Studying abuse

[Bob Brinton (151.203.147.88)]

Abuse in its many forms has a particular flavor and nature. A spiritual personality is behind it; the father of lies. It sometimes treats you like you're a treasure. Suddenly it will attack or torture you. It enjoys having you not know what's coming or when. It wants you to see it as enemy and friend at the same time. It wants you to think that its instruments can be changed and are changing (they can with Divine intervention); but then you see there has been no actual change. Much can be learned and understood by studying people like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Amin; or the French Revolution, the rise of the Bolsheviks and the consolidation of their power in the years following. You can see abuse in the way our government functions and in business practices (particularly CEOs). Read 1984. Check this stuff out. The way abuse functions in the Church is the same as the way it functions in the world. It's the same animal. Bob

[Bob Brinton (151.203.147.88)]

I forgot to mention that the personality behind abuse seeks to isolate you; to keep you from hearing about it from others. And it doesn't want you to have a voice (like this forum). It hates individual creativity, and always distrusts it; but tries to use it in others for its own ends. Bob

[KDuhamel (24.60.78.215)]

Bob,

I appreciate your insights about spiritual abuse. I've always been amazed how some personalities seem to thrive on the unpredictability of the message--and what it implies about God's nature. One minute "God" is gentle and gracious and the next He is harsh and demanding. Instead of being motivated to serve Him better, I was incapacitated by His apparent capriciousness. I began to lose trust in Him. If after hearing a beautiful finished work message, I dared to rest in Him, I was then blind-sided by a message that made it seem as if God was just waiting for me to make a wrong move.

Anything that erodes our trust in Him is the embodiment of evil.

-Karen

[RJ (141.154.186.91)]

Excellent points, Bob and Karen.

I think looking back one of the most chilling things I ever her P Stevens expound upon was the book Hilter wrote "Mein Kampf", My Struggle. It was a rap one night after a service, the very first year I ever stepped foot in Lenox at a summer convention.

I can't recall the complete text after all these years, but I remember the way he subtly compaired himself to A.Hilter. He said that where Hitler planned to invade Europe for evil, he wanted to invade Europe for Christ. Pastor remarked again and again that he would need a fiercly local inner circle and the church would have to "get on board, not be lukewarm" or they would be left out and never share the spoils of the spiritual war, a special place in heaven.

A year or so later when I enrolled in the bible school it seemed so obvious to me that Pastor Stevens had done exactly what he said in that rap. The men around him from Dan Lewis to John Lloyd and Ed Canino all had their counterparts in Hitler's inner circle. And as Bob says, the same was true of Lenin and Stalin...how amazing the similarities one finds as a personality cult developes.

Roberta

[Bob Brinton (151.203.147.88)]

Roberta, I never could understand all the emphasis on rewards. The Lord Himself is my inheritance. Is there something beyond that? I know rewards are mentioned in the Word; but I think it's unhealthy to have them as your goal. Christ came to serve both the Father and us; to reconcile us to the Father. His goal was not His own personal gain. He came out of love. If I'm serving others to gain rewards; then I'm serving myself, not them. He who seeks to gain his own life will lose it. Bob

[Cara (205.188.117.20)]

Bob, I have always felt the same way about rewards. Rewards didn't matter to me, I just thought my walk was so extremely personal with Jesus that I was rewarded with His presence. I was rewarded everytime I heard His voice and in His nature acted. Bringing His love and nature in the smallest acts of kindness. I found my reward in living the exchanged life. I have said (much to GG friends' horror) even if I didn't have heaven at the end of this journey, this was the path I would choose. I still believe that.

I also never believed the "Pastor at the bema seat doctrine." He pushed this "new doctrine" on us in the last ten years. I just did not find this doctrine rational or logical. Why would my God, who I communed with all the day long need Carl Stevens to give an account of me? I would say it was this irrational doctrine that finally got me to take a stand with my family and say "let's move on from here." Of course that led to loosing them all and becoming a "shunned one." But eventually we all left.

And that is all the "reward" I need!

