The History of Pentecostalism
Lorin Friesen, May 2019
I recently read through The Century of the Holy Spirit by Vinson Synan and gained a better understanding of the history of Pentecostalism. This short essay will look at the three stages of this history, quoting from this book. Because the chapters were written by several authors, I will refer to ‘the book’ rather than ‘the author’.
Pentecostalism initially grew out of the Holiness movement of the 19th century: “By the late 1890s some holiness leaders began to promote a separate ‘baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire’ subsequent to the experiences of conversion and sanctification. This was scornfully called ‘third blessingism’” (p.28).
This concept is similar to mental symmetry, which suggests that the path of personal transformation can be divided into the three stages of 1) believing in the atonement of Jesus in order to construct a concept of God through personal honesty, 2) following a concept of God in righteousness, and 3) becoming personally reborn within the mental structure formed during the first two stages. The primary distinction is that mental symmetry is driven by the TMN (Teacher mental network) of a rational understanding (which includes a rational explanation of the doctrines and practices of Christianity) while current Christianity lacks such an integrated understanding. Saying this more simply, the history of Pentecostalism illustrates what happens when one attempts to follow the third stage of transformation without having a rational Teacher understanding.
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism began with Charles Parham, “who was credited with first advancing the theological argument that tongues are always the initial evidence of a person’s receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit” (p.43). This first happened on January 1, 1901, when Agnes Ozman received the ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’ and began to speak in tongues. Parham taught “that Christian missionaries would have no further need of language training. They needed only to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit and they would be miraculously empowered to speak whatever language was necessary. This was a teaching Parham would steadfastly maintain throughout the rest of his life, despite ever mounting evidence that this was not substantiated by later events” (p.44).
Looking at this cognitively, every technical specialization is driven by the TMN of some paradigm and will naturally develop a specialized vocabulary which will appear like an incomprehensible tongue to outsiders. Going further, rational thought that is guided by the TMN of some general theory will naturally cause Platonic forms of the spirit to emerge within Mercy thought. Thus, Parham’s conclusion was cognitively accurate. But Parham lacked the TMN of a rational understanding. Instead, “Parham received a revelation telling him that formal education was a hindrance to his ministry, so he immediately quit school” (p.43). Thus, instead of emotionally following a TMN that encompasses rational thought, Parham followed the emotion of the spirit in order to speak Teacher words that bypass rational thought. But by connecting the Holy Spirit with words and emotions, Parham linked Christianity with Teacher thought (which uses words) and general theories (which produce strong emotions). As was mentioned in the earlier essay on Pentecostalism, science and technology were starting to apply this path in the objective realm. Pentecostalism then took the shape of science and technology and applied this to the subjective.
The three stages of personal transformation can be seen in the doctrine of the original ‘holiness Pentecostals’: “When the Pentecostal movement began, these ‘holiness Pentecostals’ simply added the baptism in the Holy Spirit with tongues as ‘initial evidence’ of a ‘third blessing’ that brought power for witnessing to those who had already been sanctified. With the new tongues experience, sanctificatrion was seen as a prerequisite ‘cleansing’ that qualified the seeker to experience the ‘third blessing’ of baptism in the Holy Spirit. An early prophetic utterance stated ominously that ‘My Spirit will not dwell in an unclean temple’ … It was told that Seymour would not admit seekers to enter the upper room to seek the baptism until he was satisfied that their sanctification experience had been certified downstairs. The historic Azusa Street testimony was ‘I am saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost’” (p.99). Notice how the baptism of the Holy Spirit follows two earlier stages of salvation and sanctification.
But because no rational TMN existed to guide thought and behavior through righteousness, the second step of sanctification turned into legalism: “These churches adopsted strict ‘holiness codes,’ which forbade their members to use tobacco or alcohol or to attend theaters or other places of ‘worldly amusement.’ Also outlawed were professional sports, ‘outward adornments’ such as lipstick or ‘bobbed hair,’ and immodest dress” (p.99). This describes a Mercy focus upon avoiding forbidden objects, experiences, and locations. Righteousness, in contrast, is driven by the Teacher desire to behave in a manner that is consistent with the character of God.
In a similar manner, following the Holy Spirit was viewed in the initial Azusa Street revival as the absence of Teacher structure: “Following their belief that the Holy Spirit would guide all believers and not just leaders, everyone was free to speak, even during the services… The ultimate antistructuralist phenomenon associated with the Azusa Street revival was of course the benchmark of the experience, speaking in tongues. Here was an experience that truly cast aside the constraints of human convention and gave free rein to the Spirit. In ecstatic speech the action of human agency was completely denied, and the basic structure of language itself was set aside” (p.55).
Notice what is happening within Teacher thought. Teacher thought appreciates order-within-complexity. This is being rejected in order to ‘follow the Spirit’. But ‘speaking in tongues’ involves Teacher thought, because words form the basic building blocks for Teacher thought. Thus, Mercy thought with its spiritual experiences is imposing a structure upon Teacher thought which replaces existing rational Teacher understanding. Teacher thought and Mercy thought do form a new symbiotic relationship during the final stage of personal transformation. One can see this partially illustrated by research & development, which first emerged in the 1880s, about the same time that Pentecostalism was coming to birth. R & D moves between Teacher understanding and Mercy experiences. Teacher thought is used to develop better gadgets for Mercy thought, while Mercy experiences provide the context for coming up with new ideas in Teacher thought. This works well—when backed up by a rational understanding in Teacher thought.
When following the Holy Spirit is seen as the repudiation of rational thought, then the natural conclusion will be to skip the first two steps of justification and sanctification and jump straight to the third stage of rebirth guided by the Holy Spirit. This was taught by William Durham during the second wave of revival at Azusa Street. He was ejected by others “over his new theological teaching of the ‘Finished Work’. This teaching repudiated the holiness doctrine of sanctification as a second work of grace and instead declared that everything a believer would ever need was included in the work of Christ on the cross. Durham contended that when Christ said, ‘It is finished,’ everything was accomplished—salvation, sanctification, healing, and the baptism with the Holy Spirit. He taught that the only thing required for a believer to access all this was an acceptance of its reality” (p.64).
Those who accepted Durham’s teaching of ‘finished work’ left the Pentecostal Holiness Church in 1914 to start the Assemblies of God (p.111). “Most of the Pentecostal churches in the world that were formed subsequently affirmed the Durham view. This reduced the spiritual experiences of these Pentecostals from three to two. Afterward, the ‘finished work’ Pentecostals testified to being ‘saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost’ without reference to sanctification” (p.124).
Looking at this cognitively, if one wants to break through to the spiritual realm, one must follow the three stages of personal transformation in some manner. This was done by the holiness movement which achieved the spiritual breakthrough of ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’. However, once a breakthrough has been achieved, those who follow can then regress to being ‘consumers’ of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, technology initially emerged as a result of going through the scientific and industrial revolutions, but once technology became established, it then became possible to become a consumer of technology by merely embracing the ‘finished work’ of those who initially developed the consumer society. Thus, one can view Durham type Pentecostalism as learning to become a consumer of the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that everyone is following God at this level, but it does mean that one can speak of consumer Christianity functioning in—and being reinforced by—a consumer society.
Those who tried to spread this message of instant salvation quickly discovered that things do not work this way. They did not “study the history and culture of the different peoples they hoped to convert. Ministerial credentials, legal recognition, and mission theory took a backseat to the individual guidance of the Holy Spirit. In numerous cases, their overall impact proved short-lived and disappointing. Disillusionment crept in as harsh realities defied their best efforts… Many returned home heartbroken” (p.81). Some “hardy souls survived by learning the language, adjusting to different cultural contexts, and adapting to the challenges that confronted them. Even when they discovered that speaking in tongues represented prayer in the Spirit instead of linguistic expertise, they accepted the transition in meaning since they shared in the experience of tongues that had enflamed the disciples with zeal on the Day of Pentecost” (p.81).
Notice the cognitive transition: 1) Pentecostal missionaries are recognizing that rational content is required, and they are getting this rational content from the secular realms of linguistics and culture. 2) ‘Speaking in tongues’ is now being viewed as something emotional and internal involving Teacher words which gives emotional strength to continue. These two principles cognitively resemble the concept of righteousness, which describes behavior and action that is emotionally motivated by the TMN of a concept of God based in a rational understanding of ‘how things work’. One finds this idea of resembling righteousness in Roman 4:22, which talks about Abraham being ‘reckoned as righteous’. Abraham was incapable of being righteous because he lacked a Teacher understanding of God. But he could behave in a manner that cognitively resembled righteousness.
When following God is associated with repudiating rational content, then one will naturally discover Teacher overgeneralization, in which Teacher thought comes up with universal theories by making sweeping statements that avoid factual details. This can be seen in the Oneness Pentecostals. “While the holiness Pentecostals taught three blessings and the finished-work Pentecostals two blessings, the oneness Pentecostals taught a ‘one blessing approach where everything (salvation, sanctification, and baptism in the Holy Spirit with tongues) was received in the waters of baptism by immersion in the ‘name of Jesus’” (p.141). Notice how everything is being collapsed into a single event. This is a sign of Teacher overgeneralization, and one can see a similar collapsing in the Reformed theology of Berkhof. Teacher overgeneralization can also be seen in the fixation upon tongues: “These were the only Pentecostals in the world who taught that speaking in tongues was necessary to salvation. Without tongues, they taught, baptismal regeneration was impossible” (p.141).
Cognitively speaking, there is actually some truth to this statement, because I have found that completing the path of personal transformation appears to be possible only if one is fully guided by a Teacher-based concept of God. But—and this is a huge but—I have also discovered that a Christianity which is based in the absolute truth of the Bible is a legitimate Christianity which is capable of substantially following the path of personal transformation. This is quite different that asserting that one can only be a Christian if one pretends to be guided personally by Teacher thought. Again a distinction needs to be made. Science and technology are guided by Teacher thought, but they are not guided personally by Teacher thought. The average scientist uses Teacher understanding to transform the world but not himself. Pentecostals with their ‘speaking in tongues’ are being guided personally by an imitation theory in Teacher thought. The personal component is present but not the Teacher understanding. Both are incomplete in different ways.
