First impressions, snap judgments, and intuition are the subject of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. I found this to be a fascinating book. Anecdotes fill the pages as Gladwell relates story after story of the unconscious mind's ability to influence us without our conscious mind even knowing.
Especially powerful are his discussions concerning snap judgment in regards to race and gender. For a taste of the power of the unconscious mind try a computerized Implicit Association Test (IAT).
Particularly intriguing, especially from a Christian warfare worldview is this statement:
The results from these experiments are, obviously, quite disturbing. They suggest that what we think of as free will is largely an illusion: much of the time, we are simply operating on automatic pilot, and the way we think and act -- and how well we think and act on the spur of the moment -- are a lot more susceptible to outside influences than we realize.
I find this quote so intriguing from a warfare worldview because it begs the question of just how much unconscious influence over our daily actions the demonic and angelic realms have on us. What are your thoughts?
2 comments:
I somewhat question any field not studied from a solid Christian perspective. In realms of psychology, as Christians, we recognize the existance of the Spirit as seperate from the mind (but conencted, as the mind and body are connected). So, I always question how far we can take tests like this.
That said, the spiritual can have a profound influence ove our daily actions. As always, we need to be aware of our actions, solid with God, and willign for him to reveal and adjust our attitudes.
And yes, Christians can be oppressed by demons. Likewise, we can be possesed by the Holy Spirit. Spiritual discernment is highly useful in these realms, as are discerning friends who are willing to correct and help you as needed.
I think our behavior is a product of our laziness. We fall back on what is comfortable to us. That's why the Christian walk is such a struggle if we are trying to accomplish everything by our own strength -- we don't have the strength! It is only through Christ that we have our minds transformed. Then it's a battle to make this dependence upon Jesus our "comfortable" norm.
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