This got me thinking about those very early letters to his nascent ekklesia.
They are short letters begging for money. The gaslighting and manipulation are subtle, the tone is almost sweet in desperation, written by a monster fully confident in his disguise to a supply still unaware of the hellscape they’ve entered.
The Corps letters are full of rage and word salad, written by an NPD exposed for what he is, furious that his supply is leaving. Furious at the truth. The manipulation and gaslighting are obvious and the tone is angry and mean and desperate.
All these letters read together chronologically show the arc of a relationship between an NPD and his supply.
And so, after reading Wierwille's own words, as Nathan so well describes, who would want to follow along with a group that lauds such a man, as he reveals himself to be in those letters, as a great "man of God?" Sigh. But many still do. For instance, some old timers on the Board of TWI are well aware of stuff in those letters. Yet, they pledge loyalty to VPW anyway. They maintain a tough wall of denial to breach.
In my view, a person has to be ready psychologically to admit they made a mistake in their adoration of VPW. A person has to be willing to consider VPW conned them. That's not easy, but it can and has been done by a lot of us. And life didn't end. And life actually expanded for many of us. Life opened itself in wonderful, healing, and loving ways.
who would want to follow along with a group that lauds such a man, as he reveals himself to be in those letters, as a great "man of God?"
How many would want to follow along with such a group?
How many would want to follow along with any other such group that exercises such apparent "undue influence" which is inherently deceptive?
Is this simply an example and an instance of something inherent in humanity and/or human nature because "we" (humans/humanity) crave something in particular that this deluded NPD "minister" promised?
Is this an instance of...
I propose answers to these questions may be alluded to, if not explicitly articulated in the writings of Steven Hassan, who has researched the phenomenon for nearly 50 years?
The Bite Model THE BITE MODEL OF AUTHORITARIAN CONTROL: UNDUE INFLUENCE, THOUGHT REFORM, BRAINWASHING, MIND CONTROL, TRAFFICKING AND THE LAW
Hassan also wrote a book explaining cult influence in a particular political figure in America today
The common thread in all of his writing is undue influence. He's not anti-religion. He's not inherently political. But he does have insight related to understanding what Victor Wierwille tapped into in order to capture or corral tens of thousands of us to follow his teaching.
What I suspect these Way Corps letters can provide to us now in retrospect is how Victor's emotional condition when he wrote those letters bely his underlying psychological vulnerability was perhaps one key to enable many of us to escape what we had not yet recognized as Victor's undue influence over us.
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Nathan_Jr
Thanks, Charlene.
This got me thinking about those very early letters to his nascent ekklesia.
They are short letters begging for money. The gaslighting and manipulation are subtle, the tone is almost sweet in desperation, written by a monster fully confident in his disguise to a supply still unaware of the hellscape they’ve entered.
The Corps letters are full of rage and word salad, written by an NPD exposed for what he is, furious that his supply is leaving. Furious at the truth. The manipulation and gaslighting are obvious and the tone is angry and mean and desperate.
All these letters read together chronologically show the arc of a relationship between an NPD and his supply.
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penworks
And so, after reading Wierwille's own words, as Nathan so well describes, who would want to follow along with a group that lauds such a man, as he reveals himself to be in those letters, as a great "man of God?" Sigh. But many still do. For instance, some old timers on the Board of TWI are well aware of stuff in those letters. Yet, they pledge loyalty to VPW anyway. They maintain a tough wall of denial to breach.
In my view, a person has to be ready psychologically to admit they made a mistake in their adoration of VPW. A person has to be willing to consider VPW conned them. That's not easy, but it can and has been done by a lot of us. And life didn't end. And life actually expanded for many of us. Life opened itself in wonderful, healing, and loving ways.
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Rocky
How many would want to follow along with such a group?
How many would want to follow along with any other such group that exercises such apparent "undue influence" which is inherently deceptive?
Is this simply an example and an instance of something inherent in humanity and/or human nature because "we" (humans/humanity) crave something in particular that this deluded NPD "minister" promised?
Is this an instance of...
I propose answers to these questions may be alluded to, if not explicitly articulated in the writings of Steven Hassan, who has researched the phenomenon for nearly 50 years?
I don't know. But I wonder about it a lot.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/steven-a-hassan-phd
Hassan's books include:
Freedom of Mind
Combating Cult Control
Releasing the Bonds
The Bite Model THE BITE MODEL OF AUTHORITARIAN CONTROL: UNDUE INFLUENCE, THOUGHT REFORM, BRAINWASHING, MIND CONTROL, TRAFFICKING AND THE LAW
Hassan also wrote a book explaining cult influence in a particular political figure in America today
The common thread in all of his writing is undue influence. He's not anti-religion. He's not inherently political. But he does have insight related to understanding what Victor Wierwille tapped into in order to capture or corral tens of thousands of us to follow his teaching.
What I suspect these Way Corps letters can provide to us now in retrospect is how Victor's emotional condition when he wrote those letters bely his underlying psychological vulnerability was perhaps one key to enable many of us to escape what we had not yet recognized as Victor's undue influence over us.
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penworks
My question was rhetorical, but the resources Rocky shared in response are excellent.
For some of us, those resources and books came out YEARS after we left, after our own moral compasses pointed us toward the exit signs.
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