Sile, In any religious group, political group,or social group there can often be negative experiences.A group of people together are always going to have dynamics , power plays , people who are in, people who are out, people who have more or less money or respect than others. Its the nature of the human animal. ( One of my own personal assessments of group dynamics, with any group is to iden
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Sile, Yes the basketball study was interesting;apparently if you want to learn a physical skill, practicing in your mind can be helpful.Equally some studies have shown that setting long term goals helps people achieve them. yet inmo,people sometimes take these basic facts and move on to "I can control the world with my thoughts" a whole different kettle of fish.. Have never yet
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

It sounds a good idea ;please start the thread.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Its funny how different a story can be depending upon your perspective. Even with the story about the nits..If the parents are truly bringing in children they know have nits into someones' salon that is indeed reprehensible. (And strange; over the counter treatment is cheap and much less embarrassing..)It also seems possible that the parents do not know the kids have nits. Nits can pass ar
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thanks Stoic.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

When did I reference Censur?????In what context?
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Walter 123, I am well aware of how techniques can be used to manipulate a crowd or group of people. In fact I'm not sure if it is on this thread, but I have linked to one of Derren Browns' youtube clips where he demonstrates making everyone in a mall lift their arms up at the same time. And they all just "wanted to do it.." completely unaware that they were being manipulated.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Corboy, I think your compassion for parents of special needs children is obvious. However, you may be unaware that in the U.S., more that 1300 children have been compensated by the Vaccine Injury Compensation program for brain damage caused by vaccines. This is an ardous and in some cases five year or more process involving lawyers and medical testimony.And these people all won.How many others
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi. On a purely practical level, I gather that there are major questions to be asked about the apparent ease with which organs are being obtained in China.The waiting lists for organs in China, are apparently remarkably low for a country that does not have a high level of social acceptance for body part donations. The chinese form of execution, with a bullet, does not I believe normally leave m
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Stoic, i think you are right that everyone gets to make their own choices, but i for one believe in hope.And Joes' family seem to also, or they would not have continued communicating with their son in what seemed to me to be a very painful way ,over a public internet board, with various people, some who were no doubt complete strangers, making criticisms and comments. In actual fact, most p
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Rrmoderator; i am not sure. if you are correct and nothing has changed then you could well be right.It does appear that DaveJC is now managing the JC website without help for whatever reason. And it does appear that at least the website of the Kenya site where the JCs were, is describing a change. Also, the group has in the past kicked members out or had members leave. There also app
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

re the pm system; generally it can help if you explain clearly to someone that you do not wish to receive pms from them. ( But golden rule; if you don't want them pm ing you, also remember you should not pm them!) after that if someone continues to pm you, then they are choosing to harass you. if you can, just ignore pms after that and delete them unread. if that gets too frustrating, th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Sir Laughs a Lot; nope, wrong yazzi, though it would have been nice growing up and patting a pet deer.. I grew up in a high demand religious group...probably pretty different life experiences from your Yazzi. Private Eyes and i did have a misunderstanding, but it is all ok now. What you are saying makes sense though; you feel that they are all listed on the passenger manifest by the wro
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

