I absolutely could not agree with you more about "taking the plunge" with one's spouse, innie or otherwise. Sticking one's head in the sand or going through the motions and pretending to everything is ok by ignoring the elephant in your living room have serious consequences on your and your partner's emotional health not to mention your children.
As scary as it is an honest and open discussion about how you truly feel and where you see the relationship going is the only wise path. We usually are so terrified of change that the hell that we are living in seems less threatening to us than upsetting the apple cart for the sake of what we really need as humans.
What I have seen over and over in my life is that when we take those first timid steps situations change and always for the better. When you shift from
a position of co-dependence to one of authenticity things amazingly realign with that shift.
It is so very true that thinking and being responsible for your own self is the very key for peace and a happy life.
While in twi people wanted their leaders to take responsibility for their behaviours and choices and blamed them when it went bad .
how easy is that?
then some were forced to wake up and assume the responisibility that is personal and individual called truth and real grown up life and now they are victims , forever of that same group they allowed to make the choices for them and proved so weak.
Change happens constantly in fact I think God "likes" change and movement and flowing in His mighty concepts It keeps me aware of who is on the Throne who is the ONE and the Mighty Creator of all. To rebel against change to think it is a personal attack to think it must be wrong becuase you think something eles has always been right defines rebellion in and of itself!
God says seek HIm first, I think He means it , to be close to God I have spent my entire life in change to avoid attacks and problems , It has been a loss at times YOU bet it has it is written ALL is lost to count worthy the calling of Jesus Christ those losses are real life happenings that must be dealt with and they often bring sever changes in the life I can no longer consider my own when I accpted Jesus as Lord.
A lord is just that a Lord alive and well telling guiding helping and loving, IF I chose Jesus as Lord and take responsibility for my own life and choices life is a true blessing to me and to God.
If I say I want a man or an organization to make my choices how can I complain when it goes bad or become full of bitterness towards it ?
Change means accepting responsiblity of choice to succeed on a positive path of growth.
After seeing threads about mastering piffle and mastering that as a the way to spiritual nirvana or something, I have my own thoughts about the subject.
While some of you may disagree, I believe there is some common ground between various cults and how they control people.
One of the ways cults control their members aside from the usual stuff like control of information, family etc., is to take advantage
of peoples quest for exact answers.
The way the cult controls people is that the cult makes exactness,precision, among others a requirement for rising to a higher spiritual understanding.
"You cannot know god unless you have an
accurate knowledge" of the bible, koran, the holy golden tablets etc.
Of course this "accurate"knowledge is "only" available in this group (fill in groups name) as revealed by our mog, guru, holy ____ etc at
nauseum.
For all of us that were or still may be research junkies, do you really think that a precise knowledge of the scriptures is necessary to know God?
Tell me how research orientated the apostles were, or were they more into knowing their master?
The scriptures say that God is not a respector of persons, right? Then, if that is true, then those that are not "researchers" cannot know God?
I think you will find God is far bigger than that limitation. Otherwise, God would be very unfair, because children, and people with diminished mental faculties would not be able to "research" the scriptures, and therefore could never know God....
"A battle of wits is hardly enjoyable when the other party is unarmed"
[This message was edited by pjroberge on March 04, 2004 at 21:15.]
Well, there are plenty of people who have waited for the other spouse to see twi for what it is and they have been glad that they waited. They were able to leave with dignity and their family in one piece. But you are entitled to your opinion, no matter how arrogant it's worded.
I'll bet Hope is glad she was patient and waited for John. On the other hand, if I had known how things would turned out i would have jumped ship long before.
It doesn't matter if we turn to dust...guess I'll see you dancin' in the ruins tonight
Oak, do you think that if the waygb hadn't stuck their nose in your business that things would have turned out differently? If I'm getting too personal please feel free to ignore me.
To the top and I'm happy to report that WaywardWayfer left TWI but then her husband left her. As painful as it was she is much better off for it and very thankful to be free from the abuse. B)
**MAure is standing on her purple velvet and jewel encrusted soapbox**
TO persons that are remaining in TWI because their Spouse won't leave.
I submit that:
if you are miserable at least part of every week,
If you can't share you heart openly and honestly with the person you married,
If you feel like you are alone in your marriage,
If you are going through the motions to fulfill what you perceive is your "duty" but joy and happiness is missing most of the time
If you make decisions based on what others want and mandate disregarding your own wants and feelings on a consistant basis.