[Bob Brinton (151.203.147.88)]

Cara, That's it exactly. His personal attention to us and through us to others is life itself. What could possibly be better? Bob

[nonotone (24.211.177.206)]

Folks,

Pastor Stevens simply CANNOT prove his bema-seat doctrines. Credible scholars do NOT support the extent to which he has defined what the bema seat experience will be. I have heard hours and hours of Pastor Stevens teachings on the bema. It is filled with contradictions and duplicity. On one hand he declares the bema as a "judgment of grace" while on the other he likens it to multi-level marketing. Pastor Stevens once said that the bema rewards for his first wife (who died of lukemia in the late 70's) cannot be determined until the rapture. His reasoning: that she led him to Christ and because of all of his fruit (as an equipping/sending Pastor/Teacher over a world-wide ministry) that the "downline" would keep on producing "right up to the RAPPPPPTUUUURE!!!!"

My take is that Pastor is a "salesman" at heart. He has not stayed within the bounds of conservative interpretation on this doctrine (and others). Pastor Stevens' teaching on the bema seat creates an unhealthy "peformance mentality" that DRIVES many of his other favorite pulpit subjects - namely confontational "soul winning" and attending services. I have been simply shocked to see how many GGWO believers, although fine Christian people, seem to substitute a deep vertical relationship with God to be at service after service and rap after rap.

This is NOT true, however, of many of the FANTASTIC missionaries who serve in far-away places. They HAVE TO HAVE an incredible veritcal with Jesus Christ to make it. They are the REAL HEROES in GGWO. Let's "celebrate" them!!

[RJ (141.154.186.91)]

"And that is all the "reward" I need!"

I so totally agree, Cara!

Roberta

[Bob Brinton (151.203.182.42)]

I guess 68 is feeling a little convicted. Bob

[Anonymous (141.154.186.91)]

.

[Bob Brinton (151.203.153.107)]

The spirit of abuse demands your silence. You don't have to obey it. Bob

[Anonymous (205.188.117.20)]

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 - 11:06 am
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everyone, this is Erik Sundquist, director of Safe Harbor Christian Counseling. I want to express that it is clear that the situation regarding GGWO is very difficult (what an understatement!) for all involved on all sides of the issue. At this point, I could not even begin to claim that I even fully understand all sides of the issue. I do however understand some of what people go through when they see life as they have known it begin to unravel at the seams. I also understand some of what God's heart is toward all of us. I am in process myself of learning to live in and be an agent of God's tender mercy, His grace, His truth, and His holiness. It is from this vantage point that I would like to speak into this situation briefly and then clarify the role of Safe Harbor at this point.

Romans 12:17- "Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right ... If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." I urge people on both sides to seek the Lord regarding He is calling you to live this out in your life. We get into trouble relationally, emotionally, spiritually, etc. when we only look at one truth and base how we deal with a given situation only on that truth.

Proverbs 22:3- "A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, the simple keep going and suffer for it."

Galatians 5:1 - "It is for freedom that Christ set us free".

The principles here are that God calls us all to be stewards of our own lives- this involves assessing other people and situations and most importantly assessing our own motives and action and surrending them to Christ. However, the heart that God is after is one whereby we desire to protect and maximize the resources that He has given us. i.e.- not allow others to use and abuse us and take the life out of us. The heart of the matter is to be a faithful steward and live for His kingdom- not make it our goal to bring down anyone who has wronged us. There is a time and place to speak the truth but we need to be cautious and check our own motives. People still have power over us if we are in a power struggle where we are trying to prove something. I urge you all to be about peace, stewardship of your own emotional, relational, and spiritual resources, and to be about your own recovery. No one can steal these things from you.

Some good books that can assist with assessing yourself in light of the above issues and in light of God's word are "Boundaries" and "Safe People" - both authored by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. Safe Harbor has a group starting in July on "Boundaries"- check out www.safeharbor1.com for more info on this.

