Happy Girl,

Let's see...You just insisted that you cannot be influenced by anything you read and now you innocently contradict yourself, protesting  that you're glad to read new spiritual facts and insights.   No problem!   The New Age ghetto is unphased by contradictory claims.  Then you prejudge a book you haven't read and imply that any book that challenges your dogmas must be fiction.   That's a rather standard ploy on this site---consensus reinforced by myopic New Age cheerleaders, consensus achieved away from the prying gaze of open-minded critics.  Winning seems defined as retaining one's fluffy belief system, regardless of the formidable evidence arrayed against it.

Let me start you off with a personal story about possession.   Years ago, my younger brother, D (then 16) and I (then 21) were watching Hockey Night in Canada.   We were besieging our overworked mother with our demands for more hot dogs and ice cream.   Suddenly D seemed to enter a trance.  I payed little attention until he mused, "God has just given me a mission.   He's given me the name and location of someone in need of an exorcism.  I'll see you later."   With that D rose and walked to the bus stop for a 7 mile ride to a coffee house.   I love my brother, but I was too stunned to try to talk him out of it or to insist on accompanying him.

When he arrived at the coffee house, nothing appeared out of the ordinary until a stranger approached him and oddly observed: "You're here on a special mission, aren't you?"   D took this comment as confirmation that he must stay longer.   Eventually, a gang showed up and began challenging patrons to a fight as they tried to enter the coffee house.   D realized the ring leader was his target.   So he got up his courage, went outside, and confronted him: "E, God has shown me that you are possessed and has sent me here to perform an exorcism."   E and his pals were amused at this bizarre comment.  E sneered, "OK, bring it on!"   Now D had no experience with exorcism and had no plan about how ro proceed.  So he just closed his eyes, breathed a prayer for divine help, and  gently touched E on the forehead.   The touch was like a high-voltage shock.   E fell  to the pavement, writhed like a snake for a few minutes, and then lay quiet.  Finally, E muttered a grateful, "Thank you!"   His cohorts were so terrified by what they just witnessed that they immediately expressed concern they were not  Christians, though I'm unaware of the long-range impact of the exorcism upon them.   When D returned home, he felt prompted to open his Bible for guidance.  The first verse his eyes lit upon read, "See that you tell no one about this incident."   He told me, but has honored this request ever since. 

D's role in this spiritual healing marked the beginning of his discovery of his life purpose (a career in medicine).  His mediocre high school grades mushroomed in college to straight A+s in Honors Microbiology.   He is now a physician in Colorado.

Years later, I had a chance encounter with E in a mall.   I wanted to ask him about his possession, but immediately realized that he knew I was D's brother and was very self-conscious about the incident. So I respected his privacy.    E now is a distinguished author who writes about spirituality. 

Don      

Matthew,

No not possible.   My brother (then just 16) had a powerful delayed fear reaction for a long time afterwards and, decades later, still warns me that his memories of the incident are too terrifying to even discuss it.  Even my attempts to discuss other exorcisms with him evoke fear in D.   At the same time, the whole experience greatly enhanced his sense that God could use him to meet human crises.  D has become a deepy devout Christian who often asks me for advice on a book he is writing on the spirituality of his suffering patients.

Don

A 16 year old lad walking off in a trance claiming "god has given me a mission" .

Oh Brother... come back deanna/juditha all is forgiven.

Happy Girl,

New Agers disdain Christians whom they perceive as narrow-minded anti-intellectuals.  Yet New Agers themselves are quick to label any defense of an alternate perspective as "trying to cram your views down my throat."   This is a disingenuous fear-based reaction.   I merely suggested a book on the demonic that supports demonic reality.   You were free to accept or reject my challenge.   Is the Ghetto really that suffocating that an outsider can't even recommend a book?  I note that New Agers routinely recommend their own favorite books and luminaries and I hardly view that as trying to cram anything down my throat.  What's wrong with honest exchanges in the marketplace of ideas, of course, in the hope of persuasion?

Don

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nice post.

MattB,

Thank you...

Blessings,
happygrl

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Haha. The problem is, for my part, you are launching your attack counter attack against thin air. :P
I am still in the process of learning about what I believe in and have faith in, sometimes it can feel daunting maybe even lonely when you realise you have to pick up your feet and explore life and spirituality for your own sake without an established religion.

One positive aspect of this part of my "journey" though is that dogmatic people of any faith cannot attack you because there is only a path of learning which is left by your exploration. No metoporhic cultish bastions, no "ghettos" of new agism.

You believe that "ad hominem" attacks are starting to be deployed by a "new age army", yet it is your posts that make implicit ad hominem attacks by casting people into non existant groups and cults and using silly names for them. ::)

Marilyn, I am always polite with opposing viewpoints when advocates remain house-broken.  New visitors join the site all the time and ask questions that others have been asked long before.  Also, I am sometimes asked in PMs to repeat anecdotes that posters found particularly stimulating.  New Age cheap shots deserve blunt replies since people of their ilk can rarely benefit from critical reasoning.  In any case, I offer a lot more new material than you do.  Why are you New Agers so terrified of sticking to new ideas and hashing out the pros and cons for them?   

Don