Because our minds interpret what others say — they do not have direct access — it almost always comes across as a distortion, particularly if the participants have differing views of a subject. I think I am almost astonished at how wide that divergence is. Investigating the idea rather than the person is what keeps one on track, though at times that is rather difficult to do. I think it may depend on how much attachment a person has to a particular idea being 'right'. It is often difficult to tell if a person has deliberately misrepresented an idea or just does not understand it, or refuses to understand it.
I seem to be in a conversation with jr-esq about good and evil, and while I have a sense of those terms, I find it difficult to think of them as real categories. I categorise experience as pleasant and unpleasant, safe or dangerous in relation to my own well being and those of others, not as good and evil or right and wrong which seem to me to be more a function of geography and cultural upbringing than any sort of reality. While it is easy to find fault with the TMO, the underlying issues seems to be related to the way people differ in how they regard the relationship of thought to reality. There are experiences and experience and there are words about those experiences, the words are not the experiences, but often seem to be mistaken for them. And most words we use are abstractions, combinations of words related to each other and not to an original experience or fact. The words, their meanings to us, and their relationships with each other become a separate, private reality disconnected from any wider connexion with the world. Cult thinking is just this disconnect become a fixed habit in regard to certain specific ideas related to a particular group of people. If it is just a particular individual that is trapped in this sort of private verbal world, then you might call it an obsession the person has. From a logical viewpoint though, whether a person is obsessed or in the grip of groupthink, each idea can stand independently of how you regard the person who stated them personally. What do you think is the most significant distortion you have come across on Fairfield Life? ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <steve.sundur@...> wrote : Thanks for your advice Jason. I'm sorry if you don't care for the content of my posts. And again, you have a knack for proving the points I am trying to make. I get it that individuals here find fault in the TM Organization. I find plenty of faults myself. But for those who have made a career of it, try to stay on course with the criticisms, instead of distorting what others say. Do you really think I am under the impression that my input is going to change any minds? I am just a participant like anyone else here. In my case, if I see something that looks like a distortion, I will oftentimes speak up. Just as you are doing now, with me. (-: ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <jason_green2@...> wrote : Relax Steve. None of the discussions here can actualy change reality. If you have disagreements, attack the idea and not the person. For some strange reason you have been complaining about his behaviour for the past one year. I think Judy's posts were giving you guys a "high" for years. You are addicted to it. Now that Judy and the mean girls are gone, you feel you are missing something? Withdrawal symptoms. Steve, all things pass, all things must end. Get used to it and put yourself into a new groove. Or post more at 'the peak'. --- <steve.sundur@...> wrote : Barry, you are far too modest. Let your hair down a little and declare to the world the great service you provide as "Cult Slayer". Never mind you must distort most opposing points of view to make your point. I would say a more accurate term for what you do are is, "Reaction Vampire" From: "'Rick Archer' rick@..." <FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com> I let Richard back in because he said people were talking about him and he wanted to respond. Has he run amok? Batgap Yahoo group has never been of much importance to me. --- <turquoiseb@...> wrote : The same is obviously true about Fairfield Life, Rick. You don't give a shit. You clearly haven't even bothered to *read* anything that Richard has posted. If you had, you would know what he posts, and why he posts -- to attack me. He's still doing the same things he was doing to Curtis, and that you dumped him for. Same with both Feste and Steve -- I challenge *either* of them to point us to a post they have made in the last six months that was NOT attacking me or Michael. Neither of them have *anything* to say unless it's attacking me. Therefore one can make a case that I do them a service -- if it weren't for me, both of them would be mistaken for rocks. :-)
