In-Sight Publishing

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/07/30

To me it seems that those sciences are vain and full of error which are not born of experience, mother of all certainty, first-hand experience which in its origins, or means, or end has passed through one of the five senses. And if we doubt the certainty of everything which passes through the senses, how much more ought we to doubt things contrary to these senses — ribelli ad essi sensi — such as the existence of God or of the soul or similar things over which there is always dispute and contention. And in fact it happens that whenever reason is wanting men to cry out against one another, which does not happen with certainties. For this reason we shall say that where the cry of controversy is heard, there is no true science, because the truth has one single end and when this is published, argument is destroyed for ever. — Leonardo Da Vinci

I have found no confession of faith to which I could ally myself without reservation. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Near the end of life)

Faith: not wanting to know what the truth is. — Friedrich Nietzsche

I had no need of that hypothesis. — Pierre-Simon Laplace

“Do you believe in a god?” “No.” Atty. Connolly then asked the court what God he meant, whereupon Judge Hayden replied, God Almighty. Here Sidis said that the kind of a God that he did not believe in was the “big boss of the Christians,” adding that he believed in something that is in a way apart from a human being. — About William James Sidis with the negation, the “No,” coming from Sidis

Theology is the study of God, in particular, or of the divine, in general. The most prominent discipline fractionation of theology is Christian theology. A common notion within the Christian faith throughout its sects comes in the assertion of the Virgin Birth of Christ. In fact, this gets taken as a proof of the divinity of Christ, of Yeshua, as the Son of God or God made flesh.

The idea comes from Christian theology with the Son of Man, Son of God, emergent as a source of both divinity and full humanity. As in Christian Humanism, Christ is the onlyfully human human being.

By mainstream Christian standards, Christian Humanism, certainly, comes as a surprise to many secular people, and many religious people, if they know about it. Most will not know about it. In fact, if people know about anything, they know about Christianity first, Humanism second, and Christian Humanism third.

A Christianity of “civilization,” of “human nature,” of “kindness,” of humanitas; in this sense, a self-understanding of oneself and others would be a source of paideia or (deep) education. A self-understanding of oneself and others through the personhood, the identity, of Christ, the anointed one, or through the flesh-made God identity of existence itself, or Jesus Christ as identified with the ground of being itself.

Any formulation of a Christian Humanism would bias an understanding of Humanism or bind it within the confines of Christian narrative, or metanarrative rather, where this would restrict conceptualizations by a limit of possible options and constraining that which could be considered virtuous to the tales of one era, one person, one tribe.

We are becoming human, while Christ was fully human. In this manner, we come to existence as Christ-like, in degrees, with the aim of a Christian life to become like Christor as Christ without ever reaching the apex of humanity, Christ as the Son of God.

God creates human beings in this Christian Humanism incompletely human, commands them to be fully human, while inherently, by the laws of existence or God’s Law, coming to life with the inability to become fully human. A form of inveterate, in perpetuity, cruelty.

These theological issues or concerns grounded in theology stand tall, firm, fixed, and proud in the mantle of the study of God with the premise as the assumption of a god and then working from second principles to define such an entity. A being as a person, as eternal, omnipresent, a creator, as omnipotent, omniscient, self-existent (aseitous), and a sustainer with simple assertions of this as the fact of the matter, so working from second ‘principles,’ not first.

Theological concerns while not modern issues, though contemporary through inertia of historical processes of intellectual stagnation motioning towards the present due to the repetition of one male parrot to another male parrot, sluggishly burdening advancements around them, as if the divine enforcers of the Archangel of Boredom.

Theology, as the study of God, the Logos itself, or the divine Cogito, appears in so many formulations as to boggle the mind. Similarly, one finds this in the principled and detached-reality thought surrounding the Resurrection of Christ.

A God-man who died on a cross, or the Cross, for the Sins of Mankind who brought forth the Kingdom of God to the earthly dimensions of Man for a forgiveness of Sins forever and always for whoever shall submit themselves to the sacrificial witness of God Himself.

Flesh cages, prisons, of meat, bone, blood, brain, and skin, confining the reality of God written on the hearts of men and experienced in the soul of every human being. These forms of language tap into the orientation of the minds beholden to ancient mythology.

Capitalizations for effect. Signifiers repeated for impact. Strings of ungrounded concepts for both further effect and impact, or for pseudo-profundity. All this within the remit of significant portions of the global population, including the wealthy and powerful leaders around the world over many eras. One can recall the Divine Right of Kings so as to further entrench this political tool.

Every turn of phrase and punch of word triggering deeply unconscious, powerful and sincere emotions, sensitivities, within god-based sensibilities. That which is hoped for and remains unseen. The virgin birth of Jesus and the resurrection of Christ are significant theological issues in Christianity.

As with Nietzsche, and more powerfully, they have been written and read in blood. Not only this, and beyond the good and evil of Nietzsche’s “good” and “evil,” as in a trans-transvaluation of values, simply as a factual matter in other words, they have lead to blood, in the tonnage. Even there, it may be an inadequate descriptor, as such.

It’s a blood faith, a bloody religion, build on the sacrifice of a human being akin to animal sacrifices of old, while, within the framework of the theology, considered both a sacrifice of half of a god and half of a man in one being, while, at the same time, the sacrifice of God as a whole as a particular rather than a general point of existence with a specific worldline, such is the arithmetic of godhood.

Although, Nietzsche, had some piercing and negative commentary, succinct, on the looking at reproduction as sinful, as an act, at life as a works-project for an afterlife, and the valuation of death over life, or a death-oriented religion, as Cornel West notes, “Learning how to die,” a devout Christian himself in the prophetic and anti-Constantinian strain.

Most biblical historians, secular and religious, appear to take in the idea of Christ, Ben Yosef, as a real figure, charismatic, intelligent, and revolutionary, while disagreeing on supernatural powers, healing abilities, ability to prophesy, and divinity as in an incarnate form or flesh-form of the God of the Bible or the God of Abraham (and Isaac).

In the more modern comprehension of the world, the supernatural properties, the magic tricks with import and impact on individual health. Science or modern empiricism comes to the tentative conclusion of a natural world of objects and subjects, not a supernatural world of object and subjects, and then supernaturalistic, transcendental subjects acting in a supernormal manner on the natural subjects and objects.

Leaving the claims of magic to the side, in the dust, on the side of the highway, even in the ICU on life support, awaiting the grim reaper to come and take them kindly as the gate continues to close asymptotically, the world of nature is the world of the natural, while the world of the natural appears the world of the possible and impossible as the probabilistic and improbabilistic.

Laws of the universe set boundaries on the world, as such, as in the sphere of that which exists. The claim of the supernatural in regards to the workings of the world remain possible while forever unverified and, therefore, not infinitely but gargantuan-sized finite levels of the improbable if not the outright meaningless. Echoes of “colorless green ideas” in this hall of ancients.

By this natural deduction, we come to the idea of the claims of faith as not truly faith-based claims, where the discourse foundational to and on the nature of faith itself becomes a hall of mirrors reflecting a single aperture of the False. A mirage-like effect covering that which exists right outside if one would brave the cold.

Verity! Too bright for too many centuries, one might assume. Faith requires no evidence, while claims exist about reality and, therefore, pertain to that which exists, and so become something of the evident or about the empirical.

Because the ideas about the real contain implicit information or structural knowledge about the rules and contents of the real, so as to constrain the claims. It’s not that faith exists, but that faith exists only to the Empty Set Mind, of which no minds exist and no mind coincides (or all minds are co-extensive in a meaningless sense, or both).

Faith-based, or religious communities, amount more to minimalist evidence communities, properly defined and understood, instead of the long-term and common — several generations and eras — wrong definition of that belief held without evidence.

Religious beliefs, including the Christian and the Christian humanist, worldviews belong to a properly denominated category of minimalist belief structures in terms of informational content. Hence, they amount to low-information, or low-evidence, low-fidelity viewpoints, which becomes a common qualifying metric of the ignorant, not idiotic as many of the brightest lights belonged to the earthly armies of God Almighty while failing mightily, and sets the stage for the insane or the nonsensical, as in no sense or minimal sensory information taken into account.

In turn, this better explains the Christian psychology, as based on a logic of irrationality. One devised and designed within the framework of minimal information connected to the properly defined real, as opposed to the unreal, given by the scientific method.

Its antithesis in the unreal does not become maximal information, as information implies that which pertains to content, of which the unreal does not have, and of which the Christian worldview deals by the barrels and the Christian humanist perspective dishes out merely by buckets.

Theology, as well, its bases in the unreal, as in that which defines the real by the properly deemed unreal, statistically so, equates to a grounding in the idea of the opposition to reality, or unreality equates to reality in theological terms because of the claimed super-natural, truly the extranatural, as in not necessary, as equitable with the natural. However, it’s “extra-.” It is not needed; it adds nothing (or little).

Theology as an inversion of the way to know the world, as the study of God; the discipline of theology, as the study of the unreal claimed as the real, becomes a field of minimalist evidence belief structures or the metaphysics of (mostly) nothing claimed as everything, Q.E.D. In turn, theology fails; or, theology adds nothing, while claims to deliver everything and, in some cases, to deliver us, in turn.

It’s not that no god existed in the corners to be discovered in reality or a god existed and retreated, or was here once and then disappeared; it’s that the gods, as such, aren’t here, as they never left, because they were never here.

Magical thinking has been one term set to encapsulate the idea of religious ideologies and beliefs as the fundamental basis of human irrationality exhibited in religious ideologies, or dogmatic ones perceived in the state-based worships based on low-information or minimalist evidence belief structures.

Minimalist evidence communities asserting minimalist evidence worldviews as the highest valued, most virtuous, views with the maximal evidence perspective only inhered in the very presence of God Himself, as the entity of omniscience or perfect knowledge (and potentially foreknowledge) in which that which exists, the self-evident and the evident, is contained perfectly and only in the mind of God.

