jkboehme

excathedra, thanks for your kind words. Hopefully this info will help some still-hurting ex-twi to understand in detail what happened to them, & how it happened. Hopefully it will aid in their healing. It's sure been very helpful to me. :)

Emotions, Feelings, Reasoning, & Behavior as Related to Thought Reform Per the research of Dr. Antonio R. Damasio at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, the limbic system is the initial neural system involved in processing primary emotions that ultimately are frequently involved in critical thinking & rational strategies. Emotions could be defined as patterns of chemical & neural responses, the function of which is to assist the person in goal-oriented, intentional high quality survival by promoting adaptive behaviors. Emotions are due to the activation of limbic brain structures & neural systems/pathways with their numerous interconnections {most notably to the ventromedial prefrontal cortices & the right hemispheric primary somatosensory areas (Brodman’s cytoarchitectonic areas 1, 2, & 3), the secondary sensory area S2, & the insular cortex}, most of which also regulate bodily states centered around the homeostasis of optimal physiological values. Reason is not as pure as most of us think it is or wish it were,; emotions & feelings are not intruders in the bastion or reason at all: they are enmeshed in its neural networks, for better & at times for worse (especially with cult supplied covert mental manipulation). The strategies of human reason are significantly interrelated to the guiding force of the mechanisms of biological regulation (involving among other neurological areas the limbic system & brainstem). Even after reasoning strategies become established in the formative years (including the years of late adolescence in college, an age-group that TWI strategically focused upon), their effective deployment depends, to a considerable extent on a continuing ability to experience feelings. Human reason depends, therefore, on several brain systems, working in concert across many levels of neuronal organization (neural trajectories & pathways), rather than on a single brain region or center. Both “high-level” (cerebral hemispheric gray matter) and “low-level” brain regions, from the prefrontal cortices (especially the ventromedial section) to the full limbic system & brain stem, cooperate in the making of reason. These lower levels in the neural edifice of reason are the same ones that regulate the processing of emotions & feelings, along with the body functions necessary for an organisms quality survival. In turn, these lower levels maintain direct & mutual relationships with virtually every bodily organ, thus placing the body itself directly within the chain of operations that generate the highest reaches of reasoning, decision making, and, by extension, social behavior & creativity. Emotion, feeling, and biological regulation all play a role in human reason. Hence the essence of a feeling is not an elusive mental quality attached to an object or situation, but rather the direct perception of a specific “landscape” of the body itself. Thus feelings are not intangible but rely on actual neural substrates of critical neuronal networks involving the entire limbic system, the prefrontal cortices (especially the ventromedial aspect), and, most importantly, the neuronal convergence zones/association areas, that represent & integrate signals from the body. The sense of the body landscape is juxtaposed in time to the perception or recollection of something else that is not part of the body—a face, a melody, an aroma, TWI intense indoctrination, etc.—feelings end up being “qualifiers” to that something else. The qualifying body state, positive or negative, is accompanied & founded up by a corresponding thinking mode: fast moving & idea rich, when the body-state is in the positive & pleasant band of the spectrum, slow moving & repetitive, when the body-state veers toward the painful band. Conscious feelings (based on largely unconscious limbic-based emotions) are the sensors for the matching or lack thereof between nature & circumstance. {Hence there can be non-consented, covert TWI thought reform activities acting to induce a state of relative cultic dissociation or at least disturbing cognitive-emotional incongruity or dissonance}. By ‘nature’ I mean both the nature we inherited as a pack of genetically engineered adaptations, and the nature we have acquired in individual development, through interactions with our social environment, mindfully & willfully as well as covert non-consented coercive persuasion. Feelings, along with the emotions they come from, are not a luxury. They serve as internal guides, and they help us communicate to others signals that can also guide them. Feelings are just as cognitive as other percepts. Feelings let us catch a glimpse of the person in full biological swing, a reflection of the mechanisms of life itself as they go about their business. Were it not for the possibility of sensing body states that are inherently ordained to be painful or pleasurable, there would be no suffering or bliss, no longing or mercy, no tragedy or glory in the human condition. Feelings form the basis for what humans have described for millennia as the human soul or spirit. One’s body, as represented in one’s brain, constitutes the indispensable frame of reference for the neural processes that we experience as the true, historical, personal mind. Our very organism, rather than some absolute external reality is used as the ground reference fore the constructions we make of the world around us and for the construction of the ever-present sense of subjectivity that is part and parcel of our experiences. {TWI endeavors to impose an external absolute reality, covertly destabilizing one’s own general reality orientation, & replacing one’s natural frame of reference with an non-consented ,undesired synthetic pseudo-identity of TWI cultic design}. Our most refined thoughts (appearing to be pure reason) and most altruistic actions, our greatest joys and deepest sorrows, use our own body as a internal neural ‘yardstick.’ Thus the mind exists in & for an integrated person. Our minds would not be the way they are if it were not fore the interplay of body & brain during individual development (which can be co-opted by cultic thought reform), and at the current moment. One’s mind has to be first about one’s body, or that mind has no point of reference in which to exist & ultimately overcome epistemological solipsistic isolation. The human brain and the rest of the body constitute an indissociable organism, integrated by means of mutually interactive biochemical & neuronal regulatory circuits (including the limbic system, the autonomic nervous system, as well as the endocrine & immunological systems). The person interacts with the environment as an ensemble: the interaction is neither of the body alone or the brain alone. The electrophysiological operations (see Dr. Freeman’s information above) that we call “mind” are derived from the structural & functional ensemble rather than from the brain alone. Mental phenomena can be fully understood only in the context of a person’s interacting within an environment. Hence we become conscious of the world around us, we know what we know, & we know that we know. {TWI would pervert this latter neuronal fact & endeavor by thought reform to get one to the mental position regarding TWI doctrine & practices, that one becomes so fully convinced & persuaded, that one would “…know that you know that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt…”}. There is a region of the human brain, the ventromedial prefrontal cortices, whose damage consistently compromises, in as pure a fashion as one is likely to find, both reasoning/decision making, emotion/feeling, especially in the personal & social domains. Bilateral ventromedial prefrontal damage precludes normal emotional display (compare post-cultic emotional numbing & anhedonia) & abnormalities in social behavior (compare post-cultic social withdrawal phenomenon). Reason and emotion “intersect” in the ventromedial prefrontal cortices & in the amygdala. There is another region of the human brain, the complex somatosensory cortices in the right hemisphere, whose damage also compromises reasoning/decision making and emotion/feeling, and, in addition, disrupts the processes of basic body signaling. Thus, there is a collection of systems in the human brain consistently dedicated to the goal-oriented, critical, analytical, thinking process we call reasoning, and to the response selection we call decision making, with a special emphasis on the personal & social domains. There is a particular area in the human brain where the systems concerned with emotion/feeling, attention, and working memory interact so intimately that they essentially constitute the source for the energy of both external action (movement) and internal action (reasoning, thought animation). This fountainhead region is the limbic system’s anterior cingulate cortex. Having a “mind” means that a person forms either neural representations intrinsically or forms representations of the existential meaning of the object/situation relative to the unique true historical neural self, these representations then becoming either images or higher level quasi-holographic representations. These images or higher level representations can be manipulated in a process called “thought,” & eventually influence behavior by helping to try to predict the future, plan accordingly, & choose the next action. {It should be intuitively obvious that cultic induced thought reform can largely override this process & generate the cultic pseudo-personality which influences cult-preferred behaviors, such as recruiting, abundant sharing, illogical obedience & subservience, etc.} Herein lie some of the central precepts of neurobiology: the process whereby neural representations, which consist of biological modifications created by learning in a neuronal circuit, become either images or higher level representations in one’s mind; the process that allows for invisible microstructural changes in neuronal circuits (in neuronal cell bodies, axons, dendrites, & synapses) to become neural representations, which in turn becomes either an image or higher level representation which one can experience as belonging to him. This learning (a repository of facts & strategies for action) is held abeyantly in memory in higher level dispositional representations. Recall from the electrophysiological perspective that the embodiment of existential meaning dwells in amplitude modulation patterns of neuronal activities which are shaped by synaptic interactions that have been modified through learning. If the learning is benign & personally desired, fine. However, if the externally imposed, non-consented learning is in actuality functionally limbic &/or prefrontal severing, or pavlovian transmarginally inhibited with implanted implicit non-recallable (mis)-information, or the application of extreme social/peer pressure influences (such as exploitative reciprocation, commitment & consistency, social proof, liking, authority, scarcity, fear of loss, etc., with all of the subtypes under each of these categories), then these invisible, microstructual, dendritic learning changes are absolutely not benign, but harmful & damaging, with resulting psychopathology such as post-cultic anxiety, panic, depression, & others. Our strong sense of mental integration is created within our own mind from the concerted action of large-scale systems by synchronizing or juxtaposing certain sets of neural activity in separate brain regions; this is in essence a “trick” of essentially simultaneous timing, creating the impression of simultaneity. If the brain does not integrate separate processes into meaningful combinations by means of their temporal relationship, one can experience a malfunction of the timing mechanism & generate the confusional states of spurious integration or disintegration. {Compare TWI covertly induced mental states which distort time such as trance states, hypnoid states, hypnotic states, and other altered mental states. Also compare the effect in this paradigm of Pavlovian subliminal conditioning}. Images or higher level dispositional representations of something that one has thought about that has not yet actually happened and that may in fact never come to pass are no different in neural representation than the representations that one holds of something that has in fact already happened. These various representations are constructions or existential creations of one’s own brain. All that one can know for certain is that the representations are “real” to oneself. These representations constitute the memory of a possible future rather than a past that was. We do not know, & it is improbable that humans will ever know, what “absolute” reality or truth is, from a purely scientific perspective. Mental images or higher level dispositional representations are based directly on topographically organized, neural representations in the early sensory cortices. These representations are formed either under the control of sensory receptors oriented to the brain’s outside (e.g., a retina), or under the control of dispositional representations contained inside the brain itself, in both cortical regions & subcortical nuclei. The early sensory cortices and the topographically organized representations they form are necessary for images &/or representations to occur in consciousness. In essence, those neural representations must be correlated with those which, moment by moment, constitute the neural basis for the true, historical self. An analogy can be made between true neurological anosognosia & what I would term cult-induced partial anosognosia. Anosognosia is a neurological condition which denotes the inability of a person to acknowledge disease in oneself. In addition to prefrontal damage, true anosognosia patients have a lesion in the right hemispheric somatosensory cortices. In cultic induced psychopathology, one of the primary lesions, in my opinion, is a functional severing away of the input of the ventromedial prefrontal cortices, involved with emotion/feeling and personal/social decision making. When one’s own true, historical self-image is harmed & compromised in this way, it is often not possible to realize that the thoughts and actions of that ‘self’ (the synthetic, cult-induced pseudo-identity) are no longer normal relative to societal non-cultic normative behavior & attitudes.

THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF THOUGHT REFORM A central issue in cultic mind control is the overriding or co-opting of an individual’s internal locus of self-determination & the replacing of it with an undesired & non-consented external source of control & non-self determination. I would like to elaborate on how & in what sense brains, with their cells, the neurons, can actually generate actions & thoughts, which one experiences as his own mind & himself, and then, how externally imposed, covert packaged persuasion actually physically changes one’s neuronal synaptic connections & therefore one’s physical brain. This position is based on the premise that varying degrees of freedom of choice (which is not the same as quasi-religious, metaphysical “freedom of ‘will’ ”) do in fact exist (unless it is co-opted as noted above), & hence assist in explaining causality as a property of the brain. The majority of the neurological information in this section in from neurophysiologist, Dr. Walter J. Freeman, Ph.D, in his book, How Brains Make Up Their Minds. “Intentionality” or goal-directed action denotes the process by which one acts in accordance with ones own profitable growth & maturation. 'Intent' is the directing of an action toward some future goal that is defined & chosen by the actor. It differs from a motive, which is ostensibly the reason & explanation of the action, and from a desire, which is the awareness & experience stemming from the intent. Meaning is created by the process of intentionality & is expressed in symbols such as words comprising representations. Meanings arise as a brain creates intentional behaviors & then changes itself in accordance with the sensory consequences of those behaviors. This is the process of “assimilation.” It is the process by which the true historical self comes to understand the world by adapting itself to the world. The contents of meaning include the entire context of historical experience that one has personally acquired through operation from one’s own internal locus of control. Although the contents of meaning are largely social in origin, the actual mechanisms of meaning are biological & have to be understood in terms of brain dynamics (electrophysiological, electrochemical). Meaning is a kind of living neuro-architecture that is constantly growing & changing, yet endures. The brain responds to the non-self, ambient environment of the world by a ‘benign disequilibrium’ of the primary sensory cortices of the brain. The result is the creative construction of neural activity patterns, which provide the elements of which meaning is made. When the freshly made patterns are transmitted to other parts of the brain, the raw sense data that triggered them are washed away. What remains is what has been created within the brain itself. (This process conceptually resembles that of digestive assimilation). The dynamics of this process isolate the meaning in each individual’s brain from all other meanings in all other brains in all other people, which creates the challenge of creating social companionship with other people through the process of communication, most typically conversation or didactic teaching. This in essence is the condition of humanity known as epistemological solipsism, which could be characterized as that philosophy that holds that all knowledge and experience is constructed (created) by & within the individual. The sensory portals of the brain cooperate with deeper structures in the brain [the brainstem, limbic system, convergence-association cortices] to construct brains activity patterns in which inputs from all the multimodal five senses are blended. This blending is the original meaning of common sense. No one neuron or part of the brain normally takes charge to control the other semi-autonomous parts. Nevertheless, in thought reform this is clearly not the case. The key to brain function lies in the massive recurrent feedback & feed forward pathways by which each part of the brain broadcasts its output to other parts & receives from them. These interactions provide the basis for the neural consensus that is necessary for the self-organization of behavior. Most intentional behaviors occur without the need for awareness, so intentionality operates before awareness & consciousness, up to a point. That point is reached when, in order to understand intentionality, one needs to ‘think’ about meaning, and then to represent one’s thoughts in words. We need to hear & read the words of others in order to enhance our own meanings. Effective use of language requires consciousness. Consciousness combines the comfortable aspects of linear (predictable) causality with the terrifyingly inhuman open range of ‘acausal’ circular causality. Hence consciousness is interactive with brain processes & is neither a mere ‘epiphenomenon’ nor is it identical with those processes. Consciousness is an ‘operator’ in that it modulates the brain dynamics from which past actions sprang. Residing nowhere & everywhere, it reworks the contents that are provided by the parts. The frontal & temporal lobes of the brain provide the neurological mechanisms for self-consciousness. Hence consciousness is a ‘social contract’ that governs ethical behaviors & attitudes (in a normal, benign group/tribe/society) & unethical attitudes or even illegal behaviors (in destructive mind controlling cults). The possibility exists of being conscious without being self-conscious or even being aware of intentional action. Brains surmount epistemological solipsistic isolation and form societies (or perhaps even cults at times), through which some contents of meaning are partially assimilated by the members of society (or cult) & are represented in benign, generally accepted knowledge or are represented in cultic, esoteric, jargonized ‘loaded language.’ The most common methods of assimilation of meanings are conversations & didactic teachings. However, the deep formation of trust requires more complex behaviors, which involve the induction of altered states of consciousness, including trance states, hypnoid states, & hypnotic states. Among the many techniques used to induce these states are chanting & mantras (equivalent to polysyllabic nonsense babbling of speaking in tongues, Glossolalia), intense music, drumming, & dancing. The essence of these procedures is to loosen the self-conscious internal locus of control one’s mind & dissolve one’s cognitive & emotional neurological living architecture in a meltdown of meanings that are counter to the end goal, whether the end goal is via a benign society or an exploitative cult. This is the process of “unlearning,” which is essentially the same as thought reform researcher, Edward Schein’s, concepts of “unfreezing & changing.” By unfreezing he meant the destruction of the true historical self, the undermining of self-confidence, the generation of a false identity crisis (‘requiring’ anxiety-driven rapid resolution), & the utter destabilization of one’s general reality orientation. Unlearning is mediated by numerous neuromodulators in the brainstem, particularly oxytocin & vasopressin. Individual minds, with their isolated meanings, assimilate to each other & create transcendent social entities (benign societies or destructive cults or something in between) that theoretically should enhance & empower the individual. Societies or cults are invariably organized around some form of symbolic representation such as an icon, logo, or flag. In a benign society at each level of organization from the individual up to a national scale, the individual should retain autonomy & accept reasonable constraints in respect to the embedding surround or cultural milieu. However in destructive cults, the individual is covertly deprived of autonomy & has deceptive, exploitative, oppressive, & hyper-legalistic constraints shackled upon him. This cultic failure of individual autonomy leads to at best apathy & stagnation, and at worst leads to irreversible psychopathology, & even avoidable violent death or suicide. To synoptically reiterate up to this point, consider the following. Meaning is an expression of the particular situation of an individual. Meaning emerges in sequences of global brain amplitude modulating patterns of oscillatory neural activity coordinating the neuropil of an entire cerebral hemisphere. The amplitude of the oscillations is high in local patches and low in others as viewed through brain imaging. Each pattern is a creative construction of the brain, with onset & termination by global state transitions. The contributions to the patterns are both local & large scale. Local details are provided by synapses that have been modified by previous learning & now shape local bursts as they emerge in patches of the forebrain, including the primary sensory cortices, the limbic system, & the brainstem nuclei. The interactions of these patches with each other & with the brainstem create a global state which both organizes & constrains (focuses) local activity in a process of circular causality. At any given time, this state, which is constantly in flux as an individual grows & learns (or ‘learns’ as in cultic covert packaged persuasion), is the benign, societal, acculturated meaning, or the covertly imposed, cultic hidden agenda ‘meaning,’ as the particular case may be. An essential part of the self-regulatory functions of the limbic system, in addition to it is use of the motor systems, is provided by neurons that secrete brain chemicals called neuromodulators. These neurons are found in a collection of chemically specialized nuclei embedded as pairs in the core of the brainstem . Whereas neurotransmitters immediately excite or inhibit neurons, the neuromodulators enhance or diminish the effectiveness of the synapses, typically without having immediate excitatory or inhibitory actions of their own, and they typically bring about long-lasting changes in synaptic gains. The neuromodulatory neurons receive input from many parts of the brain but most important is their limbic input during the creative construction and control of intentional action. Their output axons typically branch widely & infiltrate the neuropil without making terminal synapses. They secrete their chemicals to permeate throughout the neuropil of both cerebral hemispheres, making their actions global, not local like that of neurotransmitters. This functional ‘architecture’ is a major determinant of the unity of intentionality, because the entire forebrain is simultaneously affected by the action of each pair of brainstem nuclei. There are at least a dozen important neuromodulators with different chemical structures. The types of neuromodulation include: generalized arousal by histamine; sedation & the induction of sleep by serotonin; regulation of affect and movement by dopamine; modulation of circadian biorhythms by melatonin; introduction of value by the reward hormone CCK; relief of pain by the endorphins; release of aggressive behavior by vasopressin; iniation of maternal behavior by oxytocin; and facilitation of changes in synaptic gains with imprinting & learning by acetycholine & norepinephrine which is crucial for the updating stage of intentionality. These changes are cumulative, so they meet the requirement for continuing additions to the true personal self history constituting the ever-developing ‘wholeness’ of intentionality. When a new fact, skill, or insight is ‘learned,’ the widespread synaptic changes knit the new modification into the entire loop, & into the entire structure of meaning that is embedded the neuropil. Neuromodulators are essential for intentional action, including emotion, & for the construction of meaning, including remembering. The entire hemisphere constructs goal states through its interactive neural activity patterns. Those patterned activities guide the body through complex sequences of actions, & prime the sensory cortex to select the smells sight, sounds, tastes, & prior gestalts that are predicted as the resulting consequences of the impending goal-directed actions. This is the process of “preafference” which provides the multimodal perceptual processes of expectation & attention. The genesis of apparently chaotic neuronal background activity is an essential element of intentionality. Unpredictability is inherent in these chaotic neuronal trajectories, and introduces flexibility & creativity in the construction of each new homeostatic state transition. Chaos generates the disorder needed for creating new trial-and-error learning, and for creating new basins in assimilating new stimuli. This Hebbian learning provides an optimal balance between flexibility & stability, adaptiveness & dependability. Neuronal populations sustain the chaotic dynamics of intentionality, because these dynamics provide the biological basis for the flexibility, creativity, & meaning of human behavior. This particular perspective regarding the neurobiology of mental processes belongs to the dynamic pragmatist school of thought, most especially that of neurophysiologist Dr. Walter J. Freeman, a neuroscientist in the graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley. To summarize the central concepts of this view of neurological biology, measurable by EEG (electroencephalogram), functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) & PET (positron emission tomography) cranial scans: · The state transition of an excitatory neuronal population from a point attractor with zero activity to a nonzero point attractor with steady-state activity by positive feedback. · The emergence of oscillation through negative feedback between excitatory & inhibitory neuronal populations. · The state transition from a point attractor to a limit cycle attractor that regulates steady-state oscillation of a mixed excitatory-inhibitory cortical population. · The genesis of chaos as background activity by combined negative & positive feedback among three or more mixed excitatory-inhibitory populations. · The distributed wave of chaotic dendritic activity that carries a spatial pattern of amplitude modulation made by the local heights of the wave. · The increase in nonlinear feedback gain that is driven by input to a mixed neuronal population, which results in construction of an amplitude modulation pattern as the first step in perception. · The embodiment of meaning in amplitude modulation patterns of neural activities, which are shaped by synaptic interactions that have been modified through learning. · Attenuation of microscopic sensory-driven activity and enhancement of mesoscopic (larger neuronal grouping) amplitude modulation patterns by divergent-convergent cortical projections underlying epistemological solipsism. · The divergence of corollary discharges in preafference followed by multisensory convergence into the limbic system/entorhinal cortex as the basis for gestalt formation. · The formation of a sequence of global amplitude modulation patterns of chaotic activity that integrates and directs the intentional state of an entire cerebral hemisphere. ***The neurological biology of mental processes is very illuminating in explaining what is actually occurring when one supposedly is either speaking in tongues [sIT] or ‘renewing one’s mind.’ Essentially what one is doing via either ‘SIT’ or TWI so-called renewed mind processes is functionally largely severing the somatosensory aspects of the cerebral hemispheric cortices away from the emotion-oriented, multimodal association cortex of the limbic system. The limbic system integrates (via its interconnections to brainstem nuclei, the sensory cortex, & the frontal lobes) the lifetime summation of one’s true, personal, experiential history such that the individual internally creates idiosyncratic meaning & meaningfulness by way of environmental ‘reaching out’ or hypothesis testing. The limbic system contains explicit memories that one that one has learned in a normal fashion & can be easily recalled (whereas Pavlovian hypnotically implanted implicit memories via transmarginal inhibition cannot be recalled). The limbic system is the neuroanatomic & neurophysiologic ‘house’ of all human goal-directed intent & intentional action & allows one to overcome solipsistic isolation. Thus the limbic system, by virtue of its multimodal convergence & divergence, its control of brainstem nuclei, its access to the space-time field of the brain, is the locus of integration of neural activities into awareness. Both speaking in tongues & sustained ‘mind renewal’ processes largely anesthetize this emotion-oriented, mutimodal limbic association cortex such that one becomes susceptible to having one’s true historical neuronal ‘software’ of self “overwritten” or overridden by the subsequent covert induction & implantation of a synthetic pseudo-personality & pseudo-identity (this is not the same as multiple personality disorder), especially when done in conjunction with the other numerous reinforcing aspects of coercive thought reform. This SIT, ritualistic mind-stilling activity predictably leads to cognitive-emotional-behavioral dissonant mental states rendering one very vulnerable/suggestible/hypnotizable, especially when combined with TWI’s ‘renewed mind’ thought-stopping processes, such that over time, a person habitually practicing such mind-numbing activities has an increased probability of developing significant psychopathology such as: depression, anxiety, panic, dissociative disorder, & possibly other conditions. What I have endeavored to explain in the preceeding sections regarding SIT & TWI ‘renewed mind’ are a combination of the neuroscientist pragmatist’s view & the somatic marker representational view of mental activity. Also, Pavlovian operant conditioning with transmarginal inhibition (a relative state of mental ‘collapse’ induced by extreme emotional stress prior to ‘conversion’) is involved in the above mentioned “other numerous reinforcing aspects of coercive thought reform.”

The next psychosocial aspect of unethical influence that I’d like to expose is that of authority and directed deference. As a general social principle in an otherwise benign society, it makes great sense to comply with the wishes of properly constituted authorities; it makes so much sense that, in fact, we often do so even when it makes no sense at all. Why? Research has shown that humans possess an innate, deep-seated[probably limbic system based] sense of duty to perceived authority to the degree that people in the majority of instances manifest a relative ‘inability’ to defy the wishes of one in authority over them. In other words, humans have an extreme willingness to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority figure. See Stanley Milgram’s, Obedience to Authority. [see http://www.psychologymatters.org/milgram.html]. Also see Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiments [see http://www.prisonexperiment.org]. An obvious example of this is seen in the psychological transference phenomenon between patient and psychiatrist, the latter being the authority figure. Transference is a core concept of the psychoanalytic experience. It is a process whereby the patient [or TWI adherent student] “transfers” onto the authority figure his deepest feelings, fantasies, morbid fears, and defenses deriving from the individual’s complex of unconscious, repressed thoughts and feelings. Dr. Milton Erickson, MD {psychiatrist and renowned medical hypnotist}, wrote about the methods and techniques that can be used to elicit cooperation and decrease resistance to change. Dr. Erickson taught how, quite counter-intuitively and surprisingly, ordinary words, conversational style, and careful pacing and leading of an interaction can bring a person to the point of being able to secure the cooperation of another person without using force, pressure, high-demand, or even commands. Through this process the authority figure indirectly suggests the behavioral changes the patient comes to make. This is termed indirect, naturalistic, trance induction, as opposed to formal trance induction. There are various means of informal trance induction. A common TWI homiletic scenario would be the purposeful evoking of universal experience. This is done because evoking a feeling of universality in a person ‘helps’ the speaker solicit cooperation from the person. An example would be, “Who among us has not stood on a hillside, looking out over a valley…and felt some wonderful emotion welling up in our heart?” At other times, the induction method, and the one most commonly used in the PFAL and WAP series of classes, is speech filled with paradox and discrepancy—that is, the message being presented is not logical and one is unable to follow it, but it is presented as though it were logical. Trying to follow what is being said can actually detach the listener from reality into an altered state of consciousness such as trance. In the cultic setting such as TWI, there is strategic, covert exploitation of the transference phenomenon and trance, leading detrimental mental manipulation of TWI members (victims). This paradox of the innate authority response has the same unifying theme that underlies all of the weapons of cultic exploitation via unethical influence. Once we ‘realize’ [through the interaction of higher brain areas with the limbic system, producing a conditioned response in addition to the pre-existing innate authority proclivity] that obedience to authority is rewarding in most normative social situations, it is ‘natural’ to extrapolate this response to the mental short-cut of nearly ‘automatic obedience.’ This type of obedience has a mechanical character to it, in part explaining the often noticed bland facial expression and distant stare so characteristic of intensely indoctrinated TWI cult members. Throughout my history with TWI, directed deference to TWI ‘authority,’ especially the mogfart Presidents of TWI, such as veepee and martinpuke, has always been one of the foundational teachings, both directly and by indirection-implication. In the latter instance, the authority is implied due to VPW’s & LCM’s unique position as the supposed top ‘men of God’ of TWI, essentially representing God to the TWI believers. Additional authority is conferred by way of these leaders supposedly being the ultimate living examples of the ‘God-breathed Word,’ the Bible; and, as TWI indoctrinates, the written Word of God is to replace in the ‘renewed mind’ of the TWI believer the physical absence of a living Christ, equating the ‘written Word,’ the Bible, with the ‘living Word,’ Jesus Christ. TWI further teaches along these same lines that the greatest ‘secret’ in the world today is that the Bible is THE revealed Word and Will of God; in other words, The Word of God is The Will of God [WOG = WOG]. Therefore, since the Bible indicates obedience to authority, and WOG = WOG, and VPW & LCM were the top authorities of TWI, then all deference is ‘spiritually’ to be ‘given’ to them, and in TWI’s perversion of the arrangement, these men came to be extremely admired, revered, venerated, & even worshipped. There are of course multiple layers of deception and manipulation as to the ‘duly constituted’ nature of VPW’s and LCM’s supposed authority. Regardless of the mechanism of TWI’s deception humans possess an innate, deep-seated sense of obligation to perceived authority which TWI strategically & routinely exploited as a corporate strategy. Another aspect of the authority principle deals with form as opposed to substance, or connotation as opposed to content. Under the ‘right’ conditioning circumstances, cultic members are as vulnerable to exploitation via the mere symbols of authority as to the presence authority itself. In other words, the perceived appearance of authority is sufficient to invoke or trigger the influence of the authority principle, without necessarily having to ever provide any legitimate authority. Cultic compliance professionals such as Wierwille and Martindale loved to drape themselves with [bogus] titles, impressive clothing, and other various trappings of authority. They understood when they were so “equipped,” their chances of compliance were greatly increased. Titles are simultaneously the most difficult and the easiest symbols of authority to acquire. To earn one normally takes years of work and achievement. Yet it is possible for somebody who has put in none of this legitimate effort to adopt the mere label and to thus receive a kind of automatic deference. One’s actions are frequently more unduly influenced by a title than by the nature of the person claiming it. Also, cultic compliance professionals often lie about titles which they don’t truly have. V.P. Wierwille claimed to have a doctorate degree; however, this so-called doctorate was obtained via a ‘degree mill’ operation, Pikes Peak Seminary, in Colorado. But VPW loved to be called “Doctor” or “the Doctor.” Martindale was [illegitimately] “ordained” by TWI/VPW, thus having the title of “Reverend.” Both of these sociopaths loved to be called “THE Man of God” as well. Another weapon of covert influence exploited by cultic compliance professionals is that of the scarcity principle. The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making. In fact, people in general are more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value. The cultic exploiter’s intent is to “persuade” adherents of the “True Word’s” scarcity [as only taught by TWI, of course] and thereby increase its apparent immediate “value” in their eyes. The central issue in the scarcity principle is the psychological reactance theory. This theory states that as opportunities become less available, we lose freedoms; and we hate to lose the freedoms we already have; there is an unmistakable desire to preserve our established prerogatives in response to diminishing personal control. Whenever free choice is limited or threatened, the perceived need to retain our freedoms makes us desire them significantly more than previously. Therefore when increasing scarcity—or anything else—interferes with our perceived prior access to some item, we will react against the “interference” by endeavoring to possess the item more than before. Cultic compliance professionals such as Wierwille and Martindale holding a weak or unpopular position could manipulate one to agree with that position by covertly arranging to have the message “restricted.” The irony is that the most effective strategy is not to publicize the unpopular cultic views, but to get these views “officially censored” and then to publicize the censorship. The official censorship could come in the form of the active disdain of denominational Christianity for the practices and beliefs of the TWI cultic group. The iconoclasm & audacity of Wierwille’s book, Jesus Christ Is Not God, in 1977, really fanned these fires. Interestingly, the Arian position regarding diety (non-trinitarian) was indigenous to the Teutonic Goths of early Europe. They were evangelized by the Arian monk, Ulfilas [311 – 383 CE] (Ulphilas, Wulfila, “Little Wolf”) ~ the 330’s CE, and he became their bishop in 343. Thus Wierwille in JCNG, among other agendas, is promoting his Franco-teutonic Aryan supremacy in doctrinal matters. Also, for Wierwille’s born-again concept of ‘christ in you’ being equivalent to the indwelling of the gift of holy spirit, it is necessary for Jesus to not be part of a triune God, for this would reveal the strong influence of Hermeticism in TWI, where the born again or twice born of the initiation of the mysteries was a god-man with eternal life. The proximate source of Wierwille’s white-washed Hermeticicm was the writings of E.W. Kenyon [04/27/1867 – 03/19/1948] who trained at the arcane & esoterically oriented Emerson College of Oratory in Boston, MA. This college was founded by minister Charles Wesley Emerson [1837 – 1908]. C.W. Emerson was heavily influenced by the ‘New Thought’ transcendental metaphysical writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803 – 1882]. New Thought metaphysics was based on ancient and Renaissance Hermeticism. TWI’s PFAL & WAP class series were restricted, especially the Advanced Class. The lower level foundational & intermediate classes have an associated course registration fee, as does the Advanced Class. However, the Advanced Class is even more so restricted by its more stringent entrance requirements, such as: passing an exam on all TWI basic materials; proven obedient discipleship; the recommendation of one’s local leadership; etc. The restriction levels were even higher for the College Division & the Way Corps indoctrination programs. The realization that we value limited information allows us to apply the scarcity principle to realms beyond material commodities. Taking this perspective, we can see that information may not have to be censored for us to value it more; it need only be scarce. According to the scarcity principle, we will find a piece of information more persuasive if we think we can’t get it elsewhere. This is the concept that exclusive information is more persuasive information. Among other exploitative reasons, this is one reason that Wierwille claimed that God spoke to him audibly and told him that He would teach him the Word like it had not been known since the first century, hence creating an aura of extremely desirable, long-lost, ancient knowledge. There are also optimal conditions in which the manipulation of scarcity is more powerful & effective. One of these dynamic conditions is newly experienced scarcity. Another optimal condition for the exploitation of scarcity is when there is rivalry, that is, when we are in competition for some desired entity. TWI strategically and covertly set the stage for these cultic weapons of covert influence to be in operation within TWI, as noted above in the examples of PFAL & WAP series classes as well as in the in-residence programs. Perhaps the authors of this country’s Constitution were acting as much as sophisticated social psychologists as staunch civil libertarians when they wrote the freedom of speech and freedom of religion provisions of the First Amendment. They may have been attempting to minimize the chance that the PRACTICES of destructive cults and extremist political ideologies could win support via the irrational course of psychological reactance.

