神秘主義一直被認為是非理性，不為學術界所研討。是次題目非常有挑戰性，講者的立場於宗教界、科學界及新無神論者間並非主流。講者嘗試以跨學科角度，包括哲學、神學、物理科學及心理學等，以知識的極限引論神秘主義的必要性，並以歸因理論作基礎，說明神秘主義作為宗教/靈性/超自然經驗的可信服解釋。我們亦會回顧不同的神學家、哲學家及心理學家如何看待神秘主義/經驗。神秘主義亦會衍生人類追求奧秘的行為：迷信、新紀元運動、古代太空人理論及新興宗教運動等出現。我們會集中於新興宗教，以東方閃電作例，討論當中牽涉的心理因素，個人的心理需求、資深教牧(被逼)轉會的心理狀況、教會使用到的心理手段、離教者的心理傷害及復原等等。

1. 論神秘主義及其衍生的挑戰—
新興宗教
On Mysticism and Its Challenges:
New Religious Movement
心理學與基督教信仰討論月會
2014年4月
Jacky
1

2. Agenda
• Mysticism
• Definitions of Mysticism
• The Necessity of Mysticism
• Views of Mysticism by Other Philosophers /
Theologians / Psychologists
• Implications of Mysticism
2

3. Agenda
• Cult
• Definition of Cult
• Case Study: Eastern Lightning (東方閃電) /
Church of Almighty God (全能神教會)
• Challenges
3

4. Mysticism
μυω - to conceal / hide
μυστικός - mystic, secret, clandestine, hidden, private
4

5. Philosophical Definitions of “Mystical
Experience” in Wide Sense
• A (purportedly:) super sense-perceptual or sub
sense-perceptual experience granting
acquaintance of realities or states of affairs that
are of a kind not accessible by way of sense
perception, somatosensory modalities, or
standard introspection.
• Exclude religious visions / auditions, OBE,
telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance…etc
5

6. “Mystical Experience” in
Narrow Sense
• A (purportedly:) super sense-perceptual or sub
sense-perceptual unitive experience granting
acquaintance of realities or states of affairs that
are of a kind not accessible by way of sense-
perception, somatosensory modalities, or
standard introspection.
• Eradication of multiplicity, Oneness, “oceanic
feeling”…etc
6

7. 到那日你們就知道我在父裡面、你們在我
裡面、我也在你們裡面。
At that time it will be clear to you that I
am in my Father, and you are in me, and
I in you.
約14:20
John 14:20
7

8. Other Related Definitions
• Religious Experience: any experience related to
religious context. Narrow sense: without mystical
experience
• Numinous Experience: Mystical experience in
wide sense - mystical experience in narrow
sense.
• Non-unitive experience
8

9. Categories of Mystical
Experiences
• Extrovertive and Introvertive framework (Stace,
1960) - Perennialism
• Theistic and Non-theistic:
• Theistic: Union with God. “I am God”.
• Non-theistic: Neurophysiologically / Drug
induced.
9

10. Psychological Definitions of
Mysticism
• Lectures XVI and XVII “Mysticism”, “The Varieties of
Religious Experience” (William James, 1920)
• Ineffability: "defies expression, that no adequate report
of its content can be given in words"
• Noetic quality: "insight into depths of truth unplumbed
by the discursive intellect”
• Transiency: short occurrence but effect persists
• Passivity: not active seekers, but passive recipients
10

11. Evidential Force and Value
• The evidential value of religious experiences (Clark,
1984)
• The evidential force of religious experience (Davis,
1989)
• The evidential value of religious experience
(Swinburne, 1981)
• Evidential Force: sufficient warrant for belief in God
• Evidential Value: justify if holding Principle of Credulity
11

12. The Necessity of
Mysticism
Here comes my argument, defend one by one
12

13. Scientism
• All can be explained / studied by science
• New atheists (e.g. Richard Dawkins) subscribe to
that
13

14. Limitations of Knowledge
• Related to Epistemology
• Some we cannot know forever
• Empirical
• History: particularities in historical events
• Physics: Unobservable universe, uncertainty
principle, weather forecast
14

15. Limitations of Knowledge
• Rational / Ontological
• Mathematics: Russell’s paradox, Gödel’s
incompleteness theorem
• Computer Science: halting problem
• Philosophy: 5-minute hypothesis, Matrix-like
simulation argument
15

16. Some unsolved at this
moment
• Origin of Universe
• Origin of Life
• Hard problem of consciousness
• P = NP
16

17. Origin of Universe
• Current mainstream interpretation in physical
science: homogeneous
• God is homogeneous. Universe is homogeneous.
Which to choose?
• By Occam’s razor, choose universe is
homogeneous?
• Implications: many worlds interpretation,
multiverse, bubble universe
17