The mind of God as that which one will want to worship, or the worship of the maximal, through the minimalist evidence philosophy. That which one strives against, individually, evidence, for a minimal evidence worldview, is the opposite of that which one wants to worship, that which inheres with property omniscience or the maximal mind in terms of the evident and the self-evident, or God Himself, a strange counter-union. Perhaps, opposites attract; lovers by repulsion.

Individuals worship God on the basis of “faith,” as defined by an absence of evidence, more accurately means minimalist evidence propositions or premises, as in looking to the reduction of constraints of evidence to the lowest reasonable levels in which the gap may be perceived for the, rather massive, “leap of faith.”

Even “reasonable faith,” it means a mostly minimalist evidence worldview, while utterly within some of the arguments, in which arguments constrained little by the evidence become proposed, even the most popular arguments hinging on contingency with the idea of the unmoved mover, first principle, prime mover, final form or first form, the non-contingent, or the aseitous or the being with property aseity.

If contingent things exist, then a non-contingent thing exists; contingent things exist; therefore, a non-contingent thing exists, as every contingent thing depends on other contingent things until one comes to the non-contingent. To some, the greatest discovery ever or the most important argument in a theological arsenal in defense of the divine.

This poverty of intellect and wealth in effort for generation after generation; this empty flappers ball comprised of interlocutors looking at a nicely dressed suit on display and talking to it as if there’s a man present, when, in fact, there’s no there there, i.e., simply the nice exterior suit on display with nary the man in it to be seen.

It’s not using supernaturalism, except at the endpoint by definition and not by fact, but, rather, logic deduced from minimalist evidence because the world appears constructed in such a manner as to contain a series of contingent spatiotemporal events with some called objects and others deemed subjects. Each and every one with particular worldlines through reality.

Each running back to some eventuation of the start of everything, where the “start of everything” is God or “the unmoved mover, first principle, prime mover, final form or first form, the non-contingent, or the aseitous or the being with property aseity.” Not a helpfulargument, however, it takes the facts of reality first, as a tip of the proverbial hat, without helping explain them that much.

One can run the course with these in terms of the “faith” arguments, the “reasonable faith” arguments, and the like; the presentation seems evidently clear as not “faith” formulations of arguments, but, instead, the arguments by minimalist evidence, i.e., theology. What are the smallest possible pieces of evidence presentable for the arguments towards or for, while not in closure of explanation of, the theity?

By minimalist evidence philosophy, this means the constructs informing mind, including words for no things, or imagery expanded to come to define a nothing, require some minimal evidence or sensory-based impressions for the thought, where thought is motion without motion and comes equipped with some informational content to come to claims even faith-premised ones in which faith, by this derivation, become minimalist evidence arguments and not no evidence arguments.

The Theity of Abraham and Isaac, of Noah and Methuselah, of Mary and Joseph, of the New Testament and the Old Testament, or the God of maximal comprehension of the evidence of existence. It’s one of the strange connections of the believers, the leaders, and the hypothesis of the divine.

Both former basing their worldviews on the arguments from minimalist evidence or low-information perspectives for worship of the maximally knowledgeable, the omniscient, or that with maximally evidenced comprehension.

A divergent self-negation in the form of bringing information for oneself to the lowest while worship of a hypothetical being claimed as having information to the highest. Something that one worships collectively and individually, while striving against an evidential framework individually to the utmost.

Perhaps, this could be seen as one of the sin-states as striving to be like God is sinful, so working to having the Empty Set Mind as one’s own vacuous mind becomes the highest ideal in the worship of the Totality of Knowledge and Foreknowledge called “God.”

The unreal, the low information views, faith arguments, the reasonable faith arguments, the minimalist evidenced worldviews, these remain all of a piece. All of a tapestry teleo-tropically— with teleo-tropism — oriented towards the fixedness of the god(s) concept, or, more properly, oriented towards the cultural, era, and people group, orbits and rotations of the god(s) concept.

The god(s) idea is differentiated in such a large finite as if to seem infinite because the god(s) idea is a poorly defined idea. Some concept more or less defining human lack in particular capacities made infinite, claimed as fundamental rather than derivative in some transcendental being, and divinizing human needs in this psychologically anthropomorphic entity (or entities), a thirst never quenched, except in the objectification of the self through an inversion of human limitations converted into the external where the lacks and needs are objectified, personified as external, and made omni-infinite (“eternal, omnipresent, a creator, as omnipotent, omniscient, self-existent (aseitous), and a sustainer”).

It is human psychology inverted and then externalized, and then claimed as the base of existence. An apparent objective argument for divine attributes as some abstract God is an anthropomorphic entity, too, in the aforementioned manner of inversion-externalization made the ‘ground of being’ or some such item. Similarly, claims of a virgin birth reflect the minimal evidence worldviews mentioned above. The Resurrection of Christ within the same mode of thinking.

In that, both stand as the highest claimed evidence for the divinity of Christ, as foundational to the Christian worldview, in fact ethic, while violating known processes in biology with reproduction, in physics with thermodynamics, in biology with cessation of physiological processes leading inextricably to the physical, as the boundary between life and non-life or the physiological and the physical is only them, i.e., the physiological lead to the physical or set the boundary between the living and the dead, the biological and the material.

The lowest forms of reasoning raised as the highest, and given the aura of the holy or the divine to reduce proper scrutiny and clarity on the empty claims asserted as the basis for entire philosophical systems to make for those who strive against evidence in matters deemed of first-rate importance as bases for the existence of the omniscient, i.e., theology as a means by which the sentient strive, diligently so, for the a-scient while worshipping the omni-scient. The lowest deemed the highest, the real seen as the unreal, unreality claim as reality, this is the legacy and telos of theology.

Its final destination of the abode of Thanatos, of itself; the teleology of theology is death, always has been: Theology is a form of self-thanatology played to the tune of history, as the words of the Word are claimed as the “Spirit who gives life” and, in fact, once more invert the real as truly the unreal, because the ‘Spirit,’ as Jesus, as YHWH, as the Word, brings death unto itself, eventually.

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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

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© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/07/29

There were some interesting and thoughtful responses to “Cases of Abuse and Cults – William Branham.” Based on the feedback, some of the article has been updated on May 27, 2020. Other factors will be covered here. Future pieces will cover the Casting Pearls Project of Jennifer Hamilton and the William Branham Historical Research of John Collins in more depth in individual pieces with the interviews provided by the two of them with me, as well as building networks for women to acquire help and how to identify abuse in a church setting. Altogether, these can provide a sufficient resource for individual members of The Message.

You can find many other writings on the formerly or the non-religious at Canadian Atheist with insightful and thoughtful content from Derek Gray, Diane Bruce, Ian Bushfield, Indi or Mark A. Gibbs, Heidi Loney, or Shawn the Humanist, or external voices brought in to build an internationalist sensibility or more varied national sense of the freethought community with the “Ask” series, whether Melissa Story, Reverend Gretta Vosper, Autumn Reinhardt-Simpson, Professor Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, and Joyce Arthurfrom Canada, Takudzwa Mazwienduna, Alton Mungani, and Shingai Rukwata Ndorofrom Zimbabwe, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Herb Silverman, Mandisa Thomas, Faye Girsh, Terry Waslow, Dr. David L. Orenstein/Dave Orenstein/David Orenstein, Rob Boston, Kim Newton, M.Litt., Shirley Rivera, Minister Amanda Poppei, and Justin Scott from the United States of America, Omar Shakir (in Jordan) on Israel and Palestine, Mubarak Balaand Dr. Leo Igwe from Nigeria, Jani Schoeman, Rick Raubenheimer, and Wynand Meijerfrom South Africa, Nsajigwa I Mwasokwa (Nsajigwa Nsa’sam) from Tanzania, and Kwabena “Michael” Osei-Assibey from Ghana.

Other great Canadian content, as noted in “And now, a word from our sponsors…,” can be seen in orbiting critical voices, including Eiynah or Eiynah Mohammed-Smith of “Polite Conversations” and Nice Mangoes (Facebook and Twitter), Laurence A. Moran of Sandwalk, the Brainstorm Podcast (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), Left at the Valley (Facebook and Twitter), Ashlyn Noble Gem Newman, Ian James, Lauren Bailey, and Laura Creek Newman at Life, the Universe & Everything Else (Facebook), Cristina “JUNO and Platinum award winning music publicist” Roach, Adam “fighting evil by moonlight” Gardner, Darren “crash from Krypton” McKee, and “the engine that keeps TRC going” Producer Pat of The Reality Check (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram), and Bad Science Watch (Facebook and Twitter), British Columbia Humanist Association (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and MeetUp), and more.

The series of articles on William Branham emerge in the context of letters sent to me (from believers – even a deacon and a police chaplain). I took the liberty of parsing some of the contents and contexts into some digestable segmentations for the purposes of critical examination in a wider series of considerations of The Message theology of the late William Branham while connecting these concerns with responses provided by modern reason, rights, and science considerations. These will separate into Positive Life Experiences, Eyewitness Accounts, Opinions of Others, Women’s Rights, and Science. The coverage will proceed in that ordering.

Positive Life Experiences

One of the themes in the letters sent as a reaction to “Cases of Abuse and Cults – William Branham” was the sense of a life or a period after conversion of perpetual or mostly positive experiences within The Message churches and, therefore, reflective of the moral rightness of Branham and the correctness/inerrancy of both the Bible and the verbal delivery of Branham. This is a claim and, in a sense, a tight argument, which is good. Its framework seems relatively well-defined and made as a subjective claim appearing as if objective as to the transcendental truths of Branham and the Bible. One of the simpler ideas can come in the form of fantasy ideas accepted as fantasy by most adults in a North American sociocultural context while handed to children as a truism in the figure of Santa Claus in a full white beard, diabetes-inducing belly, rosy cheeks, pale North Pole face, red hat and suit edged by fuzzy white poofs and a big black belt. All equipped with flying reindeer (wings not necessary), a sleigh, and an infinitely bottomed present sac with the Christmas gifts made by the loyal elves of the North Pole factories. One hopes they get a living wage.

