These are my additional notes for the video entitled:
Hypnosis Meditations and Altered States
Hypnosis Meditations part 2
Additional Notes:
I have to reiterate that these videos (both parts) are not against any of the practices mentioned. I am not against Lectio Divina, I am not even against hypnotherapy per se. There are plenty types of hypnotherapies, with some even practicing “tranceless hypnosis”; there are spectrums within spectrums and this is why I do not give a hard stance on anything general (ie: hypnotherapy as a whole).
As stated in the videos, I am for prayer and worship aids, even going as far as understanding and agreeing with how king David danced around the ark naked with full music into play.
In the videos and I hope it is clear im there that I am simply disagreeable/guarded/weary about 2 elements of any practice involving altered states, these are:
1. One losing their sense of agency/control/volition.
When we talk about this, no where did I ever go against praying in the inspiration of The Holy Spirit. I personally pray to The Holy Ghost and ask for His guidance in prayer. Even in Christian Counselling, I subscribe to “counselling in the Spirit”. When we “flow with the Spirit”, we do so in full awareness of what we are doing and what we are deciding on. This is not what I meant by “surrendering your control (volition) to other forces.”
Speaking of being inspired or flowing with The Spirit, I heavily agree that this is what happened with the Bible authors when they were inspired by The Holy Spirit. This, however, does not mean that Paul, was in a state of dissociation when he was writing his letters. I don’t believe that at any point of writing the Scriptures that these patriarchs were not conscious of what they were doing. It is not reported that any of them spaced out when writing then they woke up a day later with their full writings in front of them without having any memory of what transpired.
There are practices of hypnosis and altered states where the person is led to posthypnotic amnesia. This is one of the dangers which sounds my alarm bells. This is what I was referring to as giving up one’s agency. A good measurement on this is to ask oneself whether any dissociation has taken place during the facilitation of the therapy? Does the client still have full memory of what has transpired or were there missing unaccounted moments?
Again, I am not against all forms of hypotherapeutic practices. There are just some which gives me the creeps because of the dissociative features involved in the practice.
2. Deliberate/Self Induction
Coming from the 2018 article, I more or less have the same stand except for adding this second element of communicating with God while in an altered state of consciousness. I agree that this has happened numerous times in Bible history; however, I failed short of finding any evidence on whether these practices were encouraged by the word. It could be a failure for me to uncover it, but as of this time of the article, I have not found any evidence of the Bible encouraging the deliberate induction of altered states to that which will match the depths of somnambulistic levels of hypnosis. Yes, we are encouraged to go to our private quarters and pray in a cool and relaxed state. We have David, who used soothing music to “mesmerize” then king Saul from his anxieties (1 Sam 16). I am not against these things!
I wish to add that during the ministry of The Lord Jesus Christ on earth, The Lord Himself never used any hypnotherapeutic methods to heal anyone. Always His ways are about repentance and revelations (which leads to repentance). In any case, our minds were always encouraged to be switched on and functioning.
In healing the blind, the blind person had to consciously realize that he is dealing with “The Light of The World.”
Even for the resurrection of Lazarus, the people around The Lord had to realize and repent from their anxieties as “The Resurrection and The Life” is in their midst.
The woman at the well was more or less healed from her former lifestyle because it dawned on her that it was The Messiah Himself who condescended to ask her for water.
Lepers were cured, the lame walked, the man with withered hand was made whole, demonized people were restored particularly because they all realized with full consciousness, with full participation of their faith, who this Person called Jesus Christ is. Could it be that faith should only be exercised consciously?
I can see that this is not a black and white topic that that can be easily settled. For this reason, I leave my eyes and ears open for further scriptural evidence and of course, for opinions from all sides of the “spectrum”.
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