18. Gap of Human Knowledge
• How should we fill in?
• Scientism, New Atheists: Science. God is God of
the Gap.
• Science of the Gap? Science / natural
explanation is more superior? With predictive
power? With track record?
18

19. Falsifiability of Science
• Open-end worldview
• Can always adjust hypotheses
• Must accept possibility of unknown unexpected
events in the future (e.g. miracles)
19

20. Better Knowledge Model
Image credit: Monica Anderson
20

21. Better Knowledge Model
Image credit: Robin Ford
21

22. Agnosticism
• We cannot know forever
• Critique of Pure Reason (Kant)
• das Ding an sich (thing-in-itself, 物自身, Noumenon)
• Antinomy (二律背反): Space and Time, Atomism, Freedom, God
• the most rational stance, but modern philosophers think this as
lazy stance (there is an internal urge)
• If you have a mystical experience, you still need to handle (explain
to yourself)
22

23. Skepticism
• Doubt everything. If not sure, default is negative.
• Look for normal explanation before turning to mystical /
supernatural explanation.
• Ray Hyman
• Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Oregon
• Cofounded Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI),
previously Committee for the Scientific Investigation of
Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)
23

24. Pseudoskepticism?
• Reject pseudoscientific and paranormal events
• Include yogic flying, therapeutic touch, astrology,
fire walking, voodoo, magical thinking, Uri Geller,
alternative medicine, channeling, psychic hotlines
and detectives, near-death experiences,
unidentified flying objects (UFOs), the Bermuda
Triangle, homeopathy, faith healing, and
reincarnation
24

25. An extraordinary claim
requires extraordinary
proof.
— Marcello Truzzi, On the Extraordinary: An Attempt at
Clarification, Zetetic Scholar, Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 11, 1978
25

26. Purely Psychological
• The Psychology of Religious Mysticism (Leuba, 1925):
physiological explanation
• The Future of an Illusion (Freud, 1927/1961b): psychological
• double error: presume existence of God, attribute to God
26

27. Purely Psychological?
• The Varieties of Religious Experience (James,
1902/1985)
• science cannot rule out that a mystical
experience is an experience of the Real or of a
foundational reality that may be necessary for
the experience to occur
27

28. Maybe neuropsychological
• some fundamental internal mechanism is
operating (Wulff, 2000)
• activated non-theistic mystical experience from
prefrontal area (d'Aquili and Newberg, 1993,
1999, 2000)
• they question its practicality in evolution with such
mechanism
28

29. Maybe psychotic?
• Mysticism: Spiritual Quest or Psychic Disorder?
(Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, 1976)
• Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
• Not neurophysiological deficiency
• Hallucination?
29

30. Explanation to Mysteries in
the Bible and Theology
• hypostatic union
• exorcism
• holy spirit
• basis of revealed theology
30

31. Explanation to personal
events
• private revelations
• meditations
• big dreams
• not psychosis
• ground of personal validity, may not be
universally valid
31

32. Views of Mysticism by Other
Philosophers / Theologians /
Psychologists
32

33. St. Thomas Aquinas
• Rational, systematic theologian, natural
theologian
• writer of Summa Theologica (神學大全)
• Lives of the Saints (Alban Butler, Thurston and
Attwater revision, 1956)
33

34. • On the feast of St. Nicholas [in 1273, Aquinas] was
celebrating Mass when he received a revelation that so
affected him that he wrote and dictated no more, leaving his
great work the Summa Theologiae unfinished. To Brother
Reginald’s (his secretary and friend) expostulations he
replied, "The end of my labors has come. All that I have
written appears to be as so much straw after the things that
have been revealed to me." When later asked by Reginald
to return to writing, Aquinas said, "I can write no more. I
have seen things that make my writings like straw.”
• Aquinas died three months later while on his way to the
ecumenical council of Lyons.
Aquinas’s Mystical
Experience
34

35. Martin Luther
• Reformer, Protestant
• “It occurred in the tower room of the monastery when he was
reading the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. While
reading Luther suddenly saw that Paul was describing a merciful
justice, and not a punitive one, which is conferred upon men
through Christ and which in no way can be separated from the
Redeemer. Because of this revelation Luther was like a man for
whom paradise had been reopened. With the selfsame intensity
with which he has previously hated God, he now drank in the
exceedingly sweet pledge. It was not that Luther found God, but
rather God found him. From then on he was oriented more toward
the Pauline epistles than toward the Gospel.”
(http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/l/luther_martin%20.ht
ml)
35

36. Tien Ming Lee (李天命)
• Modern Philosopher in Hong Kong, specialized in
critical thinking and mathematical logic
• Had mystical experience, and so hold religious
stance as mystical optimism (神秘樂觀)
• 李天命網上思考：神秘樂觀
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrvQKgp7dog
)
36

37. Paul the Apostle
• Saul, zealous Pharisee
• Conversion of Paul the Apostle
• As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.
He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute
me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and
you will be told what you must do.”
The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see
anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing.
So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat
or drink anything.
— Acts 9:3–9, NIV
37

