Modern day charismatic displays are nothing but poor imitations of an art form of mentalism. Darren Brown of the Uk is the best mentalist I have ever seen. Follow this link and watch and read. Youll see the similarities in relation to smileythai's post on the Blind and the Dead. Worth the time to look at both.
Excerpt from making a woman believe in the power of a voodoo doll. Read it closely. Keep in mind that this gentleman is debunking supernatural powers by performing better tricks than the TV evangelists.
Watch this video clip
See also:
? The lost taxi driver
? The abandoned wallet
? Are you feeling sleepy?
? S?ance
For this trick of the mind I have chosen someone who is convinced by New Age philosophies and alternative medicine. There's nothing wrong in being open-minded about claims that crystals, spells or psychic phenomena have the power to heal, as long as you're prepared to test them. If not, you could find yourself being conned.
I start by establishing an atmosphere which will convince the woman that I have supernatural powers. To do this, I take her to Epping Forest, a wild and natural place, full of ancient trees. I have a doll, which, I tell her, contains a ring that belongs to her. When I tie up the doll's legs, she finds she cannot move her legs. When I tie up the doll's arms, she can't move her arms. I tie string round the doll's mouth and she finds she cannot speak. This fits in so well with her beliefs about how the world works that she is happy to accept that by putting her ring into the doll, I have given it her soul. As a result, her body mimics what I do to the doll.
In reality, the doll does not contain her ring and I have no supernatural powers. When I give the woman permission to question my powers, she finds she can move and speak.
Through this trick I wanted to illustrate the power of unquestioning belief and show how it can leave people open to being used and manipulated.
There is no link...sounds interesting.
oops. here is a link from wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derren_Brown
And for the above video clips.
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/M/mindcontrol/video/
the basic underlying techniques of TV evangelists and miracle workers.
there is no difference between what mentalists/hypnotists do and the the evangelist who comes with the reputation and expectation to perform miraculous supernatural phenomena. Everyone in attendance ( usually) is full of expectation of the thing happening and are therefore prepared for the stage magician/evangelist to perform them. When you have the openess to jump on stage in front of people who sometimes number in the 10's of thousands, you are already a compliant individual. Sometimes, the smartest people are the most receptive people because they are able to string the pieces of suggestive body language and words together to prepare themselves.
Its plain and simple that there are 'christian evangelists' who are nothing more than con artist charlatans. I wont back off this statement.
A cultist always dulls the critical thinking faculty, because the mind is seen to be the obstacle to enlightenment. Counterfeit revivalists say?and this is one of the mantras you hear over and over again?"God offends the mind to reveal the heart." In other words: "Don't think about this critically? accept it uncritically." But in Scripture we're told to be "alert and sober-minded." We're not supposed to be out of control.
When people have no barometer for truth whatsoever, anything can go. People are roaring like lions, barking like dogs, writhing on the floor, jerking spasmodically, laughing uncontrollably, and they think this has to be the Holy Ghost. Obviously it does not. This is experiential pandering.
If you go back to Franz Mesmer in the 18th century, he would simply point a finger in the direction of one of his devotees, and instantly they would begin to jerk spasmodically. There was no illusion whatsoever that this had anything to do with spirituality. Mesmer said he could heal people. Now a lot of evangelists in the counterfeit revival are saying the exact same thing. The truth of the matter is this: Mesmer could heal people of psychosomatic illnesses by psychosomatic cures. And so can today's evangelists and faith teachers. But they can't heal people of organic diseases. You have these guys?the very guys that are pandering this kind of stuff?walking around with bad toupees. If they really were into the genuine article, perhaps they'd heal their hair.
I still believe in the possibiltiy of supernatural happenings but by and large, what you are seeing is bad mentalism/hypnosis.
I see a man posting on the interent. Searching for answers. Its on a sunday and you are into , into mma. You are feeling sleepy and has nothing to do with it being sunday afternoon. I sense you name begins with B, yes, over in this section. * five hands go up* , you ,yes you. I know that you are seeking answers because you dont have enough money. Everyone nods. blah blah blah.
If you buy into this youve just become a willing participant in a hoax.
Theres nothing wrong with believing in God or the supernatural but if you wont put it to the most basic of tests and recognize that you are witnessing bad stage magic then you need to re evaluate.
This kind of degrades any chance of noticing if the real thing ever happens. Makes me a bit sad.
To me the most real thing is living your life according to the teachings of christ and discovering that the kingdom of God is a real thing within our lives.
I dont look for supernatural things or warm fuzzies. I get that watching the UFC.
Transformation of your life should be enough.
The church in the NT was empowered with supernatural power and supernatural miracles accompanied their ministries.
ok
"The church in the NT was empowered with supernatural power and supernatural miracles accompanied their ministries."
So are these tricks attempts to make it seem as if miracles are happening right here and now?
Nope, real miracles...people receiving the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues, physical healing, emotional and mental healing, drug addicts healed etc.
Im not accusing the apostles or jesus of being mentalists by any stretch. What I am saying is that the same techniques used by televangelists like benny hinn, rodney howard brown and the like are cheap imitations of mentalism. Its a real science. NLP is used and is blatantly seeable if you know what you are looking for.
Anyone know about the two benny hinn personal assistants who died of heroin overdose. There is a video on youtube of benny and one of them on the day of his death in Jordan passing a pipe of tobacco around.
With the recent admissions of ted haggard, I just cant take supernatural stuff on TV serious. I have no coubt that drugs, sex and pure lies are at the heart of many of these rockstar ministries. They are real modern day charlatans. Probably like Simon the Magician.
btw, Haggard wasnt really a benny hinn type Which even makes me more suspicious. When TBN types get accused of this I just go, oh well, no suprise. A leader of the most popular and conservative christian right is exposed, what else is left to expose in american ?