There is no denying that most people who fall under this spirit feel peace.
I had a very negative similar experience with it at the hands of a protestant minister who was the one who introduced Jessica Hahn (was it?) to Baker of PTL fame. Years later now I have looked him up on the internet and he was not of good character.
Later I went to a catholic healing mass after I became catholic and was shocked and traumatized by what I witnessed and experienced. I prayed to St. Michael to protect me and when I went up in the line, and was touched on the forehead by a priest who recently "got the power", I wasn't slain like almost everybody else was. I was confessing regularly at the time which may or may not have anything to do with anything.
My personal experience is meaningless to anyone trying to make sense of it and put it all into proper context theologically.
The catholics had none of this until they imported it from protestants; they seemed to have a built-in immunity initially according to accounts I've read about the early charismatic gatherings at Notre Dame. When they persisted, they finally got the power, too. Hence my suspicion.
One of the Medjugorje priests, Father Jozo Zovko, was into this, too. There was a dark side to his ministry and character according to accounts I read, but I can't remember what now, most of it was that he went off on his own in defiance of the local bishop of that place.
But who can argue with such a feeling of peace? I certainly can't.
I will never really know what to make of it, but I'm still suspicious.
Maybe I'm too hung up on rules. But then I think maybe the rules are there to protect us from being led astray by strange spirits. There are strange spirits in the church today though, no doubt about it. The bishops are permitting it. The only thing I'm left with is an inner need to protect my loved ones from falling under this particular power or I wouldn't even bother to think about it any more or talk about it. I wouldn't want my young grandkids going to one of these healing services and being slain in the spirit.
Maybe I just don't want that part of it to be true. We all seem to end up believing what we want to believe.
Aliska there are strange spirits everywhere. As I posted earlier, St. Paul gave us instructions on this.
I wouldn't want my young grandkids going to one of these healing services and being slain in the spirit.
OK
We all seem to end up believing what we want to believe.
All any of us can do is strive to stay in a state of grace and ask forgiveness when we fall.
Oh my Aliska, he was a really horrible person! I used to watch him on PTL club years ago, and then when all of the truth came out about him, I was just stunned.
John Wesley Fletcher was his name, and although I always thought there was something yucky about him, the real story was even worse than I imagined!
It seems I read somewhere that he died, but I am not sure.