Voluntary Lobotomy

“Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons [and daughters] of God.”

1 John 3:1

We are sons and daughters of God right now—we can choose to sit in heavenly places right now. Light is shining upon you and me so we do not need to walk in darkness.

We are told in Counsels on Health, 38, “So closely is health related to our happiness that we cannot have the latter without the former.” The devil knows this and he does not want you to be happy. There are dangers that we cannot imagine. God warns us of the dangers and traps the devil has set for us so he can destroy our health. A trap is a pitfall, a snare—a life threatening condition.

Don’t be fooled! Satan is our enemy and he will do all in his power to destroy us. He knows that if he can get through the five senses of the body to the physical, there is a good chance that he can then destroy the mental and the spiritual. Those five senses are sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.

“We are God’s workmanship, and his word declares that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ He has prepared this wonderful habitation for the mind; it is ‘curiously wrought’ [Psalm 139:14, 15], a temple which the Lord himself has fitted up for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” Healthful Living, 9.

Our bodies were “curiously wrought.”

  • Our body is a living habitation for the mind
  • God Himself has “fitted up” or designed this body, this temple
  • Why? For the indwelling of His Holy Spirit

What does the Holy Spirit do for us? The Holy Spirit imparts to us the life of Christ. It imbues us with the attributes of the life of Christ or permeates our very being with these attributes. We are God’s temples to reside in through His Holy Spirit. That is why the Devil hates us so much. He does not want us to have the attributes of Christ but to reflect his own sinful character.

This is why it is such a battle to keep our minds stayed on heavenly things, to stay alert each moment and not to sleepwalk. A sleepwalker is not aware of what he is doing. In Ephesians 5:14 it tells us to: “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Some characteristics of people who are sleeping are:

  • A sleeper is inclined to do nothing. He hears the warnings but thinks those warnings are for somebody else.
  • They are indifferent—neutral, thinking that a little bit of this or that is okay—that a little won’t hurt.
  • They are not interested in or concerned about what they are doing.
  • They are just walking with the group.

If you do nothing and are indifferent you have bypassed the narrow gate and have walked through the wide gate and are walking around with everybody else that is within that wide gate. In other words, you are eating the same as the group, dressing the same as the group and your health will be the same as that group.

In Ephesians 5:15–17 we are told that we need to walk circumspectly and not as fools, or unwise, and that we must redeem the time—that time which was a gift from God but wasted while walking with the group. Why? Because the days are evil and we need to understand what the will of the Lord is.

God tells us that we are His temples in I Corinthians 3:16, 17: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

Remember, God has prepared this living habitation for the mind. The devil knows this verse very well and is trying to get us to destroy these temples.

Remember the story of Phineas Gage. He was a family man, well loved by all around him because of his Christlike character; he was very personable.

On the 13th of September, 1848, 25-year-old Gage and his crew were working on the Rutland and Burlington Railroad near Cavendish in Vermont. Gage was preparing for an explosion by compacting a bore with explosive powder using a tamping iron. While he was doing this, a spark from the tamping iron ignited the powder, causing the iron to be propelled at high speed straight through Gage’s skull. It entered under the left cheek bone and exited through the top of the head, and was later recovered some 30 yards from the site of the accident. The tamping iron was 3 feet 8 inches in length and 1.25 inches in diameter at one end.

Whether or not Gage lost consciousness is not known, but, remarkably, he was conscious and able to walk within minutes of the accident. He was then seated in an oxcart, on which he was transported three-quarters of a mile to the boarding house where he was staying. At the boarding house, a doctor removed small fragments of bone, and replaced some of the larger skull fragments that remained attached but had been displaced by the tamping iron. He then closed the larger wound at the top of Gauge’s head with adhesive straps.

