# The Battle For Your Mind



## Guest (Dec 10, 2005)

I went to see an independent Christain counselor today. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and plan to see him again. I'm paying for it out-of-pocket ($75 a session, hey not bad!). I thought I should tell you all about it.

I didn't even tell him about my DP, but he knew I was in a mental struggle for my mind, that the "evil one" is constantly fighting for your mind; he even mentioned that demons sometimes torment people (not that they posess people), which drives them nuts, not allowing them to pray, telling them they're not good enough, telling them there is no God.

I don't know if I believe all that, given my struggle with belief in God, but I can confirm that I have thought all of these things and have felt an internal battle for my soul. I feel so far from God and unworthy of coming before Him and dedicating myself to tbeing the Christian I want to be. He told me that we are all children of God and that even as most humans would not abandon their own children, God would not abandon us. We can never do anything to separate us fromt he love of God (even though we can do many things to separate us in other ways).

Durring the session I became very emotional (I'm usualy DEAD emotionally) and started to cry, feeling that I AM God's child. I want to believe it, but I'm just not sure.

He takes alot of material from _The Bondage Breaker_ (Neil T. Anderson), which is quite heavy on the spiritual aspects of life and how the Devil is attempting to control your mind. I have this book, but I've only read a few chapters. It's quite fantastic, but he cites alot of real stories where he's helped people who have supposedly had schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses.

I wonder...has anyone else here had good/bad experiences with Christian or spiritual counselors, specifically those that claim there is a spiritual battle for our minds?

Thanks for listening!

- Seth


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2005)

If you're curious about where those negative thoughts come from, you should read Alice Miller. She argues very convincingly that we form those beliefs at a very young age and that it's possible to dispel them.

(I'm in the process of doing that.) (I hope)

She doesn't seem to favour any ideology, even rejecting her training as a psychotherapist (freudian).

You would find her writing a stark contrast to your counsellor, but well worth the read, even if you end up rejecting it.

I don't have a single ideology, my world view is wide and varied, but there is no conflict for me since I know that all religions have more in common with each other than differences and wars are fought over the differences.


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## widescreened (Jun 22, 2005)

if this helps you to be at peace and to live a more fuller,meaningful life then go for it.if you are obsessive,it may do more harm than good,feeding an eternal struggle to be worthy of Gods love in the form of constant prayer and other rituals that only feed obsessiveness.be careful and aware of this.my guess is that you are locked in constant search for meaning in things,(adhedonia,existential angst,apathy)or maybe a constant breaking down of meaning or userping of meaning,and this has lead to emotional and spiritual deadness.wheather you attribute this to an evil entity is anybodys guess,but dont abandon psychology in your persuit of this.you may be interested in guardian angel concepts.its a lot more mellow and peaceful than war with demons.your call thou


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## Guest (Dec 11, 2005)

widescreened -
As I said, I'm not sure about all that war with demons stuff. If you struggle with belief in God, how can you even start to believe in a Devil (much less his 'demons')? But you're right about one thing, I have obsessive thoughts about the meaning of everything. Here's a list:

1. I am locked in a subliminal search for meaning in all things - my mind constantly analyzes meaning even when I'm not conciously doing it 
2. I constantly question the existence of God
3. I constantly anayze the existence of the universe, its enormity, and my relative insignificance to it
4. I feel if I could understand how the universe began, I might find depper, more 'real' meaning in life
5. I feel if I could *truly believe in God* I might feel better about myslef and have more meaning
6. My mind struggles with the concept of time, the concept that the Universe is, always was, and will always be. I sometimes freak out at the notion that ANYTHING could exist...how strange it is that there is a universe with stars, planets, galaxies, etc.
7. I am constantly attempting to understand the Theory of General Relativity (Einstein MUST have had DP!). It just blows my freakin' mind!
8. I've written essays about how there could be other universes with different physical laws, different ways of making up matter, different energy, different light particles - this leads to thoughts that there could be different Gods that the other doesn't know about! After all the universe is supposedly INFINITELY big.

...on the other had, I think my goal is my search for God. I equate the existnce of God with the existence of the Universe. Something beyond/outside the laws of physics (as we understand them) must have had a hand in making it all happen, especially noting the complexiy of life.

It's tough to believe in God given that you have doubts about your own existence though!


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## gizmo (Aug 21, 2004)

The battle is in the mind. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. The devil does speak to us all the time. But he is a liar!He is the father of lies. i just tell him what the Word says when he tells me his garbage.and no one is worthy on his own to come to God. we are all sinners, but the bible says "whoever comes to Me I will certainly not cast him out" we are not all children of God, only those who repent and put their faith in Jesus' shed blood to forgive their sins, but the offer of eternal life is open to everyone because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever shall believe on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.and once you become a child of God He says I will never leave you nor forsake you.Jesus paid the penalty to make us worthy to come to God.


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## sleepingbeauty (Aug 18, 2004)

http://www.devilducky.com/media/24596/


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## Guest (Dec 12, 2005)

sleepingbeauty -

I don't get it. What does a farting preacher have to do with this (well, it IS funny!)?

- Seth


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## Mollusk (Nov 12, 2005)

i feel many aspects of religion are just symbolic of life's struggles. I don't think i buy into a lot of the bible stuff as truth, but it can put a face on complexities of our lives. It may be more easy to deal with some things if they are viewed as symplified concepts such as battling demons.


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## Guest (Dec 15, 2005)

urbn said:


> i feel many aspects of religion are just symbolic of life's struggles. I don't think i buy into a lot of the bible stuff as truth, but it can put a face on complexities of our lives. It may be more easy to deal with some things if they are viewed as symplified concepts such as battling demons.


I know how you feel...in fact alot of stuff religion believes in is pure speculation on the part of man, which goes to explain the enormous holy wars that occurred throughout history. It also explains why one Christian church can have belief systems that seem 180 degrees different than another....and they'll ALL tell you "we have the truth!". Some things men claim in the Bible simply aren't there, have been twisted and distorted, taken out of context, or just misunderstood; Why are there like 100 English translations of the Bible? Because if some group doesn't like what it says or thinks its not clear enough, a new "translation" is comissioned. In fact, the Catholics use pretty much a different Bible (with added books) and some texts actually altered to conform to their beliefs. It's no surprise many ppl tend to look at the Bible as just another ancient literary book, no different than the classic epics of Aeneid (for example). In fact, one World Literature class I took in Universtiy featured a part of the book of Genesis (The Flood Story) as an ancient literary piece. It was very intersting, as it disassembled every piece of the story and its elements. It also went on to point out that many other religions also have stories of great floods that totally anhilated the entire Earth.

Forgive the long banter, but I guess my point is to emphaisize that my spritual struggle has been long and hard, and that preachers and elders within my own church all claim their interpretation of a particualr passage or idea is THE TRUTH AND IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT YO ARE LOST AND WILL BURN IN HELL. For example, no one seems to agree that if you're not a part of the literal 144,000 mentioned in Revelation, you will be lost.

My eyes glaze over at this point. All I can do is pray and ask for God (if He's out there and cares about us) to help me.


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## Universal (May 30, 2005)

beachgirl said:


> If you're curious about where those negative thoughts come from, you should read Alice Miller. She argues very convincingly that we form those beliefs at a very young age and that it's possible to dispel them.
> 
> (I'm in the process of doing that.) (I hope)
> 
> .


how exactly are you planning to dispel them and acquire better more resourceful beliefs?


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