Humanity’s Ascension: Assessing the History Channel’s New Age, Time Travel Guru David Wilcock

Author:

Lindsey Mendenwaldt

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Article ID:

JAF4433

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Updated: 

Mar 9, 2023

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Published:

Jan 20, 2021

This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume 43, number 03 (2021). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal please click here.

The tension was palpable. Along with 19,000 people, I was waiting for New York Times best-selling author David Wilcock to arrive. (You might know him from the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series.) He was almost thirty minutes late to his own YouTube live video, but his fans were waiting because his appearance came with a promise: he was going to reveal true secrets about time travel.

Once he arrived, Wilcock spoke for more than four hours, repeating multiple times that YouTube was probably going to shut him down because of the secret information he was sharing (it didn’t, and the video is still online).1 In the video, which has been viewed more than half a million times as of this writing, Wilcock talked about everything from extraterrestrials, secret government conspiracies, and QAnon2 to UFOs and hidden time machines allegedly scattered throughout U.S. military bases.

Wilcock is probably best known for his views on UFOs and aliens,3 and he certainly has a cult following in that respect, but he also talks a lot about spirituality. He claims that when he was two years old, he began being visited in his dreams by an old man (someone he says bore a striking resemblance to Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars), who told him that he would become “a very famous spiritual figure.”4 Wilcock’s task? To expose the truth surrounding “something very phenomenal that would happen to the whole planet as we go through this mass evolutionary event.”5 So, his message, then, isn’t just about extraterrestrials and conspiracies. It’s about humanity — our origins and our future.

BACKGROUND

In his book, The Ascension Mysteries, Wilcock chronicles his somewhat typical childhood — he lived in suburbia, had two working parents, attended public school, and levitated for the first time when he was five years old.6 Okay, maybe not so typical. His parents divorced when he was eleven, and he was bullied due to his intelligence and his weight.7 As a teen, he experimented with marijuana and LSD.8 He also started to hone his psychic abilities, like extrasensory perception (ESP), which he practiced on friends. He says that once he sent a mind message to his friend to think about gold when he woke up. Later he told Wilcock without prompting that when he woke up, he immediately thought of his gold watch.9 Wilcock endeavored in ESP because he wanted to serve humanity: “I felt that if I practiced harder, and got better at ESP, I might be able to see the future as Nostradamus had done, and possibly help save the world.…The old man in my dreams had often asked me to develop these abilities.”10

Rather than pursue a PhD in pyschology after college, Wilcock’s Dream Voice (later revealed to him as Ra) led him in another direction — to Virginia Beach, the childhood home of Edgar Cayce.11

REINCARNATION OF EDGAR CAYCE?

Wilcock claims he is the reincarnation12 of one of the founding fathers of the New Age Movement, psychic Edgar Cayce (d. 1945). Wilcock refers to reincarnation as “a scientifically provable fact” and “a hidden secret of Christianity.”13 He also says, as many New Agers do, that “there is extensive evidence that reincarnation was originally a teaching of Jesus.”14 Those who believe in reincarnation typically also believe in karma, the cosmic good-and-evil scale where good begets good, and bad begets bad. Of course, there is no clear and unambiguous evidence Jesus taught reincarnation or karma — indeed, neither concept is compatible with His extensive teachings on resurrection and judgment — nor is there any evidence that references to reincarnation were removed from Scripture.15

Regarding Cayce, to perform psychic readings he would connect with the “universal consciousness” while laying on his couch in an unconscious state to help cure peoples’ medical issues.16 Cayce’s critics note that he was often wrong, sometimes giving “diagnoses of subjects who had died since the letters requesting the reading were sent” (emphasis in original).17 Cayce also prophesied and apparently predicted events like the stock market crash in 1929 and World War II,18 but he had several unfulfilled prophecies, too, like the uncovering of secrets of Atlantis in the Great Sphinx of Giza.19

Wilcock believes that Cayce lives on — through him. Undoubtedly, they do have striking physical similarities, apparently evidence to Wilcock and his followers of reincarnation.20 Interestingly, Cayce claimed to be a reincarnation of Ra-Ta (the Egyptian sun god).21 Wilcock says he has channeled Ra (his Dream Voice).22 This “psychic connection” has, according to Wilcock, permitted him “to bring forth essential, specific information to assist in humanity’s future…giving us notice of the impending dimensional shift and explaining how to approach it in the most positive manner.”23 Of note, Wilcock says he did not want this connection and seems to have accepted his role somewhat begrudgingly.24

Although reluctant, like Cayce, Wilcock has prophesied about major events, like Y2K25 and solar flares (originally predicted for 2012).26 Most recently, he said he predicted COVID-19 back in 1996.27 He regularly emphasizes that prophecies don’t necessarily need to happen for them to be true: “When you see a future event, you are not seeing a future event. You are seeing a future probable event. That’s an important difference because anything you think might be happening in the future doesn’t need to happen if you don’t want it to happen” (emphasis added).28

ASCENSION AND KARMA

Although Wilcock uses teachings from many religions, including Christianity, he primarily employs Ra’s Law of One, which helps us “transform consciousness on planet earth, and prepare us for a mass Ascension event they called harvest.”29 Ascension is, most simply put, reaching our highest possible selves through evolution, social changes, and karma.