A fantasy idea in the lives of many North American children with associations of family, parents, maybe siblings, presents, candy, and more. All for a young child’s fantasy surprise. However, as we know, Santa Claus, if claimed as real, and if believed, can lead to an individual holding false beliefs and harbouring false knowledge about the world while having mostly positive experiences as a result. Even though, these bring positive experiences to the lives of the child. In no way does this substantiate the claim, thus, on the basic claim of a positive life experience under the theology of Branham, this fails to support the strength of the claim. Otherwise, one would have the ability to claim the same about the Santa Claus in a fantasy example as opposed to a non-fantasy example in the case of William Branham. This amounts to an argument against positive experiences leading to truth claims about a worldview rather than truth claims about the positive experience. To the positive experiences expressed by members of The Message community to me, I believe the claims wholeheartedly; however, I cannot extend the truth of positive experiences for some select individual members of the community into the illegitimate extrapolation to truth claims about the Bible or The Message from the late William Branham.

Eyewitness Accounts

On eyewitness accounts of the individuals within The Message, this can be a trickier or murkier subject matter for members within The Message diaspora around the world or under the banner of a common theology of Branham’s interpretation of the Bible because science can be seen as something of the devil and science of eyewitness testimony, i.e., the psychological science of individual observation, advanced to a sufficient point to make eyewitness claims extremely uncertain at best, unreliable at a minimum. In that, Drs. Daniel M. Bernstein/Daniel Bernstein, Cristina Atance, Geoffrey R. Loftus, Andrew Meltzoff, and generations of others have been influenced in the cognitive sciences by the pioneering and sociopolitically consequential work of Professor Elizabeth Loftus at the University of California, Irvine on research into eyewitness testimony. Professor Elizabeth Loftus showed a lot of ways in which eyewitness testimony can be (and is) unreliable because human beings cannot process information in an adequate manner. We evolved; thus, we’re good enough for some ancestral environment for the passing of genes into the next generation, not to maximize intelligence, fidelity and comprehensiveness of memory.

Any examination of the list of cognitive biases can provide an insight into the evolved biases in human thought. Quite naturally, any evolved trait will have subsequent limits to provide some new capacity – can do some things and not other things. In this new capacity, we come to the functionality for some tasks. If cognitive tasks, then this becomes a limitation in cognition as a result, which leads to all sorts of strange phenomena. With some research, you can see some of the fascinating work on Hindsight Bias by Dr. Daniel Bernstein/Dr. Daniel Bernstein at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, especially Auditory Hindsight Bias. More to the point, and based on the expert association statements on eyewitness testimony, it is unreliable. Any claims of miracles, of performances, of claimed historical events and the like, can be taken within the light of modern psychological science on eyewitness testimony.

Duly note, if the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and other books or sacred texts comprising the Bible or the biblical accounts rely on eyewitness testimony, and if this became the basis for theology, hermeneutics, biblical exegesis, or some base textual analysis of the purported eyewitness accounts or statements recorded in a script for future generations to read, then these would become empirical questions bound by the modern psychological science of eyewitness testimony. This fact (and argument) should be getting far more attention. It is a freethought view on the biblical accounts. Individuals like Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou have been in the public eye in a similar way, especially in Europe, as a prominent freethinker voice for Bible scholars. Because she is a Bible scholar who loves the text, in and of itself, while taking a rational and empirical approach to the claims within the Bible. Anyhow, more to the central point of eyewitness testimony and psychological science, the associations devoted to psychological science have been highly critical of the colloquial claims about eyewitness testimony, as noted in several statements by leading organizations or publications, even a bibliography is on board. Psychological Science states:

Memory doesn’t record our experiences like a video camera. It creates stories based on those experiences. The stories are sometimes uncannily accurate, sometimes completely fictional, and often a mixture of the two; and they can change to suit the situation. Eyewitness testimony is a potent form of evidence for convicting the accused, but it is subject to unconscious memory distortions and biases even among the most confident of witnesses. So memory can be remarkably accurate or remarkably inaccurate. Without objective evidence, the two are indistinguishable.

Scientific American states:

The uncritical acceptance of eyewitness accounts may stem from a popular misconception of how memory works. Many people believe that human memory works like a video recorder: the mind records events and then, on cue, plays back an exact replica of them. On the contrary, psychologists have found that memories are reconstructed rather than played back each time we recall them. The act of remembering, says eminent memory researcher and psychologist Elizabeth F. Loftus of the University of California, Irvine, is “more akin to putting puzzle pieces together than retrieving a video recording.” Even questioning by a lawyer can alter the witness’s testimony because fragments of the memory may unknowingly be combined with information provided by the questioner, leading to inaccurate recall.

American Psychological Association states:

Iowa State University experimental social psychologist Gary Wells, PhD, a member of a 1999 U.S. Department of Justice panel that published the first-ever national guidelines on gathering eyewitness testimony, says Loftus’s model suggests that crime investigators need to think about eyewitness evidence in the same way that they think about trace evidence.

“Like trace evidence, eyewitness evidence can be contaminated, lost, destroyed or otherwise made to produce results that can lead to an incorrect reconstruction of the crime,” he says. Investigators who employ a scientific model to collect, analyze and interpret eyewitness evidence may avoid incidents like Olson’s potentially flawed identification of the Fairbanks suspects, he notes.

In fact, Wells says that other evidence techniques, such as police lineups, are similar to scientific experiments. In lineups, the police have a hypothesis, they provide instructions, collect responses and interpret the results. As such, the same factors that can bias the results of an experiment can bias an eyewitness’s performance in picking suspects out of a lineup, he says.

Oxford Bibliographies states:

Eyewitness testimony is critically important to the justice system. Indeed, it is necessary in all criminal trials to reconstruct facts from past events, and eyewitnesses are commonly very important to this effort. Psychological scientists, however, have challenged many of the assumptions of the legal system and the general public regarding the accuracy of eyewitness accounts. Particularly dominant in the psychological science literature are the views that memory reports are malleable (i.e., changed by suggestive questioning), that witnesses can be made to be extremely confident in inaccurate memories, and that police lineups should follow a careful protocol in order to avoid high rates of mistaken identification. The principal methods used by psychological scientists for examining the accuracy of eyewitnesses involve creating events that unsuspecting people witness and then collecting their reports about what they saw. Because the events were created by the researchers, these reports can be scored for their accuracy and completeness. In this way, researchers can systematically manipulate various factors (such as stress, view, the use of misleading questions, the instructions given prior to a lineup) to determine what variables influence accuracy and completeness. This body of research has its programmatic origins in the mid- to late 1970s, but it received a large boost to its credibility in the 1990s, when forensic DNA testing began to uncover convictions of innocent people. Over 75 percent of these exonerations are cases involving mistaken eyewitness identification. The discovery of these mistaken identifications and resulting wrongful convictions has been a jarring event for the legal system and threatens public faith in the criminal justice system. Accordingly, eyewitness research today is having a larger impact on the legal system as the legal system recognizes that eyewitness errors are leading to faulty trial outcomes. 

With these statements, since the 1970s and due to the beginning (and ongoing) work of Professor Elizabeth Loftus, we will see, and continue to see, the erosion of the eyewitness as a high standard in courtrooms, in other legal settings, and in the psychological science, in particular cognitive science, literature. In short, the claim of William Branham as a mortal, though a Prophet, or a mortal and a fraud, make the same claim as an individual who lives, breathes, poops, pees, and yells at crowds about the blessings of Christ and of the heavenly rewards of the righteous. A man with oratory skills and a man of his time, who spoke in the manner of the culture, of his constituency, of the ordinary American fundamentalist believer. We cannot trust eyewitness accounts in the case of Branham or others purporting to witness other miracles as a rule of psychological science, modern cognitive science, with the basis in human beings as the metric, and humans stink at measurement; we’re unreliable, hence why eyewitness testimony is unreliable.

Opinions of Others 

There were some other points about the personal opinion or the opinion of others about Branham, even on a surface level. Individuals who have left The Message theology due to abuse realize the nature of an ordinary man proclaiming himself as God. Others who do not leave The Message theology can see the man as one of the time, of the era. Message believers in the churches throughout the world consider this man the last Prophet of God Almighty who shall bring forth righteous unto God (The Message believers).

However, if we examine the simple nature of individual beliefs inside of the structure of The Message, and outside of The Message, there are some important considerations about character analysis, as reflected through a prism of The Message believers and those without this belief structure. These, simply and fundamentally, come back down to the basis of opining or personal opinion giving in which individual opinions do not change the fact of the matter, whether prominent religious believers or not. Indeed, many Christians do not accept The Message of William Branham, which becomes an aspect of this entire endeavour.

As a small point, in my country of Canada, whether Cloverdale Bibleway, Edmonton Living Word Assembly, Grace And Truth Message Tabernacle, Bible Believer’s Fellowship, Manifested Word Fellowship, or the End Time Message Tabernacle, one can be certain of the high praise of Branham within those churches, fellowships, or tabernacles. Even with these opinions, they would not change the facts of the matter about a large number of things, including eyewitness testimony, positive life experiences, or the science (incoming). (This isn’t a larger claim here, but this is a smaller claim oriented around unified theology, differentiation in practice, and opinions as an insufficient basis for substantiation of theology, including all the various testimonies.)

Women’s Rights 

Women’s rights remain foundational to the entire endeavour to the secular movements around the world and the instantiation of a more just and equitable world around us. When the framing of human rights naturally incorporates women’s rights, as women are humans (as Margaret Atwood notes or strongly cautions against any separation), the developments for further equality in the modern world found themselves on human rights and humanitarian law rather than transcendental law espoused by particular religions. The former, human rights and humanitarian law, incorporates the freedom to believe for the secular and the religious on equal footing while the latter, transcendental law espoused by religions, permits the rights for the “righteous” (the right religion religious) and not for the non-religious.

