Actions, practices, behaviors, deeds, & conduct are regulated by law in the USA.
Beliefs are protected as long as one doesn't ACT on potentially harmful beliefs.
TWI as an operating strategy routinely utilized harmful & injurious conduct as standard practice.
Now what does the law of the land say? See God vs. The Gavel by Dr. Marci Hamilton.
In order to save your time, you will want to first focus on the two most pertinent chapters, which are chapters 8 & 9 (pages 203 – 272).
Chapter 8: Boerne v. Flores {pp. 203 – 237 with Conclusion on pp. 235 – 237}.
The net result of the Boerne decision was to foreclose religious’ entities arguments that religious motivation should absolve religious actors of neutral laws governing their conduct. The burden rests on the religious believers demanding exemption from a law to prove that the conduct sought to be immunized is not harmful to the society and individuals in it. In Employment Division v. Smith, it is seen that correct reading of the Free Exercise Clause is that an individual’s religious beliefs do NOT excuse him or her from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the State is free to regulate.
Chapter 9: The Decline of Special Treatment of Religious Entities & the Rise of the No-Harm Rule {pp. 238 – 272 with Conclusion on pp. 271 – 272}.
The elimination of religious sovereign power by definition made religious institutions private, and therefore on a more equal footing with other private entities. The constitutionally relevant question is NOT what is best for any ‘church’ – indeed that question is forbidden by the neutrality principle underlying the Establishment Clause. The proper question instead IS whether the liberty accorded is consonant with the no-harm principle. As the no-harm principle has developed over the centuries, it has become an insuperable barrier for the claim that the Constitution can or should place religious entities above the law.
Why not put every response of yours on ALL of the threads, that way you will be assured everyone will see each one, no matter what thread someone might stray in at a particular moment.
Belle------Oh, MY GOD!! You have said something I have been holding in for 5yrs......I cannot help from crying right now......this is way to much!! No body knows what we went thru, those who stayed in..forget it, I refuse to hold in what I feel or say..........Im on over load right now, cause the mere 'Catholic Religion' imposed us!!!B^&%$#ht
OM..You who would not want to say to meface to face,..... it became a CATHOLIC RELIGION!!!!!!!!!Im gona get sick!!!!!!!!
now I have snapped..
Penquin- I believe the proper word is TERRAZO- FROZEN in FEAR. The roar of the LION..LCM himself. Be not afraid of sudden fear....I understand this in its totality..i DO BELIEVE THIS is HOW FEAR WORKS. LCM also had his roar that froze people..
Yet another manner in which to view TWI’s thought reform processes involves a study conducted in 1984 at the University of Oregon, the PISCES Study(acronym for Project on Information & Social Change). One of the cultic groups studied in this project was TWI specifically. The tabular data can most easily accessed in the appendices of the book, Snappping, by Conway & Siegelman. The project director was Dr. Carl W. Carmichael, Ph.D. Another noted researcher was Dr. Gary Cronkhite, Ph.D. The chief statistician was Mr. John C. Coggins. The hypothesisof the study was that cult indoctrination techniques produce deficits in [mental] information processing that should be identifiable at both cognitive & neurophysiological levels.
On the cognitive level, cultic intense indoctrination was shown to produce such psychopathologic harm/damages as: PTSD, dissociative disorder, anxiety, depression, panic, insomnia, nightmares, unexplained anger, aggressiveness, & suicidal ideations. Specifically regarding TWI, the long-term detrimental effects noted were: anger, depression, loneliness, guilt, humiliation, insomnia, hostility to one’s personal family, fear of harm by the group, & violent outbursts. The cultic intense indoctrination practices were theorized to adversely affect various neurotransmitters in study participants. A decreased level of serotonin was logically inferred, the lack of which causes depression. Increased levels of opiate-like endorphins which can cause emotional numbing were also inferred. Increased levels of opiate-like enkephalins, which can induce the experience of cultic ‘floating’ and dissociative states were inferred as well. Certain enzyme levels were theorized to increase as well, most notably CALPAIN.
This enzyme, calpain, when activated, can dissolve existing neuronal connections in the brain, as can various other neuromodulators. This activity takes place in normal “learning.” However, in the context of extreme cultic oppressive indoctrination, excess amounts of enzymatic calpain & other ‘learning/unlearning’ neuromodulators can loosen the synaptic fabric of the neuropil, opening the way to the actual dissolution of beliefs, & essentially destroy personally needful/useful/desirable/ neuronal synaptic connections (which define one’s true historical experiential self) & replace them with new, cult-generated synaptic connections (on both the microscopic individual neuronal level as well as the larger, mesoscopic neural population level = specialized neural pathways). Here again, in the PISCES model as well, one can see the personally undesirable production of a non-consented, unintended, pseudo-personality & pseudo-identity.
At least 3 subsequent follow-up studies confirmed the findings of the PISCES study.
Dr. Flavil R. Yeakley, Jr, Ph.D, edited a text entitled, The Discipling Dilemma, published in 1988, dealing with psychological and emotional damages sustained by cultic adherents that he studied between 1985 and 1988. At the time of the study, Yeakley was the director of the Church Growth Institute at AbileneChristianUniversity. A selected chapter from this text was reproduced with permission by the American Family Foundation in their publication, The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ, published in 1996. One of the comparative studies [done within the larger context of the overall study regarding the Boston Church of Christ] specifically dealt with The Way International.
The psychological assessment instrument which he utilized for the study was the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator [MBTI]. The study was amazingly enough requested by the leadership of the Boston Church of Christ [bCC] in order to document their rapid growth. They had specifically chosen him because he was a well respected and qualified church growth researcher. Nonetheless, Dr. Yeakley was quite aware of the criticisms directed against the BCC.
The central element in the criticism that has been directed at BCC and other cults [Dr. Yeakley uses the term, “manipulative sects,” to obviate offending the purchasers of the study] has been the charge that these cults routinely employ ‘methods’ [techniques, strategies, deception, exploitation] that produce unnatural and unhealthy personality changes in cultic victims.
A person’s true psychological type is inborn. A person’s true type does not change. Changes in psychological type do not indicate normal healthy growth. Such changes indicate some dangerous ‘pressure’ [coercive packaged persuasion in addition to covert implanted hypnotic suggestions] in the environment that ‘causes’ people to ‘deny’ their true type [true historical self] and try to become like someone else [the cultic pseudo-personality or pseudo-identity]. What are the implications of these non-physically coercive, manipulative, exploitative mind controlling practices?
Various psychologists have made startling comments as to the effects of this undesired, non-consented personality change. In the MBTI manual itself, Mary McCaulley states, “…that when external influences cause falsification of type, emotional difficulties will follow…” Dr. Carl Jung, whose psychological theories form the basis of the MBTI, noted in his Psychological Types, “… As a rule, whenever falsification of type takes place as a result of external influences, the individual becomes neurotic later…A reversal of type often proves exceedingly harmful to the physiological well-being of the organism, often provoking an acute state of exhaustion…”
This neuroticism can take the form of neurotic anxiety and/or depression, of which PTSD would be a subtype of anxiety. A state of emotional exhaustion and emotional depletion (psychic numbing—depersonalization, de-realization, post-cultic dissociation) are frequently involved in the complex of PTSD.
Dr. Yeakley found that long-term members in cults showed a startlingly high degree of personality change with a clear pattern of convergence toward a single type of personality. He went on to comment on related aspects of this victimizing phenomenon. The cults desire conformity, not diversity, as one would find in main-line denominations. Cults tend to make people over after the image of the cultic group leader, the group norm, or what the cultic group regards as the ideal personality. Such pressure of coercive persuasion to falsify personality type is one the reasons for the psychological damage often experienced by cultic members.
These cultic victims are manipulated by being made to feel guilty for being what they really are and to feel inferior for not being what the group wants them to be. As the gap between the real self [the true historical self] and the pretended self [the cultic induced pseudo-self] grows wider apart, the self-esteem of these members sinks lower and lower. They become frustrated and depressed. They may develop serious emotional problems. They may become so dependent on the control exercised by the cultic leaders that they engage in irrational behaviors. The data prove that there is an unhealthy group dynamic operating in the ‘congregation’ that coercively pressures members to change their personalities to conform to the group norm.
