This post is based upon an earlier one but since Todd Bentley is in the news again, this time in a very negative light, it’s worth reposting this again with a bit of a revision.
Faith is a very powerful thing . . . when properly ignited it can lead to incredibly powerful experiences . . . some of them wonderful and some of them the opposite of good times. However, the mystical ecstasy experienced by many can be a very powerful life-changing experience within the appropriate context. It can also be employed for other purposes.
Some religious leaders are very adept at guiding their parishioners into ecstatic experiences, some with deep meaningful purpose and some through the application of technique that borders manipulation, while others have no genuine spirituality within them and the few spiritual experiences their parishioners have are likely there by happenstance and accident than by any genuine spiritual gift. Some religious leaders are genuine loving believers while others are simply empty husks parrotting the words and going through the motions and still others are sociopaths exploiting what they see as weakness in their flock to their own gain . . . but the members of the congregation may experience genuine spiritual feelings and ecstatic connection with what they experience as joyful deity with any of these as the faith experience comes from within . . . although a shepherd who has studied influence, hypnosis, focused trance and the like is certainly better equipped than others at guiding others into genuine ecstatic experience, regardless of their personal motives.
This video has been around for awhile and various comedy sites have posted it under titles such as “Jesus Gives Girl Orgasm” or “Finger-Banged by Jesus” or the like . . . you can find it via OnKneesForJesus, CollegeHumor, SunnysideChannel and others . . . but . . . I came across it via a random websearch for other things (actually, I was looking for some faith-based material for the Bible and Literature course I teach at the university) . . . but it certainly caught my attention as it looks awfully familiar to me . . .
Bam bam bam! Hmmmmm, I believe I’ve done this very thing before . . . well, my variation . . . a secular variation at that. Note that this particular video gets knocked offline every so often so just in case the embed dies, there are copies here and here and elsewhere if you get creative with the search terms.
Boom boom boom!
Now, I want to make it clear that I am absolutely in no way belittling anyone’s genuine faith by presenting this here. While Todd Bentley has been the subject of a Nightline expose and he did break with a number of his previous contacts, this in no way invalidates the powerful experiences of those who flocked to his ministry. Mystical experience does NOT come from the preacher, it comes from the individual. Coincidentally, I’ve recently been writing the foreword to and editing a new edition of the classic “On the Varieties of Religious Experience” by William James (I’ve been researching quite a bit on religious experience and mystical ecstasy of late and expect to do more work in this area as it is a lifelong interest – those who know me well know that I am certainly no practicing Christian today, far from it, although I dreamed of being a preacher as a child and minored in Religion at university and still have a strong interest in comparative mythology and religion and mysticism, particularly as they relate to ecstatic experience and mystical trance).
Of course, there is a very strong correlation between the ecstatic states that folks experience in mystical context and those that can be generated via engineering experiential ecstasy by means of suggestion, expectancy, hypnosis and focused trance. Certainly, I’ve a rather long history of working in this area and folks who have our Engineering eXperiential Ecstasy Video set (https://briandavidphillips.net/2001/06/12/dvt25-experiential-ecstasy) are familiar with some of our methodology while those who have our Eroticatrance video (https://briandavidphillips.net/2001/06/12/dvt31-eroticatrance) set have been exposed with other techniques we use and those who have our very comprehensive Ultimate Pleasure Hypnosis Video Package (https://briandavidphillips.net/2001/06/11/pack06-ultimate-pleasure-hypnosis-specialist-package/) package have everything anyone needs from raw core basics through very advanced techniques in order to become a master of ecstatic experience for any context.
However, I will admit that despite my secular life and my drift so very very far from evangelical roots . . . mega-uber-ultra-far by any measure, not on the same page, no longer even in the same book, a few libraries to the left, I would suspect . . . I do sometimes imagine myself at the pulpit guiding similar experiences . . . given my academic background in communication and influence studies and my professional theatre training and what I know about experiential hypnosis and engineering ecstatic experiences, I have no doubt that I’d be rather good at it . . . boom, boom, boom . . . and more so. Indeed. Then again, I do run the webpages for the Center for Universal Loving Tranceformation where we will be placing more of our metaphysical work . . . hint, hint, spell it out . . . tongue only partially in cheek there.
Hmmmmmmmm. Methinks we may have a course or two coming up on this material some time in the future . . . if not a full blown ministry.
Those of you in Taiwan are welcome to join my own upcoming MINDGASM free workshop where I will be going over some similar techniques, albeit for very different contexts . . . so we will also be covering other less-performance-oriented material. See https://briandavidphillips.net/2012/07/17/mindgasm-18-august-2012-free-workshop-in-taipei/. There event description has more videos.
If you’re in Taipei and interested in hypnosis, check the services page linked to in the top left sidebar. Not in Taipei, check the store for recordings in the same menu area as well as links to lots and lots of info and goodies.
Brian
www.BrianDavidPhillips.com
please contact Dr. Phillips at brian@briandavidphillips.com.
