Gaslighting
The preachers, politicians, and other salesmen do not profit by making their congregations, constituents, and customers comfortable in their own skins.
In fact, the least suggestion that YOU can see, hear, think, and do anything without them threatens their very existence.
And so “the faithful” must be kept in a perpetual state of ignorance, diffidence, confusion, and anxiety…
They must be trained to distrust their own eyes, ears, thoughts, and feelings…
… trained to feel shame for any doubt of the scriptures, traditions, myths, prophets, and patriarchs.
… trained to esteem self-denial and acceptance of one’s lot in life.
… trained to embrace and parrot opinions that they have merely heard, not formed.
… trained to believe that they cannot possibly know right from wrong without the tutelage and sanction of “the authorities”.
… trained to fear, and even demonize non-believers.
… trained to believe that belief in unbelievable things makes them special, not stupid.
Such brainwashing instills a “faith” so deep that even the most unassailable logic, even the most definitive evidence, even all the love in the world cannot penetrate its armor.
Existentialism Humanism Religion agnosticism anti-theism atheism blasphemy Christianity existentialism gaslighting heresy humanism Islam love secularism
Advertisements
Frank J Peter View All →
A uniquely burdened and blessed citizen of the world thinking and acting out loud!
So true Frank. Anyone who has been part of the church scene can attest to that. I know from my own experience that when I questioned how the church was doing things, the pastor assigned an elder to talk to me to “straighten me out.” They didn’t say those words, but that’s exactly what was happening. I was questioning their authority and they wouldn’t allow it. They wanted me to fall back in line and be a good little soldier, Not only did the church try to “fix” me, but the pastor couldn’t even do it himself. I guess he didn’t want to get his hands dirty. But it was clear that only the church’s ideas were the correct ones and for me to think differently was wrong.
Nice post as usual.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thanks, Ben. BTW, your honest and courageous example has been instrumental in inspiring me to share all the above. For this I am eternally grateful.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Frank. We all have our stories to tell. I am glad you have shared yours with all of us. I am equally inspired.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those are nice thoughts Frank, but please, go easy on that eternal stuff. GROG
LikeLiked by 1 person
LOL! Thanks for the good humor, GROG!
LikeLiked by 1 person
So true about the parroting. After (or during childhood) indoctrination the submission to authority supplants any individual thought. After leaving the church it is hard to imagine I could’ve said or thought the things I repeated. After belief was gone, I could see quite clearly I had been hijacked.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Yep. I feel embarrassed for falling for the scam, complicit in perpetuating it, and therefore feel the deep need to perform a serious act of contrition. Thanks, brother.
LikeLiked by 4 people
Brainwashing to a tee….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, all part of the standard playbook. : (
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know what you wrote is often true and that’s how it often goes down with fundamentalists. But my final years in church (2000 to 2012) were not like that. Had they been, I would have departed sooner than I did. In fact, I cannot honestly say that the years prior to 2000 involved brainwashing (mind control requires lack of cooperation. most comply willingly) or the trained things you mentioned.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Bill, you make an excellent point… if I understand you… namely that the blame cannot be totally and automatically placed on the brainwashers. The “brainwashed” themselves are often willing co-conspirators. I have dozens of future posts that will explore this very point. Thanks, man.
LikeLiked by 3 people
People make choices and join or leave churches every day. We were not ‘brainwashed’…I walked away after I stopped believing. But I was not involved with fundamentalism of any kind. I can only speak for myself.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Understood, Bill. Thanks for sharing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The brainwashing is obvious. How is the scam of resurrection explained? How do you get people to believe that a ghost exists? Magical mushrooms? When I consider the Joseph Smith story, I see that it happened. People loose the power of reason and get scammed into believing that people immigrated to the Americas 600 years before Christ. It is all such an obvious scam. The lucky ones are those to whom the scam is so obvious that we can laugh at the gullibility of humankind. GROG
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep. And a reason why I am a proponent of teaching the basic findings of Psych101 starting in preschool, if not sooner… with particular emphasis on building self-awareness of our many inherent cognitive biases. Thanks, GROG.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi grogalot. I don’t get the connection between the scam of religion/faith and the notion of the first inhabitants in the Americas arriving “600 years before Christ”. I think anthropologists usually speculate that the first inhabitants migrated to the Americas from Northern Siberia soon after the last ice age. That is not “an obvious scam”, it is a theory backed by (the present state of) scientific evidence.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Frank. What I’m trying to say is that religion is a scam, and I wonder how people can “believe” in such things, but when I consider the scam of Mormonism I realize that is not all that difficult to get people to believe the unbelievable. The Mormons have their Book of Mormon which tells of people from Jerusalem coming to the Americas in 600 BC. GROG
LikeLiked by 1 person
A scam indeed… and Mormonism is a recent/current existence proof of just how easily such a scam cam be perpetrated. Thanks for sharing, man.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hello Mr. Parker, looks like we have two Franks here and both engineers. I don’t know if you are into this religion thing, but for we few here, it is a real thing. I hope you are having a good day. GROG
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am and have been trying to raise awareness on gaslighting for so long; I published what I believe is the first memoir on narcissistic Abuse, and it has not been easy, since my story is far from over. It is draining, and basically had to redo my whole blog again since my “narcissistic psychopath,” is prone to cyber stalking and sabotaging anything that threaten to reveals what lies beneath the mask. But, it’s nice to know I am not the only one. There need to be more of us!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for checking in, C.M. I salute you for being more than a survivor. It sounds like YOU are the one who has the power. I wish you all the best in your efforts to confront this insidious evil and to share your experience with those still trapped in its grip. Thanks and peace.
LikeLike