Inner Healing?

[terrilynn]

I don't know if I am putting this subject in the right category, but does anyone out there know anything about these Inner Healing:idunno sessions being offered in many churches now. From what I can gather it is going back to your childhood for any hurts or hang-ups that your have in order to be delivered from them is the objective. I was under the impression when we are saved we become new creatures in Christ "Old things are past away and behold all things become new. We have to make a conscious choice to hold old hurts, bitterness, and unforgiveness in our hearts, just as we make conscious choices to release them by the power of Blood of Jesus. I can find no reference what-so-ever in the New Testament where this was practiced in the Chruch.

I would appreciate others thoughts on the subject.:idunno

[A Berean]

I don't know if I am putting this subject in the right category, but does anyone out there know anything about these Inner Healing:idunno sessions being offered in many churches now. From what I can gather it is going back to your childhood for any hurts or hang-ups that your have in order to be delivered from them is the objective. I was under the impression when we are saved we become new creatures in Christ "Old things are past away and behold all things become new. We have to make a conscious choice to hold old hurts, bitterness, and unforgiveness in our hearts, just as we make conscious choices to release them by the power of Blood of Jesus. I can find no reference what-so-ever in the New Testament where this was practiced in the Chruch.

I would appreciate others thoughts on the subject.:idunno

PM Sing4Him- She has scads of info on this stuff, and it is not good as I remember.

[Sing4Him]

terrilynn. could I suggest a book?

[terrilynn]

terrilynn. could I suggest a book?

Please do.:)

[Sing4Him]

Please see book suggested on bottom!

Inner Healing

Inner healing beliefs and techniques continue to deceive many Christians. A central belief is that we are the way we are because of past hurts that need to be healed through reliving the past and bringing Jesus into past events. This is a deceptive combination of Freudian psychology and occult visualization. The inner healer is convinced that present problems are expressions of past wounds that must be healed before the person can overcome problems of living and get on with life.

The inner healer, through various techniques, encourages the person to remember past events and to connect them with present problems or pain. He may use hypnosis or he may simply make suggestions about what might have happened. Such suggestions often act in the same way as hypnosis for people who are susceptible to suggestion and who have strong imaginations. The healer may guide the person back through past events, which may or may not have happened, through visualizing these events.

The healer helps the person not only to relive the actual or created past, but also to feel the pain and agony. This highly emotional part of inner healing is similar to Freud’s abreaction. Either prior to or at this point of emotional intensity, a Jesus figure is brought into the scene to bring healing. Some inner healers do this through guided imagery, others make suggestions about what Jesus may be doing or saying, and still others let the person who has already been led to this point of intensity to wait expectantly for Jesus to speak or act. This is all highly suggestive and, because of the use of occult-type visualization, the Jesus being visualized, having been created by the healer or the client, cannot be the Jesus of the Bible.

While different inner healers may have their own combination of techniques and therefore claim that what they do is quite different from the above brief description, they all attempt to change present problems by changing some aspect of the past through bringing the client back to a painful event (either actually remembered or created under suggestion) and by helping the person to reexperience the pain of the past. There are far more inner healers than one can know about, but some of the prominent names are Agnes Sanford, Ruth Carter Stapleton, John and Paula Sandford, Leanne Payne, David Seamands, Dennis and Rita Bennett, and Ed Smith, even though he claims that his "TheoPhostic Counseling" is different from inner healing.

Jesus works miraculously in our innermost being through the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit and therefore brings about what some may call "inner healing." But that’s where the similarity ends regarding what Jesus does and what the inner healers do. The similarity is only in the use of the words "inner healing," but that’s why it is so deceptive. People assume that, because Jesus works on the inside, all inner healing must be from Him. Nevertheless, while the inner healing movement claims to be Christian and uses a great deal of Scripture and brings a visualized Jesus onto the scene, the inner healing movement comes from the world, the flesh, and the devil. It relies on psychological ideas and techniques gleaned or absorbed from the world. It appeals to the flesh because the flesh would rather be "healed" than reproved of sin. And, it often uses Satanic methods of suggestion and occult visualization.

