The Seventh Hallmark of the New Gnosticism (7 of 10):
The Denial of Original Sin (and Guilt)

[Extracted from Chapter 5, “The Hall Marks of the New Gnosticism”, in the upcoming greatly expanded 800-page Second Edition of my 1993 book, “The Serpent & the Cross: Religious Corruption in an Evil Age”. This will be available hopefully by the end of May 2025. Feel free to register your interest in purchasing a copy by contacting me directly]

FOLLOWING CLOSELY ON THE HEELS of the Neo-Gnostic’s mythological representation of the devil, as shown in the previous section, comes his or her either blatant or implied denial of the original sin of our first parents and its seminal transmission to all their progeny down through history by nature. I have already exposed how the Fall is interpreted by the Gnostic in §1 of chapter 4, showing that denying God’s word and breaking God’s law (sin) and the resultant Divine judgement does not figure in that interpretation. By depicting the Fall as merely a gradual descent into gross matter and ego-consciousness, the doctrine of the imputation of Adam’s sin by nature to all humanity from birth (as taught by the inspired apostle in Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22; cf. Genesis 3:1-6; Psalm 51:5; Isaiah 43:27) is bundled neatly into obscurity.

The New Gnosticism upholds the notion that all humans are basically good, and that if we could only be reformed with meditation, rediscovering our so-called ‘Higher Selves’, better parenting, vegetarianism or veganism, the realignment of body energies, getting into relationship with “spirit-guides”, joining peace and justice movements, having psychotherapy, acquiring green thinking, etc., we would be able to get together across the globe and create a beautiful planet full of lovely people in a glorious Golden Age. It is not difficult to discern the reason why this delusion has come about. Satan has no greater wish than to conceal from his offspring the fact that there has been a Fall into lawlessness, and thereby to deny the great claim of the true Gospel that our subsequent inherent sinfulness has rendered us helpless, lost, without salvation, and in need of a gracious Saviour (John 15:5).

The Neo-Gnostics” mythologising of Satan and twisted symbolisation of the early Genesis material has so strongly coloured their understanding of the Fall into which humanity has been plunged, that there is no place whatsoever for the idea of the innate sinfulness of mankind. For the modern Gnostic, therefore, the presence of evil in the world is solely a product of human perception rather than having an objective reality. As an example of state-of-the-art Neo-Gnostic thinking on these matters, Findhorn guru Peter Lemesurier rejects the idea of a personalised Satan by claiming it is old-fashioned dualism, and then says:

“There seems to be no alternative but to accept the fact that the world was always perfect, humanity was always perfect, and no imperfection ever entered the picture at all. What, then, did enter the picture? What entered the picture was human consciousness — not merely the generalised awareness of the right brain, but also the focussed, analytical consciousness of the left. It was this latter form of consciousness that then started to divide up the world into categories which formed the basis of all thought and language… The imagined imperfection of the world was always a mere illusion from the beginning. What had happened was that humanity had lost sight of reality as it was. And the only way to improve the situation was — and is — to put human consciousness back in touch with that reality, not least by re-establishing contact with our direct perceptions, uncontaminated by the entirely theoretical categories and judgements of our rampant left-brain consciousness” (Peter Lemesurier, This New Age Business: The Story of the Ancient and Continuing Quest to Bring Down Heaven on Earth, Findhorn Press, 1990, pp.213-214). [emphasis in original]

The recommended way here to bring improvement to human existence is “to re-establish contact with reality”, that is, one’s “Inner Self “. Evil and malfunction in the world are simply cured by a shift in perception — a leap in consciousness. Surely, Peter Lemesurier is speaking for every Neo-Gnostic alive today when he goes on to make the remarkable claim that

“The Illusion is that the world is imperfect and divided against itself, that the Garden of Eden has been lost to us and needs to be restored. The reality is that all is absolutely perfect as it is, and that the Garden of Eden has never ceased to be” (Peter Lemesurier, This New Age Business: The Story of the Ancient and Continuing Quest to Bring Down Heaven on Earth, Findhorn Press, 1990, p.232).

These extraordinary words could have been written by Satan himself, as they eradicate every vestige of his evil work from the start of human history.

So now I have a big question: If it is true that all one has to do is ‘overcome one’s ego’ and re-establish contact with one’s ‘Higher Self’ to achieve self-realisation (spiritual ‘enlightenment’) and thereby overcome any corruption in one’s being and thereby “get back to the Garden” (to quote Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” lyrics), how come such a vast number of the most celebrated male gurus and big-deal male yoga teachers have been and are gross philanderers who use their powerful positions to sexually exploit the vulnerability of their students and followers, whether male or female?