Dr. Yeakley went on to describe these detrimental changes “…Results of the psychological type study among members of the BCC [and TWI] clearly indicate that something is causing their members to deny their true type and try to become copies of someone else…There is something in the discipling methodology [non-consented thought reform, coercive persuasion, packaged persuasion] producing this unhealthy pattern. Whatever it is [unethical & probably illegal coercive pressue], it should be changed…They [leadership] cannot deny that the psychological type scores are changing and converging in a single type. They cannot deny that the members are being made over after the image of the group norm. They cannot deny that the discipling methodology is producing this effect…”
Several former BCC leaders, now pastors, echo these same complaints and observations, noting that “…Pastors like myself [scott Green audiotape in 1990 in a conference re BCC] have spent large amounts of time over the past 15 years picking up the pieces of broken lives that resulted from distortion of truth by extreme teachings and destructive applications on discipleship, authority, and sheperding…”
Dr. Yeakley went on to conclude, “…You need to be able to reach and restore the many dropouts who will be harmed psychologically and spiritually by their participation in this movement [including TWI]. The time when these problems are most likely to develop is when the young people in this movement [or TWI] reach midlife. Falsification of psychological type (trying to change your personality to imitate that of another) produces a serious mid-life crisis. There will be major burn-out problems, serious depression, and a variety of other psychological and spiritual problems to resolve…”
Interestingly enough, the inside cover flap of the book of the used book I purchased has the name “Martindale” in a very recognizable handwriting. Among numerous other reasons, this is just another reason I think that LCM {& VPW previously} knew exactly what he was doing in utilizing TWI’s injurious methods of thought reform and packaged persuasion to induce ‘waybrain.’
By the way, I purchased the book from one of the Amazon Z-shops. Also on the inside cover flap is a sticker, “purchased from CAN Cult Awareness Network, Chicago, IL…” We know that CAN was purchased by a certain large cult after they litigated the original CAN into bankruptcy. TWI was known to give a large donation to this cult to get de-listed from the CAN list of dangerous cults. Therefore I find it all the more interesting to note the name ‘Martindale’ on the inside flap of this book!
Hi, jkb - this has been a very interesting thread, & your last post really got to me. I have been wondering, is it possible to return to one's true self? How? And how would you know?
jkboehme... you are putting into words ....what I have been struggling to say for years....
In twi, I always felt like I was being forced into a mold that I didn`t fit in....from the time I was 17 yrs old...I wasn`t allowed to be me....to like the things I wanted to like...the things I wanted to do were unacceptable..education...volunteer work.......books I liked....the friends I was allowed ....family involvement ...all were deemed unspiritual and a means of distraction by satan to keep me from doing the *word* ....the things that piqued my interest were unimimportant.
Everything I was....my dreams my goals....my values......were supressed....silenced... stuffed away somewhere deep inside and forgotten.
Free soul, WELCOME!!! I don`t know if you want any imput from me....but I`ll tell you that for the last 5 years I have indulged in my every whim....everything that was stuffed in a box and hidden away...I study karate....I train horses with my daughter....we ride...the kids and I hunt artifacts and fossels and are passionate about learning of the history of our valley......I intend on taking art classes as my next project...in fact ANYTHING that was once frowned upon or deemed unspiritual.......these explorations of my personal interests....seem to have been instrumental in recovering of the real *me*
Pavlov’s ultra-paradoxical transmarginal inhibition clearly demonstrates that extraordinary & coercive “ordeals” (either psychological/emotional &/or physical) endured by individuals can selectively break down the stability of a person’s mental architecture such that beliefs, values, personal goals, social attitudes are totally dissolved. This then opens the way [for The Way, TWI] to covertly supply ‘growth’ of a ‘new’ (hypnotically implanted) intentional structure.
A significant aspect of Pavlovian ‘learning,’ (also termed subliminal conditioning) is one ‘learns’ without being aware of either the process or its causally related outcome, nor can one recall the process!! These types of Pavlovian “memories” are therefore said to be implicit, as opposed to the normal explicit memories formed in association with the limbic system which can be easily recalled.
I believe a significant portion of both the PFAL (originally by VPW but the Advanced Class as ‘updated’ by LCM) & WAP (by LCM) TWI class series purposefully incorporate these Pavlovian methods. This detrimental learning is then reinforced by frequent utilization of the same or similar techniques by: weekly STS (Sunday teaching service) tapes; the bimonthly Way Magazine; Twigs or Household Fellowships that meet multiple times weekly; TWI special events & classes; extremely authoritarian hyper-legalistic leadership, especially at the BOT/BOD level; and exit-phobia induction, among numerous other techniques of covertly packaged persuasion and non-consented thought reform.
Just got a letter from STFI (CES), informing me that John Lynn will be in my territory on December 14, for a teaching, in a fellowship.
I was thinking of going, but geeze, seeing as you spoke about the psychological dangers of twi doctrines, many of which STFI still believes: mental injuries accompanied with all this, thought reform, group think, brainwashing by a pseudo-spiritual counterfeit entrepreneur, psychic numbing depersonalization in favor of the group, being made to feel inferior, repression of personal beliefs, etc etc.
I'm afraid of being hynotized with repackaged paganism of Pavlovian learning, all over again...
I am guessing that he would apply it that way, Oldies, judging from his posts so far. But it would be unfair not to emphasize that I am guessing, so I won't stand pat on that answer, but will gladly stand corrected if he says otherwise.
Here are a few more of my opinions regarding TWI's unethical methods.
Next I would like to explain my understanding of the psychology of exploitativepersuasion, the dynamics of extreme, covertsocialinfluence techniques. This material is largely taken from the book, INFLUENCE: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Professor Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. In essence, most if not all of these cultic exploitative techniques actually work to a large degree because they utilize the precept of an exploiter utilizing the ability to manipulate people individually & collectively without the appearance of manipulation. In other words, the secret to the exploiters success is the deceiving secrecy of his moves.
The exploiter attempts to feign genuine concern for people but in actuality it is a counterfeit of genuine, unconditional love. The exploiter is forever adapting himself to the current sociological circumstances to maintain respectability & relevance. Hence the cultic exploiter is parasitic in nature; he hides behind the cloak of religious respectability & supposed altruism, always looking to parasitize the good in a given culture in order to satisfy cloaked selfish interests.
The principles of extreme social influence essentially revolve around six basic precepts & their subtypes—reciprocation, consistency, social proof, authority, liking, & scarcity. The enormous psychological & social force of these coercive persuasion techniques can be commissioned by a cultic compliance professional, such as VPW &/or LCM, who deceivingly & deftly incorporates these techniques into “requests” (‘hypnoid’ suggestions, implication & indirection, cloaked demands, etc.) for unswerving obedience and submission, assent, concessions, commitment, financial donations, etc. Each of these techniques has an intrinsic ability to produce a kind of automatic compliancefrom people, that is, a non-physical coercion to say “yes.” Evidence suggests that the ever-accelerating pace & informational crush of modern life (that essentially has been the case since the 1960’s) will make this particular form of manipulated compliance more & more prevalent. Beware of automatic influence in the hands of cultic compliance professionals such as TWI!
Humans have preprogrammed both lower level (limbic system) & higher level (neocortical) based fixed action patterns to certain types of environmental stimuli that were ostensibly built into us for the sake of efficiency & survival value. Although these essentially non-conscious action patterns typically work to our advantage, the triggering environmental feature that activates them can be used by an unethical cultic compliance professional {such as TWI} to covertly & without informed consent dupe us into following our innate tendencies.
A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor {such as a request to attend a ‘nice TWI meeting’} we will be more successful if we provide a ‘reason.’ In essence, the word “because” triggers an automatic compliance response from us. Another example is the abuse of the cultural truism that “you get what you pay for.’’ This can be perverted to influence people to wrongly perceive, especially when they have limited knowledge of a product {such as PFAL, WAP, TWI}, that “expensive = good.” {This is why on another thread we see price changes for the PFAL class as VPW was experimenting with the most ‘efficacious’ marketing techniques.} Therefore ‘price’ alone can become a trigger for supposed quality. Price can be expressed in terms of money, contribution of money or time to a cause, heightened levels of commitment, etc. The pseudo-spiritual leadership cadre of TWI knows the ‘price’ of everything but the value of nothing!