IF even two of these are true ----YOU NO LONGER HAVE A FUNCTIONING MARRIAGE
Not By Secular Standards NOR By Biblical Standards ( Reread Ephesians)
YOU have two Choices::
YOu can continue to be Miserable--and therfore hinder your own growth--as well as not being terribly effective in helping others
OR You can take the plunge--pick a quiet time sit and talk to your spouse about how you feel and then present concrete actions you intend to take if things are not rectified.
THis is VERY hard and Very Scarey, and you feel like you are jumping off a cliff without a parachute.
But you must ask yourself the question Is it better to stay on the cliff and continue to "Starve" or jump and get the chance to perhaps create a wonderful life
THere are no blanket right answers.
But think about it --- PLEASE---
**MAure leaving soapbox**
MO
(who Used to be Maure)
MO, you and your comments while standing on your purple velvet and jewel encrusted soapbox helped more than you could ever know. :)
I don't know if you are still around GSC, but what a great post!
I stayed in TWI for several years waiting for my husband to wise up. Those were some very hard years, where I felt(knew) that our leadership would count it a spiritual coup if he could get me out but keep my husband in. I spoke to hubby exactly 3 times about leaving, my doubts, discomforts. Each one of those times is memorable, because I knew that just speaking could be the end of my marriage--which really wasn't what I wanted. Once was in 1995, again in 1997 and the last time in 1999. The first two times I caved. The chat in 1997, leadership got involved, that was ugly, talk about being under suspiscion after that.
The third time, in 1999, I actually had a get away plan. I knew some people, ranch owners, who could house me and the kids temporarily, and I could work in the bar they owned in a tiny town in Eastern Montana, where I once taught school, until I could get back into the school district. It wasn't a great plan, but I thought if my marriage was gone, there was no point in staying in that area...plus I hoped my husband would travel to the area to see the kids and perhaps his brain would clear, once free of leadership influence.
As it turned out, the new limb coordinator was a jerk, and showed that quality a little too clearly to my husband more than once(I didn't know about this, it was one of those Way negatives we didn't speak about.)
Then we went to visit my dad, who was a great guy and at that time he was terminally ill. It was a very sweet visit, despite the sad situation. We had not been treated with love or kindness in along time, and somehow my crazy unbelieving earthly family took more delight in us and our children than anyone in TWI. It was quite a contrast to our regular lifestye, we had leisure time, no schedule, no disapproval, our kids could be kids...
So when the next 'confrontation' came up( they came up every couple of months, it seemed) and I said I didn't want to go through it again, hubby could go without me, I was done, I was resolved to head out of town if hubby decided to divorce me. It was horrible and scary, and I honestly did not know what the outcome would be...except, one way or the other, my kids and I would be out of that.
Hubby called the leadership to tell them we wouldn't be back--left him scrambling because I was supposed to teach that night at HF. Hubby said he sounded stunned. We unplugged the phone, drew the drapes closed. A few days later we did have an ugly chat with the limb coord--one of those 'your kids will be in danger' talks...but we were done.
Each one of those times is memorable, because I knew that just speaking could be the end of my marriage--which really wasn't what I wanted.
Bramble, I'm so gladthat your situation ended up better than mine. :) I'm afraid I'm with Oak on the situation with my marriage. If I had known that Meister would never even consider honoring his commitment before God to his wife and that he loved TWI more than he loved me, I would have done more, more quickly.
We were only married eight years and five of those were spent trying to get him to see the lies, errors and abuse that TWI was so good at dishing out. The first year was really the only super year we had as a married couple. The next two we were so busy as HFC's and jumping through TWI hoops that it wasn't as great a marriage as it could have been despite being in love. TWI commitments and demands kept coming inbetween us.
We saw several divorces through the mid to late nineties that hadleadership/counseling were involvement. At that time, I knew if we had to get 'counseled' for our marital or other problems, our marriage wouldn't make it.
After we left we were listed for a time on the cortwright finder--and two couples who had left a few years before we did, from the same fellowship, contacted us to tell us how the HFC worked to sow division between the couple. Both those couples are still married a decade later, btw. This HFC and wife are like a cancer, destroying lives in the name of their God and ministry...still in good standing in TWI. And the local leadership above them either is in cahoots with them or just blindly does not see...
I know of another couple who were their asst HFC's --like we were--who were involved in the fellowship after we left...they are divorced now, too.
You would think SOMEONE would notice, but in the shut up atmosphere of TWi, these folks just carry on.
In my opinion the 'exactness factor' fits the description that Dr. Robert J. Lifton referred to as "sacred science.'"
