"Slain in the Spirit": Spiritual Rapture or Social Conditioning?

Televangelism is prominent enough that by now everyone's seen someone be touched on the head by a minister and fall over, often convulsing. But what exactly is being "slain in the spirit" anyway? Is it an authentic spiritual experience or is it simply social conditioning?

There are plenty of proponents on both sides of the dilemma, both within the Christian community and outside of it. However, being "slain in the spirit," or falling over and sometimes convulsing after the touch of a religious minister, is not a new phenomenon. It's been documented as happening in Christianity at least since the late 1700s in American Methodism.

It's also been visibly observed in a variety of religious settings around the world, both in animistic cultures and even in some sects of Hinduism. Some cultures even see the seizures associated with epilepsy as signs of spiritual blessing (as can be read in Anne Fadiman's book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down).

Today in America, it is most widely seen practiced in typical Pentecostal and Charismatic settings and at its showiest on televangelist programs by preachers such as Benny Hinn and his contemporaries. It has become such a norm in these denominations' settings that many ushers' only role is to be "catchers" for those who fall over. For some of the more prominent ministers (again, Benny Hinn) hundreds or even thousands may be "slain in the spirit" over the course of a single service.

For the most part, being "slain in the spirit" today only happens at the point when the minister touches a person on the forehead or shoulder. After this, they fall down, are usually caught from behind by an usher or "catcher", and they sometimes appear to have passed out or are sometimes convulsing as if in a seizure. Some people get back up within a few minutes, others lay on the floor for thirty minutes to an hour. Some people who have experienced this say that it feels like an "electricity" or "fire" is going through their body and that they lose control of their muscles and are unable to stand.

However, in some exceptions, ministers such as Benny Hinn will wave their hands around and most of the people in the direction of their gesture will fall over, "slain in the spirit." Other times, they'll have the "catchers" pick someone up from the floor only to send them falling down again several times in a row in the course of just one or two minutes.

In defense of this practice of being "slain in the spirit", many Christians claim precedent from the Bible. There are many examples in the Bible in both the Old and New Testament where, in the presence of God or of angels, people have fallen, been unable to stand, or cowered in God's presence. Unfortunately, none of the Biblical examples have quite enough description to truly say whether the people involved were falling over involuntarily because of loss of motor control, or if they fell to the ground in voluntary reverence.

Opponents claim that only falling forward is a sign of God, because it is in reverence to him, whereas falling backwards is a mark of condemnation. Also, it can be seen that in Biblical records, falling over combined with convulsing is most often associated with demon possession and exorcism, so opponents also often claim that being "slain in the Spirit" is a demonic manifestation.

Personally, I've attended charismatic churches and meetings for many years and I even graduated from a charismatic Christian university where many of the most famous charismatic preachers came for chapel services. I've seen people "slain in the spirit" hundreds of times first-hand, though I've never experienced it myself.

For the first part of my life, I was raised in a more conservative, but still evangelical, church setting. One thing I've appreciated about attending charismatic churches is that they're less likely to say there are certain things God can't or won't do, so there seem to be far less limitations they place on God and his actions.

On the other hand, where charismatic churches don't put limits on God, such as spiritual manifestations and other gifts of the Holy Spirit, they often seem to take it all too far. Not only is speaking in tongues possible, they sometimes say that everyone has to speak in tongues, not only is healing possible, they sometimes say that everyone should be healed, or not only can God bless people with physical security or wealth, but everyone should be blessed with wealth almost unimaginable. Since many people's spiritual experiences are so closely linked to emotional effects, many charismatic churches also tend to over-emphasize emotions, paying attention only to visible emotional reactions.

I think that understanding this is important to understanding the "slain in the Spirit" phenomenon. First, I think it would be incorrect for any Christian to say that no one ever spiritually experiences God while experiencing an episode of being "slain in the Spirit." After all, if God is omnipotent and if he truly desires to reach out to everyone in the world, he can do it through whatever form or manifestation he desires; nowhere in Christian scriptures does it speak against this concept of being "slain in the spirit."

On the other hand, the over-emphasized emotionalism, the related showmanship of certain ministers, and the actual lack of Biblical precedent for something like this on a regular basis do make it doubtful that every visible example of being "slain in the spirit" is actually what it appears to be. After one particular chapel service in which Benny Hinn was the main speaker, I've come to several conclusions about the apparent social conditioning cause of the "slain in the spirit" phenomenon.

At the end of Benny Hinn's message, about prosperity or something like that, he asked for nearly everyone in the audience (some 3,000 to 4,000 students and a few professors) to make a line to receive the "blessing of God." They circled completely around the entire auditorium and out into the hallway of the chapel building. I chose to remain in my seat as I didn't think his message was particularly biblically sound either. He went by one by one, rather quickly, laying hands on their foreheads (with such force that he really seemed to be pushing them) and sometimes shouting words like "fire!" or "power!" The whole ordeal lasted maybe an hour.

While observing the goings-on, I noticed a peculiar pattern to it all. Most of the first people Benny Hinn touched and shouted at fell straight down, "slain in the spirit." They must've been the most eager ones, since they were closest to the front. Then, after 20 or 30 students, a few of them didn't fall down. After 5-10 of these who didn't fall down, he'd get to about 10-20 more who were again "slain in the spirit."