The next category to address is that of the [apparent, feigned] friendship principle, the influence principle of perceived personal affability or liking, that is, the machinations of VPW, the ‘friendly thief’ [compare Hermetic mythological lore regarding the gods Pan, Bacchus, Dionysus, Adonis, & others]. The basic principle is that if one is the object of [apparent unconditional favorable regard] ‘love bombing’ and other deceptive cultic tactics that surround one, naturally ‘causing’ one to feel wanted and loved, naturally ‘causing’ one to like the people in a cultic group, then one feels that he naturally ought to obey the cult leader and affiliate with his cultic group. Cultic leader compliance professionals recognize and manipulate the pressure to say yes to someone we know and like. We tend to like people who are similar to us, when they [appear] to have backgrounds and interests similar to ours. Also, we like things that are familiar to us. This is because of the unconscious way in which familiarity affects liking. Our positive attitude toward something can be exploitatively influenced by the number of times we have been exposed to it in the past. For example, because enhanced liking leads to greater social influence, we tend to be more ‘persuaded’ by the statement of individuals whose faces with which we have become familiar. Also, the familiarity produced by personal contact usually leads to enhanced liking. This explains as least one aspect of the reason for VPW’s almost constant itineraries around the USA on his customized motor coach {not to mention the more seedy aspects of veepee’s notorious ‘lust bus,’ staffed with well-endowed Way Corps females, whether single or married}. Another aspect of liking is that cultic leader compliance professionals are forever attempting to establish that we and they are working on and for the same [spiritual] goals, so that we must “pull together” [in unity of purpose, with all coachability and freedom from haughty self-sufficiency] and for [extremely one-sided] ‘mutual’ benefit, manipulating by mind-numbing anchoring / indirection / implication, that they are somehow our benevolent ‘teammates.’ The covert, exploitative ploy known as “Good Cop/Bad Cop” falls under the category of the ‘friendly thief’ as well. This ploy reveals how a cult manages conflict related to grievances and nonconformity. This ploy also helps to explain how the group manufactures artificial loyalty crises designed simultaneously to stigmatize and expel nonconformists while reinforcing conformity within the remaining membership, which is now influenced by an unmistakable conformity-phobia and exit-phobia induction. Also, certain psychologically harmful aspects of aversive-confrontational, belittling, berating, shaming, & scream tactics would fit under this category. Good Cop/Bad Cop or Good TWI Leader/Bad TWI leader works as follows. A supposed or alleged, disobedient, nonconformist suspect is brought into a room to be interrogated by a pair of officers/leaders, with the potential threat of incarceration or excommunicative ‘mark and avoid’ status hanging over him like the sword of Damocles. One of the officers/leaders plays the role of Bad Cop/Bad Leader. Before the suspect even sits down, Bad Cop/Bad Leader vehemently curses this victimized dolt for his alleged but unproven ‘crime.’ For the rest of the session Bad Cop’s/Bad Leader’s words come only with hateful, aversive snarls and growls. He kicks the suspects chair to emphasize his points. When he looks at the suspect, he pretends to see a pound of garbage. If the suspect challenges Bad Cop’s/Bad Leader’s ‘accusations’ [premature, largely unfounded, manipulative allegations] or just refuses to answer them, Bad Cop/Bad Leader becomes melodramatically but realistically livid. His rage soars. He swears he will do everything possible to assure a maximum incarceration / permanent mark and avoid status. He states he has friends in the DA’s / TWI board of trustees’ office who will hear from him of the suspect’s non-cooperative attitude and who will prosecute / persecute the case very hard. At the outset of Bad Cop’s/Bad Leader’s ‘performance,’ his partner, supposed Good Cop/Good Leader sits quietly in the background. Then, slowly, he starts to chip in. First, he only speaks to Bad Cop/Bad Leader, ‘trying’ to temper the burgeoning anger. “Calm down, man, calm down.” But Bad Cop/Bad Leader shouts back, “Don’t tell me to calm down when I know this suspect is lying to my face! I hate these lying bastards!” A bit later, Good Cop/Good Leader actually says something in the suspect’s behalf. “Take it easy, Max, he’s only a kid/apparently disobedient believer.” This is not much in the way of support, but compared to the ranting of Bad Cop/Bad Leader, the words fall like music on the suspect’s ears and heart. Still, Bad Cop/Bad Leader is unconvinced. Now Good Cop/Good Leader begins to speak directly to the suspect, calling him by his first name and pointing out the positive details of the case. If the suspect persists in claiming innocence, Bad Cop/Bad Leader launches into another tirade of vehement cursing and sickening threats. But this time Good Cop/Good Leader stops him, and gives Bad Cop/Bad Leader some money to go buy coffee/whatever for the three of them. When Bad Cop/Bad Leader is gone, it’s time for Good Cop’s/Good Leader’s big scene. “Look, man, I don’t know why Bad Cop/Bad Leader doesn’t like you, but I don’t want to see your incarceration/mark and avoid situation happen to you. So if you’ll just admit [whether it’s true or not] that you are guilty of this [supposed] “crime/misdeed” right now before he gets back, I’ll take charge of your case and put in a good word to the DA’s/Board of Trustee’s office. Do us both a favor, just tell me exactly what you ‘did.’’’ Not surprisingly a full ‘confession’ [part truth with varying amounts of fabrication or confabulation] typically follows in short order. The Good Cop/Good Leader—Bad Cop/Bad Leader form of covert, exploitative manipulation deceives as well as it does for several reasons: The fear of long incarceration/permanent excommunicative mark and avoid status is quickly instilled by Bad Cop’s/Bad Leader’s threats; the perceptual contrast principle ensures that compared to the raving, venomous Bad Cop/Bad Leader, the interrogator feigning as Good Cop/Good Leader will have the illusion of appearing as though he were an especially reasonable and even kind person; and because Good Cop/Good Leader has intervened repeatedly on the suspect’s behalf—has even spent his own money for a cup of coffee or some such snack—the reciprocity principle manipulates pressure for a return favor. The primary reason that this exploitative technique is effective, though, is that it gives the suspect the illusory idea that there is supposedly someone on his side, someone with his welfare in mind, someone working together with him, for him. In most situations, such a person would be viewed very favorably, but in the deep trouble our suspect finds himself, the Good Cop/Good Leader takes on the character of an apparent “savior.” And from illusory savior, it is but a short step to supposed “father confessor,” with the implicit generation of the psychological transference phenomenon, imbued as it is with the potential for the induction of post-trance suggestions with associated triggers. Another aspect of the ‘friendly thief’ or liking phenomenon is that of conditioning and association. The principle of Pavlovian conditioned association is a general one, governing both positive and negative connections. An association with either bad things or good things will influence how people feel about us. Cultic compliance professionals are incessantly trying to deceptively connect themselves and their products [PFAL & WAP class series, for example] with the things people naturally enjoy. One application of this principle is the ‘luncheon technique,’ where it is noted that experientially people become fonder of one another and ambient items while eating together. The normal, positive (good and favorable) reaction to food can be transferred to numerous other experiences through the raw process of association. Therefore it is possible to attach this pleasant feeling, this positive attitude, to anything that is closely associated with good food. At all TWI Advanced Classes and Specials as well as in all in-residence training programs, meals are required to be eaten together as a group. On most occasions this meal time experience is also paired for conditioning purposes with group singing or Way Productions music being played or performed live. This was not a haphazard occurrence, but rather a strategic, exploitative decision by TWI. The conditioned response relationship between athletics and the earnest fan(atic) is anything but sportsmanlike; it is serious, intense, forcefully deep and sweeping, as well as highly personal. As distinguished author Isaac Asimov phrased it in describing our reactions to the various contests we view, “All things being equal, you root for your own sex, your own culture, your own locality…and what you want to prove is that you are better than the other person, i.e., to prove your own supposed superiority. Whomever you root for represents you; and when he wins, you win.” The athletic contest is no light diversion to be enjoyed for its inherent form and artistry; the passion of the sports fanatic is deeply rooted in the self which is at stake. The exploitative actions of TWI were operational such that they could manipulate the staged ‘visibility’ [in reference to the supposed 9 manifestations of ‘holy spirit’] of TWI members’ ‘connections’ [via supposed in-born ‘holy spirit’] with competitive ‘winners’ [TWI-defined ‘God’] in order to make themselves look good to anyone who might view these connections [perchance a potential cultic recruit]. This supposed spiritual connection of TWI members was visible and evident by way of this member supposedly manifesting his inward spiritual ability by “operating holy spirit,” that is, speaking in tongues (glossolalia). Per TWI, the action/deed/performance/behavior of speaking in tongues is absolute evidence of being “born again,” hence it was highly encouraged at all times. The detrimental aspects of Glossolalia have been mentioned previously on this thread or jkb’s thread on Totalitarian Cults. TWI, by having shown the ostensible, positive associations and having buried the negative ones, was endeavoring to get observers to think more highly of TWI and to have a feeling of liking towards TWI and its adherents. In order to make itself look good, TWI endeavored to bask in the supposed’ reflected glory’ [of association] of the successes of what TWI’s supposed spiritual ancestors had accomplished rather remotely in the first century AD Apostolic church [of which of course TWI was now the ONLY extant church supposedly performing proficiently those same wonderful works of ‘God’] According to the association principle, if we can surround ourselves with successes that we are connected with in even a superficial way {much less deeper and stronger (supposed) religious associations}, our public prestige will be enhanced, especially if one uses the term, “research” in their corporate name [viz, “The Way Biblical Research, Teaching, and Fellowship Ministry”]. Many TWI ‘encouragements’ for various actions and behaviors, from 1985 to post LCM, were couched in the implicit and conditioned terminology of the individual believer as an athlete of the spirit himself, with all of the above aspects of [a potentially negative view of] ‘self’ at stake and at risk, depending on the performance proficiency of the spiritual athlete. Performance based spirituality is not genuine spirituality at all, but rather a sick, legalistic, confining ideology. TWI covertly utilized this exploitative approach because of the inferiority complex in the top leadership [VPW/LCM] who felt inadequate in the religious social milieu; that is, TWI had the perception that it just might not measure up or look so good to others [though they would constantly affirm {there’s a hint} that they didn’t care what anyone thought of them or TWI]. It is when prestige (both public and private) is perceived to be low, as it was by TWI, that one will be profoundly intent upon using the successes of associated others to help restore image. In one sense this is an example of corporate external validation as well as being an example of corporate ‘damage control.’ What sort of corporate ‘damage control’ was in operation to compel TWI to feel the need to market its followers as ‘athletes of the spirit?’ That damage to be controlled was the loss of the original founder and president, VP Wierwille, and his subsequent replacement with [inferiority and inadequacy laced] Martindale.