Wilcock says, “If you actually begin understanding and harmonizing the laws of the universe, you’ll realize that good things come to you because you’ve earned them through how you think about yourself and others and how you treat yourself and others.”30 In other words, life’s a balancing act: “All you have to do is be slightly above 50 percent ‘service to others’ as opposed to ‘service to self’ and you are cleared for ascension.”31 So, it comes down to you. “You are the master monk. You are the Jedi knight.…This life that you’re living right now is the sacred path.”32

Once you have ascended, Wilcock says, “you may just leap into an entirely new level of human evolution — and gain all the abilities of masters like Jesus.”33 As Christians, we know that our good works don’t earn us eternal union with God in heaven but are an outpouring of our faith in Christ. Humanity is fallen and in need of a Savior. What Wilcock misunderstands is that we are not that Savior. Jesus died and was resurrected because there was no other way for humanity to be saved.

GOD AND JESUS

Wilcock espouses the typical New Age belief that we’re all One, and we’re all God.34 He denies that there is any separation between God and humanity. “The biggest damage that we have is that we think God is something separate from us,” he says. “We think that we’ve been abandoned by some higher power.…That becomes our relationship with God for most people.”35

Wilcock has a lot to say about Jesus. He considers Jesus a “way-shower,” not the Savior.36 He believes Jesus was real but that He “got blown way out of proportion in terms of people making Him into the only Son of God.”37 In 1998, Wilcock channeled38 Ra, who said of Christ: “This very Christ is now designed to become literally your personal savior, but not in the sense that the fundamentalists would have it. Rather, it is that spark in you. It is you, and you are it; there is no separation.”39 In the same psychic reading, John 14:6 gets twisted beyond recognition:

‘I am the way’ — namely, there is no other way but thine own way, revealed to thyself in the clarity that comes from deep, internal wounding….

‘I am the truth’ — namely, there is no other truth, save for the Light within.

‘I am the life’ — namely, there is no greater life than that which comes inherently from understanding this depth of communion with the truest nature of oneself.40

Put plainly, Christ isn’t the way, the truth, or the life — you are. James Sire once said, “If you can employ [the Bible] in the service of your own cause, you can gain for your cause a certain credibility — even where the Bible is not accepted as the sole authority on matters of faith and life.”41 To be clear, we are not God. We will not be one in essence with Him. The Creator and His creation are not one, and Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. Not you.

RESPONDING WITH TRUTH, IN LOVE

Conspiracy theories and aliens aside, what Wilcock says about God, Jesus, and humanity should set off alarm bells. As Christians, we must test the spirits to see if they come from God (1 John 4:1). Jesus warns us about false prophets (Matt. 7:15) and calls us to make right judgments (John 7:24). Indeed, we need to speak out against false teachers so that others do not fall for their deceptions (Deut. 13). It could be easy to laugh at or simply write-off some of Wilcock’s views, but make no mistake, he’s convincing. If you know someone who follows Wilcock, speak truth, in love, with gentleness and respect (1 Pet. 3:15). Our task is to dismantle arguments, not people (2 Cor. 10:5).

Lindsey Medenwaldt is Executive Director of Mama Bear Apologetics and serves as a consulting editor for the Christian Research Journal. She has a Master’s in Apologetics and Ethics from Denver Seminary, a JD from St. Mary’s School of Law, and a Master’s in Public Administration from Midwestern State University. 