Automatic stereotyped behavior is prevalent in much of human action, because in many cases it is the most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it would appear to be just simply necessary. We exist in an extraordinarily complicated stimulus environment, easily the most rapidly moving & complex that has ever existed on this planet. To deal with this complexity efficiently & effectively, we have to have shortcuts. We must very often use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb to classify things according to a few (apparent) key features & then to respond mindlessly when one or another of these triggering features is present. However, not even the best stereotypes & trigger features work to our survival advantage every time. But we accept their imperfection since there is really no other efficient choice. We have to increasingly depend on our shortcuts, which are exploitable by cultic compliance professionals such as TWI, to handle our complex stimulus environment.
We unfortunately have in our midst exploitative, cultic compliance professionals such as TWI who deceivingly mimic trigger features for both limbic & neocortical based automatic responding. Our automatic responses usually develop from psychological principles or stereotypes that we have ‘learned’ to accept, or that are innate in non-conscious brain systems. Although they vary in their force, some of these unethical & manipulative influence techniques possess a tremendous ability to direct human action.
However, in the eyes of an exploitative cultic compliance professional such as TWI, each of these principles is a detectable & ready weapon—a weapon of covert automatic influence. Cultic compliance professionals know very well where in the psychosocial milieu the weapons of covert automatic influence lie & employ them deceptively, regularly, & expertly to greedily grab who & what they want. They go from social encounter to social encounter “requesting” others to comply with their wishes, reeling in a dazzling frequency of exploitative “successes.”
The secret of their effectiveness lies in the way they structure their requests. To do this may take no more than one correctly chosen word that engages a strong psychological principle and covertly triggers automatic behavior in victims. This type of deception falls under the category of oratory & rhetoric, or in religious terms, homiletics, a field that VPW claimed was his main area of expertise.
There is a phenomenal way in which the weapons of covert automatic social influence lend their force to those cultic compliance professionals who use them. This process is very sophisticated, subtle, deceptive, exploitative, & covert. With proper execution, the exploiters need hardly strain a muscle to get their way. All that is required is to trigger the great stores of potential influence that already exist in the situation and direct them toward the intended target. The exploiters can commission the power of these weapons for use against their targets while exerting little personal force. This last feature of the process allows the exploiters an enormous additional benefit—the ability to manipulate without the appearance of manipulation.Even uninformed victims themselves tend to see their compliance as determined by the action of natural forces rather than by the subterfuge & deceptive designs of the cultic leader who profits from that compliance. Did you read that last sentence, OM?
An example may help to clarify these principles. There is a principle in human perception, the contrast principle, which affects the way we see the difference between two things that are presented one after another. Simply put, if the second item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it as more different than it actually is. The contrast principle is well established in the field of psychophysiology and applies to all categories of perceptions, including religious manipulations. The compliance professional who employs the principle can “cash in” on its influence without any appearance of having structured the situation in their favor. It is much more profitable for the cultic compliance professional to “present” an ‘expensive’ item first (such as, make a commitment to take TWI class xyz) & then present less expensive items (oh, by the way, we also require you to do so & so in order to be a part of this class).
Reciprocation. The social rule of reciprocation states that we should try to repay, in kind {financial contributions, extensive time commitments, obedience to leadership, etc}, what another person {VPW, LCM, TWI} has provided us. It is the future orientation inherent in a sense of obligation that is critical to its ability to produce covert automatic compliance. By virtue of the reciprocity rule we are obligated to the future repayment of favors, gifts, invitations, etc. Because there is a general societal distaste for those who take & make no effort to give in return, we will often go to great lengths to avoid being considered ingratuitous or stingy. It is to those lengths that we will often be “taken in” by or duped by exploitative individuals {VPW, LCM, etc} or groups {TWI}. TWI largely would appear to prefer guilt & fear enhanced reciprocal obligation.
The rule of reciprocation possesses awesome strength, often producing a ‘yes’ response to a “request” (cloaked demand, post trance suggestions, etc) that, except for an existing feeling of indebtedness, would have surely been refused. People whom we might ordinarily dislike (such as the Corn Wizard, VPW, or, such as King Oakie, LCM)—unsavory or unwelcome ‘sales’ (cultic recruiting) operations, disagreeable acquaintances, representatives of strange or unpopular organizations (such as a Bible-based cult, viz. TWI)—can greatly increase the chance that we will do what they wish merely by providing us with a small favor prior to their requests.
For example, VPW stated in the PFAL class that he was teaching us God’s Word like it had not been known since the first century A.D. apostolic times. The implication & indirection is that is was such a privilege to be hearing such supposed Biblical exposition. Therefore, it was not in the least disconcerting for exploitative VPW, in the closing moments of the PFAL foundational class, to request of us to stay committed to ‘God’ by way of The Way Ministry & The Man of God for our day & time, VPW. After all, we now ‘ owed it,’ by reciprocal obligation, to VPW, who of course was the only current true apostolic man of God of our day, time, & hour (that is, until loy boy came along).
Another example would be the “free sample” given to us, consisting of supposed ancient Biblical knowledge at one of our first TWI Twig or Household fellowship meetings. The exploitative beauty of the apparent free sample is that it is also a ‘gift’ and, as such, engages the reciprocity rule. The cult then covertly endeavors gradually & incrementally over time to increase one’s commitment level to TWI by way of: ‘admonishment’ to never miss a TWIG; ‘encouragement’ to take more & more TWI classes; ‘exhortation’ to attend TWI retreats (“Advances” in TWI loaded language terminology); ‘advice’ to only consider living with other TWI adherents; ‘advice’ to participate in all manner of TWI ‘programs;’ etc.
In these TWI programs one makes his new commitment public & now one perceives the ‘need’ to justify this new totalistic cosmology by way of one’s outward commitment being consistent with his implicit beliefs. Then, out of the dungeons of TWI honed distortion, comes the covert agenda, a cultic heart of darkness, shrouded in the ‘surprise package’ of thought reform / coercive persuasion/ intense indoctrination.
The deployable agency aspect of TWI is also of concern due to the apparent legal distance it puts between the true source of the scam, VPW/LCM/TWI BOT/BOD, and any of its deployable agent adherents {Way Corps Branch Coordinator, etc} in one’s local area, who themselves, for the most part, have also been duped & victimized. Hence, the reciprocity rule especially governs situations of a purely interpersonal nature, where the central issue is the deepest of (mis-)placed trust. It is in the context of deep trust where trance & hypnosis are very effective thought reforming techniques.
An exploitative person can trigger a feeling of indebtedness by doing one an uninvited ‘favor,’ as noted above. This is because there is an obligation to give, and obligation to receive, and an obligation to repay. It is the obligation to receive that makes the rule so easy to exploit. The obligation to receive reduces our ability to choose whom we wish to be indebted to & puts that power in the hands of the exploiter. There is an important asymmetry in this type of interaction: all of the genuinely ‘free choices’ were made initially & de novo by the exploiter (he chooses the form of the initial favor & more importantly he chooses the form of the return favor). To say “no” to such uninvited favors requires the victim to go against the normative cultural forces at work in the interactive dynamic. Thus, there is an extremely strong cultural pressure to reciprocate a gift, even an unwanted one; but there is no such pressure to purchase what one perceives to be an unwanted ‘commercial’ product. This is why TWI’s corporate organization, the Way Tree, is a scam with a veneer of a non-commercial, supposedly ‘spiritual product.’
The reciprocity rule can trigger unfair exchanges. A small initial ‘favor’ can produce a sense of obligation to agree to a substantially larger return favor. The reciprocity rule allows the exploiter to choose the nature of the indebting first favor and the nature of the debt-canceling return favor; therefore, one can easily be manipulated by the exploiter into extremely unequal exchanges. There is a distinctly unpleasant character to the feeling of indebtedness; it is highly undesirable to be in a state of obligation; it weighs heavily upon us and demands to be removed; we are uncomfortable when beholden in the saddle of obligation.
In combination, the reality of the feelings (deriving from one’s limbic system) ofinternal discomfort and the possibility of external shaming & embarrassment produce an extremely heavy psychological cost that most of us cannot or are unwilling to bear. Therefore, for these reasons, the natural inclination is for one to agree to perform a larger favor than one has received, merely to ‘relieve’ ourselves of the psychological burden of indebtedness, & the subsequent despair of guilt should we not be able to repay in kind, ‘boomst, quick.’ For a good example, see the TWI exploitative ‘free sample’ technique noted above.
