Angels or demons

I have a Christian friend who is very skeptical about learning zhan zhuang due to religious belief. The fact is it is a bit unusual to hold such attitude nowadays. Chi-kung or meditative practice has generally been accepted into our society as non-religious in nature, more for mind-body tune up than for religious purpose. Having said that, there are indeed controversies as to the role of revelation/meditation in religious beliefs. The gist of the issue is, as I shall argue, "Are we seeing angels or demons?"

The most recent apocalypse fallout comes from Minister Harold Camping, 89, founder of the Family Radio network. He said the Bible and numeric analysis revealed that the Earth would be destroyed Saturday at 5:59 p.m. through a series of earthquakes. He said 200,000 believers would be sent to heaven in the Rapture.

When a revelation comes (irrespective whether he is meditating, praying, dreaming, or whatever he is doing), the feeling for the person is so strong that he might risk his better judgment of the possibility of a fallout. A leading Taoist leader escaped from China was reportedly have been said he knew David Copperfield can actually fly, not from magic but through his spiritual power. Another revelation? Probably.

A number of issues here. Firstly, is it pathological? If we believe the minister or the Taoist leader as not pathological, we must believe them to have made a respective conscience judgment, whether or not we consider the judgment sound is a different issue. There is no reason for me to assume they are pathological. And so I believe they have made a conscious judgment in proclaiming what they have proclaimed.

Secondly, is it psychic reality or metaphysical reality? Or rather the question should be, given that it is psychic reality, whether or not it has metaphysical reality? As with any belief system (religious or otherwise), there simply ain't no fallout! "God has His own purpose (i.e. everything happened is the right thing with a sound purpose, including the minister has that apocalyptic revelation and its subsequent fallout)" (doesn't it sound familiar?) and in the other case, I don't think telling our Taoist master of David licensed his "flying technique" from a patent holder can change his mind about David's ability to fly! True, we can't logically convince any believer on metaphysical issue. And, the interesting point is: they might actually be right! Who know? We are just humble human beings.

But one thing we can appreciate and can certainly act on. If it is against our own moral standards, it is a message of the demons, and if it is in support of our own moral standards, it is a message of the angels.