Dr. Jane Gumprecht’s book Abusing Memory reveals the history of the movement and its founder, Agnes Sanford; describes what goes on in inner healing; reveals its occult rather than Christian roots; and warns Christians to stay away. We recently received a letter from Dr. Gumprecht in which she says that she receives calls and letters about her book because of John and Paula Sandford’s continuing worldwide influence in spreading inner healing throughout various churches and denominations. Dr. Gumprecht’s book includes quotes from the Sandfords’ books, which clearly indicate they are devoted followers and promoters of Agnes Sanford’s deceptive inner healing practices. Abusing Memory is an important book for anyone who needs information about inner healing. http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/inner82.html

[Sing4Him]

ABUSING MEMORY: The Healing Theology of Agnes Sanford :thumb:thumb

by Dr. Jane Gumprecht

(reviewed by Martin & Deidre Bobgan)


Abusing Memory is an appropriate title for Dr. Jane Gumprecht’s book. She skillfully demonstrates that the popular practice of inner healing is a dangerous combination of psychology and new-age spirituality. Practitioners attempt to heal people of present problems through a mental imagery process that guides people into re-experiencing real or imagined past events. Instead of being healed, many recipients of inner healing are now living according to lies. Inner healing is not based on truth, but rather on unbiblical doctrines, faulty memory, heightened hypnotic-like susceptibility, guided imagery, visualization, and fantasy.

In her book Abusing Memory: The Healing Theology of Agnes Sanford, Gumprecht focuses on the beliefs, teachings, and practices of Agnes Sanford, the "mother of the Inner Healing/ Healing of the Memories movement." As one studies this book, one sees Sanford’s vast influence throughout Christendom. Gumprecht says:

Most inner healing advocates acknowledge their debt to her, and her "theology" is evident in their ministries. John Loren Sandford (no relation to her) dedicated his books to her as his beloved mentor. Morton Kelsey learned healing of memories from her as well. Karen Mains of Chapel of the Air was trained in inner healing at the School of Pastoral Care founded by Agnes and her husband. Similarly, spiritual therapist Leanne Payne is a disciple of Agnes, as was the late Ruth Carter Stapleton. Glen Clark, who established Camps Furthest Out, published Agnes’s first book, The Healing Light. . . also endorsed by Theosophy, the first of the modern New Age cults.

An entire chapter is devoted to "The Ministry of John Sandford."

Gumprecht traces Agnes Sanford’s life and her development of unbiblical theological notions gleaned from a syncretism of occult spirituality, the Freudian unconscious, the Jungian collective unconscious, and depth psychology. She shows how Sanford distorted Christianity to make it fit her ideas and turned Jesus into a "Time Traveler" who supposedly guides people back in time to meet their so-called inner child, to remember the pain of their past, and to have Jesus heal the pain. She also shows how Sanford "affirmed the Freudian doctrine . . . that the unconscious is a powerful dark force which rules our conscious lives" and used teachings about the inner child from mystical traditions and Jung’s Child Archetype.

While the entire book is filled with evidence that should discourage every Christian from participating in inner healing, Gumprecht’s chapters "Inner Healing and Memories," "The Inner Child," and "The Source of the Unconscious" are especially helpful. They give a clear overview of the practice of inner healing, of its unbiblical foundations, and of the dangers of inner healing as it is used by people today. Inner healing techniques are used by many Christian counselors, some of whom may not even call what they are doing "inner healing." Thus, Christians need to be warned and armed with the kind of warning and documentation found in the book Abusing Memory.

http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/abusemem.html

[Sing4Him]

http://www.amazon.com/Abusing-Memory-Jane-Grumprecht/dp/1885767277

(amazon has Gumprecht's name spelled wrong)

It's only $8.00

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b217/NiseyG/abusemem.gif

[terrilynn]

Thank you SingforHim!

[Sing4Him]

If you or anyone gets this book, PM me about it, o.k.?:thumb

:wave:hug

[Emily Ruth]

Bob DeWaay at Twin Cities Fellowship has a DVD on it as well.
Inner Healing is also known as Theophostics and is spread by Ed Smith. He teaches a lie based theology - rather than sin based.

It is very scary and many churches are embracing it.

Here is the link for Bob's materials:
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue79.htm