Regarding our role currently with the crisis at GGWO- we are simply a resource for the individual to recover from whatever trauma they are experiencing. We are not a judge or mediator at this point. We will not make any public statements at this point about who we think has committed what sins- this is not our place. I thought that the person who posted on 6-19-04 at 12:40 am stated our position very accurately and I would reiterate that all counseling that anyone recieves at Safe Harbor is totally confidential. Several people have already pursued this option with us and are receiving help.

Also, just for the record-I did speak with Michael Marr a couple of weeks ago and it was a very good conversation. I would caution against reading anything else into the fact that I said it was a good conversation. All that means is that we spoke for 10 minutes and it was a good conversation- it means nothing more and nothing less.

I will leave you with this- seek life, seek freedom- that is what Jesus is about (Galatians 5:1, John 14:6, and many other verses). Seek that in your own hearts and seek to be a person who gives that to others. The Lord does not want us in bondage- he has come to set the captives free!

For His Kingdom,

Erik Sundquist

[rj (141.154.186.91)]

National Center for Victims of Crime: Comprehensive site with information on crime victims, violence, sexual and domestic victims, stalking, rape abuse laws and statutes. Includes a legal resources referral service for victims.
http://www.ncvc.org/ncvc/Main.aspx

Cult Abuse Policy & Research: Policy Representation of Cult Victims' Unmet Needs at the Federal Level, Index of the online versions of the newsletter written by David Bardin.
http://home.att.net/~jon.ruth/can/vrai/capr/capr_index.html

Information about Cults and Psychological Manipulation: AFF resources about psychological manipulation, cult groups, sects, and new religious movements.
http://www.csj.org/


MCF: Ritual Abuse Report: Back in 1989, this report was considered to be ground-breaking. Since then, much more information has been published about the connections between ritual abuse and mind-control. However, the information included in the report is still enormously helpful to both survivors and to others wishing to learn more about organized criminal sadistic abuse, cult ritual abuse, and mind-control techniques used on the perpetrators' victims.
http://www.mindcontrolforums.com/slvn-rab.htm

S.M.A.R.T.: S.M.A.R.T. is a newsletter for survivors, co-survivors, therapists and others interested in learning about how secretive organizations may be connected to ritual abuse and mind control.
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/index2.html


Freddom of Mind Center: Truth is stronger than lies and love is stronger than fear! Steven A. Hassan is a former cult member, author, and licensed mental health counselor with over twenty years experience working in the field of cult mind control.
http://www.freedomofmind.com/

[Anonymous (65.96.153.178)]

Repost:

Have you ever wondered why there is so much evil in the world?

Halfway around the globe, there are religious zealots that delight in terrorizing, torturing and murdering people of other religions. In America, perversion and corruption are rampant, and violence is commonplace. Even in your own home, temptation, and terror hovers nearby -- if not already firmly in charge.

Why do evil and corruption have such a foothold on the human race? I will show you exactly how the evil gets into our lives and our world -- and most importantly, I will show you the way out, so you can be free to serve God, and not evil.

The truth is, people the world over, as they have for thousands of years, live in a suppressed, traumatized and therefore "altered" state of consciousness, manipulated and controlled by various political and religious systems.

On the surface, we all look alike. We may belong to the same race, color and creed, even have the same criminal behavior or psychological illness, but we are not all the same inside.

Many people not only will never awaken to acknowledge and repent of their own corrupt state, but they choose to remain zealously preoccupied with keeping others confused and asleep. Such as these go about the dirty business of degrading, even killing millions struggling for meaning and happiness. After all, the only way such as these can maintain the illusion of a misguided sense of worth is by destroying the consciousness of those around them. Left alone to unfold, the bright, unaltered consciousness in others would take back their world and prick the conscience of the earth bound, into recognition of their deformed selves, and they cannot allow that to happen.

As I said, such inhuman "soul stealers" abound, not just in foreign countries under dictatorships, but in our own homes and wherever the sickest, most corrupt member rules families and communities.

Most of us spend some part of our lives in this altered state, so we may well share some of the same aberrant behaviors. Nevertheless, there is hope for us, because one thing separates us -- our conscience. The real difference between them and us is that we have conflict over our problems, and they do not - for that reason alone, we have survived them and so are still alive inside.

