Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Adultery On The Compound

                          PERSONAL NAMES HAVE BEEN RESPECTFULLY REMOVED


This part of my story is a little saddening. I say that because of the people who suffered because of the adultery that took place on the Holyland. While I was there I would hear rumors of adultery and of course because I was so loyal to The Bishop I couldnt believe that this was happening. It was'nt long after I left that the puzzle pieces began to come together. This Adultery that I had heard of over the years not only happened while I was there but it was going on long before I even knew anything about the Holyland, Reach Inc. or The Bishop.
What I find sad is that The Bishop would tell us a story to us about a farmer and his eggs. He was telling his story the whole time and those of us who were new had no clue as to why this story was so important. But when I left the farmer and the egg story became clear to me.
The story he would tell was about a farmer who would move eggs. He would say that the chicken wouldnt know that the eggs they sat on were moved. But when the eggs hatched the chicken treated the little chick/s as their own. Moral of the story...Be Careful how you treat the children....The could be related to you.....
Ok..So these are his children by several of the woman that lived on the compound including his wife...


Bishop Luke Edwards fathered alot of children on the compound and some were born before he moved to the South and started the Holyland. The personal stories that I have heard and personally know about helped me in putting all the children together with the parents. . There are many amazing stories behind how the children were concieved. Nevertheless the living arrangements were as such that the opportunity for this type of adultery not only by the Bishop but by many other married men were easy to take place becasue the wives were made to spend months away from their husbands and children. I will cover those stories  later in another blog and my book

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Why I Feel The Holyland Is A Cult

Ok, so I received a few emails where people wanted to know why I felt I was in a cult. So....let me explain why I feel I was in a cult. It took me some time to understand what this truely meant but I had to first understand what a cult was, right. In my research I learned that a cult is any group which employs mind control and deceptive recruiting techniques. In other words cults trick people into joining and coerce them into staying. This is the definition that most people would agree with. Except the cults themselves of course!
Bishop and alot of the members there would say that you are free to leave whenever you want. But anyone who has been there knows that this is and is'nt the case.
The Holyland  looks wonderful from the outside but on the inside some of the people are very manipulating. Cult leaders are desperate to trick you into joining. They are after your obedience, your time and your money or the money you can make for them.
The following information explains some of the psychological techniques that cult leaders like Bishop Ewards uses in their attempt to control their members with. And these are some that made sense to me and how I concluded that I was in a cult.

1. Mind Control which can be used along with a series of other techniques - Mind Control as a dishonest influence placed covertly on cult members by the cult. So instead of Mind Control being some sort of irresistible force like the aliens in the movies that take over peoples minds, rather it is more like a gun. The cult leader points the Mind Control "gun" at a member and says, "if you leave us then you will lose all of your friends and family", "if you don't conform then you will go to Hell", which is something we were told alot.

2. Deception - REACH INC/The Holyland had a well-rehearsed Public Relations front (the Route) which hides what the group is really like. You will hear how they help the poor, or support research, or peace, or the environment. They will tell you how happy you will be in their group (and everyone in the cult will always seem very happy and enthusiastic, mainly because they have been told to act happy and will get in trouble if they don't). But you will not be told what life is really like in the group, nor what they really believe. These things will be introduced to you slowly, one at a time, so you will not notice the gradual change, until eventually you are practicing and believing things which at the start would have caused you to run a mile.

3.Exclusivism - A cult leaders will tell you can only be "saved" (or can only be successful) in their organization alone. No other organization has the truth, all others miss the mark. So it is not the belief system that decides your future, but it the belief system AND your membership with that particular groupcult leaders need to make you believe that there is no where else you can go and still be saved, and if you ever leave the "one true church" then you are going to hell. This is a fear based control mechanism designed to keep you in the cult. It also gives the cult leaders tremendous power over you. If you really believe that leaving the group equals leaving God (or means you are leaving your only chance to succeed in life), then you will obey the cult leaders even when you disagree with them instead of risking being kicked out of the group. Exclusivism is used as a threat, it controls your behavior through fear.

4. Fear and Intinidation - Now Cult leadership is feared. To disagree with leadership is the same as disagreeing with God. The cult leaders will claim to have direct authority from God to control almost all aspects of your life. If the cult is not a religious group then questioning the leaders or program will still be seen as a sign of rebellion and stupidity.
Guilt, Character Assassination and Breaking Sessions. Guilt will be used to control you. Maybe the reason you're not making money is because you're not "with the programme". Maybe the reason you're not able to convert new recruits is because "your heart is prideful and full of sin". It could never be that the programme isn't working, or those new recruits have valid reasons for not joining. It's always your fault, you are always wrong, and so you must try harder! You will also be made to feel very guilty for disobeying any of the cult's written or unwritten rules.
Character Assassination is used to help create the guilt in you. Character Assassination is a type of false reasoning used by people and groups who have no real arguments.

5. Love Bombing and Relationship Control - Cults like the one ran by Bishop Edwards  know that if they can control your relationships then they can control you. Whether we like it or not we are all profoundly affected by those around us. When you first go to a cult they will practice "love bombing", where they arrange instant friends for you. It will seem wonderful, how could such a loving group be wrong! But you soon learn that if you ever disagree with them, or ever leave the cult then you will lose all your new "friends". This unspoken threat influences your actions in the cult. Things that normally would have made you complain will pass by silently because you don't want to be ostracized. Like in an unhealthy relationship love is turned on and off to control.
They would also try to cut you off from your friends and family because they hate others being able to influence you. Through this kind of  control they would seek to manoeuvre your life so as to maximize your contact with cult members and minimize your contact with people outside the group, especially those who oppose your involvement.

6. Information Control - Those who control the information control the person. In a mind control cult any information from outside the cult is considered evil, especially if it is opposing the cult. Members are told not to read it or believe it. Only information supplied by the cult is true. One cult labels any information against it as "persecution" or "spiritual pornography", another cult calls it "apostate literature" and will expel you from the group if you are caught with it. Cults train their members to instantly destroy any critical information given to them, and to not even entertain the thought that the information could be true.

7. Reporting Structure - In the reporting structure at the Holyland we were told  that we must be careful of what we say and do; "The walls have ears". Everyone was encouraged to watch out for "struggling" brothers and sisters and report what they see to leadership. Often information given in deepest confidence is automatically reported to leadership. Some of those evil leaders will then use this information to convince other members that they have a supernatural link, the trusting member does not suspect the very natural mechanism behind the supernatural revelations they are given.
Some of the members at the Holyland would also hide their true thoughts and feelings, and instead wear a mask which presents them as a perfect cult member. This mask is a defense against being reported to leadership and being punished for not measuring up (cult members never feel like they measure up to the cult's ideals, and yet often believe the other members around them do, when in reality the others feel the same as them). Hence cult members are trained not only to deceive outsiders, but also to deceive their fellow cult members. Rarely can close friendships form in cults, and if they do the cult's leaders may see them as a threat and move those people away from each other. Nothing is allowed that can be more powerful than the cult members' allegiance to the group and it's leaders.

8. Time Control - Time Control within cults keep their members so busy with meetings and activities that they become too busy and too tired to think about their involvement.
Time control also helps the cult keep their members immersed in the manufactured cult environment.
And time control helps keep cult members away from friends and family.

There are so many other things that ultimately convinced me but the first few had me sold. I do hope I've made myself clear on how I personally came to the conclusion that I was in a cult.