Next is the principle of ‘social proof.’ If one were to look around in a cultic group such as TWI, one would see cult adherents behaving in particular ways. One tends to imitate what one sees and reasonably assumes that such behavior is proper, good, and expected. This is true because 95% of the general populations are imitators and only 5% are personal initiators; people are persuaded more by the actions of others more so than by any proof one could offer. We are most vulnerable to the deceptive effects of manipulated social proof when our sense of confidence is shaken, when we are unsure of ourselves for whatever reason, when the situation in which we find ourselves is ambiguous, in other words, when personal and societal uncertainty reigns supreme. It is at these times that we are most likely to look to and accept the actions of others as ‘correct.’ Also, the principle of social proof operates most powerfully when we are observing the behavior of people apparently ‘just like’ us. For it is the conduct of such people that gives us the greatest [illusory] insight into what supposedly constitutes correct behavior for ourselves. Therefore, we are much more inclined to follow the lead of a similar individual than a dissimilar one. These and other easily predictable vulnerabilities [just starting out in college with typical social and occupational uncertainties as well as the typical existential concerns of the college-aged adolescent, a recent geographic relocation, a new job, a marital break-up, the death of a loved one, etc.] are strategically utilized and targeted by TWI in their recruitment efforts. These transient vulnerabilities are described as “needs” of potential recruits as taught in TWI’s Witnessing & Undershepherding seminar & the class, Christian Motivational Techniques, taught to the Way Corps and College Division. Yet corporate TWI conveniently endeavors to distance them from the ‘front-line’ recruiting by exploiting rank and file local TWI members. The rank and file members, thought well-intentioned, are exploitatively manipulated deployable recruiting agents for corporate TWI. The religious element is really irrelevant to corporate TWI. It just happened to be the most convenient front for TWI that a WW-II draft-dodging coward such as veepee could ‘get up’ and running the quickest. VPW mentions in his writings that he briefly considered medicine and law, but finally settled on ‘the ministry.’ This is because: he was too lazy to do either of the first two; his unethical behaviors would have been exposed much more easily in either of these two fields; he could avoid having to enter the military. Social proof or evidence can be manipulatively and exploitatively used against one—not [apparently] by others, but by ‘oneself’ [the now well entrenched cultic pseudo-identity]—to ‘assure’ one that what one prefers to be true will in fact seem to be true. VPW frequently stated in his teachings, that “…’you’ [cultic pseudo-identity] ‘believe’ [arrived at via TWI packaged coercive persuasion and group psychosocial thought reform techniques] what ‘you’ [as above]‘want’ [have been conditioned] to ‘believe’ [as above]…”; VPW, as well as LCM definitely understood and utilized the principle unethically. The history of apocalyptic millennial religious movements is interesting within this purview of the social proof principle. Various sects and cults have prophesied that on one or another particular date there would arrive a period of redemption and great happiness for those who believed in the group’s teachings. In each instance it has been predicted that the beginning of the time of salvation would be marked by an important and undeniable event, usually the cataclysmic end of the world, or at least the end of the world as we now know it, or the invention of an artificial crisis for the manipulative purposes of either building group cohesion & commitment, or to serve as a concurrent purge of those who are not totally committed. Of course, these end-time prophecies and predictions have invariably proved to be false. But immediately following the obvious ‘failure’ of the ‘prophecy,’ history records an enigmatic pattern. Rather than disbanding in disillusion, the cultists often become even more committed/dedicated and strengthened in their ‘convictions.’ Such a ‘real’ crisis or the invented crisis brings into play two significant aspects. First, it causes the level of commitment/dedication to the cult’s belief system to be markedly increased. The second significant aspect is a serious form of inaction—there is no attempt to seek converts until the never-to-arrive supposed apocalypse does not occur. Then a covert, exploitative, manipulative form of cultic group “damage control” goes into operation via cult leader rationalization and ‘explanation’ of the non-event. The ‘present truth’ might spew forth something like this, “Oh, the mercy of God is so great, that rather than allow this apocalyptic event to occur, He has seen, He has seen the phenomenal commitment/dedication of this one true ‘ministry’ of God that accurately represents Him, and now, through His infinite grace, since our [cultic] group has spread so much ‘spiritual light,’ God has moved in the face of this revelational catastrophe and has seen fit to save the world from certain destruction.” Yeah, right. The most ‘influential’ cultic leaders are those such as TWI’s, who ‘know how’ [have studied the covert packaged persuasion literature] to arrange group conditions to exploitatively manipulate the principle of social proof to work maximally to appease their own selfish interests. One of the assertions that VPW makes in the PFAL class is something to the effect that he “…hauled off about 3,000 volumes [books] to the city dump…’ He implied that these were religious commentaries which had led him away from rather than to the great accuracy and integrity of the Word of God when it is ‘rightly divided;’ therefore he decided “to just chuck” the whole bunch and supposedly go to the ‘fountainhead of God’s truth,’ the Bible, and allow it to speak for itself and interpret itself; however, nearly all of his ‘research’ is plagiarized, and was definitely not taught to him directly by God, as he asserts. Perhaps only a handful of these materials were commentaries. Oh sure, he kept a few items so he could throw them out on the Advanced Class ‘junk table’to impress us. Once the non-event is over, the cultic group interestingly enough changes abruptly from inaction into aggressive outreach mode once again. To what can we attribute the ‘believers’’ radical turnabout, an apparent inconsistency of commitment? In the space of a few days after the non-occurrence of the non-event, a cultic group can go from clannish and taciturn hoarders of the only True Word, to expansive and eager disseminators of it. Oddly, it is not the cultic, snobbish certainty that they alone possessed the True Word that drives the members to now propagate the only genuine faith; rather, it is an encroaching sense of uncertainty. It is the dawning realization that if the non-event prophecies and predictions were wrong, so might be the entire belief system of which their entire heart, soul, mind, and strength is supposedly securely anchored. Wake up, Oldies. For now [after so many years of covert packaged persuasion & periodic reinforcement of psychosocial thought reform] the cultic group adherents have gone too far, given up too much, sacrificed too much out of commitment-consistency, to now see their most precious and sacred beliefs and practices destroyed; the shame, the economic cost, the mockery would be far too great to bear. The overarching ‘need’ of the cultists is to now desperately, irrationally, cling to their [conditioned, implanted, yet obviously false] ‘beliefs.’ So massive is the commitment to their ‘beliefs’ that no other ‘truth’ can be psychologically tolerable. Since the otherwise only acceptable form of factual verification has been undercut by the physical non-occurrence of the prophesied ‘event,’ there is but one way out of the cosmologic corner into which the cultic leader has so adeptly painted the victimized group. Since the physical evidence of non-occurrence cannot be changed, the social evidence ‘has’ to be changed. They ‘have’ to establish another type of proof for the validity of their [bogus, irrelevant] ‘beliefs;’ the principle of social proof. This is an unspeakably poignant moment in the lives of these committed, faithful disciples, who are now facing the frightening depths of acute cognitive-emotional-behavioral dissonance. This then explains the sudden shift from secretive conspirators to zealous missionaries. And it explains the curious timing of the shift—precisely when a potential direct disconfirmation of their ‘beliefs’ has rendered them least convincing to outsider infidels. It is necessary at this point to risk the scorn and derision of the nonbelievers because publicity and recruitment efforts provide the only remaining hope. If they could now just somehow spread the Word, if they could just inform the uninformed, if they could just persuade the skeptics, and if, by doing so, they could win new converts, their threatened treasured beliefs and practices would become ‘even truer.’ The principle of social proof says so: The greater the number of people who find any idea/concept/philosophy/religion correct, the more the religion/philosophy/concept/idea will engender the illusion of being correct [whether or not it actually is]. TWI’s most recent version of an artificial apocalyptic crisis was their purposeful hyping of the Y2K frenzy. All of the above manipulations concerning social proof, commitment-consistency, perceptual contrast, rejection-then-retreat, all painfully apply. The manipulated fear-motivation and phobic-induction was begun around 04-05/1999. Extremely long lists of items to purchase, critical things to do, all in preparation for what Y2K would supposedly bring, were heavily promoted. The main phobic-induction was via Martindale and the board of trustees in the format of a distributed VHS video tape which was required viewing in each local cell group/household fellowship. Martindale himself was the main teacher, with all of the other trustees present at a long table on a stage, flanked by Bill Green [then Trunk coordinator of the USA] and his yes-man assistant, John Rupp, and probably deceitfully bubbly, ‘soup to nuts’ PR man, Rico Magnelli. This artificial crisis served ALL of the exploitative purposes noted above. In addition, this artificial crisis was deceptively engineered to deflect attention away from the problems at TWI Headquarters in New Knoxville, OH. The Allen vs. TWI & Parker vs. TWI sexual abuse cases had been filed by Mr. Lawrence Levy, Esq. The TWI BOT deceitfully desired to keep the rank and file adherents so artificially busy with this newest b.s. ‘campaign,’ that we wouldn’t have time to give serious consideration to the martinpuke sexual predatory scandals, if we were even lucky enough to have heard about these new scandals. Interestingly enough, no BOT explanation had been given for the prior wave of sexual scandals revealed by John Schoenheit in his Adultery report and expose in ~ 1986. TWI top leadership & especially the mogfarts, veepee & martinpuke, are unmitigated scum at best, and quite possibly crooks hiding behind and under the skirts of Lady Liberty & First Amendment Freedoms. In actuality TWI ‘religion’ is irrelevant to them; it is merely a cloak and veneer for the cash generating scam that is corporate TWI.

Now, I would like to outline some other psychosocial thought reform techniques and give examples of TWI utilization. The first category I want to look at is that of “confirming actions.” Social psychologists indicate that what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words (creeds) than from their behavioral actions (DEEDS). A person himself uses his own behavioral evidence to decide what he is really “like.” A person’s behavior tells him about himself; it is a primary source of information about his beliefs, values, and attitudes. The TWI exploitative compliance professional realizing these facts can arrange a deployed TWI member’s day to day existence into one of largely externally controlled artificial “re-learning experiences,” so as to covertly manipulate one into acting in cultic-preferred ways. This would be especially true in the context of TWI intense indoctrination programs such as WOW, FellowLaborers, Way Homes, Advanced Class, the College Division & Way Corps programs. Before long, these seemingly trivial actions begin to take their unconscious, then consciously rationalized toll, actually inducing one to radically change their self-image to more so align with the TWI-approved actions one is taking. This process is another manner in which the synthetic cultic pseudo-self is covertly induced by TWI manipulation. Writing or journaling was one sort of confirming action that TWI urged incessantly upon those of us in various training programs; it was never enough for TWI members to listen quietly or simply agree mentally or verbally. TWI labeled this simple inactive state of mind pejoratively as “mere mental assent.” TWI always pushed us to “document our spiritual growth” by journaling what we were supposedly ‘learning’ by our committed involvement and participation in TWI. Then at times we would be asked to share with others, either in a cell group (Twig, Household Fellowship) or to a larger group, what we were supposedly ‘learning.’ The more pro-TWI the account, the more credibility one gained in TWI, which served as an inducer for [fallacious, fabricated, exaggerated] personal historical revision. What our TWI cultic peers think is true of our lives is enormously important in determining what we ourselves think is true. This typically causes us to make our actions consistent with cultic peers’ perception of us. Once an active commitment is made, self-image is squeezed from all angles by commitment-consistency, automatic response, & instinctive pressures. Also, we were non-physically coerced to “commit to paper,” that is, write down our TWI influenced goals and objectives, and to commit ourselves to them in the presence of others in the cell group. We were to then manage our time and financial resources in the frame of reference of these goals and objectives, assigning A-B-C priorities to them, so as to micromanage our own lives and our personal finances, being certain that TWI got a minimum of 10-15% of our money, and at least one seventh of our time. In the previous sections I have shown how apparently trifling, initial commitments can lead to extraordinary further compliant, cultic-preferred, constricting, if not enslaving, behaviors. As a commitment device, a written declaration, as in journaling, has some great manipulative advantages for the TWI cultic exploiter. For one thing, it provides physical evidence that one’s behavioral performance is progressively more so aligning with TWI enforced behaviors. Now in his own journal in his own handwriting, there exists these irrevocably documented TWI preferred actions that one has taken; this written declaration now ‘drives’ him to make his action-oriented beliefs and his self-image consistent with what he has undeniably done (commitment-consistency, social proof, & cognitive consonance principles). If a person does not ACT consistently with the TWI-induced pseudo-self, the individual begins to experience a very uncomfortable mental & emotional conflict, that of cognitive dissonance. A second advantage of a written declaration is that it can be shown to others or verbally shared with others, either in the cultic group or new recruits, in order to assist in persuading them in their active commitment to TWI. But more importantly for the purpose of increasing the group commitment level, the shared declaration can persuade the recipients that the author genuinely believes what was written. People have a natural tendency to think that a statement reflects the true [non-revisionist] attitude of the person who made the declaration; surprisingly, they continue to ‘think so’ even when they know that the person may have introduced pro-TWI revisionist elements into the journaling entry. Public commitments tend to be enduring commitments. Whenever one takes a stand that is visible to others, there arises an instinctual drive to maintain that stand in order to look like a consistent person. For appearances’ sake, the more public a stand one takes, the more reluctant one is to change it, and the more reluctant one is to back down from that manipulated committment to TWI. We were covertly, exploitatively taught to vow a vow [supposedly to God via His 'Ministry' here on earth, TWI] and defer not to pay it in totality, with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Even though I originally posted this on WW’s The Way: Living in Wonderland thread, it would be incomplete not to re-post it here because it is a paraphrase of Doug Hyde’s experience as a Roman Catholic converted to Communism, & then re-conversion back to Catholicism. Just as for Hyde as well as Arthur Koestler {author of The God that Failed, Darkness at Noon, & The Thirteenth Tribe}, ideological totalitarianism was the ‘god that failed,’ so it is with the victims of TWI’s cultic totalitarianism. VPW & LCM would say that Way Corps leadership in top positions are men & women of a ‘ special mould.’ TWI everywhere sets out to ‘produce’ [indoctrinate] men & women of this so-called special mould. To a large degree, an observer of the TWI cultic scene can see that TWI frequently succeeds in this covert, exploitative endeavor to the detriment of many rank & file adherents. The man or woman [‘Waybot’] molded by TWI, the new 'leader,' is a formidable man indeed. He is cast in the opposite mould to the traditional 'New Man in Christ,' because TWI’s ‘christ’ is a recycled hybridized pagan god, with characteristics of Osirus, Dionysis, Mithra, Adonis, Pan, Hermes, & other demigods. Even though a person’s original motivation, upon being deceived into joining TWI, may have been altruistic, even though this person retains much of his or her initial youthful idealism and sense of oneness with suffering humanity in the valley of human need, still, because that person has been indoctrinated to adhere to TWI’s contaminated pseudo-spiritual deeds, that person’s life tends to become contaminated with TWI's oppresive mindset. Therefore the mould into which the TWI leader is pressed is one that ultimately debases him or her as a person. Part of the tragedy of TWI is that it takes good men & women, with good intentions, and exploitatively uses & abuses them for the corrupt cause of fallacious pseudo-spiritual practices. The tragic consequence of these TWI enforced practices is that the idealistic leaders, who join or adhere to TWI, set out to be the saviours of humanity and become instead men’s jailers. TWI stands condemned, not only for the problems it has caused the societies of the USA and other nations around the world, but also for the phenomenal psychological damages it has caused in the non-consenting, individual TWI members themselves. The WAY “MINISTRY” in actuality is nothing more than a cultic, multi-level marketing- racketeering scam at best with a thin veneer of Hermitically oriented, ‘white-washed’ & ‘ redefined’ biblical terms. NO genuine, lasting virtue has come about due to the existence of TWI. It did in fact between ~1967 to ~1972 attract some people who had a desire to serve God, but a critical mass of these people had been witnessed to by non-TWI people such as Jimmy Doop, Steve Heefner, Ted Wise, & Lonnie Frisbee. These movements were later invaded by avaricious power-hungry Wierwille. Wierwille-TWI essentially stole these people from those simple, grassroots ministries. In significant part due to the presence of Doop, Heefner, Wise, Frisbee & their followers, as well as the exuberance of their unmistakable presence, many of the PFAL classes of this time period generated a great excitement, more so in spite of Wierwille than due to him & to his supposed original “research” (but in actuality it was almost entirely plagiarized). Certain honest individuals, comprised of the Doop/Heefner/Wise/Frisbee derivatives, as well as many who became involved directly by Wierwille’s PFAL series, were the pure-hearted people in our local areas that created the positive environment that appealed to the transient vulnerabilities of so many of us. Then TWI, primarily via Wierwille & later Martindale, those despicable wolves in sheep’s clothing, surreptitiously ‘ taught & trained’ us by way of various exploitative programs {via VPW's PFAL series, the WOW program, the Fellowlaborers’ program, the Way Corps & College Division programs, LCM's WAP series, TWI-II, & many other scenarios} which were ALL disguised TWI indoctrination. The proceeds & benefits of these clandestine programs & MLM operations went not to the TWI-claimed beneficiaries, the rank-and-file affiliates of TWI, but rather went to the TWI Board of Trustees & other high level TWI leadership for their own selfish interests. TWI ‘redefined’ & hence contaminated the supposed 'grace of God' as a hook of vulnerability on the front side, only to later bait & switch it to oppressive hyper-legalism replete with TWI-exit phobia on the far side of this despicable victimization. This oppressive legalism (the supposed ‘teeth’ Wierwille began speaking of around 1967 to 1972) was originally most visible in the Way Corps in the 1970’s, but after the 1989 LCM loyalty demand, & in/after the Fall of 1995, when LCM began his ‘mark & avoid’- enforced extreme obedience demands (among many other abusive & harmful practices), the end result for those of us who in good faith held out to the bitter end, is that we have essentially nothing to show for our TWI servitude except for the psychological & emotional wounds (damages) with which TWI has so disgracefully left us. This does not even begin to account for all of our good-faith financial contributions (tithing & abundant sharing) & our irreversibly lost time (both economic & emotional equivalents implied) stolen from us during our affiliation with The Way International, Inc. One can now easily determine this cult’s supposed “spiritual” benevolence is not altruistic at all, but is rather strategically rigged cons and scams to make a financial profit off of an unaware one, without one’s informed consent. Further, if JUSTICE is to be done, exploitation attempts by TWI should be, and must be, met with equilibrating RECIPROCAL CONFRONTATION & REPROOF.

