Altered State of Consciousness: A meditative or drug-induced non-ordinary state of mind. In a religious context, a state where the seeker is drawn out of his normal thinking processes into “self-realization” or contact with what he considers the divine or divine wisdom.[1]
Tim Mackie is a pastor and co-founder of the highly influential Bible Project. You may not have heard of Mackie and Bible Project, but your kids or grandkids certainly have. Bible Project has over two million subscribers around the globe–its reach is long. This organization has produced numerous videos on biblical subjects, some of them quite good, and it is very possible your own church is using or has used them. Bible Project’s Tim Mackie has become an advocate of the deceptive and anti-biblical meditation known as contemplative prayer. This article is an attempt to warn the Body of Christ.
According to Christine A. Narloch:
Contemplative [p]rayer is not Biblical prayer at all, rather it is a type of mystical meditation leading the mind into an altered state of consciousness. It goes beyond thought, providing an experiential union with so-called God or with nature producing body sensations, feelings, images, and reflections. [2]
Contemplative prayer can addle and alter one’s theology. That being said, let’s examine the meaning Mackie is reading into a number of biblical passages from two of his sermons and see what conclusions we can draw. Let’s start with Ezekiel 8:1:
And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me. (Ezekiel 8:1)
Mackie’s interpretation:
…as he’s sitting there, the Hand of Lord Yahweh comes upon him, which I’m pretty sure what he means is that his consciousness was altered in a very significant way because all of a sudden he’s looking and he’s seeing like what John saw in the heavenly temple and the one that Jacob saw in that field. It’s a human figure and they’re on fire yeah, exactly what John saw. [3] (emphasis added)
Is Ezekiel really referring to an altered state of consciousness?
Mackie makes the same claim about John in the book of Revelation.
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, (Rev 1:10)
According to Mackie:
Notice that when John talks about being “in the Spirit,” what he’s referring to is some mode of consciousness, some state of consciousness where all of a sudden John, on the Greek island of Patmos, could be with the cosmic risen Jesus, traversing the universe in the heavenly temple, while also being on the Greek island of Patmos. (Rev 1:10) [4] (emphasis added)
Mackie also makes this assertion concerning Jacob’s experience in Gen 28:10-18:
So isn’t it interesting that here’s Jacob in some place between Beersheba and Haran and he goes to sleep, notice the altered mode of consciousness is the key here, he goes to sleep and then he has a dream, and in that dream he sees like he’s in a place where heaven and earth are the same place.they’re connected through a bridge and what he sees is the same thing that John saw a human figure that he calls Yahweh, and what Yahweh says is I am with you. [5] (emphasis added)
Mackie goes so far as to claim:
Do you see how fundamentally different Jesus and the biblical authors saw reality than most of us do? And notice that the common denominator in all of these experiences is about people’s states of consciousness. Isn’t that interesting? [6] (emphasis added)
…we actually believe altered states of consciousness are when we’re most deluded about reality and Jesus and the apostles and prophets they…actually believe that it’s precisely when we are in heightened, altered states of consciousness and particularly when we are in vulnerable states of consciousness that we are most in touch with reality as it really is. Once again, I’m not, this isn’t just rhetoric, like this is how things are. [7] (emphasis added)
Mackie states:
Now maybe not in this room, but I know that many in especially Western Protestant conservative environments when you start talking this this way, people get twitchy. And when you start talking about elevated levels of consciousness and experiencing the mystical presence of God, first of all let me respond in as non-snarky a way as I can. For someone’s who’s like, this sounds like Eastern mysticism or something like that, let us just remember, where did the Jesus Movement originate? It originated in the East. And I really don’t think Jesus was just reciting Bible verses all night long like on the mountain. I’m sure that He was reciting whole psalms and that those psalms were sending His consciousness traversing the universe with His Father in prayer.[8] (emphasis added)
Mackie clearly believes our consciousness can be altered to experience reality as it (supposedly) truly is, whether this happens via sleep or dreams or the contemplative prayer practice taught by the now deceased Trappist monk, Father Thomas Keating. Mackie states he “learned a lot about prayer” from this contemplative priest.[9]
Contemplative prayer is essentially the same thing as Eastern or New Age meditation, but is masked with Christian terms and phrases. The goal in contemplative prayer is to stop the thinking process and enter into what is known as the silence. This is accomplished by repeating a word or a phrase over and over (or focusing on the breath) until the word loses its meaning and the mind becomes void.
In this silence many wonderful deceptions can occur. How sweetly and thoroughly can the unclean spirits work in this void! Beware. The contemplative advocates are popular, with their appealing sermons and podcasts. Many are believing their teachings and their claims.
There is a biblical meditation, and we read of it in the Bible. In fact, we are instructed to do this. (Joshua 1:8) In biblical meditation, the Word is pondered and the mind is active and thinking. This can be a wonderful experience with our God.
I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways. (Psalm 119:15)
And I shall lift up my hands to Your commandments, Which I love; And I will meditate on Your statutes. (Psalm 119:48)
Some years ago, the contemplatives came up with a brilliant answer to Christians who saw the similarity between contemplative prayer and Eastern and New Age meditation. It was explained that New Age and Eastern practitioners strive to empty the mind whereas Christian contemplatives, on the other hand, seek to fill the mind with God.
This clever marketing ploy has drawn many into the deception of contemplative prayer–which as previously noted is really not prayer at all.
Finally, here Mackie puts a contemplative spin on the time Jesus took Peter, John, and James up the mountain:
These are men who have been shaped by the deep, deep daily rhythms of prayer and contemplation. And when they go up to the mountain to pray, what they’re doing is to expand their conscious awareness of the presence of [Paradise] on top of that mountain. [10] (emphasis added)
Ray Yungen notes:
This is what I am warning Christians about. Contemplative prayer is presenting a way to God identical with all the world’s mystical traditions. Christians are haplessly lulled into it by the emphasis of seeking the Kingdom of God and greater piety, yet the apostle Paul described the chuch’s end-times apostasy in the context of a mystical seduction. If this practice doesn’t fit that description, I don’t know what does. [11] (emphasis added)
Yes, there are consequences for delving into contemplative practices. The contemplative-prayer-altered-state-of consciousness can open one to demonic deception. It alters and addles one’s theology. It is long past time to take a hard look at exactly what Tim Mackie believes–and teaches–and to determine which of Mackie’s sermons and numerous Bible Project videos and podcasts are in error.
Pray for Tim Mackie.
Source Notes:
1.Kevin Reeves https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/new-booklet-tract-d-is-for-deception-the-language-of-the-new-christianity/
2. Christine A. Narloch, CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER: SEDUCING SPIRITS AND A DOCTRINE OF DEVILS
3. Tim Mackie, Paradise Now, Luke 23, 33:42
4. Tim Mackie, Paradise Now, Luke 23, 31:42
5. Tim Mackie, Paradise Now, Luke 23, 32:14
6. Tim Mackie, Paradise Now, Luke 23, 35:27
7. Tim Mackie, The Gathering ’22, Main Session 3, 41:38
8. Tim Mackie, Paradise Now, Luke 23, 44:39
9. Tim Mackie, Paradise Now, Luke 23, 36:46
10. Tim Mackie, The Gathering ’22, Main Session 3 45:05
11. Ray Yungen, A Time of Departing, p. 140
The Word Like Fire 