Also Misuse of the Holy Spirit and Science
Four Things to Know About Leaf
Here are four things to know about Leaf:
- Leaf does not have neuroscience credentials, yet she and others present her as though she is a neuroscientist (her use of “Dr.” is misleading; she has a PhD but not in neuroscience or medicine)
- Leaf champions the unscientific ideas of New Ager Bruce Lipton
- Leaf is more New Thought than Christian in her misinterpretations of Scripture and even uses the New Age technique of GUIDED VISUALIZATION (see the 7th example)
- Leaf twists Scripture to an extreme degree
Leaf is good with words and is very glib, so she sounds like she knows what she is talking about, but it is mostly pseudoscience and twisting of scripture. Her fast-paced torrent of words dazzle people who do not feel they are qualified to assess anything she says. People assume she knows what she is talking about, and they assume she knows how to use the Bible.
No Credentials
Leaf has no degree or credentials in this area yet this is what she lectures on (Masters in Speech Therapy and PhD in Communication Pathology specializing in Neuroscience, according to Leaf’s website). The “specialization in neuroscience” as part of Communication Pathology does not make one a neuroscientist. No scientists acknowledge her as a neuroscientist or would. She is not even a legitimate scientist. She is jumping on the popular neuroscience bandwagon.
Using “Dr.” in front of her name is deceptive because it creates the illusion that she is a medical doctor or has an advanced degree in the areas she speaks on.
Twisting Scripture
In the many videos I have watched, and in blogs and posts I have seen by Leaf, she inserts her own ideas into the biblical text, often giving it an entirely different meaning from the original.
First Case
Leaf twists the meaning of Genesis 11:6 in a Facebook post, claiming that it states;
“Genesis 11:6 holds an amazing scientific truth: “…nothing you imagine you can do will be impossible for you”-imagining alternative realities and believing them actually wires positive changes into the brain!”
So what does Gen. 11:6 say?
“The Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.'”
This statement in Genesis 11 is a strong rebuke from God to the people building the Tower of Babel, who thought they could actually build a tower to heaven. God is severely chastising them for thinking they have no limits to what they want to do and/or whom they want to worship. They were doing this out of pride and rebellion to God. The result was that God dispersed them through causing them to speak different languages and not so not understand each other (hence, the word “babel”), whereas before they had been speaking one language.
Gill writes:
…they were obstinate and self-willed, and not to be argued with and persuaded to leave off; and there was no power on earth superior to them, to oblige them to it; they could only be restrained from their enterprise, and hindered from executing it, by divine power.
God is not commending their work! He is not encouraging them to do anything they can imagine! Does Leaf not read the context of verses or does she deliberately read another meaning into them, which is actually the opposite of what the text really says?
Second Case
Leaf also misuses Genesis 20:5, Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:18, and Deuteronomy 5:9 about God visiting iniquity of the fathers on the children until the fourth generation. She uses this to claim that the choices your ancestors made “are in your head.” Every choice you make “becomes a physical reality inside your body, goes through the sperm and ovum and impacts the next four generations.” And if you fear for your children, then those thoughts will continue on into the next generations, according to Leaf.
However, that is not anything close to what those passages say. The Exodus and Deuteronomy passages elucidate that punishment will go to the 4th generation of “those who hate me.” This is about idolatry and disobedience of the people in the wilderness and how their disbelief kept them from entering the Promised Land (see Hebrews 4). The 4th generation could mean the sin affecting all the generations in a family at a time when it was not unusual for four generations to be alive at the same time.
Leaf says this to bolster her pseudoscientific teachings on epigenetics. However, she really does not understand epigenetics at all (see links at end). Yet if you Google her name plus “epigenetics,” a host of links will come up where she is pontificating on this topic, a topic for which she has no credentials. So not only is she wrong about the biblical texts, but she is wrong about “every choice you make” going through your body and being passed on four generations. It is an outrageous claim.
Third Case
Leaf misuses Deuteronomy 30:19. She claims it means:
“If you believe you will be a success, you will succeed. If you believe you will be a failure, you will fail. We choose what thoughts we implant in our minds, and we choose what realities these thoughts become.”
This idea was entirely foreign to the Jews at that time. Furthermore, God would not teach anything like this. This is the teaching of New Thought as seen in The Secret and other such literature.
Deuteronomy 30:19 actually states:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.”
This is about God challenging His people in the wilderness to believe and trust Him so that they would get to the land where God was leading them. Leaf refers to and grossly misuses Deut. 30:19 in numerous videos in different ways in order to make it look like it supports her ideas.
This is such an atrocious and gross misuse of Scripture that I would call it blasphemy.
Fourth Case
In a Facebook post, Leaf writes:
This is called the Law of Entanglement in Quantum Physics and can be seen in Ephesians 4:16, as well as many other scriptures.
What do you have inside of you that no one else has? Maybe no one ever told you that you are unique.
You have a divinely pre-wired Perfect You – a unique way of thinking and seeing the world that God has placed within you – a divine sense of purpose, a piece of eternity! (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Let’s look at Ephesians 4:16 and Ecclesiastes 3:11:
“From Him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building up itself in love by the proper working of each individual part.” Ephesians 4:16
“He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end.” Ecclesiastes 3:11
Does Ephesians 4:16 have anything to do with quantum physics? This verse is about the body of Christ, the church! I am not sure if Leaf thinks it is about the physical body or if she is trying to read a quantum meaning into the church, but either way, she could not be more wrong. You can twist this a thousand ways and never get Leaf’s meaning.
