Sigh the end is nigh

I've been hearing the end of the world is nigh for about 60 years and indeed, there have been many close calls.

It was a major miracle that we didn't get blown up during the Suez crisis, or the Cuban Missle Crisis, or the Berlin wall construction, or the various wars against Isarael.

Then a miracle did happen: The wall was torn down.

I remember in the 1950's, my mother and several of her friends, all housewives, met once a week to say the rosary for peace in our house.

Millions back then were praying for peace, with little notice even by the movers and shakers in the church. And it worked.

And now we hear how "meditating" will "evolve us to a higher power" and humanity will evolve to a new utopia.

Isn't it funny that these power hungry types can get on tv and give lectures to the Youtube channels for yuppies, but who except for the margin will notice prayer groups.

Ah, but the rosary was "thrown out" and discouraged by the mid level litugists and reformers after Vatican II. So is anyone praying?
Besides some old fashioned Pinoys like my late husband?

Well in Oklahoma we still had a prayer group, and  a weekly evening when the church was open for silent prayer for our priests. But even in that diocese I hear that the new bishop has thrown out the school for exorcists from that diocese. Guess he doesn't realize that our Indian and Hispanic people still recognize demon worship and evil spirits exist...

Never mind. When I got home from Africa I read Rev Wilkerson's Vision, and most of what he predicted has come true (the collapse of morals, divorce, homosexuality, and low grade persecution of the church, and also the fall of the Iron curtain and that Russia and China would be evangelized).

But Mark Mallet's latest is one of many he predicts about the coming persecutions and wars. LINK

I think what a lot of people don't realize is that these things won't be sudden: They morph slowly. As I see medicine being taken over by a culture of death where we kill the unborn, and will soon kill imperfect infants, the handicapped and elderly, while limiting medical care to those who need it the most under the guise of "quality control" guidelines.

But not being in the US, I have no idea if our bishops are doing their thing and standing in the gap leading prayer groups to prepare for what is slowly sneaking into US culture.

The bishops are more afraid of an amoral and narcissistic but pragmatic Trump than with a Hillary who is a true believer and who will impose the culture of death via court systems and executive branch regulations, as is already being done by President Obama.

a good analogy on how this moral catastrophe could slowly engulf the world can be found in Camus' novel The Plague, where people first ignore and then try to cope with the epidemic..

In this respect, our townsfolk were like everybody else, wrapped up in themselves; in other words, they were humanists: they disbelieved in pestilences. A pestilence isn't a thing made to man's measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn't always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away, and the humanists first of all, because they have taken no precautions.” ― Albert Camus, The Plague

alas, that is why I worry about the US bishops of the church of nice...

the point of Camus book is about the response of French civilians to the Nazi culture of death.

His point is that although many were lost in the moral chaos, that some decided to resist it.

as for Mr Mallet: he notes a lot of folks are "delinking" to his site: I don't think it's his TEOTWAWKI posts but his posts defending the Pope.

I like a lot of what the Pope says, but he is also sowing confusion and doubt about basic morals (divorce) and beliefs (the sacredness of the Eucharist as a true union with a living Christ, not a symbol sent to make people feel happy).

Confusion is one sign of the demonic, so when I hear the latest nonsense out of Rome, I remember Rev Wilkerson's warning that the liberal Catholic bishops in Europe will take over the church and join the NWO church, which says nice things and pushes SJW type agendas, but that those who still believe in the Scripture what Christians have believed for 2000 years will be persecuted by them... this schism will lead to Catholics pushed out to join with their fellow Christians, unless of course there is a schism where we will be allowed to worship God in church, not mother gaia.

One only has to see the two "catholic" VP candidates in the US to see this: One became a Christian but attends a non Catholic church, the other claims he is "catholic" but ignores faith and morals and indeed everything but the SJW part of the church.

pentecostal: warning

See previous two posts on the new age drugs to see God and the Pentecostal explosion.

(and I need to add: If I repeat myself, it is because I've been interrupted five times.)

Then read Herescope on the problem of Pentecostal religion.

It's quite long and links to a book about the problems that I plan to down load and read.

A lot of it has the name "Berean" in it's links: That is a very rigid SDA site (and of course, the SDA think the Vatican is the anti christ and Harry Potter  is demonic and Tolkien is occult, but never mind.)

