Hypnotism is a deadly opium

I usually refrain from writing or commenting about religion unless some certain acts are done using religion or faith as a cover. Nigeria is arguably one of the most religious country in the world. More than libraries and hospitals, churches and mosques dominate our landscape advertisingone form of miracle or the other. The oppression of the leadership class is so stifling that we have been convertedinto mindless praying machines. We desperately pray for things that the Creator had in His infinite wisdom giving us knowledge to create and or find solutions to by ourselves.

We pray for everything. For a better country. For an end to corruption. For stable light and water. For affordable homes. For quality education. For excess supply of food. And so on.  But we do not act. We do not seek for knowledge. We do not create. We take pride in our resilience. The oppressors take advantage of our great reservoir of perseverance. I believe God has a sense of humour. And I also suspect that most times He grieves for us. He created a land filled with milk and honey but unfortunately those He put to inhabit that land cannot make use of their brains to convert the raw materials into gold mines.

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Some countries do not need a tenth of the arable land we are blessed with to turn their countries rich exporting countries. Singapore was said to have obtained its palm seedlings from us. While we maintain our stranglehold on crude, they have grown to become one of the leading exporters of palm oil and other products of the palm tree.

We are country that conveniently forgets that education is the bedrock of progress. And even if we know, we intend to make affordable education soexpensive so that talented but disadvantaged children could be cut off the right. We had missionaries who came to provide us with cheap and quality education but interestingly, many beneficiaries went on to become policy makers that strangle the reach ofeducation to the average Nigerian child.

At every street in Nigeria there is a church. People throng in looking for instant miracles and ignoring the very scripture that teaches seed time and harvest.

The quest for miracles and permanent solutions to life problems have led many to the class of hypnotists masquerading as men of God. For why would pictures of hypnotists who trick their members into drinking dangerous substance and telling them that they will not die fill the social media space? Members of such congregation are encouraged to drink dangerous substances and told that nothing will happen to them but when they return home, the contrary occurs. They fall sick. Members are told to get canes and begin to flog the devil disturbing their destinies and so the whole church begins to flog the concrete until they are exhausted.

Some have hypnotized their congregants to eat grasses like cows. Some hypnotists have claimed to have God’s direct line and could call God directly from heaven on his line and speak with God on their behalf for a fee. More morbid and scary areladies told to remove their underwear in church if they desire to get married and have kids. What is wrong with us? Note that these sad events occur even across the shores of Nigeria into other African soils, where hypnosis has become the new religion.

And we women are the worst hit. Women are the caregivers and the nurturers the ones that seek spiritual help to protect the home. Women often fall victim because the hypnotist feed on their fear, desperation and vulnerability. Women are the ones mostly hypnotized by prophets and sexually abused or financially swindled. I can go on and on. Hypnosis becomes a deadly opium because the power of the mind has been taken away. The power to think and to create has been compromised. The West introduced the Christian faith to us but they have used it constructively. Science and technology is in the forefront of their countries policies. Ironically, they use their God given talents and intelligence in more quest to know and create.

We recipients of that faith are almost afraid to think to challenge the status quo. People will rather follow what their pastor or Imam tells them rather than seek knowledge. Christians do no longer use the Berean method. They do not seek to cross check if they are still on the path of truth.  They are afraid if they ask too much or know too much, they will offend God. God did not create us to be morons. He gave to each man a perfectly functioning mind and we are to take full use of it. He gave us skills and talents to use to guide us in our journey. He gave us intelligence to nurture for the earth He created. Instead, we are destroying it.

In this big wide earth, I know there is science, there are myths, there are histories, there are forces of nature, there are miracles, including the metaphysical and there are very many levels of spirituality.

But hypnotism and brain-washing calculated to defraud the simple minded is a deadly opium.