Any secular advancement and equality for all religions will be developed through the international institutions developed since the end of the Second World War, as noted by individuals as luminous as Albert Einstein noted some of these ideas when speaking of a “supranational” authority. Something akin to this idea would involve an international set of institutions developed for the inclusion of every actor, minor or major, with rules for everyone, as created in the international human rights and humanitarian law frameworks guiding the international systems today. These are the rules of the game. When it comes to rights, women’s rights have a particular stature. I have been going through many of the relevant documents for rights today at The Good Men Project under the stellar leadership of Lisa Hickey, Lisa Blacker, and Wilhelm Cortez. You can find the stipulations or buttresses on many aspects of the international community devoted to women’s rights here:

Documents

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
• Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
• The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
• International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
• Some general declarations (not individual Declaration or set of them but announcement) included the UN Decade for Women (1976-1985).
• Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979) and the Optional Protocol (1999).
• Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
• The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and the optional protocol (1993).
• Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (1995), Five-year review of progress (2000), 10-year review in 2005, the 15-year review in 2010, and the 20-year review in 2015.
• United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), and the UN Security Council additional resolutions on women, peace and security: 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), and 2467 (2019).
• Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
• The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
• Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
• UN Women’s strategic plan, 2018–2021

Strategic Aims

• 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, emphasis on the entirety of the goals with a strong focus on Goal 5
• 2015 agenda with 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (169 targets for the end to poverty, combatting inequalities, and so on, by 2030). The SDGs were preceded by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from 2000 to 2015.
• The Spotlight Initiative as another important piece of work, as a joint venture between the European Union and the United Nations.

Celebratory Days

• February 6, International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation is observed.
• February 11, International Day of Women and Girls in Science is observed.
• June 19, Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict is observed.
• June 23, is International Widows’ Day is observed.
• October 11, International Day of the Girl Child is observed.
• October 15, International Day of Rural Women is observed.
• November 25, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is observed.

Guidelines and Campaigns

• Gender Inclusive Guidelines, Toolbox, & United Nations System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity.
• Say No, UNiTE, UNiTE to End Violence against Women, Orange the World: #HearMeToo (2018), and the 16 days of activism.

All these stipulate an ongoing and several decades-long formal (and longer informal) effort to provide some level of equality for women, naturally, with men. All of the stipulations cover either general or particular aspects of equality for women with men, whether by age so girls with boys or women with men, by war status so non-combatants murdered disproportionately by combatants and being mostly women and children, by economics and social status and so SES equality or parity with men based on different definitions, and so on. One member of The Message community stated Branham supported women’s rights in a number of ways. However, when I reviewed the idea of “rights” within The Message, it, in matter of fact, reflected the opposite of the rights stipulated in even the most basic documents or ideas celebrated in the events and days devoted to them. Take, for example, “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2),” as the listed document and parts of the foundational United Nations rights text, there are clear statements of universality, as follows:

Preamble

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world…

…human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people…

…human rights should be protected by the rule of law…

…Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom…

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms…

…Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples… to the end that every individual and every organ of society… shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction…

Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 25.

(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Each part above in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2), take seriously the idea of the equality of women with men in an environment in which women have not had equal access to opportunities, resources, leisure, or education and work, while this remains a continually improving facet of global culture and ethics. In Canadian society, we see a wide range of organizations taking different ideological stances while standing firm on the fundamentals of women’s equality including the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, CARE Canada, REAL Women of Canada, Canadian Women’s Foundation, Manitoba Political Equality League, Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter, Canadian Women’s Press Club, Vancouver Women’s Caucus, Local Council of Women of Halifax, Canadian Federation of University Women, the Almas Jiwani Foundation (formerly UN Women Canada), Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association, Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Fédération des femmes du Québec, National Council of Women of Canada, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association, Oxfam Canada, The MATCH International Women’s Fund, Nobel Women’s Initiative, Equal Voice, LEAF, Department for Women and Gender Equality, Royal Commission on the Status of Women, National Action Committee on the Status of Women, and Pauktuutit.

Yet, even with this external sense, whether national organizations or international rights documents, of women’s rights, the internal to The Message sense of rights become highly peculiar. For example, William Branham, the ‘Prophet’ himself, viewed women as “human garbage,” “the lowest of all animals that God put on the Earth,” “the very lowest creature on the Earth,” “filthy,” some women should be shot, women can’t drive, women should stay in the home, and that Satan or the devil made women, and more. Please see below for some remarks from the late Mr. William Marion Branham, the Founder of The Message:

• Excuse this, young ladies. She is nothing but a human garbage can, a sex exposal. That’s all she is, an immoral woman, is a human sexual garbage can, a pollution, where filthy, dirty, ornery, low-down filth is disposed by her. What is she made this way for? For deception. Every sin that ever was on the earth was caused by a woman.
• When, in God’s sight, the Word, she is the lowest of all animals that God put on the earth.
• This was my remark then, “They’re not worth a good clean bullet to kill them with it.” That’s right. And I hated women. That’s right. And I just have to watch every move now, to keep from still thinking the same thing.
• When I was a little, bitty, ol’ boy, up there, I’d see them women come up there on the road, and their… know their husband was out working, them up there with some guy, drunk; on the side of the road, and they’d walk them up and down the road, sober them up enough to get them home, cook their husband’s supper. I said they ain’t worth a clean bullet to go through them. That’s right. I said they’re lower than animals, would do a thing like that. And I… When I was seventeen, eighteen years old, I’d see a—a girl coming down the street, I’d cross over on the other side, I said, “That stinking viper.” See? And I would have been a real hater, but when I received God in my heart, God let me know that He’s got some jewels out there, He’s got some real ladies. They’ll not all defile themselves like that; thank God for that.
• Now, you can take some of these little two-by-fours if you want to, but that’s what God said. That’s what Christ said. Now, that’s the truth. Oh, God be merciful. What must the great Holy Spirit think when He comes before the Father? You say, “Why you picking on us women?” All right, men, here you are. Any man that’ll let his wife smoke cigarettes and wear them kind of clothes, shows what he’s made out of. He’s not very much of a man. That’s exactly right. True. He don’t love her or he’d take a board and blister her with it. You know that’s the truth. Now, I don’t say that to be smart. I’m telling you the truth. That’s right.
• Women, there was only one woman in the Bible that ever painted her face, and that was Jezebel. And God fed her to the dogs. So if you see a woman wearing that, you can say, “How do you do, Miss Dogmeat?” That’s exactly what God called her. He fed her to the dogs. Exactly right.
• You may question me about Satan being her designer, but that’s the Truth.
• That’s what they were doing in Sodom and Gomorrah. The natural use our bodies… The men become so plain to women today, there’s not even respect. They’ll hardly take off their hat, men will in front of women, and they have no respect for them at all. What did it? The women done it theirself. And you all talking about juvenile delinquency and things. I think it’s parent delinquency. Some of you let your girls go out and run around all night with a cigarette-smoking, cocktail-drinking party. Come in the next morning with her clothes half off her, old make-up all over her face and that, And you call the Kentucky mothers ignorant. Write her patch down with those Dogpatch, Lil’ Abner, and make fun of the Kentucky mothers. That’s some of my people up in there. Let one of them girls…?… it up there and, brother, I’ll tell you, she wouldn’t get out of bed for six months. She’d take a hickory limb and beat what clothes she had left on her off. And if you had something like that back in the church today, you’d have better. Amen. God give us the old time mothers. I’ve got two girls coming. I don’t know what they’ll be.
• And I’ve see them laying out on the beaches half naked before man stretching themselves out there, say they get a sun-tanning. Brother, I — I may not live. But if God lets me live and keep my right mind, if one of mine does it, she’ll get a son-tanning. It’ll be Mr. Branham’s son with a barrel slat behind her. She’ll be tanned all right. She’ll know where it come from too. Yes, sir. 
• And now, some of you talk about the illiteracy of the hillbillies up in Kentucky there. But how the old grandmas with their long bonnets and things on… You know what? They could teach some of you city people how to behave yourself. That’s right. Your little Martha Ann come in of a nighttime, and mess-up all over her face, and half drunk, and smoking a cigarette, and blowing it through her nose, and the stomp her foot, and scream at you. Let her do that to one of them old Kentucky mammys one time. She’d top a hickory, boy, or take something, or a barrel slat. When she got through, she’d know who was mammy around there. If you’d do that, you wouldn’t have so many wrong men, and boys and girls in the world tonight. Let one of them strip theirselves in some these old dirty clothes like you let your kids wear out here, little old shorts, and ever what they call them. And let them one time. Uh-huh. You would find out how illiterate they were. She’d beat her till she’d be so full of welts, you couldn’t get the clothes over the top of them. That’s what needs to be done tonight. That’s right.
• And we, not knowing it, turns right straight back to heathen worship again, to Women, the very lowest creature on the earth.
• Well, the other day some crazy woman driver drove right in front of me, come pretty near killing two of my children. I said, “Lady.” She said, “Now, you shut your mouth; I’m the one that’s driving.” And before I got back, twenty-six women driver’s almost caused us to be killed. We kept count of it. They made a mistake when they give her a driver’s license. They put her out here to voting. They put her out here to these public works. And during the time of the war, right in New York City, more illegitimate children was born in the city of New York, of prostitute women, and their husbands overseas, than there was soldiers killed in the four years of war.
• Notice, there is nothing designed to stoop so low, or be filthy, but a woman. A dog can’t do it, a hog can’t do it, a bird can’t do it. No animal is immoral, nor it can be, for it is not designed so it can be. A female hog can’t be immoral, a female dog can’t be immoral, a female bird can’t be immoral. A woman is the only thing can do it.
• I predicted that women would keep demoralizing and the nation would keep falling, and they’d keep hanging to mother, or like mother like that, till they become, a woman become an idol. And after a while, that America would be ruled by a woman. Mark it and see if it’s not right. A woman will take the place of a President or something, of great, some high power in America. When… I say this with respect, ladies. When a woman gets out of the kitchen, she’s out of her place. That’s right. That’s where she belongs. Outside of that, she has no place. And now, I’m not hard on them, but I just tell what’s the Truth and what the Bible. Used to be the man was the head of the house, but that was in Bible days. He isn’t no more. He’s the puppet, or he’s the—or the babysitter or something. And now… No, they want to take care of a dog, practice birth control, and pack a little old dog around in their arms all the time, so you can run around all night.
• Today, women is so brassy! Every… Their husband can’t even talk. They got to stick right out there, a cigarette in their hand, a pair of shorts on, doing all the talking. How a perverted race of people, she’s got to be chief cook and bottle washer, everything else! When she leaves the kitchen, she leaves her place of duty, right, as a mother. Now we find out, women then stayed back and behaved theirself, acted like ladies, their head was the one who did the decisions and things.

