I got a pedicure today in honor of our upcoming anniversary trip to the Bahamas (Wooooohooooo!). And no sooner was I settled comfortably in my back-massaging, vibrating chair with my feet in the warm water then Mandy (the Aveda nail tech doing my feet) walked up with a little booklet and said "look through this - these are all the chakras and pick one out to be added to your lotion." So I, looking stupified, said "huh?"
She launched into an explanation that Aveda, corporately, had decided to reintroduce their aromatherapy linked to all the chakras in the body...said something about 'Indian medicine' and whichever one I picked is the one my body was craving -- the thing I needed the most. The cards said things like 'wisdom, insight,' etc. And then she said that Aveda had reformulated these scents so that they actually changed things internally around these chakras. (Again "huh?"). Still unsure what a chakra was....
I sat thinking about how strange it was to have an entire world-view proposed to me (or forced upon me) while I got a pedicure at my neighborhood salon. I was not expecting it and was really taken aback. I sensed that God was urging me to understand that, in these times, we are more and more going to be presented with things like this: things that are counter to His Kingdom. Anti-Jesus world views that are proposed by nail techs. I say anti-Jesus because ANYthing that proposes a power (especially to redeem and heal) that is outside of the power of Jesus is FALSE. That doesn't mean that there isn't power that can be experienced -- it just means that it's a counterfeit to the real thing; essentially a chakra-balancing pedicure is 'occult-ish' - it stands opposed to God's real healing and redeeming power.
I need to get prepared. I was asking Jesus if there was anything He wanted me to do, say, etc. to Mandy. I wasn't compelled, so I didn't. But I certainly did note how strange and startling this experience was as I consider it from the perspective of the Kingdom of God.
Pursuing Dreams
6 months ago
4 comments:
Right on. Fight the power.
I see things such as this at the hospital. Did you know that a healthcare provider can consult to have healing touch (or reiki) done on a patient WITHOUT permission of the parent? I see this happen with kids in the PICU.... Scary! Talk about imposing... and on the innocent! It is viewed as healing, so how can there be anything wrong if it brings healing?!?! TImes are definitely a-changing!
Dearest Sister of Mine--and her friends: Just because someone offers you a freakin' cream for your pedicure doesn't mean they are pushing their world view on you!!! Sheesh.
If you change the "Jesus" to "Christ", the Indic teachings of the chakras are beautifully compatible with the teaching of Jesus. But if you don't know them, I could see how it might be a little weird.
But why not find out about it before you pronounce it "false"---ESPECIALLY when you don't know anything about it.
That way you don't miss out on a chance to enrich and deepen your own world view.
James-
What makes me wince about the whole goings on is the fact that something I'd think of as irreligious (a pedicure) is being infused with a religious belief system. That's all. My attitude would be "Why can't I just get the nails buffed without getting into Hindu (or Tantric Buddhist) teachings on energy centers?"
And for people who don't know any different, this kind of "oh, it's nothing- just an ointment, think nothing of it" approach could be an inoculating introduction into a religious worldview (yes, chakras are part of a specific worldview) for someone who may not have any knowledge regarding the meaning of such things.
And, as offensive as I'm sure this sounds, as a follower of Jesus, I don't really want anything else tampering with my 'energy force' (even if the good folks of Aveda are well-meaning, as I'm confident they are). That's a choice I've made but, if I didn't know better, I might be getting a pedicure that serves a religion that radically conflicts with the teaching of Jesus. That sounds severe (and I would've never thought there WAS such a thing until Alli's post!), but that's what's disturbing about the story to me. It's the "religionization" of something amoral--and too much religion creeps me out (but that's another post!)
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