Charismatic Renewal
From 1901-1960, “Pentecostalism was considered to be outside the pale of respectable Christianity in America and the world. The Pentecostals were noisy and to many people disorderly” (p.149). “The major breakthrough into the mainline churches was led by Episcopalian pastor Dennis Bennett at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, California, in 1960” (p.151). This was the start of a second wave, known as the charismatic renewal. Bennett’s church in Seattle “became a center of charismatic renewal, not only for the Episcopal Church, but also for many churches and pastors from various denominations… Although the Sunday morning services were quite traditional, the Tuesday night prayer meetings were packed with people and Pentecostal power” (p.155). This charismatic renewal then spread to other denominations, starting with Anglicans and Lutherans.
The transition from Pentecostalism to charismatic renewal is described in the following quote: “Part of the move toward respectability was what some pundits call the ‘evangelicalization’ of the Pentecostal movement after 1948, when the Pentecostals joined forces with the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE)… Many Pentecostal scholars, historians, and theologians felt that the Pentecostals paid a steep price by becoming so close to the mainline evangelicals. In order to gain acceptance, they charged, the Pentecostals changed their original theological base to include many features that were not native to the Pentecostal theological culture and tradition. As a result, there was a slow decline in the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit in many Pentecostal churches and a closer alliance with the political positions advocated by the Christian right” (p.351). In other words, expressing Mercy thought freely though the spirit became replaced by proclaiming absolute truth in a conservative manner.
There is an interesting personal connection at this point through Harald Bredesen: “In later years Bredesen was to influence many important Christian leaders to experience the baptism in the Holy Spirit, including Pat Robertson, John Sherrill, and Pat Boone” (p.159). Quoting from Wikipedia, “A Lutheran minister, Bredesen became the first ordained clergyman from a mainline denomination to receive the Pentecostal experience of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, openly tell of his experience, and keep his ordination and credentials in a mainline denomination.”
Harald Bredesen was pastor of Trinity Christian Centre in Victoria, BC, from 1971 until his retirement in about 1977. I attended this church for several years starting in about 1983. I heard often about Bredesen but never met him in person. I also never spoke in tongues, but I did learn to play violin by ear and played regularly in the ‘praise team’. My older brother Lane Friesen started attending this church before I did, and he married a daughter of the pastor who succeeded Harald Bredesen. The initial work and teaching of mental symmetry (as spiritual gifts) was done within the context of attending this church. My brother and I learned two basic principles from this initial teaching phase: 1) Most people like to know something about themselves but they do not want to understand themselves too accurately. 2) Charismatic leaders want supernatural spiritual gifts but they will generally oppose a presentation of spiritual gifts that includes rational analysis.
My brother Lane showed an initial 50 page draft on Romans 12 spiritual gifts to Bredesen, and his response was “Hm, interesting, but in order to develop this idea it’s going to take at least 40 years.” That was forty years ago. Ironically, Bredesen was right.
I recently came across a piece of paper on which I wrote down how the leadership of that church responded to my research back in the early 1980s. Nine points are mentioned which I quote below:
- 1) I am not led by the Holy Spirit—not releasing to the Holy Spirit.
- 2) I am intellectually proud—I am studying too much.
- 3) I am standing apart from the church.
- 4) I am pursuing a peripheral issue.
- 5) I am using bad exegesis in Romans 12.
- 6) I am being narrow in pushing people into only seven boxes.
- 7) The leadership doesn’t sense the anointing in me.
- 8) The leadership hopes that I don’t have to go many years before seeing God’s not leading me.
- 9) I am wrong to feel that this will ‘push the church into orbit’.
Looking at these points cognitively, 1) and 2) imply that following the Holy Spirit means letting go of rational thought. 2) reflects the idea that God’s thoughts are too lofty to be understood by mortal humans. Therefore, God’s thoughts need to be interpreted to the people by a leadership who speaks for God, to which the people need to submit. This leads to 3). 4) This leadership will focus upon leading the people, running the church, and letting go of rational thought in order to experience the Holy Spirit. Understanding the mind will be regarded as a peripheral issue. 5) The Bible will then be read through this filter, causing other thinking to be rejected as bad exegesis. 6) Rational thought organizes ideas and puts them into mental boxes. If the Holy Spirit transcends rational thought, then anything which places people into boxes will be regarded as inherently narrow-minded. 7) This mindset of transcending rational thought in order to follow the Holy Spirit will then be applied to Christians at an intuitive level, putting them into the two boxes of ‘anointed’ and ‘not anointed’. 8) The leadership will feel that they are speaking for God when they reject someone as ‘not anointed’. 9) The present church system with its charismatic mindset will be regarded as the ultimate expression of Christianity.
It is interesting to examine these nine points in the light of what has actually happened over the intervening years:
- 1) I have become motivated by a strong concept of a Holy Spirit who is different than the world, while the typical church has succumbed to the spirit of the age.
- 2) All the studying has given me a powerful concept of God which has increased my respect for Scripture.
- 3) I have found that I continue to stand while much of the church is drifting.
- 4) I have discovered that cognitive styles are not a peripheral issue. In contrast, it is possible to build a meta-theory of cognition upon this foundation which can be applied to all areas of existence.
- 5) Similarly, my exegesis of Romans 12 has now been extended to 40% of the New Testament and I have repeatedly found that my method of exegesis is actually more consistent with the original Greek text than even official translations of the Bible.
- 6) I have observed over the years that everyone who works with some general theory eventually becomes mentally imprisoned by that theory. Most of these mental prisons are quite small. In contrast, the ‘seven narrow boxes’ of cognitive styles have created an internal mansion for personal identity that encompasses all of human existence. Meanwhile, post-Christian society has squeezed most of the church into the tiny boxes of religious experience and helping the needy.
- 7) We shall see later that many leaders of the charismatic movement marketed themselves in a manner that caused them to lose ‘the anointing’. In contrast, I have usually found when writing essays on biblical books that the cognitive meaning becomes immediately obvious when I look at the original Greek meanings. That is a form of ‘anointing’.
- 8) I have found repeatedly when analyzing New Testament books that the text makes sense because it resonates at a gut level with my personal experience. If my personal experience resonates with the biblical text, then this means that God has been leading me over the last decades.
- 9) This cognitive analysis of the New Testament has led to a transformed concept of church and the plan of God which would ‘put the church into orbit’ on many levels.
But it took almost forty years to get from that rejection in the 1980s to where I am today.
Spiritual gifts are generally assumed to be supernatural endowments that a person receives when becoming a Christian. However, the focus of Romans 12:1-15 is upon thinking and the transformation of the mind, and not upon supernatural gifting. In contrast, the lists of spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12 can be interpreted as supernatural giftings. Going further, if one interprets ‘spiritual’ as something internal that emerges as a result of personal transformation, then one can view Romans 12 spiritual gifts as ‘spiritual’. This internal nature means that Romans 12 spiritual gifts cannot be determined accurately using psychological tests and questionares. Instead, one’s cognitive style (spiritual gift) becomes apparent over time as one learns to think and behave as an individual. We tried putting together a computer program to assess spiritual gift, but it was only about 75% accurate when used by people whose cognitive styles we knew as a result of extended personal interaction.
Summarizing, mental symmetry did not emerge out on the fringes of Christianity but actually came to birth in a centre of the charismatic renewal—and it was ignored by Bredesen and rejected by the succeeding leadership. This rejection was painful in the short-term but essential for the long-term development of mental symmetry as a meta-theory of cognition. I should add that Don and Katie Fortune, who come from a charismatic background, also started teaching Romans 12 spiritual gifts at about the same time that my brother did. The character traits that they describe are about 90% consistent with the traits that we independently discovered. They have had a receptive audience over the years, probably because they do not question the underlying assumptions of evangelical Christianity. In contrast, I have occasionally contacted those who teach Romans 12 spiritual gifts and I have found that they have no desire to learn anything more about spiritual gifts from mental symmetry.
Looking at this more generally, Pentecostalism followed the Holy Spirit by suppressing rational thought. Charismatic Christianity embraced the partially rational thinking of the mainstream church but it did not take the further step of embracing secular rational thought. We shall see later that the third wave does attempt to embrace secular rational thought, which has had both a positive and a negative impact. On the positive side, the Holy Spirit is increasingly becoming associated implicitly with rational understanding, while on the negative side, people are losing respect for Scripture and minimizing the need for personal transformation. Thus, charismatic Christians have typically rejected mental symmetry as non-Christian because it does not start with absolute faith in the Bible (even though it is consistent with the content of the Bible). Third wave Christians generally find mental symmetry initially interesting, but tend to lose interest when the need for intellectual study and personal transformation becomes apparent. In contrast, I have found that pursuing mental symmetry has caused me to pursue moral transformation—like the original Pentecostals, it has caused me to respect Scripture and Christianity—like the charismatics, and it has helped me to include secular thought—like the third wave. Going further, analyzing about 40% of the New Testament from a cognitive perspective has led me to a view of prophecy and spiritual gifting which is actually more supernatural than anything proposed by even the most radical Pentecostals, while remaining rooted in a rational theory of cognition. In brief, it appears that an integrated understanding of God and Christianity (as described in Revelation 10) will lead to what I call a theoretical return of Jesus, which will then be followed by the spread of supernatural technology. This hypothesis is explored in detail in other essays.
Returning now to the history of Charismatic Christianity, “One of the surprises of the renewal was that it came first to the more sacramental and fundamentalist denominations. Beginning among Episcopalians in 1960, the movement made early inroads among Presbyterians, Lutherans, and most surprising of all, Roman Catholics. Some of the more traditional Protestant churches had already had skirmishes with Pentecostals in the early years of the century and had built-in defenses against the Neo-Pentecostal movement when the movement mushroomed after 1970” (p.176).
Looking at this cognitively, sacramental Christians emphasize Server actions, while traditional Protestant churches focus upon Perceiver beliefs. Perceiver facts interact directly with Mercy experiences, because Perceiver thought comes up with facts by organizing Mercy experiences into categories. Pentecostalism gives freedom to Mercy thought. However, Perceiver thought finds it difficult to function in the midst of strong Mercy emotions and will naturally be overwhelmed by the strong Mercy emotions of Pentecostalism. Therefore, those who emphasize Perceiver thought will develop ways of defending Perceiver belief from the emotional attacks of Pentecostalism. Looking at this from the other side, we have already seen that the original Pentecostals felt that following the Holy Spirit meant suppressing rational thought. (It is possible for Perceiver and Mercy thought to cooperate if Perceiver thought gains sufficient confidence to function in the presence of Mercy emotions.)