Please sit and reflect on the nature of the quotations and the ways in which the man compared to gentle Jesus meek and mild makes violent statements and extensive commentary one can deem as gender inegalitarianism external to The Message, while, to some who sent sincere letters to me, the espousal inside of The Message would deem these as gender equal statements.

Commonly, as in the Beijing Declaration or in the United Nations/World Health Organization, the main forms of violence against women taken into account are physical, sexual, and psychological (including emotional). In a minimal comparison, I would argue many of these statements would fall in the line with some of them. Even a glance at “lowest of all animals that God put on the earth” or as “human garbage” seems unequal to men to me, if we take this in a strictly Christian theological logic sense, this seems consistent as inequality. Unless, the men are the co-equal lowest of all animals that God put on the earth, which would be logically untenable as human beings, in Christian theology, stand above the rest of Creation as the pinnacle of God’s excellence as a crafter of mud/dirt and rib. If Mr. Branham harboured women’s rights defender status within The Message, then his stature would exist completely at odds with most or all meanings accepted as “women’s rights” outside of The Message established in an international context and taken as a consensus. Do women deserve living under such a theology proclaimed as building lives of equality of women with said assertions of “women’s rights” while in opposition to widely accepted standards at odds with the proclamations of the international community, or even with other denominations of Christianity with liberal theological leanings? The churches may function independently; although, if they didn’t function under The Message theology, then they would not exist as The Message churches.

There are a number of confirmed cases through reportage by the Casting Pearls Project. I would hope members and leaders in The Message would commend the bravery and the honesty of these women coming forward rather than shunning or denying them, i.e., churches in North America should praise the work of the Casting Pearls Project and give explicit positive coverage to it, whether in media, on church websites, in public statements, local news, or elsewhere. If not, then they’d merely confirm the tentative diagnosis of a destructive cult. I would hope to see that in church and ministry videos and writing in Canada and elsewhere in the future. Perhaps, you, individual believer, can encourage this in the relevant locale. I leave this section with the final word to women who reported stories in the Casting Pearls Project:

Anna-Lisa A. in “Turning Pain Into Power”:

If you are reading this and have questions or doubts about leaving this cult that has you bound, do NOT let those fears hinder you from accepting your truth. Ask questions. Research. Never stop finding your truth. You know what your truth is, and only you can make that first step. I won’t lie to you. It is very scary having the entire foundation of your belief/relationship with God crumble before your very eyes. But I promise you, if you just hold on to the truth that you deserve so much more, it WILL be worth it.

You are a queen, a survivor, a warrior. You possess strength that you haven’t even tapped into yet. I want you to know that in a sea of doubters, haters, and unfortunately, family and friends who will make you their enemy, I believe in you. Darling, just make that first step towards your truth, and watch your life become everything you have ever desired it to be. This is not the end.

This is your comeback.

Christine H. in “Breaking The Chains”:

I married at a very young age (barely 17). It was expected that we marry young and not risk making “mistakes” before marriage. I went from being in a very controlling home, to being married and becoming a submissive wife. I was always raised with the idea that a man was to have the say in the home and that my place was to make him happy (in my mind, at all costs). This wasn’t how my childhood home worked, but it was what I was taught. I already had “pleaser” type of personality. This came from trying to please everyone in hopes of them being proud of me, and the dire need to be good enough. Both sides of the family were very controlling; my family would try to control what I wore and what I did even as a married woman. I never dreamed my life would turn out the way it did. It wasn’t long before the stress of life grabbed our young home, and I found myself in an abusive marriage. After almost 11 years and two children, we ended in a divorce. I felt destroyed, knowing I was committing the forbidden sin. Once again, more hurt and abuse by people that were supposed to love me the most. The pain felt unbearable. Why was I so unlovable? Why could people physically and mentally hurt me, knowing they were causing me pain, but still say they loved me?

The spiral began. My family could only see that their daughter was now divorced and how that was going to look to everyone in the “Message”. I was told I had no rights, but no one wanted to know my story. 

Joyce A. Lefler in “From Miracle to Murder”:

Branham taught that women are Satan’s partners in bringing down the morality of all men. He preached sexual discrimination, belittling, and sexual objectification of women. He believed women were “nothing but a garbage can” and “dog meat.” Branham admonished men to beat their wives “with oak slats until their clothes and skin peeled off” for the transgression of sunbathing. Men had permission to divorce their wives if they cut their hair. Instead of being treated as a precious jewel and partner in life, a woman was to be treated as a slave – good for breeding and for maintaining a home but nothing else. Education was now of the devil, especially for a woman. I graduated salutatorian of my high school class, but my dream of becoming a physician was broken. I was forced to say NO to scholarships that would have allowed me to attend college and eventually support myself.

Dating led to sin, so very young girls and boys were told to marry. Wives were expected to shut up, obey their husbands, and have babies. They had no right to ask for more. I became engaged without going on a single date. Within two weeks of marriage, my “Message” husband humiliated, cursed, raped, and beat me. His behavior became a habit. I often had bruises on my face, arms, and legs. Even with the modest cover-up clothes I wore, the bruises were not easy to ignore. When I cried out for help to my “Message” parents and my “Message” pastor and church, they ignored the bruises, turned their backs on me, and advised me to obey my husband. I was told to stop being stubborn so he wouldn’t have to beat me. 

Science

On science, this becomes a slightly easier item to tackle in the queue because of the robust nature of the findings of modern science now. Fundamentalist communities all over the world have cosmogonies and philosophies of life. One from The Message appears to differ with the expert consensus of modern cosmology. One individual, in a letter, stated Branham supported science. I disagree for some reasons. If we take the fundamental view of the biological world given by evolution via natural selection, then evolution via natural selection is a given, whether for the biological sciences or the medical sciences.

Let’s conclude on a straightforward example, we have the presentation of a real historical Adam and Eve. No evidence for this theological hypothesis has ever come forward, insofar as I know, with wide acceptance amongst the individuals most qualified to make the assessment, i.e., the scientific communities with relevant training and academic background. Now, this extends into the doctrine entitled the Serpent Seed Doctrine. In the basic idea, Branham claimed the offspring of Cain, rather than Abel, resulted from intercourse between a snake/serpent and a human female, Eve. This is anti-scientific. Cain’s descendants known as “a big religious bunch of illegitimate bastard children.” This means a “serpent” claimed as the gap between chimpanzee and man. Chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and homo sapiens are cousins with a common ancestry, common descent, not human beings coming from chimpanzees. Even on this fundamental doctrine to The Message theology, the claims fail to stack up.

He misunderstood science. Branham made outrageous claims on basic principles of evolutionary theory, and science. He would assert infallible visions. However, in a matter of fact, this stance stands in precise opposition to the attitude, spirit, and process of science. An attitude of skepticism, a spirit of empiricism, and a process of hypothesizing, testing, tentative confirmation/failed confirmation, followed by more testing/re-hypothesizing, and repeat. Indeed, if science is of the devil (“Knowledge, science, Education, is the greatest hindrance that God ever had. It is of the devil,” “…knowledge and science, and Christianity, has no fellowship at all. One is of the devil, and the other one is of God,” or “Education, science and civilization, is of the devil. That’s right. It isn’t of God. It is of the devil.”), and if Mr. Branham supported science as per some supporters of him, then Mr. Branham, the man of God, in fact roundly supports that which he claims was of the devil. Is Mr. Branham supportive of God, in his theology, or of that process of science, which he deemed the work of the devil? He rejected foundations of science, claimed occasional infallible visions, and called science the work of the Devil. He was anti-science.

Oh, and I don’t much care or don’t take seriously claims of the supernatural for the photograph with the ‘halo,’ either, but that’s another story.

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Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/07/29

*Updated May 27, 2020.*

The Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal continues apace and reflects a common trend in churches around the world. There are many facets of this to consider, including cults and fringe religious movements or groups, as this happens in and out of the communities of worship and the cults while the communities of worship and the cults provide a formalized structure for this.

Individuals who may not hear about the abuse in the church can be as upstanding citizens, and as moral individuals within some universal conceptualization of morality, as possible; however, other facets remain important for consideration in the context of the abuse of individuals within the church, whether physical abuse or psychological abuse, or sexual abuse. As we can note with some church members, they may state, “But I never heard about it.” One reason is the abuse did not happen at all. Another is some have not seen it because of the high costs to the victim, the culture of denial, and the complicity of the community in protecting the prominent men. This has happened in religious and secular communities. However, we see this more in the religious communities with an assumed divine mandate in support of the higher authority endowed upon the men. It can create some questions around theology.

If trends exist in theology, and if outcomes exist in people coming out of the theology in several churches and around the world independently, then some scrutiny is deserved, rather than necessarily confirming as a diagnosis. However, there appear to be confirmed cases in some churches around the world regarding The Message theology. From Canada to the rest of the world with over 2,000,000 adherents to this day, people after the Western world collapsed due to a second world war wanted answers. Preachers came in to fill the void. The theology of the late purported Prophet William Branham (1909-1965) was one response. A man who arose in the midst of the post-WWII Healing Revival Movement with several prominent figures proclaiming, by themselves, ‘faith healer’ status within a movement continuing to this day with televangelism and the Charismatic movement. Anything in association with Branham should be taken with suspicion and scrutiny, especially with historical cases of abuse in churches, including Cloverdale, Phoenix, Colonia Dignidad, Zimbabwe, or the cult compound in Prescott (click name for hyperlink).

