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, roving demons into an empty soul, 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, unquestioned thought.
Religious Use of Music
When studying for my undergraduate music degree, I was placed in a series of churches to shadow and potentially take up 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. A sense of horror flooded me as I realized the parishioners were being cleansed of individuality and responsibility, as though their 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 actively taught to surrender their own will by the process and content of worship.
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, 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 if any, with a Master’s of Divinity have studied the psychology or ethics associated with hypnotherapy.
Historical Context
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 chemical emotion itself, perhaps the foundation of the undulation of chemistry and chemicals that create matter. 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. It is magic, and its use merits responsible consideration.
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 about their divinity, espousing doctrinal values of grace, gratitude, freedom, forgiveness, love, and joy. That’s something worthy of support – teaching psychological safety, individual responsibility, and compassion through the use of music.
However, the proselytization of individuals soon overcame music, where it was primarily used to implant doctrinal imperatives of replication through catechism in service to narcissistic ego projects of revivalists. 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, which have little to do with the ancient religious imperatives of charity.
Soul Stealing
Let’s dig into that. Trance states that 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 depersonalized "objects" to be converted and assimilated. Mirroring reinforces this state. "Have you experienced what I have? Do you have the faith that I have?" phrases that may be heard as, "Do you (uncritically) accept what I do? Are we the same? Will you drop your guard and open your boundaries to me?"
This is paradoxical – a subconscious rejection of the Christian doctrines directing the community to pursue integration as individuals as well as a unit. It is a cult of formless dependents who identify with groupthink more than their souls or their dictums or virtues. 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 discourses. Their growth becomes stunted, stagnant, and festering with judgment towards non-participants, doubters, or critics.
Proselytization often becomes the sole intent of services. Outsiders may find themselves responding to an altar call, like robotic students hypnotized at a school assembly demonstration. Members may repeat the rite of passage every Sunday at one or many churches. Entranced visitors 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, or simply “fall away” and be judged as “rocky soil” to be rejected. Alternatively, they may feel guilty about personal traits that do not fit the norm. Weak traits may lead to feelings of rejection and being “othered” even as they seek to feel part of the in-group. Strong or malformed traits that threaten the power of the group leader may cause ejection from the community for failure to submit to a leader, or these traits may be used for proselytization predation by leaders who improperly refer adapt sociopathic virtues as "gifts" to grow their ministry.
“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
The trance state is good and adaptive if used properly. It can bond groups together and foment altruistic “community feeling” towards the out-group, people who are not part of the church, party, or culture. This can improve the polis for everyone, both in collaboration for survival and in the quality of the ideological discourse which sets the direction for future stability. Yet trances may be used by others without our knowledge or consideration. More precisely, certain individuals appear adapted for the exploitation of others, both at the biological trait level and as a result of sociological or psychological adaptations. The “moral hazard” of any prosocial system is when a dark triad individual realizes they can gain immediate personal advantage through exploitation of the rules, and they are often drawn to such positions of influence for those reasons.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
Zealots (allegiant, orderly ideologues) toy with something they do not understand. Like children playing with fire, they seek openness; to abdicate their own will to gain membership in a ceremonial 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.
“Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” ~ Sigmund Freud
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 them of the need and potential to take responsibility for the future. Instead, pure hedonic gratification or experiential seeking becomes a dopaminergic obsession with group allegiances manifesting as pseudospiritual or pseudobuddhist practices, which do little to provide purpose or meaning. They are 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 also 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. Worship, if well administered, can elevate the human condition to connect with quality values and to those outside or the community who are in need. When we take the shackles off of our cognitive inhibitions and direct ourselves towards good things, great opportunities become available.
However, by engaging in trances irresponsibly or at the behest of hierarchical leaders or groups, we risk subconscious malfeasance and loss of personal sovereignty. We become disempowered and at the same time, arrogantly self-justified into a closed-ego, pre-conscious state (ouroboric incest). The community suffers from homogenization, disconnected from those in need, and then stultifies and dies unless it can continue to convert new, temporary parishioners.
Future consideration and study should examine protection against exploitation and empowerment through purpose. Here are a few suggestions. Understanding dark triad personalities can protect us from exploitation. Understanding our cultural infantilization (The Sibling Society) and obsession with experiences (Amusing Ourselves to Death) can help us emphasize meaning and empowerment in our own lives. Socially benevolent leaders can use worship to foster active charity towards the external community (The Irresistible Revolution). Examination and implementation of a more meaningful liturgy as a replacement to the empty worship music business is advised, as are research into to protect our political systems (church and state alike) from tribal splitting and exploitation.
Faith in God should not eliminate doubt in men nor acceptance of the status quo as correct when it is a continual refining process. We must use trance states responsibly with clear end goals in mind and adjust accordingly. To aim only at prostration hollow and tepid, missing the goal of potential and all that we could be. Let us aim higher.
