HELLRAISER THEME AS IT RELATES TO TODAY'S INTEREST IN THE OCCULT
This is a review of the latest version of the movie Hellraiser. It's a series of films. The subject of these films is a man who gets involved in the occult, who gets involved with supernatural spirits. He seeks heaven. They end up bringing him a living hell. That's a pretty good synopsis of the situation.
Now it's relevant to today because so many people are, so to speak, seeking. They're seeking spiritual wisdom, supernatural wisdom, and we go to the vision of this as explained in the Quran (the holy book of the Islamic religion). The Quran paints a world under an almighty God , and as part of that are creatures called the "jinn," supernatural creatures who aren't necessarily all bad, but some of them are very bad and none of them have the power of the Almighty. Yet the jinn can play tricks with people and lead people to believe that they will get things and so on. So people go out there into the world of the supernatural via ouija board, or whatever, and make contact with the jinn. The problem is that the jinn are not very reliable. There's a larger picture here. This is why I set up the religion newsletter back in 1980 and the activities of World Future Fund in the realm of religion. In short, it is that there needs to be a kind of consumer reports for religion and spirituality. Now in terms of the jinn and in terms of spirits you should look at it like this, it's like telemarketing. Somebody rings you up with this wonderful promise, or better yet, a wonderful e-mail that says that a long lost top official of Abu Dhabi has just left you $40 million. That sounds pretty good right? There's an old saying in our investigations of mail fraud: if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
THE ISSUE OF FRAUD IN THE NEW AGE WORLD
Now religion and faith are ideas that are thousands of years old and have been studied by the greatest minds of history, philosophy and religion. So in planning out your life, are you going to really make plans on the basis of some kind of spirit that you think you're in touch with? I attended a leading new age supernatural convention years ago and I went around and interviewed the leading psychics of Washington. Let's just say I wasn't very impressed. These people all claimed to be in touch with various spirits, who for some reason or other were willing to tell people about the future, give people advice on their love and sex life, but who were these spirits? I've done a thousand job interviews. It seems like these spirits, if you ask me, would flunk an elemental background check. And I got no real specifics from the psychics. A good part of the people who are involved in the new age and psychic movement, if not the majority, in my view are idiots and charlatans who are not in touch with anything other than their checkbooks and their desire to get their hands on yours. So that's a basic issue here.
FINDING A TRUE SPIRITUAL FRAMEWORK
We believe Islam is the greatest religion in history, the greatest revelation of truth in history. It doesn't mean you have to believe that, and what we mean is classical Islam, definitely not the Islam of Iran today and so on or various intolerant forms of Islam. In this conversation we're not going to set up a a grading system for every Islamic government or system in the world, all of which have their own pluses and minuses. But the original concept of Islam that created the greatest religious revolution in history in the 7th century AD was a system of tolerance. It was a system replacing the intolerance we might say of Christianity. We're not saying the classical islamic world was a utopia, but there was the system of social justice. So this was a constructive system. It was the greatest religious revolution in history. Islam has never been rolled back in any country other than in Spain, and that was done by something known as the Spanish Inquisition, not a very happy experience. There were mass expulsions of both Muslims and Jews who didn't want to go along with the new Christian order. So we believe in the Quran is a revelation of truth that is the framework from which all this should be studied.
GOD, JUSTICE AND GUIDANCE
There is the concept of Judgment Day throughout the religions of the world. There is the concept of an omniscient and omnipotent God. Most of the religions of the world, even polytheistic religions, have the concept of a supreme god, and in the context of that, people receive rewards and punishments at judgment day based on their actions. But it's not just a question of what happens after death. Religion, or the activities of the Almighty, is an omnipresent force. It's an omnipresent force in people's lives and there is a concept of how you make decisions and be able to tap into the wisdom of the Almighty. Rationality is important, but rationality only goes so far. In your life is a question of, shall we say, the fog of war. Beyond rationality you have to guess in order to make very important decisions in your life.
BUYER BEWARE - BE CAUTIOUS OF THE SUPERNATURAL
So we will be discussing more about this, but for those of you out there exploring the supernatural, we strongly advise you go see the new Hellraiser movie. It's really a pretty good film and entertaining regardless of whether you get the spiritual message or not. Have a concept of consumer reports as you explore the supernatural. Who are these people who are talking to you? What are their motivations? Why are they going to give you unlimited sex, money, a cure for disease, and so on. We're not saying they're all bad, but be an aware consumer when it comes to the world of the supernatural. That's the point of this message.