Not everything called healing actually heals.
In this episode of The Orthodox Health Podcast, Dr. Michael Christian & John are joined by Christian trauma therapist, Anastasia Gerali, The Reborn Anastasia, to discuss her journey from cultural Orthodoxy into New Age spirituality... & back to Christ.
Anastasia shares how trauma, divorce, manifestation, hypnotherapy, yoga, meditation, psychic practices, Buddhism, & ayahuasca all became part of her search for peace. What first felt empowering & inclusive eventually revealed itself as spiritually destructive.
Her story culminates in the moment the Holy Spirit instructed her to pray to Jesus, & Christ restored the identity that trauma & false healing had distorted.
They also discuss why the New Age attracts wounded people, how trauma can become an identity, why nervous system regulation is not salvation, what therapy can & cannot do, & why true healing means becoming whole in Christ… body, soul, mind, will, memory, wounds, & all.
Takeaways:
- Counterfeit healing often starts by naming a real wound. The danger is not always that the pain is fake, but the false gospel built around the pain.
- The New Age attracts people because it often feels compassionate, inclusive, & empowering.
- Manifestation replaces prayer with control.
- Trauma is real, but trauma is not identity. It can shape survival patterns, but it must not become the organizing center of the person.
- Nervous system regulation matters, but it is not salvation.
- Therapy & confession are not interchangeable. Therapy expose patterns, but repentance/metanoia bring the person before Christ for transformation.
- Christ restores identity. The final word over the person is not trauma, diagnosis, survival pattern, or false identity… but Christ.
Sound Bytes:
- “New Age felt like the complete opposite. It was very inclusive… it felt like coming home, if I’m honest.”
- “You’re a ritual away or a practice away from the thing that you’re looking for.”
- “Now I absolutely know without a doubt that that was a demon.”
- “I was using the word surrender, but I wasn’t surrendering myself to Him. I was trying to surrender to me.
- “Christ restored my identity… my identity in Christ, as chosen, cherished, loved, created.”
00:00 Coming Up
03:08 False Healing
03:54 Meet Anastasia Gerali
07:09 Cultural Orthodoxy
09:48 Trauma & the Search for Healing
12:23 Why New Age Felt Like Home
13:29 What Christians Misunderstand About New Age
16:43 Manifestation & “The Secret”
18:40 Hypnotherapy & the Subconscious Mind
21:58 Yoga, Meditation & Psychic Practices
23:17 Subjective Truth, Dreams & Spiritual Deception
25:38 Ayahuasca, Hidden Knowledge & the Veil Dropped
33:59 Buddhism & Reincarnation
36:26 Plant Medicine, DMT & Testing Every Spirit
39:19 How Christ Pulled Anastasia Out
44:46 Jesus Christ, Surrender & Deliverance
50:07 When Trauma Becomes Identity
57:44 Trauma Neuroscience, Strongholds & Survival Patterns
1:06:18 Therapy, Confession & Repeated Patterns
1:08:38 Metanoia, Repentance & the Renewal of the Mind
1:10:58 Christ Restored Her Identity
1:17:18 Closing Thoughts
Where to Find Anastasia:
@the.reborn.anastasia - Instagram, YouTube, & TikTok
Work with Dr. Mike :
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Intro & Outro Music: St. John of Chicago Orthodox Church Choir (Arkansas) - Please support their building fund by buying the whole album here
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