One reason to read the right and the left (or the lax and the rigid) is to check if they have a point.

I agree with Pope Gregory the Great, who quoted Paul and advised that when discussing conversion, you take the good in what they people already believe in, and build on that. You "baptize" the culture.

This means American Christianity is close to Pelagianism, i.e. deeds not belief counts, because most American Catholics and most American Christians deep in their heart believe if they are good and kind and help their neighbors, they are Christians, never mind the dogma.

And in Africa, it means prayer and dancing for the Lord and feeling his spirit in you is normal and good.

Frank Sheed once quipped that the definition of a saint was an "Italian virgin" because they had so many ladies there having visions or stigmatas.

In Asia, the real danger here in the Philippines is not the mystical superstitions of the poorer types (use this relic for good health etc) but that the rich feel stealing/bribery (and girlfriends) are okay as long as you are generous to the poor and use the money to help your extended family.

And what has come into the Philippines with Protestantism is the "prosperity" gospel: if you follow Christ your business will prosper. Well, if you are honest that is true, but that easily morphs into seeing God as making you rich because you are better than the poor schnook sleeping under the bridge.

CS Lewis in Out of the Silent Planet has his professor try to translate the concept of Evil to beings who never fell from grace and have no name for it. He ends up translating it as "bent".


When Paul says everything is good if you love God, and that rules don't count, he is not saying everything is good and throw away the rules, but that if you are obedient to God's voice, you will stay within the narrow road and not go overboard into error.

The word for this is "Discernment".

So years ago I was warned that hypnosis (as a doc) was demonic and dangerous by a SDA doc friend of mine. Well, it isn't, but as I watch the infiltration of "meditation" and "mindfulness" ideas into medicine, I suspect that she had a point.

Hynosis, Centering prayer, Meditation and similar things are deep concentration. You block out the external noise and concentrate on one thing.

Hypnosis for pain control is good. Deep concentration while one plays music or writes is good. Deep concentration while sitting in the presence of the Lord is called the prayer of quiet. Catherine Doherty describes this as like sitting quietly holding hands with your husband, communicating without saying a word.

Hynotizing oneself and telling oneself that one should get rich is not. Discovering you were once the queen of Sheba while you do a "past life regression" is absurd and silly...And hypnotizing oneself that the cancer has gone away or that you don't need that antibiotic is downright dangerous.

Uh, fellahs, sometimes God uses persons and things to do his will instead of doing miracles.

So my take watching the "healings" in the video I cited a few blogposts back was: Heck, they think they can heal after a six week course, when all I had to do is study for 23 years to be a full fledged doc.

That doesn't mean I don't believe that God can heal, but it does mean that a lot of the stuff shifts over into "magical thinking".

So does Reiki and theraputic touch for that matter. Docs know about the power of touch, and the placebo effect, but unlike the nurses or nuns who use Reiki or other nonsense, I don't go around and claim it's me doing the job. (If I sound angry while I am writing, it is because I've had to treat patients who ended up sick or in pain or in deep psychosis because they stopped their medicine because they were "healed").

Reminds me of a charismatic priest who came and told us all to come to his healing service later that day: He kept saying "I healed this" and "I healed that".

 what nonsense! HE healed them? ....I was reminded of Pare's famous quote: I treated them, but God healed them.

Well, he had some type of power (the dentist I worked with ended up on the floor). But never mind.

Passing out with a blessing is called being "slayed by the spirit": I've seen rational people that this has happened to, so it is a real phenomenum. But no, it hasn't happened to me, even when I was blessed by a famous and holy priest. Maybe I am too sceptical, or maybe the spirit knew I was schtupping my fiance at the time and decided I wasn't worthy of receiving the gift. Never mind.

Well, anyway, the Herescope article points out how some groups are claiming that the Holy Spirit is leading everyone to a higher power.

Summary: The book The Physics of Heaven (TPOH) boldly attempts to launch a new theology. Pastor Larry DeBruyn's 12-part series has provided our readers with a solid apologetic to refute both its pseudo-science and mystical teachings. When he wrote Part 1 Pastor DeBruyn observed that “some within the Charismatic movement are asserting that a Quantum merger is taking place between the powers of heaven and the energies of earth.”

