I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. - Psalm 119:15
I’m naturally skeptical of the gobbledygook that tends to make its way around the corporate-sponsored, big-tech promoted book circuits and speaking tours every year. Certain phrases and concepts begin to appear on every podcast in existence as tech bros stare at each other pensively, convincing themselves they’ve just discovered nuclear fission, when in reality, they’re talking about things our grandparents considered common sense.
So much of the modern psuedo-scientific-complex is fueled by repackaging basic concepts and wrapping them in technical-sounding jargon that then spreads like wildfire.
Take “mindfulness” for example.
mind·ful·ness: a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.
Mindfulness is really having its day, perhaps because of our society’s renewed focus on (obsession with) this notion of “mental health” (different discussion for another time).
From books, to e-mail lists, to apps where mindful celebrities help you to be more mindful, we are certainly living in interesting times.
But it’s sort of a paradox in itself. We are encouraged to “be more mindful” amidst a barrage of digital information overload that destroys any attempt to actually clear our minds. It quickly becomes an exercise in futility, or mental masturbation, even. Hardly ones to do anything without sharing it with the world, “mindfulness” then has become a way to distinguish ourselves as part of a class of “thinkers,” the self-therapeutic caste that can’t go ten seconds without public, melodramatic introspection.
So, what is mindfulness? How should the Christian think about it?
We should start by remembering that nothing is neutral. The moralistic-therapeutic-complex is in love with the idea that truth, love, and beauty are found within ourselves, if we can only escape the pollution of the world.
As Christians, we know this to be nonsense. We are sinners with rebellious hearts, hearts so defiant that without a supernatural act of God whereby we receive new hearts, new natures, and new affections, we would willingly drive ourselves further into darkness and despair. We would destroy ourselves for an ounce of pleasure.
Every thought, word, and deed in our lives is inevitably conforming us to the image of Christ or of demons. The Christian knows that he lives in the midst of a zero-sum, spiritual battle between good and evil. Demons do not play by rules nor will they simply bypass you because you’re trying some cool, new technique from a Timothy Ferriss interview about billionaire morning routines.
No one is immune to enemy attacks. Even guys I really enjoy listening to like Shawn Ryan (podcaster, former SEAL, shocking, I know) tout the benefits of psychedelic drugs in dealing with and healing from trauma. These guys always have stories of encountering “entities” who reveal some difficult truth to them that ends up changing their lives. I like Shawn and am thrilled beyond words that he got baptized and now professes Christ; but as a man with a massive audience, I hope and pray that he would consider God’s word in 1 Peter 5:8-9 where Christians are commanded to be always on guard:
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
(This post is not about psychedelics, but if you want to learn more about how a Christian should approach mind-altering drugs, do a word study on pharmakeia)
So, Scripture instructs us to value sobriety and watchfulness for a specific purpose, because we are constantly being stalked by an attacker. Like a well-armed enemy who paces the defensive lines waiting for any vulnerability or sign of negligence, the devil and his minions are always on the prowl. One sleeping guard, one distracted watchman, one gap in the wall, and it’s game on. This is why sobriety is so important; because a clear, alert, responsive mind makes the Christian a hard target. The sober believer does not fall for cheap tricks and deceptive feints, even from an “angel of light.”
The non-sober, complacent believer, on the other hand, is easily manipulated because he’s not thinking straight. He is susceptible to any spirit that “sounds right.” He is a slave to his pleasures, passions, and preferences. Claiming to be wise, he becomes a fool.
So what does all of this have to do with “mindfulness?”
“Mindfulness” advocates will tell you that the secret to true fulfillment is looking inward, accepting one’s own feelings, clearing one’s mind and “meditating” (the thing being meditated on is never prescribed; presumably, meditating on anything is fine). Mindfulness is always promoted as a type of cure for every mental obstacle from anxiety to restlessness to the routine (and necessary) stressors of regular professional and social life. Clear your mind, turn off your phone, take a deep breath, and just “be” (I think our grandparents used to just call this being bored). Being bored is certainly underrated and almost impossible these days. But “mindfulness” adds a spiritual, therapeutic element.
The ideal state, then, is to be a blank slate with an empty mind, thinking of nothing but one’s own thinking (about nothing). Truth, and healing, and wisdom, come from within, if only we can be still long enough to uncover them.
But… (spiritual) nature abhors a vacuum.
Consider Christ’s teaching on the unclean spirit in Matthew 12:
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.
It’s clear that it is not enough to simply be “empty” if we fail to fill that space with good and Godly things. Meditation and mindfulness, then, without God as their object, are simply further opportunities for the enemy to attack, spiritual vacuums that can (and must) be filled with something.
Ask anyone who has been harassed, or possessed, by an actual demon (yes, these things are real, and there are countless interviews available on the internet of Christians who were saved out of a life of demon possession; I don’t recommend diving too deep down this rabbit hole, but it’s worth noting). Very rarely did these people say, “oh wow, a demon! Come on in and control my mind and body.” It almost always started with a vague, mystical, spiritually ambiguous entity encountered through “emptying the mind” and attempting to access “higher spiritual realms,” often under the guise of therapy or “healing” (on a similar note, this is actually how Jesus Calling was written). To deny that this is possible is to deny the reality of the spiritual war being waged all around us. Practices that once belonged exclusively to the occult are now being promoted as virtuous and beneficial.
So, what’s a Christian to do?
Do not be fooled by these self-proclaimed shamans who re-invent their entire worldview every 2-3 years. They all have one thing in common: self-worship. Do not seek “mindfulness” apart from God. If the answers lived within you, all of these psychology experts would have been cured of their problems sixteen books ago. Rather, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” It’s not navel-gazing, but the fear of the Lord, that is the beginning of wisdom.
Where meditation and self-help gurus encourage us to clear our minds and meditate on some vague, unspecified notion of self-deification, God tells us to “meditate on His law day and night, so that you may be careful to do all according to what is written in it” (Joshua 1:8).
And where “mindfulness” experts tell us the cure for every ail lies within us, we must take God at His word when He says, “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Neutrality is a myth. Stay strong in the faith.
Rule of thumb: whenever you see or hear anything encouraging you to mentally or artificially alter your state of mind to obtain some higher level of consciousness or understanding, the red flags should immediately go up, no matter how slick or high-tech or profound or helpful it seems. Seek the clarity, sobriety, and self-denial that comes only from knowing and being known by God.