A TBYT reader wrote me once about how her mind just goes blank when she binge eats.
Have you ever had that experience?
But I just made a sobering connection between mindless eating, mental blackouts, and Eastern meditation.
It chilled me. And it will chill you too once you understand what's really going on.
The Danger of an Empty Mind
When you meditate the Eastern way (Buddhist and Hindu), they tell you to chant and empty your mind. The reason, they say, is that it relaxes your body and calms your mind.
Now that I look back on it, my binge eating was a form of meditation, but it was the Eastern kind, not the Biblical kind.
I used binge eating as a pressure-release valve.
My mind was blank while my hands seems to operate all on their own, picking up the fork, spoon, knife, box, bag...seemingly without ''me'' being involved.
I realize what I am about to ask is controversial and you'll likely be uncomfortable in considering it:
Could emptying your mind open you up to demonic influence?
I think it can.
The Unclean Spirit's Takeover
In the story of the Unclean Spirit (see Matthew 12:43-45), Jesus talked about an unclean spirit being cast out of a man, but deciding to return.
When the unclean spirit returned, he found the house empty, swept, and put in order.
But Jesus said that the empty house not only served as 'open house' to the unclean spirit, but that same spirit brought seven other spirits more wicked than himself to dwell with him.
The man's state was even worse than it had been at the first!
While I do not believe a disciple of Jesus Christ can be demonically possessed because the Holy Spirit seals us for the day of redemption (see Ephesians 4:30), I do believe that we can be susceptible to the enemy's influence through our flesh and an un-renewed mind.
I believe there is a spirit of gluttony who "feeds" off the pleasure of food indulgence and grows stronger as we engage in that behavior.
The Christian's Way to Meditate
In every instance of Biblical mediation, we are told to meditate ON or IN something.
We are never told to be "blank minded" or "mind less (without mind)"
On the contrary; we are told that we have the mind of Christ and I know Jesus was not empty headed!
So if bingeing remains a problem for you, then I ask you to focus on filling your mind during those moments of temptation.
Focus on the fullness Jesus left for us:
'These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.
- John 15:11
Renounce the spirit of gluttony in the name of Jesus.
Resist the urge/habit to empty out your mind or go blank.
Stay in the present and focus on what you are doing.
In that way, your house is not empty.
Here is an exhortation from the apostle Paul to Timothy and I think it is good advice for us all:
"Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit,in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all (1 Timothy 4:12-15)."