Worship?

OR SOMETHING ElSE?

A dear friend and his wife invited me to attend their evangelical church recently. I chose to do this because it was a way of saying to my friends that they are important to me. I also chose to do so to revisit my experiences with Christianity. Some 22 years ago I moved to Grand Island, Nebraska. I had just spent the previous 14 years in a Catholic Charismatic Covenant Community. Bishop Albert Ottenweller had investigated our community and found problems that traced their roots to the teachings of our non-denominational overseers: The Sword of the Spirit. As my wife and I entered this church the music ministry was on stage, fully engaged with the congregation. I would label them a folk rock band. They were singing songs that the congregation knew. They didnt stop singing. One song led to another, with a prayer in between. The tempo and mood built to a crescendo then fell off as the Pastor of this flock took the microphone. He prayed. Everyone listened, amend, and then sat down. The pastors talk that week was designed to evangelize. It was the first of four weeks of evangelistic sermons designed to bring people to Christ. There were people waiting outside the hall in the foyer who would pray with us, if we wanted. The pastor talked about how as a young, single adult- he ran from God. Then he talked about how as a young father and husband- he later ran to God. Then he talked about how as a pastor and fervent Christian- he was running for God. There was no altar call (thank God) and my friends never looked twice at us the entire time. He was busy following the scriptures associated with the teaching on his iPad. (I was busy taking notes on my smartphone which later disappeared.) The service ended with more music recessional in nature but still good folk rock music- as my friend, his wife, my wife and I left to spend the rest of the day sailing together. TODAY After 20 years trying not to think about my own relationship with God, I had recently come to the conclusion that I was agnostic. I have also decided not to hide it. I have joined a group dedicated to preserving the church and state separation. I have been accepted into a secular organization of psychologists and psychotherapists. And I am officially recruitable now in the eyes of my Christian friends. Unfortunately for them, my days of being saved by God are over. My days of loving God and being loved by God- are not. REFLECTIONS: The first thing I found myself thinking was how the folks at the local non-denominational, evangelical church were one Baptism in the Holy Spirit away from an entirely different experience. The dynamics present in their church were identical to the dynamics present in my previous charismatic, prayer meeting experience. All that was missing was the explosion of praise and subsequent singing in tongues that followed the worship I once enjoyed.

Yes, enjoyed. Enjoyed immensely. And that is where the bulk of my reflections seem to gravitate toward: how enjoyable this experience was to the congregation and how I once was a part of that same experience. And how concerned I have become about that experience since then. SELF HYPNOSIS? This church via the music ministry- was nursed into an altered state of consciousness. In my covenant community we did the same thing, only much more intensely, utilizing the verbal worship and Glossolalia (speaking/singing in tongues) that followed. The last 20 years has left me fascinated with how my experiences worked. Was I really in the Presence of God? We always thought that we were. After 20 30 minutes of worship some of it very loud and boisterous, and other parts softer, quieter, yet no less intense- one would slip into silence. It was a silence of the mind, of the spirit. It was stillness. It was calm and internally satisfying. It was known as, Being in the Presence of God. It was also a period when those among us could (in their mind), hear God speak. Those revelations might be personal and specific to us as a person. But when received at a Community Gathering they could be considered applicable to the entire group. They were submitted to and tested as such by the person who discerned them before they were spoken out loud. These revelations were called prophesies in the Charismatic experience. They were spoken in the first person, as if by God. This did not happen in the Evangelical service I write about here. But the Evangelical congregation was moving in that direction: creating experiences of excitement and stimulation (via the mood induced by the music) that fell suddenly into quiet periods of near silence. Immediately following and attached to this silent period were prayers and teachings while congregants were still enjoying the designed experience of internal calm or relaxation generated by the worship in which they had just participated. What concerns me about Charismatic and Evangelical worship services is the possibility of being hypnotized. I would not describe all churches who worship in this fashion as creating hypnotic conditions. But I would say that there are persons among them that enter into that state. And when in a hypnotic state it is easy to introduce into the human mind beliefs that can have positive or negative effects on the person. DEFINITIONS OF HYPNOSIS The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis1 publicly describes the effects of hypnosis on the human subject in three ways. My concern has to do with the third way that hypnosis effects people. The internet page of the Society describes it this way: Finally, hypnosis may be used for unconscious exploration, to better understand underlying motivations or identify whether past events or experiences are associated with causing a problem. Hypnosis avoids the critical censor of the conscious mind, which often defeats what we know to be in our best interests. The effectiveness of hypnosis appears to lie in the way in which it bypasses the

https://www.asch.net/Public/GeneralInfoonHypnosis/DefinitionofHypnosis/tabid/134/Default.aspx

critical observation and interference of the conscious mind, allowing the client's intentions for change to take effect. Could it be that Churches that practice mood altering forms of worship (any ritual/music/chant or act that puts a person in an altered state of consciousness2) are able to bypass the, critical censor of the conscious mind in members? Would that be the very same censor whose job it is to analyze what it hears and react according to a persons core beliefs? Is it ethical to knowingly or unknowingly bypass, the critical observation and interference of the conscious mind, of another human being? What if our intention is only to open ourselves to the Presence of God and other stuff leaks in? Or is deliberately inserted without our permission or awareness? What if this new material is designed to have an effect on us that isnt in our best interest? What if its just easier to inject a person with a suggestion while in an ungarded/altered state of mind rather than engage a person intellectually while not in an altered state on the merits of a topic? Looking back at my own experience in Sword of the Spirit Covenant Community, I ask myself today: is that how you convince 350 adults (many with college education) that societal collapse is imminent? That the world may be coming to an end? That the only safe place to be is in a Sword of the Spirit Covenant Community? It would seem that giving people discordant or troubling information in a hypnotic state would make that information less troubling. Furthermore, it would help them manage the experience of it by decreasing (or inhibiting?) the appropriate anxiety response to it! What an effective way of influencing what people think and then providing an anesthetic like mechanism when they start to consider the implications of the new information. None of this happened last weekend when I attended Church with my dear friends. They and the other members of their Church seem to be invigorated by their experience. No one suggested they drink koolaide or build an Ark. There was mention of donuts in the foyer however. And these were eaten! :-o Humor aside, I am left uncomfortable. I believe subtle beliefs that are more the mind of men than the Mind of God are introduced in many Churches. I believe it happens more intensely in Churches that utilize Charismatic forms of worship. I believe it can be used for good, to strengthen and affirm our relationships and our lives. I believe it can also be used to reinforce aberrant models of Christian belief that divide, make people afraid and or alter their belief system in a surreptitious manner. And I believe that after 20-30 minutes of heartfelt praise and worship, the person who introduces the next line of thinking or belief can wield tremendous influence over open minded people in altered states of consciousness, sitting, kneeling or standing around them, innocently believing themselves to be in the presence of a kind and merciful God. But men rarely perform as well as such good Gods, even with the best of intentions. John Flaherty Grand Island, NE September 9, 2013
2

Definitions of altered states vary a little. Ive chosen two: the first from Wikipedia (An altered state of consciousness, also called altered state of mind, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking beta wave state ) and MerriamWebster (any of various states of awareness (as dreaming sleep, a drug-induced hallucinogenic state, or a trance) that deviate from and are usually clearly demarcated from ordinary waking consciousness.)