Was the Story of Sybil Bogus?

Search the Scriptures Daily Program #4105b Transcript follows: Gary:             This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.  Still ahead, answers to your questions in Contending for the Faith, and in Understanding the Scriptures, Dave and Tom will resume their conversation on God’s Salvation.             Does God love only some of us?  Has He already determined those elect who will live forever with Him in heaven?  Are you one of the elect?  And if not, is there anything you can do about it?  The doctrine of Calvinism, its five points and their implications for the body of Christ are discussed and debated in two powerful books from Dave Hunt and The Berean Call.  Debating Calvinism, Five Points Two Views, features a written debate between Dave Hunt and James White, published by Multnomah.   In an easy to read format, Hunt and White exchange energetic letters addressing this long argued topic.  Co-author of The Seduction of Christianity, and co-host of Search the Scriptures Daily Radio, Dave Hunt: “The influence of Calvinism is growing greatly in the church today, it’s very important that we understand, and we did debate in Calvinism so that you could have a debate in writing.  You can go back and forth and read exactly what each side said, think it over carefully rather than an emotional debate.”             And what some are calling the definitive work on this topic, don’t miss Dave Hunt’s What Love is This? Calvinism’s misrepresentation of God.  In this recently expanded and updated edition, Dave exhaustively documents the unscriptural nature of this doctrine that comes perilously close to blasphemy.  Once again, Dave Hunt:  “We did a new revised updated edition of, What Love is This? because so many Calvinists were criticizing what I had said.  I went through all of their criticisms and answered them in this new and expanded version.”  Debating Calvinism, Five Points Two Views, and, What Love is This?  Calvinism’s misrepresentation of God in e-book or hard cover are both available from The Berean Call, information on how to order in just a moment. In addition to this radio program we publish a monthly Newsletter which we make available free of charge. In addition to this radio program we publish a monthly newsletter, which we make available free of charge.  We also produce and distribute a wide variety of teaching materials, including books, video and audio tapes, and other items to encourage the serious study of God’s Word.  For a complete list of materials, or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, OR 97708.  Call our toll-free order number:  877-882-4253.  That’s 877-88-Bible.  Or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org.  If you would like a copy of this broadcast, ask for program #4105.  And be sure to mention the call letters of this station.  We’ll repeat this information at the end of the program. RELIGION IN THE NEWS Now Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from The Associated Press, with the headline:  “Psychologist Says New Evidence Shows Sibyl’s Story Bogus.”  San Francisco: “A psychologist says tape recordings that lay forgotten in his desk for twenty-five years show that the popular story of Sibyl, the woman with sixteen personalities, is bogus.  In a best-selling 1973 book, later made into a movie, Sibyl was portrayed as developing alternate personalities who did things without her knowledge.  The account blames the problem on abuse Sibyl suffered as a child and says she overcame it with therapy.  The new-found tape suggests these personalities were actually created during therapy through suggestions to a highly pliable, young woman, says psychologist, Robert Reiber, of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.  Reiber said the tapes of conversations between Sibyl’s psychiatrist and the book’s author show they were not totally unaware that the story they told was wrong. T. A. McMahon:             Martin and Deidre, what do you think about this?  Many, many of our listeners, I’m sure have seen the film or films that also dealt with multiple personality disorder.  What do you guys think?  Martin:             Well, there are a variety of factors involved in this.  First factor, MPD was almost non-existent, lets say twenty years ago, and then all of a sudden there’s a whole proliferation of MPD’s around.  In fact they have changed the MPD to DID, which is Dissociative Identity Disorder and that’s one facet of it.  How come all of a sudden we are having so many of these when in the past we didn’t have hardly any or any at all?  Another factor has to do with this whole area of suggestibility in therapy.  And suggestibility is a very, very powerful ingredient in a relationship.  In fact, one of the key ingredients in hypnosis is the suggestibility of the person doing it and the person that’s receiving it, how highly suggestible the person is.  And so when you get into a therapeutic setting and you have a therapist who is suggesting things and a person who is hearing these suggestions and being suggestible and following them, you can end up not only with a multiple personality you can find out inside of you is another person or persons, but you can also conjure up false memories.  So you can conjure up false persons, identities, false memories and particularly when you get back to early life when the suggestion is made, something must have happened to you.  And so this whole area of MPD is rife with all kinds of problems and it’s actually severely criticized by those people who are, you know, the professionals in the field. Deidre:             Yes.  Some people can go into therapy—they are having problems, they are looking for the source of their problems, they go into the past and if the therapist believes that there are alters there, the suggestions, the leading questions will be to say the name of the person and so forth.  And, the best way to create so-called multiple personalities disorders is through therapy and the best way to get rid of them is suggested by one researcher who says, Ignore the alters, stop talking to them, taking notes on them and discussing them in staff conferences, pay attention to the real present problems and conflicts rather than fantasy.  If these simple familiar rules are followed multiple personalities will soon wither away. T. A. McMahon:             We were talking earlier about Christian psychology.  They have gotten into this big time and some of the documentation is incredible to me because some are recommending that these individual personalities be led to Christ and be converted to resolve the problem.  What do you think of that? Deidre:             This is all fantasy but people believe this fantasy.  The therapists who do this really believe this.  They believe that they are, by their questions, they are  bringing this out and I must say that this, of course, is connected with the false memory syndrome as well and sad to say Christians have been involved in this big time. T. A. McMahon:             To the destruction of many lives and families. Deidre:             It is the destruction of lie upon lie upon lie.  In therapy, by the way, insight therapy, they don’t consider what would be factual.  They don’t try to corroborate things outside of therapy because what is true as far as fact, as history, is not as important as what is psychically true for the person.  And so, you aren’t dealing with truth anymore, you’re dealing with fantasy.