Some of the active members of the Faith movement may on occasions describe how they are having their own serious symptoms and complexes. These correspond very closely to the symptoms mentioned by Singer concerning members who have left cults. The symptoms that are found and, at times, even acknowledged as existing within the movement include sleep disturbances, anxiety, and psychosomatic effects that are thought to be heart problems.
Unfortunately, when the problems are acknowledged by the people in the movement, the reason is put down to the attacks of the devil and various demons, and the various spiritual techniques are to be used to combat it.
One of the teachers whom I appreciated the most when I was at the Faith Bible school, from 1984-1985, was Johnny Carlsson. He taught about the grace and compassion of God in a very helpful way, and his teaching was a help to me in the most difficult time of my life, when I was battling against overwhelming fear. Perhaps, his teaching was more compassionate precisely because he was battling with intense personal problems himself. He describes his own problems saying: “You have begun to be attacked during the night. You have started to get problems with your heart. It begins to beat irregularly, and you feel a great pressure and strain directed at you. Overwhelming anxiety has hit you.” 94
This shows that even the Faith preachers themselves may experience such symptoms. Carlsson continues: “Something jumped on me, and it felt like — well, I hardly know how to describe it. It was as though a large boa-constrictor snake had wound itself around my chest like this. Or an octopus or whatever way you want to describe it. And an incredible pressure came against my chest like this. It hurt. And I began to get serious problems with my heart.”
He continued saying that right in the middle of the activities in the movement, you can feel lonely. Especially so if you have thoughts and feeling that do not quite fit in with the teaching, and then you become afraid of the leaders. “You have felt very lonely, rejected, and cut off. You have felt as though whatever you are doing is worthless. You are afraid of the other servants of God, and you feel isolated from them.”
Then he continued: “For example, often when I came to the Bible school, when I went inside, I was struck by a very strong feeling that I did not belong there and had no business being there. And then there is the loneliness; you feel somehow isolated. I could not make out what it was all about.”
He explained that some get depressions and suicidal thoughts, and said: “Some get this strong feeling of sadness and pain, and keep on weeping and weeping …. Many of those who have become so-called defectors from Word of Life, have left because of this demonic power. Those strong suicidal feelings that have struck them, are caused by this same demon.”
Carlsson mentioned the following experiences: “Very strong voices began to overwhelm me, talking about ‘death, death, death.’ And I heard almost constantly as if something was hanging over me saying: ‘You have got cancer! You are going to die!’ And I felt this awful pain and pressure constantly.” 95
Experiences of hallucinations or hearing voices with a destructive content can be produced in the environment of mind control. Either these are interpreted as being the voice of God or the voice of the devil. What is simply your own thoughts will also be magnified and interpreted as either being God or the devil speaking. In most cases, when someone from the Faith movement says he has got a message from God or from the devil, it is probably more likely to be his own magnified thoughts, rather than a question of hallucinations.
Regardless of whether you are hearing voices or whether it is your own thoughts, you are trained to observe them very carefully, and to focus on them in your eagerness to hear the voice of God. The result is a constant introverted analysis of inner thoughts and impulses. If you are in a state of depression, these things tend to be interpreted negatively as messages from Satan.
In spite of Carlsson acknowledging that he has such severe problems, the thought does not seem to occur to him that there might be something about the set-up of the movement itself that could be causing, or contributing to, these symptoms.
In addition to all this, members of the movement find family relationships very draining. It also becomes more and more difficult to manage relating to people in your employment situation, regardless of whether they are in a superior or subordinate position. Carlsson mentions getting sexual temptations of a ferocity hitherto unknown to him. He mentions feeling that people were out to attack and harm him. However, he still considered it as part of a spiritual battle against the devil’s attacks.
The very teaching that causes people such serious physical and psychological problems also prevents people from searching out what it is that is causing the problems. Instead, they are urged to battle harder. In their attempt to escape from fear and anxiety, they practise what they have learned about confessing with their mouth and going to war against the devil. Carlsson says: “I started doing all I knew that I ought to do. I confessed the word. I began to pray, and I began spiritual warfare. I began battling. I began to do everything. I did get a certain amount of ease, but never real victory. …. This was going on for two years.”
Carlsson, himself, was a victim of mind control and would, therefore, not allow himself to think, even for a moment, that the doctrine and structure of the movement could be the cause of his problems. Instead, he was told that it was the devil attacking him, by ‘the spirit of Jezebel’. The reason it was attacking him so hard was because the structure and the doctrine of the movement were so good. Carlsson accepted this explanation of his psychological problems.
Because of this kind of rationalisation, he did not stop to take notice of the physical warning signals his body was giving. Instead, he changed into an even higher gear, and into more frenzied efforts. This is something I recognise very well from my own experience, as I used to do exactly the same. It seems to be the only way out when you are in such a situation.
When you go on like that full steam against all physical and psychological signals, there are two different things that may happen — either, the problems get worse, or else you may succeed over-powering the warning signals and thereby getting a sense of relief. I have experienced this myself, but it was only after I had rejected the Holy Spirit’s way of telling me by these warning signals that something was wrong, that I finally managed to make myself feel better.
Carlsson tells about how he was taught eventually that he was in trouble because of being attacked by ‘the spirit of Jezebel’. By basing his account on the assumptions he has been taught, Carlsson is, unfortunately, passing on the same type of mind control that he himself is a victim of. The teaching rejects important warning signals that might otherwise help people to understand that they have been caught in something that is damaging.
Footnotes
94. Carlsson, Johnny: Elias ande och kraft contra Isebels ande (The Spirit and Power of Elijah Versus the Spirit of Jezebel). Audio Cassette LF 501, 25 February 1988, 19.00, Word of Life.
95. Carlsson: Elias ande och kraft contra Isebels ande. LF 501.
