Mike Shreve : Guru who found the truth

I watched an amazing testimony from a guru who tried Jesus. He had a near death experience when he was a young man, and that led him to see the world as fairly pointless seeing as how he knew there was so much more, which led him to find a Indian Guru and dedicate his life to finding Nirvana.

Mike dedicated his life to this, taught at 4 Universities in Florida, owned nothing but food utensils and a couple pairs of clothes and any donations he received. He also was running a Florida Ashram in Tampa.

He lays out the incompatibility between Hinduism and new age sort of pantheistic teaching that has crept into the church. I loved how he went into how he would explain away issues between Hinduism and Christianity.

I think he is uniquely qualified to give this sort of discussion on what is wrong in the church. If you click the video, each section will follow:

I've heard of this guy. It's just my personal opinion, but I don't believe his conversion to Christianity is genuine. I thinks it's possible he's a charlatan, like so many others in the church.

reply to post by UnifiedSerenity


That doesn't sound like a Christian to me. But props to him - he played the field at least.

AfterInfinity
reply to post by UnifiedSerenity

 

That doesn't sound like a Christian to me. But props to him - he played the field at least.

What exactly did he say that makes you say he does not sound like a Christian?

reply to post by UnifiedSerenity

What exactly did he say that makes you say he does not sound like a Christian?

It wasn't him, it was you. The way you described the path he took. I am curious as to why he went from the Kundalini (which does have strong Hebrew ties) to Christianity.

But I don't want to watch the video.

AfterInfinity
reply to post by UnifiedSerenity

 

What exactly did he say that makes you say he does not sound like a Christian?

It wasn't him, it was you. The way you described the path he took. I am curious as to why he went from the Kundalini (which does have strong Hebrew ties) to Christianity.

But I don't want to watch the video.

edit on 24-10-2013 by AfterInfinity because: (no reason given)

Since you don't want to watch the video, we really have nothing to discuss in this thread. Kundalini is tied to Babylonian mysticism which crept into Judaism (Kabbalah) and through ecumenicism into the church. It's nothing like Christianity, but since you just like to disagree with all my posts and not discuss the real OP, our conversation is pointless.

reply to post by UnifiedSerenity


Well, since your thread is clearly subject to so much traffic and debate, I'll just leave you to it.

AfterInfinity
reply to post by UnifiedSerenity

 

Well, since your thread is clearly subject to so much traffic and debate, I'll just leave you to it.

Pearls before swine comes to mind.

Klassified
I've heard of this guy. It's just my personal opinion, but I don't believe his conversion to Christianity is genuine.

I completely disagree.I think his conversion to Christianity 100%.

Klassified
I thinks it's possible he's a charlatan, like so many others in the church.

I completely agree.This is the method of all churches(religious systems).You have to pay the piper one way or the other.I don't doubt his sincerity at all.He believes what he is doing is right and of God and in one sense ...it is.

All of the many are called (everyone) has this experience in one form or another.What they don't know is it is the wide road(with multiple religious paths...everything is religion) that lead to the wide gate of destruction of ...religion!!..what they believe..their "belief system".

Some are closer to the truth(a trillion quadrillion light years away) than others.It's how life works....life, destruction death...life.....that's not karmic ..it isn't cycle.No one can "work" themselves out of it.It is the infinite process of life. in which mankind is in the embryonic stage.The light at the end of the tunnel is a ways off for most of the many are called.Any light before then was an ultra sound scan.

I don't know much about Mike Shreve, but I suppose skeptics could say he moved from being a social and financial climber in one cult (Yogi Bajan) to being the same thing in another, bigger cult (appearing on TBN).
shreveministries.org...

That may sound harsh, and I don't mean to upset anybody, and it is not an attack on Eastern religion or Christianity as such, but rather questionable groups within the respective religions.
In fact, this seems to point to much stronger debates within the respective faiths about what is legitimate, and what was recently invented.

From what I could find (there seems to be no specific biography on Shreve except his own repeated claims) he has been involved with a Christian ministry since 1971.
That means his conversion to Christ (or arguably his hallucination from too much yoga) was a very long time ago.
Interestingly, he doesn't describe Yogi Bajan in horrible terms from what I've seen, although some people eventually did.
Essentially he seems to be saying that he found Jesus through Kundalini yoga!
At one time the New Age movement was considered the major enemy of Christianity, and this was seen as watered down Hinduism, although most of the yogis and gurus followed by Westerners had little following in India, and some, like Rajneesh were treated with hostility (he was even suspected of running CIA experiments).
More recently the main focus is on the dangers of radical Islam, and Hindus and Buddhists are wanted as allies, rather than religious rivals.
Suffice it to say that debunking gurus was once a cottage industry of it's own, despite the fact that few of these gurus had any legitimacy in Hindu tradition, but they were all lumped together as "Eastern religion".