Just as the most corrupted member often gets to rule the family, such as these oftentimes rise to political power and literally create chaos, violent crime, mental illness, broken homes and drug addiction. Like the Egyptian pharaoh, they will never let our people go.

The wicked are not stupid; they simply abuse their God-given talents ambitiously and ruthlessly manipulate or eliminate anyone who stands in their way. They ascend to power with the game of "hurt and rescue" - first causing the chaos, and then fixing it with wrong answers.

When they ascend to positions of authority in society, they rob the innocent of their mental health and freedoms, then sanitize and legitimize the perverted and the wicked. A proliferation of dangerous advice confounds the good and gives license to the decadent.

If all this is true, then freedom can prevail only when common sense becomes the fashion, no longer held up to ridicule. Unfortunately, many otherwise innocent and productive people have spent virtually their entire lives in various emotionally troubled states, governed by the same kind of madness as the evil ones. The difference is that we know we are sick, but we have not found the way out, or allowed to awaken and take back full control of our lives.

Since we all look and act alike -- with our various sicknesses, mental illnesses, violent and foolish behaviors -- how then can we become separate from those who will not ever awaken, and who revel in chaos, irresponsibility and wickedness?

There is an answer. For over four decades, the Foundation of Human Understanding has helped many thousands of people overcome the vice-grip evil and corruption have had on them and become free, conscience-driven individuals once again - as God intended them to be.

How to take back control

Our conscious mind -- like a radio receiver with just two channels -- acts as an other-dimensional gateway, the conduit through which good or evil enters to project heaven or hell on this earth. Depending on what "station" we tune into, the "programming" we receive comes either from within us (actually from beyond us, from God), or from the outside world, changing us into externally motivated cultural, religious or political animals.

The key to which "program" we tune into has to do with our level of consciousness, which in turn is determined by our willingness to honestly face the truth -- particularly the truth about our own weaknesses and failings. You see, without the knowledge and willingness to "be still" and squarely face our own imperfections, we literally cannot stand to be conscious. That is because the awareness necessary for us to find true inner fulfillment and rise above evil, is the exact same consciousness that will always make us aware of our own sins and imperfections. Thus, there are only two kinds of "freedoms" in this life: freedom from the slavish compulsion to do wrong, or freedom from knowing that we are wrong.

We can learn much, in an intellectual sense, from religion, psychology and medicine, but all of these knowledge bases fail us miserably as we face daily pressure and our old conditioning takes over.

Winning the war against evil requires something more spiritual, more innocent, than acquiring mere intellectual knowledge. Let me bring the solution into sharp focus by considering briefly a phone call I received recently on my radio program from a man seeking counseling.

The voice on the telephone sounded like a tormented demon -- like a cackling, raspy, unspeakably twisted fiend in some horror movie. For nine years, this 24-year-old man had descended into a living hell on earth. Fortunately, the pain of his early conditioning had also prompted an awakening from his altered state. Now, as did the prodigal son, he was on his way back to his original innocence.

"My life has been a lie ever since I can remember," he told me. "Whatever I said, I would accept as truth. I could make up stories and people would believe me. Therefore, in my mind I never did anything wrong. I thought nothing of trafficking in drugs and corrupting kids. I knew no other truth than what I thought and lived."

"I have remembered many of the things you said when I was a child. My parents had all your materials and books, but I resented you because they were close to you and they were my problem."

"As I began to awaken, I began to see that I had been a compulsive liar my entire life. I also realized that I could do nothing to stop myself from lying. I tried being 'honest' by admitting the lie, which, for obvious reasons, caused more problems. I came to you, Roy, because I knew you would understand my dilemma and would not misjudge me."

The next day this young man came to see me. He stood before me, his voice changed, wearing a clean shirt and his hair respectfully groomed.

"I'm living with my father who is still a pathological liar," he said. "I needed to go back to live with him to confront my demon roots. When I look at him, I see myself. I see that he is unaware that he is liar and that he may never want to know it."

