TWI-induced SNAPPING

[jkboehme]

It seems to me another strategic reason for VPW's use of the term, "Father," {as in, "Father in the 'Word'"} has to do with manipulative exploitation of the transference phenomenon. This was just another way utilized by VPW to induce unhealthy dependency on VPW specifically & TWI in general.

Transference: Are you a biological time machine?

Published in "The Source", June, 2001

Revised: October 17, 2005

By:

Michael G. Conner, Psy.D

Sigmund Freud first identified the psychological process of transference and brought it into what is now modern day psychotherapy. As a therapist he noticed that people had strong feelings and fantasies about him that had no basis in reality. But Freud died before there was such a thing as "rock and roll." Transference has become a more modern concept since Freud. In fact, many people believe transference is actually something that happens in life - and not just psychotherapy.

What is Transference? During transference, people turn into a "biological time machine". A nerve is struck when someone says or does something that reminds you of your past. This creates an "emotional time warp" that transfers your emotional past and your psychological needs into the present. In less poetic terms, a transference reaction means that you are reacting to someone in terms of what you need to see, you are afraid of or what you see when you know very little about the person. This all happens without you knowing why you feel and react the way you do.

What Is Projection? Some people refer to transference as a "projection." In this case you are projecting your own feelings, emotions or motivations into another person without realizing your reaction is really more about you than it is about the other person. In a life filled with transference, your job may be "the family reunion you are avoiding and you are forced to go to each day." In other cases of projection, your girlfriend may remind you of all the irritating things your mother did when you were growing up. Love at first sight is usually a projection – especially if it ends in disaster and you could have seen it coming.

Harmful Patterns. Transference reactions are caused by unmet emotional needs, neglect, seductions and other abuses that transpired when you were a child. In some forms of psychotherapy, a therapist will intentionally create or allow transference to form. When done properly, this helps a therapist to understand and find a connection between the patient's past and how the patient misreads the present and may react ineffectively. Once you discover a transference pattern, you can chose to respond in terms of what is really happening instead of what happened 20 or 30 years ago. People who don't recognize the difference between past and present can end up in the same messed–up relationships over and over or with the same problem over and over.

Extreme Transference. In an extreme form of transference, you may conclude that someone is an awful or evil person when in fact that person's favorite food and television show reminds you of an emotionally abusive mother and a sexually abusive brother you have been trying to forget since childhood. That's an example of negative transference. A warm, supportive and kind person could remind you of what you are missing and wanting in their life. You might then idealize that person and begin to see him or her as wonderful beyond belief. The idea is that you will react to your therapist based on your experience with another person. This is usually a parent that the patient has an unresolved conflict with. In extreme cases a patient will become overly attached to their therapist or they will enter into and create conflicts without realizing how.

Transference Melt-Downs. Extreme forms of transference can turn into a full-blown obsession if it is not dealt with. Transference "meltdowns" can result in accidents, dangerous choices, nightmares, fantasies, stalking someone, psychotic reactions and sometimes violence. While it does not happen frequently in therapy, it can happen in the patient's personal life.

How Can You Tell? How do you know you are having a "transference reaction"? It's not always easy, but you probably are if you know very little about a therapist (or anyone) and you are having a powerful reaction that is not justifiable to a reasonable person. It can be difficult if the patient can rationalize their reactions. Having a strong sexual attraction to your therapist is almost always a transference reaction, unless of course your therapist is actually hitting on you – and they're not supposed to do that on purpose. Intentionally seducing a vulnerable patient in sick and wrong! In fact that applies to any health-related profession or any employer-employee relationship. Becoming angry at you therapist as if they were a parent is a good sign that there is a transference reaction. Termination of treatment pre-maturely is another sign of transference - unless the therapist is just doing a bad job.

Counter-Transference. Therapists and other health care professionals can also have transference reactions while treating a patient. It's a two way street. Counter-transference is basically a therapist's "emotional time warp" around their patient's transference. In other words, counter-transference is a therapist's counter- reaction. That's why some therapists think they are falling in love with their patients. That's also why older guys become obsessed with younger female employees they barely know.