In contrast, Server thought and Mercy thought do not interact directly with each other. Instead, they cooperate to produce concrete thought, and are connected indirectly through Mercy → Perceiver → Contributor → Server. Looking at this religiously, both Catholic and Orthodox churches officially claim that the Server rituals of the church have some sort of mysterious, spiritual benefit for personal identity in Mercy thought. And most Protestant liturgical worshippers probably have similar sentiments. Thus, a mindset that thinks in terms of mysterious, liturgical spirituality will find it natural to embrace a concept of a Holy Spirit who works in a mysterious manner.
For instance, page 158 of the book shows a picture in which “thirty-two Anglican bishops dance before the Lord in Canterbury Cathedral in 1978”. Notice the juxtaposition of ancient and modern spiritual mystery in the following description: “At the close of this historic gathering, the two thousand worshippers joined in a time of rejoicing as the Spirit was poured out in Pentecostal fullness. Canterbury truly became a new Upper Room. The ancient walls of the cathedral echoed the shouts of praise that swelled from the hearts of the congregation. Thirty-two bishops and archbishops dancing around the high altar in high praise of the Lord were an unforgettable sight” (p.158).
I am not suggesting that this was not a genuine expression of the Holy Spirit. I think that it was. However, I suggest that two principles need to be kept in mind. First, the charismatic renewal did not occur mysteriously in a vacuum. Instead, it was one aspect of the larger counterculture of the 1960s, in which all aspects of society were being questioned by those who wanted to live spontaneously ‘according to the spirit’. One can see a crossover between these two in the Jesus’ people of the 1960s and 70s. It is interesting that neither of these are described in the three chapters on the charismatic renewal (pp.149-232), though the Jesus’ people, disenchanted youth, and contemporary Christian music are briefly mentioned on pp. 378-379.
Looking at this more generally, I have found that Christians often assume that God is working only through their church. But God (including the Holy Spirit) is bigger than my church and also bigger than the church. Most church struggles are actually illustrations of some general struggle that is affecting society at large. Thus, even though the charismatic renewal was explicitly limited to the church, it was implicitly part of a larger ‘charismatic renewal’ being experienced by all of society, a ‘spiritual renewal’ that was responding to the post-war consumer society.
This does not mean that the church is irrelevant, because Christianity deals with core topics which secular society tries to avoid, including God, sin, salvation, and life-after-death. One must deal with these core issues if one wants to experience personal salvation. But the way that the church deals with these issues will be heavily influenced by the societal context within which the church exists.
Mystery and Intuition
The second principle is that intuition needs to be distinguished from mystery. The modern world is ruled by objective, technical specialization. This provides many consumer goods but it leaves a vacuum within the subjective and religious realm of mental networks. (The mind uses mental networks to represent ‘living entities’ such as people, culture, special experiences, worldviews, paradigms, and concepts of divinity.) Pentecostal Christianity (and other forms of spirituality) try to fill this subjective vacuum. Both mystery and intuition can fill this vacuum by using mental networks to transcend technical thought. But while these two both use mental networks, they are not the same.
Mystery combines Teacher overgeneralization with Mercy authority. Teacher overgeneralization comes up with a general theory by ignoring Perceiver facts, often stated in religion as the belief that God holds everything together in some incomprehensible fashion. This sweeping statement is then given feet by charismatic leaders who use their Mercy status to make specific pronouncements in the name of God.
For instance, p.189 quotes Pat Robertson: “Together, Harald Bredesen and I watched God open a new chapter in church history—a chapter which today has millions of characters. Now it is called the Charismatic Renewal. Then it had no name. It wasn’t quite born… Late one night in 1959… suddenly, through Harald’s lips the word came, ‘I am doing a new thing on the earth. Why will you be bound by fear? Hold nothing back. Hold nothing back!’ The new thing God was doing in our midst would draw the attention of the world and vastly bless scores of millions.” Notice the combination of people speaking on behalf of God and letting go of rational thought in order to embrace some vast movement of God.
This quote brings an interesting question to mind. If Bredesen was really guided by God to encourage the birth of the charismatic renewal, then who or what motivated Bredesen’s successors at Trinity Christian Centre to suppress the birth of mental symmetry? The only satisfactory answer I can come up with is that the charismatic renewal was a renewal within the existing Christian mindset of absolute truth, while mental symmetry is a breakthrough into a new realm of universal truth. Absolute truth is based in MMNs of personal authority. For example, ‘It is true because it is in the Bible’, or ‘It is true because Harald Bredesen said it’. Universal truth describes connections that can be found everywhere and is supported emotionally by the TMN of a general understanding. For example, ‘The law of gravity is true because objects always fall to the ground when dropped, and the law of gravity can be described by Newton’s three laws of motion’, or ‘Mental symmetry is true because one can find similar patterns of thought and behavior in many different people, fields, and cultures, and mental symmetry can be summarized by the diagram of mental symmetry’. Absolute truth is not compatible with universal truth because absolute truth overwhelms Perceiver thought while universal truth uses Perceiver thought. (Going further, universal truth can also learn to cooperate with Mercy emotions if Perceiver thought gains sufficient confidence. Science uses universal truth but it suppresses Mercy emotions instead of gaining the confidence to handle subjective feelings.)
Developing a breakthrough is not straight forward because it requires some kind of paradigm shift. Thus, God has historically used rejection from existing society as one of the motivators to propel the development of a new paradigm. And if one wishes to break through personally and not get caught in Mercy feelings of bitterness, then one must respond to this rejection as Jesus did on the cross: ‘Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing’. This path of transcending existing society is described in books such as 2 Corinthians and 1 Peter. The charismatic renewal did help many people—for a while. But any method that pits one part of the mind against another, like Pentecostalism or scientific materialism, will eventually self-destruct and have to be replaced by a more integrated approach. That is why a breakthrough is ultimately needed and not just a renewal.
Returning now to the contrast between intuition and mystery, intuition is typically viewed as unreliable, but there is a huge difference between untrained intuition and trained intuition—between a guess and an educated guess. Untrained intuition is typically some version of ‘proof by example’. A situation will trigger some Mercy mental network (MMN), this mental network will impose its structure upon the mind (as all mental networks do), and this gut response will then be overgeneralized into a universal principle. Untrained intuition usually depends strongly upon the context and is heavily biased by personal feelings. Trained intuition, in contrast, is guided by TMNs of understanding. The Perceiver facts and Server skills of some area of expertise will become summarized by Teacher theories. Over time, these theories will turn into TMNs. When these Teacher mental networks are triggered by some situation, they will emotionally predict what will happen based upon a gut-level Teacher understanding of ‘how things work’, modified by MMNs which predict how the specific situation will affect ‘how things work’. Thus, an expert will be guided by trained intuition to guess quickly—and accurately—what will happen in many kinds of situations. For instance, one can see this kind of trained, emotionally-driven intuition in expert chess players.
‘Baptism in the Holy Spirit’ was originally defined as following God at a level of intuitive perfection: “In the 18th century, John Wesley offered his Methodist followers a ‘second blessing,’ which he called ‘entire sanctification,’ an instant crisis experience that he also described as ‘perfect love’ or ‘Christian perfection.’ Radical Wesleyans who left Methodism in the 19th century to join the holiness movement often called this second blessing a ‘baptism in the Holy Spirit’” (p.15). This ‘second blessing’ of Wesley (page 17 of the book quotes the first half of this section from Wesley) is consistent with the idea of following God at the level of trained intuition (which emerges during the third stage of personal transformation, after the sanctification of the second stage of righteousness). One is no longer following some set of rules. Instead, one is intuitively following mental networks that summarize the essence of these rules—one is following the spirit of the law rather than the letter. As Wesley explains, this is not technical perfection, but it is an emotional drive to behave in a manner that is reasonably perfect, and which increases in accuracy as one continues to grow and mature. This is consistent with the Greek word translated perfect, which does not mean technical perfection but rather conveys the idea of going through the necessary stages in order to become mature and complete.
Mystery prevents intuition from becoming fully trained, because mystery stops Teacher thought from developing the rational theories that form the basis for trained intuition. Objective science and technology, combined with a God of mystery, will not lead to Wesley’s Christian perfection. Instead, it will lead to the kind of Pentecostalism that actually appeared in the 20th century, in which one takes a mental leap away from rational, scientific thought into following the Holy Spirit irrationally at an intuitive level, backed up by the irrational, intuitive Teacher ‘language’ of tongues. This will have some benefits for a while, but it will eventually self-destruct unless replaced by something more permanent and integrated.
John Wesley, in contrast, had an integrated view of science and religion. One can tell that this is the case because he published a compendium of the science of his day, entitled A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation. Wesley revised and added to this work over the years, and his final 4th edition filled five volumes. Similarly, mental symmetry is an integrated theory of science and Christianity (and other topics) that is capable of being followed intuitively at the level of trained intuition. Theory predicts that this could lay the foundation for a ‘spiritual renewal’ which combines scientific technology with supernatural spiritual gifts. And the New Testament seems to predict in several passages that this will happen in the near future.
If this is the case, then why didn’t God build the charismatic renewal upon mental symmetry instead of allowing it to be suppressed? Because mental symmetry was not ready. Bredesen was right. It has taken almost four decades to develop mental symmetry to the point where it can act as a meta-theory capable of supporting a spiritual renewal. In addition, I was not ready. Both mental symmetry and I were half-baked and had many lessons to learn. In addition, the existing Pentecostal movement has taught many valuable lessons, including painful lessons of how one should not conduct a spiritual renewal. Besides, Romans 12 spiritual gifts have been taught by Don and Katie Fortune over the years as part of the charismatic renewal and I am sure that they have helped many people. Katie Fortune told me that they have sold 300,000 books over the years and that these books continue to sell today. (I visited their home near Seattle once in about 2011. I had not read any of their material before that time, and I have not interacted with them since then.)
Bill Gothard provides an example of the ultimate folly of releasing a half-baked theory of Romans 12 spiritual gifts. Gothard was a popular Christian seminar speaker in the 1970s and 1980s. His “32-hour Basic Seminar outlines and elaborates on the seven basic principles, which Bill Gothard describes as Biblical and non-optional... Although it was not unusual in the 1970s for Gothard to pack-out auditoriums with capacities of 10,000 to 20,000 people, attendance at his seminars today pales when compared with two decades ago. (The height of the seminars’ popularity came in 1982 and 1983, when they reached 300,000 in annual attendance. Today, a crowd of 3,000 is considered large for an individual seminar.) Nevertheless, Gothard’s influence remains. It is estimated that there are more than 2.5 million red notebook-carrying ‘alumni’ (which is in keeping with the image of ‘educator’ that Gothard seeks to project).” I attended his basic and advanced seminars back in the 1980s. Romans 12 spiritual gifts form the core of Gothard’s advanced seminar, which I have attempted to analyze in another essay.
