There is a wonderful line in Monty Python's Flying Circus, when out of the blue we hear the line "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition..." This line has always amused me. Today, it seems like synchronicity.
I had arranged to do a trance workshop with a student group at a college in the Twin Cities - a Catholic school, though the student body is of all faiths. There was a lot of enthusiasm for this, as the students were interested in meditation, guided imagery, etc. In addition, progressive relaxation and stress management were very timely as they were just heading into exam week. So, following the talk with the guy who was arranging it, I planned out my presentation, looking forward to a great evening of meditation work.
I got a call from the organizer yesterday, telling me that there was a hitch. It turns out that the church bureaucracy was opposed to the workshop. Catholic doctorine forbids hypnotism, and even thought I referred to it as guided meditation, it was too close to comfort for the conservative folks in the school and church bureaucracy. At the organizer's request, I wrote up a bio and an article on what hypnotism and meditation were all about, sending it to him last night. Today, I got a note from him saying the workshop had not been approved. Nobody expects the Inquisition.
When I told my wife about this, she said that it was good that the school remains true to it's beliefs. I can't argue with that. However, it is still suprising to realize that there are many folks out there who do not understand what hypnotism and meditation are all about. Furthermore there have been many misconceptions propogated about these gifts of the mind (sometimes by mistake, sometimes deliberately). They obfuscate what is, in my view, a healing gift from God. And the biggest propogator of this misinformation is the traditional church - the two thousand year old bureaucracy whose roots date back to the Roman empire of Emperor Constantine.
I have always been fascinated by the history of Christianity, two thousand years of tradition, currents and trends in human thought and action. Still, that same history that brought us the Sermon on the Mount, also brought us the Inquisition, the extermination of the Cathars and Templars, etc. History is so often checkered that way.
A few weeks ago, I watched a History Channel piece on Gallileo, and other thinkers during the rennaisance. Among them, Nostradamus was an interesting example in that he needed to carefully conceal his work from the inquisition. Any questioning or variation from orthodox doctorine was considered heresy and could result in being hauled in front of the tribunal, imprisoned or even killed. During a trip from Provence to Paris for an audience with the Queen, herself, Nostradamus once narrowly escaped being caught by the inquisition in Paris, warned at the last minute by someone in the royal court. Fortunately, modern civilization holds such drastic affairs in check - but not entirely.
In fact, the current head of the Church is from the organization which is, in fact, the direct descendent of the Inquisition. My own sense is that old habits die hard. Any big organization - especially one that is two thousand years old and is, in fact, an independent nation, greatly resists any exceptions to its orthodoxy. Place in this context, this stress management and imagination workshop for a small student group; perhaps you can see it for the microcosm that it is.
I doubt that the Congregation for the Preservation of the Faith, formerly known as the Inquisition (Note: to be fair, the website makes clear distinction between the "Holy Inquisition" or "Holy Office," and the Spanish Inquisition) cares much about a present day stress management workshop. Yet the philosophy remains. Any departure from orthodoxy is treated with suspicion. The bureaucracy which takes upon itself the role of preserving orthodoxy takes its job seriously - whether formally as in burning Templars and astronomers at the stake, or informally, as in denying approval for a student workshop. Even two thousand years into the Christian era, the shadow remains, even as the body itself has (hopefully) receded into history.
Indeed, in dealing with a large orthodox theocracy, Monty Python has a point. To paraphrase and place it into a local context, "Nobody expects the Minnesota Inquisition."