The following paragraphs are from Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism…
Embolding, underlining, italics, [ ], & blue highlights are my additions for emphasis or clarification / jkb.
The "Sacred Science"
The totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic dogma[ie, the 'Word' of 'God' is the 'Will' of 'God,' & the 'Man of God,' our 'Father in the Word,' miraculously 'explains' the TWI-defined Word without so much as an hint of PI], holding it out as an ultimate moral vision[ie 'Word over the World'] for the ordering of human existence. This sacredness is evident in the prohibition (whether or not explicit) against the questioning of basic assumptions, and in the reverence which is demanded for the originators of the 'Word,' the present bearers of the 'Word,' and the 'Word' itself. While thus transcending ordinary concerns of logic, however, the milieu at the same time makes an exaggerated claim of airtight logic, of absolute "scientific" precision [the 'Word' works with a mathematical exactness & scientific precision, the 'Word' fits like a hand in a glove, etc.]. Thus the ultimate moral vision becomes an ultimate science; and the man who dares to criticize it, or to harbor even unspoken alternative ideas, becomes not only immoral and irreverent, but also "unscientific." In this way, the philosopher kings[eg, VPW, LCM, RFR] of modern ideological totalism reinforce their authority by claiming to share in the rich and respected heritage of natural science.
The assumption here is not so much that man can be God, but rather that man's ideas can be God: that an absolute science of ideas (and implicitly, an absolute science of man) exists, or is at least very close to being attained; that this science can be combined with an equally absolute body of moral principles; and that the resulting doctrine is true for all men at all times. Although no ideology goes quite this far in overt statement, such assumptions are implicit in totalist practice.
At the level of the individual, the totalist sacred science can offer much comfort and security. Its appeal lies in its seeming unification of the mystical and the logical modes of experience (in psychoanalytic terms, of the primary and secondary thought processes). For within the framework of the sacred science, and sweeping, non-rational "insights." Since the distinction between the logical and the mystical is, to begin with, artificial and man-made, an opportunity for transcending it can create an extremely intense feeling of truth. But the posture of unquestioning faith - both rationally and non-rationally derived - is not easy to sustain, especially if one discovers that the world of experience is not nearly as absolute as the sacred science claims it to be.
Yet so strong a hold can the sacred science achieve over his mental processes that if one begins to feel himself attracted to ideas which either contradict or ignore it, he may become guilty and afraid. His quest for knowledge is consequently hampered, since in the name of science he is prevented from engaging in the receptive search for truth which characterizes the genuinely scientific approach. And his position is made more difficult by the absence, in a totalist environment, of any distinction between the sacred and the profane: there is no thought or action which cannot be related to the sacred science. To be sure, one can usually find areas of experience outside its immediate authority; but during periods of maximum totalist activity (like thought reform) any such areas are cut off, and there is virtually no escape from the milieu's ever-pressing edicts and demands.
Whatever combination of continued adherence, inner resistance, or compromise co-existence the individual person adopts toward this blend of counterfeit science and back-door religion, it represents another continuous pressure toward personal closure, toward avoiding, rather than grappling with, the kinds of knowledge and experience necessary for genuine self-expression and for creative development.
Dr. Margaret Singer, Ph.D., explains another aspect of the 'exactness factor' or 'sacred science' in her book, Cults in Our Midst.
Naturalistic trance induction demonstrates how ordinary words, conversational style, and careful pacing & leading of an interaction [eg, of a TWI teaching session] can bring one person to the point of being able to 'secure the cooperation' of another person without using pressure, high-demand announcements, or commands [ie, not physically coercive, but definitely coercive packaged persuasion].
Even when trances per se are not produced, the activities of skilled cult leaders capitalize on the essential ingredients of pacing and leading, exploiting positive transference, & making indirect suggestions, all of which are central to the process and experience of trance [reveries, bedazzlement, and transfixion, etc.].
The techniques can seem innocuous, at first. Some of them - guided imagery, for instance - may actually be familiar from a relaxation class or a self-help audiocassette. In the wrong hands, however, these techniques can do an astonishing amount of harm.
"Trance-induction," Singer explains, is brought about by "a high central focus of attention or concentration [eg,by TWI on very detailed topics, such as 4 crucified, the day JC died, the 4 sessions of hyperfocus on ICor12-14, the AC definitions of the manifestations with all of the supportive scriptural narrative, etc.] which leads to diminished peripheral awareness. It can be achieved through various methods, and it's a means by which one person gets the complete attention of another."
