Ah, the Irony...

Just the other day I wrote the blog entry about our lack of understanding of the power of the spirit realm. Well, here we are in a 3-day "spiritual" retreat with all of the Central American MCCers, and I am disturbed by what I have heard in the teaching session that I have attended.
The speakers have been brought in from Chiapas, Mexico to lead us through the retreat. One is a native Mexican and the other is a Swiss lady, pastor/theologian in the Reformed Swiss church background. Apparently the two of them have been working together for some time in Chiapas.
They are focusing on the Mayan Christian traditions and rituals, and are leading the group through various exercises. I assumed that they were coming from a "normal" evangelical viewpoint and felt that I was open to hear what they had to say. However, the alarm bells started to sound when they started to lead us through gymnastics to "gather the power from the earth and sky", and bring it inward. They proceeded to talk about getting in touch with the heart of "Mother Earth" and to understand that God is in all of creation (not that we can see who God is, but that He is actually in the animal, plant, etc.).
Meantime they had created a traditional Mayan altar in the center of the room with various colors of flowers and symbolic candles. They proceeded to explain the "paths" from one candle to another: red to black signifies God's life and death, white to yellow signifies something (can't remember) to corn/plenty, and there were two others that I cannot remember. The three paths form a traditional Mayan cross. In the middle they place a small clay pot with burning incense. Each person lights a small candle and offers him/herself to God, through the candle.
OK, this is as best I understood/remember it. However, as they continued to talk about all of these things I became more and more filled with the conviction that this was not of God, and so I left the room before they performed the incense part of the ritual.
I keep asking myself if I am over-blowing the whole thing, but I cannot shake the feeling that they are entering the realm of the occult, and it is not benign! I opened my Bible to 1 John 4 (funny, I had a marker there) and read: "Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."
This experience is at the polar extreme of ignorance of the spirit realm, but I fear that the spirits with whom they are dealing are not of God.
If anyone is more knowledgeable on this subject or has some insight I would love to hear your thoughts.
More to come as I process this.