Fainted Faith

[Technosoul]

Once I attended this small church and when the preacher would lay hands on peoples heads they would faint. A number of folks were laying on the floor after "the holy spirit came upon them".

Once my cat captured a bird and I was able to get the bird away from the playful cat, the bird had fainted but was still alive, and later recovered in a safe place.

I added 1 and 1 and came up with a new theory. I think that it is possible that the religious experience could be an evolution of the more primitive brain reaction of fainting.Man found he could use his imagination to escape into a fantasy when reality became too hard to bear, and so instead of fainting the brain would trigger an effect called daydreaming. Which is like fainting but just a slightly altered or more evolved process of having a fainting spell.

So by imagining God or heaven, or the power of the Holy Spirit, he could faint into that fantasy and even have a profound revelation or whatever. And then finding that escape to be a plesant experience he would trigger it even if he was not confronted by something fearful or some other stress factor (worry - etc.).

Is my theory correct or not?

[Zinkovich]

I don't know. You need to come up with a way to test or falsify it before anyone can say anything on the matter. That way we can begin collecting evidence for or against it.

[Jack]

I've done the "laying on of hands" thing. I'd suggest self-induced hysteria or the power of suggestion.

[underbear1]

I like those theatrical attention seeking Jesus freaks being "slain in the spirit', then I'm always disappointed when they get back up again.

[Technosoul]

I don't know. You need to come up with a way to test or falsify it before anyone can say anything on the matter. That way we can begin collecting evidence for or against it.

I do not know if such a theory can be tested under labortory conditions. And it is not like I can go out and dig up some fossil for evidence. But no doubt a number of people have experienced something that would support the theory - can I get a witness? No sure?

The fainting bird and the over stemulating "laying on hands" event at that ( and other ) churches would be my evidence so far, Any comment on that evidence?

[Technosoul]

I've done the "laying on of hands" thing. I'd suggest self-induced hysteria or the power of suggestion.

I would not agree that the hysteria was self induced, but rather it was induced by the environmental conditions present at that church gathering, the up-temple music and stemulating sermons might have been the "environmental cause" for that reaction.

The same effect happened to teenage girls when they saw Elvis or the Beatles, as you might recall. It was just "too much" for them to incooperate all at once, mentally. So they fainted in the asles.

The "power of suggestion" would not be an alternative to what I discribed in my O.P.
In my opinon. Just an alteration of how one would discribe it.

[Technosoul]

I like those theatrical attention seeking Jesus freaks being "slain in the spirit', then I'm always disappointed when they get back up again.

My scientific theory (scientific - well, potentially scientific theory?) was not intended to be an insult to any religion, nor would I wish to take this debate in that direciton.

[Osborn F Enready]

I am not religious in the same sense as most people, but I still had to chuckle at this.

In the Beginning...

God created Heaven and Earth.
Quickly, he was faced with a class action suit for failure to file an environmental impact statement. He was granted a temporary permit for the project, but was stymied with the Cease and Desist Order for the "earthly" part.

Appearing at the hearing, God was asked why He began His earthly project in the first place. He replied that He just liked to be creative.


The God said, "Let there be light!", and intermediately, the officials wanted to know how the light would be made. Would there be strip mining? What about thermal pollution? God explained the light would come from a huge ball of fire. GOd was granted provisional permission to make light, assuming that no smoke would result from the ball of fire; that we would obtain a building permit; and to conserve energy, would have the light out half the time. God agreed and said He would call the light "Day" and the darkness "Night.
Officials replied they were not interested in semantics.


God said, "Let the Earth bring forth green herd and such as many seed". The EPA agreed so long as native seed was used. The God said, "Let waters bring forth creeping creatures having life; and the fowl that may fly over the earth". Officials pointed out this would require approval from the Department of Fish and Wildlife coordinated with the Heavenly Game Federation and the Audubongelic Society.


Everything was OK until God said He wanted to complete the project in Six Days. Officials said it would take at least 200 days to review the application and impact statement. After that, there would be a public hearing. Then there would be 10-12 months before......


It was at this point that God created Hell.


Here Endth the Lesson!
Rev. Wilson
Episcofailure (rtd)

[dsanthony]

I added 1 and 1 and came up with a new theory

Well, that's hardly a new theory. Yes, religion taps into the primitive brain, providing euphoric visions and sensory experiences. This is old news to psychologists and comparative religious scholars. I'd suggest you read Durkheim, Jung or Campbell.

[samsara15]

That's a real treasure, Osborn!!

[Kuroko]

Not here to compete, or side track this at all.

I have also attended this, I believe that it is much closer related to suggestion (after having seen people collapse before them, the belief that one will collapse as well may add up in one's mind to create that result?) and there is a method in hypnosis where majority of the induction revolves arround using suggestion with suggested effects are used to induce the trance.

For example, "now as your resting you can feel that your thumb wants to twitch, the more you focus on your thumb the more you can feel that it wants to twitch and when it does you will feel yourself rellax" just for example.

