It doesn't matter if you intellectually knew it wasn't real. Emotions can be much more powerful than mere thought. I believe that, under the right circumstances, virtually anyone can be sucked into Pentecostalism. I don't care how much education a person has, how sophisticated he or she may be, or how high the IQ - wear them down emotionally or physically through a series of negative events in their lives, separate them from the people, places and things that they love, mix in a liberal dosage of unrelieved pain - either physical, emotional of both - and you have a prime candidate for a Pentecostal or Charismatic emotional catharsis. That event can feel like a cold mountain stream on the parched lips of someone dying in the desert, and like all such pivotal moments, can start someone on a journey that may take years to complete.

Now, here's an alternate theory to chew on: Adults who buy into Pentecostal or Charismatic "reality" do so of their own free wills, and do so because they need something they perceive can be had in those realities. They stay as long as they need to stay, and then they get out. Whether you buy this or not, simply accepting it as a working theory will start the ex-pentecostal on the road to mental and emotional health.

Rob