Page 319 - Islam and Far Eastern Religions

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FROM THE QUEST FOR IMMORTALITY TO SORCERY

Chinese people since ancient times have practiced fortune telling,
astrology, spell casting, healing and sorcery. They developed medita-
tion, breathing and healing techniques in their quest for immortality;
this inevitably led them one way or the other into paganism.
Some Taoist movements focused on sorcery, calling on so-called
divine spirits, making offerings to the deceased, casting spells for rain

and winds, healing and exorcism. The Chinese were more inclined to
divert their search for immortality from the field of medicine to sorcery.
There were also sects of immortality, and one of the most important
leaders of such movements which emerged from the Taoist school was
Chang Tao Ling (AD 34) Tao Ling is acknowledged to be the founder
of today’s Taoism of sorcery and superstition. According to Taoist leg-
ends, Ling received from Lao Tse the sword and other tools from the
world of spirits and thus came to control this world. Such movements
believed that it was possible to achieve immortality by means of medi-

tation, breathing exercises and control, stretching, bathing, diet, use of
medicines, and altering the positions of the body; one of the humorous
side effects of this quest for immortality was the absurd belief that one
could attain invisibility! Tang-Yie-Jie from Peking University describes
the irrational and illogical aspects of the search for immortality in his
book titled Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Christianity and Chinese
Culture as follows:

At the end of the Warring States period (that is the third and sec-
ond centuries B.C.) there existed people who called themselves “im-
mortals” and claimed that by certain practices they could “extend their
lives and not die”… How can people keep from dying? The ideal in the
Taoist religion is for people to “extend their lives and not die,” to “fly

Harun Yahya (Adnan Oktar)