There can be a man considered near to or equal to Jesus Christ as a messenger of the Lord of Lords through The Message, i.e., the late Mr. William Branham providing theological – his own – buttresses for the abuse in the churches. To quote Mr. Branham, “Let her daughter stay out all night and come in the next morning with her make-up all over her face and her hair twisted sideways, out drunk somewhere. You know what she would do? She would teach her a lesson with a barrel slat. That’s right.” Another time, “And I’ve see them laying out on the beaches half naked before man stretching themselves out there, say they get a sun-tanning. Brother, I — I may not live. But if God lets me live and keep my right mind, if one of mine does it, she’ll get a son-tanning. It’ll be Mr. Branham’s son with a barrel slat behind her. She’ll be tanned all right. She’ll know where it come from too. Yes, sir.” In this, individual churches of The Message may operate independently. However, the main point is an overarching theology called The Message. In this theology, this may influence some of the men in the private of the home or church, where the victims, if in a particular home or church, stay quiet. The Casting Pearls Project, devoted to abuse survivors coming out of The Message, run by Jennifer Hamilton gathers stories and quotes. From the Casting Pearls Project, we have a statement from Careyann Z.:

My father came from an abusive family. Through becoming a “Message” minister and missionary, he found a purpose and a way to feel accepted. He believed his interpretation or revelation of the “Message” would lead the bride into the rapture. My mother came from a strict Roman Catholic family. When my parents met, my father told my mother, “God told me you’re my wife.” My mother said it felt like a supernatural presence overtook her when my father asked her to marry him which forced her to marry him against her will. A week and a half later, they were married. My father was a very good manipulator. There were numerous healings that took place in my father’s ministry, and some of the things he prophesied took place. I chalk those up to luck. There were also many things that did not come to pass. Fear of God’s wrath effectively controlled his entire family and drove us to do everything he wished. When we went against his wishes, he would prophesy to us, staring deeply into our eyes as his countenance changed and his entire body shook. My father treated my mother like an object, and she just took it faithfully, helping him in all his businesses like a good slave. Once when she was 9 months pregnant and nauseous, she was up on a ladder painting a house. When she climbed down due to the nausea, he yelled at her to get back up on the ladder and finish painting. Whenever she questioned him or he disagreed with something she did, my father would speak in tongues and prophesy against her saying, “This is God speaking,” or “God is going to strike you dead.”

Another from Christine H.:

I married at a very young age (barely 17). It was expected that we marry young and not risk making “mistakes” before marriage. I went from being in a very controlling home, to being married and becoming a submissive wife. I was always raised with the idea that a man was to have the say in the home and that my place was to make him happy (in my mind, at all costs). This wasn’t how my childhood home worked, but it was what I was taught. I already had “pleaser” type of personality. This came from trying to please everyone in hopes of them being proud of me, and the dire need to be good enough. Both sides of the family were very controlling; my family would try to control what I wore and what I did even as a married woman. I never dreamed my life would turn out the way it did. It wasn’t long before the stress of life grabbed our young home, and I found myself in an abusive marriage. After almost 11 years and two children, we ended in a divorce. I felt destroyed, knowing I was committing the forbidden sin. Once again, more hurt and abuse by people that were supposed to love me the most. The pain felt unbearable. Why was I so unlovable? Why could people physically and mentally hurt me, knowing they were causing me pain, but still say they loved me?

The spiral began. My family could only see that their daughter was now divorced and how that was going to look to everyone in the “Message”. I was told I had no rights, but no one wanted to know my story. 

Is the statement about barrel slats unquestioned? Why use this language and metaphor? If one can unquestioningly endorse statements of physical abuse with a barrel slat, then this raises questions about actions towards women following from it, as this man, within The Message, is considered a Prophet. At the same time, in The Message, women are considered of the devil. Branham is considered the Prophet of God. Who is a follower of The Message to question a Voice of God, especially a woman who is of the devil, anyhow? Either Branham was ordinary or not, whether ordinary made prophet of God to become extraordinary or ordinary and a liar about professed prophet status. Even with ignoring these claims about divinity or divine representation of He on High, there can be explicit statements, by the raised standards of today, of sexist statements by Branham, and behaviours within the churches.

Those statements belying particular attitudes with the views reflective of a general philosophy in regards to the roles of men and the roles of women within the “The Message” movement theology and the orientation of general subservience to men alongside a culture of silence. Do not take this from me, take this from an individual with extensive experience with former women members of “The Message,” Hamilton, who I conducted an interview with former member and author John Collins in an educational series where he invited Hamilton into the session, said abuse is normalized in the church. Therefore, this should qualify as a destructive cult.

For those with further interest in researching cults, I would strongly recommend the late Margaret Singer, and Rick Alan Ross, Steven Hassan, and Robert Jay Lifton. All four have been integral to helping hundreds of thousands of people around the continent, and probably the world, in working to combat destructive cults, which remain the main issue or problem now. Collins explained the general context in which the leadership, the pastor even, can further victimize a mother who has been abused by a husband (including the husband abusing the children). The mother was shamed to be in submission to the husband, as per their interpretations of supposedly sacred scripture.

Collins said, “Victims are pressured into keeping silent about abuse. As a result, many members of the group are unaware that sexual abuse exists. Worse, some people that are aware of the abuse have become accustomed to it and view the abuse is ‘normal.’ Some message followers rarely speak up against sexual abuse within the church because they are conditioned to keep silent. In many cases, there seems to be an unspoken rule that ‘if you speak about the problem, then you are the problem.’”

All the while this happens decades after the death of Branham in 1965. We continue to see the admonishments. The thou shalts and thou shalt nots as interpreted of the scriptures for “The Message.” In this case, the message becomes a message of denial of abuse of women’s and children’s bodies and subjugation of the wife to the headship of the husband. Collins described how the culture of abuse can create a situation in which the abused individuals remain accustomed, engendered, to the abuse culture. In the family, this can mean more of the normalization of the abuse in a cult setting with aberrant worship, doctrine, and leadership with destructive consequences under the guise of Christian theology, ethics, and norms. Many Christians would be appalled, probably. Collins only knew of a few situations in which the law enforcement agencies became actively involved in these cases of abuse.

“Typically, one of three scenarios happen when sexual abuse occurs. Unfortunately, more often than not, the victim of rape or sexual assault is afraid to speak up and the abuse is never mentioned to anyone in church authority. The second scenario is that the victim does speak to their pastor or church leader, but the pastor ‘handles’ the situation by either admonishing the abuser privately or dismissing the situation all together,” Hamilton stated, “The third scenario is the less common of the three, but the pastor might bring the offender before the congregation to reprimand them openly. In both instances of speaking out, the victim is almost always shamed and found at some fault. For sexual abuse towards girls and women, teachings of WMB place blame on the female body for being seductive and therefore a temptation.”

Indeed, as Hamilton further explained, they distrust the secular systems of jurisprudence and social services. She explained:

…when sexually abused members do speak out, the leader dictates complete control of the situation without reporting it to the local authorities. 1 Corinth 6:1-2 is most often used to justify this: “Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest laws courts?” Message pastors have no theological or counseling education and erroneously fail to understand that this passage is about settling civil cases, not criminal ones. In a criminal case, such as physical or sexual abuse, the state opposes the perpetrator in court, not the victim.

Often, cases do not go to the court or to a sufficient authority to deal with these issues. Even if a crime is known to be committed and a charge would be appropriate, and in the case of real consequences for the perpetrator, the punishment for the “rapists and sexual assaulters [are] rarely appropriate for their actions.” Some of these conversations can be seen with some commentary of Nathan J. Robinson from Current Affairs around Joe Biden in a larger sociopolitical context about the Democrats and in extensive commentary about President Donald J. Trump in the examination of the claimants with substantive stories of sexual abuse and rape by the sitting president of the United States of America.

Managing Editor, Sarah Mills, of Uncommon Ground Media (and Min Grob) in “Coercive control activist: ‘Sally Challen case is about more than murder’” wrote on a similar phenomenon of coercive control as an aspect of manipulation through emotional abuse. Another relevant aspect of this cultural phenomenon of cults. Someone in non-normal, aberrant circumstances, where murder became a mind-set induced by coercive control in the case of Challen. A woman who murdered, but who killed someone intentionally with a long background of abuse. In another case from the same outlet, Beatrice Louis or Linda Louis, Business Editor, spoke articulately a couple of years ago about the proposition of “Enforced Monogamy” in the article entitled “What Does Jordan Peterson’s Enforced Monogamy Actually Look Like?“ Short answer: “not good”; long answer: “also, not great,” Louis astutely picked up on the ad hoc manner in which Peterson covers a behind connected to him. Louis highlights this statement, “Of much more interest is the preceding paragraph which is reported as, ‘violent attacks are what happens when men do not have partners, Mr. Peterson says, and society needs to work to make sure those men are married.’”

Louis went on to ask about the factors needing change for incels to stop being incels. To a New Mythologist in Peterson, as I call them, mirroring the New Atheist, formulation of loose, ill-considered philosophizing, Louis nailed the point in a form of a question, a circumlocution punctuated by a question mark, as the surrounding contextualization for this crowd comes in the mantra of “personal responsibility” without nary a notion of the “personal” part in matters of crucial concern: underground, online, misogynist culture with derivative manifestations in the larger sociocultural structure. Society retains a deep interest in the men becoming married. That’s the claim and argument in one. In having this, not the men, but the society or factors external to the individual should hold responsibility for the men, perhaps, the small group of online men who may struggle with heterosexual relations and shifting of norms in some societies towards pragmatic egalitarian norms should focus on individual change. When one claims this, then the double, loose, ill-considered meaning or ad hoc reasoning can mean this all along, while, in fact, the [fill-in-the-blank] was intentionally placed with a surrounding quota of partial truths so as to lead the ‘stallions’ to water. When the cowboy-shepherd is shown to be naked, he meant the more positive egalitarian notion all along. Implication: How could you be so dishonest and stupid to not get the message the whole time? Und so weiter. That’s on a form of a marriage built to industrial efficiency for the subjugation of women and children to the fathers in destructive cult cultures reflected around the world in hundreds of thousands of people’s lives under “The Message” theology.

Mills’ and Grobs’ articulation of some of the emotional and psychological abuse is relevant here too. I love this statement from their article:

Abusive, controlling partners initially shower a potential target with intense flattery designed to seduce them. This is referred to as ‘love bombing,’ a tactic also employed by predatory organisations–like cults–in order to persuade their targets to let their guard down through positive emotional feedback: high self-esteem, a sense of being loved, and belonging. This initial period of idealisation succeeds in forging an intense bond with the abuser, a bond that will later be used against the victim, who will always seek to return to this state, or emotional high, following periods of cruelty.

