We recognize, because of our common experience of being socialized in a human community, our imperfections as human beings. We learn this as we grow up in contact with an immense variety of other human beings. Part of this is what we really mean when we use the term sophistication. A person from a small isolated rural village has not had the opportunity of exposure to as large a variety of people as has had a person growing up in a city. It is this same recognition of imperfection that makes it impossible for us to tell the difference between true religious experiences that are reported and any number of less than religious motivations. We know ourselves too well. We know about hallucinations caused by intense desire, illness, alcohol, drugs, tainted foods, and natural phenomenon. It is possible to see a mirage in a desert without being thirsty. There are fears, honest misperceptions, and mild to severe forms of mental illness. There are illusions and other tricks of the eye or mind where a person sees what they expect to see. There are reasonable explanations, and there are also lies. Lies come in a variety of forms. Among the forms is the deliberate lie. Given the list above, it is impossible for other persons to accurately determine the truth of anyone’s announced religious visionary experience. It is and will always remain a very personal event. The only measure that we think might be reliable is the long term examination of a person’s behavior after the announced event. Paul, the tax collector, certainly changed his life after the reported blinding. Joan of Arc changed her life, but after examination, was burned at the stake. Any number of evangelists have reported “conversion”, but subsequent events seem to make their assertions less than completely truthful. Jails and prisons are frequently the sites of reported “conversions”. Charlemagne and Constantine reportedly had “visions” that changed their lives. I have often wondered how many people have had experiences like my own, but simply interpreted them differently. I was seated in a college classroom during some matriculation or counseling exam. Instantly, without any warning, I was slammed with enormous pain to my teeth on the right side of my mouth. The pain was so intense that I passed out. I awoke laying flat on my back in the isle between the chairs, with the instructor looking into my eyes and asking as I opened mine, “Are you all right?” As I sat up, I pressed my palm to my cheek, and said somewhat blurrily, “A tooth problem. Really painful.” He asked, “Are you able to finish your exam?” I did. And immediately afterwards went to the campus health department and asked that someone examine my teeth for a cracked tooth. I was thinking that somehow during the exam, tension had caused me to clench my teeth together so tightly that I’d broken, or cracked a tooth. There was no broken or cracked tooth. Afterwards I could only describe the experience as akin to being hit on the head with a blow of a sledge hammer. Resulting in instant unconsciousness. Causation, unknown. At that time I was not a particularly religious person. Forty-four years later, that has not changed. It also does not mean that I do not think about matters religious. If you knew me better you would know that I too often use a double negative like in the former sentence to mean an affirmative and positive statement. I do frequently think about religious matters. I choose not to do my thinking in an artificial religious structure. There are simply far too many wonderful places in God’s natural world and universe where spirituality transcends other concepts and ideas. I think, today, that had I have been more of a religious person at that time in my life, I might have interpreted the “sledge hammer blow” as a conversionary religious experience, a call to awakefulness: God wanted me to pay attention. The unconsciousness being the result of my weakness and God’s overwhelming power. How might my life have been different had I followed that path? As I was growing up, my Mother used to say that she was only concerned that I should not grow up to be either a preacher, or a teacher. As I spent my career as the latter, she was 50% right. Of course, in those days we didn’t, she didn’t, know about the remarkable financial success possible to televangelical preachers. I’ve always been possessed of a bull-roarer voice, a gift of gab, and I take delight in a good pleasant argument. I have always had a sympathetic ear, a broad shoulder that folks seem to find to be comfortable enough to cry on, and a gift for listening and counseling. If I’d had the correct inspiration, a la “A message from God”, perhaps I could have had a career as a preacher. I often wonder how many conversions and “messages” are simply a vision of a successful, tax sheltered business.
(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com
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