See the following few of many general sample links for evidence:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-57400014;
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/bikram-choudhury-yoga-rape-sexual-abuse-netflix-documentary-who-a9210771.html;
https://bristolyogacentre.co.uk/new-blog/tag/Controversies;
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/sai-baba-accused-of-sexual-abuse/story-JO8rmd1QnZ4hRHVPevhhsM.html;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2tnXBzRq74;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_abuse_by_yoga_gurus; https://www.strippingthegurus.com/;
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/02/bivolaru-yoga-arrest-sexual-abuse-rape-cult-spirituality/ .
There are also personal links to many revered individual gurus and yoga teachers who were sexual abusers and more. Here is a list, in case you are a die-hard supporter of all these eastern mystical and New Consciousness gurus and yoga teachers: As well as the widely-known Bikram Choudhury, some other examples of the many corrupted (sexually and otherwise) Yoga teachers and gurus are (with clickable web-links throughout):
John Friend (of Anusara);
TJ Bartell (of Source Tantara);
The Orgasmic Meditation Company;
Swami Vivekananda Saraswati (of Agama, the “world’s biggest Tantric Yoga school”);
Padma Aon Prakasha;
Noah Levine (of Against the Stream Meditation Society);
Swami Muktananda;
Sai Baba (who claimed divinity and amassed a £5.5 billion fortune;
Swami Satchidananda (the guru who opened the Woodstock Festival in 1969!);
Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry;
Swami Rama;
Amrit Desai (formerly of the Kripalu Center);
Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh (aka the charlatan, Osho, and read this too, and this, for this guru was one of the worst of all evil conmen);
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (founder of the Transcendental Meditation cult);
International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna cult);
Kai Hung (Taiwanese Buddhist Master and former secretary-general of the Chinese Young Buddhist Association, and click here too);
Sogyal Rinpoche, (author of “The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying”);
Sri Chinmoy (former official United Nations guru);
Manouso Manos (right-hand man to B.K. Iyengar), and many more.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Guru cults and yoga have provided a launchpad for a vast quantity of sexual abusers. You can easily research all this for yourself online.

Leaving aside for now the satanic nature of yoga as a human gateway into the occult and self-deistic mysticism (which I will be dealing with in another chapter), if these supposed exemplary teachers (virtually worshipped by so many) have achieved ‘enlightenment’ or ‘re-established contact with their inner selves’, as they claim, how come so many of them have been and are sexual deviants of the highest order? The truth is that once you have sold your soul to Satan in this work, you will be his puppet and plaything and there is no end to the debauchery into which you can be pulled, all the while imagining that you are a self-realised enlightened being who has achieved the ultimate in terms of ‘evolution’. Their true natures are swept under the carpet of their denial of original sin and claims of perfection, yet they are among the grossest of all sinners! This must surely be the ultimate in hypocrisy and a sick satanic joke of the highest order.

Another inevitable outworking of this denial of original sin is the teaching that all people who have ever lived will be saved. Although it is true that all people are God’s creatures and owe their very lives and sustenance to Him, our creaturehood is not the guarantee of our adoption into the family of God (John 1:12; Romans 8:8-17; 9:8; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Galatians 4:5-6). You can be a child of God merely in terms of creation but not in terms of adoption. A child of God merely by creation is an orphan in need of adoption by God in election and salvation in order to be a true child of His. The erroneous teaching that all people everywhere are in God’s family and all are His children by nature — and thereby in His favour — ignores not only countless references to the special election and predestination of those chosen by God in His mercy to be a part of His family and kingdom (e.g., Matthew 11:25; 20:16; 25:34; Luke 8:10; 10:20; 18:7; John 6:37-39,44-45; 10:2-4,25-29; 17:2,6,9; Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:4-5,9-11; etc.), but also the many statements by the Lord Jesus Himself which proclaim the uncomfortable truth that not all are going to be saved (Matthew 7:13-14; 13:24-30,38-42; 22:11-14; 24:14; Luke 20:45-47; John 3:36; 5:28-29; etc.).

So, the New Gnosticism ignores original sin and guilt by covering it up in their wishful-thinking, cloud-cuckoo-land jargon about activating their supposed ‘higher selves’ and connecting with their imagined ‘god within’. In the next section (No.8) on the hallmarks of the New Gnosticism, we will be examining and overturning the claim that God resides in all people by nature.

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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