Lulla-Bible?

The question was about using an audio Bible reading to help fall asleep… and maybe to also have it playing during sleep.

On the plus side, why not have Bible reading playing in the background to help fall asleep… just as you might have music (classical, Christian, or ’60s rock!), nature noises, or something? Loved ones have read assorted material, including the Bible, to seriously ill people to help them fall asleep. Hearing the Lord’s Word is always a good thing.

But as with so many ideas out there, the problem is when the consumer drifts into trying to contrive some sort of experience. In the case of listening to the Bible, are we looking for a magical absorption, a subliminal message? Some of the marketing for this idea seems to be playing to that.

• One product brand is even called SOAKStream. That word soaking is all over the place as relates to spiritual experience. Refer back to my post “Go Soaking? Just Joking.”
• The ad for the above product mentions that these are “anointed” Scriptures. A separate ad elaborated: “most peaceful and anointed Bible verses.” Did the producer “anoint” these verses to be more powerful than the Lord himself already made them? (That word anointed is a red flag as well. It’s commonly mentioned with objects sold/promoted by phony evangelists—as if the object has been infused somehow by an individual with special powers.)
• Another SOAKStream option says to “expect miracles” and that “God’s peace and presence is right there in the room with you.” (Not sure what to say about the producer’s near-guarantee of miracles. And… uh, isn’t God with us whether or not a recording is playing?)
• Some of the marketing refers to the chosen Bible verses as “healing Scriptures.”
• A different product says, “Play this as you sleep for faith and strength in Jesus.” Not sure if it means the audio helps you fall sleep or whether you’re infused with faith/strength during sleep. But the writeup mentions mindfulness meditation; and if it means the real thing (that is, the Buddhist/Hindu practice), I question the spiritual soundness of these producers.

Refer back to this post on “Visio Divina.” One of the promoters of that practice said we’re using “our vision and an image instead of scripture to listen to God.” Instead of. So I fear that we’re wanting to “absorb” the Lord without actually paying attention to his Word. Reminds me of something I saw in 2023: a tiny chip with the entire New Testament, which you wear as a necklace (a “tanaor”). Nothing wrong, per se. But the marketing I saw said this is made in the Holy Land, that it should be a comfort that the Lord is always with you. Can’t help wondering if wearers lean into considering it a kind of talisman.

So I can picture people chatting together about spiritual technologies, believing the sales pitches. And upon trying some of these ideas, declaring, “I’m sure I felt some kind of energy” or “I felt closer to God” or “An angel came … or something! I KNOW I had some kind of encounter!” And the more you hear people say things like that, the more you want to try it to have a similar experience and/or not feel spiritually inferior.

One user testimony of an audio Bible during sleep said, “Even sleeping, my spirit hears and I wake and feel I’ve been with the Lord in a special way.” To which I might ask a series of questions: “So if you had a letter from your grandma and, instead of reading it, played that while you were asleep, what would happen? Would you feel as if you’d been with her? Would your ‘spirit’ have heard and grasped her words? Why don’t you do that all the time—to be closer to your family?” My sense is that, sadly, such questions would force the admission that when the Bible is the thing being used, it’s doing something more on the magical side, something that a human letter couldn’t. Is there a Scripture to validate such an idea?

And I confess that my suspicious side wonders whether we’re partly looking for a lazy way to get a dose of God. Can’t be bothered to actually read and study the Word.