Mary Fairchild
The following is the phonetic reading of the expository teaching of Pastor Jim Mooberry.
John 1:14-18; “And the Word Became Flesh,” The Gospel of John.
Higher states of consciousness? We are already at the level of consciousness God wants us to be at. Expanded self-awareness? Self realization? Finding the inner self? Exploring innerspace? Altered states of consciousness? Hypnotism?. It’s all the same.
HYPNOSIS
“When though art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord: and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God (entirely obedient)”(Deut. 18:9-13).
“A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them”(Leviticus 20:27).
Hypnosis is to artificially induce a sleep-like or trance-like condition in which an individual is extremely responsive to suggestion by the hypnotist. Hypnosis is the power of suggestion. The Hebrew word means “one who ties in knots.” The idea was “one who binds” or “controls someone by magic knots or spells” by manipulation with words. In the last century or two theory about hypnotism owes much to Franz Anton Mesmer (mesmerized). He believed that he had discovered the great universal cure of both physical and emotional problems back in 1779. He said an invisible force or energy was distributed throughout the body, he called it “animal magnetism,” and he said this same energy permeates all of nature (identical to the New Age monism—everything is unified; also like the Eastern concept of Chi—the life force in everything. He taught that proper health and mental well-being came from a proper distribution and balance of this energy force in your body. First he used physical magnets in this exertion of mind over matter. Later he developed it further into mesmerism which was much more psychological than physical and that was that he used hypnotism. He trained his patients to enter trance-like states of hypnosis. Some of the subjects of mesmerism moved into deeper states of consciousness, engaged in telepathy, clairvoyance, and other occult practices. The key assumption was that he said that he tapping into the subconscious which was a reservoir of potential healing right within our own mind and soul and people could better understand themselves, they could obtain to better health, and they could develop spiritual abilities and powers.
The unconscious, or the subconscious, was something that Freud really made popular in his theories. In psychotherapy, the religious science. In the process of subjecting his patients to dream analysis and hypnotic trance, in pursuit of childhood memories, Freud discovered that there was an unconscious side to consciousness. He concluded that it was in fact the most important part. He also suspected that it might be greater in scope than the individual’s own experience (tapped into a great universal something). Carl Jung decided, with encouragement from his spirit guide Philemon (he was demon possessed), at this unconscious level all minds are part of what he called the collective unconsciousness (Hindu concept) and described it as the source of mystical powers. Not in any scientific basis, these twin beliefs were accepted by faith by the disciples of Freud and Jung and became the foundation for the many psychologies and therapies that followed. Due to this nearly everyone accepts, as scientific fact, the religious belief that this vast unexplored region of innerspace, your subconscious, is a reservoir of magical powers. There is this great reservoir called the unconscious, or subconscious, that is the seed of all your motivations. You do all these things without your even understanding because it comes from somewhere deep inside you.
On the less than solid foundations of such theories and mystical experiences that seem to confirm them, the human potential movement has been built. Self-improvement seminar leaders assure us that by simply looking with ourselves we can discover all truth, all knowledge, and all power. In order to mind this supposedly unlimited potential, psychologists have attempted to explore unconsciousness through Eastern mysticism’s altered states. States of consciousness that were first explored through hypnosis and then LSD. The further one retreats from normal consciousness, the more enlightened one becomes.
The “unconscious” is an unbiblical concept—the way it is taught in modern psychology. Although we don’t understand how the mind (metaphysical) and the brain (physical) act, this is the realm in which the demons work and they understand it perfectly. Demon possession has a logical explanation—if your own mind can effect you own brain, then the similar non-physical nature of another mind might also be able to effect your brain giving rise to your hearing a voice or seeing a vision or having the mind speak or write by controlling your body the same way you normally control your body. HYPNOTISM OPENS YOU UP TO THE DEMONIC. IT IS IN THE REALM OF THE OCCULT. This is what you get yourself involved in whenever you get involved with hypnotism.
Jesus says, “You’ll know them by their fruit.” The fruits of hypnotism are:
1. MORAL RENOVATION: You can be cured from smoking, drinking, or eating… You cannot change your nature through hypnotism. That alone can be changed by God’s power through the Word of God (Romans 12:3; 2 Thes. 2:13). True moral change cannot occur apart from regeneration by God’s Spirit and the ministry of the Word of God in your life.
2. DOCTRINE OF REINCARNATION: Some people are hypnotized and then through deeper trances are brought back to their childhood and then by regression are said to be brought back into their own birth and then back out the other end to a former life. But Hebrews 9: 27 says “It was appointed unto men to die once and after that the judgement.”
3. CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH ALIENS: Through hypnosis and memory regression people are brought to the point where they remember things that happened to them which now they can’t seem to remember. There are three reasons why there are no alien civilizations in the universe:
- (1) Earth is the center of the created universe(Genesis 1). Earth is not a miniscule insignificant planet, we are the center of the universe. Everything was created in reference to the earth.
- (2) The Scriptures tell us that man is the crown of God’s creative work (Genesis 1:27; Psalm 8:3-8). In 2 Peter we read that once God’s plan for redemption is finished he will destroy the rest of the universe—a new heaven and a new earth. We are the apex, there are no beings that have evolved beyond us.
- (3) According Hebrews 12 heaven only contains two races. Hebrews 12:22, 23, says “There are the angels and there are men—saved men and women.” Through hypnotism a lie is revealed not the truth.
4. THE LIE OF MULTIPLE PERSONALITIES: Some of the instances are just phony. Scripturally, a personality is a person. If you have multiple personalities inside you—you have multiple persons inside of you. By definition it is impossible. This is just disguised demonism. Mark 5:1-17 describes a man with 2,000 personalities—that many demons where in him (legions). Those who understand this need to pray for these people to come to understand the Gospel and that the Spirit of God would expel them.
5. THE LIE OF THE HARMLESSNESS OF THE ACTIVITY: Hypnotism’s basic character is occult. Demonic influence or not it is a practice that has been discovered and perfected by the enemy. Many people have entered into spiritual bondage because of being involved with this.
As Christians we need to avoid this and warn others. Deuteronomy 18: 9-11 God said not to have anything to do with this. There is a good reason for God to command that. Auto hypnosis, biofeedback techniques, relaxation therapies, counseling techniques, any practice that encourages you to release or relax the active control of your mind and yield it to another being or imaginary circumstances. Somehow, we can’t understand all of this now, God just says “don’t do it,” but we are to be in control of our minds. Christian meditation has nothing to do with “emptying your mind.” It has everything to do with filling your mind with God’s Word. Spiritual discipline where you empty your mind to listen to the voice of God without looking at the Word of God—that is just opening yourself up to problems.
We are not to be ignorant of Satan’s methods. The names of his methods really are monotonously similar. HIGHER STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS? We are already at the level of consciousness God wants us to be at. EXPANDED SELF-AWARENESS? SELF REALIZATION? FINDING THE INNER SELF? EXPLORING INNERSPACE? ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS? HYPNOTISM. It’s all the same.
Mooberry, Pastor James, “Hypnosis.” “The Faithful Word” two decades of expository teaching tapes.