Rocky

WOW!

BAM! Nailed it. Useful Delusions: The Power and Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain - Kindle edition by Vedantam, Shankar, Mesler, Bill. Health, Fitness & Dieting Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

LOL... I like books too, but when I read, it's my voice in my head. I like my voice. Let me know if you get the files.

You can "export a file as a PDF" with Open Office.

"I'll happily help someone with a hungry heart to learn, who wants to sort thru them all..." IOW, someone who is still gullible and hasn't worked it out to their own satisfaction already. "Years ago there was great value... for me to dredge through all those things... that audience is now spent." IOW, the window for me to mindf*** those people is long gone. Shmooze away, Mike.

I'm also confident that vpw's pronouncement on this subject was an intricate part of his rationalization for effing whomever he pleased (and could convince to let him) and if she got pregnant, then nobody's conscience had to be heavy laden with guilt. In keeping with the theme of this thread, it reeks of indoctrination that underpinned Wierwille's self-justifying rationalizations.

The people who have posted to GSC (and before that, Waydale) have been outspoken for a reason. Wouldn't it be intriguing to get sociologists/psychologists who study cults to do some legitimate academic research on former (and if possible, current) twi followers to survey various issues... including, but not limited to, the variety of spiritual/religious paths taken by those followers... and the frequency and intensity of psychological disorders, like depression, anxiety and PTSD. If only anyone had access to a mailing list... (I'd work on finding qualified academic researchers to do such a study). Data can be amazingly eye-opening.

I've been using OpenOffice for years. It works well with MS Office file types.

Btw, Skyrider, it's always good to hear from you.

Speaking of indoctrination, Penworks, a couple of weeks ago shared a letter with me that she wrote (but never sent) to Walter Cummins about a particular contradiction in scripture and TWI teaching (and practice). I have it on my google drive and have set it so that anyone with the link can view it. But I haven't figured out where I might be able to post it online such that I can display it here. She wrote the letter after she left TWI. Charlene gave me permission to post it to GSC. Here's the text of the letter: Dear Walter, I'm in need of help in understanding soul life. Can you help me? Advanced Class '79 "The first breath of a child is soul life, until that time there is no soul life." PFAL p. 237 "The soul life is in the blood and is passed on when the sperm impregnates the egg at the time of fertilization." 1971 How do I put this together, especially in regards to abortion issues? Lovingly, Charlene Bishop -------- I've also never heard anyone from twi explain this contradiction. I suspect they never have addressed the issue. Because they had an abortion fund, I also suspect their position was fluid based on whatever rationalization was necessary at a given moment.

I'm confident, T-Bone, that you know there's no arguing facts with Mike. There's no proving or disproving your assumptions. People (like Mike and JohnIam) believe, or profess to believe, what Wierwille taught. They're going to believe what they want to believe. Logic and rational, objective proof be dammed.

Your wishful wanting (i.e. nostalgia) appears to willfully ignore the role of human nature in the history twi.

I also have pdf files with the powerpoint slides presented by each of the two scholars. If anyone is interested, send me a private message with your email address and I'll send them to you.

I now DO know that a recording was made. It's not the most dynamic presentation (to put it mildly). Here it is.

The fee is for professionals wanting continuing education credits. I don't know if a recording will be made available afterwards. I registered without financial cost.

Covered will be the dynamics of cultic totalitarianism to answer the question: how does the mad leader form followers and gain ascendance? How does the mad leader transform normal people, families, and organizations to his insanely controlled cultic regimes? For attendees fascinated by organizational (mis) development, a totalitarian sampler will be offered depicting diverse cult leaders in the context of their high-pressure organizations, with remarks as to the clinical features of patients who dissent from the MNL’s vindictive domination. The presenters will discuss how cult leaders cause a perversion of utopia, and shall offer clinically helpful notions about the MNL’s so-called god-drive, sexuality, and relation to Freud’s primal horde theory.

Friday, June 4th NOON till 3pm EDT Webinar Information by psychotherapist, presenter Charles Zeiders Malignant narcissism, the presenters argue, characterizes the core psychopathology of the cult leader. Drawing from their recent book, Malignant Narcissism and Power: A Psychodynamic Exploration of Madness and Leadership (Routledge, 2020), presenters Charles Zeiders, Psy.D. and Peter Devlin, LGSW will generate a profile of the Malignant Narcissist Leader (MNL). Via case studies, their workshop will unpack the malignant leader’s rise and fall, and the deleterious impact from the malignant leader’s selfish, but bizarrely seductive, manipulative, and coercive behavior. The presenters will reveal the malignant leader’s core character traits: Narcissism, Criminality, Paranoia, and Sadism. Drawing on cult studies, forensic psychology, and the humanities, they will depict the malignant narcissist in leadership as a trans-historical, cross-cultural phenomenon.

A guy thinking evil? That's certainly not objective, rational fact. That's your impression, your subjective reaction. Rather than take apart each of your irrational claims, I'll just leave this for you. From start to finish, Wierwille was a huckster, through and through. We bought the snake oil he was selling. You, Johniam, apparently are still buying.

Please read this news story and let us know how familiar it sounds. By JAMES QUEALLY, MATTHEW ORMSETH MAY 27, 2021 8 AM PT The Church of Scientology works hard to keep its inner workings out of the public eye. It has hired private detectives to keep tabs on straying members, and experts say its lawyers vigorously defend against legal incursions, arguing to judges that Scientology’s beliefs are not courtroom fodder. But at a hearing last week in the rape case against actor Danny Masterson, church officials were unable to stop their practices from being debated in open court. Three women took the stand to recount violent sexual assaults allegedly committed by the celebrity Scientologist, and each told similar stories of how church officials tried to stop them from reporting Masterson to police. (continued at the link above)

What if? For now we see as through a glass darkly... There we have, in a nutshell, the entirety of Wierwille's get rich quick scheme... people have extremely limited ability to discern even factual information, let alone truth about God and spirituality. Yet, it is a very deep and very human longing, to know God. Couple that with the enduring insight in this recent work of research: Useful Delusions: The Power & Paradox of the Self-Deceiving Brain. Put simply, Mike believes in his god, VP, because that's what works for him. WE, OTOH, long ago jettisoned VP as our savior because it no longer worked for us, overridden by massive quantities of cognitive dissonance.

or, 10 am in the morning...

WW, don't you know by now that Mike's "superpower" is obfuscation?

No, your expectation was actually a false supposition. I asked YOU what you meant. I didn't ask you to decide that I knew the meaning of your statement. That's awfully pompous and pretentious of you.

#Bullspit, Mike. See you in another three years?