                                                                                                   %20Moore.htm_cmp_axis000_vbtn.gif){kind=small}                                                                 |
Liberty Advocate http://www.libertyadvocate.com/
Psychedelic
Christianity: Pt. 3
by Karen Pansler-Lam, J.D. Psychedelic
Christianity preaches Jesus was a hippie. According
to psychedelic theology, Jesus’ mission was to teach the message of
universal love. Hence, Jesus is
portrayed as a mere radical that rejected authority, existing institutions
and conventional attitudes toward morality, style of dress, and so forth.
And it portrays Jesus as a gentle pacifist who quietly went about
feeding the poor and other good works. And it teaches Jesus condemned
judging others and preached tolerance. In other words, Jesus is portrayed as
hip – a hippie. That is
why psychedelic theology emphasizes the hippie doctrines of peace, love, and
unity. Psychedelic theology preaches we must liberate our minds from ordinary thinking and established doctrines and gain spiritual understanding from personal revelation and enlightenment. And these new states of revelation and enlightenment are reached most commonly by the use of psychedelic experiences, including psychedelic music and dance and drama, and even hallucinogenic drugs such as marijuana. Before we look closer at hippie doctrines embraced by the psychedelic church, first we must understand sermon-lectures are not the only method of preaching hippie theology. Other psychedelic techniques such as music and dance and drama are also used to teach their doctrines. These methods are used to engage the participants in a communal religious psychedelic experience. To explain, among psychedelic Christians there is a deep dissatisfaction with the present world order and the present church order. And the communal religious psychedelic experience is a way to express their feelings, their protests, and their vision of the world and the church. The communal religious psychedelic experience is generally a church program including “Christian” rock or folk rock or folk music and a sermon-lecture about love, peace, and freedom. Actually, the communal religious psychedelic experience is a festival rebelling against the Biblical church service. It is a psychedelic festival or psychedelic celebration. Music plays a major part in the psychedelic celebration. Unquestionably, the power of music moves us. Music is not always intended to entertain; sometimes the intent is to be a mind-altering technique. Therefore, composers put into music their ideas and feelings. Musicians do not want us to just listen to their music with open ears, but they want us to listen to their music with open minds and open hearts. Simply put, music is propaganda. Put another way, music stimulates the imagination and sets a specific mood: romantic, quieting, rebellious, victorious, and so forth. In primitive civilizations, music has the leading part in religious ceremonies. And the loud music in psychedelic churches plays the leading part in the program and sets the mood to unite the celebrants in a communal psychedelic experience to stimulate the senses. The music is “awesome.” And many psychedelic churches use multiple bright-colored lights during their music, similar to those seen in drug-induced hallucinations. The color lights create different patterns and combined with loud music with a strong beat becomes a mind-altering psychedelic experience, a simulated mind-altering drug. Dance is also another psychedelic technique used in the psychedelic celebration. Music and dance are interrelated. For the primitive man, dancing was the physical manifestation of his religion and was his way of speaking to the gods. Like primitive man, psychedelic Christians “dance out” their religious feelings. Psychedelic rock music is intended to cause listeners to dance in a high state of excitement. Often psychedelic churches work the celebrants into a frenzy of exhilaration and ecstatic dancing often hopping up and down in excitement – a spiritual high creating a psychedelic festival of revelry. These religious psychedelic festivals are similar to the ecstatic ceremonies of festivals held in honor of Bacchus, the god of drunkenness and fertility where there was much dancing. Today, “Christian” rock songs have a strong beat that elicits primarily a physical response, almost a reflex action, and causes the celebrants to dance excitedly and sometimes sexually suggestive. Often the rock music causes celebrants to shout under the impact of strong emotion along with clapping of hands or pounding of feet and unites the moving body with the strong beat. Celebrants flushed with religious ecstasy dance wildly giving the appearance of being drunk or stoned. Certainly, the strong beat of loud raucous music and the wild dancing is a mind-altering psychedelic experience intended to free us from our inhibitions and open our minds to new experiences and new ideas. Another
technique used in the communal psychedelic religious experience is drama.
