Thoughts on church seizures?

Einherjar Silberio · January 25th, 2013

Hiyall

Disclaimer: while this has to do with christianity and the church, it's in no way meant to be demeaning or... Screw pretty words: I don't want this to turn into "Christianity/atheism/islam/budhism/pastafarism is the right/wrong religion", I'm posting this just out of curiosity and to check what other people might think about it

To the point:

I've been watching/listening to "Ain't nobody got time", the remix and... Yeah, ya'll probably know it, and I noticed at almost the end of the video they've included two videos of men who're having 'seizures' at church... Like hardcore holy muttafuckin' seizures, y'know? I also remembered this video a very good friend of mine showed me once:

For all the Slayer fans out there.

I also remembered this would happen sometimes in the church I visited regularly in Chile, during my christian time. Aswell as one or two people in the church who started speaking... Let's call it tounges. It was at least not Spanish.

So, what do you guys think about it? Anyone who'se got more knowledge on religion who might know more about this specific behaviour? Or just some opinion?

Ryojin · January 25th, 2013

I'm gonna assume that you're wanting to discuss the 'seizures' and 'speaking in tongues' rather than the actual dancing in that video... XD

I've actually watched a few documentaries about this sort of behavior. I've heard so many "explanations" for this stuff. Things like demons possessing the body, god possessing the body, devils being expelled from the body, etc. It almost always has something to do with some sort of possession, though, as far as I have seen. Occasionally, though, it is people claiming to have magical powers, and that behavior is some sort of proof of that. It all seems like a "HEY! LOOK AT ME! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!" sort of thing to me, though. It is pretty ridiculous if you ask me.

But that's just my $0.02.

MoreGun89 · January 25th, 2013

I can't say I don't agree. I do believe a very small percentile of these experiences may be genuine spiritual experiences though

Einherjar Silberio · January 25th, 2013

Mixed thoughts here too, though I strongly believe on what Ryojin says. I think also that those moments of... Holy seizureness can be caused by a temporary state of extreme euphoria

The mind is a terrible thing.

The-Bleh-Bleh · January 25th, 2013

Provided you don't buy the spiritual explanation, it's fairly straight forward. The behavior is caused by extreme emotion. Heck I probably look like that when I get a new video game. What exactly makes people want to get up and flail around is going to be tough to explain. But I think this is very well within the realms of expected human behavior.

edit: appended a couple sentences

Nemmerle · January 25th, 2013

There are people who do cryptography and language analysis, who are very good at it. There has yet to be anything consistently meaningful extracted from all the nonsense people speaking in tongues go on about. And yet we know that people can learn to imitate it after listening to short clips of it fairly easily. Oh they can't tell you what they're saying - they don't know, not anymore than I'd know if I started stringing random bits of Latin together - but they can do it well enough to fool people who speak in tongues.

Really you'd think an all powerful god could bring itself to speak somewhat more clearly.

It's just a language-like goblediegook people have learned and associated with a state of euphoria in a religious setting. You get people excited and ... they run away with themselves - like bursting into song, you can't really say you decided to do it.

That's how I view it anyway.

Red Menace · January 25th, 2013

I thought this was going to be about anti-clericalism or something.

Nozyspy · January 26th, 2013

I am a religious person myself, but that video is... somewhat disturbing. o.O

Nemmerle · January 26th, 2013

Well, they seem to be having fun at least. Not like these people.

They seem genuinely unhappy

Rikupsoni · January 26th, 2013

Many Christian revival movements do meetings, where a charismatic speaker can agitate the listeners to a state of euphoria or psychosis. In a very intense situation, the speaker tells them to fall to the ground and they will.

But such effects do not mean it's only related to religion. That's what popular hypnosis is based on too. And for example, the Joseph Goebbels Sportpalast "Total War" speech on February 18, 1943 was described as a "spiritual mass experience". But I suppose it's easier to achieve with religious themes.