How Worship Services Brainwash Parishioners
Trance states have different names. At their purest level, they are neurocognitive postures that allow streamlined rearrangement of being. At work, we call these “flow states.“ In meditation, we call them “mindfulness.“ In religion, we call this a “trance,” “vision,” or being “filled with the Spirit,.” In scientific terms, we call this “indoctrination” or “conditioning.”
Trance States
What all of these variations have in common is a reduction in cortical inhibition and increased openness to a selected field of information, whether mental images, state of being, or work data. At the root is the opening of the subconscious, just as it does in hypnosis. The subconscious may open in any condition wherein psychological safety unites with pattern repetition, such as a swinging watch, repetitive tasks, or undulations of thought, voice, or sound. When the subconscious opens, it is suggestible, either to the selected information or to any information.
People don’t have ideas, ideas have people. ~ Carl Jung
Where there is a vacuum, it must be and will be filled with whatever is available, be it water rushing into a drain, dust bunnies pulled from under the bed by the vacuum cleaner, or thoughts implanted during hypnosis. The word for "spirit" evolved from words that indicate this filling up of the void inside us, including breath or thought. We will combine the two ideas, discussing how music is used to create trances and fill people with dogmatic thought.
Religious Use of Music
When studying for my undergraduate music degree, I was installed in a series of churches to shadow and potentially take a position as a worship pastor. On one occasion, I visited a contemporary worship service where I realized acutely that the individuals leading the service were placing themselves and their audience in a trance state. At that moment, a sense of horror washed over me, as if souls were being stolen in some sinister way. These people were being led into a state of vulnerable openness where any idea, regardless of merit or outcome, could be implanted and dictate action. They were being taught to surrender their own will.
Part of my negative response was that the ideas implanted were vague and mediocre; any postmodern ambivalence, nihilism, or decadence could have been promoted. Some consider such "soft" brainwashing of mass groups to be good when it compels good action and prohibits bad action. This is the original purpose of catechism. This is seen as good when empirical evidence has defined these domains satisfactorily, such as promoting virtues such as love, joy peace, patience, etc., and inhibiting vices, but this obscures the point. They rob individuals of their individuating process when they speak to a congregation in a trance. And are these individuals qualified for such brainwashing? Not at all. Few pastors have more than a four-year degree, and few with Masters of Divinity have studied the psychology or ethics associated with hypnotherapy.
Historical Context
Music is habitually used to foment trance states for dance and other interactions which cement a group of individuals together or infuse ideas into the accessible conscious and subconscious. Since its introduction into the church, music has been controversial. 3/4 time was at first only allowed by the Roman Catholic Church (because of the trinitarian three-in-one God) and the music was intended to bring about a state of solemn piety or "apathos," apathy, rather than passionate "pathos," passion. With the secularization of music came concerns about liturgy, so at its height, religious music was used as a memorization tool to teach individuals of their divinity, espousing values of grace, gratitude, freedom, forgiveness love, joy, and doctrine. That’s something – teaching psychological safety, individual responsibility, and compassion through the use of music. I fully support that.
However, the proselytization of individuals soon overcame music, where it was primarily used to implant doctrinal imperatives of replication through catechism. This soon yielded the ostracization of non-conforming secular individuals. As evangelicalism fades, now it is primarily used to implant a state of openness, a religious experience of an emotional high, which leaves the participant undirected and open to manipulation by the eventual speaker, allegiant to the sharing body, and skeptical towards outsiders. It has become brainwashing, tribalism, and objectification of the other – terrible things in the psychological and spiritual world. It has nothing to do with the ancient religious imperatives of love, having lost connection to that spirit.
Soul Stealing
Let’s dig into that. Trance states which cause the abdication of will allow the deity and power of one’s consciousness to be stolen, ironically violating the Christian dictum of “test all spirits.“ Such group programming leads to tribal “in-group/out-group” dynamics that separate the religious body from nonparticipants as "others" or "objects" to be converted. Mirroring reinforces this state. "Have you experienced what I have? Do you have the faith that I have?" may be heard as "Do you (blindly) accept what I do? Are we the same? Will you drop your guards and open your boundaries to me?"
This is paradoxical – a subconscious rejection of the Christian doctrines directing community integration. It is a cult of fundamentalists who identify with groupthink more than their souls or their dictums. It yields a spirit of false openness, as individuals are led into a trance state every Sunday to be programmed for input by their sect alone and against all "false spirits" offered in other discourse. Their growth becomes stunted, stagnant, and festering with judgment towards non-participants.
Outsiders may find themselves responding to an altar call, like robotic students hypnotized at a school assembly demonstration. Entranced proselytes who have not engaged with the material beforehand may be confused for days or months afterward. They may lose their sense of self or identity, continually questioning the reason for their actions. They may feel guilty about personal traits that do not fit the norm, both weak traits but also possibly strong traits that threaten the power of the group leader. This may then be used as later proselytization predation by well-meaning individuals or cult leaders who refer to it as a "call."
Music is stunningly, mind-bendingly powerful. It may be the most powerful thing. It is the pattern, the replication of everything. It is the only expression of emotion outside of emotion itself, perhaps the foundation of the undulation of chemistry and chemicals that create. Resonance may produce atoms themselves. It is part and parcel with the resonant source of all, God, perhaps the logos; the Word; the spirit and intent behind the meaning; the vocal undulation.
“Beware unearned wisdom.You have not finished with the conscious side yet. Why should you expect more from the unconscious? For 35 years I have known enough of the collective unconscious and my whole effort is concentrated upon preparing the ways and means to deal with it.” ~ Carl Jung
Dunning-Kruger Effect
Zealots (allegiant, orderly ideologues) toy with something they do not understand. Like children playing at fire, they seek openness; to abdicate their own will to gain membership in a ceremony of guilt-cleansing. They believe this self-denial will infuse them with the Spirit of God, but it becomes a denial of the divine invitation to the critical evaluation present in individuation. It is masturbatory self-gratification, a violation of individual consciousness, and an abdication of divine responsibility imprinted on modern society by traditional heuristics handed down as rites.
Non-religious Philistines and Angelenos do the same. Between crystals and burning man, mushroom retreats, and undefined spiritual experiences from "seekers," orientation from good to experiential pleasure or mediocre stances towards life robs seekers of their need and potential to take responsibility for the future. Pure hedonic gratification or experiential seeking becomes a dopaminergic obsession. They are repetitions of the ancient gnostics recreated.
Non-spiritual, liberal intellectuals can also fall into the trap. While not commonly subjected to the hypnosis of musical liturgy, they still experience neurological mirroring, replicating the beliefs of peers and closing themselves off to new information. Mirroring can be supported by inhibition-lowering drugs and alcohol. Research suggests liberal individuals who pride themselves on intellectualism can even be more dismissive of contradictory information due to the belief that they already have the answers. We must pause to seriously consider our task of examining the data and making the world – our future – a better place.
Summation
Trance states are powerful methods of controlling consciousness to create new ways of being. They hold great potential in congruence with the meaning and content we place into ourselves while in them. When we take the shackles off of our cognitive limitations, great opportunities become available. However, by doing this irresponsibly or at the behest of self-proclaimed spiritual leaders, we risk subconscious malfeasance and loss of personal sovereignty. We must test the ideas, the spirits, and ourselves, and aim for something better. We must use trance states responsibly with clear end goals in mind, and adjust accordingly. To aim at nothing is still missing the goal of potential and all that we could be. Let us aim higher.
