I'd be interested to hear your experiences, I think you are a little older than me.
I'm thirty-one. I think BrokenPaw is a little older. Tallpine may be another survivor of that sort of movement, I think.
I attended charismatic churches for most of my teen-age years, my visit to Toronto being about 94 or 95, with some church friends and fellow UMR students. I only attended a Vineyard church for the three semesters that I attended U of Missouri - Rolla. But the other churches were similar. Being "slain in the spirit" was a common experience in those churches, and was not an innovation of the "Toronto Blessing." But the "holy laughter" seems to have come from there, and spread to the church my family attended at the time. Speaking in tongues was always popular there, probably still is. And prophecy and such. I did "speak in tongues" and get "slain in the spirit," although that was more the power of suggestion than a genuine religious experience.
My sister was a part of these things, and now feels very much fooled and victimized by it. After ten years or so, she is finally starting to go to church with my parents. They moved on to a more orthodox church, without any of the Charismatic trappings.
I was fooled by these things, too, of course, and my parents' new church was also helpful in my "recovery" if such dramatic language is really appropriate. I certainly believe in gifts of the spirit, but I no longer expect them to be normative parts of everyday Christian experience. I eventually also realized that chasing such phenomena, trying to catch the Galloping Ghost of the Holy Spirit, is a big distraction as well. Too many people hope for fulfillment in such flashy displays (which are usually not genuine), and miss out on the real stuff of the Christian experience. That is, family life, helping others, quiet, meditative Bible-reading and prayer. In full disclosure, I'm not doing so good on those things, lately, myself.