Closed-eye exercises, a form of guided imagery, can be one of the most powerful trance-induction tools used in workshops. With the sense of sight deadened, customers are more attuned to the voice of the seminar leader. While this sounds innocent - sports psychologists enlist Olympic athletes in guided imagery exercises - the potential for abuse is great when the object of the exercise is not, say, running a faster 100-meter dash.
Take a few days without proper rest, add a regimen of closed-eye exercises, and anyone can become vulnerable to suggestion, "You're simply flooded with emotion," observes Singer. "The trainers usually get you to think of all your most powerful memories, under the guise of somehow conquering your past." After several days of being "dragged down into the pits", says Singer, "the final day of exercises is usually designed to pump you up. By this time, customers usually just sort of drool and follow the leader. A false sense of community and camaraderie has developed. By now, they do everything they can to give you the 'warm fuzzies,' so that you'll sign up for the next course."
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oenophile
Maure (templelady),
I absolutely could not agree with you more about "taking the plunge" with one's spouse, innie or otherwise. Sticking one's head in the sand or going through the motions and pretending to everything is ok by ignoring the elephant in your living room have serious consequences on your and your partner's emotional health not to mention your children.
As scary as it is an honest and open discussion about how you truly feel and where you see the relationship going is the only wise path. We usually are so terrified of change that the hell that we are living in seems less threatening to us than upsetting the apple cart for the sake of what we really need as humans.
What I have seen over and over in my life is that when we take those first timid steps situations change and always for the better. When you shift from
a position of co-dependence to one of authenticity things amazingly realign with that shift.
Personally approves the wine list.
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mj412
It is so very true that thinking and being responsible for your own self is the very key for peace and a happy life.
While in twi people wanted their leaders to take responsibility for their behaviours and choices and blamed them when it went bad .
how easy is that?
then some were forced to wake up and assume the responisibility that is personal and individual called truth and real grown up life and now they are victims , forever of that same group they allowed to make the choices for them and proved so weak.
Change happens constantly in fact I think God "likes" change and movement and flowing in His mighty concepts It keeps me aware of who is on the Throne who is the ONE and the Mighty Creator of all. To rebel against change to think it is a personal attack to think it must be wrong becuase you think something eles has always been right defines rebellion in and of itself!
God says seek HIm first, I think He means it , to be close to God I have spent my entire life in change to avoid attacks and problems , It has been a loss at times YOU bet it has it is written ALL is lost to count worthy the calling of Jesus Christ those losses are real life happenings that must be dealt with and they often bring sever changes in the life I can no longer consider my own when I accpted Jesus as Lord.
A lord is just that a Lord alive and well telling guiding helping and loving, IF I chose Jesus as Lord and take responsibility for my own life and choices life is a true blessing to me and to God.
If I say I want a man or an organization to make my choices how can I complain when it goes bad or become full of bitterness towards it ?
Change means accepting responsiblity of choice to succeed on a positive path of growth.
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TheSongRemainsTheSame
Ilove you pjroberge
Copyright 2004 by the author
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TheSongRemainsTheSame
rememer bog
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frank123lol
always make you feel like guilty
always the leader has some special connection to God ie God speaks audibly to him
special revelation only they receive to Bless everyone
what a crok
oh one moe people who are spiritually responsible for you
later
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insurgent
Well, there are plenty of people who have waited for the other spouse to see twi for what it is and they have been glad that they waited. They were able to leave with dignity and their family in one piece. But you are entitled to your opinion, no matter how arrogant it's worded.
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Oakspear
No two marriages are alike.
I'll bet Hope is glad she was patient and waited for John. On the other hand, if I had known how things would turned out i would have jumped ship long before.
It doesn't matter if we turn to dust...guess I'll see you dancin' in the ruins tonight
Oakspear
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insurgent
Oak, do you think that if the waygb hadn't stuck their nose in your business that things would have turned out differently? If I'm getting too personal please feel free to ignore me.
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Oakspear
It certainly accelerated the process
It doesn't matter if we turn to dust...guess I'll see you dancin' in the ruins tonight
Oakspear
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Belle
To the top and I'm happy to report that WaywardWayfer left TWI but then her husband left her. As painful as it was she is much better off for it and very thankful to be free from the abuse. B)
MO, you and your comments while standing on your purple velvet and jewel encrusted soapbox helped more than you could ever know. :)
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justloafing
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Bramble
Maure
I don't know if you are still around GSC, but what a great post!