Per OM: This might be the case, OM, were it not for the barrage of covert packaged persuasion fired at us by unethical TWI when we were in a state of transient vulnerability. For those TWI believers victimized by the non-consented production in themselves of TWI’s synthetic cultic pseuo-self & pseudo-identity, they first need to return to their pre-TWI, true historical self, which may well require professional psychological assistance. Only then can the person genuinely pursue understanding their true historical self. By the way, the ‘real you’ can only be genuinely determined by an individual in an environment totally free of covertly imposed mental manipulation, thought reform, packaged persuasion.

rascal, It seems to me that the actions / deeds / behaviors / practices / conduct of many if not most of TWI top leadership {most especially the BODs, but also Cabinet members, Trunk Coord, Region Coord, Limb Coord, etc.} were flaming examples of a legal breach of fiduciary duty, misrepresentation, fraud, negligence, among many others.

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.

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.

Returning to Doug Hyde’s observations, he stated that the Christian church had much to learn from the ideological totalist’s [communist’s] techniques, methods, and attitudes. Apparently VPW, as the totalistic, fascist fuehrer, agreed. Following are some of the totalitarian methods and strategies utilized by VPW/LCM/TWI that Doug Hyde espoused. I will paraphrase Hyde and insert corresponding TWI practices where comparable to totalitarian techniques. Continued……….. 10) Individual adherents of the Communist Party [TWI] are “brought to believe” [via a systematic, coordinated program of psychological and social manipulation] that collectively they and others like them can ‘change the world’ in their very lifetime [Communist phrase coined by Karl Marx’s friend and collaborator, Frederick Engels; TWI phrase by VP Wierwille, “…the Way Ministry needs to turn the world upside down, which really means to turn it right-side up, because it was ‘kittywampas’ to start with…;” Communists [TWI] are “convinced” that this is not just a dream for they have techniques [covert packaged persuasion] and a Marxist science [TWI’s ‘sacred science’ of cultic practices with ‘mystical manipulation’] of “change-making” which provides them with the “means” by which this world-changing undertaking [TWI’s ‘Word over the world,’ or ‘The Prevailing ‘Word’ in the Promised Land’] can be accomplished. When a Communist [TWI] manipulative exploiter has succeeded in “making men believe” that ‘change’ is necessary and possible and that they are the ones who can actually achieve it; when the exploiter has “convinced” them that they and the small minority of whom they are a part [an elitist-minded TWI member], can actually “transform” the world in their lifetime, the exploiter has achieved something very considerable indeed [a TWI destructive cult]. The exploiter has “put into their lives” a ‘dynamic force’ so powerful that the exploiter can manipulate them to do what would otherwise be impossible. The dull and humdrum takes on the ‘illusion’ of becoming transcendently meaningfull. Life ‘appears’ to become extremely purposeful and immensely more “worth living.” Marx concluded his Communist Manifesto with the words, “You have a world to win.” VPW/LCM/TWI would paraphrase to say something to the effect of, “move out on the greatness of {TWI-defined} ‘God’s Word’ and win the world with and to the {TWI-defined and interpreted} ‘Word;’ it’s our only hope, people.” [TWI-defined] ‘Word over the world’ and ‘the prevailing [TWI-defined] Word over the world’ are TWI stated “spiritual” goals. The supposed “urgency of our times” is incessantly repeated to TWI adherents, which factors into their anticipatory anxiety of ‘betrayal’ exit-guilt and exit-phobia induction, were TWI adherents to so much as consider abandoning the jealous god that is TWI. TWI further “induces” its members to make the inevitable comparisons between TWI and conventional, traditional, denominational Christian religion. The comparisons the TWI member is indoctrinated to make are of course consistently unfavorable to denominations or even TWI-spin off groups. They are labeled by VPW/TWI as being “smug, complacent, and self-satisfied.” Or they are stereotyped by LCM/TWI as being “brain-dead pew-warmers” sitting in a “stained glass, idolatrous, pseudo-spiritual whorehouses.” Or, they are just plain old “possessed by devil spirits.” This aversively confrontational approach “causes” [via thought reform] the TWI member to be all the more ‘favorably disposed’ [via the perceptual contrast principle, among other techniques] to totally throw ‘himself or herself’ {i.e., the cultic pseudo-self} into the counterfeit ‘ministry’ of TWI. 11) The detailed instruction of the new Communist Party [TWI] member does not normally begin immediately after he joins. Quite deliberately, and with good reason, the Party [TWI] sends its new members, whenever ‘possible’ into some form of public activity [manipulation of the commitment-consistency principle] before detailed instruction [TWI’s Advanced Class, College Division and Way Corps training]. For TWI this public activity would be something like the Word Over the World (WOW) program, the Way Disciple program, a Way Home living situation, a FellowLaborers training program, etc. This activity is of course deceptively and strategically designed by the Communists [TWI] to commit the new member publicly to Communism [TWI] {via utilization of the commitment-consistency principle}. This public activity is of profound psychological significance. For this relatively new member, still having to ‘adjust’ his [thought reformed] ‘mind’ to the ‘realization’ that he is now a Communist [sold-out committed TWI member] {all the while realizing that large segments of the general population consider the label of Communist (TWI believer, disciple) to be very negative}, this public display of commitment/dedication is very psychologically [manipulatively, exploitatively] significant indeed. He or she is making a public witness for the ‘cause’ which he is now ‘making his own’ [solidifying the coercively imposed synthetic pseudo-identity which has now largely suppressed the true historical self]. All of this public witnessing activity requires for many people {especially those who are not inclined by natural disposition to be an extrovert, dramatic, persuasive, pushy, etc.} a certain degree of moral courage to overcome the natural tendency of many people to be overly self-conscious, to overcome a social sense of inferiority, etc. As the new member/adherent embarks on his first public witnessing assignment, he usually feels to be such a fool that he is almost resentful of having been commissioned for such outreach work. But before long he begins to ‘understand’ the significance of it all. He receives a lot of low level, hackling-type of verbal abuse from those whom he has disturbed with his public witnessing. The self-conscious new member/adherent is embarrassed at the prospect of becoming the center of a ‘scene.’ But the crowd that begins to gather is a mixed one. He or she now finds himself having to deal with bystanders’ more rational questions than hackling. This rational questioning causes him ‘to draw deeply’ [respond to his intense indoctrination] upon the small resources as he has received in the way of teaching about the Communist Party’s [TWI’s] practices, history, theory, and the supposed integrity [?!] of its leaders. It requires yet another act of moral courage to remain in a war of ideological words for which, he by now realizes, he is not fully equipped. He now realizes that he does not have all of the answers to the questions he is likely to be asked as a practicing Communist [TWI member]. He is conscious now that he knows far less than he thought he did. In all probability he is now dissatisfied with himself. ‘He or she’ [the new cultic pseudo-identity] would dearly have loved to put up a tremendous war of persuasive, winning, ideological words and concepts for his or her new found hermetic & arcane ‘faith,’ taking on and defeating, or converting, all comers. He or she has now learned of his or her own inadequacy as far as in-depth, detailed knowledge of Communism [TWI ideology] is concerned. This realization creates in him or her a [manipulated, exploited] deep feeling to become highly ‘educated’ [further in depth indoctrination] as far as his new faith is concerned [once again, via manipulation of the commitment-consistency principle, plus many others]. He or she is now seeking to make himself or herself more adequate, more worthy of the Communist Party [TWI], better able to ‘serve’ the ‘cause.’ And his new found thirst for knowledge about Communism [TWI ideology], the manipulated sense of urgency he or she feels has grown from manipulated actions and behaviors. Theory and action—those apparent opposites—have now found a [manipulated, counterfeit, illusory, putrid] ‘unity’ in his or her [thought reformed & ‘renewed’] ‘mind’ and in his or her [manipulated] experiences. The stage has now been set [exploitatively manipulated] for the TWI member to ‘desire’ to enter either the College Division or Way Corps so as to acquire this so-called “in-depth spiritual perception and awareness.” 12) The Power for Abundant Living ]PFAL] series of classes with affiliated seminars as well as its more recent replacement, the Way of Abundance and Power [WAP] series of classes and associated seminars, were presented in such a way as to be as “inspirational” as possible. This is because any implicit [post-hypnotic suggestions] or explicit instruction is all the more acceptable to a person when it is presented in an inspirational fashion. Next, the subject matter of Communism [TWI] is presented in global terms, so as to destabilize one’s current general reality orientation. This subject matter is presented against the background of a world in hopeless, politically correct, relative pluralism and never-ending conflict. The new recruit or seasoned TWI member is made to feel that there is a great battle [TWI: God vs. the Adversary (Satan)] going on all over the world, which involves his own country, his own town, his own neighborhood, his workplace, and even his own family. He is made to feel that the period of history in which he happens to be living is a decisive one and that he personally has a decisive role to play [This is especially the case in TWI, since (obviously and of course, as VPW himself confabulates) God spoke audibly to VPW and told him that He was going to teach him the Word like it had not been known since the 1st Century AD Apostolic times; and that furthermore, whereas the movement of the Word ‘died’ by 100AD, this time, under the direction of the Apostle of our age, THE VICTOR PAUL (Wierwille), the {hermetic, arcane}’Mystery’ of the {TWI-defined} ‘Word’ was not going to be lost as long as TWI members remained faithful to their ‘calling’ for a lifetime of committed service]. This new Communist [TWI] believer is made to feel that he is a part of great, worldwide movement which is challenged on all sides [per TWI, by millions of devil spirits], confronted by an implacable enemy [satan himself], and furthermore, he is involved in a monumental [spiritual] battle which will decide the course of history for generations, if not millennia, to come. Martindale stated in the fall of 2000 on a Sunday teaching service, during TWI’s apocalyptically, fear-hyped Y2K preparations, that TWI-II was either on the threshold of a millennium of hope or a millennium of despair, which outcome depended on the faithful obedience of members to the [TWI-defined and interpreted] ‘Word of God’ and THE ‘Man of God’, Martindale as President of TWI. 13) Communist [TWI] teachings are presented in such a way as to make the individual undergoing intense indoctrination feel that he is engaged in a [spiritual] fight against all things evil and on behalf of what is genuinely good. It is us vs. them. Only Communists [TWI] are good and righteous, all others, no matter how sincere, are deceived and evil. The concept that there are people [or per TWI, that devil spirits are influencing and even possessing people, and therefore produce only evil acts] who have a vested interest in allowing and even promoting human suffering is a tremendously [manipulated] spur to action in the life of the Communist [TWI disciple]. All of this makes the Communist [TWI disciple] feel that he is engaged in a great crusade against something which is unspeakably evil, that he is fighting against monstrously evil things. This manipulation assists in engendering the exploited ‘willingness’ of the Communist [TWI disciple] to give his all to the ‘cause.’ For by implicit and explicit fear manipulation they are taught to very realistically consider that it may be their own wives who will be raped and children killed should the enemy. Communists [TWI leadership] covertly appeal in their manipulative, intense indoctrinations to people’s capacity for moral indignation. Communist [TWI] moral indignation is a self-serving, highly selective moral indignation [as in TWI’s position regarding denominational religion, religion’s lack of any valid reason for its existence whatsoever, hence an egotistical, sociopathic ‘dispensing of existence’ as per Dr. Robert J. Lifton, MD]. Communist [TWI disciple] thought reforming indoctrination is presented in such a way that the Party member [TWI disciple] feels convinced that he is on the side of genuine good, and involved in a historic struggle of titanic proportions against evil. This appeals to something deep in his [limbic] nature, something undeniably virtuous, true, righteous, just, and good. In their hearts, many people, perhaps most people, like to feel that they are on the side of righteousness. The Communist [TWI disciple] is indoctrinated via thought reform to ‘believe’ exactly this, now transforming the [limbic based] feeling into a deep intellectual conviction. An immense amount of [exploited, manipulated] activity flows from this [bogus] ‘conviction.’ One reason why the Communist [TWI disciple] is prepared to make his or her exceptional ‘sacrifices’ is that he or she is covertly conditioned to ‘believe’ that he is taking a part in an historic crusade of unimaginably gargantuan proportions. 