By Ox Drover
My own personal opinion is that most humans, as a species, have a component that comprises “spirituality.” Evidence from some of the earlier cultures of our species when our ancestors were still living in caves indicate that these people had some idea that there were unseen gods or spirits in the heavens or in their worlds.
I think for many of us our spirituality is also part of our healing path and helps us to set a moral compass to follow in our actions and thoughts. Most of the sacred writings of several belief systems I have read all indicate that kindness to others, charity, and doing good to your fellow man is primary to following that belief. Though history and ancient evidence also indicate that some belief systems at least in the ancient past induced their followers to sacrifice their children by burning them before the altar of the idol, or offering blood sacrifices of captured enemies to the deity, those seem to be in the minority of belief systems.
Unfortunately, today there are many psychopaths who take advantage of what I believe is human nature to believe in something “higher than yourself” and to seek some one or some way to “contact” that “higher power.”
Tony Alamo presented himself as one of these “prophets of god” starting, along with his wife, Susan, preaching to the downtrodden in California, but eventually recruiting these people who fell under their spell, to work for them in profit making enterprises.
Alamo and his wife Susan came to Arkansas where they made the local news when after a losing bout with cancer, Susan’s body was kept above ground for months, with Alamo claiming that he was going to raise her from the dead. Even after he failed in the task of raising Susan from the dead, those disciples under his emotional and spiritual control did not desert him en mass.
Alamo’s many illegal antics attracted the ire of the IRS and he was convicted of tax fraud and spent about four years of a six-year sentence in federal prison. Though there was a great deal of information coming from those who had left Alamo’s discipleship that his “church” was sanctioning polygamy and underage sex with young women and girls as young as nine, Alamo, subsequently managed to stay un-indicted for these alleged crimes until recently when he was arrested while fleeing from authorities.
The judge ruled that he would not be allowed bail and six minors were removed into foster care from his compound and from his followers. Alamo was The Barely Legal Empire of Tony Alamo by Maria Luisa Tucker, May 13, 2008.
I am relieved that this man is finally behind bars, apparently forever.
Dear Twice and Blue,
Yes, they do “prey” on those that have little “hope” and victimize them. fortunately, not all charitable groups, religious or otherwise, are this way. Unfortunately as well, many “churches” have become more social organizations than organizations for improvement of society and caring. There are others who genuinely try to follow the lead with social WORKS like the Salvation Army, and the churches that do outreach and food pantry etc.
The psychopath can find victims among the downcast and pretend to do “good works” but actually use that pretense as a “love bomb” to trauma bond them then BINGO! They are hooked and the abuse begins. It seems in many of these groups the leading males end up with pologomy and/or pedophilia and POWER and CONTROL. Alamo seems a PERFECT EXAMPLE OF THIS to me.
It’s a scary thing when you think about it, how people can be duped in LARGE GROUPS. Look what Hitler did to an entire country! Chairman Mao? Staliln? Saadam? A combination of fear and cunning. Scary.
OxDrover: EXCELLENT post!!!!
I have studied a lot on this subject of [how these people] are able to do this to others…especially the Hitlers. And the P males we marry are mini Hitlers.
Whoa…………the heart of my post was deleted. It’s not on there. In the cyberzone. Dang…….will write it again later.
Dear Twice,
There is a cyber-psychopath here once in a while that EATS posts—not often but sometimes—LOL
I saw a documentary a while back about a cult (sorry can’t name it) but I think it was THS investigates program, anyway the cult leaderhad many wives and one of them had recently given birth to a baby boy. This “leader” was able to convince his group that Jesus would provide for this baby boy. His mother was only allowed to breast feed him, and as he grew olde, of course, he needed solid food. His mother gave into his crys and tried to give him a little water and was severly beaten but several members of the cult. The baby died of starvation at seven months. It absolutly breaks my heart to think that these sadistic monsters can gain so much controll that even non P’s can be forced into cruelty; even cruelty toward those that they most love and are the most dependant on them. What a double joy for the monster to watch the baby suffer and the mothers absolute degradation and dispair. I am very cautious of the very religious. REligions do not have to be as extreme as cults to gain a good bit of control over their followers. Our desire to be loved and accepted make us all easy targets. Don’t get me wrong I believe in a benifiscent higher powe; God if you will, but like I said I remain cautious. And as for William Blake, when writing about the “Tiger, tiger burning bright, in the forest of the night” asked “Did He who made the lamb make thee?”