I stayed in TWI for several years waiting for my husband to wise up. Those were some very hard years, where I felt(knew) that our leadership would count it a spiritual coup if he could get me out but keep my husband in. I spoke to hubby exactly 3 times about leaving, my doubts, discomforts. Each one of those times is memorable, because I knew that just speaking could be the end of my marriage--which really wasn't what I wanted. Once was in 1995, again in 1997 and the last time in 1999. The first two times I caved. The chat in 1997, leadership got involved, that was ugly, talk about being under suspiscion after that.
The third time, in 1999, I actually had a get away plan. I knew some people, ranch owners, who could house me and the kids temporarily, and I could work in the bar they owned in a tiny town in Eastern Montana, where I once taught school, until I could get back into the school district. It wasn't a great plan, but I thought if my marriage was gone, there was no point in staying in that area...plus I hoped my husband would travel to the area to see the kids and perhaps his brain would clear, once free of leadership influence.
As it turned out, the new limb coordinator was a jerk, and showed that quality a little too clearly to my husband more than once(I didn't know about this, it was one of those Way negatives we didn't speak about.)
Then we went to visit my dad, who was a great guy and at that time he was terminally ill. It was a very sweet visit, despite the sad situation. We had not been treated with love or kindness in along time, and somehow my crazy unbelieving earthly family took more delight in us and our children than anyone in TWI. It was quite a contrast to our regular lifestye, we had leisure time, no schedule, no disapproval, our kids could be kids...
So when the next 'confrontation' came up( they came up every couple of months, it seemed) and I said I didn't want to go through it again, hubby could go without me, I was done, I was resolved to head out of town if hubby decided to divorce me. It was horrible and scary, and I honestly did not know what the outcome would be...except, one way or the other, my kids and I would be out of that.
Hubby called the leadership to tell them we wouldn't be back--left him scrambling because I was supposed to teach that night at HF. Hubby said he sounded stunned. We unplugged the phone, drew the drapes closed. A few days later we did have an ugly chat with the limb coord--one of those 'your kids will be in danger' talks...but we were done.
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WordWolf
I've heard she's doing quite well for herself, thank you.
And appreciates the kind thoughts.
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Belle
Indeed she does. Thanks for posting, WW!
Bramble, I'm so glad that your situation ended up better than mine. :) I'm afraid I'm with Oak on the situation with my marriage. If I had known that Meister would never even consider honoring his commitment before God to his wife and that he loved TWI more than he loved me, I would have done more, more quickly.
We were only married eight years and five of those were spent trying to get him to see the lies, errors and abuse that TWI was so good at dishing out. The first year was really the only super year we had as a married couple. The next two we were so busy as HFC's and jumping through TWI hoops that it wasn't as great a marriage as it could have been despite being in love. TWI commitments and demands kept coming inbetween us.
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Bramble
We saw several divorces through the mid to late nineties that hadleadership/counseling were involvement. At that time, I knew if we had to get 'counseled' for our marital or other problems, our marriage wouldn't make it.
After we left we were listed for a time on the cortwright finder--and two couples who had left a few years before we did, from the same fellowship, contacted us to tell us how the HFC worked to sow division between the couple. Both those couples are still married a decade later, btw. This HFC and wife are like a cancer, destroying lives in the name of their God and ministry...still in good standing in TWI. And the local leadership above them either is in cahoots with them or just blindly does not see...
I know of another couple who were their asst HFC's --like we were--who were involved in the fellowship after we left...they are divorced now, too.
You would think SOMEONE would notice, but in the shut up atmosphere of TWi, these folks just carry on.
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jkboehme
In my opinion the 'exactness factor' fits the description that Dr. Robert J. Lifton referred to as "sacred science.'"
The following paragraphs are from Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism…
Embolding, underlining, italics, [ ], & blue highlights are my additions for emphasis or clarification / jkb.
The "Sacred Science"
The totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic dogma [ie, the 'Word' of 'God' is the 'Will' of 'God,' & the 'Man of God,' our 'Father in the Word,' miraculously 'explains' the TWI-defined Word without so much as an hint of PI], holding it out as an ultimate moral vision [ie 'Word over the World'] for the ordering of human existence. This sacredness is evident in the prohibition (whether or not explicit) against the questioning of basic assumptions, and in the reverence which is demanded for the originators of the 'Word,' the present bearers of the 'Word,' and the 'Word' itself. While thus transcending ordinary concerns of logic, however, the milieu at the same time makes an exaggerated claim of airtight logic, of absolute "scientific" precision [the 'Word' works with a mathematical exactness & scientific precision, the 'Word' fits like a hand in a glove, etc.]. Thus the ultimate moral vision becomes an ultimate science; and the man who dares to criticize it, or to harbor even unspoken alternative ideas, becomes not only immoral and irreverent, but also "unscientific." In this way, the philosopher kings [eg, VPW, LCM, RFR] of modern ideological totalism reinforce their authority by claiming to share in the rich and respected heritage of natural science.