There is a second way to employ the reciprocity rule to get someone to comply with a request; it is more subtle than the direct route of providing a person with a favor & then asking for one in return. Interestingly, in some ways it is even more devastatingly effective than the straight-forward approach. Another consequence of the reciprocity rule is an obligation to make a concession to someone who has made a concession to us. This is especially true when a cultic exploiter such as TWI apparently retreats from a larger to a smaller request/favor giving the false impression of a concession. This compliance technique is often termed the ‘rejection-then-retreat’ technique. In some circles it might be termed ‘talking the top of the line (first).’ It is a modified ‘bait & switch’ scam going from larger to smaller (via the aid of the perceptual contrast principle), rather than from the usual con of smaller to larger.
The larger the initial request, the more effective the deception, since there would be more room available for illusory concessions. The truly sociopathic, megalomaniac cultic leaders, such as VPW & LCM, are the ones whose initial position is exaggerated enough to allow for a series of reciprocal concessions that will yield a desirable final offer from the victimized party, yet the initial request is not so outlandish as to be perceived as illegitimate from the very start. This TWI cult-desired perception is of course engendered by a constant, systematic manipulation of as many exploitative individual psychological & collective social coercive influence techniques that can be mustered at any given point in time. Have ‘holy book’; will hypnotize. Have transcendental glossolalial experiences; will trance you out. Have counterfeit comfort; will classically condition you (& implant just a little, non-recallable implicit information) ala Pavlov. Have reciprocal concession; will catastrophize your meager mind which is mush in the manaclesof VPW &/or LCM. You get the picture?
A weapon of covert automatic influence can infuse a compliance request with its power. The reciprocation rule brings about mutual concession in two ways. First, it coercively pressures the recipient of an already-made concession to respond in kind. The second method or wile, while not as blatant, is pivotally important. Just as in the case of favors, gifts, or supposed ‘spiritual assistance,’ the obligation to reciprocate a concession encourages the creation of what would otherwise be a socially desirable arrangement which ensures that anyone who is seeking to start such an arrangement would not be exploited. After all, if there were no normative, social obligation to reciprocate a concession, who would want to make the first, foolish ‘sacrifice’? To do so would be to risk giving up something & getting absolutely nothing in return. However, when knowledgeable, cultic compliance professionals such as VPW/LCM start the deceptively strategic, reciprocal concession process rolling, exploitation is all but guaranteed & assured.
One reason for the success of the rejection-then-retreat technique is its intrinsic incorporation of the reciprocity rule. This larger-then-smaller-request strategy is effective for other exploitative reasons as well. The first reason involves the perceptual contrast principle previously mentioned. One of the wicked beauties of this TWI stratagem is that by first requesting something larger and then retreating to something smaller, one will have simultaneously engaged the force of the reciprocity rule and the contrast principle. In combination, the covert social influences of reciprocity and perceptual contrast technique can present a fearsomely powerful force. Embodied in the rejection-then-retreat sequence, their conjoined, synergistic energies are capable of genuinely astonishing effects.
Another example of reciprocity (along with the principle of feigned affability, or in the ‘appropriate’ circumstance, ‘love bombing’) in strategic operation in TWI was utilized in so-called door-to-door witnessing. The percentage of successful door-to-door encounters increases impressively when the ‘sales operator’ (i.e., cultic recruiter) is able to mention the names of familiar persons who “recommended” the sales visit {The same holds true for a celebrity who generally endorses the ‘product,’ even though the celebrity does not personally know the person being witnessed to. TWI did have a few celebrities such as professional athletes. By the way, the repetitive promotional pairing of a ‘celebrity,’ such as Terry Bradshaw, with TWI for marketing & advertising purposes is also a manipulative example of the Pavlovian conditioning-association principle.
TWI recruiters were thus trained {in local TWI fellowships, at WOW training, at the Way College of Emporia (at WCOE the official curricular nomenclature was ‘Christian Motivational Techniques’ or ‘mo tech’)} to take advantage of the opportunity to secure referrals offered by a potential adherent’s ‘purchase refusal.’ The cultic recruiting encounter might go something like this. “Well, if it is your feeling, Mr./Ms. So and so, that this most wonderful class on {PFAL, WAP} is somehow just not right for you at this particular time, perhaps you could help me by giving me the names of some others who wish to take advantage of TWI’s tremendous offer; what would be the names of some of these people you know?” As many long-term, victims of TWI know all too well, many individuals who would not otherwise subject their friends and family members to a high-pressure sales presentation do agree to supply referrals when the request is presented as a concession from a ‘purchase request’ they have just refused.
Given the remarkable effectiveness of the rejection-then-retreat technique, one might think that there could be a substantial disadvantage as well. The victims of this strategy might resent having been cornered into compliance. The resentment could show itself in a couple of ways. First, the victim might decide not to live up to the verbal agreement made with the exploiter. Second, the victim might come to distrust the manipulative exploiter, deciding never to deal with him again. If either of both of these events occurred with any frequency, an exploiter would want to give serious second thought to the use of the rejection-then-retreat procedure.
Research indicates, however, that these victim reactions do not occur with increased frequency when the rejection-then-retreat technique is used. Somewhat astonishingly, it appears that they actually occur less frequently! It seems that this rejection-then-retreat exploitative tactic unconsciously spurs people not only to agree to a desired exploitative request but to actually carry out the manipulative request, and, finally, to “volunteer” to perform further even more so exploitative requests.
There is a little known pair of positive by-products of the act of concession: feelings of greater perceived‘responsibility’ for, and perceived satisfaction with, the arrangement. It is this set of deceptive side effects that enables the technique to move its victims to not only fulfill the initial manipulative agreement but to unconsciously, with somewhat automatic response, engage in even more so egregiously exploitative arrangements, for which there has been no informed consent to do so. This is one reason TWI refers to its members as ‘volunteers’, especially “the Way Corps volunteers.”
A further explanation of the perceived responsibility and satisfaction principles will be helpful. In the context of the rejection-then-retreat / reciprocal concession / perceptual contrast schemes, it is the illusory perception of the victims that they have somehow caused the exploiter to change, i.e., that they have ‘somehow’ produced his concessions. The result is that victims feel more responsible for the final outcome of the negotiations. Hence the rejection-then-retreat technique possesses the uncanny ability to unconsciously and automatically cause the victim to live up to and meet the “commitments” that they have “made” to the exploiter, without informed consent.
Also, it appears that an arrangement that has been forged through the concessions of one’s bargaining opponent or exploiter is very typically quite satisfying. Since this TWI strategy uses concession to bring about compliance, the victim is likely to feel more satisfied with the manipulated arrangement as a result. It then stands to reason that people who are satisfied with a given arrangement are more likely to be willing to agree to further such even greater exploitative arrangements. TWI’s whole persuasive influence process is so insidious and gradual that over time a person’s entire life becomes enmeshed within TWI’s covert agenda of exploitative manipulation, via strategically coordinated programs of psycho-social packaged persuasion.
Once one has determined that the initial offer of the bargaining opponent was not benevolent but an unequivocally exploitative compliance strategy, one need only react to it accordingly to be somewhat freed of the conscious elements of its captivating influence (to become free of the unconscious dimension of the problem may require professional psychological assistance). As long as one perceives and defines the exploiter’s actions as a compliance device instead of a spiritually benevolent act, the exploiter no longer has the reciprocation principle as an ally. The reciprocation principle states that acts of altruistic benevolence are to be met with favors of a response in kind according to the ability of the recipient.
You didn't answer my previous question about what the doctrines of true Christianity were.
Since you labelled twi doctrines as repackaged paganism, i.e the counterfeit, I thought you might share with the uneducated, what the genuine is.
Do you believe Christian doctrine at all?
How about the offshoots?
Does your stuff apply to them too?
I really need to know before I visit John Lynn, to guard against a possible attempted onslaught of neurological damage.