14) It is in the ‘study group’ [TWI cell group and ‘struggle group’ called “Twig” or “Household Fellowship”] that Communist [TWI] leaders begin their thought reform program. There, the potentialities of the person are discovered, ‘drawn out,’ and focused. Each TWI cell group is ‘theoretically’ designed to be self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing. Through small study groups, Communists’ [TWI’s] covert strategic objective is: (1) to teach Marxism [teach TWI PRACTICES ]; (2) to equip those who attend them to go into effective [TWI – ‘loving,’ aggressive, bold action, in order to infiltrate, permeate, saturate, and dominate the targeted area for outreach] ACTION for the Communist [TWI] ‘cause;’ and, (3) in the process of indoctrinating them, to contribute to their further ‘training’ as potential leaders. There are three main methods of Communist [TWI] ‘teaching:’ (1) ‘controlled discussion;’ (2) lecture followed by questions, discussion, or both; and, (3) question and answer method. Of the three, ‘controlled [trance-style paced and led] discussion’ is the one which is regarded as the most useful. It is utilized by TWI at all of its Advanced Classes and Special Advanced Classes. It is when this method is used that the covert objective of ‘developing’ qualities of [exploitable] leadership and ‘drawing out’ the [exploitable] potentialities of those attending the classes is most likely to be ‘realized.’ Immense attention has to be paid to detail. Even the fashion in which those present are seated is important. Ideally, they should be in a circle around the cell group coordinator in a relaxed, informal, yet serious atmosphere [this is exactly how TWI Advanced Class study groups operate]. The covert idea is to get everyone talking [TWI – “sharing”]. The cell group coordinator covertly puts in a strategic word here and there of his own in order to supposedly ‘unobtrusively direct’ the discussion in the way in which he wants it to go [representing TWI’s board of directors’ hidden agenda]. The obvious covert ‘value’ of this deceitful method is that the ‘ideas’ of the various people in the cell study group do not appear to come from the cell group coordinator [from which of course the strategic concepts do in fact originate], but from the class members themselves, who do not ‘feel’ that the cell group coordinator is imposing his ideas upon them! And since they, by [supposed] means of ‘their own’ thought and discussion have arrived at these [strategically preplanned] ‘conclusions,’ they will depart from the cell group study session [manipulatively] ‘convinced’ that these are ‘their own’ opinions and beliefs [which will be a significant basis for cultic prescribed actions and behaviors], arrived at on the basis of reading, thought, and discussion!! Henceforth, these implanted, covert concepts will be felt to be the Communist’s [TWI disciple’s] own cogitations and he will defend them as his own!! There may be those [non-Communist, non-TWI] who speak of Communist [TWI] “indoctrination.” Those [still practicing Communists and TWI deluded disciples] who have been “taught” [undergone the systematic coordinated program of both psychological and social exploitative manipulations] by this ‘method’ are likely to angrily reject such a description of ‘their’ particular ‘instruction.’ They will feel even more strongly when their opponents describe this process as covert packaged persuasion. Anti-Communist [anti-TWI ex-cultic support groups] materials [which they interestingly and paradoxically perceive as ‘propaganda’] which describe them as ‘dupes of Moscow’ [dupes of TWI] will seem to them [in their conditioned, cultic pseudo-identity perception] to be quite transparently malicious and even a blatant LIE. It is as though TWI’s BOD were trying to move a person about with every wind of totalitarian, spiritualistic practice, utilizing their cunning craftiness by lying in wait to deceive, with an ultimate view of methodizing and canonizing pseudo-spiritual error. In their [whether Communist or TWI] thought reforming process, terms are re-defined at almost every conceivable point. But the definitions given to ordinary terms are the Communists’ [TWI’s] own, not those normally accepted by others, essentially forming a conceptual, self-reinforcing “loaded language” of esoteric, jargonized, subcultural ‘code’ and [hypnotically implanted] suggestion ‘triggers.’ In practice Communists [TWI] have learned that the covert, sophisticated, subtle, non-physically coercive techniques of mind control usually achieves a much more preferable and enduring result than all the physically coercive techniques accomplish. In Communist [TWI] hands, the covert method may take on sinister qualities, as concepts which would otherwise be unacceptable are [deceptively] skillfully implanted [Pavlovian subliminal conditioning, post-hypnotic suggestion, individual and group psychosocial manipulations, etc.] into the minds of those who attend their classes and cell study/struggle groups [TWI Twigs, Household Fellowships]. Such thought reforming instruction ‘leads’ those who are indoctrinated in this covert fashion to abandon and repudiate practically all their past thinking {their true historical self} and, indeed, to abandon the very things which first were used to bait them. The following is typical Communist [TWI] deceptive strategy. A new political situation, a new campaign [such as Martindale proclaiming the advent of the paradoxically ever-changing ‘present truth’ of TWI-II with a brand new series of indoctrination teachings, the Way of Abundance and Power, of which the foundational class was released to the general TWI followers in 01/1996, the intermediate class was released in the fall of 1996, and the advanced class was released to be run on the field in 05/1998], a turn in policy—all these automatically call for more study, directly related to the new development. The Communist Party [TWI] is only being truly Marxist [Wierwillian, Martindalian, generically totalitarian] when its new ‘campaigns’ [the new TWI WAP class series, the new Way Disciple Outreach Program, the new no-debt policy, the new hyper-legalism, the new oppressive supposed oversight, the new intensified destruction of the true self via the techniques taught in the new 1992 Defeating the Adversary class, etc] are backed by more and more intensive ‘study,’ and its ‘studies’ are linked to ‘campaigns’ [as outlined just above]. It will not, incidentally, be easy to persuade a Communist [or a TWI faithful disciple of the remnant believing Household of true Zion who has crossed the bridge into the land of the Prevailing Word in TWI-II under the totalitarian dictatorship of Martindale], if the movement’s primary indoctrinators [Wierwille, Martindale], and class coordinators, and Twig cell group coordinators, etc., have done their respective [covert, exploitative, hit-] jobs ‘properly,’ that this Communist [TWI] movement and ‘education’ are some sinister process of covert packaged persuasion. On the contrary, his reply when such an accurate accusation is made is likely to be something to the effect of: “Who else in the world ever showed so much interest in ‘helping’ a poor so-and-so like me?” 15) The Communist Party [TWI] lives by its ‘campaigns’ [as outlined above]. The majority of the new recruits to the Party [TWI] come in via the campaigns which the Party [TWI] ‘organizes’ [via strategic manipulative exploitation]. Campaigning keeps the Party members [TWI disciples] active the whole of the time [so that: they don’t have time to re-evaluate and critically think; they don’t have time to really get involved in anything else]. This is a most strategic and deliberate policy. Communists [TWI] ensure that one campaign follows another almost non-stop. Communists [TWI disciples], if they are worthy of the name at all, are always active [in TWI, to the point of mental if not physical exhaustion, contributing to the development of intra- or post-cultic anxiety, depression, panic, etc.]. Activity in itself serves an important purpose, but it has to be made [by contrivance] as ‘meaningful’ as possible so that more and more non-Communists [non-TWI members] may be deceived into association with the Party [TWI]. It is a natural human tendency for activity to be almost an end in itself [e.g., golfing, gardening, skiing, boating, playing bridge or bingo, etc]. Therefore, in ‘urging’ their members [disciples] to be active, Communists [TWI] are once again exploitatively manipulating a natural human tendency. These exploiters are utilizing [abusing] something which has its own intrinsic appeal. People, once they are ‘suitably activated,’ get ‘satisfaction’ from being active. If this can be manipulated to give the illusion of being made ‘meaningful,’ then the victim will get even greater ‘satisfaction,’ for they will feel that they are engaged in something virtuous. Collectively at all levels of the Communist [TWI] organization, the leaders must find ‘issues’ [TWI-II, no debt, unquestioning obedience, mark and avoid threats, constantly increasing one’s financial contribution level, the Way Disciple Outreach program wherein TWI adherent participants are commissioned by the board of directors/trustees to “confront the religious illogic of the world” thereby attempting to deceptively gain new recruits, etc.] upon which to campaign which relate this artificial activity to the perceived ‘real needs’ of the people. Ideally, these ‘issues’ should be linked to the people’s deepest desires [therefore possessing more potential for exploitation and manipulation due to the person’s emotional overreaction to the apparent fulfillment of deep desire]. The recruiting/outreach assignment of the Communist [TWI] is to discover the NEEDS of the people and then to [appear] to come before them as their [deceptive, exploitative] ‘champions.’ This approach was described by Mao Tse-tung as ‘from the people to the people.’ Members/disciples are to go out among the people and discover their hearts deepest desires, their concerns, their frustrations, their unanswered questions [This technique was taught in the “Christian Motivational Techniques” class at the Way College of Emporia]. The members/disciples then should ‘report back’ [a major TWI concept and requirement, for any and all micromanagement purposes] to the Party [TWI leadership]. This is to be discussed among the leadership and the [deceptive, exploitative] ‘means’ be found by which it can be exploited for the Communist [TWI] ‘cause.’ The Party [TWI] then parasitically adapts its ‘campaigns’ to the things the people are perceived to ‘already want.’ The exploiter takes the raw material for ‘campaigning’ from the people [without informed consent], distorts the issue to a Communist [TWI] ‘content,’ then ‘gives’ it [captivates, enslaves, mesmerizes, manipulates, ‘sticks it to them’] back to the people again. Certain ‘campaigns’ are purposefully designed to have short-term, immediate objectives. The exploiter knows that there is a high likelihood of victory in these small ‘skirmishes.’ This is of great psychological importance in constantly keeping morale at the highest pitch. Campaigning for well chosen immediate objectives helps to ensure that members/disciples do not lose heart or get discouraged, it keeps them continuously working for the ‘cause,’ and therefore emotionally tied to it, if not captivated it. Per Liu Shao-chi, “…to pass from a novice to a mature and well-experience revolutionary [TWI ultra-committed elite disciple of the utmost maturity, the Way Corps] able to cope with any situation call for a very long process of revolutionary steeling [4 year Way Corps training] and cultivation, that is, a long process of reformation [covert thought reform]…” Therefore the Communists [TWI] developed a Special Cadres Department [Way Corps intense indoctrination program]. Good ‘cadres work’ makes a major contribution to the production of the ‘men of a special mould’ which Stalin [Wierwille, Martindale] said every Communist [TWI Way Corps ‘volunteer’ and ‘minister’] should strive to be. Communists [TWI] have a deserved reputation for being good propagandists. This reality grows out of their whole approach to thought reform techniques. It reflects the attitude of mind of this group/cult of people who [have been manipulated to] ‘believe’ that they have got what the world needs and so have a responsibility to pass it on as efficiently and as efficaciously as possible. They have ‘perfected’ a technique of conversational deception. When ‘witnessing,’ instead of setting out to prove that the other man is wrong [per VPW, “a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still;” “the guitar is mightier than the (atomic) bomb”], they seek to find a point of contact and commonality with the potential recruit’s mind, then they try to extend the area of sympathetic interest and agreement just as far as [deceptively] possible. 16) VPW called the organization of TWI “The Way Tree,” where local cell groups of disciples comprise a Household Fellowship Twig. There used to be a 10-12 hour TWI seminar which I took on ‘the way tree’ prior to 1985, taught by John Townsend. Funny thing is, these terms are largely of Communist origin, where they speak of ‘branches’ of cell groups, ‘local branches,’ ‘branch meetings,’ etc. Communists consider that wherever you have three or more Communists, there you have a Communist cell. TWI teaches the same thing regarding the Twig cell group. Communism has a division of labor where certain, top quality, experienced members are directed into more so of an ideological political officer training, and others whose interests are in business or culture (such as the performing arts, visual arts, music, medicine, law, architecture, etc.) are directed into another form of development. TWI does the same thing. Those people of supposed ‘proven leadership ability’ who ‘desire’ to make a lifetime commitment to spiritual TWI leadership are ‘encouraged’ to enter the Way Corps training program; those whose interests were ‘secular’ in nature were directed to enter the College Division training program. Communism [TWI] is ideally composed of “professional revolutionaries” [at least attained to the level of an aggressive TWI Advanced Class graduate]. They were to be professional in the sense that they would not be amateurs, that their [deceptive, exploitative, deceiving] methods would not be amateurish. They would ‘fight’ for Communism [TWI] as though they were fighting a war. They would fight like a disciplined army, sweeping away the existent society [hence, dispensing of the ideologically non-preferred existence of lazy infidels] as a necessary precondition for building the ‘new society’ [TWI’s ‘Ministry of the Mystery of God’]. Communists [TWI disciples] are people who live for the revolution [TWI’s Word over the World, Prevailing Word, etc.] from the moment they get up in the morning to the time they go to bed at night, as trained and disciplined people _______________ In conclusion of this section on the TWI’s ideological totalistic practices, then, regarding TWI’s strategic utilization of techniques of covert packaged persuasion, it is unmistakably seen that the “teeth” VP Wierwille introduced into TWI in the 1967-1971 time period was non-biblical, hard-hearted thought reform, the purpose of which was to fulfill his own selfish desires.

PSYCHO-SOCIAL TECHNIQUES of PACKAGED PERSUASION 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 exploitative persuasion, the dynamics of extreme, covert social influence 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 compliance from 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) of internal 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 manacles of 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.