According to a piece in The Sikh Archives Yogi Bajan made up his version of "Kundalini Yoga" (attributing a false history to it allegedly going back thousands of years), and it became a money making cult.
The techniques may be considered hypnotic mind-control with a focus on hyperventilation, and some people had negative, even psychotic side-effects.
The piece has 4 video clips exposing Yogi Bajan.
www.sikharchives.com...
By his own admission Shreve taught for this cult at four universities.

TBN has received an F-rating from the charity watchdog Ministry Watch for several years for their lack of financial transparency, and there have been other scandals concerning the ruling family and their affiliates.

It has also become associated with people like Benny Hinn, and what some would call mass hypnosis, fraudulent "healing" claims, false prophecies and financial confidence scams based on the prosperity gospel.
That whole stream of Christianity is also suspect in many ways.

What is quite amazing is that while some pastors and ministries were producing books and films to expose "Eastern gurus" in the 1980s, the same hypnotic and behavior modelling techniques were spreading through many Charismatic churches.

This clip is quite interesting, although it's not knocking entire religions but fringe groups within them.
Since there's also rivalry and financial competition between sects and ministries it's also unsure whether all the claims are true, and one religious group knocking another always seems somewhat peculiar, especially as there are cross-conversions from one to another on a daily basis.
There's a lot to choose on YouTube to push one or another viewpoint.

However, this bizarre behavior was bound to raise eyebrows (even from traditional charismatics), and it is rather strange how it moved into Christianity, and I'm doubtful whether this was ever a part of any mainstream Eastern religion.
I'm not sure if Mike Shreve criticized this, but I've always wondered where these techniques originated, and why some gurus and pastors seem so untouchable by the authorities.
It might point to major a conspiracy behind religions.

Searching for more clips on Shreve, I came across this appearance on Sid Roth.

While there's little on Shreve, Googling Sid Roth quickly produces information that some Christians consider him a false prophet who teaches "witchcraft".
Roth has also hosted Todd Bentley, who is accused of practicing the "Kundalini" techniques in the last clip in my post above.
Indeed, Roth is mentioned as hosting and promoting most of the purveyors of some of these bizarre "drunkenness" groups.
So why would Shreve appear on Roth, without a word of criticism about all this?
Did he really convert from "Kundalini", or simply incorporate it into a larger movement?
South Africa has a large Hindu community, and I've never seen them act like that - I'd say these techniques are relatively new mind-control in both the East and West.

Apart from on-screen product-pushing, Shreve claims one of his children "died" and saw Jesus in a dream.
I suppose the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
Next he claims he foresaw the Obama election and that there would be a proliferation of nuclear weapons during his presidency which will (might?) result in the nuking and annihilation of New York!
Then he does a Benny Hinn act (a Hinn-do?) and claims a prophesy over a completely unspecified and fictitious viewer, with very general problems.

Well, each to their own, but I won't bother watching anything more by Mr. Shreve.
From one cult to the next - that's about all one can deduce about his conversion.
I'm happy for him and his followers if they found something nice that suits them.
Good luck with it.

I think what I liked most about his testimony is how he shows the incompatibility between these new age and Hindu beliefs and Christianity and how he responds to the idea of karmic debt paying,reincarnation, and pantheistic thoughts that have crept into Christianity. I really have not watched anymore of his stuff, but I did like this. I posted it because many might find some useful information to counteract the arguments proposed by those who like those beliefs and claim to be Christian.

reply to post by halfoldman


I am in agreement with a lot of what you have said. I did not take from Mr. Shreve's testimony that he found Christianity through Kundalini yoga, but that he was a big teacher of that path when he was presented by a friend about following Jesus and to "try Jesus". I have lived all over the world, and one stumbling block for me was this idea that only if you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior would you go to heaven because I lived amongst people and cultures that were not christian who lived exemplary lives, were very loving and giving to others and for me it caused a huge problem within my Catholic upbringing and exposure to Baptists who would knock on my door asking me if I was saved.

I judge no man's heart or being accepted by God, but if given the opportunity I will share my path with others and have been blessed to lead quite a few in salvation prayers and baptism including JW's and Mormon's who happened to knock on my door to witness to me. I used to eagerly invite them into my home to talk.

I have known many sincere non-Christians who were raised Christian and did not find God in that path who sought out enlightenment elsewhere, but when given the opportunity without psychobabble, guilt trips, fear of damnation, but just given the simple message of the free gift of salvation and indwelling of the Holy Spirit though faith in Messiah Yeshua their seeking stopped. We do each have our own path to forge, but for me, I have found many reject the idea of Christianity without truly knowing the truth of it.

