A magician, a con man, a spirit medium.... will have more power over you with a single hit, than without. What I mean by a 'hit' is, if they convince you of something or amaze you just once intially, they can use that to hold a power over you for quite some time.
If a spirit medium was to point at you and say the name of the person you were hoping to 'talk to' on the other side, it would likely overwhelm you. Tarot card readers will describe your exact personality and thinking process. A magician could walk up to you and ask you to think of a card and before you tell him 'ok' he shows you the card you were thinking of.... all amazing.
The spirit medium pays people to check the facebook details, newspaper records and previous encounters with their attendees. Some ask that you write letters to your loved ones or a note with who you want to contact and leave it on the way in. Some hunt the local obituaries, some have live feeds into ear pieces (caught out by skeptics) with researchers frantically throwing information about them from the internet or their seat allocation/credit card payment details. Then some spirit medium use cold reading, they use probability and skill. They look at someone, their age, their clothing, the locality, they look at who they are with and make assumptions that lead to comments that are more questions than statements and the atendee hears what they want to hear.
Tarrot card readers and alike, use 'Barnham' statements (he is famous for 'one born every minute' quote) where you say something, but really nothing. it is generic nonsense but we interpret it as personal to us, such as 'You can be the life and soul of a party if you choose, but you can also be introverted and distant." or "You often leave discussions wishing you had said something, sometimes you can dwell on it for some time." or "you have a big decision to make, its either a relationship or financial..." etc etc
Magic is magic, it is always the simplest explanation, but we are at a disadvantage...WE WANT TO BELIEVE. We don't want to know how it is done, but we do.... So the magician that knew your card, he simply went up to enough people, randomly choosing a card until he got...a hit. What seems impossible happens before your eyes and it is very powerful. the explination however, is very mundane, obvious and...human.
The reason I am babbling on?...... Jason Beghe. A Hollywood actor that was recognisable in the 80's and 90's. He has a fantastic video on youtube that is a must see. It is him talking out his confusion, like a man who just got shown a card he had silently chosen in his head by a magician. Only the trick Jason was duped into believing lasted years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Jason Beghe was swallowed deep into scientology. The video is a discussion following him leaving the 'religion' after over a decade in it. He entered scientology a single man, but when he left it, his wife was a member and his kids brought up in scientology schools. How can you fall so deep for what we know to be fake?
I strongly suggest you watch it, for it is very similair to the the thought process following leaving the WT society. But what made it interesting for me was how he kept wrestling with the idea that scientology was true..... it was visibly confusing him. He even said that maybe scientology was true but maybe the current leaders were just misled or not adhering to the doctrines or.... then you see Jason falling back into reality as he realises he is duping himself right there in front of the camera..... like a man who just heard himself say "maybe magic is true!"
He eventually talks it all over and his reason for the concrete foundation in the religion comes out .....it was all based on one incident. One thing! One HIT!
His first meeting with the scientologists was, as it normally is, a stress test. They sat him down, and they gave him his "biggest hit" .....they made him hold an e-meter (same technology as a lie detector) and used it to tell him what he was stressed about in his life, as lie detectors actually test stress responses. What they told him about himself amazed him. They said he saw the world differently, he could read people, he knew he was different but didnt' know in what way..... all things that all people think, and he saw it as a very personal hit after hit.
He then signed up for a $150,000.00 course which promised to make him a super human. The lie detector machine i.e. e-meter was measuring evil alien activity inside of him and the courses would help him force the aliens out. I kid you not, this is their snake oil. Every year he spent, every dollar he spent, he wanted it to be more true....he needed it to be....... when he had doubts they either bashed it out of him, scared the doubts out of him as they also disfelloswhip/shun or he pondered on what it had cost to come this far and carried on....
Does this all sound as familiar to you as it did me?
The point is..... the power of the first hit, sometimes the only hit. Scientology use a parlour trick to get you in, then your own investment and ego to keep you there. Who wants to admit to themselves that they were duped?
So what was Watchtower's hit?...... They have one and one only. In the 1930's they revised their old literature and promoted one date prediction of all others. Russell had given many dates and many predictions.... only in the 30's looking back at the significance of World War 1 and tne year 1914 could they make use of this poor excuse for a 'hit'. Like good shisters, they removed from history that the prediction was based on the length of a corridor in the great Giza pyramid of 1914 inches ( pastor russell being a pagan pyramidologist) and they attempted to hide all the many other predictions made for all the many years around 1914, assigning various fulfillments to 1916-1932 and beyond, all after the fact. It was bullcrap, we could all write ten dates down and say something will happen then 15 years after say well the actual prediction was wrong but we got the year right.....
But amazingly it worked.... it STILL works! You can battle a JW on every issue from the bible to science and with a smirk on their face they will end the long discussion with ........the one and only hit.....predicting 1914. the power od one hit when someone WANTS to believe, is staggering!
BUT......Just as with a magician, seeing the trick revealed will bum you out.....but it also stops you being duped into believing in magic. Likewise education, information, critical appraisal and having the power to ask questions will protect you from being duped. What a coincidence....all things that you are not independantlypermitted to pursue as a Jehovah's Witness. Why? there is no sensible answer.... just as there is no sensible answer for that cloth over the magicians hat....
This is why science, information, knowledge, education is important, this is why knowledge is power.... this is why Watchtower fear 'independant thinking' and just as the magician knows full well why you are not allowed to see behind the curtain, Watchtower know full well why they can't let their members see old literature or forums like this or scholars, scientists or historianss that prove them wrong. The difference is, the magician wants to entertain, the Watchtower want to control, want your time and energy and they want your money..... they may promise tame tigers in return, but if Las Vegas has taught us anything..... :)
snare x