False mysticism
The BBC InOurTime podcast this week is about Margery Kemp, a "mystic" who wrote her autobiography to defend her mystical experiences as real. mp3link
I read the book and it is fascinating. But I agree with the church:
I just finished reading the last book in the Father Elijah series (someone posted it in a torrent: Thanks! but I bought the other books hardcover and have them here, but can't get them here on my present smaller budget)
In that one, there is a similar false mystic who mixes real "ESP" predictions, real theology, false theology and a lot of personal mysticism in her mix. I know the lady he is talking about, and she seems to be real, but a bit off: probably a real visionary who got caught in her ego and power play for her followers. Similar to Mother Nadine's problem.
and I also know a little known seer whose prediction came true, but a lot of extraordinary stuff was seen at his site (UFO type stuff) and when I visited, seemed to have false followers more interested in making us believe than in praying.
In Medjugorje, in contrast, we were told by one seer: It doesn't matter if you believe us, but follow the messages (forgiveness, prayer, conversion).
The overrationalism of the churches is why God brought up the charismatic/pentecostal movement, and why there is an outbreak of visions.
But is the outbreak more now, or just we hear about them? I am reminded of a shrine on a hillside in rural Colombia where someone had a vision: Home made, never got into the news, but the locals knew. Was Mother Angelica's visions of Baby Jesus real, or cortisone induced hallucinations (she had asthma and cortisone is notorious for this in high doses).
A lot of visions are probably a version of ESP/ imagination, or people with artistic tempraments who see things. Parapsychology, or God working in a way that some people (5 percent of the population) have a genetic ability for these things.
But a lot of these folks are vulnerable and get things wrong. Then they get "positive feedback" and go off the deep end, into conspiracy theories t the end of the world,, or egotism (Bayside anyone?..)
A true vision may also be diabolic, but as a doc, I won't go there.
And the Univ California press website has a book about some failed visions in Basque country in the early 1930's
The church ruled negative, and there was some confusion with a lot of different people getting visonns, which then stopped. The writer attributed this to the social pressures of modernization, but I wonder if it was Heaven trying to warn people about the upcoming very vicious civil war.
And is it a coincidence that many of the places where fairly famous visions happened in the 1980's was where war has broken out or communism threatened (Nicaragua, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Damascus, Mosul, Rwanda)?
These things have to be nurtured, and separate the real vision from the later things coming out (and yes, the present day kerfuffle about the 4th vision of Fatima is absurd: Uh, are you guys pushing the message of daily prayer and doing the duties of your daily life, or do you see some blessing as a magic wand to cure the church?)
Even the seers of LaSalette, who were very poor and ignorant, later put out a 'non approved" secret that seems to be about 80 percent on the mark, but had nothing to do with the warning of the Lady when she was first seen, which was a warning of the cupcoming famine among other things as a chastisement.
Even real visionaries can get things wrong, misinterpert what they see, or get sidelined by egotism or bad spritual guidance.
But the ESP/parapsychology part has been around for awhile, and often is a problem of "seeing through a smoked window", and I see it as one of the ways God tries to communicate with us.
Of course, so can psychosis, suggestion, and the devil, the last of which is why the church usually discoruages such things.
I read the book and it is fascinating. But I agree with the church:
She sometimes doubted the authenticity of her mystical conversations with God, as did the authorities who saw her devotional sobbing, wailing and convulsions as a sign of insanity and dissoluteness.
I just finished reading the last book in the Father Elijah series (someone posted it in a torrent: Thanks! but I bought the other books hardcover and have them here, but can't get them here on my present smaller budget)
In that one, there is a similar false mystic who mixes real "ESP" predictions, real theology, false theology and a lot of personal mysticism in her mix. I know the lady he is talking about, and she seems to be real, but a bit off: probably a real visionary who got caught in her ego and power play for her followers. Similar to Mother Nadine's problem.
and I also know a little known seer whose prediction came true, but a lot of extraordinary stuff was seen at his site (UFO type stuff) and when I visited, seemed to have false followers more interested in making us believe than in praying.
In Medjugorje, in contrast, we were told by one seer: It doesn't matter if you believe us, but follow the messages (forgiveness, prayer, conversion).
The overrationalism of the churches is why God brought up the charismatic/pentecostal movement, and why there is an outbreak of visions.
But is the outbreak more now, or just we hear about them? I am reminded of a shrine on a hillside in rural Colombia where someone had a vision: Home made, never got into the news, but the locals knew. Was Mother Angelica's visions of Baby Jesus real, or cortisone induced hallucinations (she had asthma and cortisone is notorious for this in high doses).
A lot of visions are probably a version of ESP/ imagination, or people with artistic tempraments who see things. Parapsychology, or God working in a way that some people (5 percent of the population) have a genetic ability for these things.
But a lot of these folks are vulnerable and get things wrong. Then they get "positive feedback" and go off the deep end, into conspiracy theories t the end of the world,, or egotism (Bayside anyone?..)
A true vision may also be diabolic, but as a doc, I won't go there.
And the Univ California press website has a book about some failed visions in Basque country in the early 1930's
The church ruled negative, and there was some confusion with a lot of different people getting visonns, which then stopped. The writer attributed this to the social pressures of modernization, but I wonder if it was Heaven trying to warn people about the upcoming very vicious civil war.
And is it a coincidence that many of the places where fairly famous visions happened in the 1980's was where war has broken out or communism threatened (Nicaragua, Venezuela, Yugoslavia, Damascus, Mosul, Rwanda)?
These things have to be nurtured, and separate the real vision from the later things coming out (and yes, the present day kerfuffle about the 4th vision of Fatima is absurd: Uh, are you guys pushing the message of daily prayer and doing the duties of your daily life, or do you see some blessing as a magic wand to cure the church?)
Even the seers of LaSalette, who were very poor and ignorant, later put out a 'non approved" secret that seems to be about 80 percent on the mark, but had nothing to do with the warning of the Lady when she was first seen, which was a warning of the cupcoming famine among other things as a chastisement.
Even real visionaries can get things wrong, misinterpert what they see, or get sidelined by egotism or bad spritual guidance.
But the ESP/parapsychology part has been around for awhile, and often is a problem of "seeing through a smoked window", and I see it as one of the ways God tries to communicate with us.
Of course, so can psychosis, suggestion, and the devil, the last of which is why the church usually discoruages such things.
posted by Nancy Reyes at
6:24 AM
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