Dance and music and drama are interrelated. The three were used as one in
the primitive religious tribal dances.
And the psychedelic church often uses all three in the religious
ritual of a communal religious psychedelic experience. Specifically, the
psychedelic church transforms the platform for preaching sermons into a
stage for musical and theatrical productions.
Stage production is important in the psychedelic church. Plays act
out a religious or social condition and communicate a mood and propose a
change. In short, the drama
protests a condition and then preaches the solution.
It is a dramatic message - a dramatic sermon. Like
the psychedelic techniques of music and dance, the dramatic sermon is meant
to change our way of thinking about the Gospel.
In times past, the main purpose for the platform in the sanctuary was
for the placement of the pulpit used in preaching and conducting a religious
service. But now the platform
has become a “stage” and the pulpit is often thrown out because it
symbolizes sermons based on the authority of the Holy Bible. Like psychedelic music and dance, religious drama performed on a stage is used to protest the Old Church Order of sound doctrine, reverence, and Biblical church worship. And drama subtly indoctrinates under the guise of entertainment. This includes psychedelic musicals. For example, the musicals Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar became part of pop culture in the 1970s to preach a different Jesus. In Godspell, Jesus’ costume bears resemblance to a clown’s. He teaches parables only, and never preaches the gospel message of sin and repentance. Jesus is portrayed as a clown who playfully teaches about love, peace, and freedom. This Jesus never proclaims: “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). Incidentally, the word godspell is the Old English for “good news.” And the good news of the Jesus in Godspell is that you do not have to repent or be born again. Jesus and his hippie playfellows irreverently sing and dance and frolic as they teach another Gospel through catchy songs and frivolous play-acting. It is highly irreverent. In fact, it is blasphemous. And the hippie rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar is very loosely based on the Bible. Like the Jesus in Godspell, this Jesus is effeminate, not a rugged carpenter. And this story hints at a romantic relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. It is a vulgar and blasphemous musical hailing Jesus as a “superstar,” not the Messiah. Clearly, psychedelic musicals are about spreading hippie doctrines through songs to a wide audience. The songs are intended to be sermons to indoctrinate as many listeners as possible. Therefore, many of the popular or pop “Christian” songs in psychedelic musicals are choruses or simple songs that are repetitive and easy to remember. More important, these choruses are ecumenical so they appeal to everyone and offend no one. However, ecumenical songs may be spiritual, but not Christian: the “Lord” praised is not the Lord Jesus Christ. For instance, the “Lord” in Beatles George Harrison’s spiritual song “My Sweet Lord” is Hare Krishna (Buddha), not the Lord Jesus Christ. Likewise, the “Lord” in many ecumenical songs may not be the Lord Jesus Christ. Ecumenical songs are intended to unite us into a one-world religion: a celebration of the human family. Just as singing patriotic songs unites nations, singing ecumenical songs unites religions. Specifically, the communal psychedelic celebration of ecumenical rock or folk rock or folk music represents the thoughts and feelings of the whole people. Put another way, ecumenical songs are social and religious protests that preach progressive theology: pacifism, environmentalism, ecumenism, hedonism, socialism and other psychedelic doctrines. In sum, psychedelic techniques are used to liberate the mind and change our thinking about what we believe. The intent of these experiences is to get us to rebel against the established church: sound doctrine and reverence - the Biblical church. Listen,
friend, we cannot sit at the Lord’s table and the devil’s table:
But
I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they
sacrifice to devils, and
not to God; and
I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.
Ye
cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and
the cup of devils: ye
cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and
of the table of devils. I
Corinthians 10:20, 21 Beware of psychedelic experiences . . .
Psychedelic
experiences are hedonistic paganism. Psychedelic
experiences are sacrifices to devils. Psychedelic
experiences are partaking of the table of devils. Psychedelic
experiences are fellowship with devils.
May
2013
|