Gothard is not a charismatic but rather a fundamentalist Christian who believes in the absolute truth of the Bible, especially as this absolute truth was applied in the past by American culture. In brief, Gothard used intuition to come up with seven character qualities for each of the seven Romans 12 spiritual gifts, leading to a 7x7 grid of character qualities. These 49 character qualities form the basis for Gothard’s school curriculum. A spinoff called Character First teaches Gothard’s 49 character qualities as universal traits to secular audiences. Gothard is an Exhorter person and Exhorter thought naturally uses intuition. Gothard is infamous for jumping intuitively from specific examples in Mercy thought to general principles in Teacher thought. (This intuitive leaping can also be seen in his Biblical exegesis.)
Unfortunately, Gothard did not add secular rigor to his intuition. I know that this is the case because my brother Lane interacted briefly with Gothard in the 1980s regarding Romans 12 spiritual gifts and Gothard broke off the relationship specifically because Lane was studying secular biographies. (Lane’s secular research provided the starting point for my work with mental symmetry, and my thinking was guided by my training in Electrical Engineering.) Gothard, in contrast, wanted to stick with the Bible and American conservative Christian culture. The end result is that Gothard’s lack of rigor eventually caused his teaching to become discredited, and his fixation upon American conservative Christian culture placed his thinking within a mental straitjacket. Because he lacked a rational Teacher understanding, he had to use personal control in Mercy thought to control his followers, and his empire eventually collapsed in scandal. There is now a website put together by ex-Gothard followers who are attempting to recover from his inadequate system.
In summary, Gothard illustrates that Christian belief in the Bible as absolute truth will not develop an accurate intuitive understanding of Romans 12 spiritual gifts. One must move beyond absolute truth to universal truth, and the only way I know of doing this is by learning from secular science how to combine universal Perceiver truth with rational Teacher understanding. It may feel initially as if one is abandoning the Christian faith, but this will ultimately lead to a much more potent Christianity which is compatible with both the Bible and with scientific thought.
Male and Female Thought
Moving on, male thought naturally emphasizes the technical thinking of science and technology, while female thought naturally uses emotions and intuition. ‘Women’s intuition’ is often regarded as unreliable, but I suggest that female intuition is inaccurate—and driven by the environment—when it functions at the lower level of untrained intuition. Female intuition that is buttressed by wisdom is much more accurate and helpful, and trained female intuition guided by TMNs of understanding is capable of transcending male technical thought. 1 Peter describes this higher level of trained female intuition.
Female intuition has played a major role in the history of Pentecostalism and an entire chapter (pp.233-263) is devoted to ‘Spirit-Filled Women’. The chapter begins by explaining that “From the very first day in modern Pentecostal history, January 1, 1901, women have played leading and often pivotal roles in the growth and development of the movement” (p.233). And this is a general trend that extends beyond the Pentecostal movement: “Historically, women have found greater freedom in Spirit-oriented renewal movements of Christianity than in the more traditional institutions. In these movements, those who possessed the experience and gifting of the Spirit were recognized as leaders rather than those authorized by the traditional institution” (p.234). Saying this cognitively, male thought naturally emphasizes institutional structure while female thought emphasizes the personal emotions of the spirit.
The chapter on women in ministry mentions three reasons for the prominence of women. First, women find it easier to ‘flow in the spirit’: “The Holy Spirit, working through the interwoven movements of the 19th century, significantly advanced the status of women. By the turn of the century, women were well positioned to flow with the Spirit in whatever capacity He would choose” (p.243). Second, women are given more freedom outside of institutional structure: “The missionary movement was the largest of the mass women’s movement of the 19th century. This meant that hosts of women were already mobilized in missions when the Pentecostal revival arrived on the scene… On the field, women were free to function in all aspects of ministry” (p.241). Third, there should be equality: “Abolition was an important movement, not only in cleansing culture of the sin of slavery, but also in terms of the possibilities it could bring to women… It challenged the idea of predestined roles based on skin color, thereby opening the possibility that God did not, in fact, have predestined social roles dictated either by skin color or gender” (p.237).
Looking at these reasons cognitively, the first reason can be explained in terms of male and female thought. The mind of every person, regardless of cognitive style, is capable of both male and female thought. Women naturally emphasize the female side of the mind, while men emphasize the male side. However, mental wholeness for both men and women can only be achieved by developing and integrating all of the mind. Objective science is fragmented and inhuman because it emphasizes male thought while suppressing female thought. Pentecostalism responded to this male-dominated thinking with untrained female intuition—which is also incomplete and unhealthy. (I have encountered many Pentecostal women whose thinking can best be described as ‘flaky’.) In contrast, trained intuition emerges when female intuition becomes guided by male logic and structure, and those who function at this level of ‘mental marriage’ are worthy of deep respect. (Paul’s instructions regarding men and women make sense if they are interpreted in terms of male and female thought.)
That brings us to the second point of becoming free of organizational structure. One could interpret this in terms of power politics and deconstructionism: ‘Women need to become free of male-dominated power structures’. But that is an adversarial viewpoint. Spiritually speaking, this mindset falls within the domain of Satan, because the name Satan means ‘adversary’. I suggest that it is imperative to function within the right domain when dealing with the spiritual realm. And a movement of the Holy Spirit, by definition, involves the spiritual realm.
But one can also interpret this in terms of involuntary education. A missionary who is functioning on the edge of nowhere will be forced to learn many skills in order to stay alive. This ‘school of hard knocks’ will add rational male content to female intuition, helping intuition to function at a higher level. Thus, working away from the structure of civilization may free women from male-dominated structure, but it also teaches women the knowledge and skills that are needed for trained intuition.
There are also
two ways of viewing the third point of equality. Equality has become
the primary guiding principle of Western society—and liberal churches, but this equality
is usually an expression of Teacher overgeneralization: ‘We are
all the same. We can find unity by ignoring all of our differences.’
But this kind of enforced equality-through-overgeneralization will
always eventually fail because we are not all the same. Spiritually speaking,
this kind of equality-by-ignoring-the-facts
falls within the domain of a serpent.
That is because Teacher thought thinks in terms of strings and
sequences, and a serpent is a living string which contains no
details—a sort of living overgeneralization.
However, one can also interpret equality in terms of mental wholeness. Wholeness is a Teacher concept, but it is based in Teacher understanding rather than Teacher overgeneralization. Teacher thought appreciates the order-within-complexity that results when all of the parts of some system function together smoothly. Male and female thought are different. They are not the same. But they are also complementary. Each needs the other to become complete. Similarly, the seven cognitive styles need each other to become mentally whole. And these are not just sweeping overgeneralizations, but rather general statements to which one can add many details.
Looking now at the Pentecostal movement, following the spirit by rejecting rational thought is ultimately satanic, because it sets up an adversarial relationship between male and female thought. Similarly, viewing God as incomprehensible is actually worshiping a serpent, because Teacher overgeneralization is being elevated above rational thought. This connection can be seen in Revelation. In chapter 10 a strong angel who stand astride the ‘land’ of male rational thought and the ‘sea’ of female experience swears the end of divine mystery and then tells the human writer to digest the ‘little book’ of an integrated understanding. This is followed in chapter 12 by Satan, the great serpent of old, being cast out of heaven and being replaced by a women ‘clothed with the sun’.
I am not suggesting that all Pentecostalism is satanic and/or serpent-like. But it contains elements that are satanic and serpent-like, it will be tempted to become more satanic and serpent-like, and history shows that it has often succumbed to this temptation.
Thinking in terms of male and female thought rather than men and women helps to understand the succeeding chapter (pp.265-291) which talks about black Pentecostalism. “Across the United States, black Pentecostal congregations are counted among the largest churches as well as the most numerous set of congregations in myriad suburban and inner-city communities” (p.265).
Black (including Black African) culture tends to be more emotional than White culture. Cognitively speaking, Black culture emphasizes female thought while White culture focuses upon male thought. White culture is the result of several centuries of scientific development. Within scientific academia, male technical thought is viewed as the only legitimate form of thought, and this academic bias has been adopted by the rest of Western society. (This is starting to change in today’s post-modern world.) Thus, when Whites have regarded Blacks as inferior, this attitude did not emerge out of a vacuum. Instead, it was a natural byproduct of Western academia regarding ‘female’ mental networks as inferior to ‘male’ technical thought. (The third form of thought is called ‘normal thought’, and it uses similarities and analogies to integrate mental networks and technical specializations.)
Thus, there is a sense in which ‘White science and technology’ by its very nature ‘exploits’ Black Africa. This does not mean that some African worker is automatically being exploited whenever a White goes to the store to buy some item. Such exploitation may be the case in a few areas, such as bananas, chocolate, or the Cobalt used in Li-Ion batteries. Rather, a Western mindset of objective scientific thought by its very nature suppresses the mental networks and spirituality that African culture emphasizes. However, the solution is not to embrace these mental networks in their current form but rather to combine science and technology with trained intuition. (A similar principle would apply to current Canadian obeisance to Aboriginal culture.)
Thus, I suggest that the comments made previously regarding women also apply to Blacks. It is abhorrent for Whites to regard Blacks (or Aboriginals) as inferior. But it is also abhorrent for Blacks (or Aboriginals) to flaunt untrained intuitive thought and treat Whites in an adversarial manner. Black and White culture may be different. But both can become more complete by recognizing these differences and learning from the other.
The next chapter (pp.293-323) talks about Hispanic Pentecostalism. The chapter begins by saying that “The growth of Pentecostalism among Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking people of North and South America has been phenomenal” (p.293).
Hispanics also place a higher emphasis upon mental networks of family, culture, and personal identity than most Whites. This can be seen in many Hispanic Pentecostal churches: “Like their Latin American counterparts, North American Hispanic Pentecostals tend to form small, family-like congregations where the individual is recognized and accepted and is usually assigned a responsible task. Often congregations are essentially made up of two or three extended families that may be further related through intermarriage, or may have come from the same country or region in Latin America, or are persons who share a loyalty to a particular leader” (p.295).
This resonates with the Pentecostal mindset: “Much has been written about ‘the Latin American character,’ whose traits include innate warmth and hospitality, resignation in the face of periodic natural calamities, a flexibility of spirit producing tolerance, enchantment with charismatic personalities, individualism, and a distinct turn to emotionalism and mysticism. Particularly in Pentecostalism, these traits have found channels of expression” (p.315).
