Meditation Business Evaluated at $1 Billion

Calm, an online meditation subscription service, has raised $115 million in startup funding and is evaluated at $1 billion, which is called “unicorn” status (referring to its rarity) (“The Meditation Unicorn,” businessresearcher.com, Feb. 6, 2019). Calm is only the largest of a slew of popular meditation services and apps, such as Simple Habit, BioBeats, and Headspace. The latter has in-flight meditation channels on eight airlines. Calm cofounder Alex Tew says, “This financing will accelerate our mission to make the world healthier and happier.” Meditation is the practice of entering into a transcendental or altered state of consciousness by means of a mantra or by focusing the mind on a single mental image, etc. Meditation is an integral part of Hinduism and Buddhism that has spread widely through Western society since the twentieth century. The invasion from the east began in the 1920s with Hindu gurus such as Paramahansa Yogananda (d. 1952), founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship Society, and Jiddu Krishnamurti (d. 1986) of the Order of the Star in the East. Yogananda’s book Autobiography of a Yogi, continuously in print since 1946, has been translated into 18 languages and has wielded a great influence. Before I was saved in 1973, I joined the Self-Realization Fellowship Society. It emphasizes the Hindu-New Age concept that man is divine, the universe is God (pantheism), and man can connect with truth and power in his inner self through mystical practices, particularly meditation. It is “the science of uniting the individual soul with the Cosmic Spirit.” It was in the 1960s that Hindu meditation exploded in popularity in the West when the Beatles became associated with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation. Maharishi called TM “the spontaneous flow of knowledge.” In October 1975, Maharishi’s picture appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Most members of the Beatles moved on from TM, but George Harrison remained closely affiliated with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. His 1970 hit song “My Sweet Lord” glorified the Hindu god Krishna and featured a yoga mantra. Meditation is a major instrument in the New Age tool kit, together with positive thinking, positive confession, visualization, guided imagery, and hypnosis. It is used by New Age channelers and alternative health care providers. It is a mainstay of life coaching and human potential gurus, such as Jack Canfield and John Gray. It is used by the world’s largest corporations and by the U.S. military. There is a New Age meditation room at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Meditation cannot be separated from its pagan roots and has inherent spiritual dangers. The attempt to enter an alternative state of mind is a recipe for spiritual deception. Deepak Chopra says that through meditation “a change occurs” and that “something may be glimpsed behind the screen of thought, a sense that you have entered a deeper reality” (The Third Jesus, p. 93). At this point, the meditator “may sense a hidden presence that cannot be described but can still be felt.” In view of the Bible’s warning about demons that pose as angels of light, this is a loud warning to those who have ears to hear. Not surprisingly, meditation often leads to acceptance of pagan beliefs such as pantheism, panentheism, reincarnation, and universalism. “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

​(Friday Church News Notes, February 15, 2019, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)

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