OM,
After being out for about 7years, I went to a few meetings from other offshoots. One in Weston Fla, near where I live, A Vince Finnigan ministry and the other was with John Shroyer CFF. They both were almost exactly like twi. Same beliefs but not all the hype and legalism. They still teach from VPW's doctrine, but are very against Martindale. Very layed back and super nice. They are basically newly generated twi's. I hope I'm not offending anyone, but I was not going to get sucked up in that way of thinking again. It's been 13 years now and my family and I go to a non- denom. church. For some reason I feel safe there, but still have my quard up at times.
As an aside here: You mentioned you have a book in your possession with the name "Martindale" in the front cover-- Loy does have an undergraduate degree in psychology. It is entirely possible you have one of his old textbooks.
This undergraduate degree means he knew enough about what he was doing to be pretty dangerous, at least in my opinion.
As a matter of fact, one night in Kenyon Hall, he gave the 6th Corps an interesting teaching on the subject of brainwashing and I believe what is termed as the "Stockholm syndrome." This was done in response I believe, to some of the accusations of anti-cult people that The Way was brainwashing their recruits.
This was my very first in depth teaching on the subject of brainwashing, and it came straight from the a$$ er.. the horse's mouth. Martindale taught that in the POW camps the overseers used psychological techniques to make the prisoners totally dependent upon them, and described how some prisoners would even develop an affection for AND EVEN DEFEND their captors. Also mentioned was how the captors constructed a prison cell actually in the mind of the prisoner, by consistently demonstrating to him that any attempt at escape would be futile, and that the prisoner could not exist without the captor. A parent/child type of mentality and relationship would develop, along with a destruction of motivation for the prisoner to even attempt to escape. So much so, that they could predict when a prisoner could actually be trusted to not even try to escape, even when the avenue was presented. Something they called "learned helplessness." Same principle used on dogs and the "electric fence" today. The dog gets shocked every time he tries to leave the yard. Eventually, you could take the collar off the dog and turn off the electricity, and the dog will remain in the yard, and not even a passing rabbit can tempt him to cross the line.
What is amazing is, we all sat there and listened to him teach this, and not one of us connected the dots to our own situation. All we could say was, and very confidently I might add-- no one was forcing us to stay in The Corps, we were there of our own free will, because we loved God and trusted VPW and LCM. No barbed wire around the campus or locks on the outsides of our doors keeping us there.
Just the ones in our brains...
Can you say........ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAPP!!!
" ...in the POW camps the overseers used psychological techniques to make the prisoners totally dependent upon them..."
In residence, for a prescribed period of time after first arriving, you were not allowed to have any outside contact with media at all: no newspapers, magazines, radio, or television. Anything we needed to know came from our overseers, and from them alone. Also, no musician was allowed to sing or play his or her instrument. No artist could pick up a brush, no writer a pen. All "creative" pursuits were curtailed.
"... and described how some prisoners would even develop an affection for AND EVEN DEFEND their captors..."
Nah, I won't mention any names here.
"...the captors constructed a prison cell actually in the mind of the prisoner, by consistently demonstrating to him that any attempt at escape would be futile, and that the prisoner could not exist without the captor."
How about for instance, "There's nothing else out there. No one else teaches the Word like this. The only thing awaiting those that 'cop out' is utter spiritual, financial, emotional, and physical devastation" and how about this one for a specific example: "You'll die a lonely old man, you'll be hobbled for life, and your daughter will become a stark raving lunatic".
"...A parent/child type of mentality and relationship would develop, along with a destruction of motivation for the prisoner to even attempt to escape. So much so, that they could predict when a prisoner could actually be trusted to not even try to escape, even when the avenue was presented. Something they called "learned helplessness."
A "faithful believer" will "stand steadfastly with the prevailing household of The Way" regardless of what his earthly family decides to do. He will not even consider attending an alternative bible fellowship or consider an opposing point of view when presented to him.
Here, hold still, just let me put this collar on you... it just has your name and address on it just in case you get lost....
As an aside here: You mentioned you have a book in your possession with the name "Martindale" in the front cover-- Loy does have an undergraduate degree in psychology. It is entirely possible you have one of his old textbooks.
____________________________
Catcup,
Great insights!
Actually the date of publication of Dr. Yeakley's book, The Discipling Dilemma, was 1988. Therefore, post fog, my opinion is that martinpuke was looking for new methods and means of coercive persuasion that TWI up to that point had not focused on as much as other aspects of thought reform. Yeakley's book may well be a significant informational source from which martinpuke developed some of the hyper-legalistic parameters of TWI-II.
Catcup is right. Learned Helplessness is a very accurate term refering to twit world.
I remember my first attempt to go to a church--I sat in the parking lot for 20-30 minutes almost paralyzed with fear before I would go in. Gee! Then I found out there really was "something else" out there and that the "something else" was in many aspects oh so much greater than twi!
Oldies,
I never said people weren't welcome to pursue what they wanted. But it is very obvious that for a "Christian" organization, twi doesn't do or act very Christ-like! I think no one realizes twi for what it is really is UNTIL after they leave and step away if they ever get brave enough to do it.
Hi Rascal, thanks for the input! I understand about getting involved in stuff that interests me, I just either can't move forward with it, or I start something & then don't follow through. It's like being terrified of committing to anything. Always with one foot out the door, & if I do say yes to something I then find any way I can to get out of it. But, this thread is not about my neuroses.
JKB, thank you for all this info. It has been a lot to absorb. I've been beating myself up for some time for being so stupid as to have been involved in a cult. And there is no doubt in my mind that it was & is a cult. Same for the offshoots, at least the ones I was involved with. But we weren't stupid, just vulnerable in different ways, & twi sought to appeal to whatever our "need" (vulnerable area) was, whether to be loved or to have our ego stroked by being part of such an intellectual ministry, or to be rebellious & unique.
Reading this thread has been very painful. I already knew that my thinking had been messed up, but now I see how my mind was literally altered. Does Yeakley's book offer anything in the way of healing methods? Does it tell how to undo the damage?
Redux of Snapping, TWI, & Jonestown, continued………………
Next let’s take a look at some other notable hobgoblins of the mind: personal commitment and corresponding justified/rationalized consistency. This principle aptly demonstrates that it is far easier to resist at the beginning of an attempted exploitative episode than at the end. This is presuming, of course, that one is even aware that a scam is in process in the first place. The last place many idealistic, benevolent, spiritual, pure-hearted individuals (with transient vulnerabilities) would even think to look would be in the religious sector, due to its societal conferred status of nearly automatic respectability.
Like the other weapons of social influence, the commitment-consistency principle lies very deep within our minds, directing our actions with a quiet yet awesome power. Cultic exploiters such as TWI structure their interactions with us so that one’s deep mental ‘need’ to be internally consistent will lead directly to the exploiters avaricious benefit. Once one has made a supposed free-will “choice” or “decision” or has “taken a stand” on an issue, one will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to act and behave consistently with that commitment. However, the “decision” is not a truly a free-will decision because the encounter has been loaded from the cultic exploiter’s angle via various techniques of packaged persuasion at the time of the victim’s transient vulnerability. Those pressures will automatically & subconsciously cause one to respond in ways that justify or rationalize one’s earlier “decision.” There is an unconscious, automatic response, reflexive tendency (which is easily exploitable by those so inclined, such as TWI) to “believe” in the correctness of a difficult “choice,” once made.
There might be some uninformed people who would say that we all “fool ourselves” from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already decided or acted upon. However, the deceiving reality of this principle is that there is a deep rooted limbic system drive to be and appear consistent with our commitments (especially if publicly and openly stated) ,often causing us to act in ways that are clearly contrary to our own best interests.
When the commitment-consistency instinct occurs unconsciously or occurs in an automatic responsive fashion, consistency can be disastrous. Like most form of automatic responding, it offers a shortcut through the density of the complexities of the infinite stimuli of modern life. Once we have explicitly or implicitly “made up our minds” about an issue or supposed spiritual action we “are supposed” to take, then the inflexible, constricted, consistency programming is set to start, run, along its relatively fixed path. However, the “decision” is not a truly a free-will decision because the encounter has been loaded from the cultic exploiter’s angle via various techniques of packaged persuasion at the time of the victim’s transient vulnerability.
