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Mind you, I'm not conceding the point. I'm merely dropping it because I don't need it anymore. There is no profession on earth better suited to identify languages than those who study linguistics. I have a confidence in them that you don't share. That is a failure to find common ground. We can't argue without common ground. But you made a valuable point: if they had found a language they recognized, they would be obliged to report it. They have not. So my case is not proved, nor can it ever be. BUT YOUR case is not proved, and it most certainly can be. There is no evidence distinguishing real SIT from fakery. There is evidence, but not definitive proof, distinguishing it from known human languages. All the testable evidence leans in one direction. None of the testable evidence leans in the other direction. Anecdotal evidence is not testable. I can only argue from the testable evidence we have. The people best qualified to identify the languages produced in glossolalia have failed to detect any. That's as good as I'm going to get for you. Bring in one glossolalist who produces one language a disinterested observer can recognize and report in an observable setting, try not to lose the IDs of the speaker and observer for pete's sake, verify that the speaker truly did not know the language in question, and we're done; I'm wrong. Tall order? Not nearly as tall as expecting a linguist to affirm knowledge of every language ever spoken on earth throughout all time before allowing him to call made up free vocalization what it is. Why haven't the researchers compared the phonemic inventory of glossa to the phonemic inventory of known languages? They can, with many, many languages. But they never report doing so. Why?

Using that logic, nothing, including gibberish, including admitted fakery, can ever be ruled out as a language. This is what I mean when I say no test, null hypothesis or otherwise, can satisfy your particularly absolute demand for proof to a level of certainty that we can both accept. You can't even prove something you KNOW to be made up is not a language, to any degree of confidence. How do you know Muh muh muh muh muh isn't a language? Maybe it's the word for Christ in a language no one's heard since the dispersion from the tower of Babel (presumably the dawn of modern languages). So if you're arguing that the field of linguistics is incapable of addressing this issue, you've robbed me of any ability to say anything other than what I think. How dare you demand proof when you so effectively demonstrate that no amount of evidence will suffice? Ah, but I have a demand for proof that the opposing side CAN meet.

Now and then I think it pays, as we recall the trees that made up TWI, to take a step back and look at the forest. TWI was a pattern of deception. It wasn't that there was something wrong. It wasn't even that there were a lot of things wrong. The whole enterprise was rotten to the core. Every good thing about it was a trap to draw you into its real reason to exist: to control you and leave you utterly dependent on them for as many facets of your life as possible. I'm lucky. I got out fast. For those of you who stayed a long time: I can't fathom the damage that was done. I'm impressed that you got out in one piece! It's like I said when the Actual Errors thread came to a merciful end: trying to mine our TWI experience to figure out what was good in it is like looking at the cheese in a mousetrap as a potential source of calcium. I'm not denying it's cheese. I'm not denying it has calcium. But I'm also not losing sight of who laid it out there and why.

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 couldn't be a cult. Interestingly, also in 1978, VPW & LCM once again tried to explain away the psychological dangers of "snapping." Conway & Siegelman released the book, SNAPPING: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change, in 1978. During a noon mealtime 'sharing' by VPW at Emporia ~ late Fall 1978, when the 7th & 9th Way Corps were in residence there, VPW began a hyperemotional tirade about how there is no psychological danger in abrupt personality change such as many if not most members of twi experience early in their involvement with twi, the more common scenarios for this change being: the 12th session of foundational pfal; the final session of the intermediate pfal; or, after 2 weeks in residence during an advanced class on pfal. One purposeful strategy of twi's coordinated programs of psychosocial packaged persuasion was/is the purposeful induction of a sudden change in self-image and one's true historical personality. This abrupt, non-consented change facilitates and enhances the development of twi's cultic, synthetic pseudo-self and pseudo-personality. Therefore VPW's proclivity for use of the phrase, "…this will just blow your mind…" For additional perspective on this harmful & injurious change, see Catcup's, "The Destruction of Self." Also see Karl Kahler's, The Cult that Snapped, & Jimmy Doop's, When the Hippies Found Jesus. With the advent of PET {positron emission tomographic} scans of the brain, one can even observe the physical, anatomic changes that result from this type of cultic abuse. With the advent of functional MRI {magnetic resonance imaging} scans, one can observe the biochemical & physiologic changes induced by cultic packaged persuasion, such as changes in the amount of certain neurotransmitters & neuroendocrine modulators. So, not only did VPW & LCM blatantly lie in order to endeavor to disparage the veracity of the existence of injurious cults, they also blatantly lied in order to endeavor to hide the strategic production of twi-induced abrupt self-image & personality change, as though it was nothing to be concerned about, when in fact it IS detrimental, injurious, & harmful to the individual & thus her or his family. The development of this twi cultic synthetic pseudo-self & pseudo-personality are the very essence of twi's strategic exploitative mental manipulations, aka thought reform, packaged persuasion, that lead to the development of the 'Waybot' individual, replete with corrupt, perverse way-brain group-think. Even though the new twi recruit typically was experiencing a transient vulnerability to cultic baiting, once the bait & switch hook was deeply set, even though this person initially was altruistic with dreams of helping those in the valley of human need, this individual paradoxically becomes, not a savior to those in need, but rather an oppressive jailer of humankind, not granting hurting people release from their prisons, but rather making sure nobody escapes twi's version of 'hotel california,' ("...you can check out, but you can never leave..."). Is TWI criminal or what!?