# Why do only believers in jinn possession seem to experience it? *Why only our experiences count? Possession afflicts only believers, Hindu miracles, and reason switched off* - URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/s/7/ - Date: 2018-04-15 · Kind: lesson · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Jinn: Myth and Reality in Islam by Mufti Abu Layth (24:48–28:46) - Status: general teaching - Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeXzvtf9YGA&t=1488s - Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/ **Topics:** Jinn possession; Reason and revelation; Prophethood and miracles **Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says personal and family anecdotes are used to defend possession while the same Muslims dismiss Hindu miracles or Christian doctrine by reasoning against them, applying reason to everyone's claims but their own. He cites a study finding the brain's rational centre quietens during one's own religious experience. **Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth holds that Muslims apply reason to dismiss other religions' miracles and doctrines but switch it off for possession once a belief has been Islamised, relying instead on anecdotal experiences that only ever afflict believers. **Evidence, his words at 26:54:** “you'll never resort to reason but to discount and discredit other religions immediately the voice of reason is called up” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeXzvtf9YGA&t=1614s) ## Longer summary Mufti Abu Layth examines the argument from experience. Jinn troubles seem to afflict only those who believe in them, never atheists or non-Muslims, and when told these things do not exist most people do not cite a hadith but an uncle, nephew or aunt who witnessed it. He asks why only our experiences count and not everyone's: Muslims immediately discount reincarnation and the miracles of Hindu holy men such as Sathya Sai Baba, who had millions attesting to his miracles, and they do so by reasoning against them, saying that three equals one is absurd or that Hindu mythology makes no sense, not because the Quran says so. Yet when the same kind of claim has been Islamised, reason shuts down and the appeal is to 'I have experienced it'. He cites a psychological study that measured brain activity in people during their own religious experiences and services and found, contrary to the researchers' expectations, that activity in the prefrontal cortex involved in rational thinking shuts down, which he takes to show that people block themselves from reasoning when it comes to their own faith. ## Sources and names cited - Sathya Sai Baba - one set of standards: judge Islam's claims by the same test applied to other religions ## Transcript (machine tier, 24:48–28:46) [24:18] human to sometimes have insinuations have negative about people that's human so just keeping that in mind and I want us to take a look at the experiential and then the psychological right just speaking before we get into that you just heard some examples about people being so easily conned into a culture this is a massive this is a multi-million pound industry that said I'm not saying that everybody in it is necessarily devious [24:56] and plotting people actually buy into the idea as well so I'm not saying people some many of these Iraqis may be very sincere in what they do they've just bought into the idea that's all experiences is an interesting one why is it that we only take our experiences you heard just a few minutes ago that these gene problems only seem to affect those people who believe in them you don't see atheists you don't see mega atheists you don't see non-muslims getting afflicted now and why only our experiences if we're gonna say yeah because a lot of people when you tell them these things [25:35] don't exist I'll tell you the first thing they'll say they won't say yeah but it's some may say now that all because of this hadith or that because they've learned that but most people would say ah no no no my uncle his nephew or his new eyes witnessed or I know somebody who this happened to or my auntie or my mother people will use expert anecdotal experiences to say oh but so-and-so they experienced this the question is why only our experiences why not everybody's experiences why not other faiths why do we discount [26:15] immediately things like reincarnations I I've quoted before on several occasions why do we discount miracles of the Hindu Saddles and what why immediately even though they could have millions of followers and I've caught an example of who was very famous in his time Satya Sai Baba saying that he had demonstrated in front of apparently millions of people miracles and he had millions attesting to his miracles yeah you wouldn't for a second entertain it like if I told you that even for a second [26:54] you won't entertain it you won't even think for a few seconds you know maybe he is doing all of this you'll just dismiss it immediately and and the interesting thing is you'll start to reason against it you start to use reason even though when I present let's say I present cases of demonic possessions you'll never resort to reason but to discount and discredit other religions immediately the voice of reason is called up like when you say oh but this is dumb in say oh but it's absurd in Christianity to say 3 equals 1 they don't say well we said well why is [27:33] absurd oh because Allah says in the Quran no they say because look logic it doesn't make sense they say it's absurd to say oh the the Hindu mythology this is absurd why not because Allah says because it's absurd they say it doesn't make any sense when you present the same thing from what has been is Lama sized they shut down no no no it doesn't matter I've experienced now what's interesting there has been a psychological study on certain people when they're going through religious experiences and they're listening to their preachers and they're listening to like the attending church or they're [28:12] attending things and people have checked and they've measured kind of brain neural activity and they thought what they were going you can find these kind of the results of this online they thought they were going to find a lot of certain neurotransmitters being released and positive feelings and all this year like you know the preachers going on and but what they actually found was the the the prefrontal cortex which is involved in a lot of our thinking and rational thing actually activity in it shuts down when we're going through our own religious stuff when we're engaging in our all religious kind of ceremonies neural ## Cite Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment LeXzvtf9YGA/s/7. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/lexzvtf9yga/s/7/ Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.