One’s true historical locus of control in one’s true historical self has now been supplanted by the cult-induced external locus of control of the synthetic pseudo-identity of the cultic self. The cultic identity has its own priorities and hence shortcuts and short-circuits incoming information that would be very valuable to the true self if not absolutely essential for the survival of the true self. In TWI renewed mind/thought reform jargon, this is the so-called battle of the senses versus revelation faith. The “‘new’ spiritual man” is to have a ‘renewed mind.’ The mind is to be renewed to the [TWI-defined] “’Word’” of ‘God.’” Since TWI defines the so-called spiritual knowledge to which one is supposed to renew one’s mind, the TWI ‘renewed mind’ is the essence of the new, synthetic cultic pseudo-self and pseudo-identity. Glossolalia enhances the cultic mind controlling process via its psychological numbing qualities, generating intermittent dissociative mental states, which facilitate automatic responsiveness and blind obedience to perceived spiritual authority.
There is a second explanation for the operation of the commitment-consistency principle. Sometimes it is the cursedly clear and unwelcome set of answers provided by critical thinking that frightens us. There are certain “disturbing things” we simply would rather not “realize,” in our transiently vulnerable state. Because it is a preprogrammed and essentially automatic method of responding, automatic consistency can supply an apparent safe haven from “troubling realizations” at the time of our transient vulnerability. Captivated, imprisoned, and sealed within the fortress of rigid cultic consistency, we can be impervious to the sieges of “reason. One scheme TWI strategically utilizes in this fashion is cult exit-phobia induction. That is, the cultic group generates the fearful belief in its captivated member that if he or she were to leave TWI, some terrible tragedy would befall the adherent or his family, such as disfiguring and impairing permanent disability or a slow, extremely painful, torturous death.
What is it that produces the non-critical thinking of automatic responsiveness? COMMITMENT is the key. Commitment is an aspect of intentionality and goal-directed behavior. And if there is anything TWI promotes every other breath it is commitment, commitment, commitment; commitment to the ministry that taught you the so-called “Word;” commitment to the man of God (VPW/LCM) that taught you the “Word;” commitment to the Household of faithful believers who are now your true family; and, commitment and unquenchable zeal for the outreach (recruitment, proselytizing) of this [TWI defined and interpreted] “Word of God.” If an exploiter can get someone to make a commitment (that is, to take a stand, to go on record publicly, for example, to go out TWI WOW Ambassador, live in a ‘Way Home’ with other TWI believers, be a FellowLaborer, enter the Way Corps or College Division), the exploiter will have manipulatively set the stage for one’s unconscious, automatic consistency with that earlier commitment. Bear in mind that one’s supposed free-will commitment has been exploitatively manipulated by TWI’s covert packaged persuasion techniques. Commitments, most especially public commitments, tend to be lasting commitments that are very difficult to extinguish.
Commitments are most effective in changing a person’s self-image and future behavior when those commitments are public, active, & require a great amount of personal effort. Once a stand is taken, there is a natural, instinctive tendency to behave (exhibit actions) in ways that are internally consistent with the stand so taken. The exploitative commitment-consistency principle is a strategy utilized by manipulative TWI to get one to take some action or make some pubic statement that will trap and enslave one into subsequent compliance through both unconscious and conscious social consistency pressures. For appearances sake, the more public a stand, the more reluctant one will be to change it. Also, what those individuals immediately around us both think of us and what they think that is true is enormously important in determining what we think of ourselves and what we think to be true. Once an active, effortful, public commitment is made, then, one’s true historical self-image is squeezed from all possible exploitative angles by the rigged psycho-social peer pressure of TWI fabricated consistency.
A veritable menagerie of factors affects the ability of a commitment to enslave our future behaviors. One has to be very careful about agreeing to apparent trivial TWI “requests.” Such an arrangement can not only increase one’s automatic, unthinking compliance with similar, much larger requests, it can also make one more willing to perform a variety of larger TWI ‘ favors’ that are only remotely connected to the smaller request that one initially performed. There is potential great danger of exploitation when doubly covert influence is concealed within apparently small initial commitments. Such action has the potential to influence not only one’s future behavior but also to change one’s self-image. It is no coincidence that TWI produced a promotional video entitled, “Changed,” supposedly documenting the [Way defined] “positive” ‘changes’ in the lives of Way members present at the special function, PFAL `77, held at Ball State University in Muncie, IN.}
Once a person’s self-image is altered, innumerable unconscious subtle manipulative advantages become available to someone who has the psychopathic, sociopathic, megalomaniacal, narcissistic, and avaricious desire to strategically exploit that new self-image. This new ‘self’ is the previously described synthetic, cult-produced pseudo-self under the manipulative ‘control’ of TWI’s top ‘Man of God,’ who functions as the pseudo-self’s external locus of control.
Once the exploiter has changed an otherwise normal person’s self-image into an image of his deceiving design, the victim will exhibit “natural” compliance with a whole range of the exploiters “requests” (concealed post-hypnotic suggestions, etc.) that are consistent with this new, cult-created self-image. The process here is utilized by TWI in essentially all of its supposed teaching and training functions: the Power for Abundant Living series; the Way of Abundance and Power series; special seminars such as Defeating the Adversary; Advanced Class specials; PFAL `77; Advanced Class `79; Living Victoriously `82; the WOW program; the various Way Home programs; the various FellowLaborer programs; the Way Corps & College Division programs; Sunday Teaching Service; the Way Magazine; TWI’s textual publications; and many more. The ongoing cultic reinforcement is provided by the numerous Twig/Household fellowship & Branch meetings, as well as the Sunday Teaching Service, Way Magazines, & proscribed readings of TWI course syllabi and collateral publications, such as Studies in Abundant Living, volumes I-V.
Initiation rites and ceremonies represent another area of TWI undue social influence. Social psychologists have observed and studied those persons who go through a great deal of trouble or pains to attain something tend to value it more highly than persons who attain the same thing with a minimum of effort. Initiation rites are supposed acts of cultic group survival. These rigorous, aberrantly harsh initiation rites function paradoxically to motivate future society members to find the group ‘somehow’ more attractive and worthwhile. TWI cultic adherents often have a manipulated ‘perception’ that they “like” and “believe in” the intra-TWI cultic status that they have struggled to attain. The loyalty and dedication of those who emerge will increase to a great degree the chances of group cohesiveness, solidarity, and survival.
The severity of initiation of “coordinated cultic programs” / ceremonies / rites significantly heighten the newcomer recruit’s commitment to the cultic group. Commitments are very effective in changing a person’s self-image and future cult-approved behavior when these commitments of loyalty and dedication are made active, public, and effortful. Recall Martindale’s phrase regarding public recruiting, which was that the Way believer was to be “agile, mobile, and hostile.” The TWI Board of Directors/Trustees vehemently desires that TWI adherent followers (appear to) personally “own” the cult-induced actions they habitually perform; the BOT/BOT absolutely wants its manipulated adherents to take (perceive via their cultic pseudo-self) “inner responsibility” for “their” actions.
Why is this so important to TWI? Social psychologists have shown that one accepts inner responsibility for behaviors/actions when one has the [illusory] perception that one has actually “chosen” to perform the action in the [apparent] absence of any strong outside pressure. This is a major reason why cult-induced mind control/thought reform has a better “take” or success rate than that of communist indoctrinated POW’s—there is no resentment of physical coercion {yet the cult victim is not aware nor has he given informed consent for the profound, non-physical coercion to which he is continuously subjected}.
The Way Corps is perhaps TWI’s most extreme example of this harsh, hazing process; and the penultimate initiating experience in the Corps training program is the ‘L.E.A.D.’ experience {Leadership; Education; Adventure; Direction}. This is in essence a two-week long, mountain and sheer cliff climbing experience to “test your believing.” Some never made it back alive. The original incarnation of this program was entitled Total Fitness Institute, run by VPW’s son-in-law, J**n S*m*rv**le, who is ex-military.
Cultic compliance professionals such as VPW/LCM are sociopathically enamored of commitments that produce self-image inner change, preferably changes that encompass almost total metamorphosis to the state of developing the new cultic pseudo-self-identity, largely under the (personally non-consented) external locus of control of TWI. This inner change is not just specific to the original situation where it first occurred; it covers a whole range of related situations. Notably, the effects of this inner change tend to be extremely long lasting, and sometimes even permanent. Once a person has been exploitatively manipulated to take action that shifts his or her self-image to that self-image that the cult is desperately endeavoring to create, that person is likely to act and behave in the cultic preferred fashion in a variety of other circumstances where his or her “compliance” may also be desired, and that person is likely to continue in his cultic persona for as long as the new cultic self-image holds.
