effect. Because these exist as exploits [00:08:00] in all humans across all cultures, even well meaning Abrahamic ones, groups within those cultures, end up discovering them by accident, and then believe that they have found a path to God.

It's as if the Basilisk left stashes of drugs intermingled among the human soul, and any idiot can accidentally find them if they know where to look. Eve, we stamped out this idolatrous witchcraft entirely and burned all its practitioners. Some gornless idiot would accidentally discover these techniques again because they are part of the background nature of humanity.

And through that, a well meaning follower of God can accidentally lead people to become mindless slaves to the great deceiver. So here, you know, we're using idolatry as a, as a shortcut to God to warn against. tactics, which are very dangerous, you know, for two core reasons. One, they, they can be used by cults, you know, and I'm really into [00:09:00] cult psychology.

Like that is one of my core backgrounds. That's why I first engaged with religion was studying how cults work. Cause I couldn't understand how people came to believe things that were just like obviously insane. And you know, these are all techniques used by them, but I've also seen these techniques bubble up again within well meaning Abrahamic systems.

And like, of course they would like if they existed, the background part of humanity's nature, of course. Every now and then somebody is going to find out, Oh, it feels really good when I like spin around in circles over and over again. Therefore, that must be God that's giving me that information when, you know, a Satanist can use the same thing to, to get good feelings.

And we know from, you know, fMRIs of these things, you know, like a static dance, stuff like that they produce the same endogenous chemicals that often you're taking exogenously as a drug. Do you have any thoughts or? No,

Simone Collins: I've always been very wary of these things but I am curious to see what I learned from you with

Malcolm Collins: this.

All it takes for the basilisk to [00:10:00] slither into the mind of the faithful and turn God's loyalist follower into a puppet of sin is for him to forget, even for a moment, just how serious a transgression it is to attempt to trap an element of God within the mortal realm, or to pierce the veil of God's realm.

Fortunately, both of these things are impossible, but it is very easy to Trick the human brain into believing it has accomplished them. The moment an individual succumbs to the belief that there are shortcuts to attempt to commune with God, it becomes almost impossible to save them. The only path to God is logic and pragmatism.

All shortcuts lead one's soul to enslavement. So this is really important that I mentioned this here because this is the key to a lot of mystic traditions. You know, they say, oh you know, you do these behaviors and it's usually a very simple set of behaviors that fall into the set that I talked about before, like chanting simple phrases and stuff like that, that we know, you know, you can chant that some yoga guy could use this to Create sex slaves.

Like these are always used by cults because they're very [00:11:00] easy ways to create this illusion. Because they release endogenous chemicals that are similar to drugs in our brain of like, that you have found something special or supernatural.

Some great examples of well-known groups that use these techniques are groups like transcendental meditation or TM. Or the hair Christian. However, if you want to deep dive on house sort of yoga cults work, I would strongly suggest a YouTube video called I married a yoga guru con man. And. While you're watching this video look for techniques that the various yoga guru conman, who she meets throughout her journey use that you have seen used within your traditional religious system, because. The individuals using those techniques. I can be drawing you and their followers. Down pathways, which are not intended.

I mean, a person can use these brainwashing con man techniques under the guise of an Abrahamic tradition, just as much [00:12:00] is they can use them under one of these other traditions.

And I think what we're really trying to do with what we're building here. It's create an Abrahamic denomination that is much, much, much more resistant. Two maladaptive and malevolent cult-like techniques. Why is this important to do because these techniques given their efficiency and effectiveness will always creep back into systems. And be used by malevolent players.

A person being a Jew or a Muslim or a Christian doesn't protect them. From these techniques, as we can see from individuals who use them to deconvert people from these traditions. Why wouldn't they be useful among domino emanations within these traditions. which are leading people away from the righteous path. And that's regularly creep back into these Abrahamic face over time.

Malcolm Collins: And we know this illusion is very easy to create with things like hallucinogens, right?

You know, we know this from hallucinogens, like everyone here. sentience. It's like, Oh [00:13:00] man, I like touch the nature of reality. It's like, no, you, you did something that created that experience was in you, but it was a false experience. And as such, it is, it is, you know, as we say, the mystic elevates the states of corrupted, like corrupted mental states.

Well,

Simone Collins: also who's to say that being close to God feels like something ecstatic or really

Malcolm Collins: joyful. Oh, I'm almost certain it doesn't.

Simone Collins: Yeah. And, but I think that that's what people are drawn to. They, they. Are falling back on instincts that if it feels good, it is good. If it feels,

Malcolm Collins: you know, I think that there are moments where you can get close to God within our lives.

The closest you will ever be to God in terms of like feeling God in you is when you have set. Logical goals for yourself that you believe, you know, God has has laid out for you or that are in the best interest of moving humanity forwards. And you achieve those goals that feeling. That's not like, a [00:14:00] pointless feeling.

