I’ve been thinking about what Paul calls alternately the
“pneumatikoi” or the “charismata” this morning, frequently
translated as “spiritual gifts, and the paranormal abilities of
Near Death Experiencers, remote viewers, and the ability which we,
and my wife in particular, rely on almost daily now called simply
“muscle testing” or “energy testing.” But I want to start
with this last thing first. I’ve written about it before, and
instead of reinventing the wheel, I’ll just quote myself here
noting that the original research and studies done on its efficacy,
reliability, and limitations were performed by Dr. David R. Hawkins
(deceased) and written about in his books,
The idea
behind muscle testing is based on the body having its own energy
field, sometimes referred to as "chi" or "qi"
which reacts with the energy fields of other things either positively
or negatively. In addition, the body's energy field will react to a
truth or untruth positively or negatively either being strengthened
or literally pulled towards the truth, or being weakened and
literally repulsed by the untruth. In this way, it is possible to ask
and receive answers to yes or no questions with a high degree of
reliability.
There are
however some caveats we've learned about this technique, sometimes
the hard way, which are well worth reflecting on and pondering. The
major caveat to it is that you cannot get a reliable answer to a
question where you have an attachment to the answer you get. Your own
subconscious will interfere and skew the results to whatever you
either think it should be, or whatever you're afraid it might be.
If you are
in a state of fear, conscious or unconscious, or aggression your
answers become unreliable and the muscle testing will start
delivering gibberish responses where "yes" can be "no"
and vice versa. In other words, if you are engaged with or in
submission to your own malfunctioning survival responses, the muscle
testing doesn't work right and itself malfunctions. Any emotional
state which is ultimately rooted in fear or aggression such as
despair, anger, or pride results in unreliable answers. In order to
receive reliable answers, fear has to be let go of and the
practitioner has to shift in the direction of courage, reason, joy,
compassion, and ultimately love (not of the romantic variety but of
the agape variety). The closer one is to agape (and the farther one
is from fear), the more accurate and reliable the answers become.
Initially
we were very skeptical about it at first when Heidi began
experimenting with it, but then we experimented with electrically
conductive and insulating materials to see if they had any effect,
and yes, they did. The insulating rubber in particular seemed to
block the effect completely. This lent it a good deal of credibility
in my mind which would be further reinforced when it accurately
predicted what Heidi could and could not eat safely which, if you
understand my wife’s past history, a wrong answer could result in a
seizure. This was part of the beginning of her road to beating her
multiple sclerosis really.
But
the part of this I really want to point out is the requirements of
disposition which are laid on an accurate response. In general,
negative emotional states such as fear, despair, anger, pride and so
on will produce wrong answers, whereas positive states beginning with
courage, then joy, peace, all the way to love (and specifically
agape) will produce correct and accurate answers. Another guardrail
if you will is that one cannot have an attachment to the result, you
just have to let it happen without any emotional investment in it or
else it will skew the result one way or the other either from fear
it’s not what you want or strong desire for a particular result.
One might go so far as to infer from this that, simply put, it will
not work correctly if you’re operating from your own malfunctioning
survival responses of fear, anger, and bodily cravings such as food
or sex. Finally, and as a
kind of summary of all of this, there must be a certain amount of
setting aside of the ego in order to allow things to “flow”
properly.
As
I have become familiar with these “rules” of muscle or energy
testing over the last few years, I have been struck by how similar
the same guidelines appear to be with remote viewing. Remote
viewing is the ability to mentally visualize a “target” from
great distances and accurately describe the target. At one point, the
U.S. Department of Defense had a very successful remote viewing
program, of whom former Chief Warrant Officer Joseph McMoneagle was
the primary agent. From the
memoirs I’ve been reading from both McMoneagle and Luis Elizondo,
there has to be a setting aside of the ego, you can’t have a
negative or malicious intent towards the target of the remote
viewing, and you have to maintain a certain mindset or headspace in
order for it to work. From the descriptions in particular which
former CWO McMoneagle gives of his experiences, one’s
intentions and mindset are also key to the outcomes. The most
detailed outcomes for McMoneagle seemed to come when he was focused
on locating and rescuing hostages. He himself had no personal stake
in the outcome, but he was focused solely, and more importantly
selflessly, on the welfare of others.