There is yet another attraction in commitments that lead to cultic-induced, inner self-image change—that is, they actually “grow their own legs,” and take on a life-like animation essentially all of their own {that is, the cultic pseudo-identity tends to prevail and override the person’s true historical self-image, functioning as the predominant persona of the victim}. This is not the same as multiple personality disorder. The intrapersonal (psychodynamic) and interpersonal (social) pressures of the commitment-consistency principle function to enslave and captivate the person into a world of [cult-defined] constricted activities. Due to the limbic drive and need to feel and be consistent within one’s new system of cultic ‘sacred science’ and ACTIONS, one will “assure himself” {e.g., via responding to one’s covert packaged persuasion} that “her or his” [exploitatively manipulated] “choice” to act in cultic approved fashions are ‘right, righteous, and just!!’
The potential, exploitable advantage of this process is of great utility to the cultic compliance professional. “We” tend [via external manipulation] to build new ‘struts of justification’ to under gird “our choices” to which “we” have “committed ourselves.” TWI ‘offers’ one an initial [manipulative] inducement for making such a “choice” (during our period of transient vulnerability) and after the original [imposed, deceptive] “decision” has been made, TWI removes the original inducement, knowing that one’s (apparent free-will) “decision” will in all probability stand on its own newly created legs. Here again, the effects of this covertly manipulated “inner change” are extremely enduring over long periods of time.
Just remember here that “we” and “our” and “himself” and “him” are really no longer the true historical real person, but simply the extrusion, demonstration, exhibition, and manifestation of the cult indoctrinated pseudo-personality. What is singularly significant about this whole perverted process of “self”-generating additional ‘reasons’ to ‘justify’ or ‘rationalize’ the commitment is that these “reasons” are new, gererated out of the individual’s unique admixture of true genetic self / true historical self / counterfeit cultic self, with the latter largely prevailing in outward manifestation.
Free Soul, I started a thread to address the process of getting back to your True Self here for you: Free Soul Welcome Thread ;)
We ARE here to help one another and discussing your individual questions is exactly why many of us hang around....it's to help those who are trying to get over the impact TWI had on us and our lives. I've been out just over a year, so I'm still learning, growing and sorting things out myself.
It's okay if you can't finish anything and if you have a wariness about committing yourself to something. It's perfectly understandable. We were "trapped" for so long that it's only natural to be very cautious about falling into that pattern again. For some of us, our self-esteem was utterly destroyed and we have to build that back up before we're able to even think about other areas of our lives where we were affected.
Please feel free to ask any questions you might have and to talk about anything that's on your mind. You'll find a wealth of information, experience and wisdom here at the Cafe. It's also nice to learn that you're not alone and that others have experienced, thought, felt, wondered some of the same things.
After being out for about 7years, I went to a few meetings from other offshoots. One in Weston Fla, near where I live, A Vince Finnigan ministry and the other was with John Shroyer CFF. They both were almost exactly like twi. Same beliefs but not all the hype and legalism. They still teach from VPW's doctrine, but are very against Martindale. Very layed back and super nice. They are basically newly generated twi's. I hope I'm not offending anyone, but I was not going to get sucked up in that way of thinking again. It's been 13 years now and my family and I go to a non- denom. church. For some reason I feel safe there, but still have my quard up at times.
SunnyFla,
In spite of what some folks might believe, I am able to read small print :D.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
You describe the offshoots you attended as the same beliefs as twi, but not all the hype and legalism. Very layed back and super nice.
Sounds pretty good, but then you said you were not going to get sucked up in that "way of thinking again?"
If you wish to elaborate what "way of thinking" you mean, feel free.
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jkboehme
In another thread {Wierwille, Jonestown, & "cults"} I mentioned how VPW & LCM, in ~ December 1978, endeavored to 'explain away' the existence of cults, & insisted that twi itself just coul
jkboehme
Actions, practices, behaviors, deeds, & conduct are regulated by law in the USA.
Beliefs are protected as long as one doesn't ACT on potentially harmful beliefs.
TWI as an operating strategy routinely utilized harmful & injurious conduct as standard practice.
Now what does the law of the land say? See God vs. The Gavel by Dr. Marci Hamilton.
In order to save your time, you will want to first focus on the two most pertinent chapters, which are chapters 8 & 9 (pages 203 – 272).
Chapter 8: Boerne v. Flores {pp. 203 – 237 with Conclusion on pp. 235 – 237}.
Chapter 9: The Decline of Special Treatment of Religious Entities & the Rise of the No-Harm Rule {pp. 238 – 272 with Conclusion on pp. 271 – 272}.
:) ;)
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oldiesman
Ummm, speaking of broken records? ....
Jkboehme,
Why not put every response of yours on ALL of the threads, that way you will be assured everyone will see each one, no matter what thread someone might stray in at a particular moment.
:)
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rascal
Guess you hit a nerve jkboehme...Sound logic backed up with legal documentation is an awfully hard combination to deny :P
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likeaneagle
Belle------Oh, MY GOD!! You have said something I have been holding in for 5yrs......I cannot help from crying right now......this is way to much!! No body knows what we went thru, those who stayed in..forget it, I refuse to hold in what I feel or say..........Im on over load right now, cause the mere 'Catholic Religion' imposed us!!!B^&%$#ht
OM..You who would not want to say to meface to face,..... it became a CATHOLIC RELIGION!!!!!!!!!Im gona get sick!!!!!!!!
now I have snapped..
Penquin- I believe the proper word is TERRAZO- FROZEN in FEAR. The roar of the LION..LCM himself. Be not afraid of sudden fear....I understand this in its totality..i DO BELIEVE THIS is HOW FEAR WORKS. LCM also had his roar that froze people..
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jkboehme
:mellow: :unsure: :o :blink: :(
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jkboehme
COERCIVE PERSUASION & THE CHANGING OF PERSONALITY
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Free Soul
Hi, jkb - this has been a very interesting thread, & your last post really got to me. I have been wondering, is it possible to return to one's true self? How? And how would you know?
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rascal
jkboehme... you are putting into words ....what I have been struggling to say for years....
In twi, I always felt like I was being forced into a mold that I didn`t fit in....from the time I was 17 yrs old...I wasn`t allowed to be me....to like the things I wanted to like...the things I wanted to do were unacceptable..education...volunteer work.......books I liked....the friends I was allowed ....family involvement ...all were deemed unspiritual and a means of distraction by satan to keep me from doing the *word* ....the things that piqued my interest were unimimportant.
Everything I was....my dreams my goals....my values......were supressed....silenced... stuffed away somewhere deep inside and forgotten.
Free soul, WELCOME!!! I don`t know if you want any imput from me....but I`ll tell you that for the last 5 years I have indulged in my every whim....everything that was stuffed in a box and hidden away...I study karate....I train horses with my daughter....we ride...the kids and I hunt artifacts and fossels and are passionate about learning of the history of our valley......I intend on taking art classes as my next project...in fact ANYTHING that was once frowned upon or deemed unspiritual.......these explorations of my personal interests....seem to have been instrumental in recovering of the real *me*
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jkboehme
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oldiesman
Jkboehme,
A question:
Does your stuff apply to the offshoots, as well?
Just got a letter from STFI (CES), informing me that John Lynn will be in my territory on December 14, for a teaching, in a fellowship.
I was thinking of going, but geeze, seeing as you spoke about the psychological dangers of twi doctrines, many of which STFI still believes: mental injuries accompanied with all this, thought reform, group think, brainwashing by a pseudo-spiritual counterfeit entrepreneur, psychic numbing depersonalization in favor of the group, being made to feel inferior, repression of personal beliefs, etc etc.
I'm afraid of being hynotized with repackaged paganism of Pavlovian learning, all over again...
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Lifted Up
I am guessing that he would apply it that way, Oldies, judging from his posts so far. But it would be unfair not to emphasize that I am guessing, so I won't stand pat on that answer, but will gladly stand corrected if he says otherwise.