"He lived off corrupting, spoiling and putting his nature inside me, compelling me to do to others as was done to me. I am now standing in his shoes. The difference is that I can see that he is as helpless as I still am, but for some strange reason I feel compassion and forgiveness."

I knew at that moment that this young man was finally awakening from the altered state of consciousness through which comes all human tragedy and conflicts.

As I have said, we are by nature compulsive creatures of environment, and find ourselves "slaves of sin" "programmed" by a corrupt world, when we ought to obey the dictates of our conscience. If indeed "the original kingdom of heaven within" were able to override environmental pressures, it would then be impossible to be truly consciously aware and do anything wrong at the same time.

Unfortunately, before the time of enlightened reason, we all tend to "solve" our problems by diminishing our awareness of them one way or another. Emotions imperceptibly submerge us into a dreamy escape-reality called denial, so much so, that we become hard-pressed to explain why our lives have become such a mess.

To varying degrees, our consciousness descends into daytime nightmares. We become their prisoner and are driven and deluded by a perpetual flood of emotionally induced ideas that we come to believe originate from within us. For this reason, we tend not to resist and we "follow our hearts" into inevitable tragedy.

The story goes something like this: You are upset and things go wrong. Since you are confused and frustrated, the same pattern repeats itself. Denials (excuses) compound the loss of clarity vital to solving the evolution of problems, and on and on it goes.

Like Alice falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, you begin to live in a world of imagination ruled by the maniacal Queen of Hearts. Solving problems by reducing your awareness of them is the soul's slow dying to the dust. Eventually, you do not know that you do not know -- and so make catastrophic decisions.

Emotional excitation evokes a heightened (delusional) state of awareness that we call a high, each one leading to the next low pursued by what appears to be the "punisher" conscience -- but only because of the ego's unwillingness to face its sins.

To the prideful person, the redeeming quality of the pursuing reality (conscience) is more painful than the hell of his or her corrupted existence, and so the flight from redemption continues, with the "soothing flames" of sensuality constantly beckoning. As a final escape, the descending soul may choose suicide, thinking to end the torment of existence. Unfortunately, it is not the end, because whether in heaven or in hell, the soul lives on, eternally or infernally.

The way out

Have you ever given any thought to what it is like to die? Does it all just fade to black, or is there some kind of afterlife? What do you think is the purpose of the gift of consciousness?

Each of us is born with a unique, separate awareness of being. There is only one of each of us. We have not ever lived before. We are born brand-new, and before us lies the destiny of searching for truth or denying it - of wanting more or less consciousness. The path has always been and always will be the same for everyone. Some find meaning, live, and die well, while others turn toward a different destiny.

No one begins life perfected. Our gradual perfection is a process of becoming better through welcoming, not shrinking from, those painful awakenings.

Life is like a complicated chess game, where pieces keep changing sides. People who have been pawns of an enemy may have a change of heart and cross over to the right side. It works both ways; while good people try to save the bad ones from evil, the bad seek to corrupt the innocent and separate them from their indwelling goodness.

Fortunately, there is a positive way to change the end game. It is as follows:

Patiently endure offenses. If people puff you up as a holy person, do not be uplifted. If they try to degrade, defame, betray or berate you, let not your soul be vexed -- remain even and centered, thereby neutralizing the sting that once prevented goodness from coming through.

Past traumas are slowly undone through your patient endurance.

We love by loving good people and by forbearing to hate wrongdoers. In this fashion, do we endear and complete ourselves to God.

Resentment is the antithesis of love, in that it reinforces in the present the very same anger that established the aberrant behaviors of the past. Resentment is the loser's anger.

Therefore, through patient endurance are you forgiven as you forgive, just as the Lord's Prayer says.

True love has two sides, two faces. One side of love is kind and generous toward the deserving, while the other side is patiently firm with wrongdoers.

Love those who are good and do not hate (resent) those who are bad - it's just that simple. When people are decent, you love them; if they are not, forbear to hate them.

Overcome all the failings of the past by dealing more perfectly (not falling to resentment) with imperfect people in the present.

