Has it ever crossed your mind what happens when you think? Probably not. Leastways, I am referring to the EFFECT of thinking, rather than the CONTENT of one’s thoughts. We all know the CONTENTS of our thinking, that’s fairly obvious, but the EFFECT of our thinking is far from obvious. Sometimes we hear the expression, “That’s a brainwave!” And because it’s a common or garden expression, we don’t any longer ask what we mean by it. Are there such things as BRAIN WAVES? Arid if so, how can they be measured?
In this article we want to present a few facts, and a testimony, that should cause us all to stop in our tracks and take stock of the effects of our thinking. It has already had a marked effect on us here, and so we should like to share it with you. Some time ago I presented an article entitled “What is Man? Part 1, Sleep and Dreams.” [It is now PT 4 in this series.] I described the work of scientists as they used machines called ELECTROENCEHALOGRAPHS, EEGs for short. These machines monitor the energy output of the human brain in terms of wavelengths and amplitudes. During sleep the wave patterns are different to those whilst we are awake. “Sleep-waves” are relatively quiescent, until dreaming starts, and then considerable brain activity begins. However, this is not the main point of our present article.
The factor which concerns us right now is related to the brain as a WAVE TRANSMITTER. When we think, wave energy is created, and this energy is transmitted, and even though scientists are completely unable to ascertain how, it seems clear that the energy is capable of being transmitted, even to the other side of the world! Yes, I know this sounds incredible, absolutely unbelievable, but information gathered over many years about the behaviour of identical twins seems overwhelmingly to favour this conclusion.
Many years ago, in fact around the time of the Welsh Revival in 1905-1906, Mrs Jessie Penn-Lewis wrote a number of very important booklets in which she described how the human mind can be manipulated. One of these booklets is entitled “Soul and Spirit,” and another is called “The Battle for the Mind.” Because of the importance of the revelations she developed from the Scriptures, coupled with testimonies from real life, Watchman Nee later wrote his gem of a book called “The Latent Power of the Soul.” We should like to recommend these titles to all our readers. They display information of the highest importance.
In one of Jessie Penn-Lewis’s booklets, quoted above, came the information that a friend of hers was sick, and eventually the sickness was found to be due to Christian friends praying for her against the will of God. When these prayers were rebuked, and cleansing asked, the sickness made a rapid departure, and full health was restored. As a result of such experiences, it became obvious that our prayers, (and that includes our thinking) have effects purely as a result of the energy generated by the human brain, regardless of any divine activity. And it was equally clear that sometimes this energy could be of a very negative nature, so negative as to induce sickness of one kind or another. Hence the importance of chasing this subject up. If we become aware of what our thoughts might be doing, then perhaps we shall need to put a tighter rein on our thinking!
What evidence is there of such power being transmitted by the human brain? Have experiments been conducted to determine whether there is such a profound output? And the answer is YES. We are now to give a testimony from an American scientist, a member of a team which was engaged in just such a pursuit, and the effect that it had on them all. The man in question is Dr. Phillip Chen, and he was working in a large pathological laboratory, attempting to find out the wavelength of the human brain waves. In their early experiments they found that there was a whole spectrum of wavelengths, rather than just a single one. And of even greater importance, they found that each person had a different set of wavelengths and patterns, so the brain output was as personal as the finger-prints, and could, if needed, be used to identify that person by keeping a stack of computerised records, and asking the computer to analyse the signals coming from a subject, and comparing his brain waves with those on record.
But Phillip Chen was not a believer. “I was almost a devout atheist” he said. “I did not believe that God was any more than a conglomeration of everyone’s mind put together, and the good that was there was God as far as I was concerned.” This type of thinking is typical of the New Age teaching, which derives from Eastern Religions, particularly Buddhism and Hinduism, where everyone is thought to belong to a Universal Brain, which is the only corporate god in existence, so they say. But as Chen and his workers proceeded with their experiments, they were in for a shock that changed their minds about God very dramatically.
“We wanted to make an experiment to discover what took place in the brain at the moment of transition from life to death,” he said. They set up their equipment, and calibrated it for strength of signal by the output from a fifty-kilowatt radio transmitting station that sent signals around the world. The needle registered just NINE POINTS on the positive side of the scale. The meter they used had a needle with centre zero on the scale. On one side it was calibrated from zero to 500 units positive, and the other side zero to 500 units negative. If the powerful radio transmitter could only produce a deflection of nine points positive on the scale, the equipment was obviously capable of measuring and recording signals of prodigious strength. None of them expected to see the needle move very far on the scale.
Chen continued his story –
“We chose a lady whose family had sent her to a mental institution, but she had been discharged. The doctors could find nothing wrong with her, other than the fact that she had cancer of the brain. This condition only affected the balance of her body. As far as her alertness of mind was concerned, and in every other way, she was exceptionally brilliant. We knew that she was on the verge of death, and she was informed in this research hospital that she was going to die. We arranged a tiny pickup in her room to ascertain what would take place in the transition of her brain from life to death. We also put a very small microphone, about the size of a shilling, in the room, so that we could hear what she said if she had anything to say. Suddenly we heard a clicking sound on our forgotten instruments.”
