The spiritual state of western culture is in a critical condition. Looking at television, movies and what is considered entertainment one finds sex and violence in everything. The world assaults all that is pious and holy.
In most folks hearts, they cannot reconcile what is happening and end up with depression or anxiety disorders -- or worse. The medical profession treats the symptoms by prescribing all kinds of medication. Without dealing with the root cause: knowing God. Several generations now are in this state.
I have a healing ministry and I can't tell you the number of times I hear "I feel dead inside". The answer to this is prayer, meditation, reflection and contemplation. Every individual has their own tools already or only need some gentle direction to develop a routine to invite the Divine Healer into their lives. Being in the mid-west, I find a lot involved with fundamentalist traditions who, like yourself, slam the door on spirituality of any kind.
The Catholic faith accepts them with open arms as do many others. The whole goal is to provide a supportive environment where the person feels comfortable to grow and progress along their spiritual journey in light.
If, as you say, 'Christians' are worried that spiritual practices will infiltrate their churches, folks will go elsewhere. Personally, I had a devastating experience when rejected by my church for a gift bestowed by a loving God. I finally left after years of trying to find someone there that could understand.
My personal daily routine is to get up early before the house is awake and meditate with the Word -- usually from the Gospels or Psalms -- followed by quiet reflection which I allow the Lord to speak to me. The results vary from self-knowledge which I note in my journal, poetry which is revealing, insights and revelations of all sorts, blissful states of indescribable ecstasy and so on. This I define as contemplation. I try to spend an appropriate amount of time with what has been given as a Divine gift and use it to plan my day.
I share a lot with my wife and have a healthy and spiritual marriage. I have a spiritual director who is also pastor of my on-line church community. We chat frequently and the community is becoming very vibrant and supportive.
So, what do I need to be warned from? How am I giving bad advice? The Bible has a deep spiritual meaning beyond the translated literal sense -- only the Lord can open that up and reveal it. Once seen and applied THAT is how to convert folks to Christianity. THAT is where the Church will thrive.
Basically, the danger of contemplative practices is that you don’t know for sure who you’re “talking to.” Eastern religions, new agers, and occultists alike use meditation and other practices to contact the spirit world. Does the God of the Bible require meditation to contact him? No, simply prayer, which Jesus taught us about when he prayed the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus didn’t go into a trance, or enter an altered state of consciousness, when he prayed. He just talked to his Father.
So then, what or who do people contact in the spirit world through meditation and altered states of consciousness? Perhaps deceiving spirits, so-called “angels,” “spirit guides,” demons? It says in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
And therein lies the danger. Biblical prayer is not dangerous. Yet those who promote contemplative prayer, like Richard Foster, warn that their methods are dangerous.
A snippet from this article:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/richardfosterbestilldvd.htm
And yet, Foster himself says this is a dangerous prayer method that can invoke demonic activity and requires special protection. From Foster’s book, Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home, Foster says: “I also want to give a word of precaution. In the silent contemplation of God we are entering deeply into the spiritual realm, and there is such a thing as a supernatural guidance that is not divine guidance. While the Bible does not give us a lot of information on the nature of the spiritual world [not true], we do know there are various orders of spiritual beings, and some of them are definitely not in cooperation with God and his way!...”