Ethics And The Law. A therapist, counselor and even a physician could possibly lose their license for seducing or sleeping with a patient they are treating. Trying to seduce an employee on the job may result in a successful lawsuit. You can also sue a licensed mental health professional for sleeping with you if you are their patient. And employers must follow the law. On the other hand, unlicensed therapist can do almost whatever they want and there may be nothing anyone can do about it. It's hard to sue an employer and win. Unlicensed therapists do not have a "duty" to act within a standard of practice. Employers may not know the law.

Unseen Dangers. Transference can sometimes produce a powerful love or a destructive hatred based on a complete illusion. There can be a loud and painful thud when people act on their transference reactions and the bubble finally bursts. In addition to being embarrassed, it can also backfire. Sometimes people will end up stalking, assaulting or killing someone. Please don't kill yourself or anyone because of some transference from your childhood. And if you think your therapist, or an employer for that matter, is seducing you, tell your therapist, or contact a licensed therapist to talk about it.

Should I or Shouldn't I Risk Transference. Transference is really difficult to recognize, deal with and understand, but it is incredibly interesting. I tend to avoid people who are "oozing" with transference potential. Working with transference, or creating transference in therapy can make a therapist look mystical and brilliant. Cult therapies are based in part on generating positive transference to control and manipulate people. I avoid treatment approaches that artificially inflate my ego, would allow me to control anyone and make me feel powerful. But not everyone feels the way I do about transference. Some counselors and therapists love the power and think they can handle it. A therapist must face transference issues and encourage patients to deal with them as much as possible. In some cases a patient is not able to deal with transference issues and will terminate therapy. While it is regrettable and potentially a lost opportunity, it must be supported.

copyright 2002 to 2005, Michael G. Conner

This post has been edited by jkboehme: Dec 27 2005, 10:10 PM

In my opinion the 'exactness factor' [as mentioned by Pat Roberge on the thread with this phrase] fits the description that Dr. Robert J. Lifton referred to as "sacred science.'"

The following paragraphs are from Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism…

Embolding, underlining, italics, [ ], & blue highlights are my additions for emphasis or clarification / jkb.

The "Sacred Science"

The totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic dogma [ie, the 'Word' of 'God' is the 'Will' of 'God,' & the 'Man of God,' our 'Father in the Word,' miraculously 'explains' the TWI-defined Word without so much as an hint of PI], holding it out as an ultimate moral vision [ie 'Word over the World'] for the ordering of human existence. This sacredness is evident in the prohibition (whether or not explicit) against the questioning of basic assumptions, and in the reverence which is demanded for the originators of the 'Word,' the present bearers of the 'Word,' and the 'Word' itself.

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While thus transcending ordinary concerns of logic, however, the milieu at the same time makes an exaggerated claim of airtight logic, of absolute "scientific" precision [the 'Word' works with a mathematical exactness & scientific precision, the 'Word' fits like a hand in a glove, etc.]. Thus the ultimate moral vision becomes an ultimate science; and the man who dares to criticize it, or to harbor even unspoken alternative ideas, becomes not only immoral and irreverent, but also "unscientific." In this way, the philosopher kings [eg, VPW, LCM, RFR] of modern ideological totalism reinforce their authority by claiming to share in the rich and respected heritage of natural science.

[/size]

The assumption here is not so much that man can be God, but rather that man's ideas can be God: that an absolute science of ideas (and implicitly, an absolute science of man) exists, or is at least very close to being attained; that this science can be combined with an equally absolute body of moral principles; and that the resulting doctrine is true for all men at all times. Although no ideology goes quite this far in overt statement, such assumptions are implicit in totalist practice.

At the level of the individual, the totalist sacred science can offer much comfort and security. Its appeal lies in its seeming unification of the mystical and the logical modes of experience (in psychoanalytic terms, of the primary and secondary thought processes). For within the framework of the sacred science, and sweeping, non-rational "insights." Since the distinction between the logical and the mystical is, to begin with, artificial and man-made, an opportunity for transcending it can create an extremely intense feeling of truth. But the posture of unquestioning faith - both rationally and non-rationally derived - is not easy to sustain, especially if one discovers that the world of experience is not nearly as absolute as the sacred science claims it to be.