I
have also written before about the after effects of Near Death
Experiences. Because of the length of those blog posts, I would refer
the reader to those, “More Thoughts About NDEs, Consciousness,
Baptism, and Paul's Writings” and “Baptism, Dying and Rising with
Christ, and the Aftereffects of NDEs” here on this blog within the
past couple of months. What’s important to note here is that the
paranormal abilities which are observed coincide with the reported
ego death, increased love and compassion for others, and both the
desire and appearance of being more “connected” with the
spiritual realm. That is, the NDE appears to induce the conditions
within the person which are necessary for both muscle or energy
testing and remote viewing to work properly and accurately.
I
have one more example to add. It is my understanding as well, being
informed by someone who knows the practice better than I, that the
practice of “energy healing” as is seen in some New Age or
eastern philosophies or religious systems also maintains the same
requirements in order for it to have any effect. Although where
“energy healing” is concerned, one must maintain a much greater
degree of positive disposition and selfless love in order for it to
even begin to work as compared with muscle testing and remote
viewing.
The
pneumatikoi, or the “spiritual gifts,” are probably one of the
most controversial, misunderstood, and misapplied part of the
Christian tradition and
experience. In some
denominational traditions, their existence is all but denied (and
they’re certainly not active today, in their opinion), in others,
certain expressions of them are seen as proof of one’s salvation
and guarantee of entry into heaven in the afterlife. Most
denominations and systems of theology hold a line somewhere in
between these two extremes.
The
pneumatikoi, put simply, are supernatural or paranormal abilities
which were displayed by all or nearly all of the disciples of Jesus
Christ actively and visibly for at least the first two hundred years,
though they seemed to become less and less frequent approaching the
fourth century. After that, church writings only record them being
performed by certain people of what was then and now considered
extreme compassion, love, mercy and selflessness. As recorded in the
book of Acts and the letters of the New Testament, these abilities
included healing, exorcism by single command, the ability to speak a
language the person doesn’t actually know or understand a language
the person doesn’t know, perform impossible things, raising the
dead, foretelling the future, knowing things that one can’t
possibly know, and more. It’s
clear from the New Testament that they are products of the Pneuma or
Spirit and are abilities which are otherwise unnatural to the person
displaying them. A person who
is otherwise unable to speak publicly or teach others suddenly has
the ability to do both effectively, for example.
According
to Paul in his letter to the Galatians, what a person can expect to
see or experience from someone operating by means of the Pneuma or
“Spirit” is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, trust,
courtesy, and self-control,” and there is a great emphasis
throughout the New Testament by both Jesus and Paul of dying to
oneself or one’s “old human being,” as a part of the
requirements for actually being a disciple. I can’t help but see
the parallels between these and the guidelines or requirements for
effectively and accurately performing the paranormal abilities I have
described.
There
appears to be a genuine correlation between the paranormal abilities
I’ve described and the pneumatikoi described in the New Testament.
Both require a setting aside of one’s ego or the death of one’s
ego and a certain selflessness in order to operate effectively if at
all. Both require a connection to the immaterial part of the human
being, and require that this part be in control at the time without
interference from the survival responses of the human brain of fear,
anger, feeding, or the sexual drive. Both require a total lack of
negative intent, judgment, or attachment to the target or recipient
of the ability. It goes without saying that both require a certain
trust or realization that the ability exists at all.
If
all of this is true, then there is a great deal of explanatory power
in this as to why some Christians appear to be able to display them
and some are not, and in particular, who depending on the mindset and
disposition of the individual in question. It
may also explain why, the further from the first century one gets,
the more rare they become among professing Christians as the shift in
emphasis from practice to the correctness of one’s theology takes
place. It may also explain why some people, professing Christian or
not, are able to perform them, but many can only do so sporadically
and with a questionable rate of effectiveness and accuracy as they
succumb to the ego and negative dispositions or mindsets. If one
becomes proud or ego driven because of them, then they lose their
connection to what produces them.