Hmm... Quantum merger?

sounds familiar... sort of like BarbaraMarx Hubbard's quantum evolution... she gave a speech to the Sisters-from-the-church-of-what's -happening-now a couple years ago, telling them they are at the vanguard of evolving to a higher power (and buy her books and tapes for only 300 dollars). Here they are, singing and dancing in front of their beloved guru.

For modern nuns, orange is the new black...

She called this "quantum evolution"... guess delusional minds think alike.

it says a lot for Benedict XVI that after this he tried to shut them down, and Francis agreed with him, but alas they are still at it, albeit claiming they repented.

Of course, Hubbards quantum evolution happened in 2012, and I haven't seen a lot of change for the better on earth, so maybe it didn't work.

/s (end sarcasm)

As a scientist, the exaggeration of the New ager and the charismatic are both egotistical and illogical.

You might object and say that all religion is illogical, but that is not true, as JP2 and other modern philosophers like Peter Kreeft point out.
But don't take my word for it: There is a nice course from UCLA on Science Magic and Religion that goes into the differences in detail.





My point is that exaggeration and megalomania are not the way to the Lord.

Catholics have long experience with mystics, and tend to lock them away (e.g. Padre Pio or Sister Lucy).

And if and when they die, the decision if they are saints or not does not depend on their visions, but on the sanctity of their daily life.

A good example of a fake mystic is Margary Kemp.

A good example of a mystic with common sense is Teresa of Avila.

Ah, but a good example of a saint with only one or two mystical experience sin her life who served God in their mundane daily duties is Therese of Lisieux. The Little way.

The problem is that, just as a married couple can lose love if all we do is work and not renew our love both with kind gestures and lovemaking,  we weak humans need a positive experience to keep going, and this is where God sends us his version of Eros.

Pointing out that God's love for men resembles eros more closely than a disinterested agape is not a new idea: This is why the Song of Songs is in the Bible, and why Hosea's love for his wife is a symbol of God's love for Israel.

or as Benedict XVI wrote:

The one God in whom Israel believes, on the other hand, loves with a personal love. His love, moreover, is an elective love: among all the nations he chooses Israel and loves her—but he does so precisely with a view to healing the whole human race. God loves, and his love may certainly be called eros, yet it is also totally agape...

I think that what I am trying to say is that, like eros, the pentecostal experience is a powerful means that God uses to keep people near to him.
But like eros (especially in today's world), confusion, egotism and ignorance could lead many away from him.

On the other hand, an atheist or agnostic could actually find God in his medical or new age meditation. As CS Lewis pointed out in the Screwtape letters, God is sneaky, and uses all sorts of pleasurable things to lead people back to him.


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update: An Ancient saying (that is still used in Orthodoxy) was that God became man so man could become God. In Christianity if we allow God in our heart, he uses us as his hands and our mind and heart becomes transformed with his grace until we are like him...or we are his instruments, or when we do things, we are standing in his stead, as a priest is Christ when he says the mass. Or as Corrie Ten Boom put it: We are like a glove, and God is the hand.

But this is too often misunderstood so that saying and the idea behind it it is rarely used in the western church, which is more rational and word oriented.

Excuse the choppiness of the essay: Life keeps interrupting.

mysticism for the non PC

musings linked from my main blog.
a continuation of my previous musings. (one of these days I will put the musings together logically but it's hard when one is interrupted ten times)


Yuppies wanting signs and wonders go to the Amazon or Nepal but hey, why go there when your local hick church can give you the same thing?




This is part of the "Finger of God" series that is not, alas, on Youtube yet.

It is about the pentecostal/charismatic renewal.

I'm not sure if it made me find God or if it made me cynical. Both probably.

The miracles seem minor, even absurd, but when someone is looking for a sign, and they see this as a sign God loves them, then who am I to judge?

and I remember one of Cole's conversations with a poor woman in the US about how she gets hope and strength to live by  attending these services.

As James notes: there are many varieties of religious experience

The cynical west ignores that it is Pentecostal Christianity that is the fastest growing religion and reshaping much of the third world...or in the diaspora from the third world into the first world.