Yet so strong a hold can the sacred science achieve over his mental processes that if one begins to feel himself attracted to ideas which either contradict or ignore it, he may become guilty and afraid. His quest for knowledge is consequently hampered, since in the name of science he is prevented from engaging in the receptive search for truth which characterizes the genuinely scientific approach. And his position is made more difficult by the absence, in a totalist environment, of any distinction between the sacred and the profane: there is no thought or action which cannot be related to the sacred science.

To be sure, one can usually find areas of experience outside its immediate authority; but during periods of maximum totalist activity (like thought reform) any such areas are cut off, and there is virtually no escape from the milieu's ever-pressing edicts and demands.

Whatever combination of continued adherence, inner resistance, or compromise co-existence the individual person adopts toward this blend of counterfeit science and back-door religion, it represents another continuous pressure toward personal closure, toward avoiding, rather than grappling with, the kinds of knowledge and experience necessary for genuine self-expression and for creative development.

Dr. Margaret Singer, Ph.D., explains another aspect of the 'exactness factor' or 'sacred science' in her book, Cults in Our Midst.

Naturalistic trance induction demonstrates how ordinary words, conversational style, and careful pacing & leading of an interaction [eg, of a TWI teaching session] can bring one person to the point of being able to 'secure the cooperation' of another person without using pressure, high-demand announcements, or commands [ie, not physically coercive, but definitely coercive packaged persuasion].

Even when trances per se are not produced, the activities of skilled cult leaders capitalize on the essential ingredients of pacing and leading, exploiting positive transference, & making indirect suggestions, all of which are central to the process and experience of trance [reveries, bedazzlement, and transfixion, etc.].

The techniques can seem innocuous, at first. Some of them - guided imagery, for instance - may actually be familiar from a relaxation class or a self-help audiocassette. In the wrong hands, however, these techniques can do an astonishing amount of harm.

"Trance-induction," Singer explains, is brought about by "a high central focus of attention or concentration [eg,by TWI on very detailed topics, such as 4 crucified, the day JC died, the 4 sessions of hyperfocus on ICor12-14, the AC definitions of the manifestations with all of the supportive scriptural narrative, etc.] which leads to diminished peripheral awareness. It can be achieved through various methods, and it's a means by which one person gets the complete attention of another."

Closed-eye exercises, a form of guided imagery, can be one of the most powerful trance-induction tools used in workshops. With the sense of sight deadened, customers are more attuned to the voice of the seminar leader. While this sounds innocent - sports psychologists enlist Olympic athletes in guided imagery exercises - the potential for abuse is great when the object of the exercise is not, say, running a faster 100-meter dash.

Take a few days without proper rest, add a regimen of closed-eye exercises, and anyone can become vulnerable to suggestion, "You're simply flooded with emotion," observes Singer. "The trainers usually get you to think of all your most powerful memories, under the guise of somehow conquering your past." After several days of being "dragged down into the pits", says Singer, "the final day of exercises is usually designed to pump you up. By this time, customers usually just sort of drool and follow the leader. A false sense of community and camaraderie has developed. By now, they do everything they can to give you the 'warm fuzzies,' so that you'll sign up for the next course."

This post has been edited by jkboehme: Dec 28 2005, 12:50 PM

[rascal]

Whew....wow way corpes adv class anyone?

I remember those *warm fuzzies* my *spiritual family* being a part of *God`s elite* *spirit is thicker than blood* being *on the front lines spiritually* being *dog soldiers* ..*staked out committed*

We were special, we were loved....we were better because we knew so much more scripture.....but we only stayed special as long as we were on the fast track spiritually, ie taking every class and having a new person in every new foundational class....

As soon as you were not involved in a program....if you got tired or decided to get a better job or an education....you were no better than a *bump on a log spiritually* ...were *sleeping spiritually* a *dissapointment to God*.....

twi giveth the warm fuzzies and twi can taketh away....sigh

[jkboehme]

Per catcup (from the Peeler lawsuit thread):

After a quick skim through this thread, I'll leave my input here:

Yes, I gave money to The Way International-- with a certain understanding.