Shortly after the accident, Gage’s wife, and other people close to him, began to notice dramatic changes in his personality. Gage’s contractors, who regarded him before the accident as the most efficient and capable foreman in their employ previous to his injury, now considered the change in his mind so marked that they could not give him his place again. Gage became fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity, which was not previously his custom. He manifested little deference or courteousness for his fellows and was impatient of restraint of advice when it conflicted with his desires. His mind, his character, was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends and acquaintances said he was “no longer Gage.” Thus, the damage to Gage’s frontal cortex had resulted in a complete loss of social inhibitions, which often led to inappropriate behavior. In effect, the tamping iron had performed a frontal lobotomy on Gage.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14)! The frontal lobe is viewed as the emotional and personality control center of a person’s mind and body that is responsible for how a person acts and reacts to information, reacts to other people and situations in life.

Some of the characteristics the frontal lobe controls are drive, mood, memory, attention, initiation, judgment, spontaneity, impulse control, problem solving, social behavior, feeling of empathy and sympathy, mental planning and execution, understanding humor, irony, sarcasm, and dishonesty.

Gage had lost his frontal lobe! What a change to his whole life and to the lives of the people around him! He had a total character transformation.

About 50 years later, after Phineas Gage had his accident, doctors began to perform frontal lobe surgeries—lobotomies. The idea of a lobotomy was tried when a man decided to slice the frontal lobes out of his dogs’ brains just to see what would happen. In a very short time someone decided to try the technique out on humans. The devil has no mercy—he wants to destroy us.

Lobotomy became the practice of surgically removing parts of the brain as a treatment for the thoughts housed within—specifically the frontal lobe. If somebody thought you acted funny, or thought differently, or were hyper like children, you were given a lobotomy.

From the 1930s through the 1950s, lobotomies were all the rage. Certain doctors revolutionized the procedure by making it quick and easy. You may have heard reference to someone performing a lobotomy with an ice pick and assumed it was a joke. Unfortunately, it was not.

In 1949, about 5,000 lobotomies were performed in the U.S. Some estimates place the total number of lobotomies performed in the U.S. from the 1930s through the 1950s as high as 50,000. From the 1940s through the end of the 1950s, at least 10,000 more lobotomies were performed in England and tens of thousands more were performed worldwide. In Sweden, 4,500 people were lobotomized against their will, including children, between 1944 and 1963.

Many resulted in a severe mental impairment that left people paralyzed. People were involuntarily institutionalized and subjected to barbarous treatment; many ended up as vegetables. The devil is very cruel. He will do anything to destroy these temples.

During the 1960s, new anti-psychotic drugs began to emerge on the scene. They too often had only spotty success rates, but you could actually stop an anti-psychotic drug regimen. A lobotomy, on the other hand, was an irreversible procedure—damage to neural tissues almost never heals.

With the tide of public opinion turning sharply against the practice, the number of lobotomies performed in the U.S. dropped dramatically through the 1960s and fell almost completely out of favor by the 1970s.

Today, the procedure has been almost completely discredited and abandoned in the Western world. Only a handful of lobotomies are performed in the U.S. each year, most of which involve laser microsurgery rather than ice picks. Most U.S. states have today totally banned involuntary lobotomies.

Now begins a new era of voluntary lobotomies being performed, and very few realize it! Do you and I realize it? Why are we voluntarily doing this? Because we are sleepwalking! Remember Ephesians 5:14: “Awake, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

Now is not the time to be indifferent or neutral. This is not the time to walk with the group right into voluntary lobotomy. The devil has set a life threatening condition in front of us and has made a way for us to voluntarily yield our frontal lobes up to destruction. A voluntary lobotomy!

Are you ready for the battle? In I Timothy 6:12 it says, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, wherewith thou art also called, and has professed a good profession before many witnesses.”

Are you ready to “fight the good fight of faith”? Do you understand what faith is and what the battle is? We need to understand this!

  • Faith is a conviction; in other words, you are convinced that something is true.
  • You are convinced that Jesus died for you and that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.
  • And because you believe that, the devil is going to test your belief—your faith.
  • Is your faith a conviction or just a preference? If a conviction, you will want to keep your body and mind pure through God’s grace.

Every soul is required to “fight the fight of faith.”

