Empowerment: The Art of Creating Your Life as You Want It

Author:

CRI Statement

Article ID:

DN038

Updated: 

Jul 31, 2022

Published:

Jun 9, 2009

How would you like to have everything you ever wished for in life? You can, according to David Gershon and Gail Straub. In their new book, Gershon and Straub tell us that empowerment is the key, for thus will give you the ability to cre­ate your own reality by the power of your mind. What “manifests” in your life will be a direct result of the thoughts you affirm — either on a conscious or unconscious level.

The authors offer a game plan for achiev­ing empowerment that focuses on making effective use of affirmations (positive self-talk) and visualizations (mental pictures of what you want to create). Detailed guided imagery exercises are provided in successive chapters for letting go of unhealthy emotions, enhancing personal relation­ships, enjoying sexuality, getting in tune with your body, and improving attitudes toward money, work, and spirituality. By using these affirmations and visualizations, the authors assure us that we will attract the worldly “nutrients” needed to have our “mental seed” grow to “fruition.”

In the chapter on spirituality, the authors (who embrace reincarnation) provide a list of “limiting beliefs” and accompanying “turnarounds”. By affirming the turnarounds, they tell us, we can dispose of unhealthy spiritual beliefs that limit us. Here’s an example: “Limiting Belief: God is a male figure with a lot of power who will punish me if 1 don’t do the right thing. Turnaround: I create God as a loving, kind, playful, wise, powerful friend. We play together co-creating the universe” (p. 200).

Gershon and Straub’s mind-over-matter techniques are blatantly occultic and non-Christian. And, like other New Agers, they deny wholesale that man (including his imagination) is fallen (Gen. 65). Thus they are blinded to the reality that they are using faulty equipment that can lead them astray. How much better it is to trust in the sure promises of a loving God for provisions in life rather than having to depend on one’s visualizing prowess (cf. Man. 6:30).

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