STIGMATA, an opinion

My Mom saw a stigmatist, a lady who came to her church and bled from the forehead and wrists when the host was consecrated. The stigmatist sold a tape too, that told about what happens to her at Easter. She locks herself in her room and God or the Devil beat the crap out of her just like she was Christ suffering the whole ordeal of being beaten up and crucified. Then she unlocks the door to her room and tumbles out, and gets taken to some hospital or something. She also loses so much blood, bleeding at every Mass, that she is always weak and some Catholic priests look after her.

I told my Mom that if God was gonna perform miracles, He sure could be performing more kindly and helpful miracles, like stitching up people on the battle field rather than beating the crap out of his own followers (or allowing the devil to beat the crap out of them).

Best, Ed

Rachel: Thanks Ed!
You're right. I should hope god has better things to do than to beat up his followers, or allow them to be beaten up. Then again, what's with all the craziness in the world? But, isn't it interesting that folks who seem to desire a "relationship" with God are so willing to undergo such levels of pain and torture? Is that what life is meant to be about, if one follows God? What is the point? Why must one desire to suffer horrible wounds, pick up snakes, give up total self-control in the midst of a crowd, and debase one's very dignity? Is it to prove devotion, or to prove a point to themselves? These are just some of the questions that bother me about such devotees, whether they bleed the wounds of the crucifixion or fall to the floor under the influence of the holy ghost.
Thanks again
Rachel

Ed: You made some great points. And there's even added craziness once you look outside of Christianity (and outside of it's flip side, Satanism).

Hinduism has festivals where people stick metal things through their flesh and parade around (without bleeding!). Santeria is a part Christian, part voodooish, hybrid that also has speaking in tongues, and falling to the ground. Ancient Greek and Roman religions had temples where healings and oracle "prophecies" supposedly took place. There's Jewish mysticism like the Kabala. And Islamic mysticism like the Sufis and whirling dervishes. Hinduism and Taoism even has sacred sex as part of their faith. Buddhism has monks who set themselves on fire to protest war, and who make intricate designs with colored sand, which are then simply swept away, and of course, there's the infamous book, Zen and the Art of Farting, and the Zen practice of contemplating the enjoyment of a bowel movement. I doubt if I've exhausted all the weirdness of religion. (But I must admit I like Zen and Taoism. There's no sycophantic spirit in either of them, no fear, just being here now.)

Best, Ed

Near Death Experiences

In my own studies of NDEs (Near Death Experiences) I've read about people who have had Christian NDEs, New Age NDEs, Mormon NDEs, Native American NDEs, Buddhist NDEs, Hindu NDEs, and most NDEs don't involve a god at all, most are either a bright light and lots of love, or a being of light that remains unidentified. And in most cases the NDE's relieve a person's fear of death, no matter what that person's religion is. I even know of one in which a person went to a dark hellish place and was taunted by dark beings, but was taken up out of that darkness by a being of light, and asked the being which was the best religion, and the being said, "whichever one brings you closest to God."

As for waking dreams and visions from various people and for various cultures, the cultural differences and perceptions and interpretations again are of a wide variety. Heck, there were visions and appearances of ancient Greek miracle workers back in the days of ancient Greece.

I believe I mentioned in my testimony in Leaving the Fold that I heard a cassette tape testimony of someone who had a life changing NDE, who went to a hellish dark place, was tormented there by other souls and then pulled out by a bright being of light and got to speak to several other beings of light. They answered his questions, including, "which is the best religion?" They said, "Whichever one brings you nearer to God." He left his career as chair of an art department at a major university to study at seminary afterwhich he became a liberal Christian minister. He doesn't believe that Christianity is the best religion, only that it brings him nearer to God since he happened to have been raised in it. His tape was quite moving. Of course, you've probably already heard of Betty Eade and her heavenly explorations during her NDEs. She's a Mormon, and lo and behold her NDE turned out to reveal that Mormonistic teachings were closest to the truth. Likewise, some NDEs experienced by born again Christians reveal a firey hell and huge talking Bibles in the next life. The first fellow I mentioned said that he'd heard about a wide variety of NDE experiences as well, and he attributed them to the ability of those superior beings to show people things they could understand and welcome and not be fearful of. So a country Christian dies and goes to heaven and the first things they see are a little white chapel on a grassy hill, etc. Of course Medieval Christians had it the worst and their visions of the next life contains horrors of both purgatory and hell and were almost always negative, while today's NDEs are overwhelmingly pleasant and remove people's fears of death no matter what their faith. And today most people do not even see or meet religious figures during NDEs, they are more likely just to see a bright light, or to meet a person much like themselves. Of course, in some cases devout Buddhists or Hindus or Native Americans meet, respectively, Buddha, Krishna, or a totem animal. Personally, I don't know what to make of NDEs. Some skeptics think they are biological brain functions on the way out, but people who have them say they are more real than waking reality. All I know is that I do not believe in the Christian explanations of "salvation." If nothing else, NDEs express a far broader range of afterlife experiences, having nothing or little to do with any particular theology or soteriology.

Religiously active live longer?

Most active people live longer than inactive people.

Heck, Mark Twain lived a long life as a smoker and Voltaire lived a long life to. Both religious skeptics.

Vonnegut's living to be quite old too, just entering his 80ʼs I believe.

Of course, studies of religion and health canʼt possibly correlate all the variables of religions and regional diets and lifestyles (sedentary or active) round the U.S. Like for instance the typical Southern Baptist church picnic or Sunday brunch diet, with all it's fried chicken, which gave William Jennings Bryan a heart attack soon after the Scopes Trial.

If you want “correlation studies,” thereʼs one about Parkinsonʼs and coffee that suggests folks who drink five to six cups of coffee a day are at far lesser risk of developing Parkinsonʼs than those who donʼt drink coffee. Though itʼs not exactly healthy to drink that MUCH DAMN coffee, and itʼs not likely that ingesting religion on a regular weekly basis really adds to a personʼs depth of intellect, regardless of the longevity of their lives. And neither has it been proven that religion is GOOD FOR THE HEALTH AND LONG LIFE of any society. It didnʼt do much for the Roman Empire but increase the level of superstitiousness and seeing the devil everywhere, and persecuting heretics.

Nuff said,
Edward T. Babinski