Bolshevik

"Legal authorities are the only ones with leverage" I didn't suggest this. I said they enforce the law. Your example says folks are really good at burning bridges getting into a cult, but somehow forget that technique getting out. I don't think that is true. You got canceled by a group you want to leave, the horror. I was saying there is likely property or children or a secret being kept, as leverage.

I would argue there's usually a form of leverage involved. Enforced by legal authorities. The interview focused on feelings, and mental tricks.

By "escape" do you mean turn one's back the relationships formed in The Way International? Relationships held in place by the authority of government entities?

Technically, the NPD is victim #1, that's how they are made. They're compensating for the permanent damage. Projecting victim mentality outward through the cult strengthens the shared fantasy.

An interview was posted by the writer of the book that sparks questions.

Still not sure "victim" is the right word. VPW all alone does not make a cult. https://images.app.goo.gl/DnWkMG8T8QbsyoZZ7

So Reason is more important than Emotion then?

I saw one those Way Tree stickers with an open Bible on top on a vehicle driving through Cincy yesterday. Not relevant to the discussion, but if someone in a black pickup felt that got the evil eye, that was me.

Hence, there is no "other side of the story". Just a retelling of the fantasy.

Well see there is no "other side of the story". If we pretend there is we continue the fantasy world.

This is a self-harm. Dissociation. Simulacrity. They ate the fruit in defiance of the screaming voice. In exchange for a new reality. Where they could be gods. Story old as time.

I've reread what Penworks wrote again and again. It sounds completely helpless. Her insides were screaming to act and she refused to give herself authority in the situation. VPW could have been a 6 year old making demands to his mother. (I'm sure the story changes later) *set hand on flat on desk . . . smashes it repeatedly with a hammer* . . . I had no choice.

A Permanent Revolution for any hamster.

Well VPW did tell everyone from the get go this is all about Power. The Class The Class The Class. Power Power Power.

LCM took it further. And I think by reading into words. I'm pretty sure the verse doesn't imply any of that. It talks about eyes and knowledge. What do eyes symbolize? (rhetorical - NOT what LCM said) The fig leaves obviously were symbolic of covering shame. And poorly. Great so VPW had a feeling. Where do feelings come from? Why would he have a feeling? Well the NPD has no real sense of self and so lives as a false self . . . .

https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Fig_Leaves_7136.php#:~:text=Fig leaves are large%2C broad,veins and a prominent stem.

GAWH! - The redistribution of feelings and emotions! THAT's why Adam wore the fig leaf too! He didn't eat the carpet, but he shared in the shame.

Yes, but which flag should one fly? Yours? Or all of them?

The forced inauthenticity is an attempt become a god. Is one way to put it. This world is not real, so denying it becomes plausible. Re-interpreting the cognitive dissonance to dismiss it as "growing pains" in a process.

The ordeal with the snake and the fruit could be viewed as an appeal to the "gnostic/hermetics" thinking. One becomes a god through the acquisition of knowledge. What the serpent said. Thus the dualism.

http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/politics/ideology-politics/difference-between-enlightenment-and-romanticism/#:~:text=The proponents of enlightenment argued,is focused on human emotion. I see an argument bigger than VPW.

(Just speaking from my understanding here). Emotions themselves are often triggered by thoughts, not the situation in front of us but our thoughts about the situations. Emotions apparently can also be triggered by the unconscious. Emotions have an intelligence to them separate from cognitive thinking that inspires action needing to be taken. Feelings are a layer above emotions, more specific, we have a feeling about an emotion. Layers of interpretations, you could say. Moods would come after that. I understand VPW to have wanted everyone in sink with his mood. Which makes "Way Doctrine" sound like a silly term altogether - (which involved word studies). Because it's just gobbledygook pointing back to one source. And what VPW was doing acting as a god, lower case "g", knowing good and evil. - To follow VPW was to be inauthentic. "Gut feeling" I think is better interpreted as emotion, but don't quote me. I think what's being said above is someone else is the decision maker inside another head. And I interpret that as a splitting in a person's reality.

https://www.amazon.com/Passions-Emotions-Meaning-Life/dp/0872202267

because "being trained" sounds so passive. You're saying you're never in control.

For clarification, by "feelings" do you mean "emotions" or both? Feelings are based on emotions, and are basically thoughts about emotions, as I understand.