Satan comes to prove your faith like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8)!! He is looking right at you and me—and he has found a way to destroy our connection with God.

Voluntary means you choose to yield up your head for a frontal lobe operation—a lobotomy! You choose to become fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity, to manifest but little deference or courteousness to friends and family, impatient of restraint of advice when it conflicts with your desires; in other words, you choose to reflect the character of the devil.

The devil could no longer by law destroy the judgment center so in the 1950s he brought forth the television.

“The brain nerves which communicate to the entire system are the only medium through which Heaven can communicate to man, and affect his inmost life.” Healthful Living, 54.

How protective then should we be of those brain nerves? Now comes the television, which is also called media—medium. Television is the devil’s medium. This is the devil’s means of communication, many calling it devil-vision, because it destroys the brain nerves through which God can only communicate. The devil’s medium destroys God’s medium!

Television is similar to mesmerism and one of the greatest dangers to our spirituality. Mesmerism is when one person can produce in another an abnormal condition resembling sleep, during which the mind remains passively under control, subject to the will of the operator.

“Each faculty of the mind and each muscle has its distinctive office, and all require to be exercised in order to be properly developed and retain healthful vigor. … Every wheel in machinery must be a living, active, working wheel. Nature’s fine and wonderful works need to be kept in active motion in order to accomplish the object for which they were designed.” Healthful Living, 69.

Today, the greatest educator in our nation is no longer school, church or home; it is the television. Hollywood does not like Christian values. Why? Christian values would not allow something to destroy the only medium through which heaven can communicate to us. Television teaches masses of people and it sells ideas, values, concepts and morals—behavior modification on a large scale.

“Impure thoughts lead to impure actions. … Some … are in danger of paralysis of the brain. Already the moral and intellectual powers are weakened and benumbed.” Healthful Living, 203.

Television destroys the frontal lobe and can be compared to the lobotomies in the 1900s. Every time you sit down to be voluntarily lobotomized, “Jesus is standing at the door knocking: If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Jesus says, I will not destroy the temple I have made for you because I want to dwell with you. The devil destroys!

“Every warning, reproof, and entreaty in the word of God, or through His delegated messengers, is a knock at the door of the heart; it is the voice of Jesus, asking for entrance. With every knock unheeded, your determination to open becomes weaker and weaker.” Our High Calling, 352.

“Conscience and right principles of life should be sustained.” Healthful Living, 203. What is conscience? It is a sense of right or wrong in one’s conduct or motives. What does a “lobotomy” do? It takes away your sense of right and wrong.

There are many studies showing that television damages our brains. Here are a few:

The World Federation of Neurology expresses great concern over the way visual electronic media is affecting children by “halting the process of frontal lobe development and affecting their ability to control potentially antisocial elements of their behavior … the implications are very serious … children should also be encouraged to play outside with other children, interact and communicate with others as much as possible. The more work done to thicken the fibers connecting the neurons in this part of the brain, the better the child’s ability will be to control their behavior.”

“Like hypnosis, watching television is also thought to subdue the involvement of the most sophisticated part of our brain—the frontal lobe. This is the brain’s executive control system, responsible for planning, organizing and sequencing behavior for self-control, moral judgment and attention. Both hypnosis and television reduce our ability to analyze critically what we are being told or what we see.” Remotely Controlled, 95.

“It is reported that children watch an average of 43 hours of TV per week; that is longer than the average adult work week. While watching, they rapidly become almost hypnotized. It has been shown scientifically that within minutes of beginning to watch TV, the brain changes from the alert brain waves (beta waves) to the hypnotic waves (alpha waves) where the judgment center of the brain is bypassed. So the violence and moral degeneration that the child sees, bypasses the judgment center in the brain and is implanted in the child’s brain without any ability on the child’s part to decide whether what they are seeing is right or wrong. The violence and moral degeneration are accepted by the brain without any moral judgment being applied to it. It then becomes part of the child’s permanent subconscious. What goes into a child’s mind is just as important as what goes into his or her mouth!” Attention Deficit Disorder, by Lorraine Day, M.D.