hi Sir laughs a lot; you may be right, which would be a sad ending for the families, though at least knowing what has happened would I am sure be a comfort.Did find this comment on a news article written in 2009; don't know if it is relevant or not. is the physical description of the missing Simon Kaldwell as being 6 foot accurate? it seems to have been written by someone else also cal
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Apollo, it is possible per a tech friend to reroute IP addresses through different countries. But it really isn't relevant to the thread. The topic is not guessing who anonymous people are. Falling leaves, it can be very confusing leaving a group that you have given a great deal too, and dedicated a large portion of your life to. It can take a lot of time to sort out what can often be
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi falling leaves, yes that is fine; :) can well understand and respect peoples' need for privacy and it is good to know everyone is ok. if you have not had much to do with the forums, you might also want to check out www.jcs.xjcs.org. Hope all goes well for you ,yasmin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Falling leaves , you can send pms when the moderator stops automatically moderating your posts, normally in about ten posts or so. Who you pm and who you trust with personal information is completely up to you. As an Ex JC, you have probably been reading this forum for a long time, so you probably know why Blackhat felt a warning not to trust people with your personal information might be u
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Zeuszor, I think that many people who have left different groups feel very strongly about being told what to think. I can understand that. Of course the reality is, the space between your ears is yours alone; even in situations of extreme cruelty where people may be forced conform( thinking for example prisoners of war in torture type situations) no one can actually take away your right to thin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Malcolm, not sure who "y" is, but this Y appreciates it! :) Like you, I miss Agurs posts also. Thanks for your response earlier Zeuszor. We all make mistakes. it is part of being human.It takes strength to acknowledge it. It seems that the majority of the issue in discrepancies about events that Zeuszor is worried about, occured in 1973. To be honest, if memories of anyone fr
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Zeuszor, just read your reply re the fact that you sent it to many people, but you felt they would keep it confidential. Thank you for clarifying that. Your comment seems to suggest that a potential for identity theft was something you considered. Out of interest though, was any type of confidential agreement signed by any of these people that you chose to trust? Was any kind of background che
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Actually, I was just ignoring this one, because I thought a reply would distract from the thread, and Mr Ross and Agur both put it so well, ...but if you truly value my input Zeuszor , (cough?) i did send you a lot of suggestions in a pm a while ago. Re some more suggestions for helping with this group though; In general, I would suggest that making the forum a safe place for ex members to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi Agur, welcome. One of the nice things about this forum is that Mr Ross fully supports everyones right to be anonymous. By the way, neither Zeuszor nor I are ex members; in fact the only known ex member who currently posts here is Malcolm. all the best ,Yasmin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Zeuszor????Huh? You just wrote it. Direct quote from Zeuszor "the ex members need to understand that they are an important part of JC history SO WE ARE NOT GOING TO WRITE THEM OUT OF IT DESPITE THEIR COMPLAINTS OF COLLATERAL DAMAGE" You just said that you will continue to ignore the fact that they have complained that you have caused them collateral damage. "We will continue.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quote Zeuszor "The ex members do need to understand that they were an important part of JC history,so we're not going to write them out of it because of their complaints of "collateral damage" I think the reason for the decision of ex members not to cooperate with you probably lies in the above statement Zeuszor. People rarely do choose to cooperate with those who state th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Zeuszor, that last comment kinda sounded like an "off topic" personal attack... Interesting about the cult movie being made though.Would love to read the script.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Hi LLg, i know that John Knapp runs affordable/sliding scale interent cult recovery groups from time to time. He is an ex tm governer, a licensed counselor/social worker and runs the TM free blog. you cna check him out there. He is very good at helping people work through their issues, and has helped a lot of people. Also, Joe Szimhart, a well known exit counselor does telephone consulting.
Forum: Recovery from Destructive Cults and Groups

Hi Guru Swami G, Thank you for coming here to post. A problem in many religious groups where the leader has absolute power or is considered to be divine in some fashion whether realized/enlightened ( Hindu)or as an apostle of God (Christian); is that there are no checks and balances put on the way the leader interacts with the student. In many of these groups, gurus or leaders get to yell, cri
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I very much agree with Corboy that free play is wonderful and potentially protective from cults. Couldn't help but notice though Solea1 that you said you worked with behaviourally challenged kids.You might not be aware that many of the symptoms you listed ( not able to play,meltdowns, no sense of social boundaries, ie repeatedly requesting for treats..) would be very typical of many kids wi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Nice and appropriate biblical quote, Zeuszor. And I liked your arabic proverb, Stoic. Have you heard the sea faring version? "Pray to God, but row towards the shore". Also wanted to correct some possible misinformation from earlier. Thanks Blackhat for pointing out that Dave and Cherry are likely living in a camper van now, and may have been for some time. Still IMHO a better idea t
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

In my opinion,it is deeply worrying to hear Ross ( apparently in his 60's?) talking of perhaps going out into the cold without food, and possibly having health problems because of it. This kind of experience obviously favors the young and healthy. I'm assuming that Dave McKay ( who has in the past on this thread been mentioned as living in an apartment with his wife, not in a bus, ) i
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"