NOTES

  1. “David Wilcock: Time Travel Secrets Revealed…and Why It Matters Today!,” September 16, 2020, video, 4:22:35, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZXZIlWh8vk.
  2. For more about QAnon and modern conspiracy theories, see Adrienne LaFrance, “The Prophecies of Q,” The Atlantic, June 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/.
  3. The focus of this article will not be on Wilcock’s views about extraterrestrial life or UFOs. For more about aliens, see Robert Velarde, “Did Ancient Extraterrestrials Visit Earth,” Christian Research Journal 37, no. 6 (2014), https://www.equip.org/article/didancient-extraterrestrials-visit-earth/.
  4. “David Wilcock: Ascension Through The Ages,” February 16, 2019, Video, 1:59:56, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9OiszmswXo. Apparently, his mother had dreams that Wilcock would “be a spiritual leader.” David Wilcock, The Ascension Mysteries: Revealing the Cosmic Battle Between Good and Evil (New York: Dutton, 2016), 41. In 1994, a Shinto priestess in Japan who was shown a photo of Wilcock said of him, “This man will be a very famous spiritual leader.” Wynn Free with David Wilcock, The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce? Interdimensional Communication & Global Transformation (Berkeley: Frog, Ltd., 2004), 119.
  5. “David Wilcock: Ascension Through The Ages,” February 16, 2019, video, 1:59:56, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9OiszmswXo.
  6. Wilcock, The Ascension Mysteries, 27–28.
  7. Wilcock, The Ascension Mysteries, 94–99.
  8. Wilcock, The Ascension Mysteries, 160–68.
  9. Wilcock, The Ascension Mysteries, 78–79.
  10. Wilcock, The Ascension Mysteries, 77.
  11. Free and Wilcock, The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?, 52.
  12. The rebirth of a soul in a new body. Reincarnation originated in Hinduism, Buddhism, and other Eastern worldviews.
  13. Wilcock, The Ascension Mysteries, 270.
  14. David Wilcock, Awakening in the Dream: Contact with the Divine (New York: Dutton, 2020), 301.
  15. For further refutation of reincarnation and karma, see Douglas Groothuis, “Logical and Biblical Defeaters of Reincarnation and Karma,” Christian Research Journal 39, no. 5 (2016), https://www.equip.org/article/logical-biblical-defeaters-reincarnation-karma/.
  16. “Who was Edgar Cayce?,” Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., https://www.edgarcayce.org/edgarcayce/his-life/.
  17. Joe Nickell, Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions & Healing Cures (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1993), 159.
  18. “Edgar Cayce’s Seven Prophecies that Came True,” Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., https://www.edgarcayce.org/the-readings/ancient-mysteries/seven-prophecies-that-came-true/.
  19. Sally MacDonald and Michael Rice, Consuming Ancient Egypt (Portland: Cavendish Publishing, 2003), 180–81.
  20. Wilcock, Awakening in the Dream, 507–508.
  21. Free and Wilcock, The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?, 62.
  22. There are too many complexities regarding Ra/Wilcock to address in this article, but for more, see chapter 6 of Free and Wilcock, The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?.
  23. Free and Wilcock, The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?, 95.
  24. Wilcock, Awakening in the Dream, 508–11.
  25. David Wilcock, “Reading: Y2K and Our Future,” December 28, 1999, https://divinecosmos.com/read-free-books-here/readings-in-text-form/200-122899-reading-y2kand-our-future/.
  26. David Wilcock, “David Wilcock on Ascension: Your Q&As Answered,” video, 1:35:49, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ-kefT9jxs&feature=emb_logo.
  27. Wilcock, Awakening in the Dream, 564. He seems to go to great lengths to make this “prophecy” fit the 2020 pandemic.
  28. “David Wilcock: Prophecies and Science of a Golden Age [Part 1],” May 3, 2010, video, 54:46, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEyqT2_ricA&list=PL24CA5C4D28922749.
  29. Wilcock, Awakening in the Dream, 331.
  30. “David Wilcock on God,” Starseed Alliance, October 14, 2019, video, 7:00, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoFWNlYIU0E.
  31. Wilcock, The Ascension Mysteries, 473.
  32. “David Wilcock: Intensive Part 1,” Contact in the Desert, March 19, 2019, video, 1:38:04, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJy1rfu4nxA.
  33. Wilcock, The Ascension Mysteries, 26.
  34. Wilcock, Awakening in the Dream, 300.
  35. “David Wilcock on God,” Starseed Alliance, October 14, 2019, video, 7:00, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoFWNlYIU0E.
  36. Wilcock, Awakening in the Dream, 160.
  37. “David Wilcock on Jesus Christ,” Starseed Alliance, March 10, 2018, video, 4:42, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1QD3ql3Cqw.
  38. For more about channeling, see Doug Groothuis, “Channeling: Revelations of Deception,” Christian Research Journal, January 16, 2020, https://www.equip.org/article/channeling-revelations-of-deception/.
  39. Free and Wilcock, The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?, 291.
  40. Free and Wilcock, The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?, 291.
  41. James W. Sire, Scripture Twisting: 20 Ways the Cults Misread the Bible (Downers Grove, IL: 1980), 41.

 

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