Who is Dr. Caroline Leaf?
Once again, absurdity has gripped the leadership of C3 Church Oxford Falls. This time, Chris Pringle will be introducing yet another spurious ‘speaker’ to many Christian women who attend their Everywoman conferences worldwide.
Chris Pringle openly endorses Caroline Leaf and has invited Dr. Leaf to be keynote speaker at the 2014 EveryWoman’s Conference
Source: Everywoman Events, My C3 Church, http://www2.myc3church.net/category/everywoman-events,
Image 1: http://www2.myc3church.net/sites/default/files/images/664%20X%20360_EW%20WEB%20BANNERS.png,
Image 2: http://www2.myc3church.net/sites/default/files/images/EW%202014_980%20X%20370%20SPECIAL%20GUEST.png. Accessed 11/09/2014.
Who does Caroline Leaf endorse and what does she believe in?
ASSOCIATIONS & ENDORSEMENTS
Let’s see where Dr. Caroline Leaf begins her ascent up the celebrity speaker ladder within the Evangelical Industrial Complex. Let’s start from the lowest rung to the bottom and see where it takes us.
Marilyn Hickey
Here is Dr. Caroline Leaf on a show with the the infamous WOF heretic Marilyn Hickey (both she and Phil Pringle sit on David Yonggi’s Church Growth International board).
As you can see, Dr. Caroline Leaf spouts a lot of New Age nonsense that cannot be backed up in her field of work. What are your thoughts on this claim in the above video?
“Your health improves as you try to understand your spouse. Your intelligence and health improve when you actually try to understand the opposite sex.”
Gloria Copeland
Here we have Dr. Caroline Leaf praising the Copelands and being embraced by Gloria Copeland (wife of the notorious Ken Copeland). Click the thumbnail to see a larger picture.
Wow! Surrounded by royalty! @commanderkellie@terrisavellefoy and the amazing Gloria Copeland!
Source: drCarolineleaf, Instagram, http://instagram.com/p/p3CdAvhzxm/?modal=true. (Accessed 19/09/2014.)
Sid Roth
Once again, Dr. Caroline Leaf has no problem associating herself with the fringe lunatics of the heretical camps, those of “Fractured Fairy Tale” fame on “Fighting For The Faith”.
Here’s Caroline Leaf on Sid Roth’s “It’s Supernatural” program. Sid Roth was stunned when he said that Caroline Leaf told him that “we can change our genes” (1:50).
He then turns to Caroline and says, “But you say, according to the latest brain research [Caroline nods approvingly], if you follow what Jesus said, you can change your genes”. Said Roth: “That’s just so amazing!” Caroline’s reponse? “I know. It’s phenomenal.”
Whacko’s
It’s also disturbing she would teach alongside notorious “Christian” whackos like Joshua Mills, Stacey Campbell and the laughable Patricia King at an event called the School of Daniel. This is,
” [...] a 3-week intensive training school focusing on topics such as: The supernatural, personal transformation, spiritual transformation, cultural transformation, leadership, the kingdom of God, kingdom finance & kingdom business. It will feature speakers such as: Shawn & Michelle Gabie, James Goll, Sammy Robinson, Dr. Caroline Leaf, Shawn Bolz, Joshua Mills, Patricia King & Stacey Campbell.”
Source: About, School of Daniel, http://www.schoolofdaniel.com/info/index.php, Accessed 26/10/2014.
DOCTRINE & PRACTICE
Furthermore, she is starting to attract valid criticisms online. One such critic is Dr C. Edward Pitt. To end, we have provided part one of his articles for our audiences to read and other articles he has written exposing the strange suppositions of Caroline Leaf.
Dr Caroline Leaf – Serious questions, few answers (Part 1)
Posted on August 4, 2013
Caroline Leaf. The name is popping up more and more around Christian circles. I was curious to hear her speak, since as a Christian and a (family) physician, I like to know how people integrate science and spirituality. So I took the opportunity to drive down to Kings Christian Church on the Gold Coast to hear what she had to say.
I left with more questions than answers. And some serious concerns.
The following blog posts are a discussion on some of the points that she raised. I simply don’t have the time to go through all of them, although I’m seriously considering whether to do a formal review and response to her teaching.
I had to divide up the original post into three parts to make it more manageable. Here’s part 1, in which I review her academic qualifications, her link of thoughts and illness, our innate wiring, and the myth of the mini-brain.
Part 2 of this post will look further at the pecking order of the mind and brain, some miscellaneous issues, and her ‘professional’ opinion on ADHD.
Part 3 will examine her claim that “Toxic thoughts are sin” and why such a statement is incongruent with the Christian faith.
IS SHE A COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENTIST?
