Showing posts with label mind control. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mind control. Show all posts
Thursday, May 8, 2008
here we go again
so I changed the format again from one of the extraordinary blogspot templates. Easy as one-two-three. I'm just wondering what the fine print says and if I've unwittingly signed up for a secret society that uses the number "897" for a code name. That's another "distortion," I suppose. It's called paranoia. When you think the world is conspiring against you to jam you up, then it's time to stop and take stock. In the cult, EVERYTHING was a conspiracy of the devil and we had to be on high alert ALL THE TIME. (Please note the capital letters used for emphasis. This too is a distortion because even though we believed the milk was contaminated by non-organic substances, we were, in fact, correct. It was.) Sometimes, as Freud said, "a cigar is just a cigar."
Friday, February 22, 2008
Victim Mentality Freedom
VMP. I just learned a new acronym. I always love learning new acronyms. This one sounds like a venereal disease. Actually, it stands for “Victim Mentality Propaganda.”
Now, what’s interesting about this “condition” is that it connects the word “mentality” with “propaganda.” Of course, there are people who are perpetual victims, who blame the world for their problems and take no responsibility for their lives themselves.
But those who WERE victims and have moved beyond it, have a story to tell. That is not propaganda – that is the survivor’s story, the cautionary tale. That is what my memoir is.
Unfortunately VMP comes precariously close to “BVM” or “Blaming the Victim Mentality.” This acronym (I just made it up) came in response to a book called "Blaming the Victim" about women (primarily) who have experienced sexual abuse or domestic violence. It answers the question of “Why didn’t she just leave? No one was putting a gun to her head.” In some cases, there was a gun. In some cases, just the threat of a gun was enough.
I can recall many times in my cult when I was threatened with death, destruction or maiming if I were to leave. I was convinced the devil would take me if I left and yes, I took it very seriously. I was under the thrall of mind control.
It takes a great deal of courage (if not desperation) to finally leave any abusive situation. But psychological or spiritual abuse is the most challenging precisely because there IS no gun. One can argue that “it’s all in your head,” like the “gaslight effect.” (If you’ve never seen the movie “Gaslight,” I highly recommend it.) But that is the essence of mind control – that you think it is all in your mind when it is not. There are outside forces at work.
Healing is a process from victim to survivor to thriver. As a victim, I was stuck in my abusive situation. As a survivor, I excaped. As a thriver, I now live and share what I have learned through VMP -Victim Mentality Freedom. But I am ever mindful of those victims who are still caught in their desctructive webs of abuse and are trying to break free. I pray that my story (not propaganda) may assist them in some small way.
Now, what’s interesting about this “condition” is that it connects the word “mentality” with “propaganda.” Of course, there are people who are perpetual victims, who blame the world for their problems and take no responsibility for their lives themselves.
But those who WERE victims and have moved beyond it, have a story to tell. That is not propaganda – that is the survivor’s story, the cautionary tale. That is what my memoir is.
Unfortunately VMP comes precariously close to “BVM” or “Blaming the Victim Mentality.” This acronym (I just made it up) came in response to a book called "Blaming the Victim" about women (primarily) who have experienced sexual abuse or domestic violence. It answers the question of “Why didn’t she just leave? No one was putting a gun to her head.” In some cases, there was a gun. In some cases, just the threat of a gun was enough.
I can recall many times in my cult when I was threatened with death, destruction or maiming if I were to leave. I was convinced the devil would take me if I left and yes, I took it very seriously. I was under the thrall of mind control.
It takes a great deal of courage (if not desperation) to finally leave any abusive situation. But psychological or spiritual abuse is the most challenging precisely because there IS no gun. One can argue that “it’s all in your head,” like the “gaslight effect.” (If you’ve never seen the movie “Gaslight,” I highly recommend it.) But that is the essence of mind control – that you think it is all in your mind when it is not. There are outside forces at work.
Healing is a process from victim to survivor to thriver. As a victim, I was stuck in my abusive situation. As a survivor, I excaped. As a thriver, I now live and share what I have learned through VMP -Victim Mentality Freedom. But I am ever mindful of those victims who are still caught in their desctructive webs of abuse and are trying to break free. I pray that my story (not propaganda) may assist them in some small way.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Then Again.....
Then again.....
Which president was it – either Hoover or Wilson- who said he wanted to meet an economist with one hand so he wouldn’t be able to say “on the other hand.”
Well, regardless of who it was, today I want to take another look at my last blog entry and consider “the other hand.”
Perhaps I was being too dogmatic. I certainly didn’t mean to be and, Universe forbid, you accuse a former cultist of being that.
All I was trying to get across was that I have now “recovered” to the point of being able to actually entertain a belief again. Once I left the cult, I thought I would never be able to believe in anything. The betrayal went too deep.
The “other hand” of belief in something is not disbelief but doubt. I doubt my connection to the Greater Whole plenty. But in the doubt, I am reminded that I am free, no longer in a stranglehold of dogmatic belief.
I can believe one thing one day, another thing another day because it’s only a belief. It’s not absolute. And that’s what I was trying feebly to get across in that blog – that “The Absolute” is beyond me and I don’t even have the name for it. But I can make one up because it’s MY belief. That’s all I was trying to share.
Which president was it – either Hoover or Wilson- who said he wanted to meet an economist with one hand so he wouldn’t be able to say “on the other hand.”
Well, regardless of who it was, today I want to take another look at my last blog entry and consider “the other hand.”
Perhaps I was being too dogmatic. I certainly didn’t mean to be and, Universe forbid, you accuse a former cultist of being that.
All I was trying to get across was that I have now “recovered” to the point of being able to actually entertain a belief again. Once I left the cult, I thought I would never be able to believe in anything. The betrayal went too deep.
The “other hand” of belief in something is not disbelief but doubt. I doubt my connection to the Greater Whole plenty. But in the doubt, I am reminded that I am free, no longer in a stranglehold of dogmatic belief.
I can believe one thing one day, another thing another day because it’s only a belief. It’s not absolute. And that’s what I was trying feebly to get across in that blog – that “The Absolute” is beyond me and I don’t even have the name for it. But I can make one up because it’s MY belief. That’s all I was trying to share.
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