As instinct is to creatures, so are the intuitive laws to the human heart. That which separates the redeemed man or woman from all other living things is the inclination of their soul -- the resigned consciousness that, when drawn inward toward the indwelling light, finds the fulfillment of true love and therefore becomes unable to hate.

Life is a continuum, up or down. Some people love in such a way that they are willing to "lay down their lives" -- that precious, conscious uniqueness -- by standing for what is right. Others do just the opposite and preserve their miserable ego-animal carcasses, defending what is clearly evil.

The preservation of the ego-animal leads to the fusion of the soul to the flesh and the slow dissolution of the truly human identity meant to develop and manifest heaven on earth. Everywhere through human agencies, malevolent spiritual forces are at work, perpetually pumping you up with anger and judgment. Those same forces also keep you comfortable in your weaknesses, until its soul deadening pleasures and securities compel you either to cry out to God, or to burrow ever deeper into denial and escape. The temporal life you live is preparatory to the eternal or infernal one.

Surely, it is better for a boat to go through the ocean than for the ocean to go through the (leaky) boat. Likewise, should we go through life, not life through us. No one in his right mind would bail out water from the bilge without first patching the leak. So must you first plug up the leak of resentment, only then can you stay ahead of drowning in a flood of internal problems.

There exists a "place" within us, a space from which vantage point one both observes and changes the future a fraction of an instant before its shaping - and therein lies the faith of choice.

Come now up to a new "altitude" with undreamed-of potential -- become an observer.

Come now toward the pain of shame -- do not run.

Heed that still small voice. Sink no longer into thinking, nor drown in dreams. Deal anew perfectly with imperfect people, minus resentment and frustration. Be patient in the little things and the evil of the world will stop flooding in.

No need to roll up your sleeves to will any outcome, you will change the world by remaining unchanged; in effortless control, influence the world through not being influenced, win by not losing.

No need to win -- just don't lose, which is to say, under trial and tribulation be patient, forsake not principle for gain.

Out of a calm composure, choose to say or do something - or choose to say or do nothing -- without fear of repression.

By not becoming upset, and braving the outcome of any conflict, a quiet sense of triumph follows.

The moment-to-moment practice of being patient with others by giving up resentment and hence self-doubt is much more profound than it seems. It is not just a psychological stress-reduction technique or coping mechanism. Rather, it is true faith in action. It is humility and forgiveness. It is obedience to the commandment to love God and your neighbor. Therefore, God rewards that obedience with His infilling love and direction and happiness.

Roy Masters - FHU.ORG

[Anonymous (65.96.153.178)]

Repost:

Cruel people get their power from the way you respond to their pressure.

Your life is in danger from people, especially members of your own family, who chip away, harp, nag and aggravate the life out of you, until you feel like killing them or yourself.

YOU CANNOT FIGHT THEM WITH RESENTMENT, because they use your resentment to drive you up the wall with fear and guilt, and terrify you into submission.

Take heart. There is not a single problem that you cannot solve if you will learn to be patient.

You are the sum total of your experiences. Another way of saying this is that you are burdened by your past. Unless you learn to respond properly in the present, you build upon that past. And without self-control, that is the only future you have to look forward to.

Respond wrongly to pressure just one time—and what upsets you, gets to you. And you will go on responding slavishly until you find the truth that makes you free.

You are not alone in your dilemma. The wrong emotional reaction to various pressures is making everyone sick and depressed, and driving people into conflict with themselves. Trying to solve the pressure-caused conflicts, many turn to consciousness-reducing drink, tobacco and drugs, legal and illegal.

Your reactions, becoming compulsive, are a subtle form of obedience. But emotional obedience is a form of slavery. Behind the relentless pressures that people apply (sometimes in the name of God and good), is a selfish motive that compels you to sin. Because of your reactions, you are thrown out of control and so you can’t live your own life. That is the reason why you feel sick and depressed.

Most of your sexual, family and business problems arise directly from your failing to respond in a right way to what is wrong, and I might add, taking it out on your loved ones. Conflict with yourself now becomes conflict with others.

