How I healed the psychological injuries from my abuse in a cult

by Dogpatch 5 Replies latest jw friends

  • Dogpatch
    Dogpatch

    How I healed the psychological injuries from my abuse in a cult
    By Lawrence Wollersheim

    I am the Co-founder of www.factnet.org the oldest and largest internet
    source of free information on cults and mind control. I am also the
    winner of an 8.7 million dollar lawsuit against Scientology --- that
    Scientology was forced to pay!

    I have waited far to long to write and share this short statement of how
    I was healed of the greatest part of the damage the cult of Scientology
    did to me through their use of mind control.

    To put things in perspective the psychological damage caused by
    Scientology is generally considered the worst and longest lasting of all
    cults. And, I did not just heal back up to where I was before I was
    abused by Scientology, the simple process below actually transformed my
    pain and loss into amazing strengths and character qualities that I
    could have never attained had I not done all 5 steps below.

    If you are a cult abuse victim, the simple list below can be used as a
    checklist to see what might be missing from your healing program. Most
    of the information below is also equally applicable to all other forms
    of abuse and victimization.

    Step 1: Learn what happened to you by reading the accounts of other
    similar victims.

    Step 1a: If you are a victim of cult abuse, thoroughly learn about the
    psychological dynamics of how mind control works. This way you will be
    able to see more certainly and clearly how you were systematically
    deceived and victimized by a technology in the hands of the unscrupulous
    cult leaders or their middle management manipulated manipulators.

    Step 2: Get therapy from a specialist in the area of abuse that you have
    suffered. Keep getting enough therapy until you are far more functional
    and the cult created irrational thought loops and induced phobias are no
    longer controlling the way you think about or see the world. (Therapy
    will go far faster and easier if you really don?t skimp on step 1 above.)

    Step 3: Get real angry and sue your abuser. Anger over injustice is
    appropriate and useful if used as a temporary motivational scaffolding.
    More importantly when you sue the abuser you reverse the psychological
    victim/oppressor dynamics radically.

    You are now the society sanctioned legal oppressor and they are the
    appropriate and legitimate victim of the social justice process. I
    cannot over-emphasize how much it will help your healing when you sue
    the oppressor even if you do not win!

    When you see your oppressor on the stand in the court as a mere and
    often pathetic mortal with no magical or special spiritual powers, it
    does wonders to break more of the cult induce mindset out of you and
    restore to you once again your own power. Suing your oppressor also does
    much to teach others about their abuses through the pubic exposure you
    bring to them in the disinfecting light of the courts. Finally, suing
    them for legitimate abuse increases their costs for wrongdoing and
    begins to make them consider avoiding such wrongdoing which would cause
    more similar suits in the future.

    Because it is not my practice to answer individual questions, shortly I
    will be publishing at www.factnet.org and emailing out to the various
    cult support organizations exactly what I believe were the most
    important things that I learned on exactly how to win a civil lawsuit
    against a cult (particularly Scientology) so you will also have the
    benefit of this hard won successful lawsuit experience when you sue your
    abuser and continue deepening your healing.

    Step 4: If you were in a religious cult and the religious abuse and
    spiritual betrayal has taken you away form your spiritual journey and
    spiritual quest it is absolutely critical to re-begin your spiritual
    journey and your inner more meaningful life again. Deep spiritual
    betrayal is among the hardest of the betrayals to overcome, but when you
    do you will heal faster and deeper than on any other step of the process.

    Step 5: Educate others on the cult and their abuses. I co-founded
    FACTNet to do just that. Now there are many ways to help you do this on
    and off the internet.

    That is it! Do these five steps with a passion and your will become
    stronger and better and healthier than you have ever been. Your
    experience will become so transformative it will border on transcendental.

    I wish you the absolute best on your healing journey to wholeness and to
    your new abilities and strengths.

    Sincerely,

    Lawrence Wollersheim

    PS. Please pass this simple ?how to heal? email or web page to everyone
    you know who you think could be benefited by this simple power formula
    for the healing of cult abuse

    ---

    This article is webbed at http://www.factnet.org/How_I_healed.html

    ---

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  • HadEnuf
    HadEnuf

    Very interesting stuff Dogpatch. But it is very difficult to find a therapist trained to help people who were in a cult in our small town. Also...I believe it is almost impossible to sue the WT for abuse. Most of us don't have the monetary means to do that.

    I've actually done a few of the steps you mentioned. But it is still going to be very difficult healing after over 4 decades as a JW.

    I'm happy that you found "answers" for yourself.

    Cathy L.

  • Scully
    Scully
    Suing your oppressor also does
    much to teach others about their abuses through the pubic exposure you
    bring to them in the disinfecting light of the courts.

    An otherwise excellent article falls victim to the lack of proofreading.

  • doodle-v
    doodle-v

    lmao Scully....

  • LyinEyes
    LyinEyes
    Deep spiritual
    betrayal is among the hardest of the betrayals to overcome

    This is what I had the most trouble with .

    I still mourn losing my religion,,,,,even thou it was a lie, it still hurts. It is hard to let go of the dream of what the JW's promised us. Life everlasting with our families, being even closer to God, never fearing death again.

    I now in time, I may have a new belief system, maybe even some form of "religion", but I don't see it any time soon.

    I do try to take things one step at a time, day to day,,,,,,,but there is that void that I am trying so hard to fill when things get crazy in life as they do. Learning to cope with real life, loss, etc. was so easy when you could just put real emotions off by saying,,,,,,,, " I will deal with this later", "wait on Jehovah", and thinking that death really never touched us because we KNEW for a fact that our loved ones would be resurrected.

    Well, I can say the positive thing that came out of that is that I don't take forgranted each day with my family, but the fear of facing loss in the non JW way is very spooky to me.

  • GetBusyLiving
    GetBusyLiving

    Scully.. bwahahahahah...

    GBL

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