The assumption here is not so much that man can be God, but rather that man's ideas can be God: that an absolute science of ideas (and implicitly, an absolute science of man) exists, or is at least very close to being attained; that this science can be combined with an equally absolute body of moral principles; and that the resulting doctrine is true for all men at all times. Although no ideology goes quite this far in overt statement, such assumptions are implicit in totalist practice.
At the level of the individual, the totalist sacred science can offer much comfort and security. Its appeal lies in its seeming unification of the mystical and the logical modes of experience (in psychoanalytic terms, of the primary and secondary thought processes). For within the framework of the sacred science, and sweeping, non-rational "insights." Since the distinction between the logical and the mystical is, to begin with, artificial and man-made, an opportunity for transcending it can create an extremely intense feeling of truth. But the posture of unquestioning faith - both rationally and non-rationally derived - is not easy to sustain, especially if one discovers that the world of experience is not nearly as absolute as the sacred science claims it to be.
Yet so strong a hold can the sacred science achieve over his mental processes that if one begins to feel himself attracted to ideas which either contradict or ignore it, he may become guilty and afraid. His quest for knowledge is consequently hampered, since in the name of science he is prevented from engaging in the receptive search for truth which characterizes the genuinely scientific approach. And his position is made more difficult by the absence, in a totalist environment, of any distinction between the sacred and the profane: there is no thought or action which cannot be related to the sacred science. To be sure, one can usually find areas of experience outside its immediate authority; but during periods of maximum totalist activity (like thought reform) any such areas are cut off, and there is virtually no escape from the milieu's ever-pressing edicts and demands.
Whatever combination of continued adherence, inner resistance, or compromise co-existence the individual person adopts toward this blend of counterfeit science and back-door religion, it represents another continuous pressure toward personal closure, toward avoiding, rather than grappling with, the kinds of knowledge and experience necessary for genuine self-expression and for creative development.
Dr. Margaret Singer, Ph.D., explains another aspect of the 'exactness factor' or 'sacred science' in her book, Cults in Our Midst.
Naturalistic trance induction demonstrates how ordinary words, conversational style, and careful pacing & leading of an interaction [eg, of a TWI teaching session] can bring one person to the point of being able to 'secure the cooperation' of another person without using pressure, high-demand announcements, or commands [ie, not physically coercive, but definitely coercive packaged persuasion].
Even when trances per se are not produced, the activities of skilled cult leaders capitalize on the essential ingredients of pacing and leading, exploiting positive transference, & making indirect suggestions, all of which are central to the process and experience of trance [reveries, bedazzlement, and transfixion, etc.].
The techniques can seem innocuous, at first. Some of them - guided imagery, for instance - may actually be familiar from a relaxation class or a self-help audiocassette. In the wrong hands, however, these techniques can do an astonishing amount of harm.
"Trance-induction," Singer explains, is brought about by "a high central focus of attention or concentration [eg,by TWI on very detailed topics, such as 4 crucified, the day JC died, the 4 sessions of hyperfocus on ICor12-14, the AC definitions of the manifestations with all of the supportive scriptural narrative, etc.] which leads to diminished peripheral awareness. It can be achieved through various methods, and it's a means by which one person gets the complete attention of another."
Closed-eye exercises, a form of guided imagery, can be one of the most powerful trance-induction tools used in workshops. With the sense of sight deadened, customers are more attuned to the voice of the seminar leader. While this sounds innocent - sports psychologists enlist Olympic athletes in guided imagery exercises - the potential for abuse is great when the object of the exercise is not, say, running a faster 100-meter dash.
Take a few days without proper rest, add a regimen of closed-eye exercises, and anyone can become vulnerable to suggestion, "You're simply flooded with emotion," observes Singer. "The trainers usually get you to think of all your most powerful memories, under the guise of somehow conquering your past." After several days of being "dragged down into the pits", says Singer, "the final day of exercises is usually designed to pump you up. By this time, customers usually just sort of drool and follow the leader. A false sense of community and camaraderie has developed. By now, they do everything they can to give you the 'warm fuzzies,' so that you'll sign up for the next course."
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