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rascal
There could be a good reason that we were taught to have such disrespect for education ... or professionals.
Educated folks can more readily spot twi`s manipulative practices a whole lot quicker and can readily document proof to back up their opinions.
Oldies appears to be on a campaign attempting to discredit professional documentation describing what occured to us in twi ...... sop
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jkboehme
PSYCHO-SOCIAL TECHNIQUES of PACKAGED PERSUASION
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oldiesman
Jkboehme,
You didn't answer my previous question about what the doctrines of true Christianity were.
Since you labelled twi doctrines as repackaged paganism, i.e the counterfeit, I thought you might share with the uneducated, what the genuine is.
Do you believe Christian doctrine at all?
How about the offshoots?
Does your stuff apply to them too?
I really need to know before I visit John Lynn, to guard against a possible attempted onslaught of neurological damage.
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Sunnyfla
OM,
After being out for about 7years, I went to a few meetings from other offshoots. One in Weston Fla, near where I live, A Vince Finnigan ministry and the other was with John Shroyer CFF. They both were almost exactly like twi. Same beliefs but not all the hype and legalism. They still teach from VPW's doctrine, but are very against Martindale. Very layed back and super nice. They are basically newly generated twi's. I hope I'm not offending anyone, but I was not going to get sucked up in that way of thinking again. It's been 13 years now and my family and I go to a non- denom. church. For some reason I feel safe there, but still have my quard up at times.
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bliss
SO........................what you are saying Jkboeme is...................................
TWI is a cult and stay away, right?
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Catcup
JKB--
As an aside here: You mentioned you have a book in your possession with the name "Martindale" in the front cover-- Loy does have an undergraduate degree in psychology. It is entirely possible you have one of his old textbooks.
This undergraduate degree means he knew enough about what he was doing to be pretty dangerous, at least in my opinion.
As a matter of fact, one night in Kenyon Hall, he gave the 6th Corps an interesting teaching on the subject of brainwashing and I believe what is termed as the "Stockholm syndrome." This was done in response I believe, to some of the accusations of anti-cult people that The Way was brainwashing their recruits.
This was my very first in depth teaching on the subject of brainwashing, and it came straight from the a$$ er.. the horse's mouth. Martindale taught that in the POW camps the overseers used psychological techniques to make the prisoners totally dependent upon them, and described how some prisoners would even develop an affection for AND EVEN DEFEND their captors. Also mentioned was how the captors constructed a prison cell actually in the mind of the prisoner, by consistently demonstrating to him that any attempt at escape would be futile, and that the prisoner could not exist without the captor. A parent/child type of mentality and relationship would develop, along with a destruction of motivation for the prisoner to even attempt to escape. So much so, that they could predict when a prisoner could actually be trusted to not even try to escape, even when the avenue was presented. Something they called "learned helplessness." Same principle used on dogs and the "electric fence" today. The dog gets shocked every time he tries to leave the yard. Eventually, you could take the collar off the dog and turn off the electricity, and the dog will remain in the yard, and not even a passing rabbit can tempt him to cross the line.
What is amazing is, we all sat there and listened to him teach this, and not one of us connected the dots to our own situation. All we could say was, and very confidently I might add-- no one was forcing us to stay in The Corps, we were there of our own free will, because we loved God and trusted VPW and LCM. No barbed wire around the campus or locks on the outsides of our doors keeping us there.
Just the ones in our brains...
Can you say........ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAPP!!!
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Catcup
Do a little comparison here:
" ...in the POW camps the overseers used psychological techniques to make the prisoners totally dependent upon them..."
In residence, for a prescribed period of time after first arriving, you were not allowed to have any outside contact with media at all: no newspapers, magazines, radio, or television. Anything we needed to know came from our overseers, and from them alone. Also, no musician was allowed to sing or play his or her instrument. No artist could pick up a brush, no writer a pen. All "creative" pursuits were curtailed.
"... and described how some prisoners would even develop an affection for AND EVEN DEFEND their captors..."
Nah, I won't mention any names here.
"...the captors constructed a prison cell actually in the mind of the prisoner, by consistently demonstrating to him that any attempt at escape would be futile, and that the prisoner could not exist without the captor."
How about for instance, "There's nothing else out there. No one else teaches the Word like this. The only thing awaiting those that 'cop out' is utter spiritual, financial, emotional, and physical devastation" and how about this one for a specific example: "You'll die a lonely old man, you'll be hobbled for life, and your daughter will become a stark raving lunatic".
"...A parent/child type of mentality and relationship would develop, along with a destruction of motivation for the prisoner to even attempt to escape. So much so, that they could predict when a prisoner could actually be trusted to not even try to escape, even when the avenue was presented. Something they called "learned helplessness."
A "faithful believer" will "stand steadfastly with the prevailing household of The Way" regardless of what his earthly family decides to do. He will not even consider attending an alternative bible fellowship or consider an opposing point of view when presented to him.
Here, hold still, just let me put this collar on you... it just has your name and address on it just in case you get lost....
........ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAPP!!!
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jkboehme
Per Catcup:
____________________________
Catcup,
Great insights!
Actually the date of publication of Dr. Yeakley's book, The Discipling Dilemma, was 1988. Therefore, post fog, my opinion is that martinpuke was looking for new methods and means of coercive persuasion that TWI up to that point had not focused on as much as other aspects of thought reform. Yeakley's book may well be a significant informational source from which martinpuke developed some of the hyper-legalistic parameters of TWI-II.
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penguin
Catcup is right. Learned Helplessness is a very accurate term refering to twit world.
I remember my first attempt to go to a church--I sat in the parking lot for 20-30 minutes almost paralyzed with fear before I would go in. Gee! Then I found out there really was "something else" out there and that the "something else" was in many aspects oh so much greater than twi!
Oldies,
I never said people weren't welcome to pursue what they wanted. But it is very obvious that for a "Christian" organization, twi doesn't do or act very Christ-like! I think no one realizes twi for what it is really is UNTIL after they leave and step away if they ever get brave enough to do it.
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Free Soul
Hi Rascal, thanks for the input! I understand about getting involved in stuff that interests me, I just either can't move forward with it, or I start something & then don't follow through. It's like being terrified of committing to anything. Always with one foot out the door, & if I do say yes to something I then find any way I can to get out of it. But, this thread is not about my neuroses.
JKB, thank you for all this info. It has been a lot to absorb. I've been beating myself up for some time for being so stupid as to have been involved in a cult. And there is no doubt in my mind that it was & is a cult. Same for the offshoots, at least the ones I was involved with. But we weren't stupid, just vulnerable in different ways, & twi sought to appeal to whatever our "need" (vulnerable area) was, whether to be loved or to have our ego stroked by being part of such an intellectual ministry, or to be rebellious & unique.
Reading this thread has been very painful. I already knew that my thinking had been messed up, but now I see how my mind was literally altered. Does Yeakley's book offer anything in the way of healing methods? Does it tell how to undo the damage?
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jkboehme
Redux of Snapping, TWI, & Jonestown, continued………………
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Belle
Free Soul, I started a thread to address the process of getting back to your True Self here for you: Free Soul Welcome Thread ;)
We ARE here to help one another and discussing your individual questions is exactly why many of us hang around....it's to help those who are trying to get over the impact TWI had on us and our lives. I've been out just over a year, so I'm still learning, growing and sorting things out myself.
It's okay if you can't finish anything and if you have a wariness about committing yourself to something. It's perfectly understandable. We were "trapped" for so long that it's only natural to be very cautious about falling into that pattern again. For some of us, our self-esteem was utterly destroyed and we have to build that back up before we're able to even think about other areas of our lives where we were affected.
Please feel free to ask any questions you might have and to talk about anything that's on your mind. You'll find a wealth of information, experience and wisdom here at the Cafe. It's also nice to learn that you're not alone and that others have experienced, thought, felt, wondered some of the same things.
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oldiesman
SunnyFla,
In spite of what some folks might believe, I am able to read small print :D.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
You describe the offshoots you attended as the same beliefs as twi, but not all the hype and legalism. Very layed back and super nice.
Sounds pretty good, but then you said you were not going to get sucked up in that "way of thinking again?"
If you wish to elaborate what "way of thinking" you mean, feel free.
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