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CLAIRVOYANT ARE SPIRITUAL FORCES REAL?

FACEBOOK IS NOT YOUR FRIEND

A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE WORLD TODAY

ELL B EING

I used to eat meat daily. Persistent health issues, however, forced me to re-evaluate my diet. BY JULIANA MUNIZ

SIGNSOFTHETIMES.ORG.AU • AUGUST 2021

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MY PLANT-BASED JOURNEY

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’ve never wanted to be a vegetarian—to the point of rolling my eyes at the thought of becoming one. My husband tried to suggest a change of diet a few years ago, but my answer would always be a resounding “no”, followed by the question, “Why would I deprive myself of eating something I like?” Growing up in Brazil, particularly in the south, where churrasco— marinated meats grilled over an open fire using long skewers—are consumed in every household

for Sunday lunch, I couldn’t imagine a flavourful dish without meat. It was a big part of my culture and, subsequently, who I was. You see, churrasco is not a technique that you learn in culinary school. It’s passed down in family generations. Traditionally, the men 14

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in the house are in charge of grilling meat, and the women prepare side dishes like rice, boiled cassava, vinaigrette and farofa—toasted and seasoned cassava flour. When all the food is ready and the table is set, everybody in the house gathers for lunch accompanied by very loud conversations and lots of sugar-loaded soft drinks. On weekdays, no-one has time to make churrasco, but meat and dairy still take a leading position in Brazilian dishes. A common weekday menu would start with a cup of milk and chocolate powder and a baguette-style sandwich filled with cheese and a choice of deli meat. For lunch—the main meal of the day—white rice, pinto or black beans, salad, hot chips and a choice of meat—chicken breast, beef steak or (only rarely) fish. This finishes at dinner with a burger, a pizza or another toastie with cheese and deli meat. Apart from the rice, beans and the occasional salad, my diet for around 25 years consisted of refined carbs and sugar, saturated fats, animal products and processed foods. Was I overweight? Never. I’ve always had a relatively stable weight. Given I was regularly eating three full meals a day and always looked thin, I thought I was doing great! My friends were always telling me how unfair it was that I could eat everything and stay slim. Of course, not everything was perfect. I would visit the

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doctor—around once a week—with complaints such as migraine, lower back pain, sore throat, hay fever or a blocked sinus, menstrual cramps or even a mysterious itch on my skin that didn’t leave any marks. All symptoms that over-the-counter medication can easily solve. The diagnosis would always be “stress”. Every visit to the doctor meant a new purchase from the chemist, many times including antibiotics—probably one of the main reasons why I had such a bad relationship with my gut. Before moving to Australia in 2019, my husband and I decided to do a complete health check-up while we still had health insurance with full coverage. We spent the whole day in the hospital doing all sorts of exams, and at the end of the day we sat down with the doctor to evaluate our results. She didn’t tell us anything surprising: we had high cholesterol and triglycerides and some other results that were less than satisfactory, but fortunately no major disease diagnosis. I remember not taking the results too

seriously until the doctor pointed out that by moving to a new country, our access to health care would not be the same. I wouldn’t have health insurance with full coverage anymore, so my regular visits to the doctor would become quite expensive. After arriving in Australia, we made many friends in our church who followed vegetarian or vegan diets as described in the Bible. They never forced us to change our diet or judged us for our food choices. Being surrounded by so many people who also loved food and had

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ARE SPIRITUAL

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FORCES REAL?

Explaining supernatural phenomena is a puzzling prospect. If ghosts and spirits are real though, then what does it say about the existence of God? BY JARROD STACKELROTH SIGNSOFTHETIMES.ORG.AU • AUGUST 2021

tion and want an Puzzled by a "big picture" ques Times magazine the of s answer? In 2021, Sign on life’s most will be sharing fresh perspectives authors each new with s, terie mys us entio cont to present a ence evid ctive obje month examining case for Christianity.

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SVISIO—GETTY IMAGES

recent McCrindle survey for the Centre for Public Christianity showed that more than half of Australians believe in or are open to the possibility of the existence of a soul (69 per cent), while almost half (48 per cent) claim to believe in ghosts. Ideas about death, souls and afterlife existence are often intertwined with religious or spiritual beliefs. In other words, belief in the supernatural. But are spiritual forces present or observable in this world? Do they exist? Can they be observed, defined, categorised? The short answer is that because supernatural means “outside the natural”, it is impossible to scientifically test using natural laws. Anything that conforms to natural laws is no longer supernatural. For that reason, the question “are spiritual forces real?” cannot be proven or disproven

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definitively one way or the other. However, just because it cannot be proved beyond doubt doesn’t mean we can’t examine the evidence and attempt to explain the reasons these beliefs persist.

what do the experts say?

Throughout history, cultures have independently developed a form of belief in forces that cannot be seen. A vast majority of people who have existed on this blue and green globe for all of recorded history have had some form of belief in the spirit world—that there is more to existence than what can be touched, seen, smelt or tasted. There are many theories in the realm of cognitive psychology (how the brain works and why) that try to describe why these widespread beliefs exist and where they came from. While cognitive psychologists often reject the existence of supernatural

forces, they look for evolutionary explanations for why people might believe in forces outside of the natural world. “Just what is it about the human mind that leads so many members of our species, across cultures and geographic distances, to hold such an unshakable, sober and highly personal belief in an invisible, all-powerful being whom Westerners call God?” asks Jesse Bering in an American Scientist article. The Theory of Mind is the idea that humans have the ability to reason that other beings/entities have independent minds. If this is the case, humans have a propensity to assign feeling and meaning on other minds, including to dead or non-human forces: “because no-one knows what it's like to be dead, people attribute to dead agents the mental traits that they cannot imagine being without. The results also provide evidence that belief in supernatural agents pirates the brain's mental inference systems that are designed to reason about everyday intentional (living) agents.”

finding patterns

One explanation outlined in science magazine Discover is that the human mind attempts to find patterns in things that are unrelated. If you’ve lost someone dear to you, you want to continue that connection and read their presence into good and bad things that happen to you after that event.