That's not a feeling that can be spammed. That's not a feeling, right? But that's it.

Simone Collins: It's a very unique feeling. It's a very contented feeling. It's a feeling of no, no FOMO, no insecurity, no no cognitive dissonance. Because you know what matters and what doesn't, but it isn't this feeling of joy or happiness or out of body experience that I think a lot of people have come to expect from and associate with.

Highly religious

Malcolm Collins: experiences. Yeah. Yeah, it's actually very interesting So the religious experience for I think the true monotheist actually feels very ordered very logical And and and and very, you know iterative like okay now it

Simone Collins: reminds me of those. Paintings maybe if I like Botticelli of the The virgin with the child where she's not like, ah, like, this is crazy.

She just looks like extremely calm and focused.

Malcolm Collins: Very important in what you're saying here. One of the core paths used by mystics, it's [00:15:00] important to guard against is this idea of pushing all thought from one's mind. You know, this is something that you see John of the Cross talk about.

If you're talking about the Catholic tradition, it's something you see Maimonides talk about. If you're talking about the Jewish tradition, it's something you see Buddhists often talk about. Pushing all thought, pushing all will, pushing all self out of, of one's mind. And you get nothing, you know, it's John of the Cross called it the nada.

And then that is where God comes in. But no, pushing all of this out of yourself is not where God comes in. God comes in through your industry, through achieving things that actually matter. And achieving these goals that actually matter. So I think you could overly focus on the absence of things, which you've been doing, which can lead individuals to think that well, if you get rid of everything else, all other emotions, then you have found a path to God.

And you made a joke about this was the Ron Swanson quote with the meditating.

Simone Collins: Yeah, there's there's a scene in which in Parks and Rec, in which one character who's like super new agey and healthy and. High effort [00:16:00] is attempting to recruit a very, we'll say like, politically conservative and anti government person to go to like yoga classes or something and meditate with him.

 You and I will embark on a quick session of heart rate meditation, focusing on conscious breathing and opening the heart chakra.

I'm not sure I'm interested in that. No, I am sure I am not interested in that. room and remain open of mind and of spirit. Now, quietly, sit behind me. And let's join breath. I'll stand.

All told, we were in there about six hours. And no, I was not meditating. I just stood there, quietly breathing. There were no thoughts in my head whatsoever. My mind was blank. I don't know what the hell these other crackpots are doing. Ron, you've radiated mindfulness. What were you thinking about? I wasn't thinking at all.

Incredible. Incredible. It takes a ton of work for me to get to that kind of a clear head space, I [00:17:00] know this crap is important to you, so I should come clean. I got nothing out of that experience at all.

Simone Collins: And I just love that scene so much because there are so many religions where people, like, They become so obsessed with pursuing the outcome or some kind of feeling or some kind of state.

And then, like, then there are the people who just do it.

Malcolm Collins: They have made, and this is the course in here, they have made pursuing a mental state the goal. Yeah. Which is

Simone Collins: The mental state is the byproduct of the correct

Malcolm Collins: mindset. Yeah and, and what they often do, which is a really common tactic within the mystic traditions, is they will act like this mental state, which is actually pretty easy to do, which I think is shown really well by that Parks and Rec clip, is a difficult thing that only, like, a true master can do.

And if you're not you know, high status within these communities, you'll be like, that's trivial to do. what you just told me to do. Look, I just did it. Done. And they're like, no, no, no. You clearly didn't do it. You know, they'll start gaslighting you because that's how they assert their status, which is always important within cult traditions.

Like you definitionally haven't done it [00:18:00] unless you, you, you've you know, invested a certain amount of time or a certain amount of energy into their, you know, basically you've paid them the right amount of money whether that money is in years of your life or is in you know, actual money where some traditions just be like, ah, you've paid enough money.

Now you're up a level. Okay. Now, now you can actually do it when it's something you could always do, you know, gatekeeping these sorts of mental states. But yeah, it's a pursual of a mental state as the goal rather than. You know, the mental state

Simone Collins: being a byproduct of successful pursuit

Malcolm Collins: of your values.

Yeah. Where that's the actual mental state where God is closest to you. So far as his values aren't self indulgent, which is the pursuing of mental states is always in definitionally self indulgent. Yeah. Some doubt me. They say no. These practices are sanctified and Abrahamic in nature. Be these individuals Sufis, Pop Kabbalists, or Christian mystics.

Evil does not tempt people by calling itself evil. It tempts people by calling itself good. God warned us about [00:19:00] idolatry before warning us about murder because we would find it so tempting. Not because it would be so obviously evil. I ask you, Whatever tree of mysticism tempts you, examine your religious history closely.

