levasseur@morgan.DEC (Ray EMD & S Admin 223-5027) (09/09/85)
This seems like the most likely place to post since an old acquaint-
ance and I were chatting about ways that evil can slip in. In my upbringing
much more emphasis was placed on the devil lurking in the shadows in hopes
of snatching the souls of bad boys than on the love of Jesus Christ. For the
longest time I believed that the devil tempted and God kicked ass; the two
were kinda partners. Since then I've been developing a reverence for God
and trying to get closer to him. I guess I can't love God with my whole
heart until I learn to love myself, which I'm very slowly learning after
38 years of garbage.
My old pastor taught me about evil and some of the ways in which it works.
Satan, or whatever one wishes to call it works in crafty ways. I have a bette
undestanding after reading C.S. Lewis's "Screwtape Letters". I've always en-
joyed Lewis as he's been entertaining as well as informative in helping me
turn more to God.
Back to evil! in the movie "The Exorcist" the girl seemed to invite evil
by playing with a Oujia board; she let down her defenses and evil crept in.
I believe that God gave us a conscious mind, not only to think and make dec-
isions, but also to act as a gatekeeper to the soul. When we get in a passive
meditative state, we're open to the grace of God or the onslaught of more neg-
ative forces. One warning on opening ones soul through a meditative state is
to tune into the Lord and lock out anything else.
From time to time there has been talk of "Backward Masking" in rock records;
encoded messages which only can be heard under the influence of certain drugs.
Back in the 60's I had experimented with marijuana and on two occasions tried
LSD, the results of the LSD were nightmarish to say the least and that ended
my curiousity with hallucinogens. This was during a period where I was quite
rebellious and had quit belieing in much of anything. The trial came when I
was so high that I didn't even know where I was (I was open). My friends played
me a acid rock record in the dark and I had a confrontation with something I
can remember to this day....sent me running into the streets at 3am. My friends
found me pounding on the doors of a Catholic church, begging to come in. Any-
way, something in the record triggered something in my subconscious. Years later
while in therapy, I played this record for my doctor who theorized that I had
tapped into some very negative part of myself. As he said, "We are all a mix-
ture of good and evil; God and satan. You seemed to have opened a door to the
evil and it scared the hell outta you". Many of the lyrics in heavy rock rec-
ords sound one way when sober and totally different while high. There was one
record, I can't remember the name (from the 60's) where there was a very sub-
tle voice in the backround whispering "kill! kill! Kill!" While under drugs
this same voice shouted in a most demanding way "KILL! KILL! KILL!" Most of
the other kids thought that this was "Faaarrrrrr out!" I on the other hand was
quite scared. Needless to say I was considered a sissy "It's only a record"
Yes! it's only a record, but the subliminal messages that some heavy metal
carry can twist the soul under the right/wrong circumstances. Don't get me
wrong, I love music, rock included, if it's good. Stuff like Ozzie Osborne,
etc I really feel are destructive to the young; they aren't even aware of the
dangers of drugs mixed with the (supposed) musical content.
The bottom line to this is that I really believe the "Demonicly posessed
psycho killer" movies which are in abundance and some of the more cachaphonic
rock which gets airplay can be destructive. I guess that I've been keeping the
gatekeeper on duty more often than I used to and have developed a sensitivity
to the presence of evil. The more evil we let in, the more twisted the soul
becomes. I'm not good at quoting scripture but one passage comes to mind, "as
a man thinketh, so he is".
Raypadraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan) (09/10/85)
>... The trial came when I >was so high that I didn't even know where I was (I was open). My friends played > me a acid rock record in the dark and I had a confrontation with something I >can remember to this day....sent me running into the streets at 3am. My friends > found me pounding on the doors of a Catholic church, begging to come in. Any- > way, something in the record triggered something in my subconscious... Truly fascinating. I'm not sure I should listen to someone whose mind has been made into mush by drugs. (The above could be taken as evidence of the fact.) That someone can be converted to christianity by a bad trip, and at the same time criticize drugs as evil is most interesting. Why don't you write this up and submit it to a journal on philosophy; imagine you may just have come up with a new "proof" of god's existence: proof by controlled substance abuse. Just think of it, seven "proofs by ingnorance" and one "proof by abuse". Now that's progress. You may want to encourage others to experiment with drugs and heavy metal rock also. Padraig Houlahan.
beth@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Beth Christy) (09/12/85)
[NO, PLEASE, ANYTHING BUT THE LINE-EA From: levasseur@morgan.DEC (Ray EMD & S Admin 223-5027), Message-ID: <379@decwrl.UUCP>: >I guess that I've been keeping the >gatekeeper on duty more often than I used to and have developed a sensitivity >to the presence of evil. The more evil we let in, the more twisted the soul >becomes. Hmmm, an interesting article, but I do want to express some concern I feel after reading it. The notion of an ever-vigilant "gatekeeper" constantly working to resist evil, to "keep it out", can be very draining. It can work for a while, but nobody can keep up active resistance forever - you'll have to rest sometime. And, according to the model I think you've proposed, whenever you rest you're completely vulnerable. I'd like to suggest a couple alternate visualizations that can be just as effective, but that won't require such humanly impossible eternal vigilance and hence won't be so draining. The first is to view evil as a negative energy flow and, rather than trying to stop the flow entirely, try to divert it someplace harmless. Imagine the difference between the force a river exerts on a dam and the force it exerts on its banks, and you'll know why I'm suggesting you be a bank instead. The basic notion of the second is that, rather than focussing your energies on resisting evil, you focus on following good. Again, if you view good and evil as positive and negative energy flows respectively, then, rather than actively resisting the negative flow, you merely try to keep yourself immersed in the positive flow. Its momentum will carry you along most of the time, and you only have to actively work when you feel yourself getting to the edge of it (by feeling the effects of the negative flow more strongly). Then you simply direct yourself towards the center (by surrounding yourself with positive), and again allow yourself to be guided by the good. A more traditionally religious approach is one that many Christians use, and is based on the verse "Come unto me, ye who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest" [sorry, don't know the chapter:verse]. You simply have faith in God that s/he will protect and nurture you. It's similar to what I just proposed in that, whenever you feel the presence of evil, you focus on something positive (i.e., God and you're faith in her/him) and allow that to carry you through/away from the evil. Evil (or at least a lot of negative stuff) exists, and you can't change that. Don't think that if you fight it actively and eternally, it will go away - it won't. So don't weaken and drain yourself needlessly. You can shrug it off in ways that leave you much more energy to enjoy the delights that exist too. Relax and enjoy, --JB -- --JB (Beth Christy, U. of Chicago, ..!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!beth) "Oh yeah, P.S., I...I feel...feel like...I am in a burning building And I gotta go." (Laurie Anderson)