Returning to Doug Hyde’s observations, he stated that the Christian church had much to learn from the ideological totalist’s [communist’s] techniques, methods, and attitudes. Apparently VPW, as the totalistic, fascist fuehrer, agreed. Following are some of the totalitarian methods and strategies utilized by VPW/LCM/TWI that Doug Hyde espoused. I will paraphrase Hyde and insert corresponding TWI practices where comparable to totalitarian techniques. 6) Like attracts like. Those who are intrigued or attracted by the commitment/dedication they see within the Communist [TWI] “movement” will themselves be “possessed” of a latent idealism, a capacity for commitment/dedication. This commitment/dedication perpetuates itself! It sets the tone and pace of the “movement” as a whole. This being so, the movement can make huge demands upon its adherents, knowing that the “correct [conditioned] response” will come. If the majority of the members, from the top leaders on down, are characterized by their “single-minded” [very emphasized concept in TWI supposedly from the koine Greek word, haplotes, which is interpreted by TWI to mean ‘single-mindedness’] commitment/devotion to the “cause,” and it is quite clear that the majority of genuinely committed/dedicated, average adherents are “giving” [via guilt and fear manipulation] until it hurts, putting in their money, time, thought, talents, and if necessary, life itself, then this living example [TWI ‘living (Pauline) epistle’] of commitment/dedication, and loyalty is “inspiring” to potential adherents, who have never experienced the startling appeal of being totalitarian, deployable [TWI] agents. If one probes into the recruiting tactics of Communism [TWI], almost invariably one will find that it is not the theoretical or doctrinal elements that makes the enticing initial impact, but, the shocking impact made on them by some commited/dedicated Communist [TWI mature member] , which via social manipulation {modeling, peer pressure, etc} predisposes and conditions the recruit to affiliate with a “movement” and to accept bizarre “doctrines” which otherwise most probably would have been totally unacceptable to them via application of their usual critical analysis of a highly emotional, social situation. 7) Commitment/dedication must be met with commitment/dedication. Ideally, it should be backed by a genuine understanding of Communism’s [TWI’s] beliefs]. This is precisely where the significance of VPW/LCM/TWI’s plagiarized, confabulated, iconoclastic, hermetic doctrinal beliefs become of interest to us, because they subserve (under gird, support) the ‘renewed mind’ mental infrastructure of TWI-promoted actions / deeds / behaviors / practices / conduct, these practices being detrimental and damaging to many individuals. 8) What distinguishes the Communist [TWI] “movement” from essentially all others and makes it possible for such a small minority of people to make so great an impact upon our time is the [manipulated, exploited] commitment/dedication of the average individual adherent and the immense and dynamic force this represents when all those individuals collectively make their contribution to the Communist [TWI] “cause.” {Martindale redefined and reframed TWI beginning in the fall of 1995; after this time he began to use more Marxist terms and concepts such as “…committed Way believer disciples of the [TWI] Household ‘individually and collectively’ need to do so and so…”}. Without this [manipulated] magnitude of commitment/dedication, the Communists [TWI] would not be prepared to accept the constraining confines of the organizational culture, the discipline, the never ending, bone wearying ‘Marxist education’ [TWI classes, seminars, special advanced classes, etc], the incessant appeals [via guilt and fear motivation] for ever more pro-Communist [pro-TWI] actions and behaviors [on a personal level: renewed mind activities, glossolalia; On an organizational level: the so-called outreach/witnessing of the {TWI-defined} ‘Word,’ attending Household Fellowship meetings many times per week, attending national level TWI meetings such as Advanced Classed, Special Advanced Classes, Word in Business and Profession Conferences, etc]. 9) Commitment/dedication to Communism [TWI] and willingness to experience the ‘awesome privilege’ to ‘sacrificially serve’ must be developed in a person, then drawn out of him. {TWI would often teach the “principle” of the so-called Biblical “bond-slave,” koine Greek, doulos/doule. This is supposedly an arrangement where one person (the potentially enslaved) would agree to be the bond-slave of a master, so long as the master would supply all of the potentially enslaved person’s needs & those of his immediate family. It was supposedly a relationship of love and trust! TWI taught us that we were to be bond-slaves to TWI’s top Man of God & correspondingly TWI’s hermetic ‘God.’ so that the Man of God & God, now analogously one’s Master, would be in a (? bribed) position to be not only willing, but now able to meet one’s need because of his demonstrated bond-slave commitment/dedication, as evidenced by faithful tithing/abundant sharing of one’s finances, steadfast giving of one’s time and talents, etc}. The Communists [TWI] have had to find “ways and means” of doing this [thought reform, covert packaged persuasion, fraud, misrepresentation, lying, etc.], because after all, the end of a totally Communist [TWI] world justifies any means necessary to accomplish this most noble goal! In the process, Communists [TWI] have discovered that it is good “psychology” to demand much from their people. It is bad psychology and bad politics to demand too little. Communism [TWI] demands one to give his all, all of the time; Communism [TWI] demanded the whole man and got it. This is one of the many paradoxes {hence, ‘dialectical materialism,’ the blending of apparent conceptual opposites} which must face anyone who begins to delve into this aspect of Communism [TWI]. Communism [TWI] we are told, is the great enemy of the individual’s true historical self and self-image. Under Communism [TWI], in practice, the individual’s own true historical personality is to be suppressed [the creation of a new synthetic pseudo-identity, whether Communist-defined or TWI cult-defined]. Philosophically this is assuredly true. But in practice, whilst the Communist [TWI] “movement” is still only as yet on the path to total world Communism [equivalent to TWI’s all encompassing goal of the prevailing of the (TWI-defined) ‘Word’ over the inhabited world], and therefore they must diligently and tirelessly work through a committed/dedicated minority of Communist [TWI] adherents, and “use” [manipulate, exploit] each adherent to the uttermost [TWI spoke in terms of “…one doing one’s utmost for His Highest (i.e., TWI-defined ‘God’ or was it the adoration, veneration, and worship of “THE Man of God,” whether VPW or LCM)], it shows a quite exceptional “concern” [avaricious, organizational self-interest] for “drawing out the potentialities” [terrifying the captivated person into outlandish displays of pro-Communist or pro-TWI feigned bravado] of every individual [humanoid] who comes within its “discipline” [organizational coordinated network of programs of intense, exploitative indoctrination]. The “unfolding and growth” [response to packaged persuasion] of the “personality” [pseudo-personality post thought reform] of the recruit to Communism [TWI] is frequently ‘spectacular,’ for Communism [TWI] sets out to “create” [via thought reform] men of [into] a special mould, a consummately ‘formidable person” [now externally validated via an entity of an unconscionable, external locus of control]. TWI often repeated, “…all ‘learning’ must come from outside of the individual-seeking…” (See the PFAL book and syllabus and the WAP syllabus). Communists [TWI] fully expect and demand of their disciple-adherents to be so fanatically committed/dedicated so as to risk worldly victimization, to be prepared to lose his means of livelihood, to be black-listed by every employer in his particular industry, and to even see his own standard of life and that of his loved ones go down to poverty, illness, and death, if “need” be. To get all of this {Nietzchian} superhuman, utilitarian mega-productivity, Communists [TWI] know that the adherent must be “inspired” [via thought reform and continuous reinforcement of indoctrination]. Communists [TWI] realize that this “inspiration” must come from outside of the individual, that the onus is on Communism [TWI] to “create” it [confabulate, misrepresent, lie, whatever it takes]. Communists [TWI] are hard-headed and hard-hearted enough to know that it is not sufficient to have an organization of enthusiasts. Sacrifice, commitment/dedication, and zeal are not enough in themselves. These [manipulated] “attributes” are definitely important, but they are only a starting point. These [exploited] “qualities” are what “helps” [via response to his intense, indoctrinating, thought reform] to “make” a person persist as an aggressive, active member; these attributes “ensure” [by coercive persuasion] that when the indoctrinated individual is “made and promoted” into leadership, that he continues to lead for the Communist [TWI] “cause” and not for himself.

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.

Returning to Doug Hyde’s observations, he stated that the Christian church had much to learn from the ideological totalist’s [communist’s] techniques, methods, and attitudes. Apparently VPW, as the totalistic, fascist fuehrer, agreed. Following are some of the totalitarian methods and strategies utilized by VPW/LCM/TWI that Doug Hyde espoused. I will paraphrase Hyde and insert corresponding TWI practices where comparable to totalitarian techniques. 1) The strength of Communism [TWI] lies in its [manipulated, exploited] people and “the way” [covert thought reform, non-consented packaged persuasion] in which they are “used” [utilized as mere material objects with no individual human dignity; the true self has been extremely damaged]. It is at this level that the Communists [TWI] have the most to teach us. They “use well” [manipulate, exploit] the human material at their disposal. 2) The most distinguishing mark of the Communists [TWI rank & file member] is their [manipulated, exploited] idealism, their zeal, commitment/dedication, devotion to their cause and willingness to make phenomenal personal sacrifices [TWI has numerous programs that “assisted” one in “advancing” in learning to be so supposedly “self-less”]. The Communists [TWI] have evolved their “own means” [thought reform, packaged persuasion, struggle groups] by which they are able to “evoke” [pavlovian subliminally conditioned responses; post-hypnotic suggestion; various aspects of social peer pressure] an exceptional degree of [manipulated] commitment/dedication [TWI culttically-induced pseudo-self & pseudo-identiy, essentially Waybots with a bad case of waybrain]. Both Communists and TWI utilize a step by step process. 3) The majority of those persons who join the Communist Party [TWI] are young. The average joining age tends to be between fifteen and twenty-five [see the appendices in the book, Snapping; very similar demographics are noted for TWI followers]. Youth is a period noted to be characterized by a profound degree of idealism. The Communists [TWI] recruit these [college aged] young people by [manipulatively] appealing to their idealism and harnessing [captivating, enslaving] it to their “cause” [greedy, lustful, worldly self-interests of the top TWI leadership] with the end result of a tremendous pro-Communist [pro-TWI] effect [yet unequivocally personally self-defeating for the individual adherent]; it is a most “dynamic” thing. VPW was very fond of the word, “dynamic.” 4) Communism [TWI] becomes the dominant thing in the life of the Communist [TWI]. It is something to which he “gives” [is manipulated into inappropriate dispersal] himself completely. Quite obviously it “meets a need” [TWI uses the same terminology], fills a vacuum at the time when he is first recruited into it. It is a matter of the Communist or TWI preying on a potential recruits’ individual susceptibility and transient vulnerability at that unique point in time. More significant is that Communism [TWI] normally continues to be the dominant force in the life of the Communist [TWI member] for as long as he remains in the “movement” [TWI spoke of the ‘movement’ of God’s rightly divided (TWI-defined and interpreted) ‘Word’ over the World]. 5) The Communists’ [TWI’s] appeal to idealism is direct and audacious. Communists [TWI] says that if you make mean little demands upon people, you will only get a mean little response, which is what you deserve for your lack of a bold appeal; but, if you repetitively make huge demands on people, you will get a heroic response [manipulation by the rejection-then-retreat, perceptual contrast, and commitment-consistency principles, among others]. Communists [TWI] work on the assumption that if you call for large personal sacrifices, people will “respond” [by conditioning and thought reform] to this and, moreover, the relatively smaller required sacrifices will come quite “naturally” [TWI's cultic-induced synthetic pseudo-self in relatively automatic and consistent daily operation].

COERCIVE PERSUASION & THE CHANGING OF PERSONALITY 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 Abilene Christian University. 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!

TGN, I really appreciate the thoughtfulness of your insightful response. Great advice & great questions. I hope I have sufficiently answered at least some of the hard questions for myself. We all have to do so to recover. Part of my recovery was investigating for myself all of the sources of VPW's plagiarism & the thought reform techniques he employed. To answer a few of your other welcome concerns: The explanation I am offering is to be taken in the context of individual susceptibility, & by far and away, for most of us who were deceived into joining the ranks of TWI, the most common mechanism was transient vulerability. Our vulnerability was not necessarily prolonged, but we had the misfortune to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. At this inopportune time, we were subjected to the skills of the Corn Wizard. At most any other time, his appeals, whether by himself or his agents, would likely not have drawn us in. Most people tend to believe that their own minds and thought processes are invulnerable. People like to think that their opinions, values, & ideas are inviolate & totally self-regulated. There is an almost universal aversion to accepting the idea that we ourselves are vulnerable to sophisticated, packaged coersive persuasion. Neither education, age, nor social class protects a person from this false sense of invulnerability. Essentially everyone is susceptible to the lure of these master exploitative manipulators if they are exposed to them when they are in their state of transient vulnerability. The majority of adolescents and adults in cults come from middle-class backgrounds, are fairly well educated, and are not seriously disturbed prior to joining the cult. Research indicates that approximately two thirds of those who have joined cults came from normal, functioning families and were demonstrating age-appropriated behaviors around the time that they were deceived into joining a cult. Of the remaining third, only about 5 to 6 percent had major psychological difficulties prior to joining the cult. The remaining portion of the third had diagnosable depressions related to personal loss {e.g., a death in the family, failure to be admitted to a personally preferred university or training program, or a broken romance} or were struggling with age-related sexual & career dilemmas. Adolescents & young adults are especially prone to stress factor transient vulnerability which evolves when they feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices he or she needs to make, the ambiguity of life at this age, the complexity of the world, and the amount of conflict associated with many aspects of daily life. In addition to facing pressing personal decisions, many adolescents are attempting to come to grips with their overall values, beliefs,and purposes. Also, many young adults today are overwhelmed by the confusion and apparent coldness of our society: the senseless violence, the rampant homelessness, the lack of perceived meaning, the widespread loss of respect for authority figures, the vast number of unemployed and marginalized, the insecurity and instability of the job market, the loss of family communications, the lessening role of established religions, & the failing sense of community. Even apart from unsettling socioeconomic conditions and certain relevant dysfunctional family factors, any person who is in a transiently vulnerable state, seeking close companionship and a sense of meaning or in a period of transition or time of loss, is potential f'resh meat' for covert, deceptivecult recruitment. It is not one type of person who gets enmeshed with cults, but rather a person who has an unfortunate combination of factors occurring nearly simultaneously. Two conditions make an individual especially vulnerable to cultic recruiting: being depressed and being in between important affiliations. We can be especially vulnerable to sophisticated packaged coersive persuasion & social manipulation because of some loss or disappointment that has caused a transiently depressed mood. We are especially prone to cultic 'love bombing' influence when we're not engaged in a meaningful personal relationship, job, education or training program, or some other life involvement. Transiently vulnerable individuals are lonely, in transition between high school and college, between college and a job or graduate school, traveling away from home, arriving in a new location, recently jilted or divorced, fresh from job loss, feeling overwhelmed about how things have been going, or not knowing what to do next in life. At such times as these, we all (without exception) exhibit a high degree of individual susceptibility and transient vulnerability to sophisticated packaged coersive persuasion. At these times we are more suggestible & more willing than we otherwise would be to take something offered to us without considering that there might be strings of obligation and reciprocity attached. Sorry for rambling but I wanted you to understand the context in which I feel cultic recruitment deception and continuing cultic reinforcement occur.