The chapter on Hispanics also provides an explanation for the spread of Pentecostalism: “Pentecostalism has spread most rapidly among people caught in disruptive social transition. Adherents are in large measure people who have left behind many of the time-honored traditions of the village to adopt the bewildering ways of contemporary life in the city. As a result, Pentecostalism has functioned as a social and spiritual bridge for millions of men and women; in the terminology of some writers, Pentecostalism is a ‘survival vehicle’” (p.293).
This is quite similar to the explanation provided by mental symmetry: Science and technology have transformed the objective and the physical, as shown by the modern city. They have also questioned existing MMNs of status and culture without providing an alternative. Pentecostalism fills this subjective vacuum with a form of Christianity that resembles the shape of scientific transformation.
But notice what is happening at the meta level. An official history of Pentecostalism is providing a rational explanation for a religious movement that people enter by abandoning rational explanations. Such willingness to use rational psychological analysis is not characteristic of the charismatic renewal, but it is a trait of the third wave. It is interesting that this rational explanation is found in the chapter on Hispanics. It is socially acceptable for a North American to analyze Hispanic culture, but it is no longer politically correct for a North American to analyze male-female interaction, White-Black interaction, or White-Aboriginal interaction—even if the same principles apply. That is because the last three interactions strike too close to home. It is always easier to analyze someone else’s culture than it is to analyze my own. However, following God in Teacher thought means applying the same general principles everywhere they apply, no matter what the emotional implications.
Catholic Charismatic Renewal
Moving on, there is also a chapter devoted to the Catholic charismatic renewal (pp.209-232). “This is the first time in Christian history that a movement of Protestant provenance had not only entered the Roman Catholic Church, but had also been received and accepted by church authority” (p.211). The Catholic renewal began with a group of twenty-five Catholics students and professors at a weekend retreat in 1967, on the day of Pentecost.
This kind of crossover is an example of Teacher thought applying general principles across cultural boundaries. Generally speaking, there are two basic kinds of ecumenical thought. One finds ‘unity’ through Teacher overgeneralization by ignoring any doctrinal differences. (And Facilitator thought will often be used to come up with a consensus by averaging the opinions of the various parties.) That kind of approach will lead in the direction of Buddhism and mysticism. The other approach finds unity through Teacher generalization by placing all groups within the framework of a rational understanding. That is the approach which I have been attempting to follow using mental symmetry. The first approach is like putting puzzles pieces into a blender in order to generate a uniform sludge. The second approach is like assembling the puzzle pieces into a big picture.
One can understand why the charismatic movement would start with the Protestant church and then spread to the Catholic Church by looking at how Platonic forms of the spirit form within the mind. A Platonic form is an ideal internal image that forms within Mercy thought as a result of Teacher understanding. For instance, if I encounter many churches, then Teacher thought will come up with a general theory of church which will lead to the imaginary Mercy image—or Platonic form—of the ‘perfect invisible church’. As everyone knows, such a church does not exist in real life, but it should provide the goal to which every real church aspires. Going further, a universal theory in Teacher thought will indirectly cause Platonic forms in Mercy thought to become interconnected and form what Plato called a form of the Good, or in Christian language, a mental concept of God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
This mental mechanism can function more purely in the Protestant mind because the visible Protestant Church is fragmented into many denominations. Catholics, in contrast, tend to equate the Platonic form of the ideal invisible church with visible organization of the Catholic Church. (I suggest that this equating of physical objects with Platonic forms is the primary flaw of Catholic thinking.)
One can see this mindset illustrated by the response of the Catholic church to the charismatic renewal. “Charismatic Catholics have been concerned to integrate the charismatic dimension within the liturgical-sacramental life of their church. This happens especially through the celebration of charismatic Eucharists, with a creative blend of the structured and the spontaneous” (p.214). Because the Catholic mind connects ‘grace from God’ so strongly with ‘celebrating the Eucharist’, charismatic expression has to be squeezed into the mold of the Eucharist. On the one hand, this limits the work of the Holy Spirit. But on the other hand, it implicitly conveys the concept that the Holy Spirit is associated with structure.
This explains another characteristic: “The first Catholic leaders were almost all young university graduate who had none of the anti-intellectual attitudes sometimes found in Pentecostal and charismatic circles. They were young men and women deeply committed to the Catholic faith, already excited by the vision of the Second Vatican Council for the renewal of the Catholic Church” (p.212). Protestants embraced the Holy Spirit by letting go of rational thought. Catholics placed the Holy Spirit within Catholic structure. Thus, Catholics could also combine the structure of rational thought with spiritual expression. But notice that this began with ‘deeply committed youth’, who still viewed Catholic faith and Catholic structure in youthful, idealistic terms—related to Platonic forms. Saying this another way, they were still driven by a mental concept of ‘the ideal church’. In contrast, Catholic leaders would be too enmeshed in the organizational structure of the Catholic Church to be motivated as purely by such Platonic forms.
And the organization of the Catholic Church did eventually attempt to impose its authority upon the Catholic renewal: “The 1980s saw a conscious effort on the part of the CCR [Catholic charismatic renewal] to be more fully integrated into the life of the Catholic Church… This shift of direction was symbolized by the move in 1981 of the International Communication Office from Brussels to Rome and its being renamed the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office (ICCRO)… It was also the period of lessening influence from the covenant communities, many of which went through major crises from the late 1980s. The crises mostly focused on the exercise of authority, with some diocesan bishops expressing concern about authoritarian patterns, insistence on male headship, and inadequate accountability by the leadership” (p.220).
The typical Protestant Pentecostal would view this as the oxymoron of trying to schedule the Holy Spirit, but it is also implicitly teaching that the Holy Spirit is a Spirit of Truth who ‘proceeds from the Father and the Son’. (I have deliberately included the filioque clause. In essence, the Pentecostal movement believes that the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father in some mystical, emotional manner which does not include the rational existence of God the Son who became flesh and lived among humans. In contrast, I suggest that God the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. Thus, spiritual renewal should combine the tongues of God the Father with the rational existence of God the Son.)
In addition, the Catholic hierarchy did not appreciate the idea of charismatic Catholics drifting away from the Catholic Church into other churches: “The point of contention often included the ecumenical dimension, in which it was proving more difficult than expected to combine a firm attachment to one’s church with a commitment to a community that overarched the church divisions” (p.220).
The end result is that the CCR has faded while bringing new enthusiasm to the Catholic organization: “While there was some falling away, it is remarkable how many full-time Catholic layworkers in the United States have come from a CCR background” (p.223).
On the positive side, the CCR has become connected with a Catholic focus upon evangelization: “The growing CCR attention to evangelization being made a church focus for the 1990s contributed to CCR being more fully received as an integral element within the Catholic Church. Particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America CCR was increasingly seen by the Catholic hierarchies as one of the most effective instruments for winning people to Jesus Christ” (p.226).
The Third Wave
We move now to what Peter Wagner called ‘the third wave’. The charismatic renewal affected the entire church. The third wave spread beyond the church to connect with secular thought.
This third wave had its origins in supernatural healing: “A powerful revival erupted in the American Pentecostal subculture immediately after the end of World War II. It was led by a group of gifted healing evangelists who built large independent ministries. During the late 1940s and the 1950s, these evangelists held thousands of healing revivals, leaving behind a legacy of hundreds of thousands of testimonies of miraculous healings as well as other supernatural occurrences. The huge crowds attending these revivals provided a base of financial support for the evangelists, making it possible for them to build independent ministries that came to rival the Pentecostal denominations in size and worldwide influence” (p.325).
I know personally that miraculous healing exists. I played in a string quartet for many years with Merla Watson, whose left hand was miraculously healed after being crushed by a piano. But history also shows that charismatic movements tend to implode after time. Thus, I suspect that there may be supernatural healings at the beginning of some movement but as this movement decays and loses access to spiritual power, then leaders will be tempted to start faking healings in order to maintain their wealth and fame. For instance, Merv and Merla Watson led Benny Hinn to Christ. It is possible that Benny Hinn initially had a valid ministry. And he may be starting to think more about spiritual integrity as he is getting older. But for many years, his bottom line has been wealth and fame.
Looking at the topic of physical healing in more detail, the mind interacts with the physical world through the body. This is obviously true, but it is also cognitively significant. That is because religion addresses deep mental and spiritual needs while science and technology have transformed the physical environment. Thus, one can approach many physical ailments from a scientific, medical perspective by dealing with the physical symptoms, or one can address them from a cognitive/spiritual perspective by changing one’s mindset. I am not suggesting that all physical sickness can be cured through positive thinking, but it is clear that mental health does have a significant bearing upon physical health.
Going further, it appears that the spiritual realm interacts with the mind through mental networks. (Stated more simply, spirits can empower a person’s deep desires, loves, and hates.) This explains why the ends never justifies the means when dealing with spiritual matters. The mental networks that drive the ‘means’ will end up corrupting the mental networks that motivate the ‘end’.
Thus, I suggest that two key questions need to be addressed when examining supernatural healing: First, is healing being viewed as a God of order in Teacher thought restoring order to the functioning of the physical body, or is it being seen as some faith healer with Mercy status dispensing supernatural power in some mysterious manner? Second, is physical wholeness being regarded as an extension of mental and spiritual wholeness, or are consumers of physical prosperity turning to God for help so that they can continue worshipping and serving the idols of consumerism? These questions need to be kept in mind when examining the history of Pentecostal healers and televangelists.
The first question can be answered with the quote from a few paragraphs earlier. The healing revivals ‘were led by a group of gifted healing evangelists who built large independent ministries’. Thus, there was a Mercy focus upon people with ‘spiritual powers’. The second question is addressed in the following quote: “Pentecostal churches at the end of the war were bulging with a new generation that craved its own miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Reared on tales of Azusa Street and the miracles of earlier years, they yearned to witness the power of God in their own day” (p.326). In other words, much of the focus on healing was a religious aspect of the consumer society which emerged after World War II. Everyone wanted to enjoy the marvels of new technology within the physical world—accompanied by the marvels of God within the physical body. Saying this another way, the Holy Spirit was being treated as the servant of physical well-being and the consumer society, instead of viewing the consumer society as a partial illustration of being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
This materialistic mindset can be seen in the following description: “By the early 1950s scores of healing evangelists filled tents and auditoriums around the country, attracting thousand of people, reporting thousands of healings and other miracles, and collecting millions of dollars in contributions from supporters… among the most celebrated in the 1950s were the bold and flamboyent Jack Coe and the erratic and sensational Amos Alonzo Allen, both of whom pushed claims of divine healing to the uttermost boundaries” (p.327). If a charismatic Christian historian describes individuals as ‘bold, flamboyent, erratic, and sensational’, then they must really be extreme.
