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COURTING THE BEST IN EACH OF US TO HELP BRING EVIL TO COURT
Newsletter
www.LightedCandle.org
Pornography and the Brainz
BY JOHN L. HARMER, CHAIRMAN
z New Discoveries:
Soon you will be able to buy books, monographs and more to stay informed on the latest research and efforts of the Lighted Candle Soceity
In our newsletter of April 2009 we provided a summary of the most current information regarding suicide among teenagers. In the few weeks since that newsletter was written more data has emerged that confirms our warning to parents, teachers, and all others involved with the lives of preteens and teenagers. “Since 2004 a twenty percent (20%) increase in suicide rates among teenagers has occurred with the number increasing annually….” The overwhelming
majority of those suicides came about because of addiction in
one form or another. Universities report a two hundred fifty percent (250%) increase in student requests for mental health counseling.
After a year of re-grouping and behind the scenes working the Lighted Candle Society is back. We need your help to sustain our efforts. Visit our website for more information:
Back in Action
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New Discoveries
The author of our April newsletter, Dr. Dean Belnap, recently attended a seminar at Harvard University which brought together practicing psychiatrists and academics from various universities throughout the United States. The organization that hosted the seminar is dedicated to the study of the relationship of body, mind, and spirituality to the process of healing. This particular seminar focused on the issues of addiction that result from the evolution from television to cybersex. In this report, authored by Dr. Belnap we will only attempt to highlight some of the information presented. (For reference, the Mind, Body, and Spirituality training program was held in the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at the Harvard Medical School from Monday, 18 May, through Thursday, 21 May, 2009.) Dr. Herbert Benson, M.D., gave the opening address. The papers that were presented were very striking in terms of the extreme diabolical direction that cyberspace has brought on in terms of major (structural and functional) changes within the nervous system as a result of cybersex addiction. Most of the cases discussed, which covered hundreds of individual in therapy, found that initially pornography is rewarding in terms of sexual desires. However, the research revealed that as the addiction increased most of the addicts involved in pornography develop a great distaste for the pornography itself, but are unable to release themselves from it because of the escalating crescendo of addictive patterns. The participants also discussed how the present situation is leading to very serious problems for the future if pornography continues to escalate throughout the world such as it had done in the United States. For instance, there is now conclusive data to show that pornography brings about impotency those results from the progressive use of pornography. This adds to a problem that already concerns social scientists because the birthrate among the nations of Europe and North America has markedly decreased. The data that was presented also confirms the progressive acting out of deviant sexual conduct that causes people to abandon normal marital relations, including normal sexual relationships, in favor of indulging their severe addiction. This phenomenon has actually brought on an almost total loss of normal couple relationships, in or out of marriage. Dr. Benson gave the opening address. Among other things, he expressed serious concern over the reduction of spirituality among all peoples and all societies as they accept and participate in addictive disorders of drug or habit. (Habit refers to things like gambling as well as pornography.) The apparent loss of spirituality among those that have been treated by the staffs of the participating experts was confirmed by the diminished feeling toward spiritual things and the inability to recognize spiritual endowments. Dr. Benson also indicated that with addictive disorders there is a loss of function in the prefrontal lobe of the brain as well as in the remaining portion of the frontal cortex. The
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inability to draw on this part of the brain leads to a diminished ability to think and concentrate. I was particularly surprised when Dr. Benson used the term “loss of conscience” as one of the consequences of this change in the function of the prefrontal cortex that results from addiction. Another participant was Dr. David Delmonico, PhD, from Duquesne University in Pittsburg. He expressed great concern over the fact that specialty trained medical providers need to be trained to discover in their patients those who need to be screened thoroughly for their addictive involvement in “cybersex” activities. Dr. Delmonico is the Director of the Online Behavior Research and Education Center at Duquesne University. Dr. Delmonico also took issue with the current practice among scientists to avoid making any direct reference to pornography. They do this by using such terminology as “cybersex” or “novelty” to define what we actually know to be all types of pornography. He noted that “cybersex” activity includes problems that involve viewing, creating, and involvement in progressively more violent forms of pornography. He confirmed the significant increase in sexualized gamming, sex chat conversations, sexual texting by teenagers using cell phones and other mobile devices. He made reference to the way in which social networking sites such as “StumbleUpon,” “Twitter,” and “Gigg” also serve as venues for cybersex. “We are getting better at assessing people whose initial screening for treating confirms the matter of cybersex issues,” said Dr. Delmonico, “but we are missing people who do not present us with reference to those issues or are in the beginning phases of pornographic indulgence.” He cited the increasing problem of teenagers and even eleven year olds who appear to be in need of therapy for