Most of the things that are wrong with your life, your marriage, your health, your children, can be resolved by discovering how to control your emotions.

Your emotional upsets have literally turned you upside-down. Even though you were technically correct in what you said or did, if you did it resentfully, your emotions backfired and confused you and as you began to doubt yourself, conflict, depression and fear grew.

Emotion has destroyed your objectivity, and, failing to see clearly, you have made terrible errors of judgment. This, in turn, led to a fear of making decisions, so that perhaps you began to look too much to others for guidance, and you know how upsetting it can be if they happen to be wrong or take advantage of you.

You must learn how to be patient with selfish and thoughtless people. You must learn to be poised and calm; otherwise, what is wrong in them shows up in you and makes you look like the bad guy. Everyone is so fascinated with what went wrong with you that they fail to see what they did wrong to you, and that becomes another upsetting, frustrating and scary experience.

Cruel, unthinking people feed off the way you respond to their needling; they walk away self-righteous and satisfied, leaving you frustrated, confused, revengeful and depressed. They get their power from your reaction, while your resentment often makes you feel like the guilty one.

"Successful" domineering, (unprincipled) people drain you and make your life wretched; they can always be sure of getting through to your subconscious mind through your reaction to their pressure.

Dehumanizing pressure to achieve and to study is changing people into animals—animals out of control, in mortal conflict with others.

OF COURSE WE ALL RESPOND TO PRESSURE—BUT THAT RESPONSE IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH US.

Home and school pressures are alienating young people, creating monster rebel animals and delinquents, driving them to drugs, murder and suicide.

Your emotions compel you to respond more and mores as an animal, less as a real person, and everything you think, feel, do or say will only bring on more trouble, conflict, fear and despair.

You must learn to cope with pressures. If you can do that, if you can put the emphasis where it belongs—on standing for principles, finding patience and self-control—you can stave off disaster.

The way we pressure and react to pressure is the cause of all suffering. Learn to be patient before it is too late.

Upsetting you is the key to motivating you. Your emotional upset is the hidden reason behind all your conflict and suffering.

Winning through intimidation is a common practice among spoiled and unscrupulous motivators. No doubt you have your own private dictator currently aggravating the life out of you.

Through the shock of emotional upset, a compelling or morbid suggestion can be planted in your subconscious mind, and this is especially true with the emotion of resentment. If it doesn’t cause wild and senseless rebellion, you find yourself obliged to give in to ease the pain that the pressure of wrong resistance causes. Your life becomes a weary struggle against subliminal suggestions.

Giving in to please tyrants who reward weakness is a common but unhealthy form of love, loyalty, and closeness between husband and wife, mother and child, and between churches and their believers. (It also happens to be the way to lose your identity.)

It is hard to say "no" to pushy, irritating people. You tend to favor people who apply pressure—your boss, or your wife—and you spoil your kids. When the breaking point is reached, there comes a rebellion against work and study; debilitating disease and nervous breakdown take their deadly toll.

Reaction to stress is your weakness—your Achilles’ heel. All heartless, cruel, power-hungry, unprincipled people inherit the know-how to make your emotions work for them, and they have no qualms about casting you aside after you are used and broken.

The world is dominated by tyrants, teasers, and psychopaths. Some of them get you through cruelty, while other types manipulate you with a holier-than-thou, irritating "kindness." They might use both methods to confuse you, being mean to you one moment and being "kind" the next. Their bold, unprincipled manner upsets you, and because your resentment is the wrong way for a human being to deal with others, you feel guilty. Suddenly changing roles and becoming "nice," they can intensify your guilt feelings and make you doubt yourself. In that manner you are made to believe that they were right all along, and that you were wrong. And so you learn to go along with their wishes; you find yourself doing things you would never have done in your right mind, and that upsets you all over again. This vicious cycle, with a built-in upset factor, repeats itself endlessly, until you feel like killing them or yourself.