And Pentecostal church leaders felt the same way: “Pentecostal church leaders soon cooled to the healing revival. Many became wary of the excessive claims of the healing evangelists and were troubled by their insatiable appetite for money” (p.328). Thus, the real bottom line for these individuals was not wholeness or even physical healing, but rather money. These ‘faith healers’ were only pretending to follow the Holy Spirit in order to get material wealth. This is a natural cognitive progression because Pentecostalism began by copying the shape of secular, scientific thought in order to apply this to the personal and the religion. This facade of religiosity eventually became filled with the substance of secular materialism. Putting this another way, someone who really believes in the power of the Holy Spirit would seek spiritual wealth and not material wealth. Someone who publicly pretends to follow the Holy Spirit while actually pursuing money has no fear of God or concept of holiness.
The Medium becomes the Message
The next transition was led by Oral Roberts. Roberts was more professional: “Robert’s crusades featured a healing line in which the evangelist laid his hands on and prayed for the sick. He personally laid hands on perhaps a million people before stopping his crusades in 1968. At the same time, Robert’s meetings were models of decorum (speaking in tongues was discouraged) and his long and entertaining sermons exuded Pentecostal orthodoxy. Robert’s moderation made him a favorite among Pentecostal denominational leaders” (p.328).
But this professionalism led Roberts to extend to the secular world in another way: “More than anything else, television changed the face of healing revivalism in the late 1950s and early 1960s. During a 1954 Oral Roberts tent crusade in Akron, Ohio, Rex Humbard persuaded Roberts to film three of his evening services for television. The filming posed tough technical challenges because of the poor lighting under the tent, but Roberts was ecstatic when he viewed the results… Roberts believed that he had found a way to introduce the nation to the remarkable healing revival that had stirred the Pentecostal subculture… by 1957 his program was being aired on 135 of the nation’s 500 television stations, reaching 80 percent of the potential American television audience” (p.331). It appears that Roberts was sincerely seeking spiritual prosperity, but he was using the means of technology to reach the goal of spiritual revival, and the means ate up the goal because the means had more substance than the goal.
Television required money—and generated money: “Producing a national television program was very expensive, but the rewards were enticing. Robert’s mail nearly doubled after one month on television; his mailing list grew to more than a million names by the end of the fifties. By that time, every up-and-coming evangelist dreamed of launching a national television program to broaden his or her evangelistic ministry. ‘The people that’s on radio and television,’ mused old-timer W. V. Grant, ‘is the ones that’s getting the crowds’” (p.331).
Using technology to broadcast Pentecostal services may work if one has an integrated concept of God and science. (And the Bible seems to predict that there will be spiritual technology in the near future.) But ‘spiritual gifts’ that were embraced by suppressing scientific thought were being broadcast using technology which was developed by using scientific thought that suppresses supernatural gifts.
A mental network that is based in rational understanding and repeatable results will inevitably win over one that is based in mystery and the occasional miracle. Thus, the scientific technology of television eventually swallowed up the Pentecostal spirituality; the means became the goal; the medium became the message: “The most important single force in the reshaping of independent Pentecostal and charismatic evangelism in the 1960s was the transformation of religious broadcasting… One such station, WYAH, was a shoestring operation begun by Pat Robertson. In 1961 it became the first all-religious television station in the country… By 1968 CBN had built a new headquarters building and was in the early stages of an incredible upward spiral” (p335).
Oral Roberts eventually altered his message to fit the medium of television: “Roberts continued to broadcast his healing crusades into the early sixties, but was increasingly dissatisfied with the results… In 1967 and 1968 Roberts made a series of stunning decisions: He cancelled his television program, ended his crusade ministry, and left the Pentecostal Holiness Church to become a Methodist… By the fall of 1968, he was preparing to return to television in prime-time specials produced in an entertainment format, featuring wholesome and talented student singers from Oral Roberts University and recognizable Hollywood guest stars… The early programs claimed audiences of around ten million viewers and after each program the ministry received around a half million letters. Robert’s media gamble paid off handsomely” (p.336).
Notice the shift in priorities. Pentecostal Holiness has become replaced by professional entertainment and Hollywood stars. The underlying assumption is that Hollywood entertainment is more compelling than God, holiness, and miracles. In other words, when Holy-wood met Holy-Spirit, Holy-wood won.
Robert’s specials probably helped many people. But they also set a trend: “The most important legacy of the Oral Roberts media revolution at the end of the 1960s was the introduction of professional production techniques and entertainment content aimed at competing with secular programming… In many ways, the modern electronic church was born with the airing of Robert’s first prime-time special in March 1969” (p.336).
This shift was inevitable, because Pentecostalism began by adding the shape of science and technology to the subjective and religious without adding any content. When broadcast technology was added to Pentecostalism, then the content filled the shape. In contrast, when I use mental symmetry to analyze some book or system, I have found so far that mental symmetry will end up explaining the book or system, which then becomes another illustration of mental symmetry. This has gradually transformed mental symmetry into a meta-theory that rules over other theories.
However, objective science and technology also lead to a society of experience-seeking, shallow-thinking consumers. That is because objective science attacks tradition religious truth without providing a moral alternative. The end result was that shallow Pentecostal entertainment met vapid secular entertainment: “Pentecostal evangelists had several advantages in the new world of mass communication. First, many were talented musicians with deep roots in the music of the common people. They were ready and willing to become entertainers on television. Second, Pentecostal evangelists brought a clear-cut, simple theology to a medium that demanded concise communication. Oral Robert’s key theological insights—‘God is a good God,’ ‘something good is going to happen to you,’ and ‘expect a miracle’—were memorable television slogans. Furthermore, the upbeat message of hope and, increasingly, of success and prosperity preached by the evangelists appealed to the aspirations of millions of upwardly mobile people around the world. Hundreds of talented and daring evangelists heard the voice of God telling them to reach the world through the miracle of television. Only a few succeeded, but those who did reaped incredible riches and influence” (p.337).
The Bible has a term for this. It is called spiritual prostitution. A spiritual prostitute sells his soul for fame and riches. And a spiritual prostitute will become tempted by physical prostitutes: “By the 1980s, the world of independent Pentecostal and charismatic revivalism had changed much from the healing ministries of the 1950s. While healing was still a featured part of most of the glitzy television ministries of the eighties, the message and the style of the television programs often seemed more focused upon success and entertainment. Beginning in 1987, the seemingly unstoppable expansion of televangelism suffered a series of jolts. The unraveling began with reports of a sexual and financial scandal that wrecked the PTL ministry and resulted in the imprisonment of Jim Bakker and other PTL executives. By 1988, a media feeding frenzy was under way. The Bakker debacle was followed by a highly publicized sex scandal involving Jimmy Swaggart” (p.342).
Notice the phrase ‘miracle of television’. Oral Roberts might have said ‘expect a miracle’ from God, but the biggest ‘miracle’ was coming from secular television. But television is not a miracle. Instead, it is an application of the laws of nature—which reflect the Teacher order of God. Similarly, I suggest that what we call miracles also reflect God’s order and structure within the spiritual and supernatural realms impinging upon physical reality.
More generally, the accepted norms of Pentecostalism shifted. For instance, “Crouch had deep roots in the healing revival, and TBN provided an outlet for evangelists preaching the old-time revival themes of healing and prosperity” (p.342). Notice that ‘healing the physical body while ignoring the soul’ and ‘prostituting your spirit in order to get rich’ are now being regarded as ‘old-time revival themes’. What began as longing for the Holy Spirit has turned into lusting for the consumer society.
This lusting expressed itself through the ‘faith movement’: “The faith teaching emphasized ‘positive confession’ as a literal ‘bringing into existence what we state with our mouth, since faith is a confession.’ What most people confessed was healing for the body and financial prosperity. This also became popularly known as a ‘prosperity gospel,’ which offered its followers health and prosperity in answer to ‘the prayer of faith’… For the rising middle class of newly prosperous Pentecostals and charismatics, the teaching held an irresistible attraction” (p.358).
The Pentecostal movement began by implicitly copying the shape of scientific thought and applying this personally to the religious realm. The faith movement is now explicitly copying the shape of scientific thought and applying this objectively to the secular realm. Saying this another way, Pentecostalism began by focusing on the Holy Spirit while implicitly copying science and technology. This turned into pretending to follow the Holy Spirit while actually lusting after the gadgets of science and technology, which then morphed into explicitly lusting after the fruit of science and technology while claiming to follow God. Using religious language, the ‘Holy Spirit’ was now bowing down at the altar of mammon. However, “In spite of these theological squabbles, the faith movement grew exponentially during the 1980s and 1990s… One reason for the growth of the faith movement was the widespread acceptance of the faith teachers among charismatics in all churches” (p.359). Thus, the spiritual prostitution that began with a few faith healers back in the 1950s now spread to the average Pentecostal believer.
I should mention that a valid spiritual principle is being described, which I refer to as the existence principle. There is a form of deep faith which can bring existence out of nothingness guided solely by Teacher understanding. For instance, modern technology has managed to bring into existence amazing gadgets which have never existed before, guided solely by the laws of physics in Teacher thought. But this spiritual principle comes into play after one becomes righteous. And one becomes righteous by following a concept of God in Teacher thought instead of following people and culture in Mercy thought. Following the existence principle means continuing to walk in righteousness even when I see no external benefits, guided solely by the type of person that I have become. The faith movement is a faint shadow of this, because it has no concept of God in Teacher thought, it does not comprehend righteousness, it lacks internal character, it has not become transformed, and it focuses upon external benefits. In contrast, I have only recently become aware of the existence principle after decades of trying to follow God in righteousness despite the personal, economic, and social cost.
Associating the existence principle with the mere acquisition of physical wealth is blasphemy. And yet, even here there is some truth. Modern physics developed by following the Teacher thinking of mathematical equations even when they made no physical sense. And electronics and computers are based in modern physics. (The thinking of modern physics is discussed in another essay.) Thus, the ‘faith teacher’ who lusts after modern high-tech gadgets is being attracted by devices that were developed by applying a partial version of the existence principle, even though the typical faith teacher himself is following a path of idolatry.