Did Jesus teach these practices? Did Moses teach these practices? Did Muhammad teach these practices? No, in every case it was a latter invention, a cancer that grows on the human soul. God would not need to keep sending prophets if we were able to just listen to his instructions the first time. Oh, but you heard your prophet secretly taught about these ideas, but just didn't make them public.

Imagine the basilisk wanted to deceive the followers of God. How would he do it? He would have deceivers whisper to the faithful that their prophets had secret teachings that gave them superhuman abilities and secret powers. Some would say, you don't understand. These practices are common among holy men in my community.

Do you have any idea [00:20:00] how offensive it is to say that these men are nothing but a witch cult? I do not write these words to cause offense, but because they are obviously true, . And I mean this, you know, this is a very offensive thing to say within many traditions that have bought into these mystical interpretations.

Oh yeah. But you know, and I think that that's really damaging, but I also think it's just patently apparent. You know, if something like this can be used by, you know, a, a yogi to turn women into his sex slaves, like very obviously it's not getting you closer to God. Okay. If it also gets you closer.

Closer to, you know, this, this random yogi and it's, it's, it's so tempting to different religions because it does create a feeling of profundity, you know, spinning in circles does create a feeling of profundity after a while. But like. I think it's pretty obvious that God didn't intend on us to get close to him by idly spinning in circles.

Or a static dance. And, you know, we see this. A static dance, you know, when they talk about like canine, really it's like naked people dancing around a fire [00:21:00] or something like that. You know, this was the pre Abrahamic religion. And yes, it can create these amazing feelings, but those feelings aren't gone.

And so then what are those feelings? What are you getting closer to? I mean, that's, but I'd also say you approach this from a completely secular standpoint. Why does it make sense to ban these types of ideas? Because they lead to self indulgent behavior. Which I love. God has communicated with us through a religion that should make total secular sense.

Why doesn't God want us to engage in like, like, live our lives for the achievement of specific mental states? It's because that leads to, you know, inefficacious idleness. Why doesn't God want us, you know, dancing around campfires naked most of the time? Because that leads to, like, people's mental faculties being corrupted, being lowered, their inhibitions being lowered makes it makes it easier to implant false ideas into an individual and can be used to manipulate and control individuals, you know, by malevolent actors.

Simone Collins: Though what I do find interesting is I cannot think of an instance in which Someone has explicitly said, doing [00:22:00] this thing is going to bring you closer to God. They're usually used more like these. Well,

Malcolm Collins: but where I see

Simone Collins: them is it's like, if you want to maybe level up within an organization or you're doing it because other people are doing it and they seem to be.

Really transported by it. And so you want to do it too, but I know

Malcolm Collins: I'm going to talk about this in a second, but you haven't engaged much with mystics, but they'll often treat this information as secret and they only convey it to you. Because if this was on the surface, often was in religions. Oh, you dance a statically to get closer to that.

Sounds stupid. No, you don't. It's a secret. It's like a mystery, right? You know, and this is how, you know, mystery cults probably work. In a historic context, but if you actually study them from an outside perspective, you'll see that all of the across all of these, these pathways you'll see very similar behaviors.

And, and what's even worse is when people begin to feel like the, the information they're gaining within these corrupted mental states as a higher order of information than the information they get through, you know, rigorous study which then leads [00:23:00] to, you know, corrupted religious teachings. Yeah, I

Simone Collins: just, I, I, I see it more as like.

And, and not officially condoned distraction that people get caught up with that end up playing games with social hierarchies, unless

Malcolm Collins: it's a core part of the church. Which is why you're not seeing how offensive what I'm saying is to people within these mystical traditions. I see. Certain types of pop Kabbalism, certain types of Sufism, they would hear this and say that you are directly calling our religion the worship of the devil.

And, and, and they see their religion as a core Abrahamic tradition. Hmm. So yeah. But, but what they end up doing, it's not that different than what you see in like the, the, the Theo Ethical Society, which is probably the worst of the Christian iterations of this which has grown really big. Their teachings happen.

They're now influencing some church doctrine and stuff like that. But we can get to this more conspiracy theory stuff. So it's just that you haven't engaged with it. But I promise it is common, and people can mention this in the comments, that this is stuff that they have seen people trying to [00:24:00] peddle, but people peddle it like drugs.

Interesting. You know, they're, Hey kid. I have a secret, like, you come with us, you come with the cool kids, and you can get access to the special information about God that the prophet actually taught in secret. Right, but it's like, of course, that's how the devil interacts with people. And I just love how silly it is.

Oh, it gives you, like, superpowers, basically. It gives you supernatural powers and it gives you a direct path to God. Like it's so like what a drug dealer would say, Hey kid, I got some supernatural powers. I'm peddling here. Hey kid, I got a shortcut to God. I'm peddling here. Like we should immediately recognize but people are brought into these movements in environments where it feels very holy and very important and very private and secret.

