It's no wonder Christians are looked upon with so much derision by so many when there are these kinds of people out there.
John Crowder claims he met Jesus while on an acid trip and now travels the world getting people quite literally high on God. He and his disciples 'drink', 'inject' and 'smoke' Jesus and spend much of their time seemingly wasted and posting bizarre sermon videos on YouTube.
6 comments:
Interesting. This guy would fit right in with the hippies from back in the '60s, and that whole psychedelic thingy. But, it exposes the fact that we as a species are all hardwired to want or need additional depth, fulfillment of things we have realized are missing. To say nothing of a greater overview, with a realistic perspective as to how self functions within that bigger picture.
Many cultures have attempted to attain enlightenment or realization through alteration, including Native Americans. Others do it by trancing out to alpha in meditation rituals or through self-hypnosis.
I am not a follower or fan of Benny Hinn, but I accidentally saw part of one of his recent messages. He told of some Christians who had had visions of or encounters with Jesus Christ. It appeared as if Benny felt that this was perhaps the ultimate saving experience, the one event which would make one unable to turn back from one's faith, no matter what extreme circumstances occurred in one's life. It equated these people with the apostles in certain ways. And, I'd heard such anecdotes from others over a lifetime.
I'll admit that as a Christian, I have not had such a direct, personalized, graphic, and visual encounter. However, I am curious as to whether anyone contributing to this blog has. Anyone care to share?
BB
There have been so many experiences of concern -- and it appears that the people represented by the video post here are not the only people who are "doing drugs for Jesus".
No one discusses it, but some of us have observed what happens in some of the worship services which are somewhat Pentecostal. People raise their arms and yell "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!". It looks very much like they are addicts -- as if they are on street drugs. It appears that these people have learned how to tap into the endorphins through "the Jesus experience".
I doubt that these great feelings of euphoria have anything to do with "the Holy Spirit". They seem to be a result of primal addiction.
No one who is a junkie is going to give it up without a fight and generally the addicts go stumping for others they can addict.
Giving your heart to the Lord and your pocketbook to the preacher may have nothing to do with God or Jesus at all, and have everything to do with the motivations of being addicted to feeling good as "Jesus junkies". When a person is addicted like that, no amount of reasoning or pursuation is going to get them to give up their high.
Just another form of compliance and delusional belief that the Great Spaghetti Monster in the sky is impressed and involved.
M.T.Souls
This is not very different than what occurs in many of the Christian churches in the USA.
It's widely believed that being "slain in the spirit", "speaking in tongues", "holy laughter", etc, are bible-based manifestations of having the Holy Spirit.
Personally, I think that those immersed in the throes of ecstatic experience(whether induced in a Christian mega-church's highly charged production, or induced by the ingestion of a psychopharmacological agent), have something similar happening within their brains.
And their experience is both real and genuine- at least, to them, which may be all that counts.
Many of these experiences can be cathartic, leading one to make life changes- sometimes drastic- which are sometimes positive, and sometimes negative.
I think the quality and trustworthiness of those are with during such an ecstatic experience, plays a large part as to whether the outcomes are positive, negative, or somewhere in-between.
Norm
Douglas,
Unfortunately, many if not most of these people have to keep coming back for more in order to keep their high going- both church-goers, and drug users.
There are both secular and non secular ecstasy-producers.
Heck, I'd even say that Amway/Quixtar, Mary Kay, and Landmark Education Forum are in that mix.
A person has to keep going back to their services/meetings/seminars/etc, in order to keep the high going.
Perhaps the acid test(pls excuse the pun) is whether a person can gain something useful, and walk away with a greater psychological freedom.
Norm
Heck, I'd even say that Amway/Quixtar, Mary Kay, and Landmark Education Forum are in that mix. A person has to keep going back to their services/meetings/seminars/etc, in order to keep the high going.
Norm, you'll get no argument about that from me because I completely agree and we should also include Alcoholics Anonymous and such ilk.
However, I'd be completely suspicious of any organization which provided these endorphin rush highs because no matter how good their intentions may seem, it's still an adiction from which the junkie eventually needs to be weaned (hey, this group is great! They got me over my addictions -- if only I can get over being adicted to them!).
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