How about Ecclesiastes 3:11? Does this tell us that we have a “divinely pre-wired Perfect You?” I do not see that there. Perhaps too many romanticize the “eternity” in the hearts bit (and the word there is actually “world” but in context, according to some commentaries, it can mean “eternity”). However one may interpret this, it is not saying that we have a “Perfect You” in us.
Leaf references Scripture so that it looks like the Bible supports her false ideas, or maybe to make people thinks she really knows the Bible (or because she thinks she does). Ironically, Leaf’s misuse of Scripture exposes her, and reveals an ignorance of it and how to properly interpret it.
Fifth Case
In this video, Part 4 of “How to Detox the Brain,” at the 22 minute mark, Leaf cites Mark 5:25-34 which gives the account of the woman with the hemorrhage. Leaf first gives a long story about the woman’s life which is not in the Bible (so where does she get this?). In fact, we know nothing of this woman’s past. Leaf continues with her unfounded ideas to tell us that “you access miracles of God based on what you are thinking about.” According to Leaf, the woman had planted thoughts in her mind which set the stage for a miracle.
Leaf explains this by teaching that the thoughts physically in her brain allowed the woman to have expectation of healing from Jesus, and thus she was able to “access the miracle.” Leaf continues by saying our miracles are already done for us and we just need to “collapse them” into our lives.
Leaf turns faith into physical things in the brain that need to be planted to “access miracles.” Instead of talking about this account’s real meaning — that Jesus was giving evidence he was the Messiah by doing this miracle – Leaf turns into propaganda for her false pseudoscientific New Thought beliefs.
Moreover, the credit in Leaf’s version goes to the woman, not to Jesus, because the woman had “planted” thoughts in her brain that allowed the miracle to take place. As with so many cases of Scripture twisting, Jesus is undermined.
Sixth Case
In the same video as above, at around 28 minutes, Leaf cites Matthew 13:18, 19 stating that this passage is about how you can plant thoughts in your brain for 7 minutes a day for 21 days (she also states this in other videos). This will allegedly change your brain and thoughts.
Leaf misuses this parable of the sower as supposed support for her method to allegedly “replace toxic thoughts.” She shows a chart of a brain and attempts to appear scientific, but Leaf does not have the scientific qualifications for this.
Moreover, she is not using real science, but pseudoscience. She continues with Matthew 13 to promote more false ideas about what this parable is about. She teaches unscientific ideas and misses the real meaning of this parable.
Seventh Case
Later in the same video at the 54 min. mark, Leaf advises people to ask the Holy Spirit about which toxic thoughts to change so that the Holy Spirit can plant a healthy thought in the 21 day time frame so that it “can save your soul.” Music is playing while people ask the Holy Spirit to do this. At 57 min., she asks people to get their on their knees.
She leads them into a GUIDED VISUALIZATION of kneeling at God’s throne while his love is “oozing all over you.” She also asks people to have the person next to them squeeze their hand and to visualize that it is Jesus squeezing their hand. Then they are to hear Jesus tell them that “your faith has healed you. I love you. I am here for you.”
She is using the New Thought/New Age practice of guided visualization to have people see something she is directing them to see, and to manipulate an image of Jesus. Jesus is not saying these things to those people; it is a Jesus of the imagination or possibly a fallen angel disguised as Jesus for some people. Man’s imagination is not sanctified (despite what Richard Foster teaches); it is part of the fallen nature and subject to pride and deception. Using imagination for artistic efforts or practical situations is one thing; using it to try to make Jesus say or do something is another. Jesus is not subject to man’s summoning, especially for situations based on falsehood.
Leaf teaches pseudoscience and twists scripture, and, in my view, this last case is also a misuse of the Holy Spirit.
Leaf claims to know how to remove “toxic thoughts” but in actuality, it is Leaf’s teachings that are toxic.
Those who listen to Leaf should consider this:
“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Galatians 3:3
Sanctification is by the Holy Spirit through God’s word and power. No methods or manipulative practices can sanctify, especially those based on occult concepts and misuse of Scripture.
Addendum
Bruce Lipton: Falling from the same tree as Leaf
Leaf also champions the unscientific ideas of Bruce Lipton, a New Age biologist, who claims we can change our DNA with our thoughts. Like Lipton, Leafmisuses quantum physics, as do many who promote pseudoscience. This is really New Thought on pseudo-scientific steroids.
Bruce Lipton: “If we change our beliefs, we can change our world.”
Lipton believes our mind creates reality, a common New Age belief. Lipton tries to make it sound scientific (and has no credibility with other scientists who dismiss his New Age views).
Lipton dedicated his book, Biology of Belief, to
“Gaia: The Mother of us all. May she forgive us our trespasses.”
More Information
Chris Rosebrough’s podcast points out Leaf’s wrong view of sin (go to 30 min.)
More Exposes of Leaf
“Dr Leaf shows desperately little basic knowledge about cognitive neuroscience. Even first year neuroscience students consistently know how the brain works, and are able to build on this to grow their knowledge about the brain. The fact that Dr Leaf can’t get her basic facts straight on something so fundamental as the relationship of the mind and the brain clearly demonstrates that she is not the expert in cognitive neuroscience that she claims to be.” – From Dr. C. Edward Pitt
Second article by Dr. Pitt
Third article by Dr. Pitt
Epigenetics
Critique of Leaf’s use of epigenetrics
Misuse of epigenetics as pseudoscience in articles here, here, here, and here
Critiques of Lipton
“Bruce Lipton is a biologist who now teaches new age ideas about spirituality and medicine” from this source
More critiques of Lipton here, here, and here
Short link for article: http://tinyurl.com/34sxmmdm