"By the love you show to one another will they know you are my disciples" is what Jesus said, and I do believe few would reject Him in person or spirit if they had the chance to know Him.

That's all good. It's quite OK to say my faith doesn't agree with another because of this or that.
I think only one is currently nasty enough to have the death sentence for apostasy, but that's another debate.

However, for me the thread did touch on larger issues.

There is a movement in Christianity which has adopted very bizarre forms of worship.
A lot of concerned Christians blame this on "Kundalini" or "Eastern" religion.
Actually I thought this is what the thread would be about.
Meanwhile, Eastern religion seems to have little to do with it, and these were all gurus who pandered to Westerners and were accused of running cults in the 1970s.

Now Shreve shares the same platform with some of the people who push these chaotic forms of worship in Christianity.
According to some critics they are using the same un-Christian techniques as Kundalini, yet Shreve, who claims to have left Kundalini long ago, is not critical of this pandemonium.

That begs the question of how techniques practiced by Rajneesh (CIA?) and other false gurus (like Yogi Bhajan) ended up in Christianity.

No offense to Christianity or Eastern religions, but Shreve seems to have gone from one disreputable fringe cult to another.

I've demonstrated why I say these particular groups are disreputable even in their respective traditions, and will not repeat my first or second post here (see above).
As such I think he's either a fool who lacks any discernment, or he's a religious con-artist (quite likely).

Sure, mainstream Christianity will disagree with Hinduism, or Sikhism, which is religion 101.
I didn't see much discussion on theological differences in the OP clip, but it's pretty much a given, except for an interfaith few who might call themselves Christian.
That's also fine (perhaps more so from an Eastern perspective, rather than the Middle-Eastern perspective of Christianity), but books on world religions wouldn't need to have separate chapters for each faith if they were all the same according to the majority of people.

However, what irks Andrew Strorm above, for example, is not the blatant philosophical differences.
It is rather an insidious form of worship that I would call mass hypnosis or mind-control, and which some Christians would call demonic possession.

Now I find it just a bit strange that Shreve was a teacher of the cult that invented a form of Kundalini Yoga, and now this has gradually developed in Christianity since his conversion in 1971.
I also believe he must have known that the Sikhs broke their line with Yogi Bhajan, and that he was not a bona fide guru of any existing tradition.
www.huffingtonpost.com...

At least in the last clip Shreve still performs the role of the conman-Godman quite well, making wild prophesies and verbal claims that can never be proven or specified in any way.
That's even lower than most TV mediums.

I'm skeptical, and I think people are being brainwashed, also politically, and Shreve could surely address the concerns in some way, because a lot of people look at this weird behavior and think it's a complete embarrassment to Christianity, or they wouldn't even call it Christianity any more.

Do you have something showing Shreve supports the Toronto Blessing, word of faith preaching and the holy laughter etc.? I'd be interested to know if he did support this extreme part of the charismatic movement. I had actually posted that video you put up the other day.

I believe these sorts are wolves in sheeps clothing, hirelings looking to line their pockets. Have you heard of Trey Smith who robbed on of those television word of faith preachers? Here is one of his clips:

reply to post by UnifiedSerenity

No, this thread is actually the fist time I've heard of Shreve, and it seems that nobody has even bothered making a Wikipedia entry on him.

A lot of these hyper-charismatic "Kundalini" preachers seem to focus on youth ministries, like Bentley or Sloshfest, and Shreve isn't a spring chicken.

His performance on Sid Roth shows that he's very much in the same stream of Christianity as Hinn and Bentley, and he doesn't seem to have criticized the obvious similarities between certain gurus and preachers.

But who knows, maybe he was a bigger figure behind the scenes, especially as he must have been well versed in mind-control techniques after teaching for Guru Bhajan, and there's little doubt that these techniques have to do with forms of mind control and suggestion.

I'll watch some of his other clips when I have time, and see if they reveal more.

reply to post by UnifiedSerenity


God bless him and his family,

I pray he continues to seek and walk with the Way, the Truth and the Life,

In the Holy Name of the LORD,

God our Father, the I am who always Was, Who Is and Always Will Be,

God the Son,

God the Holy Spirit,

Our Triple Unity Heavenly Father,

the Almighty,

Jesus Christ,

How GOOD is our GOD?

Amen!

I've watched it, and it interests me as a person raised Christian who went down the same eastern mysticism path. Believe it or not, I've been in contact with him via email. a reply to: UnifiedSerenity

originally posted by: AfterInfinity
reply to post by UnifiedSerenity

 

That doesn't sound like a Christian to me. But props to him - he played the field at least.

I've watched his videos and been in email contact with him. I don't get the impression he is a fake.