I gave it with the understanding that:

The money I contributed was to go to "move the word." The people living on that money had a fiduciary responsiblity to spend it in the manner it was represented to me that it would be spent. I had a right to expect that the money would be spent frugally, sensibly, and appropriately in "moving the Word of God."

I would have never given one red cent if I had known it went to paying for $1500 suits, Bruno Mali shoes, and paying hotel rooms in which menage trois made a moggy sandwich-- all so I could live on less than half of what my income was with no allowance for savings: giving not only the tithe, but abundant sharing, and paying for all the REQUIRED attendance to functions, classes, events, and purchase of bookstore publications, not to mention all the annual birthday, anniversary, and holiday gifts to every hotshot up and down the Way Tree.

However, having said that I gave the money with the understanding that it would be used to "move the Word," I also gave it with the understanding that:

If I did NOT give, I would NOT prosper.

God would not spit in my direction unless I went above 15%.

To obtain the "blessing" and "protection" of the "household," I would have to live on a "need basis." That meant that everything that did not go to put a tin roof over my head, peanut butter in my baby's mouth, and second hand clothes on our backs, MUST go to The Way International, or disaster would befall us.

It was extortion, plain and simple. Flat out protection money, and it went to things I never agreed to pay for.

TWI and its designated ministers misrepresented to me what the money was to be used for.

To me, that is fraud.

They also used veiled and open threats in order to obtain more money from their followers.

To me, that is extortion.

[jkboehme]

Per GrouchoMarxJr (from the Geer & POP thread):

The problem with trying to sort all of this stuff out and make sense of it, is that these people were working from a perspective that is fatally flawed from the get go...

...In order to accept anything that Geer had to say, one must start off with the premise that Wierwille WAS this spiritual giant with great insight and that the "word" that he taught was the real deal...

...It's sort of like visiting a mental institution and trying to make sense out of what the guy (who thinks he is Napoleon) is saying to you. If you accept the premise that he actually IS Napoleon, then you might follow along and agree with him...but if you see him for the crackpot that he is...it makes no sense and he becomes pitiful.

The entire framework of twi thinking was based on being part of their fantasy world. It was a world that was built on the foundations of ego and fueled by self interest and lust. In other words, if you believed the fable of the "snow on the gas pumps", they could twist and shape your mind to conform to their insanity....their pretend world that placed THEM at the center of importance.

Why not read a Green Lantern comic book and then spend the rest of your life trying to find the elusive power ring?

[jkboehme]

Per jardinero (from the Cognitive Dissonance thread):

Cognitive dissonance has been called "the mind controller's best friend" (Levine 2003: 202). Yet, a cursory examination of cognitive dissonance reveals that it is not the dissonance, but how people deal with it, that would be of interest to someone trying to control others when the evidence seems against them.

For example, Marian Keech was the leader of a UFO cult in the 1950s. She claimed to get messages from extraterrestrials, known as The Guardians, through automatic writing. Like the Heaven's Gate folks forty years later, Keech and her followers, known as The Seekers or The Brotherhood of the Seven Rays, were waiting to be picked up by flying saucers. In Keech's prophecy, her group of eleven was to be saved just before the earth was to be destroyed by a massive flood on December 21, 1954. When it became evident that there would be no flood and the Guardians weren't stopping by to pick them up, Keech became elated. She said she'd just received a telepathic message from the Guardians saying that her group of believers had spread so much light with their unflagging faith that God had spared the world from the cataclysm (Levine 2003: 206).

More important, the Seekers didn't abandon her. Most became more devoted after the failed prophecy. (Only two left the cult when the world didn't end.) "Most disciples not only stayed but, having made that decision, were now even more convinced than before that Keech had been right all along....Being wrong turned them into true believers (ibid.)." Some people will go to bizarre lengths to avoid inconsistency between their cherished beliefs and the facts. But why do people interpret the same evidence in contrary ways?