So for many of these cognitive psychologists, belief in the supernatural is just a chance reaction in the human brain. “God might be an accidental by-product of human cognitive evolution, a functionless leftover of the capacity to reason about other human minds in the everyday social world,” explains Bering. But it’s not the only explanation that psychologists put forward. Bering continues: “There's a third option, which I favour: that religious belief is an exaptation—a spandrel that turned out to be useful and so was subsequently selected for by evolutionary pressures.” In Bering’s worldview therefore, belief in the supernatural is an evolutionary leftover that human beings have retained because of its usefulness. The theory goes like this: belief in the supernatural developed as some kind of external accountability or morality software in the human brain. Experiments have replicated the results of this kind of belief.

morality

Bering set out to test the theory. A group of students were set a competitive computer skills task. They were told that there was a glitch in the system, which meant that correct answers would sometimes appear on screen. They were supposed to immediately hit the spacebar to clear the answer. The researchers were really testing how long it would take them to clear the answer or whether AUGUST 2021 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES

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I USED TO BE A

Clairvoyant HERE’S WHY I STOPPED.

I was told angels were speaking through me. I thought I was helping others. But the truth was so much darker. BY CATHY HOOKHAM AUGUST 2021 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES

SEEMANTA DUTTA—GETTY IMAGES

hen I was little, I was a pretty good kid. Mum says I was one of those no-trouble children who did what I was told. At 14 years and nine months, I was raped. That’s when everything changed. I started drugs—crack and cocaine—by the time I was 15. With the help of Mum and Dad I got off them, but turned to alcohol and marijuana instead. I’d always felt different. I had unusual dreams, including one recurring dream about my grandfather being thrown from one side of the road to the other, running, yelling and screaming. He had a shotgun and my mum and aunty were running up the road after him. You could see something was throwing him violently. You could see the marks, the scratches on his back, but you couldn’t see what was inflicting the damage. Having morning tea with my sisters and mum one day—I was about 22—I brought my dream up. “Where did you hear this?” Mum asked. “What you’re describing is real. It happened—I was there. Tell me again—all the details you can remember.” When I finished, she said, “I don’t know how you know this. You weren’t even born yet.” For the first time I started to realise what was different about me. A couple of years later, I’d been considering moving from Sydney to Melbourne or Perth, but I hadn’t decided yet. Mum left me a phone message. “Rose is here,” she said.

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Now Rose was a clairvoyant who I’d met once years before. She’d had me in tears after telling me some truths about an ex who I’d been on and off with. Mum said, “She’d like you to come—she wants to see you.” I was doubtful, but I went. “So, have you decided if you are going to Perth or Melbourne?” Rose asked me. “You haven’t told your mum yet, have you?” I hadn’t mentioned anything to anyone. I hadn’t even told my son. I was shocked. “I think Melbourne’s probably best; what do you think?” she asked me. “Yes, I was leaning towards Melbourne. It’s not so far as Perth.” “Have you finished the drugs and the drinking yet?” Part of the reason I wanted to move was to change my lifestyle—I was at a crossroads. I wanted things to change. So I said, “Yeah, I think I am.” “Good,” she said. “Because they have been waiting a long time for you. The angels have been waiting for you to do the job you’re supposed to be doing. Are you ready?” It was then that I decided I’d

become a clairvoyant. I’d used drugs and alcohol to stop the things I was seeing—running away from the fact I didn’t know how to handle it. I didn’t think it was normal; it wasn’t anything I’d had in my environment before. So when she asked, “Are you ready?” I just felt this overwhelming sense of Yes, I am ready to do this. I thought it was angels—God’s angels. It never occurred to me that they were actually the devil’s angels— demons. In Melbourne, I set up a 1900 line that people would ring for clairvoyant readings over the phone. I was very good at it. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just giving my own opinion, so I would tell them to write their question down on a piece of paper and fold it. Then, without telling me what the question was, I would shuffle the cards. I would have oracle cards,

a couple of different sets of tarot cards and angel cards as well. I would select one from each deck—and I would read them and tell the caller what the question was and what the answer was. I needed to know I wasn’t making it up—that what was being pushed into my mind wasn’t from me. People believed me. There was a sense of trust that came with what I did, and I was able to support my family. I felt like I was helping people; it never occurred to me that “these powers” came from anything other than good angels. It took me four or five hours to recover from each session, so in a day I wouldn’t do any more than three. I did this very successfully for about two years. I felt so gifted with this blessing. I then decided to study angelology. I wanted to learn new things; I AUGUST 2021 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES

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A MAGAZINE FOR THE TIMES

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135 years on from its launch, Signs of the Times has gone through a multitude of societal and technological changes, and is more relevant than ever before. BY BRUCE MANNERS

SIGNSOFTHETIMES.ORG.AU • AUGUST 2021

AUGUST 2021 • SIGNS OF THE TIMES