I should also point out that God does want people to prosper. ‘Suffering for Jesus’ is primarily a byproduct of the attitude of religious self-denial that accompanies absolute truth. (The mind will only continue to believe absolute truth if it views the source of truth as far more important than personal identity. Hence, religious self-denial.) But God wants people to experience the lasting prosperity of mental and spiritual wholeness, and one can only reach this prosperity by going through some form of personal death-and resurrection. This will ultimately lead to material prosperity, but the material wealth must always be regarded as a secondary byproduct of internal wholeness—because that is what it really is. Physical wealth will naturally be lost or squandered by those who lack internal maturity.
Moving on, another positive side to this apostasy is that it led to a third wave which was more willing to consider, use, and teach psychological principles. For instance, charismatic Christians typically rejected mental symmetry because it was not ‘based in the Bible’. Thanks to the third wave, this problem no longer exists. In a similar vein, many third-wave sermons may be only pop psychology, but pop psychology teaches a number of valid psychological and spiritual principles.
The third wave has affected most churches: “By the 1990s the Pentecostal style of worship had entered into many mainstream evangelical churches with services featuring contemporary music, raised hands, and prayer for the sick. Visitors to some churches would have difficulty distinguishing the worship from a full-blown Pentecostal congregation” (p.359).
Pentecostal Politics
And the third wave also extended beyond the church to embrace politics: “As the Pentecostal/charismatic renewal continued to grow in America, political engagement became inevitable due to the sheer number of voters involved… There is little doubt that charismatics were at the core of the voting constituency that elected Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984” (p.369). This led to what is now known as the ‘religious right’.
One of the visions of the religious right is known as the seven mountains, which was first taught by Loren Cunningham in 1975. This basically suggests that Christians should affect secular society by focusing upon the seven major spheres of arts and entertainment, business, education, family, government, media, and religion. This is a noble aim, but if one takes a closer look, one observes that in each of these areas, the world has influenced the church more than the church has affected the world. That is because the world has an integrated ‘spirit of the world’ backed up by the Teacher paradigms of science.
The church, in contrast, is still thinking in terms of the absolute truth of the Bible. One can see this in the summary of the ‘mountain of education’: “At one time the education system of America unapologetically incorporated the Bible, prayer to the God of the Bible, and biblical values in every aspect of school life. Not coincidentally, this system produced a people that produced the most powerful and prosperous nation the earth has ever seen. Now, the children of our nation are inundated with liberal ideologies, atheistic teaching and postmodern principles in our public schools and in most universities (including many Christian institutions). Put simply; they are being indoctrinated with often false, biased and anti-biblical information.” Notice how liberal thinking is being portrayed as the enemy of faith in the Bible. This same theme is expanded in another article on the mountain of education. Notice also that science and technology are not included as one of the seven mountains. Instead, all of these seven mountains involve humans using emotionally enhanced words to influence the thinking and behavior of other humans; all involve what the Bible refers to as ‘praise of men’.
Looking at the topic of ‘Bible-based education’ in more detail, I suggest that one must distinguish between the content of the Bible and the mindset of absolute truth. After having analyzed about 40% of the New Testament in the original Greek (about 1500 pages on the website), I can state with considerable confidence that the content of the Bible makes incredible sense when viewed from a cognitive perspective. But I have also observed society for long enough to state with equal confidence that the mindset of absolute truth needs to be replaced by universal truth. Instead of viewing the Bible in Mercy thought as the source of truth which needs to be proclaimed to the world, one should view the Bible in Teacher thought as an accurate description of universal principles that apply everywhere. From the viewpoint of absolute truth, it is the ‘liberal, secular academia’ that is godless. But from the viewpoint of universal truth, it is Bible-thumper who is godless, because secular science at least believes in the existence of universal truth guided by Teacher understanding. (As opposed to the social sciences which now largely impose the overgeneralization of politically-correct equality.) Thus, it is significant that the seven mountains focus upon proclaiming truth while ignoring scientific thought.
What is happening now under president Trump illustrates what ultimately happens when Christians try to reintroduce Biblical absolute truth. Character becomes irrelevant. Honesty, integrity, and political process mean nothing. All that matters is getting some strong person to impose the right absolute truth upon the populace, such as getting a conservative appointed to the supreme court. Quoting from an article entitled The Religious Right’s Deal With The Devil Just Paid Off, written in the liberal Huffington Post: “Stressing the importance of the Supreme Court in the 2016 campaign made sense for evangelical leaders, given Trump’s ill-defined and less-than-conservative politics. ‘The most important issue of this election is the Supreme Court,’ Franklin Graham repeatedly reminded audiences. Other evangelical supporters, including Jerry Falwell Jr., James Dobson and Tony Perkins, stressed that Trump would appoint judges sympathetic to conservative Christians’ views on abortion, gay marriage and religious liberty… Focusing on the Supreme Court served as a useful cover for the personal shortcomings of the thrice-married casino magnate, especially after the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape came out just weeks before the election. ‘Hold your nose and go vote,’ Graham told more than 10,000 Christians at a prayer rally after the news broke. ‘You have to decide which one of the two that you would trust to appoint justices that are going to protect our religious freedom as Christians.’”
But the end never justifies the means when dealing with the spiritual realm. The history of Pentecostalism repeatedly shows the end being corrupted by the means. When the religious right makes a ‘deal with the devil’ it will inevitably take on the character of the devil. Even Rolling Stone magazine now recognizes that working with Trump will ‘eat your soul’. The linked article quotes former FBI director James Comey as saying, “‘Accomplished people lacking inner strength can’t resist the compromises necessary to survive Mr. Trump and that adds up to something they will never recover from,’ he explains. First, he writes, they are silent when Trump lies, which in effect makes them complicit in the lying… Second, they display ‘personal fealty’ in public, such as during Cabinet meetings. Why? Because everyone else is doing it, and because Trump demands it. ‘You praise, while the world watches, and the web gets tighter,’ says Comey. Third, they stand by idly as Trump attacks the ‘institutions and values you hold dear.’ Maybe they want to say something, maybe they are bothered, but they rationalize doing nothing because he’s the president. They tell themselves they must stay in place and weather the storm in order to protect the institutions under attack... But, as Comey notes, to take this position requires them to be a part of Trump’s team, which requires more compromises, which pile up far faster than whatever marginal work they think they’re doing to ‘save the republic.’ Before they know it, they’re perjuring themselves on his behalf, or worse, as Barr now seems to have done in the wake of Mueller’s investigation. ‘And then you are lost,’ Comey concludes. ‘He has eaten your soul.’” Looking at these three points cognitively, the first point submits core mental networks to the mental networks of Trump. The second point builds one’s mind upon the MMNs of Trump, while the third point attacks the TMNs of law and order.
When a rock music magazine gives moral advice while conservative Christians ‘make a deal with the devil’, then something is deeply askew. However, if one views this moral decay from the long-term perspective of the God who created the universe and the human mind, then one concludes that God is allowing absolute truth to self-destruct in order to pave the way for universal truth.
We have seen that attempting to restore absolute truth tends to destroy one’s soul. That is because absolute truth has to be reimposed by some strong person who uses his personal status to overturn existing truth. The other popular alternative is to pursue spirituality without content, as described by a 1998 article “titled ‘Redefining Religion in America,’ which claimed that ‘with almost no fanfare the United States is experiencing the most dramatic religious transformation in this century.’ Among the fastest-growing faiths were Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, but among Christians the growth of the unaffiliated ‘mega-church’ is ‘the biggest story of the 1990s’… ‘Religion is a word they hate… They like spirituality because it represents something that culture has sucked out of them’” (p.371).
Looking at this cognitively, objective science has questioned all absolute truth and left a vacuum in the subjective. We have looked at the alternative of trying to restore absolute truth. The other alternative is to fill this subjective vacuum with spirituality that lacks content. That alternative will lead in the direction of Buddhism and other forms of mysticism, because questioning Perceiver facts enables Teacher overgeneralization. When facts are eliminated, then what remains are sweeping statements, and when all religious truth is questioned, than what remains is the ultimate sweeping statement of Buddhism that ‘All is One’.
These two trends seem to be characterizing today’s world. On the one hand, there is a resurgence of fundamentalism. This is not a nice and friendly fundamentalism but rather a right-wing imposition of my ‘truth’ upon others. On the other other hand, there is also a surge toward empty spirituality. This also is not a kind spirituality but rather one in which left-wing liberalism imposes its overgeneralized concept of universal tolerance upon the populace. Looking at this spiritually, the first option takes the adversarial attitude of Satan while the second option worships the serpent. There are many exceptions to these two general trends, but unfortunately they appear to be exceptions.
The only solution I know of is to reformulate Christianity as a rational theory of cognition. This has been done using the theory of mental symmetry. And the only way I know of successfully spreading this message is to break through to the spiritual realm, trigger another spiritual renewal, and let the results speak for themselves.
Summarizing, one can either view the Pentecostal century as a transformation away from traditional Christianity or as a movement toward a new form of Christianity. If one takes the former perspective, the results are fairly discouraging. Pentecostalism may have helped many people along the way, but it has managed to turn much of Christianity into a second-rate copy of the entertainment industry. Entertainment has displaced holiness, sound bites have replaced theology, psychology is respected more than the Bible, and the consumer society is being treated as the kingdom of God.
But one can view these same traits as movement toward a new and more permanent form of Christianity, in which holiness will express itself physically in a manner that is full of joy and lasting pleasure, understanding the general principles of God’s character will replace theological nitpicking, the Bible will be respected as the most accurate description of psychological principles, and the consumer society will be transformed into the kingdom of God by adding spiritual and moral implications to technical gadgets. That is what mental symmetry predicts, what the Bible appears to prophesy, and what I am hoping.
Saying this more simply, I suggest that God will judge the wicked by blessing them in a way that they cannot handle. In the words of a popular Pentecostal proverb, ‘Your anointing can take you to a place where your character cannot sustain you’. Those who have character will be benefited by the coming spiritual power, while those who lack personal character will be destroyed by that same spiritual power. We have seen that this principle applies to the recent century of the Holy Spirit, and I suggest that it will also apply to the coming spiritual unveiling.
Supernatural Power
We will finish this essay by presenting my current understanding of the relationship between the human, spiritual, and angelic realms. The angelic realm appears to be the mirror image of the human realm, As far as I can tell, humans, aliens, and angels all have the same kind of minds (which implies that aliens and angels also have cognitive styles). However, the mind of an alien (or angel) resides within a ‘physical body’ that is cognitively the mirror-image of a human physical body. Humans live within a universe composed primarily of particles, while aliens would live within a mirror-image universe composed primarily of waves. This is like the relationship between particle and wave that is found in quantum mechanics. The end result is that what a human regards as concrete thought, an alien or angel would regard as abstract thought, and what a human regards as abstract thought, an alien or angel would regard as concrete thought. Theologically speaking, what humans regard as God the Father, aliens would regard as God the Spirit, and vice versa.
