Subj : Bible
To   : JOSEPH VOIGT
From : DAVE OLDRIDGE
Date : Sun Nov 05 2000 01:45 am

JV> Thursday November 02 2000 03:23, TODD HENSON wrote to RALPH ZETTER:

JV>  >> Didn't the gnostics believe that we were pieces of God that become
JV>  >> trapped in the world, and that through their teachings we could
JV>  >> regain our divinity?

JV>  TH> You're new here, so maybe some new blood can inject some sanity into
JV>  TH> the echo. :-) As you can tell, this has now become Holysmoke 2.

JV> And both you and Constance are responsible for that.

JV>  TH> That's not unlike modern charismatic Christians, who are taught that
JV>  TH> in order to commune with God you have to undergo some intense physical
JV>  TH> experience, where they hype themselves into hyperemotional states of
JV>  TH> consciousness. That causes all manner of physcial manifestations, like
JV>  TH> rolling around, falling dowm, "speaking in tongues", etc.

JV> ROTFL!  No hyperemotional states required, Todd.  Sheez.  Rolling around 
and
JV> falling down is nothing more than silly behavior.  And speaking in tongues 
is
JV> nothing more than speaking gibberish.  What silliness.  Here, let me speak 
in
JV> tongues now:

JV> dijolsudfokful skoppsju  smidopidfo  shuntu lomnesbop

JV> I must have been in the spirit, huh?  Cool... new altered state 
phenomena...
JV> typing in tongues.  LOL.

JV>  TH> These experiences are said to be of God, but they are more a product
JV>  TH> of induced altered states.

JV> They are neither.  They are nothing more than silly behavior.  No altered
JV> states required.

Uh, actually, supressing the speech center in this manner CAN sometimes 
produce "altered" states of awareness.  That doesn't mean that all the 
superstitions about them are correct, though.  

I am somewhat reminded of the way a pigeon behaves in a Skinner box.  
Pigeon pokes around in the box at random, eventually pecking the button.  
Food pellet drops.  Pigeon tries to remember what it did and ends up 
incorporating an elaborate ritual that leads up to pressing the button.

One thing I also noted, though.  Pigeons appear to be too smart to get 
into religious wars about how to press the button. :-)

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