depression when in fact they are in the early stages 3 of pornography addiction. For therapists, educators, parents, and ecclesiastical leaders the presenters at the conference suggested four criteria that should be used in evaluating a young person to determine if they are involved in a progressive state of pornography addiction: First. Does the person show a lack of self-control; have they reached a state of a loss of free agency to choose whether or not they will stop this behavior? Second. Is there a denial of consequences; does the person continue the behavior in spite of evidence of significant negative consequences? Third. If the person admits to an involvement with pornography have they found that they are unable to stop despite actually trying to stop? Fourth. Is there evidence of an obsession about cell phone texting which may cybersex? Finally, the conference confirmed the critical need for therapists to be qualified to deal with a variety of treatments in order to deal with both the left and the right brain. The imbalance between both hemispheres as a result of increasing involvement with pornography is a very striking consequence of this addiction. The Lighted Candle Society has now publishes three books and one monograph which have been written by experts who have a total of more than one hundred years of experience in dealing with the issues that are destroying the lives of so many of our youth today. 1. “A Brain Gone Wrong, Hope for the Troubled Teen”, by Doctor W. Dean Belnap, M.D. Dr. Belnap is a specialist in pediatrics and
American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychiatric Association, The Society of Behavioral Pediatrics, the American Society of Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Neuropsychiatric Association. 2. “He Restoreth My Soul”, by Dr. Donald L. Hilton, Jr., M.D. Dr. Hilton resides in San Antonio, Texas, and is a specialist in neurological surgery. Dr. Hilton has spent much of the past ten years studying the functional and structural changes to the human brain that come about from all forms of addiction. “He Restoreth My Soul” is a brilliant summary of his many years of experience in assisting victims of addiction to recover. 3. On May 13th, 2009, Dr. Hilton presented to an audience of five hundred people his analysis of published scientific studies that confirm the reality that an addiction to pornography affects the human brain in exactly the same way that an addiction to a chemical substance such as cocaine affects the human brain. Dr. Hilton’s brilliant presentation is entitled “Pornography and The Brain, Understanding The Addiction”. It is now available from The Lighted Candle Society in a monograph format for a nominal cost of $5.00. 4. “Ere His Floods of Anger Flow” is the latest book by attorney/author John L. Harmer. In this book Mr. Harmer changes from the textbook approach of the five books he has previously published to using a novel that follows the lives of various individuals living in five different countries. “Ere His Floods of Anger Flow” predicts the consequences to the entire world if the present trend toward increased hedonism continues as it has in the past.
HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY TO SAVE A 4 HUMAN LIFE? These three books and Dr. Hilton’s monograph have a combined retail price of $59.40 before costs of shipping and handling. For a limited time only the Lighted Candle Society will be selling all four of these items for a total cost of $30.00 plus shipping and handling. That is a savings of $30.00 from the current published retail price. What would you pay to save a human life? For someone near and dear, you would gladly pay all that you had. These three books plus Dr. Hilton’s monograph can be yours for the total sum of $30.00 plus shipping and handling. We cannot say how many lives you will save by this purchase. We can say with certainty that the statistical reality is that one out of every three recipients of this letter has someone “near and dear” whose life style is now drifting toward addiction. With odds like that there cannot be any doubt of the value to all recipients of this letter of spending $30.00 on preventive care examining the items she left behind revealed a stack of novels in which the repeated story line was the superior joy of romance in illicit love affairs. In subsequent counseling with a therapist the husband acknowledged that he had been aware that his wife had been reading these novels for several years. The content and the consequence of their message burst upon him and his children with the crushing realization affairs. In subsequent counseling with a therapist the husband acknowledged that he had been aware that his wife had been reading these novels for several years. The content and the consequence of their message burst upon him and his children with the crushing realization that their wife and mother was taken from them through the deceitfulness of pornography’s allure.
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JOHN HARMER - CHAIRMAN, LIGHTED CANDLE SOCIETY
CONTACT US
Mailing Address: 36 North State Street Salt Lake City, UT 84103 (801) 363-2483
Email: info@lightedcandle.org Websites: www.LightedCandle.org
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