Human beings were never designed to be externally motivated as animals, but because of a little understood ego-weakness, we are. That is the main reason why we all have paralyzing conflicts, anxieties and fears; that is the basis of all our problems, right there. Until you discover the secret of turning yourself on from what you realize is right deep down in your heart, you will always be an externalized zombie, compelled to act against your own better judgment, hurting people you love and doing things for which you are sorry later.

Being upset is a conditioned reflex; it is an inferior way of reacting to pressure. It is why you feel so inferior, helpless and angry.

What if you could learn to look injustice straight in the eye without flinching, patiently, calmly and with endless endurance? Surely you would not have the problems of repressing or expressing resentment. This, then, is the aim of the Foundation of Human Understanding—to show you the secret principle of control through patience.

I know what you want. You want relief from your nervous tension and guilt feelings. You want solutions to your sex problems and family problems. You want to stop smoking, drinking and overeating; you want happiness. But you will never find what you are seeking until you discover the hidden cause of your trouble, and that cause is allowing people to upset you too easily.

Surely emotional self-control is the key you are seeking. Your very life depends upon responding in a right way to what is wrong with people.

Your main line of defense (and attack) is to stay calm and patient. Seeing you unmoved, the motivator’s tactics backfire on him; he becomes upset, loses his power and panics. Put up an impenetrable, invisible force shield of patience that lets the good come through and stops the ugly world from getting in and growing up inside to control your destiny.

By practicing the self-control techniques contained within the Introductory Package available from the Foundation of Human Understanding, Roy Masters reveals one simple principle that will keep you safe under all conditions of stress and persecution. It’s simple. Anyone who is sincere can learn to do it in minutes. The secret lies in being consistent and adhering to the discipline of the mind as does an athlete to his goal.

http://www.fhu.com/roys_articles.html

[Jack Leonard (65.96.56.161)]

(I have no patience with this Roy Masters stuff, but the title of this thread calls for this response):

In regards to abuse.

There have been accusations and implications of child abuse on this message board. This is hard to substantiate and even harder to bring into the light.

Here is a case where smoke should make us look for fire. If an organization exhibits a pattern of using and abusing people, then one has to be alert to all forms of abuse.
· Spiritual abuse. An example would be the purported broadcast on Grace Hour (see Surprise a guest speaker on the Grace Hour thread). The “principle of chain of command” is easily misunderstood and loaded with potential to manipulate and coerce others.
· Adultery is always abusive, both to the adults and the children affected. You have to stoop to a certain level where you are willing to use people for personal gratification, knowing that everyone is going to be hurt in the end. While forgivable (and I have no doubt that some leaders have repented and found forgiveness from God), human forgiveness and healing is much harder to gain. I have never seen a married couple “rebound” instantly from adultery. It hurts for a long time.
· Cover-ups are abusive. If I am a leader and I commit a serious sin and have to act as if it never happened, then I have the added burden of lying and denying. I’m never able to pursue real reconciliation and healing. Once the problem is confessed, what can anyone say? It’s old news. All accusations fall flat and I am free.
· Bullying is abusive. It happens in every school, but must be named and addressed vigorously.
· Bilking an heiress out of $5 million without telling her husband is abusive. The court found TBS/GGWO guilty of “clerical fraud” and mandated the return of the money.

The leader of any organization sets a tone, by word and by action, which dictates how people will be treated. We should heed the examples carefully.
Jack

[Isabella (207.7.206.115)]

Repost in response to Jack's repost:
Thanks, Jack. I am still concerned about possibly false accuasations of child-sexual abuse inside GGWO/TBS. In the 10 years, that I spent there, I never saw anything like that and I wondered if this might be a resurgence of false claims in order to incite anger and hatred. I still don't claim to know that this horror actually happens, but as I read your last post, I can see that if it is real, I would never have known about it. This bunch is so very good at covering their abuse, even the people being abused don't seem to know about it. I didn't until I read the CRI report. When I read that, I recognized the whole story. In that report, was the same thing we were experiencing in our 'branch ministry'. It was our story, but with different people, in another place. You are right. The leader sets the tone. This leader covers even the small infractions, so he is bound to cover the most wicked ones.

[Bob Brinton (151.203.163.79)]

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