able to mystics of the occult. ……… adherents would fall backwards often accompanied with a trance-like state, facial and body contortions, trembling or laughter and so on.
The Quaker revival took place at much the same time as the Pentecostal revival. The Azusa Street Revival was an historic Pentecostal revival meeting. It began with a meeting on April 14, 1906, and continued until roughly 1915. The revival was characterized by ecstatic spiritual experiences accompanied by speaking in tongues, “dramatic worship services, and inter-racial mingling”!! The participants received criticism from secular media and Christian theologians for behaviors considered to be “outrageous and unorthodox”. Today, the revival is considered by historians to be the primary catalyst for the spread of Pentecostalism in the 20th century.
“…here were also many signs of trembling, speechlessness, holy laughter, and drunkenness in the Spirit at Azusa Street during the outset of the Pentecostal revival... Continuous meetings were held there every day for a period of three years beginning in mid-April, 1906. The mission on Azusa Street published the well-known newspaper, THE APOSTOLIC FAITH [William Seymours Paper]… contains many accounts of these manifestations. For example…In the fourth issue (p. 4), G. W. Batman wrote, "I received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire and now I feel the presence of the Holy Ghost, not only in my heart but in my lungs, my hands, my arms and all through my body and at times I am shaken like a locomotive steamed up and prepared for a long journey."
J. Roswell Flower
“The meetings began in the mornings and continued for at least 12 hours… There were no hymnals, no liturgy, no order of services. Most of the time there were no musical instruments. But around the room, men jumped and shouted. Women danced and sang. People sang sometimes together, yet with completely different syllables, rhythms, and melodies…’’
So as time went on the quaking stopped as a method, but its equivalent continued in the form of frenetic dancing. Even better………
William J. Seymour
…spiritualistic manifestations, hypnotic forces and fleshly contortions…
sounds quite intriguing....
Richard Riss [describing William Durham and his jerking and quaking as he was “worked” by the spirit at Azusa Street.
“…February-March, 1907), On Friday evening, March 1, …. I jerked and quaked under it for about three hours. It was strange and wonderful and yet glorious. He worked my whole body, one section at a time, first my arms, then my limbs, then my body, then my head, then my face, then my chin, and finally at 1 a.m. Saturday, Mar. 2, after being under the power for three hours, He finished the work on my vocal organs, and spoke through me in unknown tongues.”
BUT here I found shameful evidence that the persecution continues. Read any Christian USA based fundamentalist Internet site comments and they still call this form of practise – ‘the work of the Devil’; or ‘shameful’ or somehow ‘wrong’. The persecution persists ………….
“People falling, violently shaking and levitating, shouting and screaming, making all manner of animal noises, howling, screeching, and laughing hysterically and uncontrollably, creates an atmosphere of physical chaos confusion, in which demonic activity is commonly mistaken for a “wave of the Spirit.”
Here, a totally bizarre statement….
Some people are natural healers...that is not a biblical observation, ………. "Natural healers" are what shamans, witches and mystics claim to be. These peoples are trained in their practice; they are not gifted by the Holy Spirit.
Aaaah ……..the Inquisition lives and it appears to live in the USA……….
The Quakers today
The Quakers as a mystic movement may no longer rely on the sort of direct experience they once did, but the legacy of this experience, one free of dogma and creeds, one which went back to the fundamental teachings of Jesus and one with a strong sense of community and ethical values, lived on and still lives on.
Quakers have over the years made an enormous contribution to many cultures. Many of th