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"A study found that people professing to be spiritual, but not conventionally religious, were more likely to suffer from a host of mental challenges."
In my previous location ther were a lot of new-age/spiritual folk. Many of them were a bit off mentally. The question is whether they were mentally off and became spiritual or the other way around.
I need to add that I am not saying that all spiritual folk are mentally off, but it seems (in my experience) many are. I am not refering to Native American or other indigenious spirituallity, but mainly the New Age and Occultic type.
Good to see that you clarified that, but then again it's still just your opinion, the same could be said about other religious groups also.
I have found that most studies that are done by certain professionals and groups are usually slanted towards a certain agenda or preconceived notion that they have set in their own minds...
I would argue that the demons you speak of as they pertain to aborginal people in the Americas and Australia have WAY more to do with the effects of conquest and marginalization than our respective spiritual beliefs. As many native peoples have been converted to Christianity at the expense of our cultural traditions (and often by force in the past), the loss of those traditions have been very detrimental to us especially when combined with marginalization.
I am thinking that's what you meant by "for reasons outside their control" though.
I would like to add that I completely agree with this statement....... I have also witnessed how this is done.
I would argue that the demons you speak of as they pertain to aborginal people in the Americas and Australia have WAY more to do with the effects of conquest and marginalization than our respective spiritual beliefs. As many native peoples have been converted to Christianity at the expense of our cultural traditions (and often by force in the past), the loss of those traditions have been very detrimental to us especially when combined with marginalization.
I am thinking that's what you meant by "for reasons outside their control" though.
Well yes I would include that for sure, but I was thinking specifically of sexual abuse which resulted when First Nation children were forcibly removed and educated in state run institutions. All in the interests of "civilising" them. This happened in both Australia and Canada, but at least in Canada those that were responsible, including HRM were sued and found guilty.
Well yes I would include that for sure, but I was thinking specifically of sexual abuse which resulted when First Nation children were forcibly removed and educated in state run institutions. All in the interests of "civilising" them. This happened in both Australia and Canada, but at least in Canada those that were responsible, including HRM were sued and found guilty.
Ah, got you. There were forced adoptions in the US as well.
Based on the article, it seems that they are confusing correlation with causation and are rushing to make a judgement.
The last sentence in the article is the best one: "The nature of this association needs greater examination in qualitative and in prospective quantitative research."
People who turn to Jesus and His Spirit must listen to the lead in the Spirit as it can be dangerous if believers have gifts of Holy Spirit and ignore the lead which can cause a lot of problems in health and the victory through the Lord , But If they listen then they will not have any dangerous problems as Jesus will take care of all issues as the authority in Christ will breeze believer through any thing.......................... Then there is a group of people who engage in transcendental meditation, where a kundalini demonic spirit can play hectic to the glands of people who do this strange fire from these demons which will shoot streams of senses right out the top of these people heads , as this kind of spiritual opening of doors will harm people and best avoided............... Then there is gnosis spirit who will bring a deception of higher religious knowledge which is mostly error , which will get people proud of their false knowledge, and many mess up people mind or make their friends flee away..........
Then there is a group of people who engage in transcendental meditation, where a kundalini demonic spirit can play hectic to the glands of people who do this strange fire from these demons which will shoot streams of senses right out the top of these people heads , as this kind of spiritual opening of doors will harm people and best avoided............... Then there is gnosis spirit who will bring a deception of higher religious knowledge which is mostly error , which will get people proud of their false knowledge, and many mess up people mind or make their friends flee away..........
You've got to be kidding me. Demons...seriously?
You know, you people "demonize" everything you don't understand. Why is it that Fundamentalist/Evangelicals have a need to water everything down with some Christian explanation of why [insert whatever they don't understand/agree with here] is evil and is trying to lead us away from God. Sheez.
Peck also got involved personally with Malarchi Martin (Hostage to the Devil) and wrote Glimpses of the Devil based on his personal exposure to extremely troubled individuals for whom he attempted (and once succeeded) exorcism. I think if you personally saw some of this you might have a different view on the afterlife. Not that I think Malarchi Martin was necessarily 100% honest, nor indeed using the best approach to these very rare cases.
Hm, I was unfamiliar with that particular book. After reading some excerpts on Amazon.com, it reminds me of Peck's tendency in some matters to have such an open mind that his brain would sometimes leak. He has to be the least judgmental person I've heard of, and in this case, that's no compliment. I think many aspects of his other books verge on brilliance, particularly his book about rational suicide, but in this case I think he allowed himself to be manipulated.
I do not say this lightly. It's not like I have zero experience of this. In my theist days I came to know a church deacon who had contact with the "deliverance movement", a splinter group that believes demonic possession is common rather than rare, even among Christians. Perhaps unwisely, at his invitation I attended an exorcism. I saw a 125 pound woman toss aside three burly men attempting to restrain her during the process. This rattled me a bit, but I also noted that they did an awful lot to rile her up and she was clearly not mentally stable to begin with. If people have been known to single handedly lift cars off of someone pinned beneath them, what I saw wasn't a stretch. In any case, I saw tons of suggestions placed upon a highly suggestible person, some of them quite outlandish, in what was clearly a "throw mud at the side of the barn until something sticks" approach. They were clearly roping her into believing she had demons, and she was also clearly an attention hound. At any rate my impression was that it was a three ring circus and that there was nothing supernatural about it. And that was well before my belief system had eroded; I still at that point believed in a personal god and a personal devil.
"A study found that people professing to be spiritual, but not conventionally religious, were more likely to suffer from a host of mental challenges."
In my previous location ther were a lot of new-age/spiritual folk. Many of them were a bit off mentally. The question is whether they were mentally off and became spiritual or the other way around.
I need to add that I am not saying that all spiritual folk are mentally off, but it seems (in my experience) many are. I am not refering to Native American or other indigenious spirituallity, but mainly the New Age and Occultic type.
This may be one of the few things I agree with you on. My wife and I visited Sedona, AZ once, which has to be one of the new-agey-ist places on earth, and a total stranger introduced themselves to us and started telling us about their alien abduction experience. My wife, a former reporter, could not help herself, and slipped into interview mode. Before we knew it we had four or five people eagerly speaking of being levitated into a spaceship and probed in vaguely sexual ways. We ended up with an invitation to join them that night out in the desert for a session watching digital artifacts in night vision goggles -- er, viewing alien spacecraft flitting about the skies. An invitation we didn't follow through on.
Experiences like this suggest to me that a lot of New Age stuff is either people with loose screws finding common cause, or being fleeced by snake oil salesmen. Strictly speaking I don't even classify it as spirituality, it's too free form, without even a pretense of an organizing principle.
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