Due to constant misunderstanding with my name I feel the need to change my intro. I am hateful, hateful of religion. I hate what religion does to people and that people use it as an excuse to not think. I have spent many years of my life as an Atheist and have learned to handle my emotions, but no other word quite describes how I feel towards religion short of hate. I am outspoken, open minded, and will share my opinion. If you're looking for someone who will always agree with you, that won't be me.
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9th April 2012

Question with 8 notes

Anonymous asked: I think my friend was brainwashed. This was a few years ago, she was having family troubles and ended up living with a very adamant Christian teacher from our high school. They sent her to a summer camp and when she came back she was just as adamantly Christian as the teacher and to this day professes her love for Jesus everyday on Facebook, calls god Daddy, & says she's the daughter of the King. Have you ever heard of something like this? She was a completely different person after camp.

I haven’t personally known anyone that has gone through such a transformation but I have definitely heard of this kind of thing happening. The documentary “Jesus Camp” really provides one of the best insight about the inner workings of a hardcore Christian camp but often if you simply watch the recruitment videos they will tell you how it will “transform” your life. Some of these camps put people through brutal treatment, often working people to near exhaustion as well as keeping them hungry and dehydrated. They say this is a way to “break down” the spiritual barriers.

Much like vision quests of the past the purpose is to make someone “open” (vulnerable) mentally and physically to the message they are going to receive. It is designed to blur reality completely. People have worked for years and years to perfect the messages they will focus on to maximize the poignancy and effectiveness to those that receive them. These events can be extremely powerful and transforming. People will usually see, fell, and experience things that they never have before, things that seem fantastic and divine, but all of which have a good logical explanation. People in these situations usually come with the expectation of having a divine experience and will incorrectly credit these events that way.

I wish I had some good advice for how to help your friend but when someone has had such a powerful personal experience, one that brings about a drastic change, it is extremely difficult to undo the damage that is done. People will reject reason and logic, they will ignore any attempts to explain how these events took place outside of a “miracle”. It is really quite sad, your friend will likely never be the same again. Not all of these camps are like this but the most extreme certainly are and in such a drastic change it sounds as if it could be one of the more “extreme” spiritual camps.

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  1. hatefulatheist posted this