Jenkins notes, most of the Christians in the near future will be in the Americas, Asia or Africa, and this seachange will even effect the USA:

If we project the largest Christian populations by 2050, the United States will still be at the head of the list, followed by Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Nigeria, the Congo, Ethiopia, and China. And even in the United States, many of the Christians will be of Hispanic, Asian, and African origin. By that point, one-third of all Americans will have Latino or Asian roots—roots that will be overwhelmingly Christian. This does not include those Americans of African origin, people who are either African Americans or of more recent African stock.

and this is affecting the Catholics too: much of what is pushed by Pope Francis is an emphasis on the personal experience of Jesus...and he has talked about repentance with confession, the devil, and other old fashioned beliefs

the bad news is that his message of helping people instead of teaching rules gets distorted by a PC press and certain left wing politicians that takes the quote out of context to insist that the church plans to discard the rules and become PC.

it is actually more complicated than this. Again from Jenkins' article:

Southern Christians would not avoid political activism, but they would become involved strictly on their own terms. While many espoused political liberation, they made it inseparable from deliverance from supernatural evil. The two terms are indeed related linguistically and often appear together in biblical texts, but the juxtaposition of the two thought-worlds of liberation and deliverance seems as baffling for many Euro-Americans as it is natural for Christians in the Global South.

Yes, which is why I can only shake my head in disbelief when the modern white Texan made bishop of Tulsa decided to shut down the exorcism school for priests.

Most Catholics in the area are not Anglo but Native American or Hispanic, and my Osage patients often requested that their house get blessed if they suspected spirit infestation (minor note here: My German grandmother did the same thing 80 years ago when their house had poltergeist activity).

so is this playing into people's superstitions?

Only if it stops with the signs and doesn't nurture a more mature faith.

Falling in love with the deity is the same as falling in love with a person: Wonderful. And attending a service where one feels the spirit in one's heart is like when a married couple "makes love" (as opposed to sex). It is the food that gives one strength to make it through the hardships of life.

And this is why the community part is important:

Tea at Trianon links to a book on the Dark Night of the soul: where is God in times of trouble?

and more ominously, she links to a pastor who usually is level headed but now is warning about the coming persecution.

Part one: fake mysticism

AnnAlthotuse links to an article (and no I won't post that link) about the latest yuppie craze for taking a mild hallucinogen from the Amazon that makes you vomit.

A search for instant mysticism that reminds me of the LDS claims from the 1960's.

Isn't this cultural appropriation?

I don't know how common the vomiting is with Native American healing cermonies, (the genuine ones tend to keep out strangers).

But they found evidence of "Black tea" in Cahokia, so it is probably an ancient ritual.

But using the vomiting drug is mainly used at the end of a sing, where for several days the community gathers around you while people essentially pray for you, then you get the drug and vomit" your evil ideas.

It is probably symbolic, since one Pentecostal preachers says that some people "vomit" when released from demonic oppression.

Probably psychologically symbolic, but like a lot of the Pentecostal stuff which claims miracles and healings, the problems will return if you don't continue with the disciplines of prayer and community (or as one sardonic Carpenter warned: after released, the spirit is homeless, and comes back with seven other demons to re infect his previous host)

Drug use in positive rituals is not that strong if done properly...as one of my friends explained, peyote use in the Native American religion gave only a mild feeling of oneness with the deity and is taken only by a few during the ceremony, where again the stress is being in harmony with the community.

Ironically, her medicine man warned her not to attend the ceremony any more, since her tribe did not use this ritual.

Mother Drexel once took peyote so she could understand the  community she served, and she compared it to receiving communion.

The oneness with the deity in communion is both real (for Catholics and Orthodox) but has it's origin in deeper symbolism of meals, of nourishment, of becoming one with the
 deity. This is supposed to lead to a personal encounter.

Yes, which is why the Post Vatican II singing hymns during the post communion time is annoying: it disturbs the ability to pray deeply in this time. But of course, kids in the US no longer learn these things or recognize what they are doing is a holy thing
.
Hallucinogens are deeply connected to the diabolic, even in pagan religions: Do you take the drug to get high/get power, or to humble yourself and feel in harmony with those around you.

One doubts that flying 1000 miles to do a fake ceremony with a bunch of strangers will help you, any more than all that meditation stuff pushed by gurus under the guise of mind body medicine will.

By severing this (in this case, self hypnosis) or the use of drugs from the discipline of traditional ceremonies, religion, and from the community, and pushing it as a way to power, you are more likely to become delusional and to resurrect the "demons of the id" than actually find the deity.

Leslie Nielsen call your office.