Religious ecstasy

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Is the ecstatic experience of protestants real (I mean the evangelicals who start shaking and running around screaming like rabid animals)? I have seen this in numerous other religions and I was wondering what sets their experience apart from the ecstatic trances entered by Masaai, or Dervishes, or Hindu mystics, who all report similar things? Spontaneous movement is even reported in Chinese martial arts, people being possessed by the spirits of legendary warriors etc. From a Catholic standpoint, just what is going on?

Also, the whole ‘‘talking in tongues thing’’. Am I way off here or when the Lord promised we would be able to speak in tongues did he mean real languages or the gibberish they spout? I have never heard of these people speaking in a real language that they had no previous knowledge of.

God Bless

Peter
 
I spoke in tongues for the first time about four years ago and it turned out to be Hebrew.
 
I remember channel surfing and watched a Protestant minister jumping all over the chairs, and screaming out giberish sayings even I couldn’t understand. Then I switched to the Catholic channel and saw the Holiness of prayer and I wondered…what would Jesus prefer?

(Think I’ll start a thread on this)
 
you would have to identify what form of religious expression you are talking about
Pentecostalism (as it arose among fundamentalists in America and England early in the last century)
non-Christian religions where the object of worship is other than the Christian God
the Catholic Charismatic renewal where the Corinthian gifts may be manifested among believers (or not) but in ways thoroughly in accord with Catholic worship and spirituality
Christian mysticism, including infused contemplation, theophany and ecstasy as described by classic mystics such as Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross, also entirely orthodox, but subject to intense discernment under competent spiritual direction

we have threads ongoing on all these topics, which are about different things, different spiritual expressions, some orthodox, some not
so what do you want to discuss on this thread? pick one and stick with it

the experience described on OP is decidedly NOT characteristic of most evangelicals in America today, who in fact decry such emotionalism. if that is to be the topic of discussion we had better identify the denomination, clerics and worshippers of whom we are speaking before continuing the discussion
 
I met one woman who told us how she never learned Spanish, yet she was able to speak it. I also met a man who was able to understand and speak Spanish one day when it was greatly needed, despite not being able to usually. His was temporary.

I have heard people speaking in tongues, and what I have heard bore no resemblance to “untie my bowtie” or anything else. It sounded like an actual language and was not screamed out.

I’m sure that there are some experiences like that which are invalid, but I’m just as sure that some are valid.
 
HannahLisa said:
I’m sure that there are some experiences like that which are invalid, but I’m just as sure that some are valid.
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That I don’t doubt. But, When the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles, did they act as though suffering from epilepsy and scream random words? I can think of a certain boy who was ‘‘thrown to the floor’’ somewhere in scripture. He was called possessed. Surely if the Apostles had this reaction to the Spirit they would have been:

-Unable to preach
-Accused of being possessed and exorcised or killed outright

EDIT: Although I worded this as facts it is just my opinion of the situation, I claim no special knowledge on the subject.

God Bless

Peter
 
puzzleannie said:
you would have to identify what form of religious expression you are talking about
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As I said, Protestant Christians, in all their various denominations including those who claim to profess none. I said that the jumping shaking and gibberish shares similarities with other faith systems, however I thought I made it clear that I wasn’t trying to discuss them. My mistake I’ll make sure I’ve clarified everything before I click the submit button 🙂

If there are forms of religious ecstasy within Protestant denominations that do not involve such actions then I want to know about them. I am particularly interested in learning what the Church says on the Protestant forms of religious ecstasy.

God Bless

Peter
 
Hi Peter there are three sources for this “experience”, the Holy Spirit, Man himself, and Demonic. I think that in non-christian religions is either self induced or demonic. I think that in Protestant circles ( and maybe in some catholic circles ) is selfinduced by people themselves, and very little is of God.

The Psychological Lingistic Research on Glossillia has proven I think the thesis that most of it is self induced. For example, they have taken tapes of known foriegn languages, playing them for people who claim to have the gift of interpretation. Since, 1972 everytime this experiment has been repeated each had the same results. Not one person ever got the interpretation right, not even close.

I think tongues in Acts is a language, not gibberish we see today.
 
Daniel_Marsh said:
Hi Peter there are three sources for this “experience”, the Holy Spirit, Man himself, and Demonic. I think that in non-christian religions is either self induced or demonic. I think that in Protestant circles ( and maybe in some catholic circles ) is selfinduced by people themselves, and very little is of God.

The Psychological Lingistic Research on Glossillia has proven I think the thesis that most of it is self induced. For example, they have taken tapes of known foriegn languages, playing them for people who claim to have the gift of interpretation. Since, 1972 everytime this experiment has been repeated each had the same results. Not one person ever got the interpretation right, not even close.

I think tongues in Acts is a language, not gibberish we see today.
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Thats what I was thinking too. That a lot of it is psychological. I believe that they believe it, but if it were really from the Holy Spirit surely every Catholic Church in the world would be filled with babbling spasming faithful.
 
Every religious experience, whether catholic, protestant, or pagan - is self induced. Yeah even the so called miracle of the dancing sun. Nothing but mass hallucinations.

But I suppose that is the beauty of religion: The opiate effect.
 
LDNCatholic said:
Is the ecstatic experience of protestants real (I mean the evangelicals who start shaking and running around screaming like rabid animals)?
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Is this a good way to ask in Non-Catholic forum in US English language? When I translate to Vietnamese, it sounds pretty rude.
 
water said:
Is this a good way to ask in Non-Catholic forum in US English language? When I translate to Vietnamese, it sounds pretty rude.
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First, I don’t speak US English, just English. And if some find it disrespectful then I apologise, but that is the impression I get.
 
LDNCatholic said:
First, I don’t speak US English, just English. And if some find it disrespectful then I apologise, but that is the impression I get.
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English used by American and the one by British are slightly different; thus, I thought they might have different slang as well. Example: apologize and apologise. 😉

Even if it is the impression you get, one must not express his own impression wherever he wants especially on the forums such as this where there are people from different culture and speak different languages.
 
water said:
Is this a good way to ask in Non-Catholic forum in US English language? When I translate to Vietnamese, it sounds pretty rude.
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Even in english its still pretty rude.

“running around screaming like rabid animals”, that gives me the picture of wild dogs with ruffed up hairs and drooling mouths. very charitable.
 
AgnosTheist said:
Your personal hatred for protestants is pretty exposed there. Try to mask it a little next time. 😃
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My grandparents are Protestant, my dads entire family are, my neighbour is a Methodist minister, I am quite good friends with a couple of Baptists and a Pentecostal. I don’t hate Protestants (nor do I know enough of them to decide if I hate them all) I dislike their religion though.

In any case, I’m standing by my comment. That is what it looks like to me. As I said in another post that if there are protestants who don’t have these kinds of experiences (but have another kind of experience) I would very much like to know about it.

God Bless

Peter
 
LDNCatholic said:
My grandparents are Protestant, my dads entire family are, my neighbour is a Methodist minister, I am quite good friends with a couple of Baptists and a Pentecostal. I don’t hate Protestants (nor do I know enough of them to decide if I hate them all) I dislike their religion though.
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well its not their religion that you compared to a rabid animal. there is a very thin line that separates hatred for a religion and hatred for those who follow it. sometimes you cross that boundary without knowing it.
 
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