Sorry. I got confused. Someone posted somthing by William Blake on the Micheal Vick thread. I was responding to that. I got it right with the cult thing though. Thanks for being here, all of you.
I’m a little confused by Kim’s post above. I’m not disputing
the documentary about the cult. But the breastfeeding?
No child has ever starved to death on breast milk. Breast Milk is designed by nature as the perfect food for human babies and a mother’s breasts will produce milk based on her child’s demand for it. Something else contributed to this child’s death. Its very likely the mother was controlled as to when and how she could feed the child, rather than allowing the child to feed as needed/on demand, then THAT would certainly contribute to malnourishment.
My own daughter had nothing but breast milk for almost nine months, and she was enormously healthy and quite fat as well. They did something horrible to that woman and to her child, but it wasn’t limiting intake to breast milk only, they had to have intervened in some twisted, manipulative, and controlling way like controlling when or how often, or possibly malnourishing the mother at the same time, compromising her milk in some way. We should be careful here to be supportive of each other, but we should also be careful of perpetuating inaccurate or manipulated information and perceptions.
Getting to the truth, and getting past the manipulated
information of the S, ALL erroneous and manipulated
information for that matter, is part of
healing from the experience of the S.
Speaking of which, how in the world did the devotees of
a very dangerous sociopath find their way to this site in order to post those bizarre messages I read above?
My heart
breaks for them that they cannot see how they’ve been so
brainwashed that they would become the mouthpeice of the very evil they seek refuge from in their ‘religion’
The propaganda of the sociopath is spread by the people who’ve fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.
They do the sociopath’s work for him.
Making the point
again, how vital it is for each of us to look for the truth.
Only when we’ve exposed the lies, the manipulations, the
pretenses and facades, only then do we begin to free our
mind from the grip of it, and so begin to heal.
Jen1011, you may certainly be right. I’m sorry I couldn’t be more clear about who what and when but I’m sure the information can be researched. I posted what I understood to be true and I certainly did not mean to perpetrate any BS. I did not consider it to be erroneous or manipulitive. I didn’t mean to knock breast feeding. Maybe you missed the point. Hope you have a wonderful day. PS maybe I will try to research this information for myself and pass it on.
May I interupt here, first off Jennifer, I am a BIG advocate of BREAST FEEDING, however, there are occasional times when the mother’s milk is infufficent in either/or quality or quantaty, and a baby can starve to death under those circumstances.
To Kim, I say, that anytime a person or erven an institution states that THEY (singly or collectively) are the ONLY avenue to reach God (by whatever name that god is called) there are problems.
For as long as history has been recorded one religion would battle another, or one sect of a relilgion and burn the others at the stake because they didn’t believe as “they should have”
Millions of people have died in the name of Christ, put to death or persecuted by others of the “same” faith. HUH? The believe my way or die attitude has been on this earth a long time now. fortunately in some parts of the world this is changing, but we should never take it for granted….it could change at any moment. Tony alamo is a perfect example of these cult leaders who is a “false prophet” and his cult is based on HIS “relevations” not upon anything else.
Cults don’t just have to be about religion and faith in a god, but can be political or philisophical—communist or socialist or any number of others, including “democracy” can be twisted so the leaders take control. Hitler, stalin, Mao, Alexander the Great, and back to the first human who picked up a stone for a weapon.
Some people in any cult are actually sincere believers, but the psychopathic leaders who “write the rules” turn them into dupes to do some pretty evil things in the name of “god.”
It saddens me, as it seems it does you, that these people then become psychopaths-by-proxy to hurt others. Trauma bonded to the rule maker. (((hugs)))) and God bless us all.