I have been blown away by the responses to my book, Chasing the Avatar! Thanks to all of you who email me. So many of you have come out of being involved in Amma's group, are wanting to get out, have family members who are caught up in her group or are curious about whether to get into her group in the first place. I read your emails, I pray for you and sometimes I share your emails with my pastor and publisher (I hope you don't mind). So do know that YOU matter to me. You matter tremendously!

Honestly, I did not know there was such a large group of people who have been so negatively affected by Amma. I have heard about marriages destroyed, children torn away from loving fathers and mothers, minds crushed, hopes given away...basically, lives shattered. I have to say: THAT is NOT the way spirituality is supposed to be...not TRUE spirituality.

True spirituality will make you and everything you do better. It will not rob from you. It will not break your, or anyone else's, heart. It will not steal your will. It will not make you want to commit suicide--no matter how noble the reason. It will not make you space out, numb out, and disappear from life. True spirituality will make you stand up and seize your God-given purpose. It will make you become a man or woman with character, responsible and accountable, happy and full, doing good for society, and not hiding away from everyone and everything (whether in an ashram or in the vacuity of your own mind).

One thing I have seen, though, from all of the people I've heard from and talked to who have left or are trying to leave Amma: No one gets completely out, with a healthy mind and heart, without Christ. Sorry! It has to be said. And I'm sure someone will take issue with my statement. But, the Truth is the truth. What I've seen is that only those people who turn to Christ and step fully under His care are able to walk away from Amma mentally, emotionally, and spiritually free and whole. Other than that, the draw, the lure, back is virtually impossible to resist.

So, my prayer is that Christ seizes as many people as possible away from her, that He makes them whole and healthy and fully functioning again. Simple as that.

God bless! And please keep emailing me, I love to read your emails!

Spiritually, there is such a draw behind all of this. For some reason, Christians can’t seem to understand the draw behind Eastern religions, mysticism, etc. Believe me: They have a tremendous pull. The esoteric power draws. The “supernaturalness” of it all pulls. The promise that things “really are different from what they seem” is hugely alluring. These things pulled me. I was enamored by the promise of spiritual experiences. The idea of meeting humans who had transcended, spiritually, most human constraints and who actually exhibited powers lured me. The idea of “enlightened masters” who could transcend the pettiness and ugliness of the human condition enthralled me. The notion that there were people who were loving, yet detached from their own pain and suffering fascinated me.

I think that’s what happens to a lot of people (although, I think most stop before they run off to India). And I believe THAT is what is the real draw of these religions—the experiences—because they give a sense of power (finally!) over ourselves, our minds, our lives. If you’ve never had a full-on supernatural experience you won’t understand its lure, you won’t understand how one taste will hook you. It’s the worst kind of crack. It’ll keep you fiending for more. That’s why people delve more and more deeply. It doesn’t help that people are hungry for the supernatural—we want to see it, hear it…experience it. Where does this thirst for the supernatural come from? I think it’s embedded within us: God is Spirit, true supernatural Spirit, and He made us in His image. Something deep and fundamentally elemental within us longs for God’s Spirit. The Bible says that He has put eternity in our hearts. That statement has so many layers and interpretations; but one of them, I believe, is that there is an infinitesimally small, yet infinitesimally powerful “something” of God that is embedded within our hearts. It’s what causes us to long. It causes us to seek out people to satisfy us. It causes us to do crazy things to satisfy it. And then we’re disappointed because that “something” will only be satisfied with the One who made it and put it in us—God. When this longing for God’s Spirit isn’t satisfied by God, we will turn elsewhere to have it fulfilled. It is such a strong yearning—it’s wholly supernatural. One effect is that we crave the supernatural. I think that’s why people are fascinated by angels and demons, by scary movies and Harry Potter—all of them point at the supernatural. They all open the door a crack and give us an opportunity to peek in. We want more. We want to see more. We KNOW there’s more than what we see in our constrained and limited lives.

Unfortunately, I don’t think a lot of today’s Christianity offers us much in terms of the supernatural, of the powerful, of the esoteric. What the world does see of Christianity, when it turns to the supernatural, is “hokey” and weird. So people turn to other religions. Honestly, Hinduism and Buddhism present their versions of the supernatural in such a way that’s believable, do-able and achievable. New Ageism does too. And they make you feel good about yourself on top of it. Hence, the draw.

But God is a supernatural God who can give real experiences, real peace and real light. All of the experiences that I had in my search for “enlightenment” were only counterfeits (I’ll share more in a later blog about how they look so bright and hook us in that by the time they turn dark, we’re in too deeply to get out—truly “fool’s gold.”) God wants us to experience His presence and power much more fully than most of us are. We just have to give Him a chance—take Him out of the box we’ve managed to place Him in—and let Him be as big and glorious and supernatural as He truly is. The world is hungering for true, authentic spirituality and God is willing to give it…are we willing to give Him a try?