Now as for the joke, I quite like this one ^_^

#In the beginning was the computer. And God said
: Let there be light!
#You have not signed on yet.
: God.
#Enter user password.
: Omniscient.
#Password Incorrect. Try again!
: Omnipotent.
#Password Incorrect. Try again!
: Technocrat.
#And God signed on 12:01 a.m., Sunday, March 1.
: Let there be light!
#Unrecognizable command. Try again!
: Create light.
#Done.
: Run heaven and earth.
#And God created Day and Night. And God saw there were 0 errors.
#And God signed off at 12:02 a.m., Sunday, March 1.
#Approx. funds remaining: $92.50.
#And God signed on at 12:00 a.m., Monday, March 2.
: Let there be firmament in the midst of the water and
#Unrecognizable command! Try again!
: Create firmament.
#Done.
: Run firmament.
#And God divided the waters. And God saw there were 0 errors.
#And God signed off at 12:01 a.m., Monday, March 2.
#Approx. funds remaining: $84.60.
#And God signed on at 12:00 a.m., Tuesday, March 3.
: Let the waters under heaven be gathered together unto one place
and let the dry land appear and
#Too many characters in string specification! Try again.
: Create dryland.
#Done!
: Run dryland.
#And God created Earth and Seas. And God saw there were 0 errors.
#And God signed off at 12:01 a.m., Tuesday, March 3.
#Approx. funds remaining: $65.00.
#And God signed on at 12:00 a.m., Wednesday, March 4.
: Create lights in the firmament to divide the day from the night.
#Unspecified type. Try again!
: Create sunmoonstars.
#And God created Sun, Moon, Stars. And God saw there were 0 errors.
#And God signed off at 12:01 a.m., Wednesday, March 4.
#Approx. funds remaining: $54:00.
#And God signed on at 12:00 a.m., Thursday, March 5.
: Create fish.
#Done.
: Create fowl.
#Done.
: Run fish'nfowl.
#And God created the great seamonsters and every living creature
that creepeth wherewith the waters swarmed after its kind and
every winged fowl after its kind. 0 errors.
#And God signed off at 12:01 a.m., Thursday, March 5.>
#Approx. funds remaining: $45.00.
#And God signed on at 12:00 a.m., Friday, March 6.
: Create cattle.
#Done.
: Create creepy things.
#Done.
: Now let us make man in our image.
#Unspecified type! Try again.
: Create man.
#Done.
: Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it
and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over of the fowl
of the air and over every living thing that creepeth upon the
earth.
#Too many command operands! Try again.
: Run multiplication.
#Execution terminated. 6 errors.
: Insert breath.
#O.K.
: Run multiplication.
#Execution terminated. 5 errors.
: Move man to Garden of Eden.
#File Garden of Eden does not exist.
: Create Gard.En.
#Done.
: Move man to Gard.En.
#O.K.
: Run multiplication.
#Execution terminated. 4 errors.
: Copy woman from man.
#O.K.
: Run multiplication.
#Execution terminated. 3 errors.
: Insert woman into man.
#Illegal parameters. Try again!
: Insert man into woman.
#O.K.
: Run multiplication.
#Execution terminated. 2 errors.
: Create desire.
#Done.
: Run multiplication.
#And God saw man'nwoman being fruitful and multiplying in the Gard.En.
#Warning: No time limit on this run. 1 errors.
: Create freewill.
#Done.
: Run freewill.
#And God saw man'nwoman being fruitful and multiplying in the Gard.En.
#Warning: No time limit on this run. 1 errors.
: Undo desire.
#Desire cannot be undone once freewill is created.
: Destroy freewill.
#Freewill is an inaccessible file and cannot be destroyed.
#Enter replacement, cancel, or ask for help.
: Help!
#Desire cannot be undone once freewill is created.
#Freewill is an inaccessible file and cannot be destroyed.
#Enter replacement, cancel, or ask for help.
: Create Treeofknowledge.
#And God saw man'nwoman being fruitful and multiplying in the Gard.En.
#Warning: No time limit on this run. 1 errors.
: Create good'nevil.
#Done.
: Activate evil.
#And God saw he had created shame.
#Warning: System error in sector E95. Man'nwoman not in Gard.En.
#1 errors.
: Scan Gard.En. for man'nwoman.
#Man'nwoman cannot be located. Try again!
: Search Gard.En. for man'nwoman.
#Search failed.
: Delete shame.
#Shame cannot be deleted once evil has been activated.
: Destroy freewill.
#Freewill an inaccessible file and cannot be destroyed.
: Stop!
#Unrecognizable command. Try again.
: Break
: Brea
: Break
#ATTENTION ALL USERS ATTENTION ALL USERS: COMPUTER GOING DOWN FOR
REGULAR DAY OF MAINTENANCE AND REST IN FIVE MINUTES. PLEASE
SIGN OFF.
: Create new world.
#You have exceeded your allotted file space. You must destroy
old files before new ones can be created.
: Destroy earth.
#Destroy earth. Please confirm.
: Destroy earth confirm.
#COMPUTER DOWN. COMPUTER DOWN. SERVICES WILL RESUME ON SUNDAY
MARCH 8 AT 6:00 A.M. YOU MUST SIGN OFF NOW!
#And God signed off at 11:59 p.m., Friday, March 6.
#And God saw he had zero funds remaining.

[Scribbler1]

I like those theatrical attention seeking Jesus freaks being "slain in the spirit', then I'm always disappointed when they get back up again.

What a cynic you are. I'll bet you don't believe professional wrestling is real either.