There is an unmistakable methodeia to the TWI madness. See the TWI-induced SNAPPING thread where the 'struggle' will be explained. :unsure:

I still wonder if VPW thought if he were of some 'special' bloodline, sort of an anthropological 'red thread,' whether Merovingian or a Seed Boy!!! Some ancestral context to the Huguenot Vervilles in their alleged relocations from Normandy (Viereville) &/or southern France (Languedoc, Cevannes, & Toulousse) due to religious persecution: Religious sect exposure in France: HUGUENOTS; the French Prophets (actually huguenot prophets of the Cevannes, supposed 'miracle' workers, also practiced glossolalia); Camisards and Convolutionaires; Port Royal movement and Madame Guyon, Fenelon, Molinos; French school of the prophets in Dauphine (M.du Serre and P. Jurieu); Jansenism; Poor Men of Lyons; Beghards and Alumbrados; Picards; Turlupins; Lollards, & others as well. Religious sect exposure in Germany: medieval metaphysics of the 'Rhineland mystics' including Tauler, Meister Eckert, Jakob Boehme; Brethren of the Free Spirit; Church of the Brethren; Moravians (Count Zinzendorf); Mennonites; Anabaptists; Bohemian Brethren; Hussites, & others as well. Hermeticism and Gnosticism potential influences: Montanism (Montanaus); Marcionites (Marcion); Manicheism (Mani; this is the gnosticism that persisted into the middle ages that influenced the early Gauls: Merovingians, Visigoths, Franks, Burgundii, Teutons, Lombards, etc.); Ptolemy; Plotinus; Porphyry; Avarroes; Paulicans; Neoplatonic Hermeticism; CATHARI (aka Albigenses); WALDENSIANS (VAUDOIS) [Peter Waldo of Italy]; Ecclesiastica Gnostica (after Valentius, Basilades, Mani); & others. :o

Ever wonder why VPW would often open the Advanced Class teaching of the ‘revelation manifestations,’ especially ‘word of knowledge’ & ‘word of wisdom,’ with the account in Numbers of the ‘copped out’ Prophet, Baalam? Ever wonder why VPW opened PFAL with “…the thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…?” My opinion is tha these would be examples of 'Freudian slips,' in the sense of VPW’s guilty conscience breaking through the bogus teaching to proclaim, “I, V. P. Wierwille, am not only a copped out prophetic apostle in our day, time, & hour, but furthermore I am a pseudo-spiritual thief, with the aim of selfishly pleasing myself, even if it means that I steal from you, that I might even have to kill you, or that I may in fact permanently destroy your ability to know, trust, & love ‘God.’” :o

VICTOR PAUL WIERWILLE'S CERTIFICATE OF DEATH The Way International never released information on the cause of V. P. Wierwille's death. Why not? The cause of death is plainly described as "metastatic melanoma of the liver" and "ocular melanoma," which are cancer of the liver and of the eye. See article below for details on the nature of the disease and on why it is so important for his followers (and [ex-] followers of The Way Int.) To consider what it means. WHY TALK ABOUT V. P. WIERWILLE'S DEATH? Followers of The Way International often think it is mean-spirited when critics mention founder Victor Paul Wierwille's death of liver cancer in 1985. Even so, many of them are not aware of the facts behind Wierwille's death, and do not realize (or don't want to face) the impact that the manner of his death has on their beliefs. The Certificate of Death filed with the Ohio Department of Health states that the immediate cause of death was metastatic liver cancer which set in a month before his death. It began with eye cancer about 18 months before, which then spread to his liver. Most public figures (such as the U. S. President, evangelist Billy Graham and the Pope) publicly announce significant illnesses which affect their work. However, Wierwille's illnesses were not publicly announced. Many followers thought there was some kind of problem, but didn't know what. Some noticed that Wierwille wore an unexplained eye patch for a time, and that he didn't look quite right in some posed pictures in The Way Magazine. Witnesses at the Rock of Ages 1983 reported that Wierwille's speech began to slur during a hymn-sing, and he had to leave the stage during a teaching because he was having trouble communicating. Although rumors suggested Wierwille had two strokes, no specifics were generally announced. Why not? The Way has long taught "the law of believing." Because Wierwille acquired this idea from men like Albert Cliffe (who was a spiritist, not a Christian), he used a lot of jargon which cannot be found in the Bible, such as "believing equals receiving," "get your needs and wants parallel," "believing works for saint and sinner alike" and "positive" and "negative" believing. It is a purely human effort, since God is not involved (it is even practiced effectively by atheists). The person is believing that something will happen, not that God will cause something to happen. Wierwille told the story of a young boy who was struck and killed by a car. He blamed the child's mother for the accident, saying she caused it by her negative believing. The death was not really an accident. He had to happen simply because she feared ("believed") it would. Since The Way sees Wierwille as "the man of God," their Father in the Word, the Patriarch, and the greatest Teacher since the Apostle Paul, they believe him to be a master of believing. Yet, this Patriarch suffered strokes, eye cancer, terminal liver cancer, and finally death at only age 68 (short of the 70 years that Psalm 90 suggests as average). How could followers accept this? Did Wierwille cause his death by negative believing? If so, it shows that Doctor is spiritually lacking and full of fear and negative believing. How could the man of God who taught them how to believe be so full of fear for so long a time? Wierwille's followers are trapped between a rock and a hard place. They either have to admit that Wierwille was not the spiritual giant they think, or admit that the teaching on the "law of believing" is false. Either the Teacher or the teaching has to fall, and unconsciously they know that both would go together since one depends on the other. Christopher Geer, who was Wierwille's protegee, driver and bodyguard for years, tried to deal with this inconsistency by saying that Wierwille actually caused his body to die: "There were two points when I felt that he might change his mind and decide to go on living....I am fully convinced that he believed to stop the functions of his body" (Passing of a Patriarch, pp. 67, 68). He seems to believe that Wierwille chose to commit suicide using his spiritual weapon of "believing," rather than to continue fighting the spiritual decline of the trustees. Geer took this inconsistency seriously, though did not have the perception to see the obvious-- that Wierwille is judged by his own standard and both are found wanting. WIERWILLE'S TEACHING ON SICKNESS V. P. Wierwille consistently taught that people's own negative believing (fear) make and keep them sick. In Power for Abundant Living, he wrote, "If one is afraid of a disease, he will manifest that disease because the law is that what one believes (in this case, what he believes negatively), he is going to receive....Today I have no fear within me....fear always defeats the promises of God....(p. 38, 53) Wierwille adds that people in Nazareth were not healed by Jesus Christ because of their unbelief. Wierwille wrote in The Bible tells Me So, "...we do not limit God, then we will not talk about worry, fear, anxiety, sickness and want. We forget those negatives for we are sons by the One who overcame.... If you doubt your recovery from sickness, you will by all means slow up and retard your own progress.... If you doubt its success, you have, by your own believing, determined its unsuccessful outcome. (P. 22, 45) He added in God's Magnified Word, "We may at times have diseases, but these should not linger. When we say 'I believe God's Word' and really believe it, we come out the victor.... The prosperity of your substance and health is dependent upon how much our minds are renewed to what God's Word says." (P. 44, 45) Wierwille's Advanced PFAL class syllabus claimed, "...man's acceptance of the Devil's lie brought sickness and disease into evidence." (P.31) The class also taught that healing is accomplished by believing and often by casting out devil spirits which cause diseases. Based on Wierwille's own teachings quoted here, Wierwille's prolonged illness which resulted in death indicates that V. P. Wierwille: - had cancer because he feared (negatively believed for) cancer - defeated God's promises about healing by his own fear - could not be healed by God because of his unbelief - limited God and could not forget sickness - doubted, and therefore retarded, his recovery from cancer - determined his own continued illness and death by his own believing - did not have health because his mind was not renewed to what God's Word says - accepted the Devil's lie, thereby causing his own disease In other words, V. P. Wierwille caused his own cancer, prevented his own healing, and died because of his own negative believing and lack of the renewed mind. Victor did not come out the victor because of his own fault. WIERWILLE POSSESSED BY A DEVIL SPIRIT OF CANCER The "trancenet.org\nowayout" web site published a letter in Feb. 1998 by a former Way staff member and Corps grad which confirms and adds to this information. Rick, of Chicago, was on staff at New Knoxville when Wierwille was ill and died. He confirmed that TWI never publicly announced any part of Wierwille's illness or cause of death in any publication or announcement in a Sunday night service. Rick adds, "...it would be unimaginable to think that the 'man of God' was not able to believe for healing for himself. ...The other part of the answer is that Wierwille taught that cancer is a devil spirit. Cancer, according to him, is not just caused by a devil spirit, it IS a devil spirit. His logic went something like this: All life is spirit. Cancer has a life of its own. Therefore, cancer is a devil spirit, and anyone with cancer is possessed with a devil spirit. If that teaching was not familiar to the rank-and-file followers of The Way, it was certainly known to anyone who had taken the Advanced Class on PFAL. It's not hard to imagine the problems that would have been created if Wierwille or anyone else had announced that he had cancer. The idea that 'the greatest man of God since the Apostle Paul' was possessed with a devil spirit would have been devastating to say the least!" THE FALLACY OF FAITH VERSUS BELIEF On the surface, Wierwille's teaching on the law of believing sounds good. But a closer look shows that it does not rightly divide the Word of God. The book The Integrity and Accuracy of The Way's Word, pages 29-31, deals with several of the problems in some detail. Their are several effects of this false teaching on believing. People become lords of their own healing, excluding God from the picture, since "believing" works as well for atheists as it does for Christians. Those who accept this teaching sooner or later are riddled with guilt when they experience illnesses that their bodies (or those of their loved ones) cannot overcome. We also suggest that readers visit Christian book stores, many of which carry books which extensively evaluate false teachings on "believing" which are often found in "word-faith" teachers like Kenneth Hagin, Ken Copeland, and E. W. Kenyon (who was the origin of these teachings; V. P. plagiarized large sections of Kenyon's books). Wierwille's followers can find no reasonable way out of this dilemma. They either have to admit that Wierwille was not the spiritual giant they think, or admit that the teaching on the "law of believing" is false. Either the Teacher or the teaching has to fall, and unconsciously they know that both would go together since one depends on the other. The manner of V. P. Wierwille's death should make one thing crystal clear to his followers: neither the teacher nor his teaching on believing accurately follow Jesus Christ and the truth of God's Word. Dr. John Juedes, C. 1998 http://www.empirenet.com/~messiah7/vp_DEATH.htm

You ask my opinion of who was VPW: · A Corn Wizard · A Hierophant of TWI’s Hermetic ‘Mystery’ · A master of homiletics with oratorical skills in naturalistic trance induction · A Thief, who had no qualms regarding stealing, ‘killing,’ & destroying · An ultimate con man with sophisticated techniques of exploitation · A masterful deceiver with a counterfeit ‘ministry’ · A wanton parasite of genuine love & pure-heartedness · Our Father, beneath the fountain, sallowed is his unholy name.

IDEOLOGICAL TOTALISM AND TWI’s Packaged Persuasion My personal opinions follow: It should be obvious that most if not all of these psychosocial techniques of covert packaged persuasion are of ubiquitous use in any of innumerable groups given to ideological totalism, whether harmful cults such as TWI, terrorist cells, rogue nations, fascist states, or communist countries. In the range of ~ 1967 to 1972 VPW is noted to have said to various TWI leaders, something to the effect of “…that the love of God just doesn’t work [as an enduring motivator], we need something with ‘teeth’ in it…” I think the ‘teeth’ that VPW selected, in a sociopathic and utilitarian sort of way, was the refining of these 'reform' techniques as they would be routinely utilized in TWI. Several books had been published during the 1950’s and 1960’s regarding these topics. Dr. Robert J. Lifton, MD, published in 1961 his classic, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism. In this same era William Sargeant published his book, Battle for the Mind. I. P. Pavlov had written his work regarding transmarginal inhibition and abrupt self-image and personality change. Stalin’s head of the KGB, Lavrenti Beria, utilized Pavlov’s techniques in quelling the Russian populace, a point not lost on VPW which he mentions or quotes in his By The Way newspaper article series. Douglas Hyde wrote a book which was first published in 1966 entitled, Dedication and Leadership. Hyde had grown up as a Roman Catholic, converted to communism in his idealistic adolescence, and then as a mature man returned to Roman Catholicism. {Oldies, are you reading this very closely?} One central premise of the book is that the Christian churches should use the thought reforming techniques (such as ‘struggle groups’ and the mobilization of peer pressure) of the communists, not to convert Christians to communism, but to “get” [? extort] the maximum productive work [? slave labor] out of Christian believers and workers, who appeared all too smug, complacent, and self-satisfied in Hydes’s opinion [and VPW’s]. Many of you have read Dr. Margaret Singer’s book, Cults In Our Midst. In Chapter 3 of this book she compares some of the major accepted criteria of packaged persuasion-thought reform. On page 63 there is a table comparing Singer’s 6 conditions, Lifton’s 8 criteria, and Edgar Schein’s 3 stages. On pages 64-77 she briefly describes each of these 17 criteria. The tactics of a strategically coordinated,coercive persuasion-thought reform program are deceptively & covertly organized so as to: (1) Destabilize a person’s sense of true historical self and to destabilize his general reality orientation; (2) Get the person to drastically reinterpret his life’s history and radically alter his worldview and accept a new version of reality and causality; and, (3) Develop in the person a dependence on the organization, and thereby turn the person into a deployable agent of the cultic organization. SINGER’S 6 CONDITIONS: (1) Keep the person unaware of what is going on and the changes taking place; (2) Control the person’s time, and if possible, physical environment; (3) Create a sense of powerlessness, covert fear, and dependency; (4) Suppress much of the person’s old behavior and attitudes; (5) Instill new behavior and attitudes; and, (6) Put forth a closed system of logic; allow no real input or criticism. LIFTON’S 8 THEMES: (1) Milieu control; (2) Loading the language; (3) Demand for purity; (4) Confession; (5) Mystical manipulation; (6) Doctrine over person; (7) Sacred science; and, (8) Dispensing of existence. SCHIEN’S 3 STAGES: (1) Unfreezing; (2) Changing; and, (3) Refreezing. Additionally cult expert, Steve Hassan, has developed the BITE model to explain mind control. A description of this model can be found in his new book, Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves. It is also listed on his website. BITE MODEL: (1) Behavior control; (2) Information control; (3) Thought control; and, (4) Emotional control. Returning to Doug Hyde’s observations, he stated that the Christian church had much to learn from the ideological totalist’s [communist’s] techniques, methods, and attitudes. Apparently VPW, as the totalistic, fascist fuehrer, agreed. {Corn wizard VPW & king oakie LCM were fond of quoting R.W. Emerson’s statement, “the end of education is action.” Don Wierwille was fond of admonishing us that “…no true learning has taken place until there is a change of [TWI-approved] behavior…”}. Following are some of the totalitarian methods and strategies utilized by VPW/LCM/TWI that Hyde espoused. I will paraphrase Hyde and insert corresponding TWI practices where comparable to totalitarian techniques. VPW was supposedly & ostensibly terrified of communism and feared a communist takeover not only of the USA, but the world. After my disaffiliation, I found out that he was an admirer of Adolph Hitler and felt that the USA “fought on the wrong side in WW-II.” VPW used to teach at the Advanced Class that there is a great battle going on all over the world which in the final analysis is a struggle for men’s hearts, minds, and souls. Therefore, he “reasoned” that one needed to totally & unconditionally 'sell out' to TWI, because, to do anything else was essentially selling out to the indirect hustle of the Adversary, Satan. Details to follow in subsequent installments…………………. :o