Rocky

Excellent resource. Thank you. And thank you for making it a gift article.

I did hit the NYTimes paywall. I'm very interested. Thanks.

Somebodies must have been bored this weekend.

Great question(s).

We rejoice with you Joe!

Btw, willingness to be vulnerable (Brené Brown) is an indicator of personal strength rather than shame. THIS video with Steven Hassan is an interview with Nori Muster, author of a Cult Survivor Handbook AND one about children born into cults.

Btw, those letters demonstrate the Victor Wierwille was indeed a cult leader who used (at least) emotional abuse. I am listening to Steven Hassan's most recent YT video. Which includes an interview with Nori Muster, who had been involved in the Krishna cult and wrote a Cult Survivors Handbook.

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/cocoon A cocoon is a silky web spun around the larvae of many insects. Caterpillars emerge from their cocoons as beautiful butterflies. The word cocoon can also refer to a form of self-protection for humans. For some people, their house is a cocoon, a cozy retreat from which they can escape the world. They cocoon themselves away for a whole weekend, Thanks waysider for mentioning this notion. In the religious world, some have "retreats." In wayworld, we had "advances." Not that many got the connection with cocooning themselves away. These days I just see it as the contrarian nature of wayworld.

Dr. Steven Hassan, two minute YT video on the subject of whether a person can be HYPNOTIZED without realizing it. This video does NOT comment on Power for Abundant Living; The Way International; Victor Wierwille or Loy Craig Martindale. It DOES, however SUGGEST the practice has been around for decades. I would SUGGEST that if anyone has (unauthorized or authorized) access to PFAL class recordings, it would be very intriguing to have someone like Dr. Hassan listen to those recordings to provide professional assessment thereof.

YIKES! You're still on their mailing list?!

I misunderstood. My apologies.

Nevermind.

A key benefit you will receive by reading these letters: melting the mask off of the face of TWI's founder. I think of a quote from Soren Kierkegaard: Life can only be understood looking backwards; But it must be lived forwards. You'll be able to understand much more about Victor Wierwille and his cult by reading these letters.

YIKES! What a thought. We don't grow without enduring difficult times, as I now understand it.