For a start, she was introduced as a cognitive neuroscientist. Her CV lists her degrees as a Bachelor of Science, Masters in Speech Therapy and Audiology, and a PhD in Communication Pathology. She did not advise where she has tenure or does her research. Her CV lists guest lectures at a few Universities (Wits, University of Pretoria, University of Cape Town, University of Western Cape Annual Education Conference, SASHLA, Rotary Foundation), but no tenure.
Admittedly, the definition of a cognitive neuroscientist is somewhat vague (http://careersinpsychology.org/becoming-a-cognitive-neuroscientist/) but the term ‘cognitive neuroscientist’ confers the idea that one is actively involved in cognitive neuroscientific research, or at least in the recent past.
So the question remains: is she really a cognitive neuroscientist, or is she just a woman with a PhD that reads a lot?
THE CORRELATION OF ILLNESS AND THOUGHT
The next thing to grab my attention was her statement: “75 to 98% of ALL illness is related to our thought life.” Somehow I doubt that. The influence of stress is high. But I am a GP – I see sick people everyday, on the coal face, before they are collected in subspecialist clinics, or improve spontaneously. It’s a real stretch to ascribe stress to more than 30%. Looking at her book ‘Who Switched Off My Brain’ (Leaf 2009, p15), she says that 80% of all diseases are the result of our thought lives. So her own figures are conflicting. (The other thing is that, for a PhD recipient, she has poorly referenced her book!)
Besides, stress causes illness, but I’m not yet satisfied she’s proven that ‘negative’ thought and stress are the same thing.
THE MINI-BRAIN
She also claimed that the brain and the heart connect to every cell in your body. Again, it’s a bit of a stretch. Every cell needs to be bathed in nutrients from the blood which in turn is connected to the heart, and nerves are every where. But there are many cells that are not innervated directly.
The only way that the brain or the heart are connected to every cell is simply because, technically, every cell is connected to every other cell. Like if everyone in a church stood up and held hands, the man in the front row would be “connected” to the woman in the back.
But she went further on her theory, by claiming that the heart has a mini-brain that directly influences the real brain – by making moral decisions on its own, and that it is part of our conscience. She justified her statement by saying that the heart has 40,000 interconnected nerve cells, and the heart is directly connected to the brain. But on that same logic, my rectum could be a mini-brain and be part of my conscience.
She alluded to the effect of ANF, atrial natriuretic factor. There are actually three natriuretic peptides. ANF, produced by the top two chambers of the heart, actually regulates blood pressure (http://www.cvphysiology.com/Blood%20Pressure/BP017.htm). If it has an effect on thought, it is secondary, not primary.
WIRED FOR OPTIMISM?
She also states that we are wired for optimism, and that emotions like fear are learned. That doesn’t make sense since I have seen research that shows a newborn baby is wired for pleasure and emotions like disgust. These pathways are developed and refined during childhood, but we are born with built-in templates for basic emotion.
I will have more in the next 24 hours, including her statement on the pecking order of the mind and brain, some miscellaneous issues, and her ‘professional’ opinion on ADHD.
REFERENCES
Leaf, C. (2009). Who Switched Off My Brain? Controlling toxic thoughts and emotions. Southlake, TX, USA, Inprov, Ltd.
Source: By Dr C. Edward Pitt, Dr Caroline Leaf – Serious questions, few answers (Part 1), Dr C. Edward Pitt, http://cedwardpitt.com/2013/08/04/dr-caroline-leaf-serious-questions-few-answers-part-1/, Published 04/08/2013. (Accessed 26/10/2014.)
You can read more article on Caroline Leaf on his website:
Dr Caroline Leaf – Serious questions, few answers (Part 2)
Dr Caroline Leaf and the shotgun approach
Dr Caroline Leaf and the cart-before-the-horse conundrum
Dr Caroline Leaf and the myth of the myth of multitasking
Dr Caroline Leaf – Exacerbating the Stigma of Mental Illness
Labels – the good, the bad, and the ugly
Or you can read Dr C. Edward Pitt’s book exposing Caroline Leaf’s teachings:
Hold That Thought – Reappraising The Work of Dr Caroline Leaf
How many women will pay to go to this conference to see Dr. Caroline Leaf, a celebrity ‘life coach’ posing as a Christian speaker? That same speaker being one who will only to lead her listeners into false doctrine? And the C3 pastors and leaders, who should know better, those men who continue to allow women to usurp the role of pastor, choose to remain silent.
In closing, with C3 promoting a ‘wannabe’ Christian speaker, have they done their homework? No! Instead what we see again and again, ‘impastors’ like Chris Pringle at these events doing what Jesus calls the “blind leading the blind”. In the promo Chris for this event Chris Pringle runs with the motto, “Now I See”. We decided to offer this reality check to Chris Pringle.