In Pretoria, Pastor Daniel hogged the front pages when he roped in his loyal followers to support his self-proclaimed ability to turn petrol into pineapple juice.
Gadeeja Abbas
CAPE TOWN – Pastors like Lesego Daniel who made headlines for allegedly turning petrol into juice are great performers who prey on emotions to convince people of miracles, psychologist Helgo Schomer said on Friday.
Religious leaders who claim to possess magical powers of healing and transforming objects by sheer will have been in the spotlight recently.
TURNING PETROL INTO JUICE
Daniel, a pastor from Pretoria, made front page news when he roped in his loyal followers to support his self-proclaimed ability to turn petrol into pineapple juice.
Earlier this year, he had made members of his congregation eat grass by convincing them it would rid them of their sins and heal them of ailments.
His “divine talents” are demonstrated as a church member pours petrol into a basin and ignites it, proving its flammability.
After the said member drinks the “petrol turned pineapple juice”, he was asked how he felt to which he replied, “It has lots of fumes but I don’t have any side effects.”
Schomer says irrespective of religion, people should be cautious as it could have a fatal effect.
“This is absolute institutionalised madness.”
He says when people are convinced they are cured of illness by eating grass and refuse to continue with their medication, their conditions could deteriorate and the person could die.
“Ever since we developed a brain, the frontal cortex, we have had to find meaningfulness in this life.”
Schomer says we are not a very rational species because we base our action on emotion.
“When you are emotionally involved, you lose all the bits of information and function that tell you this is not the way. When you do silly things, it could cost you your life.”
He says charismatic churches are examples of people going into visual trances.
“Magicians out there can learn from these pastors,” he added.
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