Exactly, this becomes the basis for the abusive destructive cult tactics one can find in the world created in the post-WWII Healing Revival Movement of William Marrion Branham and others. As we see in the world of coercive control abuse tactics, or in the idealization of a state of nature with God, man, woman, and children, where the man is the head of the household and the woman exists below the man in service of husband and in devotion to the caretaking of the children and the maintenance of the home. God loves you. He is there for you, except during coercive control, during the abuse, after the scars heal while the mind reels, and still while his representative authority in the church shames you. If you come forward, the overwhelming response is a claim as a liar. Some of the most substantial research on rape, as an extreme form of violence against women, represents 8% of the cases as unfounded; thus, the default should be sensitivity and full consideration with the weight of the claims and, as well, the consideration of the claim of, in this instance, rape as highly probable rather than not, based on the statistical evidence gathered by the FBI and the Home Office of the UK – as far as I know, independently.

Hamilton said, “In the cases of the abuser being the pastor or in leadership, the victims are likely labelled liars and disregarded. Abusers in the Message are more protected than their victims through the forced silence. The Message teaches that if the rapist or assaulter confesses, their sin is ‘placed under the blood of Jesus,’ making them as ‘blameless’ as if the crime literally had never happened. Therefore, anyone who speaks about it is shamed for bringing that sin ‘back out from under the blood.’” There is explicit theological backing for these attitudes and behaviours as interpreted within “The Message.” Whether one looks at the more insider knowledge of Hamilton and Collins, or the collegial journalism on coercive control (a classic tactic of cults) and critical commentary of clumsy outmoded thoughts on enforced monogamy, Canadian society, and most other societies know better and, thus, should do better than permit open sanction of such institutional status within borders and cultures, as there have been extreme cases at Cloverdale, Phoenix, Colonia Dignidad, Zimbabwe, or the cult compound in Prescott. All functioning independently while under the common theological banner of The Message. Given the history and theology, these seem like plausible hypotheses about the organizations. Is there abuse near you? Are there considerations of trying to get out of community without community reprisal? There is help if you need it. There are the authorities – the police, the secret service agencies, the safe houses, the Casting Pearls Project, or other initiatives devoted to the safety of women (and men) who may be experiencing abuse – who can help you.

To the last question from the interview with Hamilton and Collins, I leave this to them prefaced by the original questions:

Jacobsen: For those who have not faced justice, how can they face it?

Hamilton: Time unfortunately impedes most abusers from facing the justice they deserve. Victims that are now speaking out about the abuse are sometimes unfortunately past their state’s statute of limitations. After leaving the cult, there is a processing period for de-programming and realizing that the abuse had been normalized and that justice was not served. No matter the length of time, victims can contact their local police station or Salvation Army for resources and advocates.

Collins: The only way justice can be served is through education and accountability. Members of any church – cult or not – must hold elders of the church to an acceptable standard of accountability. Leaders of church bodies must be trained in how to respond to abuse, when to report abuse, and how to properly warn members of their church when another member has abusive tendencies. As the proverbial “shepherd of the flock”, they must be held accountable to provide protection for their congregation.

At the same time, members of the church must be educated to recognize signs of abuse and recognize abuse of power. This becomes problematic for leaders, however, in the case of a destructive cult. In all cases where members are trained to recognize abuse of power, those same members become former members.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/07/28

British Columbia has a highly educated population. However, it doesn’t prevent the delusions of old and New Age filter into the communities and professions.

“Freethought for the Small Towns: A Case Study“[1] gives a decent idea of this on a wide smattering of issues, including naturopathy and naturopaths who, by definition, claim medical doctor or doctor status while not being doctors in the local town here.

It’s province-wide, though. They’re fraudulent and found throughout the province. Astrologers, mediums, numerologists, and psychics, are much the same: frauds, or mountebanks, who make a living off lies.

Those who feed on the pain and/or gullibility of others, who have been termed “Psychic Vampires,” as in the cases of mediums who claim to speak to the dead of living loved ones. These are bad people claiming to know the outcomes and to speak for the dead of those who are alive and love them.

One of the most prominent self-proclaimed supernaturalists, self-claimed ‘astrologer,’ in British Columbia is Georgia Nicols. Someone who has chosen a profession based on a lie, while garnering some prominence within the Lower Mainland. In Langley, British Columbia, we have ‘psychics’ Linnea Pearson, Carole Serene, Courtney Dawson, and Christine Marie.

What is a psychic, though? Good question, RationalWiki states, “A psychic is a person purporting to have some sort of supernatural or paranormal ability to receive or interpret information in a way that normal people cannot and that empirical evidence cannot detect,” with claimed abilities ranging as follows:

• Talking to the dead – Medium
• Seeing the future – Precognition
• Talking to animals
• Remote viewing of rooms or landscapes
• Offering mystical insight into people’s lives
• Reading auras
• Reading minds
• Reading tarot cards 

If they wish to put them to a test, then the James Randi Educational Foundation has the right test for them with a $1,000,000 (USD) price tag attached to it. If they were serious, they would, as others, put up the gumption for the test to win some serious cash, or simply give up the act.

Powers affect the natural world, so can be tested under proper conditions if truly believed. If not, what exactly is the purpose of practicing it? It’s quite clear in the latter case, fraud; it’s also clear in the former, delusion or misunderstanding of the basics of how the world works to a modern person.

These people are professional frauds because psychic powers do not exist, as in they are ‘psychic powers.’ I know the economy has gone through a dip of sorts, but I find this absurd play-acting of the fantastical idiotic.

In the wider area, there’s Psychic Jade, the Golden Spirit Centre of Excellence (Maple Ridge), the Mystic Eye Tarot, Psychic Visions 152, Psychic Readings by Sister Fatima, Tamara Hawk, the Yogi’s One Stop Psychic Shop, Sara Psychic Reader, Sasha Psychic Reader Fortune Teller, Raphael The World’s Medium, Parice Dawn, Salma Kassam, Linnea Psychic Medium & Spiritual Counsellor, Juan the Psychic (one of the few men), Kelly Chapman, and VS Spiritualist.

It attracts the worst gullibility in people, and so the worst traits reflected in the people who practice it. These aren’t good people; these people practice a charlatan’s art. If they believe their own nonsense, they’re delusional mountebanks, so stupid as well as vice-ridden.

Still the list continues, alas: Christine Marie, Psychic Amari, Acharya Rajesh, Indian Astrologer in Vancouver – Black Magic Specialist, 3rd Eye Designs & Visions, Bianca Psychic Reader, The Tarot Room, Andrea Zonnis, Psychic Reader Kathleen, ‘World Famous Indian Astrologer and Psychic’ (so “World Famous” as to not have a name or a review), Grayce and Gratitude – Psychic Medium, even the Paisley Town Psychic Fairs and Events.

The award for most grandiose and strangely amorphous title goes to… “Messages from a Star Traveler: Reiki, Energy Healing in North America, Psychic Readings, Past Life Regression, Soul Retrieval.” And don’t you forget it.

The buzzards line-up continues: “The Psychic Dr,” Maria Melo, Astrologer Nakulas, Psychic Readings-Astrology and Spiritual Healing, “Astrologer & psychic reader, Black Magic Removal, Love Spell, psychic” earned a rather amusing review, “The staff are very friendly [sic] and knowledgeable.” What, exactly, are these individuals knowledgeable about, now?

On and on, it goes: Courtney Carnrite, Cassandra McLeane, Dragonfly Essence, Chantelle Danielle, Sri Hanuman, Linda Pynaker, The Balanced Soul, Psychic Revelations, Psychick Healing Studio (clever title, actually), Soul Ascendency Psychic, Madame M. Live Psychics, Zljka Bosnjak Melody Rose Psychic, Cheri22, Siri The Intuitive… at this point, they’re MCs and DJs from the 80s, with far less talent.

One can feel hopeless in the mire of misanthropy exhibited in the cynicism of those who know they practice a charlatan’s art for a living. Other names include Lady of the Mists, Norma Cowie, Zais Heather, Skull Farm, Psychic Readings by Kristen – In the presence of Angels, Vanessa Corazon, Sacred Shamanism, Maureen Freeman, Hotno, Beyond Belief Psychic Entertainment, Gastown Psychic, Psychic Mama Sita, Kim Pellerin, Natasha Rosewood, Charmaine Accurate Psychic (I beg to differ), Cheryl Cole, Lynda Jane, Sukira Healing, Nipun Joshia (nShivoham), Ruth Hart, Cranbrook Clairvoyant, “Anne Clear Le Bihan,” and more.

The more I see, the more I see the pervasive ignorance and/or desperation for answers in an educational system not providing adequate answers; a culture discouraging questioning of the standard answers given in the society, as well as the mountebanks flourishing without many other skills as they have resorted to the lowest arts, charlatanry.

The only true creativity is that manifested in their names and company titles, while their names and company title aren’t that good. The names proliferate and simply become part of the fabric of the ignorance of the provincial culture in one of its many manifest ways.

The collection continued, consisting of Addi Strasser, Tarot Readings by Tegan, Signature Readings with a Twist, Oracle Emporium, Diane Daniels, T&T Spiritual & Wellness Connections, Indigo Awakenings, Speak for Me, Tarot & Psychic Reading Hotline Kelowna, Anna Babchuk, Grateful Medium, Conscious Quantum Energy Healing Services, Gypsy Moon, Spiritualist Alliance, Pivotal Hypnotherapy, Melissa Frisby, School of Intuition, Amethyst Books & Essence, Westcoast Reiki Centre, The Universal Brotherhood Spiritualist Church, West Coast Institute of Mystic Arts, Danielle Blackwood (the astrologer part), Kimberly Leslie, Airisa, The Oracle at Whistler, and Oracle at Sechelt.

