Lou Belle,
Here again, not to demean your experiences but as a brain doctor I have personally watched people in sleep studies experience things like you mention. (The blood on your face thing, may have been a prank, or a wacky rite the stranger in your house did to you while asleep.) But I digress, there are many things that happen as a person is sleeping. I could list hundreds of comments and experiences where the person swears they were awake but were paralysed. Heard things that were not there. Saw things that were not there. Felt heaviness on the chest. Very similar experiences. The whole time they were in our sleep lab with their bodily functions being monitored. I have seen night terrors in adults and children. Sleep apnea. You name it. At the end of the day you have to realize that our brains are a mass of electrical and bio-chemical functions.
These studies helped me to realize that indivdual perception is NOT reality. While it may be your reality it is not the reality of others. Make sense?
How did you get over your silly fear of demons?
by embeth2525 84 Replies latest jw friends
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EvilForce
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New Worldly Translation
Lou Belle - What EvilForce says makes perfect sense. I'd recommend looking further into sleep paralysis to see what you actually experienced
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greendawn
Consider a naturally occuring mental experience pleasant or unpleasant,it is generated by a certain electrical activity of the brain (cells). An external supernatural agent can also induce the same electrical activity and therein experience. It can have two causes, internal or external.
In the JWs demon phobia is induced internally out of their peculiar collective psychology that for some reason is susceptible to this phobia. It is a kind of panic attack, in my view.
These so called "demonised" objects are surely found in the homes of many Catholics, Protestants, Jews etc yet none of them ever report demonic attacks out of them as the JWs do. -
EvilForce
Using that argument Green then saying a demon could influence the electrical/chemical functions of the brain, then they could cause cardiac arrest and such, killing people. The JW's also teach that Satan and his deemunz can't read thoughts. Thoughts are an electrical / chemical function as well.
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Jez
Watch loads of scary movies about the spirit world. That will eventually get it out of your system. When I first left JWs, I had a hard time with movies, like, "The Omen" or "The Devils Advocate" "The haunting" "The Others" The Darkness" "The Ring" "The Grudge" but now I love them and horror (not blood, and guts) is my favorite genre. Although I still can't watch "Amityville horror" or "The Exorcist".
Jez
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greendawn
EvilF as far as science knows our mental activity thoughts, emotions, moods, and mental images are based on the bio electrical activity of the brain, which is based on chemical Sodium/Potassium ion gradients, so we eat plenty of salt for Sodium and fruit/veg for Potassium.
If I knew how these bio electrical impulses are converted to mental activity I would be shaking hands with the Nobel Prize awarders in Sweden. It's a great mystery and after all the brain is 1000 times more powerful and complicated than the most powerful super computer to date.
However yes, God and the angels good or evil can initiate alter or suppress these micro electricities and therein mental activity, and criminally minded demons could in theory kill humans by messing around with the brains but they are not allowed to go that far, otherwise all genuine Christians would have been killed long ago. They are constantly supervised, tightly controlled and limited in what they can do, no doubt by God's own angels.
That's why there is nothing to fear from them unless one willingly invokes them. And at any time God can reduce their power to a level beneath that of man. Their current status that's a little higher than man's hopefully will be totally relegated soon. -
stevenyc
greendawn,
However yes, God and the angels good or evil can initiate alter or suppress these micro electricities and therein mental activity
Is this a Rutherford quote from the Golden Age?
steve
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kittyeatzjdubs
i laid in my bed one night and said, ''Well come on then!!!! show u'r selves!!!'' this was after reading a bunch of wicca books at barnes and nobles, making the sign of the cross, aaannnd listening to slayer
sad to say....nothing happened
although now that i realize that even if they do exist, they're not nearly as powerful as the jdub's make them to be...i wish that i could see one.
luv, kitty
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greendawn
Steve no, I don't know if it sounds that way but the essence of what I am trying to say is that the human mind can be a battleground between these two opposing forces, and that is the general Christian understanding and not in any way specific to Rutherford's ideology.
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jaffacake
I havent believed in Satan or demons for a long time, despite considering myself as a Christian who has gone back to the Bible. First the Christadelphians, who influenced the original Watchtower point out why it is clear from the Bible that the devil etc are just figuritive for the natural negative elements in nature, necessary for creativity.
I am reading a Christian book now which shows that proper methodical scholarly interpretation of the Bible, shows that the Bible does not teach the existence of such things.