THE POWER OF THE MIND

If you’re a catholic, especially if you’re a true catholic, you’ll attest to the fact that during the exposition of the blessed sacrament especially during benediction, Corpus Christi etc, that there’s a feeling and experience that always comes with it.

You’ll feel the supposedly spirit of God everywhere, your spirit will be so high, and goosebumps will take over your body. This particular feelingis is normally tagged by catholic faithfuls as an experience of God’s presence or encounter with Christ.

However, if a Deeper life member, Choosen, or other core Pentecostals were to be there during such time, no matter how born again such person is, no matter how he/she thinks he/she has the Holy Spirit, there’s 99.99999% that such person will never feel same thing or have same experience with a catholic faithful during such time. Such person will also not believe the testimonies of the catholic faithfuls on such experiences with the blessed sacrament is from Christ. In fact for them, the blessed sacrament is an idol and ungodly.

Same thing applies to the last picture below of an “ Ogbu Oja” (flutist) which is one of the most spirited cultural musical sounds among the Igbos.

If you’re born Igbo and raised Igbo, especially when you have this love and passion for the Igbo culture, sounds from Oja flute can high your spirit, give you goosebumps, and even make you intoxicated. Whenever this Oja is blown in an Igbo gathering, the evidence of what normally proceeds will explain what I’m trying to say better.

However, blow this same oja flute in an Hausa or Yoruba gathering, you’ll realize it will have less if not zero effect on them.

The point here is, what your mind is made of matters, the mind works in a way that shapes our views towards reality and only few person has the rational ability to think beyond it. Most of the things we think or we were taught, in reality ain’t actually true or real. When you start thinking beyond the datas your mind is made of you’ll start understanding reality, but it you don't, you'll always think there's something that makes your own feelings or beliefs more special than the others.

This is why deep thinkers are not emotionally attached to cultures, religions, traditions etc.

Know this,; the reason why you have experiences and feelings that makes you to think and claim that your own religion/denomination is the true one and others false is simply because of the emotional value given to the data’s in your mind, which makes it almost impossible for you to have same experience in in that of others. Such experiences are mere natural occurrences and an output product of the mind.

The fact that you dreamt about rapture, Hell, or seeing the white man you think is Jesus in your dreams does not make your belief in such things true.

After all a catholic faithful can dream of Mary in a divine and heroic form, and a Pentecostal faithful can never have such dream.

You can also dream of the white man you think is Jesus in a divine light, but Hindus will never have such dream, rather they’ll dream of Krishna as the divine being.

You can dream of Hell fire but a Jew will never have such dream because they don’t believe the concept of hell the Christians preach.

You can dream of rapture but a Muslim faithful will never. Rather they’ll dream of Mecca.

All these are in your heads. What you feed your mind with is what shapes your understanding and conscious and unconscious experience of the world. It's not bad, It’s ok, but never use the product of your mind and experiences to judge everyone else, or set it as a standard for truth against reason.

No matter your religion, denomination, faith, I want you to understand that such your religious experiences that makes you think your religion or denomination is more special than others are relative to your religion alone, and subjective to you in person. Learn to tolerate others.

©️ Mike Odenigbo