In short, there’s a huge number of individuals practicing a mountebanks profession, making something of a living, while somewhere between believing their lies or knowingly lying to the public, for a buck.

A critical culture could more directly pummel this phenomenon of fraudulence with examples given in the aforementioned, whether primarily in psychics, but also astrologers, mediums, numerologists, Reiki practitioners, and the like.

[1] “Freethought for the Small Towns: A Case Study,” (2020), in part, states:

…Another issue practice is reflexology, as seen in Health Roots & Reflexology [Ed. Lisa Kako, Alison Legge.]. Quackwatch concludes, “Reflexology is based on an absurd theory and has not been demonstrated to influence the course of any illness… Claims that reflexology is effective for diagnosing or treating disease should be ignored…” …As Dr. Harriet Hall in “Modern Reflexology: Still As Bogus As Pre-Modern Reflexology“ said, “Reflexology is an alternative medicine system that claims to treat internal organs by pressing on designated spots on the feet and hands; there is no anatomical connection between those organs and those spots. Systematic reviews in 2009 and 2011 found no convincing evidence that reflexology is an effective treatment for any medical condition. Quackwatch and the NCAHF agree that reflexology is a form of massage that may help patients relax and feel better temporarily, but that has no other health benefits…”

…A larger concoction of bad science and medicine comes from the Integrated Health Clinic [Ed. Kaiden Maxwell, Gurdev Parmar, Karen Parmar, Michelle Willis, Karen McGee, Erik Boudreau, Adam Davison, Nicole Duffee, Erin Rurak, Alyssa Fruson, Alanna Rinas, Sarah Soles, Wayne Phimister, and Alfred Man. Many, not all, in part or in whole, trained in and practicing pseudosciences – pseudomedicine – found in acupuncture, naturopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, craniosacral therapy, the Bowen technique, and so on. One can integrate several pseudosciences to formulate a clinic for ‘medicine.’ However, all this amounts to an elaborate integration of pseudosciences, an integrated pseudoscience clinic, whether in a quaint fundamentalist religious community village or not.] devoted, largely, to naturopathy/naturopathic medicine (based on a large number of naturopaths on staff) and traditional Chinese medicine with manifestations in IV/chelation therapy, neural therapy, detox, hormone balancing & thermography, anthroposophical medicine, LRHT/hyperthermia, Bowen technique, among others. We’ll run through those first two, as the references to them are available in the resources, in the manner before. Scott Gavura in “Naturopathy vs. Science: Facts edition” stated:

Naturopaths claim that they practice based on scientific principles. Yet examinations of naturopathic literature, practices and statements suggest a more ambivalent attitude. NDhealthfacts.org neatly illustrates the problem with naturopathy itself: Open antagonism to science-based medicine, and the risk of harm from “integrating” these practices into the practice of medicine… Because good medicine isn’t based on invented facts and pre-scientific beliefs – it must be grounded in science. And naturopathy, despite the claims, is anything but scientific.

The Skeptic’s Dictionary stated:

Naturopathy is often, if not always, practiced in combination with other forms of “alternative” health practices... Claims that these and practices such as colonic irrigation or coffee enemas “detoxify” the body or enhance the immune system or promote “homeostasis,” “harmony,” “balance,” “vitality,” and the like are exaggerated and not backed up by sound research.

As Dr. David Gorski, as quoted in RationalWiki, stated, “Naturopathy is a cornucopia of almost every quackery you can think of. Be it homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, applied kinesiology, anthroposophical medicine, reflexology, craniosacral therapy, Bowen Technique, and pretty much any other form of unscientific or prescientific medicine that you can imagine, it’s hard to think of a single form of pseudoscientific medicine and quackery that naturopathy doesn’t embrace or at least tolerate.” The Massachusetts Medical Society stated similar terms, “Naturopathic medical school is not a medical school in anything but the appropriation of the word medical. Naturopathy is not a branch of medicine…” 

…Now, onto Traditional Chinese Medicine or TCM, or Chinese Medicine or CM, also coming out of the Integrated Health Clinic, RationalWiki notes some of the dangerous, if not disgusting to a North American and Western European palette, ingredients:

CM ingredients can range from common plants, such as dandelion, persimmon, and mint, to weird or even dangerous stuff. Some of the more revolting (from a Western standpoint) things found in TCM include genitals of various animals (including dogs, tigers, seals, oxen, goats, and deer), bear bile (commonly obtained by means of slow, inhumane extraction methods), and (genuine) snake oil… Urine, feces, placenta and other human-derived medicines were traditionally used but some may no longer be in use.

Some of the dangerous ingredients include lead, calomel (mercurous chloride), cinnabar (red mercuric sulfide), asbestos (including asbestiform actinolite, sometimes erroneously called aconite) realgar (arsenic), and birthwort (Aristolochia spp.). Bloodletting is also practiced. Bizarrely, lead oxide, cinnabar, and calomel are said to be good for detoxification. Lead oxide is also supposed to help with ringworms, skin rashes, rosacea, eczema, sores, ulcers, and intestinal parasites, cinnabar allegedly helps you live longer, and asbestos…

Dr. Arthur Grollman, a professor of pharmacological science and medicine at Stony Brook University in New York, in an article entitled “Chinese medicine gains WHO acceptance but it has many critics” is quoted, on the case of TCM or CM acceptance at the World Health Organization, saying, “It will confer legitimacy on unproven therapies and add considerably to the costs of health care… Widespread consumption of Chinese herbals of unknown efficacy and potential toxicity will jeopardize the health of unsuspecting consumers worldwide.”  On case after case, we can find individual practices or collections of practices of dubious effect if not ill-effect in the town.

License

In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.

Copyright

© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2023/07/27

Naturopathic medicine is a distinct primary health care system that blends modern scientific knowledge with traditional and natural forms of medicine. It is based on the healing power of nature and it supports and stimulates the body’s ability to heal itself. Naturopathic medicine is the art and science of disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention using natural therapies including: botanical medicine, clinical nutrition, hydrotherapy, homeopathy, naturopathic manipulation, traditional Chinese medicine/acupuncture, lifestyle counselling and health promotion and disease prevention. – Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors

Naturopathy is a cornucopia of almost every quackery you can think of. Be it homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, applied kinesiology, anthroposophical medicine, reflexology, craniosacral therapy, Bowen Technique, and pretty much any other form of unscientific or prescientific medicine that you can imagine, it’s hard to think of a single form of pseudoscientific medicine and quackery that naturopathy doesn’t embrace or at least tolerate. – Dr. David Gorski

Naturopaths claim that they practice based on scientific principles. Yet examinations of naturopathic literature, practices and statements suggest a more ambivalent attitude. NDhealthfacts.org neatly illustrates the problem with naturopathy itself: Open antagonism to science-based medicine, and the risk of harm from “integrating” these practices into the practice of medicine. Unfortunately, the trend towards “integrating” naturopathy into medicine is both real and frightening. Because good medicine isn’t based on invented facts and pre-scientific beliefs – it must be grounded in science. And naturopathy, despite the claims, is anything but scientific. – Scott Gavura (Science-Based Medicine)

Naturopathic training does not prepare them to be primary care physicians. Their profession is not science-based, does not have a science-based standard of care, and is largely a collection of pseudoscience and dangerous nonsense loosely held together by a vague “nature is always best” philosophy.

This is one of those situations where most people will not believe that the situation can be as bad as it really is. This is similar to when I describe to people, who are hearing it for the first time, what homeopathy actually is. They usually don’t believe it, because they cannot accept that something so nonsensical can be so widespread and apparently accepted in our society. The same is true when I tell people about the core chiropractic philosophy of life energy (at least for those chiropractors who have not rejected their roots), or about what Scientologists actually believe.

One common reaction is the “no true Scotsman” logical fallacy. Defenders will insist that what we are describing is the exception, and that a “real” naturopath is not like that. Obviously there will be a range of practice (especially since there is no standard), but the pseudoscientific treatments that make up naturopathy are not the exception. They are at the core of their education and their philosophy. – Dr. Steven Novella

“Naturopathic medicine” is an eclectic assortment of pseudoscientific, fanciful, and unethical practices. Implausible naturopathic claims are still prevalent and are no more valid now than they were in 1968. – Kimball C. Atwood

Naturopathic medical school is not a medical school in anything but the appropriation of the word medical. Naturopathy is not a branch of medicine. It is a combination of nutritional advice, home remedies and discredited treatments… Naturopathic practices are unchanged by research and remain a large assortment of erroneous and potentially dangerous claims mixed with a sprinkling of non-controversial dietary and lifestyle advice.– The Massachusetts Medical Society

Naturopathy[1] is, and always has been, a declaration of pseudoscience and pseudomedicine mixed together with truism dressed-up in cheap makeup to appear legitimate, respectable, even advanced and modern, and real, as per the first statement at the top in contrast to reliable and respected voices following it. Ignorance in a tutu is still ignorance.

It’s not an alternative way of knowing, a different form of medicine, or a novel line of thought. It’s not cheaper than medicine because real medicine works on the cases needing it and, therefore, utilize the finances of patients properly, i.e., effectively.

Naturopaths are not doctors, medical doctors, or real MDs. By peddling nonsense as sensible, they harm the public good and, thus, become a negative force in society, as purveyors of illegitimate practice. Why deal a light critique to individuals harming public in the most important areas of life, for example, medical care or health?

In turn, as self-proposed practitioners for the betterment of the health of the public, they detract attention and legitimacy away from real medical doctors, real medicine, in addition to the finances of the public. If alternative medicine became effective, then it would become non-alternative medicine, also known as medicine. So, what’s the point of it, in the first place?

As noted in “Freethought for the Small Towns: Case Study,” “Canadians’ and Others’ Convictions to Divine Interventionism in the Matters of the Origins and Evolution,” “Making a Buck as a Mountebank – Astrologers, Mediums, and Psychics,” “The Message of William Marrion Branham: Responses Commentary,” “The Fantastic Capacity for Believing the Incredible,” religious fundamentalism, pseudoscience, and pseudomedicine, play off one another, as gullibility in the pulpit informs gullibility in the wellness marketplace, and vice versa.