Welsh Outpouring

[expat674]

Hello!

I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on the Welsh Outpouring that is happening in the Welsh town of Cwmbran. Since this "outpouring" started back on 10th April, I cannot open social media without seeing christians posting links and so on about how "amazing" it all is, how many people have been "saved" etc etc. 

 

This all started with the healing of a man who had been in a wheelchair for a decade who is reported to have run around the church and lifted his heavy chair above his head. 

 

What do you think is happening in these "outpourings?" I can remember the fuss about the "Toronto Blessing" in 1994 but I was a new christian back then and I was certainly not encouraged to think too much about it. Is there anything really going on, or is it a case of group hypnosis or people just turning to something, anything in bad economic times?  

 

 

[BlackCat]

Not heard of this one, so thanks for bringing it to our attention.  I was a Christian and attending church when the Toronto 'outpouring' happened and I'm sure this is no different, or rather the 'powers' at play are the same: psychological suggestions, crowd dynamics, minor chord music that rouses your emotions, people with illnesses that can be cured by will power.  You never have an amputee or someone with a disability like Down's Syndrome who is healed.  So more of the same self delusions.  I remember seeing two 'healings': a woman with multiple sclerosis who'd not walked for many months, who with the aid of her walker, shuffled round the church while everyone thought she'd been healed.  Er no.  She was back in her wheelchair the same hour.  Her body could only manage once round the hall it seems.  Another lady who walked with a stick had hands laid on her and was seen to throw away her stick and walk back to her seat without it.  As folk at this church knew how sceptical I was, they took great delight in reminding of this healing a few days later when I was being my usual 'negative' self about all this stuff.  The next Sunday at church, would you believe it- the said lady was reunited with her stick. Some healing.  It's all bullshit in my opinion. 

[Thought2Much]

These things crop up pretty regularly. There was the Toronto Blessing, and the Pensacola (Brownsville) Revival, among others.

 

My questions to people who talked glowingly about these things were always along these lines: Why is God pouring out his presence only in very specific locations? Why isn't he letting that sort of manifestation happen everywhere? Why are you making plans to go to some revival in another state a thousand miles away instead of praying for God to pour out his spirit in the church that you already attend?

 

They never had real answers to those questions.

 

And yes, it's a sort of mass hypnosis/mass hysteria kind of thing. I have seen plenty of it firsthand. As BlackCat said, the right music and the right suggestive phrases repeated over and over can have a huge effect on people. In a few years, it will all simmer down in Wales, and then pop up somewhere else.

[Positivist]

Ugh.

 

What BP and T2M said!

 

It's mass hypnosis. Full stop.

 

Glad I got off the merry-go-round!

[leopardus]

Group histeria/hypnosis, with a big dollop of wish fulfillment and outright lies thrown in.

In short, it's all bullshit.

[◊ crazyguy123 ◊]

I'm willing to bet that the man who picked up his own wheel chair probably received some recent medical treatment that made him able to walk again but now he is part of some kind of a deception to make everyone think that his improvement in health was caused by a divine source so that the gullible will be sucked into paying their ability to think critically in exchange for Christianity, a faulty product that causes a person who uses the product to emotionally manipulate themselves with scripture.

[Positivist]

I'm willing to bet that the man who picked up his own wheel chair probably received some recent medical treatment that made him able to walk again but now he is part of some kind of a deception to make everyone think that his improvement in health was caused by a divine source...

 

I believe they do this to "build our faith" so we can "believe and receive".

[decafaholic]

I googled "Welsh Outpouring 2013" and found their webpage. I found their latest update to be humorous:

This coming Saturday 18th May there will be no outpouring meeting due to our Victorious Women’s conference which is planned for Friday night and all day Saturday.

 

Apparently, an outpouring from god can be postponed when a conference has already been booked ahead of time. 

[Positivist]

 

This coming Saturday 18th May there will be no outpouring meeting due to our Victorious Women’s conference which is planned for Friday night and all day Saturday.

 

 

 

I HOPE SOMEONE TOLD GOD NOT TO SHOW UP!!!!!

[expat674]

I saw the "Victorious Women" post on the website after I posted my initial comment. Victorious over what though, the traffic on the freeways of South Wales, high energy prices, queues at the post office?? 

Thank you for your insights. I always had the suspicion that these "miracle healing" people were placed ( i.e they were not ill in the first place ) by the leaders so the crowd is amazed when the lame walk and so on. Or the "healing" is temporary, so the poor people go back to how they were or are worse from not taking medicines for the time they think are healed. 

 

I think it will all die down in Wales soon, or it will gain some coverage in the British press, who is usually very secular and sceptical.