THATlittleREDflag:


Welcome to the discussion.

Our decision to deny what was in front of our face--for the sake of our 'greater purpose'--not only contributed to our blindness, but was the reason we ended up so far down the rabbit hole.

This forum is here to help restore our vision and to lead us back out into the light of day.

Welcome that little red flag, I love your post. Like you I bought all the lies as truth and ignored all the things that told me this was wrong. I watched people I loved stop coming and wondered why. It was an accumulation of many things including the treatment of a friend that set off a storm that ended up being a bright light flashing in my eyes until I could not ignore it any longer. In retrospect I realize that for me it was my tendency to always look for the good and the sweet and want to make everything all better that caused my delay in seeing the truth. My naivity in believing that this can not be happening and that I would never be deceived into being in the cult others told me this was my blindness. I live that we all have each other and that together we can face our pain and perhaps help our healing as individuals and a group

kBoy:

"Our decision to deny what was in front of our face--for the sake of our 'greater purpose'"?

The "denial" your refer to is common in highly controlled authoritarian groups. It's commonly understood within the context of cognitive dissonance, which is the process that resolves the conflict between the "red flag" we see and what the leader and group demand we conclude.

See [www.simplypsychology.org]

Please take the time to read and digest the research on cognitive dissonance, gaslighting, thought reform, coercive persuasion and influence techniques.

See [www.culteducation.com]

This is Robert Cialdini's 6 principles of "Influence" from his seminal book on the subject.

"Little red flags" are often obviated in authoritarian controlling groups by the leader's dominance and control of the environment. It's difficult within that context to get accurate feedback and validation concerning suspicions and doubts.

You allude to a philosophy of the "ends justify the means" to dismiss concerns about the leader's dictates/actions and related group behavior. That is, supposedly for "the sake of a greater purpose."

This thinking reflects the effects of thought reform and group manipulation as identified in the previously linked research.

Welcome little red flag:

Thanks for taking the time to comment and add your observations to the thread.

Welcome, little red flag.

"My heart aches for what we have been through, but I am amazed and proud of how clearly each of you have written your experiences and are able to walk one another through life after the walk.

Nicely put!

Someone else who ignored an obvious warning. I don't feel so bad now.

[www.youtube.com]

I heard that something similar occurred when John first submitted his feelings for Marilyn to God in the Sky. This is unconfirmed, so please don't run with it.

Does anyone else remember The Jesus Movement that was around in the early 70s? I was still in a denominational church at the time as a young teenager and was in high school. I learned about being filled with the Spirit around that time. Ironically, a friend of my parents who attended the same denominational church laid hands on me to "receive the Holy Spirit" but nothing happened. He encouraged me to come to his "other church," which I did, and the rest is history. (He's still in the Walk after all these years.)

Coincidentally, some of my high school friends had also started going to the same church. No one coerced me to go. I went willingly because I wanted to be with my friends and loved that I was part of something that God was doing in the earth. I made a lot of decisions from 1970 until 1983 when I left the Walk that still affect me today. Why did I need to finish college or put money away for retirement when the Kingdom was coming? I had a new Kingdom family that was more important than my own family. My parents are gone now, but I am still filled with the same sorrow and pain they must have felt when I never came home for Christmas and kept them at a distance.

Yes, I was strongly influenced by the culture of the Walk and its leaders. Bro. Stevens even checked my husband and me out for marriage. (He definitely got it wrong.) I spent years in therapy and learned that ultimately I am responsible for my life and the decisions I have made, whether good or bad. I also learned that being able to leave the Walk required great strength of character.

The Walk was a place unto itself and although it was a cult, the experience was unique to its members. Let's be good to each other on this Forum. There is so much room for compassion and understanding.

I have to admit that there were years in my cult life where I came to the point where I got really good at ignoring those red flags. Looking back on it now, they were so blatantly obvious. But I ignored them. I was definately under their control. Fortunately the leadship couldn’t hold their control very well and the red flags came back. Nice & strong.

Euphoria of it all:

This happened to me early on while just getting into the Walk, 1970 - 1973:

While walking on the beach in the Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park in Kauai, Hawaii with a group of ‘Walkies’ headed by the commissioned pastor for that island (D.P.), a teenaged girl not in the Walk came up to us selling puka shell necklaces. While making her pitch she was moving and dipping from side to side. After the encounter was over the group was talking amongst themselves saying, “Her spirit couldn’t handle our authority, evidenced by her moving about.”

To say it puffed us up would be an understatement. We were living in the awe described in the Book of Acts. Signs and wonders were being found in all things. No doubt the euphoria played an important part in cementing our devotion. (Some strange things happened at Chico summer camp also: an active spiritual vortex with past reports of fish falling from the sky, limbs falling from trees on quiet nights, and flying demons making screeching noises in fear of the people of God at the camp)

I feel I was a victim of my own naivete, being only 20 years old, inexperienced, sheltered, having no exposure to Charismatic Christianity, impressionable, and extremely gullible. Somehow, I (we) thought we were getting outside confirmation from every corner of the Universe that the Walk was the ultimate and final end-time move of God to release creation from futility. The excitement was overwhelming because the spirit realm was making a physical intrusion into the world to make things right. The burning words written in Romans Chapter Eight were truly being fulfilled in our generation ---- who could resist such ‘solid’ evidence????