Rocky

In an email from Penworks just now, she said "No, haven't heard of that, but there's so much stuff out there on the history of the Bible." So, my sense is that the youtube movie is about something that may or may not have been as remarkable as the producers of the movie claim. IOW, in the nearly three hour movie, do they present anything that supports the characterization of this particular hoax as "great?" Or do they at all note that in the nearly two millennia since the start of the Christian era, there may have been other hoaxes or attempted hoaxes that were more easily dismissed?

Well... afaik, the HEAD of the research department is still alive and March(ing) Four(th). The one person from said research dept that occasionally visits GSC might be able to offer some insight. However, she's on the verge of finalizing publication of her second book (which is NOT about TWI).

Intriguing idiom... easily understood by people who have been owned by feline pets.

How very true, especially in combat. Bad leadership kills people. Quickly. For those wanting to explore military leadership and training thereof, I highly recommend two books I read a year or two ago. 1) One Bullet Away: the Making of a Marine Officer by Nathanial Fick 2) General Jim Mattis's memoir, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead. There's NFW Victor Wierwille would have made a decent military leader. One must be genuinely compassionate for those entrusted to your care.

Yeah, it took me YEARS to get over that when raising children.

How about that... even back in biblical times, some people grasped the idea of psychological projection. Right you are Twinky!

In case I wasn't clear in the OP for THIS thread, Mr French's topic/thread was context, but this thread changed the subject altogether.

"Just pretentious rhetoric. You know, like a grandious narcissist would do " Indeed. I appreciate the clarification. I had to ask.

Yup. I still remember the blue and gold t-shirts we were given to wear when running 10 Km in the overall trek from somewhere in Indiana (Ball State, maybe) to HQ. I long ago outgrew that shirt but had it for years after that.

Which thread would that be?

Not by me. Huh? Do you mean the original poster on this topic/thread?

Let's not forget that he purposefully taught that we should be slaves. dromos doulu or something like that.

I didn't call you out. I simply responded to something I recalled you having posed to me previously that I wasn't prepared to adequately reply to at the time. Btw, the one thing I might take issue with is your apparently ironic use of the word sesquipedalian.

No problem. I didn't expect anyone to give this deep consideration... at least not immediately, if ever. However, rather than redefining your experience as something other than divine revelation, I believe divine revelation is a legitimate way to interpret the phenomenon, but so is collective unconscious. For me, the difference between the perspectives is that rather than anything outside of divine revelation being considered "of the devil" or some variation on that theme, I don't. Of course, I still believe there is evil in the world, but I no longer choose to believe in it the way The Way does. Nevertheless, we STILL see as though through a darkly tinted window. So, I'm not suggesting there's any need for anyone to accept what I presented "or else..." Whatever the "or else" might be to anyone.

Wordwolf said, on Feb 27, on James French's thread: I said, in pertinent part, in reply: Here's a more substantive reply, including an extended quote from the last two pages of a book by Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD. Wordwolf, I do NOT doubt your claim of having received revelation. Period. I've had thoughts and experiences I believed at the time were God's intervention and/or revelation. My view now is more expansive. More broad. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. I Corinthians 13:12 (NIV) He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:45 (NIV) The following text is from The Tao of Psychology: Synchronicity and the Self by Jean Shinoda Bolen MD (1979) pgs 102-103 In considering how all of the many parables, metaphors, spiritual teachings, and psychological insights noted in this book might fit together, I have the following impressionistic, subjective conception. It seems to me that the Christian vision of the Kingdom of God, the Eastern vision of the Tao, Jung's idea of the Self and synchronicity, the right [brain] hemisphere's intuitive way of perceiving totality and containing opposites, the parapsychological evidence for consciousness separate from brain or body, and the new reality as seen by quantum physics are all part of the same ineffable, invisible, meaning-giving “something.” Each is a glimpse from a different vantage point—each gives us a different impression that is true but not complete. Like the six blind men who groped for the reality of the elephant, we can grasp only part at a time. In this tale from India, the first blind man fell against the elephant's side and said the elephant was like a wall. The second felt the tip of the tusk and was convinced an elephant was like a spear. The third, on feeling the squirming trunk, proclaimed an elephant was like a snake. The fourth put his arms around a leg and said an elephant was like a tree. The fifth, who felt the ear, declared an elephant was very much like a fan; while the sixth, on seizing the tail, said of course an elephant was like a rope. All then fell to arguing about who had the truth. While each of them had part of the picture, all of them missed the whole. Or perhaps we are like Plato's chained men in the cave, unable to see out, seeing only the fleeting shadows cast against the wall, making up theories and certainties about what is outside the cave. We can never fully grasp what is boundless, infinite, and eternal. Yet that small insight glimpsed or intuition felt—of the reality of the Tao, or of God, or the Self, in whatever form—is psychologically central to human experience. It nourishes our spirit, heals our sense of isolated separateness, and restores our soul. […] The deeper significance of synchronicity lies in its demonstration of certain aspects of the collective unconscious, which behaves as if it were one and were not split up into many individuals, animals, and the environment. In the synchronistic moment, the separate “I” no longer feels “How lonely it is”; instead, the person directly experiences a sense of oneness. This is what is so deeply moving in experiences of synchronicity and is why these events are often felt as numinous, religious, or spiritual experiences. When we feel synchronicity, we feel ourselves as part of a cosmic matrix, as participants in the Tao. It gives us a glimpse into the reality that there is indeed a link between us all, between us and all living things, between us and the universe.

I believe self-awareness can be a very good thing. And in a nod to our good friend Bolshevik, I don't believe NPD and psychopathy are necessarily always mutually exclusive.

Have we had this discussion before?

Two and a half minutes...

To your point, on which I agree with you: The speaker (Tali Sharot) in this vid poses that "Most of us think information is the best way to convince people of our truth. And, in fact, it doesn't work that well..." Skip to the end and she says (at 5:20) "The lesson here is that we need to find the common motives.

Not necessarily surprising if he is.

JohnIam's mother's foster brother.

You're probably right on that. I was probably off by saying it was ONLY.

I'm not averse to the concept of a pithy slogan. I don't believe that slogan is at all beneficial to the cause. IOW, calling people who are considering leaving the cult "suckers" is likely to backfire. People don't make major life decisions based on any kind of logic. They ONLY do so based on emotion. Perhaps you would want to review your copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People (Dale Carnegie). A couple of his keys are salient here.

A video featuring a discussion with the author the book Dark Persuasion.