The Seekers would not have waited for the flying saucer if they thought it might not come. So, when it didn't come, one would think that a competent thinker would have seen this as falsifying Keech's claim that it would come. However, the incompetent thinkers were rendered incompetent by their devotion to Keech. Their belief that a flying saucer would pick them up was based on faith, not evidence. Likewise, their belief that the failure of the prophesy shouldn't count against their belief was another act of faith. With this kind of irrational thinking, it may seem pointless to produce evidence to try to persuade people of the error of their ways. Their belief is not based on evidence, but on devotion to a person. That devotion can be so great that even the most despicable behavior by one's prophet can be rationalized. There are many examples of people so devoted to another that they will rationalize or ignore extreme mental and physical abuse by their cult leader (or spouse or boyfriend). If the basis for a person's belief is irrational faith grounded in devotion to a powerful personality, then the only option that person has when confronted with evidence that should undermine her faith would seem to be to continue to be irrational, unless her faith was not that strong to begin with. The interesting question, then, is not about cognitive dissonance but about faith. What was it about Keech that led some people to have faith in her and what was it about those people that made them vulnerable to Keech? And what was different about the two who left the cult?

"Research shows that three characteristics are related to persuasiveness: perceived authority, honesty, and likeability" (ibid. 31). Furthermore, if a person is physically attractive, we tend to like that person and the more we like a person the more we tend to trust him or her (ibid. 57). Research also show that "people are perceived as more credible when they make eye contact and speak with confidence, no matter what they have to say" (ibid. 33).

According to Robert Levine, "studies have uncovered surprisingly little commonality in the type of personality that joins cults: there's no single cult-prone personality type" (ibid. 144). This fact surprised Levine. When he began his investigation of cults he "shared the common stereotype that most joiners were psychological misfits or religious fanatics" (ibid. 81). What he found instead was that many cult members are attracted to what appears to be a loving community. "One of the ironies of cults is that the craziest groups are often composed of the most caring people (ibid. 83)." Levine says of cult leader Jim Jones that he was "a supersalesman who exerted most every rule of persuasion" (ibid. 213). He had authority, perceived honesty, and likeability. It is likely the same could be said of Marian Keech. It also seems likely that many cult followers have found a surrogate family and a surrogate mother or father or both in the cult leader.

It should also be remembered that in most cases people have not arrived at their irrational beliefs overnight. They have come to them over a period of time with gradually escalated commitments (ibid. chapter 7). Nobody would join a cult if the pitch were: "Follow me. Drink this poisoned-but-flavored water and commit suicide." Yet, not everybody in the cult drank the poison and two of Keech's followers quit the cult when the prophecy failed. How were they different from the others? The explanation seems simple: their faith in their leader was weak. According to Festinger, the two who left Keech--Kurt Freund and Arthur Bergen--were lightly committed to begin with (Festinger 1956: 208).

________________________________________________________________________________

____

Festinger's theory of cognitive dissonance goes a long way towards explaining why VPW included a chapter in the Blue Book on "The Synchroized Confession." It also goes a long way in explaining why VPW/TWI chose to use this technique of exploitative mental manipulation in its coordinated programs of psycho-social covert packaged persuasion.

As taught in LCM's WAP Advanced Class [and implied in VPW's AC], the synchronized confession is incorporated into 'believing images of victory,' in order to efficaciously operate the HERMETIC ALCHEMICAL 'law of believing.' One needed to operate the 'high octane' manifestation/emanation of [the law of] believing' in order 'to bring to pass the impossible' at one's command, demonstrating the TWI promoted DUALISM of the supremacy of 'holy spirit' manifested power with impact, emulating [rather than worshipping] Jesus via our gnosis of TWI Gnostic 'truths,' as opposed to the Satanically contaminated and manipulated world in which we live.

In order for the [TWI-styled] 'Word' to become "living and real," one must: (1) Think (cogitate) the 'Word;' (2) speak the 'Word;' &, (3) ACT on the 'Word.' In the constricting confines of the Wayworld milieu, whether at a local Twig/HF, or in-residence at a 'Root Locale,' or especially on a day-to-day basis in one's 'own' mind [now a manifestation of the synthetic pseudo-self], one's mental state would become progressively uncomfortable & tense unless one moved towards a synchronization of one's cognitions/feelings/confessions/actions. This purposefully induced psychological pain was part of the design of TWI's thought reform program.

[geisha779]

With all the current threads. . . This seems to fit somewhere in the mix.