So they don't notice how obviously demonic and satanic they are. And, and you're not particularly interested in studying those types of traditions, so you don't notice this. But it's useful for our kids to have priming against this, because this is how groups will try to convert them. It's whizzies, and they need to know that this is, you know, just as dangerous as drugs.

And I would also warn people here that just because somebody can come up with an argument. That seems to [00:25:00] be biblically backed that some form of idolatry is okay, whether it's of the mystical Or using gold or idols as intermediaries for God in worshiping. That appears biblically backed. It doesn't mean there actually are arguments that are biblically backed. A person. Can you do a rough reading of the Bible to back just about any position, just because someone has done that doesn't mean a position is biblical. A great example of one of these SOFIC arguments that relies on you not having a lot of biblical knowledge is the argument of the bronze serpent., when the Jews were traveling from Egypt, Israel, some grew. Impatient. And spoke against God and Moses. About their lack of food and water.

And as a result, God sent venomous steaks among them. And many people were bitten and died. Moses prayed to God for a solution to this. And God gave him one, which was instructions on how to build a stick with a snake on it. Which people could look at. And it [00:26:00] would cure the venomous snakes that he had sent. No, it is very important that at no point in this story with this stick, Meant to be used as an intermediary for worship of God.

It was a tool. Just to be extra explicit about what said in the story here. The Lord said into Moses. Make a snake and put it on a pole. Anyone who has bitten can look at it and live. So Moses made a bronze snake and put it on a pole. Then when anyone who has bitten by the snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived. Nobody was worshiping it.

Nobody was attempting to see God through it. No one was using it as an earthly intermediary for God's greatness. Nobody was using it in religious rituals. It was a tool. It was a tool in the same way. God gave Noah instructions on how to build an arc. , and how do we know this? Because the Bible very, very clearly tells us in Kings that at later times, people had started to Include this Dick in religious rituals and use it as an [00:27:00] intermediary for God in their worship of him. And.

King has a Kaia of Judah. Then it has to have it destroyed because it was never, ever meant to be used as an intermediary for the worship of God.

So the, the broad snake story, while some people will use it to try to say that idolatry is okay, or that idol worship is okay. Or that using idols at the intermediary in the worship of God is okay. They're just lying to you about what the Bible says, because it clearly, at no point says that anyone was supposed to use this as an intermediary for worship. In fact specifically, how were they worshiping in a way that God hated so much? They were burning incense in front of it. So I ask you in your churches, in your temples, are there anythings that are being used at the intermediaries for God, that people are burning incense in front of. If God didn't want a stick that he explicitly used for miracles being used in this way. Does he want manmade art being used in this way. Does he want gold being used in this way?

It was a [00:28:00] tool. And God doesn't mind us using tools. That we develop with his insight. , I E the intelligence he has granted us. That is one of the ways he performs his miracles within our world. Which is one of the things we always talk about when people are like, oh my God, how could you allow medical technology to fave that child?

And it's like, no, that's how God works. Okay. He gives us the insight. To build things that can help people when they're, for example, bitten by snakes, but we are not supposed to worship this medical technology. And it's a final note here. If there's any lingering thoughts in your head of will, maybe God mint this snake to be an intermediary for the worship of him. Keep in mind what you're saying here. God made it as snake, a snake to teach us. That when you worship A being through things like this. You are worshiping Satan. Who is represented by a snake.

God is never represented by a snake. When you worship God. Through earthly intermediaries that were made by man. You are [00:29:00] directly worshiping the serpent.

Malcolm Collins: But I don't come to you with idle claims. I can prove to you that these teachings come straight from the basilisk, the suppressor of God's greatest gifts, logic and mental discipline. Open a book on how cults brainwash people, or study how the insidious corrupted yogis create their slaves. A practice when performed by manipulative individuals in the name of Satan or personal self indulgent, one that promotes the exact same results in those circumstances, is not giving you a vision of God just because you replaced some cryptic.

pagan chant with a Christian one. The experience you have is the exact same experience the yogi used to turn that gauntless woman into his sex slave. Fortunately, God marks these idolatrous practices clearly, if a practice contains any one of the following, it is dangerous witchcraft, food, slush, sleep.

deprivation, chanting phrases, unique postures for long periods, rhythmic dancing, crowds [00:30:00] engaging in mindless behavior, stage hypnosis techniques, and ingesting hallucinogenic chemicals. Importantly, anyone who has used these techniques to give others quote unquote visions of God, and use these visions to affirm their position as intermediaries of God's will on earth, is an agent of the Basilisk.

These individuals are the closest thing you will ever encounter to a demon wearing human skin.

And you know, when I, I talked about lik