This cycle continued all the way around the line. Large sections would fall, shorter sections (but usually at least four or five people in a row) wouldn't fall. When one person fell, the people immediately following them usually all fell for quite a while, but when one or two people didn't fall, many of the people after them didn't fall for quite a while either.

Also, another interesting trend was that right next to these groups of students who didn't fall, those who were "slain in the spirit" usually seemed to get up pretty quickly after falling. Even when groups of students were lying on the floor for quite some time, after one or two got up, the entire group seemed to get back up at once and return to their seats.

Based on this pattern, I began to surmise that whether or not the person immediately before someone was "slain in the spirit" had a lot to do with whether or not that particular someone was "slain in the spirit," and it even affected the duration of the whole experience. There are many possible reasons that would explain this, but almost all of them have to do with social conditioning in the particular social atmosphere that is the charismatic community.

One reason to fall would be a great expectation of it. There's surely a heightened emotional intensity when someone is prepared to be "slain in the spirit," and adding the proximity of a world-famous preacher surely only heightens the intensity. There's no reason for any participant to be wary of their emotions at a time like this, since they're almost always equated directly with spirituality. Some may fall because the emotional fervor of it all makes their knees weak and the sharp force applied to their forehead surely doesn't make standing any easier. Some may even fall on purpose this way just because they think it's what they're supposed to do in order to experience God. Either way, expectation would rise when people all around you are falling, and expectations would drop when people around you aren't falling - thus explaining the trends.

Another reason has to do with the peculiar nature of American competitiveness - even this quality is rarely absent from most American churches. The difference is that in charismatic communities, competitiveness is often focused on "spirituality" and the quantity or degree of experiences with God. Since being "slain in the spirit" is supposed to be the result of an unbearably intense spiritual encounter with God, it is one area in which many members of the charismatic community would tend to be competitive. Some may fall simply as a false demonstration of their spirituality, out of a sense of pride. Others may be embarrassed not to fall if everyone around them is falling, for risk of being known as "unspiritual" or "lacking in faith." This also explains the trends I saw.

However, I don't believe that some sections of the auditorium were conducive to God's spiritual manifestations when other areas weren't. The Christian God is omnipresent - not confined to a particular locality. If God's presence was unbearably strong for one person, it should certainly be the same for the person(s) next to him/her.

I also don't believe that the faith (or lack thereof) of the individuals had much to do with it. This wouldn't explain the grouping trends (unless lowered expectation was equated with lowered faith in God) and it also wouldn't fit the explanation for the whole phenomenon of being "slain in the Spirit." Being "slain in the spirit" supposedly happens when God's presence is unbearably strong, something that would not be impingent on the faith of individuals - as if certain individuals' not believing God to be there would make him cease to be there, that would make God's omnipresence dependant on our own belief. Biblical examples also don't support this idea - in them, people didn't seem to have a choice whether or not to believe in God's presence, they were simply aware of it, visibly or otherwise.

Personally, I've had many spiritual experiences, sometimes expectant, sometimes not. One major difference between my own experiences and those I've observed is that mine never seemed too dependant on the environment and certainly not on the particular celebrity of whatever minister might've been involved. However, some ministers, like Benny Hinn, seem to believe they have a "gift" for inducing the "slain in the spirit" experience on others - sometimes even acting like they can throw it at people or blow it towards them. This simply doesn't fit with my experiences or my reading of the Bible, where I find that the working of God's power was dependant only on God's will. Though he seems to often use regular people as intermediaries of his power or blessings, it seems to be under his control and volition rather than the people's.

Since that particular chapel service, I've been a bit skeptical of the "slain in the spirit" experience and have observed it more closely on other occasions. One great example is the humorous spoof of a Benny Hinn crusade put to the music of Drowning Pool's "Bodies". Near the beginning, Benny Hinn waves his hands towards the audience and whole rows of people simply fall down. Intriguingly though, the first few rows don't fall down at all. This would make sense if expectation and seeing other people falling nearby contributed greatly to the cause. Since no one in the first few rows saw anyone in front of them fall down, they might not have known they were supposed to fall down at that point.

Another example from the video shows Benny Hinn waving his hand towards a man (possibly a hired usher) on stage. This man falls down and is picked back up only to be knocked down again several different times. The interesting thing is that the guy doesn't just fall backwards or crumple downwards, but his legs actually fly out from underneath him, going forwards. After watching one of Jackie Chan's videos explaining the falls in his stunt scenes, it's easy to recognize the guy's fall at Benny Hinn's crusade as a contrived fall. This guy, at least, was apparently completely faking his "slain in the spirit" experience and worked pretty hard to do it.

In the end, I can't say anything absolute about being "slain in the spirit." In our culture today, the last thing we're allowed to do is "question someone's experience", especially if that experience is of a spiritual nature. I also think it's likely that from time to time God may use a "slain in the spirit" experience as an opportunity for someone to truly encounter him. However, based on the trends I've noticed being of a particularly social nature, I have to say that the majority of "slain in the spirit" experiences that we see on TV or elsewhere are probably the simple result of social conditioning.