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{THERE'S one difference between twi experience being a "costly lesson" and "mistakes one can repeat across a lifetime." We can RELAX around our family and friends. That does not mean we SHUT OFF OUR CRITICAL THINKING around family and friends. That's the difference between having "wait a minute" moments a few hours after someone says something clever yet manipulative, and SILENCING ANY DOUBT when someone says something clever yet manipulative. Someone might fool me for a minute or even a few hours, but let me get in a good night's sleep, and I'll have their clever game figured out. When I was young and naive, I learned too many lessons about people being clever in many ways and manipulative in all of them. Now I may RELAX but I don't shut off my critical thinking skills. I know I'm not the only person here who's been lied to by family or had family ATTEMPT to manipulate them. I know I'm not the only person here who's had friends lie to them or attempt to manipulate them. When it comes to "spiritual family", I know I'm not the only person here who's had "spiritual family" lie to them or attempt to manipulate them. There was a thread recently on how some wayfers had to take to court a member of their "spiritual family" because he lied to them and manipulated them. It worked because they shut off their critical thinking skills with their "spiritual family" and got taken for a LOT of money. "Trust but verify" is a famous saying in many languages, down the centuries. When it comes to family, we can do that. To shut off critical thinking is to set up self and others for ANOTHER big fall. It's how we all got taken the first time with twi- and if we can't see that, we set ourselves up for people to do the same thing to us over and over....in splinter groups, other so-called Christians, outside religious contexts.... Confidence men and snake-oil salesmen LOVE the naive-those who have a criteria for shutting off their critical thinking.] [Actually, the SOURCE CITATION Jesus did was "It Is Written." The "critical thinking" Jesus used at the time was to EVALUATE THE SITUATION. Even when satan ATTEMPTED to quote Scripture to Jesus- AND MISUSE IT because he MISQUOTED IT- Jesus saw past the MISUSE OF SCRIPTURE, no matter how cleverly done, and evaluated the quote, the situation, and the rest of Scripture independently. Eve, on the other hand, "thought" with her lusts. She did NOT use "critical thinking." A cold analysis of the situation would have told her that her conclusion required her to consider God a liar- which was inconsistent with everything she knew about Him. Therefore, the one who contradicted God outright was a liar- and could not be trusted to give a reliable analysis of the situation. However, she heard what she WANTED to hear- and shut off her "critical thinking." People who hear a bunch of speeches about how the organization is a loving family and how its leader loves them so much- and turn off their "critical thinking" in response, are people who join groups like the earlier days of twi, or Jim Jones' group, or so many other groups founded by liars, cheats, and confidence men. How can someone confuse Jesus' careful consideration- and "critical thinking"- for "mind control", or "bibliolatry" or not even know what it was? The most likely possibility is them misunderstanding what each term even means-thus making it easy to make mistakes. Other possibilities include understanding them fully but choosing to blow smoke at the issues by throwing in irrelevant phrases and consideration.]