I was made aware of a post on meditation and "altered states of consciousness" and made the decision to delete the post. I wanted to explain why here. We came to believe that it was best for the Metamorpha community and because we did not want to come across as backing this kind of practice. We do not want to de-emphasize meditation as a central Christian practice, but want to highlight that it must be conceived of as a distinctively Christian practice, and therefore has nothing to learn from other religions.

As a Christian practice, meditation fundamentally concerns God's work of self-revelation in Christ. Christ was, is and is to come the object of our meditation because in Christ we have God unveiling Himself to us. Therefore, we know the Father as we know Christ, and Jesus was so concerned to explain in the Gospel of John.

While our prayer lives may lead to certain kinds of experience, the Protestant traditions have focused on those being integrated. In other words, our understanding is not bypassed in the process - but is engaged fully. Jonathan Edwards, for instance, as arguably the foremost thinker of Evangelical Spirituality focused on the Spirit's enlightening and revealing work on the heart - which for him was an integration of the understanding and the will of a person. If we lose this component, we open ourselves up to a variety of other things, some of which may be merely biological, but also, very possibly, Satanic. We have to be cautious concerning our ability to discern these things well - and we know that Satan will dress himself as an angel of light. I was worried about this post particularly because of the "altered states of consciousness" description which seems to borrow from other meditative traditions and thereby undermine the distinctively Christian aspect of Christian meditation.

Likewise, the Christian Spiritual tradition (as far as I can tell) focused on experiences only insofar as they turned you back to God's love for you in Christ. One of the reasons for this is that experience of any kind of incredibly hard to discern, and could very well become the focus of your search, thereby becoming idolatrous. Think of the transfiguration - they were led, literally, to a mountaintop to only then be brought to the reality of their lack of faith. Calvin, helpfully, notes that we have only really seen God when we immediately turn back to ourselves and our entire need for that God - knowledge of God leads to knowledge of our desperate need for Him, in Christ.

Thank you for your time. I hope this helps explain my concerns a bit, and I hope that you will continue to turn your minds and hearts to God in Christ, praying that the Spirit will open you to God's love in Christ. Blessings, kyle

I am inclined to agree with Kyle. All our formational experiences need to lead us back to God. If we begin seeking altered states of consciousness for altered states of consciousness' sake- that is not leading toward God nor growth in Christlikeness. It might be a powerful experience- but not transformational.

Renee, my point was, quite simply, that we meditate because the Bible tells us to. Therefore, we need to talk about a distinctively Christian form of meditation. I deleted the post because I did not believe they were talking about that form. No one is suggesting that we follow Merton on his use of Eastern practices (nor has he or Nouwen been suggested in this vein) - what we are suggesting is that we think hard and Christianly about these things and help forge a Christian, and I would add, evangelical understanding of meditation.