Do other religions do this?

So, I’m working from home today. A relative has a YouTube channel playing. It’s a daily prayer thing hosted by an evangelical Christian church of the charismatic flavor. Praying in tongues, moves of the spirit, etc. The pastor is “prophesying” by the spirit. Revival centers popping up across the country. Millions coming to Jesus. People being healed and such. Do other religions have this kind of stuff going on? I really don’t know? Do Islamic leaders say things by the spirit of God? Do they have Islamic revivals? Or those of the Jewish faith? I’m honestly curious. I don’t think they do, but I’m not sure?

I remember hundreds of prophesies over my 25 or so years in charismatic Christianity. Most of them were towards the end of one year and the beginning of the next. “God is going to do a new thing this year”! “Millions will get saved and healed!” “The spirit of god will move in our schools and there will be all kinds of changes in our children!” The worst part is often, the prophesies rhymed. Things will be great in 2008. You will be just fine in 2009. It will be like heaven in 2011. Yep. Super cringe! Ugh.

I can’t think of any of the prophesies coming to pass. Most were pretty specific that it would happen in within the year. I can’t think of any supernatural move in our schools that has prevented school violence and shootings. I can’t think of any bars that closed down because god supernaturally caused people to not want to drink anymore. There were prophesies about churches bursting at the seams because of the awesome stuff god would be doing in America. I did a casual search and found that in 1992, 70% of Americans said they attended a church or synagogue on a regular basis. In 2022, that number was 46%. Holy shit! That is a huge decrease in a very short period of time. So, at least during that period, the prophet was wrong.

If there is a loving god out there somewhere, I would love for that god to show themselves to human kind. Miracles, healings, peace, all people having enough to live on, etc, coming from some kind of move of god. I’d jump on that band wagon and drink the Kool-Aid by the gallons! But I kind of doubt that will happen. So, back to my first question. Do other religions have prophesies like this? And do they come to pass in a tangible, measurable way? If you know of any, please let me know.

It’s ok to not be ok

Let me preface this post with some comments. In this post, I’m not talking about chronic, long term physical, mental, or emotional trauma or issues. I was severely depressed for several years, day in and day out, and that’s not ok. I finally found a great psychiatrist and got on some effective medications that got me to the point where I could start to utilize tools to deal with the depression. I needed to find help or I probably would not still be here. So if you have chronic long term pain, depression, anxiety, addiction, etc, I’m certainly NOT saying that is ok and I very much hope you can get some help and healing and relief.
I heard a quote today by a man named Dean Burnett that prompted this post. He said, “I think the current cultural perception of happiness as something you need to have, or else you’re some sort of failure, is unhelpful. Happiness shouldn’t be the default state in the human brain. If you’re constantly happy, why would you do anything? You need it as a motivator to make you do stuff, to get you through life. You need the full range of emotions and experiences to be able to appreciate things.” You can find the short interview with Dean Burnett here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/28/dean-burnett-happiness-should-not-default-state-human-brain-the-happy-brain

Happiness shouldn’t be the default in the human brain. Isn’t that interesting? I would say that when you look at social media, go to arts and crafts stores to look at wall hangings saying “positive vibes only”, read popular self-help books, and the like, it sure seems like we are being “encouraged” to only be happy. And if we aren’t happy, something has to change so we can be happy. I’ve read some books and articles that talk about how our brains in many ways still operate like when we were in the stone-age. Someone said that our brains are wired for certain conditions, but our surroundings no longer match those conditions. Again, isn’t that interesting? I wonder how much time and energy was spent in trying to be “happy” back in that time? I would think that human’s main concerns were finding food and drinkable water, procreation, shelter of some kind, and not being eaten by a predator of some sort. I guess if you got through the day with all that, it was a good day. I’m not saying stone aged humans were not happy, but that probably wasn’t the number one concern. And our brains are still very similar today!

But now we are constantly being told, that’s not enough. Do what makes you happy. Follow your passion. Sadness is a bad thing. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t seek moments and times of happiness, I’m just saying I think the need for it can be over rated. I’m an amateur musician. Playing music makes me feel happy. I’m a martial artist and practicing my martial art makes me feel happy. Being with friends, family, my cats, etc, makes me feel happy. But there are plenty of times when I feel down, or bored, or tired, or any number of feelings that don’t line up with feeling happy. And I think that is ok.

There are Buddhist principles that I have learned and practice that speak to this. The idea that situations or feelings are either good or bad isn’t something that is clung to. They are really just situations and feelings. Not labeling them as good or bad helps makes the end of “good” situations and feelings not such a bummer and going through “bad” situations and feelings not such a bummer. The brain wants to immediately go to extremes here. Someone will say that thousands killed in war is bad! How can that not be bad? I get that. But when practiced in your day to day life, within normal events, it’s very helpful. Not labeling events in our daily lives as good or bad helps to stabilize our emotions. Instead of having very high highs and very low lows, the line looks more like rolling hills than mountains and valleys. I find it’s less exhausting.

Also, the idea of impermanence is helpful to me. The only constant in the world is change. The good, or preferred, times come and go. And the bad, or not preferable, times come and go. If you wake up tomorrow feeling sad, that’s ok. You could have eaten something the day before that messed with your mood. You could have not slept well. You could have watched something sad before going to bed. Or, you could just simply feed sad. We experience a wide range of emotions daily. Someone cuts you off in traffic and you are pissed! A few minutes later, your favorite song comes on and you are happy. Just be in the moment, no matter how you feel. Our moods can change in an instant.

The religious group I came out of was very much about being happy and content and all the positive stuff as often as possible. If you feel depressed, that’s the devil! God doesn’t want you to feel depressed. If you feel lonely, that’s also the devil! You are never alone, God is always with you. And on and on…. Bullshit! We never took into account that it’s absolutely normal to experience a full range of emotions and feelings as a human being. See, now I’m getting angry just thinking about all that fuckery! And that’s normal! LOL Please don’t buy into the hype of needing to always be happy. It’s ok to not be ok. There is nothing wrong with you if you are occasionally sad or depressed or angry or any number of “negative” feelings or emotions. You are human. We are affected by so many factors. Positive vibes only is unrealistic.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, chronic or long term mental/emotional or physical issues should be looked at by a professional. I live with chronic pain that is less some days, and other days it’s so bad I can’t eat or sleep. Those days really suck! On the really painful days, there is often nothing I can do to alleviate the pain. I don’t beat myself up for it. It just is what it is. Normally, within a day or two, it’s manageable again. Our happiness level, or lack of happiness level, is very similar. Enjoy the happy moments! Do things that make you happy. Absolutely! Be happy as much as you can be. But don’t think there is anything wrong with you during the times where you are not happy. We will all experience the full range of feelings and emotions in our lifetime. Some are more preferable than others, that’s for sure. And preferring those is ok, too.