Humans live in specific Mercy experiences within a physical world guided by general Teacher laws which describe ‘how things work’. Angels (and UFO aliens) appear to live in specific Teacher names within an energy world guided by Mercy generality.
A human being lives within the finite object of a physical body. A professional can be described by the finite label of some name, such as lawyer, medical doctor, architect, or civil engineer. Thus, professionals illustrate what human minds would be like if they lived within Teacher-like bodies that inhabited a Teacher-based universe. Saying this another way, a professional provides the best illustration of the mindset of a mirror-image alien or angel. When one visits a medical doctor, the physician shows up, does the examination, and then leaves once the examination has been completed. Similar, angels in the Bible behave like professionals. They show up in order to perform some task and then vanish once the task has been completed. Saying this another way, a professional—and presumably an alien or angel—moves from one Server task to another while humans move from one Perceiver location to another.
Miracles may violate natural law, but they are the result of following the laws of some non-human realm. Something similar happens when one visits a professional. A professional may perform some action or transformation which appears miraculous to the layman, but it is actually an expression of natural law.
The flipping of specifics and generalities can be seen in the professional world. Each specialization is described by some specific name in Teacher thought, such as physician, car mechanic, or musician. These specializations then work together to form a general society in Mercy thought characterized—hopefully—by love. A similar trend can be seen in Pentecostalism. People were given specific spiritual gifts, while the work of the Holy Spirit spread first to all Christian denominations, and then to all of society. This led to a unity that was based upon common spiritual experiences rather than common Teacher doctrines. However, to a large extent, this Mercy unity has happened at the cost of Teacher understanding. (As opposed to Plato’s form of the Good, which is a Mercy unity which happens as an indirect result of integrated Teacher understanding.)
Professional specialists may use thinking which is like angelic-like. However, this occurs within a context of scientific thought which assumes that only physical reality exists. Therefore, even though specialists use angelic-like thought in the objective, they are strongly driven to limit this thinking to the physical realm. The solution is to place science within a more general Teacher understanding that includes the angelic and spiritual realms—such as the theory of mental symmetry. For instance, notice that our analysis is discussing non-physical topics using rational, cognitive language.
God the Son is the incarnation who makes it possible to connect God the Father with God the Spirit, instead of having to choose between one and the other. Mental symmetry explains how a concept of incarnation forms within the mind that can bridge Teacher thought with Mercy thought. And one sees this kind of incarnational thinking in science. (This is explained in other essays.)
Going further, science and technology have made it possible to physically bridge these two realms in the objective. One sees this illustrated by the machine. Using the example of an automobile, one can either approach a car from a human perspective and use it to drive to some location, or one can take the angelic attitude of a car mechanic and view the same car as a functioning machine. A car mechanic is an example of a professional. A driver uses a car to reach some Mercy goal within the general Teacher structure of the highway system. A mechanic reaches the Teacher goal of having all the parts of a car work together in harmony within the general Mercy Platonic form of ‘cars and engines’. Research & development illustrate what it means for the human and angelic realms to interact in a symbiotic manner.
But this symbiotic relationship does not exist in the subjective, because there is no integrated, rational understanding of the subjective. Therefore, humans try to access the supernatural realm by suppressing human rational thought in the subjective in order to embrace angelic thought. This has historically been done in three ways (there may be more, but I am aware of these three):
1) Physical pain and death. When a person dies, then the mind/soul leaves the human realm. The disembodied mind will enter the realms of spirits and angels, and the fate of the soul will be determined by the personal transformation that was experienced by that person while living in the physical body. Similarly, those who experience deep physical pain or come close to death often gain some access to non-human realms. It appears that one can also open doors to other realms by inflicting pain and death upon others—at the cost of damning one’s own soul. The point is that pain and death detach the human mind from physical reality, making it possible for the human mind to enter other realms.
2) Mysticism and meditation. A person meditates by emptying the mind of all human content. This makes it possible for beings from other realms to impose their structure upon the mind. This method may work, but there is no guarantee that one will encounter beings who are friendly to humans. Instead, calling upon aliens in this manner it is like entering a cage of tigers, forgetting about any thoughts of human preservation, and then inviting the tigers to come closer. This is the method that is advocated by those who interact with UFOs. And when UFO creatures interact with humans, they almost always physically paralyze the humans and then suppress any memories of the event. If the humans gain conscious control, then the aliens will usually flee. This describes an either/or interaction.
3) Pentecostalism. Christianity teaches the path to mental wholeness, but Christians follow this path with only partial understanding. Thus, some mutually beneficial interaction between humans and angels becomes possible, if human common sense can be temporarily removed. This can be accomplished by speaking in tongues and having ‘freedom in the spirit’. Speaking in tongues lets go of rational language and allows some outside force to take over Teacher speech. Freedom in the spirit lets go of common sense and allows some outside force to guide actions. This method may work temporarily but it is not stable. Freedom in the spirit tends to attack the implicit Christian maturity that makes beneficial interaction possible. Thus, supernatural power tends to collapse into heresy and scandal. Also, as technology develops and fills more of society, increasingly bizarre behavior is required to overturn common sense, as illustrated by the Toronto blessing or the Brownsville revival.
If Teacher thought does not have a rational understanding, then Teacher thought will be guided by some form of overgeneralization. This Teacher ‘theory’ of overgeneralization will lead in Mercy thought to a Platonic form of social oneness. This Mercy feeling of unity will express itself in different ways during the three stages of Pentecostalism. During classic Pentecostalism, the emphasis will be upon finding social unity through irrational experiences of the Holy Spirit. For instance, the initial Asuza Street revival broke down racial barriers between White and Black. “In the words of Frank Bartleman, ‘The color line was washed away in the blood’”" (p.54) During the charismatic revival, the emphasis will be upon personal words of prophecy. My experience is that about half of these prophetic messages will focus upon the love of God. During the third wave, this prophetic message about the love of God will be generalized into a doctrine about the ‘unconditional love of God’ which will end up overriding all other doctrines. Summarizing, unconditional love is the Mercy equivalent to Teacher overgeneralization, and a concept of God that is based in overgeneralization will ultimately lead to a concept of divine spirit based in unconditional love.
In each of these three stages, the emphasis upon irrational Mercy thought will end up overwhelming Perceiver thought. Pentecostalism will override Perceiver facts of common sense and personal character. This can be seen in Durham’s transition to two blessings in which the second stage of sanctification was dropped. Charismatic renewal will attack Perceiver facts of doctrinal belief. Receiving a word of prophecy will be viewed as more significant than using rational thought to study the Bible. The third wave will attack Perceiver facts about morality. The emphasis upon unconditional love will overwhelm all concepts of sin or divine judgement, to the point of teaching that ‘all roads lead to heaven’.
However, each of these Mercy onenesses will fail because they contradict the Perceiver facts of reality. The racial unity of the Azusa Street revival eventually split along racial lines because Black and White culture are not the same. Similarly, people eventually returned to the Bible because it contains true facts about the human condition. And we are now starting to see a backlash against the political correctness of unconditional love.
The solution is to extend the transformation of science and technology to the subjective, which is what mental symmetry is attempting to do. Instead of starting with Teacher overgeneralization, one begins with a rational general Teacher theory. One then uses the technical thinking of incarnation to translate between the general principles of God in Teacher thought and specific experiences in Mercy thought. Science and technology has done this in the objective. This requires going through three steps, which correspond to the three stages of personal transformation.
The first step is to construct a rational theory of science and religion which is capable of explaining all Christian doctrine and practice. This first step has been done by mental symmetry. The resulting general theory turns out to be symmetrical (hence the name mental symmetry) and thus appears to be capable of explaining both human and angelic (as well as spiritual) thought. A Teacher understanding will lead to the formation of Platonic forms within Mercy thought. A Platonic form is an internal image which summarizes the idealized essence of many similar objects.
The second step is to follow this rational understanding in righteousness. Righteousness makes the mind compatible with angelic thought. In order to live within the angelic realm, one must have a name, and one acquires a name by following ‘heavenly’ Teacher understanding rather than ‘earthly’ Mercy goals. Righteousness is based upon the idea of the exemplar. An exemplar is a specific Server sequence that represents many similar Server sequences. Physics is full of exemplars. For instance, solving one physics problem involving colliding objects makes it possible to solve many similar problems.
The third step is to become reborn in the spirit. The spiritual realm interacts with the mind through mental networks. A mind that has followed Platonic forms and exemplars is mentally capable of moving between human and angelic realms, but it is still locked into physical reality by the common sense acquired from living in the physical world. The solution is to replace mental networks acquired from the physical body with mental networks of the spirit. This means following the principle of existence by holding on to internal content and identity regardless of what happens externally. The spiritual realm will then energize the mind by empowering mental networks. Thus, when one follows the principle of existence, one will acquire spiritual power.
Being reborn in the spirit does not mean abandoning physical reality, common sense, or scientific thought. Instead it means that one is now functioning at the spiritual level of trained intuition, and physical reality, common sense, and scientific thought now become viewed as expressions of the spirit—mental clothing that one puts on when interacting with physical reality. My guess is that the same trained intuition of the spirit can be used when interacting with the angelic realm, but one must put on a different kind of mental clothing, the way that one speaks another language and adapts to another culture when living in a foreign country. (Except this is a really strange mirror-image country in which language becomes culture and culture becomes language. One sees this to some extent in Japanese society.)
This principle of ‘putting on different mental clothing’ already exists in physics, because every set of mathematical equations has a limited domain. Many events can be explained in several ways mathematically, and the most general mathematical formulation is not typically the most obvious.
When one uses incarnation to bridge Teacher generality with Mercy generality, then holiness becomes replaced by mental wholeness, absolute truth by universal truth, and unconditional love by effective love. Effective love has the tools that are needed to save a person out of their current situation and lead them to a better place.
Finally, I should emphasize that understanding and discussing this topic rationally is only the first step. This understanding must then be applied in righteousness, and then one can open oneself up to the spiritual and supernatural realms. In religious language, this means first submitting to Jesus Christ the incarnation as both savior and lord, and then interacting with other realms through the structure and character of incarnation.