Israelites, Pharisees & Sadducees In The 21st Century Church

the monetary income will double if the minister follows his instructions. He admits that
about 80 percent of his efforts are in the sound system and lighting.
"Powerful sound and the proper use of lighting are of primary importance in inducing an
altered state of consciousness...
"But let me inject a word of warning here: If you think you can attend such gatherings
and not be affected, you are probably wrong. A perfect example is the case of a woman
who went to Haiti on a Guggenheim Fellowship to study Haitian Voodoo. In her report,
she related how the music eventually induced uncontrollable bodily movement and an
altered state of consciousness. Although she understood the process and thought
herself above it, when she began to feel herself become vulnerable to the music, she
attempted to fight it and turned away. Anger or resistance almost always assures
conversion. A few moments later she was possessed by the music and began dancing
in a trance around the Voodoo meeting house. A brain phase had been induced by the
music and excitement, and she awoke feeling reborn. ...The only hope of attending such
gatherings without being affected is to be a 'buddha' and allow no positive or negative
emotions to surface. Few people are capable of such detachment.
"There are three primary techniques used for thought stopping [to halt rational
examination of what is going on]. The first is marching: the thump, thump, thump beat
literally generates self-hypnosis and thus great susceptibility to suggestion.
The second thought stopping technique is meditation. ...The third thought-stopping
technique is chanting, and often chanting in meditation. "Speaking in tongues" could
also be included in this category."
Once again, these words are strikingly illustrative of many charismatic revival meetings.
The April 27th 1997 issue of the Washington Post contained a 4000-word feature article
on the revival. Post staff writer Peter Carlson gave an eyewitness account of one of the
revival meetings, explaining how the meetings begin: "It begins with a drummer laying
down a slow beat that goes on for several minutes, a steady, inescapable, portentous
heartbeat. The guitarist and the organist join in, along with a choir of several dozen
singers... From the first note, the people are up out of the pews and on their feet,
clapping in time or dancing with eyes closed, hands raised."
An eyewitness report of a performance by the "Worldwide Message Tribe" - a
Manchester-based Christian rock group that frequently visits schools and other youth
venues - speaks of the same kind of hypnotic drumming and chanting.
The eyewitness says that the rhythm was a steady beat like an African witchdoctor
chant using the bass and drum; and they chanted "Who's in the House?' to which
everybody replied, "God's in the House". They worked everyone up into a frenzy, then
chanted "jump for God/for God jump" while telling people it wasn't loud enough, or high
enough. "By this time the whole of the thousand people were hypnotised - and I mean
really hypnotised".
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