In Reply to: Answers to questions. posted by Bryon on December 19, 2002 at 19:10:31:
First of all, sorry if I gave you the impression that I was agitated or upset. My questions were direct I'll admit, and I can come across sharp when my intent is to poke a bit of honest fun at what I see as an untenable position. But you answered well and presented your arguments plausibly, tho I don't agree with them all.
Thanks for your views on hypnosis. I have at least one Christian friend who would agree with you and disagree with me. But he's still a friend. I don't agree that hypnosis is necessarily of the occult. I know Christian psychiatrists who use it in their therapy and I fail to see how it's intrinsically evil. It can be used for good or evil, to heal or abuse, according to who uses it.
Nevertheless, you get a big score for this comment, which automatically raises red flags with ex-cult members: "It involves lulling a person into a relaxed state (or trance) so they let down their guard, allowing suggestions to bypass their normal critical faculties of judgement." This is what we did in the cult. We allowed Berg's suggestions to bypass our normal critical facilties. My response would be that if you are doing that in a controlled environment where the therapist/hypnotist is an ethical professional, not a cult leader, then it's OK.
I found others of your comments interesting and worth responding to but wanted to comment on this one for now.