The Psychology of "Holy Spirit Junkies"

There aren't too many uninteresting Dan Edelen posts, but this one from last week is one I just got around to today; it pulled the ol' chatty ring. He reposts an essay from Andrew Strom, who is a dropout from the prophetic circuit, on Todd Bentley's reemergence. I'll pass on any long comment on Bentley for now, other than to say that the new "revival" seems very fishy, about three times more so than the Lakeland show.

What is interesting about the piece is Strom's description of the kind of manifestations that you see in a charismatic revival being part of Hindu and traditional Chinese religious practice; people can start getting twitches, breaking out in laughter, making strange sounds, and getting what would be called "slain in the spirit" if it were at a Pentecostal church.

There are two ways to treat this, at least. One is to write off the neocharismatics as a New Age group, or at least spreading an unhealthy blend of traditional evangelical thought lumped in with Eastern-looking spirituality.

Another possibility is to look at the manifestations that flow across the various spiritual movements as a common element that some people experience when they are seeking out something spiritual or meditative. People seemingly get into weird emotional states when they are overly focused on the spiritual; in traditional church settings, these manifestations would be tamped down, but when they are seem as not abnormal, they can become common. When they're encouraged, peer pressure and groupthink can make them even more common.

It's hard to quantify what is spiritual and what is psychological, but there are a number of people in charismatic circles that I call Holy Spirit Junkies, that will look for a spiritual high from church services, conferences and revivals. Many of them seem prone to such manifestations, and that may be more them than the Holy Spirit.

Most of the folks at such services wouldn't touch Hinduism with a ten-foot pole and steer clear of Falung Gong-style Chinese spirituality. Yet, they might well have manifestations in common with the Asian folks; it might be that the psychology of Holy Spirit Junkies is similar to that of Qi Junkies in China.

 

Comments

[Dan E.]

Mark,

One of the less understandable books I read by Watchman Nee was The Latent Power of the Soul. At least I didn't understand it at the time. But as I see more and more of this charismania, the more I wonder if Nee is right on in his concept of a soul exceeding its proper limitations and misappropriating what is supposed to be left to spiritual power. The result is what Nee calls "soulish" power, and it's an intriguing idea.

I'll keep watching.

[Bene D]

Off the top of my head (sorry!) brain waves - alpha, beta, theta...

We are looking at the psychology of addiction, altered patterns of thinking, feeling, being, and calling it God. Addiction crosses all cultures.

So heavenly minded we're no earthly good. It's the anger that get's me; criticize - and the defensiveness is amazing - feral. That has a spiritual component I don't get.

I like what Dan says - the soul exceeding it's proper limitations and taking what God created us to be with it.