But instead of looking at the needle on the scale, they were interrupted by the woman praying in the few moments before she actually died. Dr Chen again takes up the tale:-
“As the last moments of this woman’s life arrived, she began to pray and praise the Lord. She asked the Lord Almighty God to be merciful to those who had despitefully used her. Then she reaffirmed her faith in God, telling Him she knew He was the only power, and that He was the living power. She told God He had always been, and always would be. She praised God and thanked Him for His power and for her knowledge of His reality. She told Him how much she loved Him.”
These scientists had become so engrossed in the woman’s prayer that Chen tells of tears streaming down their faces as they listened to the woman’s testimony. But the clicking sound on their instrument caused them to look at the needle.
“We looked and the needle was registering 500 on the positive side of the scale! Furthermore, the needle was jammed against the end post, showing that it would have registered an even higher power if it were able to. We realised that the woman’s brain output was over FIFTY TIMES AS GREAT as the radio transmitting station!”
It was the moment of transition from this life to the presence of the Lord for the woman, but it was also the moment of transition for Phillip Chen from atheism to living faith in God. The team then decided to try out another experiment.
“We chose a man lying in the research hospital, stricken with a deadly social disease. His brain had become atrophied, to the point of death. He was practically a maniac. After we had set up our instruments, we arranged for one of the nurses to antagonise the man. Through her wiles she attracted his interest in her, and then suddenly told him she didn’t want anything to do with him. He began to verbally abuse her, and the needle began to register on the negative side. Then he cursed her and took the name of the Lord in vain. The needle clicked back and forth against the 500 negative post. By actual instrumentation we had registered what happens in the brain, when that brain broke one of God’s Ten Commandments, ‘Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.'”
Later in his testimony, Chen had this to say:-
“I believe with all my heart that the Lord God can keep a record of our thoughts and a coloured picture of all the acts, good and bad, for review in the Day of Judgment following the resurrection.”
The details given above were gleaned from the ‘Destiny Editorial Letter Service,” Special Alert, No. 58, October 1984.
The clear evidence these scientists found led to at least one of them beginning a life of faith in the Lord Jesus, and we praise God for that! But for us, listening to the story, there is a lesson to learn. It has been demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that our brain waves are extremely powerful, and no wonder identical twins on opposite sides of the world pick up each other’s strong signals, and interpret them correctly. But what about all the other signals rushing about hither and thither? The whole world must be alive with brain signals! This is where Jessie Penn-Lewis’s testimony comes in. It seems that when we FOCUS our thoughts and our prayers on someone else, that person is able to receive them, whereas most other signals not intended for him or her, pass by without any effect.
As believers, the Lord warns us to love our enemies, and pray for those who despitefully use us. Why? In terms of brain waves, the answer is now obvious. Every time we speak ill of a person, we send out strong negative waves to that person, and they affect him/her for the worse. By praying for the “enemy”, positive energy is liberated, which has the effect of neutralising that which is already badly negative, and as a result, the condition has a chance to heal, rather than be exacerbated. Let us hear the Lord’s thoughts recorded by Jeremiah (29:11) “I know the thoughts I think towards you,saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an end and an expectation.” And in the New Testament, surely no greater positive thought could ever be construed than that of our Lord on the cross, saying to His enemies,“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
A few years ago I had a vivid dream which I recorded on waking. In this dream I saw panels, and on each panel was engraved what looked like “doctrines”. These panels passed across my field of view. And then I heard a voice, which could have been that of the Lord, or at least one of His angelic host, saying, “You must test everything, and hold fast only to that which is good.” I was then given the clear understanding that dark powers had worked tirelessly over the centuries since Jesus was on the earth, manipulating the minds of men, modifying, and devitalising every aspect of Jesus’ teaching. The result is that at least SOME of what we take as foundational Christian doctrine, is really none other than a twisted idea, a traditional ecclesiastical doctrine and not a Biblical truth. Other doctrines we hold to are mixtures of good and bad, which devitalise the real truth, and cause it to become a diluted influence on our lives. Many examples can be adduced of where men, under the influence of the Holy Spirit have been given grand insights into original truths, men such as Luther, who recovered justification by faith, and others who since Luther’s day have been granted further enlightenment to restore that which has been twisted by Satanic thought processes.
Truly the Lord is giving back that which was lost, and for our part, we can assist this process by “testing all things, arid holding fast ONLY to that which is proven to be GOOD.” Paul’s words in 1 Thess.5:21 then take on a wider meaning than just the proving of the prophetic word. They require that we should TEST ALL THINGS. Remember that the Lord’s thoughts are not our thoughts, but His thoughts are higher than ours as the heaven is above the earth. Hence none of us have any grounds for thinking that we are going to obtain a complete compendium of God’s ways and works. At the best we shall have a portion, and our task is to make sure that our portion is as pure and free from error as can be. “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established.” (Psalm 16:3) “If any man wills to do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God.” (John 7:17) “The anointing which you have received of Him abides in you, and you have no need that any man teach you.” (1 John 2:27) If each of us puts these verses into practice, we shall be able to share together the riches of deeper and purer understanding which God grants us through the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
But with regard to our thoughts and our prayers, let them all be positive. Help us Lord, because we so often speak ill of others, and even if they “deserve it”, it does them no good for us to speak ill of them. Help us to pray for those who persecute us, misunderstand us, and falsely judge us to be in error. Now that we understand how powerful our brain waves are, help us to keep a check on our thinking and our speaking.