38. Lúcia Santos
• 1 of 3 visionaries to the Marian apparitions at
Fátima in 1917
• Another 2 died as prophesied on the next year
(1918 influenza pandemic)
• they requested no treatment
• She turned into Carmelite nun for whole life
• Died in 2005. Beatified in 2008.
38

39. Carl Jung
• Psychologist, contributing to psychotherapy and
analytical psychology
• Open to experiences before interpreting by
religious contexts
• Mystical experiences described in Memories,
Dreams, Reflections (MDR)
(http://www.bodysoulandspirit.net/mystical_experi
ences/read/notables/jung.shtml)
39

40. Implications of
Mysticism
40

41. Implications of Mysticism
• Encourage superstition
• whenever cannot explain something, just say it
is a mystery
• Charismatic movement
• glossolalia
• active seeking
41

42. Implications of Mysticism
• New Age Movement
• UFO
• To scientists / new atheists, do they believe in aliens
more than in God?
• Ancient Astronaut Theory
• Creationism
• Cults & New Religious Movement
42

43. Cults & New Religious
Movement
43

44. Definition
• Religion: Church > Denomination > Sect
• New Religion: Cult
44

45. Common Characteristics of
Cults
• New
• More on spiritual needs
• Maybe mystically oriented
• Often with charismatic leader
45

46. Case Study
Eastern Lightning (東方閃電)
Church of Almighty God (全能神教會)
46

47. Brief History
• The Shouters (呼喊派), another cult, was found by Witness Lee (李常受)
in 1962 in US
• The Shouters was spread to China from US in 1970s
• Zhao Weishan (趙維山) was a core member of The Shouters
• He started Eastern Lightning (東方閃電) from Henan (河南) in China in
1990s
• Declared a female mental patient Yang Xiangbin (楊向彬) (“Lightning
Deng”, 鄧閃電) as female Christ (女基督)
• They escaped to US in 2001
• Started to spread to Taiwan and Hong Kong in 2010s
47

48. Doctrine (Wrong)
48
律法時代 恩典時代 國度時代
名稱 耶和華 耶穌 全能者
性別 無 男 女
地點 以色列 猶太地 中國
性格 隱秘的 慈愛寛容 公義威嚴咒詛烈怒
Reference： http://www.pcchong.net/2Heresy7a.htm

49. Books
• 話在肉身顯現
• 東方發出的閃電
• 全能神你真好（跟着羔羊唱新歌）
• 基督的發表（審判在神家起首）
• 那靈的工作
• 國度的讚美
• 真理聖詩
• 新歌
• 羔羊展開的書卷
• 國度見證問答
49

50. Growth Methodology
• Target Christians, clergies and females
• New immigrants to HK
• Infiltration to local churches and seminaries
• Setup street stations next to MTR stations
• KPI: 30 new leads / mo
• Threats, drugged, kidnapping and imprisonment
• Flirty fishing to clergies
• Sell their books in bookstores
50

51. They understand Christian
doctrines, then distort it, and they
know all the objection points you
would have.
51

52. They listen and
respond with
points
They are able to write a large
portion of text (not by copy
and paste)
52

53. Extensive Readings
• 東方閃電/“全能神”教會：關於這異端邪教的相關網站
(http://www.chinesetheology.com/EasternLightning.htm)
• 邪教﹣全能神教會（東方閃電）情報站 (https://www.facebook.com/Cultactivitiesinfo)
• 全能神教會其中的Facebook專頁 (https://www.facebook.com/pages/七雷發聲
/537613636295842)
• 全能神教會會員 (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006045457286)
• 一位脫離"東方閃電"弟兄的見證 (http://b5.ctestimony.org/2003/20030904.htm)
• 獨家專訪:過來人揭穿異端東方閃電(全能神教會)手段(上)@創世電視
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZgmUQQtioc)
• 直擊全能神教 東方閃電 《壹周刊》第1190期 2012年12月27日
(http://tvb4life.pixnet.net/blog/post/81462904-直擊-全能神教)
53

54. Female Pastor in HK Got
Converted
• 痛心疾首！港宣教會女牧師受迷惑 轉信東方閃電
(http://www.gospelherald.com.hk/news/gen-2476/
痛心疾首！港宣教會女牧師受迷惑轉信東方閃電)
• 喜訊：吳燕芬棄東方閃電回轉教會
(http://www.gospelherald.com.hk/news/gen-2490/
喜訊：吳燕芬棄東方閃電回轉教會)
• 吳燕芬自白書《為何信又不信全能神教會的教義》
(http://www.gospelherald.com.hk/news/gen-2491/
吳燕芬自白書《為何信又不信全能神教會的教義》)
54

55. Challenges
• Spiritual crisis / emergency
• Psychological abuse
• Social issue
55