“I have seen some common themes between the effects of watching television and the processes thought to lie behind frontal lobe psychosurgery … given the concern that current levels of television viewing may literally idle frontal lobe activity and then stun its development in younger viewers thereby changing their thinking and behavior, there are some unfortunate similarities [to lobotomies]. Opponents of psychosurgery saw it as the use of a medical procedure to achieve social goals. Television too is used to achieve social goals.” Remotely Controlled, 98.

“Reading vs. Television. Reading leads you to actively manage knowledge, to follow a line of thought, which means classifying, making inferences, reasoning, weighing up ideas, connection one to another, and more. It increases brain activity. Television bypasses all of this.” Ibid., 100. This results in voluntary lobotomies of God’s temples. The devil’s medium destroys God’s medium!

Media analyst Marshall McLuhan considered television as reducing the separation of thought and action, making human behavior more conformist. … Watching television reduces frontal lobe activity.

In Psalm 101:2, 3, it says: “I will behave myself wisely in a perfect way. O when wilt thou come unto me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.”

Television influences our thoughts, our understanding, our likes and dislikes, our manner of speech, and even our dress. Television influences our ideas of right and wrong. Like Phineas Gage—total character transformation!!

“One of the most critical arguments against watching television is that it affects the three characteristics that distinguish us as human beings. In the first three years of life, a child learns to walk, to talk and to think. Television keeps us sitting, leaves little room for meaningful conversations and seriously impairs our ability to think. And when children do walk, talk and think, television can have a decisive influence on how they do it.” Remotely Controlled, 49.

As Christians we are to live a pure lifestyle, even in private. Does TV affect us? The answer is yes! Did you ever laugh at a sinful scene which you would not take part of in real life? To laugh at sin is to condone it. The media is not controlled by Christians. “If we can start changing attitudes in this country, we can start changing behavior.”—Grant Tinker, Former Chairman NBC TV.

Deuteronomy 7:26 tells us, “Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.” This verse deals with idols and images which Israel was to reject. Is there a parallel? Yes. The church is spiritual Israel and the same mindset about idols and images is present today. Many idolize movie stars and money. Satan is cunning and many of us have fallen for his TV snares.

Television programs are designed with the purpose of reprogramming your mind by breaking down your defenses so you will accept a lie as truth.

  • Does it mock Christianity?
  • Does it glamorize rebellion against any type of authority, such as parents, police, teachers, government, etc.?
  • Does it glorify controlled substances?
  • Are sinful lifestyles promoted like homosexuality, lesbianism, or living together without benefit of marriage?
  • Is violence glorified?

Look around! It seems to be okay because everybody is doing it. Before television came into popularity, each country had their peculiar characteristics/cultures of dressing, talking, living. Now the world walks and talks the TV walk and talk—it is Group Think!

There is now growing concern that watching television distorts the wiring in the developing brain, which is undergoing rapid growth during the first few years of a child’s life. The advice is that children should not start watching television before the age of three. The American Medical Association is now notifying pediatricians to assess viewing habits when treating all hyperactive children.

Professor Herbert Krugman found that within 30 seconds of turning on the television, the brain becomes neurologically less able to make judgments about what we see and hear on the screen. Our brain treats incoming information uncritically. Television is a communication medium that effortlessly transmits huge quantities of information not thought about at the time of exposure—in other words, it is brainwashing! (Journal of Advertising Research, 1971.)

We are no longer free thinkers! Do you see how the devil destroys our frontal lobes? What type of characteristics do we see being exhibited?

  • people become fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity
  • manifesting but little deference or courteousness
  • impatient of restraint of advice when it conflicts with personal desires.

“Therefore let us not Sleep [or be inactive or careless], as do others; but let us watch [be alert] and be sober [possess properly controlled faculties].” I Thessalonians 5:6. [Emphasis supplied.]

Do not voluntarily allow the devil to destroy your faculties!

Judy Hallingstad is part of the LandMarks team. She can be contacted by e-mail at: judyhallingstad@stepstolife.org.